Fostering Christian Faith in Schools and Christian Communities Through Igbo Traditional Values


Book Description

Religious education in Nigeria is in a state of transformation, owing to the country's current pluralist nature among other factors. In the process, concepts of religion and education are revisited and reassessed in order to make them meaningful to mankind in his pluralist world. With this book, author Michael Okoh inaugurates a fundamental revision. He brings traditional African education and values alongside Christian ideals into dialogue with the "Western progressive learning approaches," paving new ways for religious education activity in Nigeria, particularly in Igboland. (Series: Tubingen Prospects on Pastoral Theology and Religious Pedagogics / Tubinger Perspektiven zur Pastoraltheologie und Religionspadagogik - Vol. 45)




The Relationship Hermeneutics in the Context of Pastoral and Catechesis - Locus for Dialogue with Culture in the Missio Ecclesiae


Book Description

The authority-oriented pastoral/catechetical planning method, which characterizes the African mission transmission, has been problematic as it subtly neglects in its pedagogy the culture and daily life of the subject. Hence, the people operate a Christian/cultural double standard. This book proffers an alternative as the author makes the concept of the relationship hermeneutics model to a creative writing that aims towards an empirical application in the theology of inculturation, which is a subject-oriented and dialogical method that draws its strength from the incarnation prototype.




Afro-Igbo Mmad? and Thomas Aquinas’S Imago Dei


Book Description

In our modern and globalised world, the concept of human dignity has gained a haloed status and plays a decisive role in assessing the moral integrity of every human being. It provides a necessary foundation for the on-going human rights struggles. For the idea of human dignity ensures that our ever-growing complicated world wears a human face and that human beings are respected as absolute values in themselves. Afro-Igbo Mmad? and Thomas Aquinas' Imago Dei: An Inter-cultural Dialogue on Human Dignity attempts to expand the discourse on the concept of human dignity, which appears to have been parochially founded on the principles of Western cultures and ideologies. To deparochialise this discourse, it proposes an inter-cultural dialogue towards establishing common principles that define the foundation of human dignity, even when the approaches of diverse cultures to this foundation differ. The Afro-Igbo Mmadu and Thomas Aquinas' Imago Dei is, therefore, a model of such inter-cultural dialogue. It hosts a profound dialogue between the concept of Mmad? among the Igbo people of eastern Nigeria (Africa) and the concept of Imago Dei according to Thomas Aquinas of western European culture. The study discusses the rich values in these cultural concepts and acknowledges them as veritable tools for establishing human dignity as a universal and inalienable character of human beings. It, nonetheless, highlights the low points in these cultures that are discordant with this universal and inalienable character. The dialogue establishes that these two cultures could complementarily enrich one another and in this way mutually augment their shortcomings towards a more globalised and reinforced foundation of human dignity and the defence of the dignity of every individual human being.




Encyclopedia of Christian Education


Book Description

Christianity regards teaching as one of the most foundational and critically sustaining ministries of the Church. As a result, Christian education remains one of the largest and oldest continuously functioning educational systems in the world, comprising both formal day schools and higher education institutions as well as informal church study groups and parachurch ministries in more than 140 countries. In The Encyclopedia of Christian Education, contributors explore the many facets of Christian education in terms of its impact on curriculum, literacy, teacher training, outcomes, and professional standards. This encyclopedia is the first reference work devoted exclusively to chronicling the unique history of Christian education across the globe, illustrating how Christian educators pioneered such educational institutions and reforms as universal literacy, home schooling, Sunday schools, women’s education, graded schools, compulsory education of the deaf and blind, and kindergarten. With an editorial advisory board of more than 30 distinguished scholars and five consulting editors, TheEncyclopedia of Christian Education contains more than 1,200 entries by 400 contributors from 75 countries. These volumes covers a vast range of topics from Christian education: History spanning from the church’s founding through the Middle Ages to the modern day Denominational and institutional profiles Intellectual traditions in Christian education Biblical and theological frameworks, curricula, missions, adolescent and higher education, theological training, and Christian pedagogy Biographies of distinguished Christian educators This work is ideal for scholars of both the history of Christianity and education, as well as researchers and students of contemporary Christianity and modern religious education.




