Doing Ministry in the Igbo Context: Towards an Emerging Model and Method for the Church in Africaarises out of reflection on experience and practice. The volume reflects on the author's own cultural context, religious heritage, and pastoral functioning. In addition, it considers the author's personal experiences in relation to the common experiences of others within the author's cultural and religious traditions and places these experiences and the voices they represent into mutually critical correlation. Thus, commonalities and dissonances in them emerge leading to insights where to go from there in providing ministry to the People of God in the "local church" context and still within the framework of one universal church. This book presents a contextual model of local theology that begins its reflection with the Igbo cultural context. The Igbo or Nigerian or African Church can have a pattern of ministry with a model and a method that are consistent with the peoples' values. To accomplish this goal a local cultural value must be explored and brought into the scene. Since the Igbo society is the heart of Christianity and Catholicism in Africa, the author relies on Igboland as his situational context. The exploration of the indigenous Igbo value of collaboration will be an advantage in ministering to the rest of the African people who have cultural resemblances to Igbos. The African Church has to learn from the Igbo values ofumunna bu ike. Umunnais the basic Igbo unit, and possibly the most powerful missionary force in Igboland, and potentially an Igbo gift to the Church in Nigeria and Africa, and even beyond. -- Back cover.

Given the consistent challenge of Islamist acute violence, particularly in Nigeria, this monograph attempts to respond to the question: How can Jesus’s followers pattern response to violence after Jesus’s model demonstrated in his triumph over death, evil, sin, and violence through staurocentric pathways? And how can Jesus’s followers in Nigeria adopt the same staurocentric model in order to not only overcome acute violence within the country but also to extend hands, heads, hearts, and homes of staurocentric forgiveness, hospitality, and other practices toward Muslims? In this study, I posit that peacebuilding contextual theology be grounded on the mystery of the cross (σταυρός–stauros)—a theologico-theoretical framework that the church in Nigeria should espouse in order to position herself to extend hands, heads, hearts, and homes of staurocentric practices, whose appropriation must be undertaken through constructive and critical integration of the God-given African peacebuilding concepts autochthonous to Africa’s mosaic cultural contexts. The pivotal thesis is that the staurocentric model remains the triune God’s instrument for triumphing over violence, and thus should be espoused by Jesus's followers in every era and context for peacebuilding in contexts of violence through a triadic constructive and critical integration of indigenous peacebuilding concepts.

Most people of Igbo extraction are worried at the alarming rate of social ills bedevilling the Igbo nation. These social evils which debauch authentic Igbo socio-cultural communal ethos include violent crimes like kidnapping of fellow Igbo brothers and sisters for ransom, hired assassinations, armed robbery, political thuggery, etc. These socio-cultural eddies not only pose security risks to people but also paralyse socio-political, religious and economic activities in Igbo land. These crimes are dialectically opposed to the authentic cultural values of Ndigbo who traditionally are known for their rich cultural values and high morality with regard to the sanctity of life and the primacy of the common good arising from Igbo republican spirit. One is left wondering why and what has changed to bring about these various cycles of moral decay which have battered our social system and our noble cultural values. This book written from the backdrop of the increasing crime rate in Igboland examines the agents of social transformation that has impacted Ndigbo beginning from inter-tribal trading, colonialism, including the Nigeria-Biafra Civil War up to the forces of globalization. It argues that the agents of social changes has not destroyed Ndigbo’s cultural values but has affected Ndigbo’s attitude toward life. It proposes Ndigbo’s moral integrity based on the conept of ezindu (good life) as the foundation of Ndigbo’s common meaning or cultural value. This book therefore, creates an awareness of the impact of modernity on Igboland and proposes a response based on Ndigbo’s cultural value, one that promotes moral integrity as a panacea to forces of secularization. It identifies the social evils which afflict Igboland and traces the problem to the breakdown of authentic cultural values of the people. It will establish a theoretical framework for analysis by locating the causes of this breakdown with a cultural dis-valuation arising from distortion in the dialectic of Igbo communities as a result of lack of integration with the forces of secularization. These unleashed greed and various forms of self-interest to the detriment of the common good. The way forward, I will argue, lies in attending to the integrity of cultural values that inform the everyday life of the people. This will be the task of those creative minority who by paying attention to the superstructural cultural values responsible for arts, science, philosophy and the human sciences will re-create cultural values responsive to the malaise of modernity in the various forms it is influencing the Igbo nation. This, in itself, will demand moral integrity rooted in authentic cultural value and greater responsibility on the part of the superstructure of culture. Christianity as the dominant religion in Igboland must be prepared to impact the life and value of Ndigbo positively and integrate Ndigbo’s cultural values in her ministry of evangelization.

Doing Ministry in the Igbo Context: Towards an Emerging Model and Method for the Church in Africa arises out of reflection on experience and practice. The volume reflects on the author's own cultural context, religious heritage, and pastoral functioning. In addition, it considers the author's personal experiences in relation to the common experiences of others within the author's cultural and religious traditions and places these experiences and the voices they represent into mutually critical correlation. Thus, commonalities and dissonances in them emerge leading to insights where to go from there in providing ministry to the People of God in the «local church» context and still within the framework of one universal church. This book presents a contextual model of local theology that begins its reflection with the Igbo cultural context. The Igbo or Nigerian or African Church can have a pattern of ministry with a model and a method that are consistent with the peoples' values. To accomplish this goal a local cultural value must be explored and brought into the scene. Since the Igbo society is the heart of Christianity and Catholicism in Africa, the author relies on Igboland as his situational context. The exploration of the indigenous Igbo value of collaboration will be an advantage in ministering to the rest of the African people who have cultural resemblances to Igbos. The African Church has to learn from the Igbo values of umunna bu ike. Umunna is the basic Igbo unit, and possibly the most powerful missionary force in Igboland, and potentially an Igbo gift to the Church in Nigeria and Africa, and even beyond.

