Stan Chu Ilo | DePaul University (original) (raw)

Videos by Stan Chu Ilo

I demonstrate that education is a way of life; a philosophy of how to live rather than the acquis... more I demonstrate that education is a way of life; a philosophy of how to live rather than the acquisition of knowledge for the sake of getting a job or making money.

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Books by Stan Chu Ilo

Wealth, Health, and Hope in African Christian Religion, 2018

This chapter shows how the search for healing and health in African Christianity is reflected thr... more This chapter shows how the search for healing and health in African
Christianity
is reflected through the actual faith of African Christians. This
is particularly demonstrated in the search for miraculous healing wherever
it could be found. Through an ethnographic field study and analysis of data
from different African Christians, the chapter demonstrates how sickness,
health, healing, and mediation are interpreted by African Christians. The
data collected were the narratives of people who claimed that immersing
themselves in a pond which they claimed had miraculous power brought them
healing and wholeness.
Between September and December 2013, this pond was visited by thousands
of worshippers and miracle seekers who dipped themselves in it with
the hope that they would receive healing from God. Through interviews with
some of the people who came in search of healing and their friends, family,
and church members and through interaction with the local community, I
tell the stories of what took place in what people claimed was a miraculous
stream.
I will focus on three important dimensions of stories from the people
namely: how the search for miracles and healing manifest themselves in African
worshippers; the rationality which people give for their search; and why I
believe that this search reflects the suffering of God’s people which calls for
a theological biosocial accompaniment of God’s people in Africa.

African Ecological Ethics for Cosmic Flourishing, 2022

What kind of African theology of creation will shed light on the complex challenges of climate ch... more What kind of African theology of creation will shed light on the complex challenges of climate change in Africa and the world? This
is the task that I wish to undertake in this chapter’s commentary on chapter of . The 2 Laudato Si’ second chapter of Laudato Si’
affirms a God-centered universe and the interrelatedness of all things as the bases for an integral ecology. While bringing out the
main themes of this chapter of Laudato Si’, I will show how these themes resonate with African ecospiritual ethics. Just like the two
creation accounts of Genesis, African cosmogonies are wisdom traditions which offer some spiritualities and religiocultural
traditions of abundant life. Through an appeal to a Trinitarian account of creation and the cries of Africa in the face of the
destruction of creation particularly manifested in the rising garbage in African cities, this chapter will develop three ethical practices
for respecting and promoting integral ecology for human and cosmic flourishing. These practices are a recovery of a sense of beauty;
a renewal of an ecoethics of participation and solidarity; and ecospiritual practices of vulnerability and care.

President Trump's refusal to concede the election reveals his character and all the flaws that le... more President Trump's refusal to concede the election reveals his character and all the flaws that led to his failed and chaotic presidency.

Journal of Ecumenical Studies, 2019

“My niece, Francila Kollie, and my cousin, Jounpu Lowea, both nurses, became infected at work. Wh... more “My niece, Francila Kollie, and my cousin, Jounpu Lowea, both nurses, became infected at work. While they were able to receive treatment, they died in late July. So many of my close friends, university classmates, and colleagues have also died in recent months. Because there is no cure, we provide supportive care to patients, in the form of food, hydration, and basic treatment of symptoms. If treated early enough, their chances of survival are much better. I cannot stand aside and watch my people die. But I, along with my colleagues here, cannot fight Ebola alone. We have seen so many patients die. And they die alone, terrified, and without their loved ones at their side. We are trying to treat as many people as we can, but there are not nearly enough treatment centers and patient beds. We have to turn people away. And they are dying at our front door. Right now, as I speak, people are sitting at the gates of our centers, literally begging for their lives. They rightly feel alone, neglected, denied – left to die a horrible, undignified death…We do not have the capacity to respond to this crisis on our own. If the international community does not stand up, we will be wiped out. We need your help. We need it now.”
Naimah Jackson, team leader, Médecins Sans Frontière’s Ebola Treatment Center, Monrovia, Address to the UN Security Council, September, 14, 2014.

