A Brief Survey of the Patterns of Picking and Mixing (Syncretism) in Nigerian Christianity

The study presents to every searching mind a brief history of the coming of Christianity to Nigeria that began in the 1840s, and goes on to examine brief attempts at making the faith attractive and acceptable to the people. This practice of making the faith acceptable to the people came to a head after the First World War, following the failure of the white mans medicine to provide solution to the influenza epidemic that was close to wiping out the population of the southern part of the country. The natives resorted to mixing Christianity with the faith of their forefathers. This accounts for the emergence of the prayer groups known as the Aladura and from then a culture of picking and mixing continued until it became rife and eventually became a major feature of the Christianity in Nigeria. The group included here are representative of the major classification of these groups and practices. Included are the el messiah church, Reformed Ogboni Fraternity (indigenisation), Godianism (political emancipation), Holy Aruosa (political cum religious emancipation), and the New Pentecostals and Charismatic movements of today who are more attracted by power and miracles. The author warns that evangelical Christianity must be protected and that if the trend of picking and mixing is not checked only the heavens know how much deeper the fabric of Christianity would be destroyed.