Power, Persuasion and Ideology in Pentecostal Sermons in Nigeria: A Critical Discourse Analysis

Abstract

This study examines the interplay of power, persuasion, and ideology in Pentecostal sermons in Nigeria using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as its theoretical and analytical framework. It investigates how linguistic choices in selected sermons construct religious authority, influence congregational interpretation, and reproduce dominant ideological meanings within contemporary Pentecostal Christianity. The study is anchored on Norman Fairclough’s three-dimensional model of CDA and supplemented by Teun A. van Dijk’s socio-cognitive approach to discourse and ideology. The data consist of six purposively selected Pentecostal sermons delivered in Nigeria between 2024 and 2026, which were analysed qualitatively at the levels of textual features, discursive practice, and social practice. Attention was paid to lexical choices, modality, intertextuality, rhetorical strategies, and directive speech acts as key discursive resources for meaning construction. Findings reveal that Pentecostal sermons consistently employ high-modality assertions, declarative statements, biblical intertextuality, and directive language to establish preacher authority and construct asymmetrical power relations between preacher and congregation. Persuasion is achieved through rhetorical questioning, repetition, contrastive framing, and conditional reward structures that link obedience and faith to divine favour, breakthrough, and success. Ideologically, the sermons reproduce belief systems centred on obedience, divine determinism, prosperity, and spiritual warfare, which are naturalised as unquestionable spiritual truths. The study further establishes that power, persuasion, and ideology operate as interconnected discourse mechanisms within Pentecostal sermon practice, where power legitimises authority, persuasion regulates audience response, and ideology sustains belief systems that shape social reality. The study concludes that Pentecostal sermons in Nigeria function not only as religious instruction but also as ideological instruments that influence cognition, behaviour, and social orientation, thereby reinforcing institutional authority within contemporary Nigerian Christianity.