The goal of this essay is to explore the ethical issues in the spread of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in West Africa between 2013 and 2015 and to develop a bio-social theological approach to health and healing in Africa. Most of the data for this essay were drawn from the report of the Independent Panel on the Global Response to Ebola. This significant study was carried out by the Harvard Global Health Institute and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine working with people from the academia, think tanks and civil society in Africa, Europe and North America. Using the bio-social approach to understanding public health, I will argue that international humanitarian failure to contain the West African EVD outbreak reinforced the negative and racialized representation of African peoples and cultures in global conversation about health, wellbeing, and the good of order. It also shows the need to a more pro-active and holistic approach to healthcare and the wellbeing of people in Africa. This scenario challenges the churches of Africa to develop the needed staff, systems, structures and stuff for effective healthcare ministry which can meet the challenges of recurrent and new epidemics like Ebola, HIV/AIDS, yellow fever as well as the tropical diseases like malaria and typhoid fever which continue to be leading causes of deaths in Africa.

LaCroix International, 2020

If the virtualization of the Eucharistic celebration, whether in the Global North or in the Globa... more If the virtualization of the Eucharistic celebration, whether in the Global North or in the Global South becomes a trend in this era of COVID-19, it could widen the gulf between the poor and the rich. It could limit the Church's chosen means for encountering God to only those who are able to afford the only gadgets that make this possible for now.

Can the God who chose to step into the chaos of our human lives and meet us in our actual conditions be so confined by the Church?

The conversation I had with my family raised three issues for me as an African theologian: how to celebrate the mysteries of God in times like these, my ministry of accompaniment as a priest, and what the universal church can learn from Africa in reforming our sacramental system and pastoral life.

Are there no other ways and means through which God can be fully mediated and present to the people in their domestic churches (homes) outside of the exclusive and remote performance of the cultic acts of the priest through a virtual Mass?

Wealth, Health, and Hope in African Christian Religion offers a portrait of how contending narrat... more Wealth, Health, and Hope in African Christian Religion offers a portrait of how contending narratives of modernity in both church and society play out in Africa today through the agency of African Christian religion. It explores the identity and features of African Christian religion and the cultural forces driving the momentum of Christian expansion in Africa, as well as how these factors are shaping a new African social imagination, especially in providing answers to the most challenging questions about poverty, wealth, health, human, and cosmic flourishing. It offers the academy a good road map for interpreting African Christian religious beliefs and practices today and into the future.

This new book discusses the theological and social implications of the new images of the Church w... more This new book discusses the theological and social implications of the new images of the Church which are emerging from the papacy of Francis, the challenges and complexities which they pose in the contested questions about God, sin, morality, marriage, and the future in the World Church particularly for African peoples.

In this theological reflection, I address the current situation in Ahiara diocese in Eastern Nige... more In this theological reflection, I address the current situation in Ahiara diocese in Eastern Nigeria where the priests and laity of the diocese have rejected a bishop appointed for the diocese. Their refusal to accept the bishop has lingered for five years. The Pope in June, 2017 issued an order to all the priests of the diocese to write him a personal letter apologizing for their refusal to accept the bishop and pledging their obedience to him. Why did this problem emerge? How can this problem be resolved in the light of Pope Francis' order? What lessons can we learn as a church about the state of the church in Nigeria and the spirituality of her clergy?

I discuss in this chapter the pathways for dialogue and living in common in African society throu... more I discuss in this chapter the pathways for dialogue and living in common in African society through a retrieval of African values of participation and friendship reinterpreted through a relational Trinitarian theology.

PREFACE “Lord, our night is too long and our day too dark.” - An African elder at prayer Af... more PREFACE

