Miracle-marketing: The reformulation of power and social relations in Pentecostal Christianity in Nigeria

As Western neoliberal capitalism de-territorializes spaces and folds the peripheries into itself, what emerges is not global homogeneity. Instead, we are witnessing contesting narratives of truth, dynamic and shifting subjectivities. Prevalent in the Nigeria is the rapid spread of Pentecostalism. Its untaxed churches worth hundreds of millions of dollars form an unregulated yet influential economy. Church is big business, but it is also political. The rise of the mega-pastor has seen a growing influence of religious leaders on the socio-political and economic space. Given the salience of these religious leaders and their increasing usage of media technologies, I turn to the discourse within televised miracle sessions to unpack and deconstruct how social and power relations are constructed and enacted; and to glean a more nuanced understanding of the discourses and subjectivities that are legitimated and those that are discredited in the process.