‘A Church in a Cinema Hall?’ Pentecostal Appropriation of Public Space in Nigeria
In: Journal of Religion in AfricaSearch for other papers by Olufunke Adeboye in
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Abstract
Over the past two decades Nigeria has become a hotbed of Pentecostal activity. It is the view of this study that Pentecostal visibility in Nigeria has been enhanced not just by Pentecostals’ aggressive utilization of media technology for proselytization as claimed by previous scholars, but also by their appropriation of public spaces for worship. This study not only focuses on the church in the cinema hall, but also on churches in nightclubs, hotels, and other such places previously demonized as ‘abode[s] of sin’ by classical Pentecostals. This paper argues that users’ perception of public spaces having rigid meanings and unchanging usage was responsible for much of the tensions experienced. It would be more useful for academic analysts and various ‘publics’ to construe such spaces as dynamic sites, at once reflecting mutations in the public sphere, responsive to local and global socio-economic processes, and amenable to periodic reinventions and negotiations.
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‘A Church in a Cinema Hall?’ Pentecostal Appropriation of Public Space in Nigeria
In: Journal of Religion in AfricaSearch for other papers by Olufunke Adeboye in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
Over the past two decades Nigeria has become a hotbed of Pentecostal activity. It is the view of this study that Pentecostal visibility in Nigeria has been enhanced not just by Pentecostals’ aggressive utilization of media technology for proselytization as claimed by previous scholars, but also by their appropriation of public spaces for worship. This study not only focuses on the church in the cinema hall, but also on churches in nightclubs, hotels, and other such places previously demonized as ‘abode[s] of sin’ by classical Pentecostals. This paper argues that users’ perception of public spaces having rigid meanings and unchanging usage was responsible for much of the tensions experienced. It would be more useful for academic analysts and various ‘publics’ to construe such spaces as dynamic sites, at once reflecting mutations in the public sphere, responsive to local and global socio-economic processes, and amenable to periodic reinventions and negotiations.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 1671 | 163 | 17 |
| Full Text Views | 196 | 13 | 1 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 134 | 23 | 1 |