“Lord, our night is too long and our day too dark.”
- An African elder at prayer
Africa is a continent in search of new beginnings. Among many Africans there is an increasing desire to develop some solid foundations on which to build healthy and viable societies in Africa, which are capable of sustaining authentic human and cultural development. Africa’s search for new beginnings, is not new, it has always existed in different forms along the path of Africa’s cultural evolution. This reflects the incessant hunger in the hearts and souls of many Africans for abundant life. This search has been present in Africa like in other genuine human civilizations, since the emergence of human life in this continent. The quest for firm foundations and for new futures for Africans can only be realized if Africans place African history as its essential core. A genuine sense of history, a fidelity to the revelations of history and a courageous acceptance of the judgment of history and its implications for both the present and the future is a necessary step. This will form the basic architecture for building a new home which Africans need in their continent and the world. This is a search wherein as Bell Hooks argues: “We can both interrogate the gaze of the other, but also to look back at one another, naming what we see.”
My basic intuition in writing this book stems from an inner conviction that a new kind of Africa is still possible. A new way of living as brothers and sisters, and a social transformative praxis are possible for African societies. I believe that an Afro-Christian reading of African history, the articulation of the bases for hope in Africa is a necessary quest in the search for a better future for Africa. Indeed, the feeling among some Africans that things will not get better in the continent is only but an untested myth. There is something unique about the African continent and her peoples which Africans should seek to discover, optimize, and celebrate. There is something special and life-giving about the continent that continues to draw the attention of many non-Africans to the continent. There are some hidden treasures waiting to be discovered in Africa.
In a world that is presently being defined by identity-consciousness, especially group-identity, Africans need to find their own voices. The movement of Africa today, contrary to the spirit in the colonial and immediate post-colonial eras, has been without much direction and devoid of any sustained group consciousness. Africans are embracing Western value-systems, political systems and worldviews as if they are ultimate and idyllic. The pith and marrow of Africa’s present historical consciousness and value preferences with regard to African economy, systems of government, religious beliefs and systems, and the understanding of progress is being shaped by a Western-induced mentality. There is an obvious inter-culturality which is inevitable in the globalized world of today. This leads naturally to healthy mutual exchanges among cultures and civilizations, since cultures are living forms that are open to new influences. However, nations and civilizations even in the present complex global history are seeking for ways and means through which their voices could be heard and respected. I believe that Africa can still find her place in today’s world using her experience of a vibrant Christian faith.
History is made as people apply themselves to their world with all that it contains. In this process, they adapt themselves to inevitable forces of social change which are generated by the inner realities of their social life and the external relations and tensions which emerge in their interaction with people outside their visible particularities and identities. History is culture and is a deeper reality than the mere recording of events and facts, nor is it a mere narrative of these events and facts as past. Chronology, which is an account of the past, is history in a limited sense. This work is not a book of history in this first sense even though it engages the events and facts of African history, especially contemporary history of Africa’s political, cultural, historical, economic and religious realms.
History is a meaning-filled engagement with events and facts both in the past as well as in the present. History is a hermeneutics of culture, that is, every engagement with history yields some fruitful results and meaning for a people’s understanding of themselves. How people apply that meaning to their daily lives is another matter all together. However, personal and group fulfillment, self and communal identity and group and individual consciousness are at stake in the interpretation and appropriation of meaning based on historical judgments. Every history is an attempt to make sense of life and society and offers a mirror into the world of a people: How did we come to this point? What are the factors that shape our present condition? What are the foundations of our present worldview and our self and group identity? A true sense of history and engagement with the disclosures of history is a good step in self and group consciousness and authenticity.
Every history as chronology necessarily has a bias. Viewed as interpretation of events and facts, and the impact of this interpretation on the life and future of individuals and societies in the historical process, history demands a certain level of objectivity. Historical realism is linked with cultural realism in the search for objectivity so that people can grapple comprehensively and directly with their present and their future by an adequate interpretation and understanding of their past. This demands paying closer attention to the terms and relations within their personal and group cultural life. History as chronology is subjective because it begins with certain value-judgment of the narrator. This explains the reasons for the ancient axiom that history is always written by the victors. Victims, however, are beginning to tell their own stories in order to reclaim their history. Everyone tells a story as he or she sees it, but the interpretation of events are usually conditioned by cultural factors which often are pre-judgments made before engaging the fact. However, objectivity can be tested by how the interpretation helps the people to understand themselves better, and how this understanding challenges the people to seek some credible approaches for the reinvention of their societies.
Despite many cultural productions by Africans, there is still the need for Africans to develop a deeper sense of history. Africa’s contribution to the shaping of the story that is ‘out there’ about the continent has been marginal or largely unacknowledged. In order to present an objective account of African history and the challenging social context of Africa, one needs to widen the horizon of discourse about Africa. Africans must begin to tell their own stories in various ways (for example, promoting African languages, deepening the understanding and study of African history and cultural and religious traditions, developing interest among Africans themselves on the diverse heritage of the continent, developing African arts, music, networks of support, solidarity and social reconstruction, understanding the values that helped Africans in the past like ancestral ties, family and blood-kinship, covenant patterns, religious symbols, traditional rationality etc.).
