Christianity And The Igbo Rites Of Passage

Owing to their value and strategic importance in the people's mentality and culture, this work proposes the Igbo Rites of Passage as a necessary parameter and a transmitting wave-length for a firm rooting of the christian faith among the Igbos.

In the face of the difficult task of inculturating the Christian faith in Igboland, christianizing the Igbo and igbonizing Christianity, this book offers an interesting and inspiring study of Igbo traditional initiation forms in comparison with the Christian sacraments of initiation. Because of its characteristic features and the significant role in Igbo tradition and culture, it proposes traditional Igbo initiation forms as inculturation basis for pastoral catechesis of Christian initiation.

The articles which comprise this book where delivered initially at a conference held at the University of Zimbabwe, 21-24 June 1994, on the of the interaction between Christian religion and traditional African religions. This text demonstrates that the academic study of religion is not only responsive to developments in religious life, but is interested in actively exploring the symbolic structures expressed in Christian and traditional ritual activities. Academic understanding is shown to be interactive with the many factors which compromise meaning within human societies and religious communities.

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)

Although Africa is today often seen, because of its large number of Christians, as the future hope of the Church, a closer examination of African Christianity, however, shows that the Christian faith has not taken deep root in Africa. Many Africans today declare themselves to be Christians but still remain followers of their traditional African religions, especially in matters concerning the inner dimensions of their lives. It is evident that, in strictly personal matters relating to such issues as passage rites and crises, most Africans turn to their African traditional religions. As an incarnational faith, part of the history of Christianity has been its encounter with other cultures and its becoming deeply rooted in some of these cultures. The central question remains: Why has the Christian faith not taken deep root in Africa? This volume is concerned with answering this question.

Igbo Funeral Rites is about the rigorous and complex nature of death and burial obsequies in Igboland. Analytical as it is descriptive and anthropological as it is theological, the book is an attempt to provide new insights for handling some of the pastoral challenges of Igbo funeral rites. It exhibits admirable maturity by acknowledging the need for flexibility along with harmonization.

The problems arising from the separate celebrations of traditional marriage and church wedding in the Igbo Church of Nigeria are the main objectives of the proposed Rite. The Igbo Christian man and woman require the traditional marriage and the church wedding to be considered as husband and wife. The important fact is that marriage for the Igbo people, even for some Christians among them, is the traditional marriage. In such traditional marriages today, experience shows that in addition to Christians and Non-christians, the clergy are very often present not only to grace the occasion by their presence, but also to say the opening prayer, prayer over the kola nuts, and sometimes also the closing prayer, and give the blessing. The obvious questions arising from these separate celebrations call for attention and review in the light of the on-going liturgical inculturation and the provisions made by the reformed liturgy of the Second Vatican Council. Is it then possible to evolve a unique Rite whereby the two celebrations can be validly and lawfully celebrated in one ceremony? Such a Rite would be required not only to be fully cultural and truly Christian but above all acceptable by both the culture and the church. The Igbo Christian Rite of Marriage is, therefore, a concrete proposal.