This book narrates the story of a Christian movement pioneered by Igbo secondary school students in the midst of the Nigerian civil war, 1967–70. It is grounded in ethnography, historical and theological interpretations, multidisciplinary methodologies and relevant knowledge of Igbo traditional piety. In seven chapters, the author lays out the processes that transformed a fledging group of Scripture Union (SU) members into an energetic renewal movement within established mainline churches. Today, many of the movement's pioneers are leaders in both mainline and neo-Pentecostal-charismatic churches.

The narrative style of Richard Burgess allows the reader to appreciate the legendary determination and grit that have come to characterise the Igbos. The reader encounters them as a people holding to their Christian faith in spite of hardships, famine and military defeats. The SU members who led the renewal were fervently faithful, aggressive evangelisers and had the skills of grassroots labour movement organisers.

This work follows the footsteps of Ogbu Kalu and Matthews Ojo, who have assiduously drawn attention to the indigenous origin and dynamics of Nigeria's Pentecostal-charismatic movement. Burgess, using theoretical frameworks from almost all the major social sciences, however, has gone a little further than them to show how local Christian identity and charisma were socially constructed among the Igbos.

Their active participation in SU afforded Igbo young adults a repertoire of images and narratives to reconstruct their identity and seek new meanings in their lives (pp. 103–104, 136, 145, 148). Burgess’ keen historical narrative shows not only how charisma was socially constructed and legitimated by divine access and sanctions, but also how it was deployed as a means of administrative control and coordination.

While Kalu and Ojo's scholarship has shown that ‘the Nigerian charismatic movement had its deepest roots and found most of its early leaders within the university campuses and among the educated elites’, Burgess insists theirs is not a correct reading of the history (pp. 95, 177–8). The Igbo-founded charismatic fellowships had its roots in secondary schools and broad sections of society.

The study refutes the common, but erroneous, belief that African Pentecostals are against traditional culture. Instead, they work with and against it. Pentecostals oppose aspects of the culture they regard as not compatible with their interpretation of the Bible, but their hermeneutics, prayer and worship and notions of salvation and covenants are deeply rooted in traditional African worldviews (pp. 46–8, 115–19, 127, 131, 137, 151, 159).

Another key point lifted up in this study is the christological flavour of African Pentecostalism. For a long time most scholars assumed that the continent's Pentecostalism was simply pneumatological in orientation. In reality, the focus of their sermons, songs, choruses and prayers is more Christ-centred than Holy Spirit-centred (pp. 133, 146–8, 156–9, 162, 224, 239, 305). The Holy Spirit is appropriated as the Spirit of Christ primarily in believers’ quest for power to enhance life and for service. The search for power is meant to demonstrate the superiority of Jesus over powers and principalities that thwart human flourishing.

Finally, this book is also a study of ethical renewal. It lends itself to be read and interpreted as a work of ethics. The war and the renewal altered the moral landscape of Igboland. The turn to Christ in the midst of a civil war and crumbling traditional structures took on a transformative ethical orientation never since seen. Here is also the Achilles’ heel of the book. It has no definite organising theological-ethical perspective. It fails adequately to explain the dynamics of the inflation and deflation of religious commitments in Igboland. In this book, theology has taken refuge in social science theoretical frameworks.