Those who have told African history in the past have often proceeded with a bias in order to project and defend certain stereotypes which have been built about Africa. Most of the images of Africa that is current in the world proceed from the kind of history of Africa that has been written with a negative bias. The sad thing is that this is continuing in very subtle but systemic fashion even in contemporary global intellectual, political and religious discourse. History, as value-discourse and interpretative narrative of events and facts, demands sensitivity to the truth-content of the events and facts that are presented. Authentic history is the one that arrives at the correct interpretation of the meaning and grounds for the values that a people embodies, which shape their present life and to a large extent determine their future. Value judgments, value critique and value preferences necessarily come into any objective history.
There has been a meta-narrative about Africa, which unfortunately has created a negative symbolic construct about what it means to be an African. This construct is affecting the way some Africans see themselves and how Africans are seen by non—Africans. The line is very simple and clear: Africa is the repository of evil. Africans are poor and unfortunate people. Nothing good can come out of this continent. African Christianity is syncretistic etc. There is something intrinsically evil and wrong with the African personality and societies. The only way out for young Africans is to escape to Europe and North America where they will succeed in life. Life outside Africa is better than life in Africa. Africa is very unsafe and insecure. Africa is a land of diseases... Even in the intellectual world, the admission of Africa’s contribution to human civilization (as for instance being the birthplace of the human race, or being the place where the future shape of Christianity will be determined) whether in the sciences, cultural anthropology, religion, Christianity, Islam, arts, sports and agriculture is still very slow. To be an African means that one has to prove himself or herself.
My concern in this book is to help tell the story of Africa from a Christian perspective of objectivity and hope. Simply put, how does Jesus see Africa today and what can Christianity contribute to changing the face of Africa. I will also propose the need to integrate the values of traditional African religio-cultural worldviews with regard to life, hope and the implication of all on earth in a spiritual chain that needs to be held together through acts of love, justice, compassion and mutuality. I will further interpret African history with a keen philosophical analysis, using Afro-Christian theological categories with which I develop some foundations for hope and transformative praxis for Africa.
The history of Africa which I present is what I have framed as the ‘changing faces of Africa’. The use of the term ‘face’ is deliberate. In the first place, it is aimed at bringing the humane and humanistic-personal dimension to the meaning-filled narrative of African history. It also brings with it the aesthetic dimension of African history as one that reveals some beauties and some dark spots that need to be removed so that this face will shine through with the resplendence of all that is good, true and beautiful.
The face of Africa is also projected as the image of a woman. Africa is always called ‘Mama Africa’. Our ancestors in the journey have often seen in this image the creativity and fertility of Africa and the inner connection of African history to religion and God as source. This is true not only of her population that has a passion for life and religion, but also of her land which is rich and fertile. Africa’s maternal image embodies the reality of a continent where life originated. This life refers to the totality of all life including the sacredness of human life, the sacredness of communal life and the common good over the selfish ends of individuals; the sacredness of the earth in general; and of the harmony between animals and humans, of the plants, the land, the streams and rivers and mountains, all having life. There are many African stories and fables that tell of the interior sacredness of creation, of the primacy of values like goodness, truth, peace, honesty and beauty, unity and love, among others. There was a spiritual ecology among Africans that represented the triadic spirit of the ancestors, the living and the not yet born; of the richness of the non-human world and their mutual interaction, and their implication for the procurement of the good of one and all. The maternal face of Africa calls us to reverence and respect for the highest values that were once cherished in African tradition, which held African societies together, and whose incarnation in new ways in the present setting is possible to infuse a new sense of meaning, purpose, and direction to Africans.
This image also calls us as Africans to memory, which is a store house of values and symbols of glories and shame, of certainties and confusion; and of triumphs and trials of the past which can shed some directing light for the flagging pace of Africans. From the centre of this memory in the womb of Mama Africa, we can see the face of Mother Africa, which has been wounded and insulted by Africans and non—Africans as well; how her fertility has been damaged in wars and flagrant exploitation of the earth, in lack of sensitivity to the needs of others and by a revolving chain of violence, unrest, poverty, diseases, and restlessness. Mama Africa weeps for her children who are dying of hunger and diseases; of her women and girls who are far from realizing their human potentials in male-dominated societies, of children who are wasted in wars and whose lives have become tales of pain and brokenness, of family life wounded by violence, of the sacred land defiled by the senseless shedding of human blood, of governments lacking in any sense of community, fraternity and communion; and of seniors and elders dying with tears for the diminishing sense of a better tomorrow for their progenies.
My goal in this book is not to do a cultural revisionism or to project the picture of a glorious past in Africa that was infinitely better than the present condition of the African continent. I wish to affirm with confidence and conviction that there is hope for Africa and to show the bases for this conviction by interpreting Africa’s past and present with a Christian appropriation of hope within African religio-cultural worldview. This is why I argue that the present challenging social context of Africa embody the birth pangs for a new beginning which African Christianity can help to unlock. The unending crises in Africa point to the need for the questions to be asked: What do these crises reveal to Africans about themselves and the present African society? What does our susceptibility to foreign domination and exploitation reveal to us about African societies? What challenges do they pose for us as Africans for our future? What is the relevance of African Christianity and African theology in finding answers to these troubling questions? The analytical theological keys which I use in this work for reading African history are a biblical theological model for reading Africa’s social context and a total picture approach model I will discuss these two models in chapter three.

