Contesting Heritage: Seventh-day Adventist Ecclesial Praxis in a Pentecostalising Nigerian Society
Adventist heritage is not a static notion fixed in time and space. Rather, it is a dynamic process concerned with preservation, contestation, negotiation and hybridization, attesting to the continual religio-cultural change in both Adventist congregations and the wider Nigerian society. Adventist heritage is therefore in hybrid movement through continuity, change and rupture. It is seeking a true engagement with the past while creatively engaging the challenges of the present through the diverse ways of sacralization and heritagization. These are the results of the PhD research by Pastor Chigemezi Nnadozie Wogu.
Wogu: “Furthermore, my study has demonstrated that the notion of heritage opens a new vista to the study of the church in Nigeria and in Africa as a whole. Since Adventist “heritage” goes through a constant process of negotiation and formation, the result is the construction of varying ecclesial identities. These identities are blurred and sometimes messy due to the presence of multiple religious traditions and the varieties of their expressions.”
Nigerian Adventism is a niche
What this study demonstrates is that Adventist communities in Nigeria are not as removed from their surroundings and culture as some sociologists with an essentializing view of Adventism have argued. Wogu: “Based on my findings one can argue that Nigerian Adventism is a niche of its own in the global-local nexus of the Adventist denominational culture. This “glocal” phenomenon, that is, the synthesis of a world-wide religious expression with local particularity is portrayed in the discourses emanating from the tensions that surround Adventist heritage.”
More information about the thesis
Supervisors:
- prof.dr. S. Paas
- dr. L. Van de Kamp
29 June 2022 VU Aula 11:45. The PhD defence can also be followed online