Evaluating the Nigerian Prosperity Gospel as a Mixed Ideology

Abstract

There are two popular suggestions as to how prosperity gospel emerged in Nigeria. The first school of thought posits that the phenomenon of prosperity gospel was exclusively an American ideology imported into Nigeria, while the second view holds that it was entirely an African ideology nurtured with African ingredients and popularised in African soil.
There has not been a respectable number of literatures that actively and adequately explored the Nigerian prosperity gospel as a combination of American prosperity gospel and Nigerian Pentecostal revivalism. Therefore, to fill this literature gap, this article suggests that the Nigerian prosperity gospel is a joint theology with elements of American prosperity gospel ideology which has its origin in American New Thought Movement and Nigerian Pentecostal revivalism which has its origin in Nigerian Indigenous Pentecostal Movement. This attempt employs a historical approach. In this vein, the historical narrative explores related literatures about prosperity gospel in Nigeria and offers a radical shift from the popular views that solely attribute the emergence of prosperity gospel ideology to either Nigerian indigenous Pentecostal revivalism or American prosperity theology.