This book is an attempt at a critical, constructive, and creative theological praxis of social tr... more This book is an attempt at a critical, constructive, and creative theological praxis of social transformation in Africa. The authors apply a multi-disciplinary approach to examining the momentum and texture of Christian expansion in Africa and how Christianity in Africa is engaging the problems of Africa’s challenging social context. This is a prophetic work which applies the symbols of ‘salt’ and ‘light’ as ecclesiological images for re-envisioning the path towards procuring abundant life for God’s people in the African continent through the agency of Christianity, and African Christians. The contributors to this volume ask these fundamental questions: What is the face of Jesus in African Christianity? What is the face and identity of the Church in Africa? How can one evaluate the relevance of the Church in Africa to African Christians who enthusiastically embrace and celebrate their Christian faith? In other words, what positive imprint is Christianity leaving on the lives and societies of African Christians? Does the Christian message have the potential of positively affecting African civilization as it once did in Europe? What is the relevance and place of African Christianity as a significant voice in shaping both the future of Africa, and that of world Christianity?

The book gives a comprehensive and systematic presentation of Catholic social ethics on human rig... more The book gives a comprehensive and systematic presentation of Catholic social ethics on human rights, ecology, globalisation, international co-operation and aid, human and cultural development, business ethics, social justice, and the challenges of poverty eradication, and the need for solidarity to the poor, minorities, and those on the margins of life. The book shows how the social questions of the day impact the African continent. It further engages the principles and practice of Christian charity, aid and development and their implications for the challenging African social context. This work is a refreshing attempt at a transformative Christian theological praxis, and takes Catholic social ethics from the confines of rectories, chanceries, lecture halls and conferences to the living life situation of millions of Africans in their challenging social context. It proposes an integral theology of development, and creatively lays the groundwork for Christian humanitarian and social ministry in Africa. This work is a ground breaking attempt at vulnerable missional praxis through a social analysis informed by the Gospel, and a Gospel analysis which is capable of radically altering the ways and means Catholic and Christian charities carry out their humanitarian work, aid and development initiatives in developing countries of Africa, and among the poor in our world. This is a Christian manifesto for a better world.

Talks by Stan Chu Ilo

African Catholic voices, 2022

In recent days, social media has been awash with an incident involving a priest verbally abusing ... more In recent days, social media has been awash with an incident involving a priest verbally abusing the highly acclaimed author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie at a memorial mass for her departed mother. Her case is not isolated and so we ask: How can pastors and pastoral agents in Africa bring comfort to families who are grieving the death of loved ones.

Fr Stan Chu Ilo and Sr Mumbi Kigutha share their experiences from Nigeria and Kenya on the secularisation and distortion of Christian funerals and mourning rites, taking away from the essence and turning them into events that financially drain and emotionally wound grieving families and friends.

