Precolonial Christianity and Missionary Legacies

Abstract

Nigerian church history has transformed the way global missions and their legacies have been understood. This chapter relies on the work of scholars who view missions as more than tools of colonialism and Nigerian Christianity as more layered than a simple reaction to foreign influences. Nigerian Christianity grew as a challenge to and reassertion of authority. Some initiatives countered foreign missionary and government control, while others were outcomes of power struggles amongst Nigerians. Since 1960, when Nigeria became Africa’s most populous and arguably wealthiest nation, religious dynamics have shaped its major social, cultural, and political transformations. While Nigerians at home are navigating questions of religion in the public sphere, millions of diasporic Nigerians, often as missionaries themselves, are part of the tremendous religious changes occurring globally. Through the lenses of dissent, reform, and renewal, this chapter traces Nigerian Christianity’s unique vibrancy and relevance in the modern era.