Socio-Cultural and Religious Conflicts and the Future of Nigeria


Book Description

With the prevailing violent conflict situation of our world, perpetuated sometimes even in the name of religion, humanity today faces extinction. To reverse this ugly trend, humanity has no choice than to build a society where every tribe and tongue can coexist in peace. This work analyzed the violent conflicts from anthropological, behavioral, politico-philosophical, and theological perspectives, and makes a demand on humanity to save herself through proper education and dialogue with all men and religions.




Global Perspectives on Catholic Religious Education in Schools


Book Description

This book shares global perspectives on Catholic religious education in schools, chiefly focusing on educational and curriculum issues that take into account the theology and the pedagogy which support learning in connection with Catholic religious education. Further, it offers insights into the distinctive contribution that Catholic religious education makes to religious education and education in general across diverse schooling contexts. Bringing together insights from leading scholars and experts on Catholic religious education around the globe, the book offers an essential reference guide for all those involved in researching, planning and designing curricula for Catholic religious education, as well as developing related theories in the field.




A History of Christian Conversion


Book Description

Conversion has played a central role in the history of Christianity. In this first in-depth and wide-ranging narrative history, David Kling examines the dynamic of turning to the Christian faith by individuals, families, and people groups. Global in reach, the narrative progresses from early Christian beginnings in the Roman world to Christianity's expansion into Europe, the Americas, China, India, and Africa. Conversion is often associated with a particular strand of modern Christianity (evangelical) and a particular type of experience (sudden, overwhelming). However, when examined over two millennia, it emerges as a phenomenon far more complex than any one-dimensional profile would suggest. No single, unitary paradigm defines conversion and no easily explicable process accounts for why people convert to Christianity. Rather, a multiplicity of factors-historical, personal, social, geographical, theological, psychological, and cultural-shape the converting process. A History of Christian Conversion not only narrates the conversions of select individuals and peoples, it also engages current theories and models to explain conversion, and examines recurring themes in the conversion process: divine presence, gender and the body, agency and motivation, testimony and memory, group- and self-identity, "authentic" and "nominal" conversion, and modes of communication. Accessible to scholars, students, and those with a general interest in conversion, Kling's book is the most satisfying and comprehensive account of conversion in Christian history to date; this major work will become a standard must-read in conversion studies.




Overcoming the Osu Caste System among the Afro-Igbo


Book Description

It is the conviction of Sacramentum Caritatis as well as the fathers of the Second Vatican Council that active participation at Eucharistic celebration cannot be easily disassociated from active involvement in the Church's mission in the world. This present study in the light of the foregoing presuppositions, exposes some of such challenges confronting the Afro-Igbo Christian, with special focus on the menace of the osu caste system, and proposes ways towards its eradication. One of such ways remains strengthening the Eucharistic celebration through the process of the inculturation.




Mmanwu and Mission among the Igbo People of Nigeria


Book Description

The joy over the growth of Christianity in Africa is also a challenge to all concerned to help Christianity take roots, ennoble and become one with the cultural life of the numerous tribes of Africa. This missionary expectation is not yet fully realized in many local churches in Africa. From these perspectives, Adolphus Chikezie Anuka inaugurates a new brand of concrete, target-oriented emphasis on dialogical inculturation. In this book, the Mmanwu cultural institution of the Igbo people of south eastern Nigeria stands in central focus, opening itself to the influences of Christian values as well as speaking to the religious assumptions of Christianity. The theoretical results of this research work and its practical pastoral suggestions are both enlightening and appealing.




Youth Development in Nigeria


Book Description

Youth development is as a core aspect of human and national progress in Nigeria. The study suggests the development of young people as the means of poverty reduction. It indicates that amidst cultural, ethnic, and religious diversities, and in the light of threats to human life and property, the development of the youth is the way to promoting peace and unity, justice, and security. The book argues on a two-fold contribution: While the Nigerian Church is to intensify efforts in the active participation of lay Christians in politics, the State is to tackle critical areas to ensure a decent standard of living for all.