Lent gives us an opportunity to draw closer to God through prayer, abstinence, penitence, and charity. We are invited in this episode to an examination of conscience, to listen to the cries of so many in our churches, and to repent, to seek forgiveness so that we may live out our Christian commitment more authentically.

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Papers by Stan Chu Ilo

Pathways for ecumenical and interreligious dialogue, 2021

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Wealth, Health, and Hope in African Christian Religion, 2018

African Ecological Ethics for Cosmic Flourishing, 2022

Journal of Ecumenical Studies, 2019

LaCroix International, 2020

Can the God who chose to step into the chaos of our human lives and meet us in our actual conditions be so confined by the Church?

PREFACE “Lord, our night is too long and our day too dark.” - An African elder at prayer Af... more PREFACE

African Catholic voices, 2022

http://blogs.premiumtimesng.com/?tag=stan-chu-ilo

Pathways for ecumenical and interreligious dialogue, 2021

Routledge eBooks, May 25, 2020

The Heythrop Journal, 2009

Exchange, 2021

This essay argues for a participatory synodal Church and the possible contributions of the Africa... more This essay argues for a participatory synodal Church and the possible contributions of the African palaver as a model for participatory dialogue in the Roman Catholic Church. The African palaver is the art of conversation, dialogue, and consensusbuilding in traditional society that can be appropriated in the current search for a more inclusive and expansive participatory dialogue at all levels of the life of the Church. I will develop this essay first by briefly exploring some theological developments on synodality between the Second Vatican Council and Pope Francis and some of the contributions of the reforms of Pope Francis to synodality in the Church. Secondly, I will identify how the African palaver functions through examples taken from two African ethnic groups. I will proceed to show how the African palaver could enter into dialogue with other new approaches to participatory dialogue for a synodal Church.

Exchange, 2021

This essay argues for a participatory synodal Church and the possible contributions of the Africa... more This essay argues for a participatory synodal Church and the possible contributions of the African palaver as a model for participatory dialogue in the Roman Catholic Church. The African palaver is the art of conversation, dialogue, and consensus-building in traditional society that can be appropriated in the current search for a more inclusive and expansive participatory dialogue at all levels of the life of the Church. I will develop this essay first by briefly exploring some theological developments on synodality between the Second Vatican Council and Pope Francis and some of the contributions of the reforms of Pope Francis to synodality in the Church. Secondly, I will identify how the African palaver functions through examples taken from two African ethnic groups. I will proceed to show how the African palaver could enter into dialogue with other new approaches to participatory dialogue for a synodal Church.

Theological Studies, 2020

Miriamic theology. Thinkers such as Delores Williams, whom B. claims as foundational to his work,... more Miriamic theology. Thinkers such as Delores Williams, whom B. claims as foundational to his work, have explicitly parted ways with the project of black theology. Surprisingly, B. does not follow figures such as Williams, Itumeleng Mosala, and Randall Bailey in moving away from black theology and its framing within “black experience.” Each of them offered alternative frames for thinking about hermeneutics and theological reflection with respect to black lives. From a decolonial perspective, one wonders why indigenous South African faiths do not appear more prominently. B.’s Miramic God of the oppressed is not yet a God that speaks to the question of continuity and discontinuity with African indigenous faiths. Thus, B.’s God remains partially tethered to conceptions of divine freedom that approach institutional options (the church, the nation state, and identity) of western provenance as the primary grounds for theological contestation. If B.’s interest is to regenerate the anti-imper...

Leaning into the Spirit

My argument in this chapter is that in order to discuss the state of the ecumenical movement in A... more My argument in this chapter is that in order to discuss the state of the ecumenical movement in Africa, one should not be looking at joint statements by churches as is the case in the West, or joint commissions by different church denominations. Rather, one should be looking at the everyday experiences of Christians in Africa; one should follow their actual faith which may appear confusing to some but which has deep and intelligible structures of meaning for those who have the patience to dig deeper into Africa’s religious history. I propose that ecumenical dialogues in Africa should concentrate more on understanding the meaning of the stories of actual faith of everyday Africans and what they reveal about what the Spirit is saying to the churches. Understanding the nature, character and value in these common expressions of religiosity in Africa should be preferred rather than the undue emphasis on the tenuous horizon of differences on doctrine between African churches. I propose that the grassroots ecumenical gift offer us rich materials for inter-cultural understanding, which could shift ecumenical dialogue from narratives of contamination and condemnation to redemptive narratives of grace and gifts.

