{"title":"Worship, Culture, and the Contested Past: Seventh-day Adventists in Nigeria","authors":"Chigemezi Nnadozie Wogu","doi":"10.1163/15700666-12340286","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article is a product of an empirical study that argues that denominational worship praxis is a contested issue among Seventh-day Adventists (<span style=\"font-variant: small-caps;\">SDA</span> s) in Nigeria today. Using analysis from fieldnotes and interviews, this article shows that there are some congregants who prefer to do worship as it was practiced by their denominational pioneers. This group keeps this memory sacred. Another group of Adventists contest the same past by leaning toward the Nigerian Pentecostal ethos. This contestation regarding the past combined with acceptance or rejection of cultural matters in the worship arena shows the diversity of Adventism in Nigeria. It also reveals how cultural and missionary traditions intersect and influence the local contemporary worship praxis of Adventist Christianity. Based on ethnographic findings, the article concludes that the example of conflicting visions of the past in one denomination (Seventh-day Adventists) in Nigeria contributes to a richer perspective in studies in world Christianity.</p>","PeriodicalId":45604,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF RELIGION IN AFRICA","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4000,"publicationDate":"2024-01-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"JOURNAL OF RELIGION IN AFRICA","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15700666-12340286","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"RELIGION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This article is a product of an empirical study that argues that denominational worship praxis is a contested issue among Seventh-day Adventists (SDA s) in Nigeria today. Using analysis from fieldnotes and interviews, this article shows that there are some congregants who prefer to do worship as it was practiced by their denominational pioneers. This group keeps this memory sacred. Another group of Adventists contest the same past by leaning toward the Nigerian Pentecostal ethos. This contestation regarding the past combined with acceptance or rejection of cultural matters in the worship arena shows the diversity of Adventism in Nigeria. It also reveals how cultural and missionary traditions intersect and influence the local contemporary worship praxis of Adventist Christianity. Based on ethnographic findings, the article concludes that the example of conflicting visions of the past in one denomination (Seventh-day Adventists) in Nigeria contributes to a richer perspective in studies in world Christianity.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Religion in Africa was founded in 1967 by Andrew Walls. In 1985 the editorship was taken over by Adrian Hastings, who retired in 1999. His successor, David Maxwell, acted as Executive Editor until the end of 2005. The Journal of Religion in Africa is interested in all religious traditions and all their forms, in every part of Africa, and it is open to every methodology. Its contributors include scholars working in history, anthropology, sociology, political science, missiology, literature and related disciplines. It occasionally publishes religious texts in their original African language.