Power, Performance, and Pentecostalism: The Theatricality of Charismatic Religious Performance in South East Nigeria

This dissertation analyses the theatricality of charismatic Pentecostal religious performance in South East Nigeria, developing an original theoretical framework for understanding how Pentecostal church services deploy performance conventions of spectacle, narrative, healing drama, and affective choreography as mechanisms of spiritual authority, community formation, and political power. Pentecostalism in Nigeria is a massively attended performance phenomenon, yet its theatrical dimensions have been systematically excluded from Nigerian performance scholarship, reflecting disciplinary boundaries that separate sacred from secular performance. This research argues that Pentecostal performance constitutes a significant and theoretically generative field of performance study that demands serious scholarly engagement. The dissertation employs an ethnographic methodology involving participant observation at Pentecostal services in Enugu, Anambra, and Imo states, interviews with pastors, worship leaders, and congregation members, and analysis of video-recorded services and pastoral performance training materials. An original theoretical contribution is the dissertation's concept of performative anointing, which accounts for the specific mechanisms by which charismatic authority is theatrically constituted and maintained in Pentecostal performance contexts. Keywords: Pentecostalism, religious performance, theatricality, charismatic authority, South East Nigeria.