Roman Catholicism versus Pentecostalism: The nexus of fundamentalism and religious freedom in Africa

Verbum et Ecclesia

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Roman Catholicism versus Pentecostalism: The nexus of fundamentalism and religious freedom in Africa
 
Creator Enegho, Felix E.
 
Subject History fundamentalism; religious; freedom; Pentecostalism; Roman; Catholic; Charismatic renewal; evangelisation
Description oday’s Christians in the age of secularism and other kinds of ideologies struggle to make their impacts felt as they assiduously labour to plant the gospel in the hearts and minds of many. Amid their struggles and worries, they are often confronted with other challenges both from within and outside. The aim of this research was to assess the Roman Catholic Church and her struggle in the midst of other Churches often tagged ‘Pentecostals’ in the areas of fundamentalism and religious freedom in Africa and most especially in Nigeria. Pentecostal theology was aligned with Evangelism in their emphasis on the reliability of the Bible and the great need for the spiritual transformation of the individual’s life with faith in Jesus Christ. They emphasise personal experience and work of the Holy Spirit and therefore see themselves as a selected few, who are holy, spiritual and better than others. Some of them even claim to have the monopoly of the Holy Spirit. This researcher was one scholar who holds the view that there was no church more Pentecostal than the Catholic Church which has survived for more than 2000 years under the influence and direction of the Holy Spirit. But for the sake of this research, there was the categorisation of the Church into Catholicism and Pentecostalism. Here, the researcher focused on the challenges to faith witness and evangelisation posed by the rise of Pentecostalism in Africa and particularly in Nigeria. This research adopts a combination of socio-historical and narrative approaches. The data gathering technique was the main source made up of books, unpublished materials, journal articles and Internet materials.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The research has relevance to Church History, Dogmatic Theology and Practical Theology. While from the interdisciplinary perspective, the work has relevance in Psychology and other fields in the Social Sciences. The research does not call for a change in traditional discourse, but rather to build on the existing status quo.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2020-10-07
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Historical Inquiry
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/ve.v41i1.2019
 
Source Verbum et Ecclesia; Vol 41, No 1 (2020); 7 pages 2074-7705 1609-9982
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/2019/4277 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/2019/4276 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/2019/4278 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/2019/4275
 
Coverage Africa African enlightenment —
Rights Copyright (c) 2020 Felix E. Enegho https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
ADVERTISEMENT