With over two million church leaders working in the more than ten million parishes, congregations, seminaries, and houses of religious formation around the world, it is important that all the people of God of every church have selfless church leaders who reflect the mind of Christ. But how can church leaders learn to be true shepherds like Jesus, whose selfless sacrifice of his life for his people set the standard for the pastoral ministry? The Ministry of the Shepherd and the Church in Africa draws on a wide range of Old and New Testament texts to develop the biblical theology of the shepherd Ministry which encourages right shepherding and evangelization in the world of self-serving leadership styles. Focusing especially on the example of pastoral ministry in Africa, author and priest, Cletus Chukwudi Imo explores some of the underlying attitudes of the pastor and the laity, and challenges church leaders to adopt a role as shepherds and servantsnot as self-serving mastersso that they can lead, guide, and teach their congregations as Christ would. Because it can be easy for church leaders to get wrapped up in the sociocultural, political, and economic concerns of their parishes, it is important for these church leaders to shed an undue focus on these concerns instead of shepherd their flocks. By modeling their lives and leadership on the ideals of Jesus, church leadersincluding priests, religious, lecturers, seminarians, and even lay-Christian parents alikecan become true servants and shepherds, honoring the example of Jesus, the Good Shepherd

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.

If there is no religion in the world, the world would more or less become a jungle. The world will be inhuman. Religion touches all aspects of human life. Identifying God's will in our world today has become a major problem for many religions of the world. In the past, in Igbo Traditional Religion, human sacrifice as well as the killing of twins were practised. For the Igbo traditionalists then, that was the will of the deities and equally not against God's will. But following the encounter of Igbo Traditional Religion with Christianity these are no longer practised. Misinterpretation of God's will by some religions of the world has given rise to religious violence, religious extremism, fanaticism and terrorism we are experiencing today in the world. For these problems to be resolved, it is pertinent that the study of various religions be taken seriously. This study should be aiming at better understanding, co-existence, respect for one another and frequent inter-religious dialogues among the various religions of the world. When this is achieved, the believers of various religions would realize that many are worshipping one God and their desire is to communicate with Him, although they may approach Him differently.

HIV/AIDS constitutes a global problem. A good number of scholars from different nationalities, multiple rationalities, religious sensibilities, theological intelligibilities and ethical, cultural, and ecclesiastical backgrounds have affirmed that this worldwide quagmire constitutes a global health problem and social malady which does not have a well-defined geographically limited spread. The global nature of HIV/AIDS as seen in the statistics does not however undermine the fact that the effects of this sickness are not felt proportionally from one nation to another. This book proposes to situate the local as a veritable site of empowerment for communities dealing with HIV/AIDS, as it is the case with the African continent. The author of this book, over and above the way the problem of HIV/AIDS has been constructed, projected, and reviewed, decided to situate this epidemic of the 20th Century within the socio-cultural and political context of the Nigerian nation with particular reference to the Igbo people. The task of contextualizing this problem reveal the identity of the author as an Igbo, and as a theologian, who engages the indigenous ethical principles, unsophisticated traditional wisdom, cultural and religious values of his people in offering solutions that resonate the cultural identity of his people in dialogue with modern and post-modern constructs.

This book presents theoretical and methodical discussions on local knowledge and indigenous knowledge. It examines educational attainment of ethnic minorities, race and politics in educational systems, and the problem of losing indigenous knowledge. It comprises a broad range of case studies about specifics of local knowledge from several regions of the world, reflecting the interdependence of norms, tradition, ethnic and cultural identities, and knowledge. The contributors explore gaps between knowledge and agency, address questions of the social distribution of knowledge, consider its relation to communal activities, and inquire into the relation and intersection of knowledge assemblages at local, national, and global scales. The book highlights the relevance of local and indigenous knowledge and discusses implications for educational and developmental politics. It provides ideas and a cross-disciplinary scientific background for scholars, students, and professionals including NGO activists, and policy-makers.

This book is about Nigerias oil and gas-rich Niger Delta region: --how its peoples: the Igbo, Ijaw, Ibibio, Efik, Ogoni, Annang, etc evolved over the years; with the Igbo, as the main ingredient in the evolution process --how ethnic and regional rivalry, occasioned by petty jealousies and envy threatened their very existence in1966-1969, and led to Biafra --how greed and the gross abuse of state power by Northern Nigeria-controlled military dictatorship in 1966-1999 turned the once prosperous region into a living nightmare. The peoples are emasculated, communities/villages sacked, perceived freedom fighters persecuted and killed, including the writer/environmentalist, Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was hanged in 1995. This book reminds Nigeria and the world of Biafra, and calls for fundamental changes in respect of the Niger Delta, to avoid the mistakes that led to Biafran secession in 1967. It is also a Unity call to the East.