INTELLECTUAL DEBATES WITHIN NIGERIAN NEO-PENTECOSTALISM IN THE 20TH AND 21ST CENTURIES

Abstract

This paper underscores the implications of the rapid proliferation of Nigerian neo Pentecostalism within the Religious Market Theory by suggesting that the commodification of spiritual products, namely, Prosperity Theology and Spiritual Warfare, as an answer to the existential concerns of people facing economic precarity, is a rational reaction to the competition in the marketplace. The study contends that the dynamism of the movement in the 21st century can only be interpreted as an act of strategic entrepreneurship, not just as a religious revival, but as the consequence of engaging in a deregulated spiritual economy. In a historical examination of intellectual discussions, political mobilisation, and gender rhetoric, the results indicate that this entrepreneurialism has helped the church become a kind of shadow state, offeringwelfare and  political legitimacy where the government had failed. Nevertheless, this market hegemony has produced major internal contradictions, and this has raised urgent calls for commercialisation to be checked through ethical reforms by organisations like the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria. The paper concludes that the future of the movement lies in a corrective action that is necessary in the marketplace to reconcile the aggressive growth of the religious firm with institutional integrity