The Routledge Handbook of African Theology

Toronto Journal of Theology, 2020

THE CHURCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA AID AND DEVELOPMENT FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL ... more THE CHURCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA AID AND DEVELOPMENT FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL ETH PDF Are you looking for Ebook The Church And Development In Africa Aid And Development From The Perspective Of Catholic Social Eth Pdf ? You will be glad to know that right now The Church And Development In Africa Aid And Development From The Perspective Of Catholic Social Eth Pdf is available on our online library.

International Bulletin of Missionary Research, 2019

A review of my new book, A Poor and Merciful Church: The Illuminative Ecclesiology of Pope Franci... more A review of my new book, A Poor and Merciful Church: The Illuminative Ecclesiology of Pope Francis by Charles van Engen.

A reflection on the challenges and opportunities facing the Catholic Church in Igboland.

The forthcoming presidential election in the U.S. is generating some lively debates in Nigeria. I... more The forthcoming presidential election in the U.S. is generating some lively debates in Nigeria. In some recent social media conversations with fellow Catholics, I realized that many of them, particularly those from my ethnic Igbo nation, are as fervent in their support for Trump as his diehard American fans here in the U.S. I have also seen similar trends among some African Christians and clerics from other parts of Africa. It was not surprising then that the BBC recently did a story with the bold title, “The African Evangelicals Praying for Trump to Win.” Are African Christians right in supporting Trump? I attempt some answers in this essay.

What America and the world need at this point now is a compassionate and calm leadership which co... more What America and the world need at this point now is a compassionate and calm leadership which could usher in a new national culture of compassion and care. Covid-19 is decimating our world, and here in Chicago, to use Oprah's term, it is 'taking out our people.’ Many people are hurting, afraid, and traumatized; they need to see how we can come out of this tunnel. America is in dire need of a president at this time who feels the hurts of the people, and can connect with our fears and hopes.

This essay argues for the necessity of a political theology in Africa which addresses head-on som... more This essay argues for the necessity of a political theology in Africa which addresses head-on some of the urgent and challenging social problems facing contemporary African societies. It highlights the distance between the enthusiastic Christian faith of God's people in Africa, and the failure of African societies to bring about ethical and spiritual transformation of Africans for the realization of God's dream for Africa. The essay shows that the absence of a sound social ethics and the historical contradiction of modernity in Africa have affected the ability of Africans to build political and religious systems, and institutions, which lead to human and cosmic flourishing. The essay proposes five directions of an African political theology and five methodological approaches, which can develop the critical social analysis and constructive and creative praxis for agency and social transformation in Africa. The essay draws some key principles from Augustine's City of God to show that interpreting and transforming the social evils in modern states and the involvement of the church in the shaping of the direction of history are vital for the realization of the mission of God in history. The essay deploys these principles and methods in briefly analyzing the present political, social and economic condition of Nigeria. What emerges at the end of this analysis is the fruitfulness of a critical and constructive African political theology. This way of doing theology is capable of unmasking how unequal power relations, bad state actors, religious leaders who compromise the essence of the Gospel message in the sinful quest for power and privilege can all conspire in undermining the common good and the reign of God in particular history. The ultimate goal of the essay is to make an appeal to theologians and African Christians on the urgency of the present moment in African history when many people in our continent continue to suffer and the poor remain hanging on the Cross of pain and lacking human fulfilment. Thus, the paper proposes that in the face of this heart-wrenching poverty in our continent in the midst of the rich human and cultural resources of Africa, creative theological reflections, advocacy and concrete steps are required in Africa today to guide our faithful in developing a social conscience and sound social ethics for a better society. The essay also challenges both the church and political leaders to elevate the morality and quality of their leadership in order to bring about a new Africa, which mirrors the fruits of the reign of God in history.

Some preliminary consideration about my methodology and general approach to doing African studies... more Some preliminary consideration about my methodology and general approach to doing African studies. African studies is here broadly conceived as intellectual and practical engagement with the history and reality of peoples of African descent and the interrogation of the power dynamics which define present condition of peoples of African descent in various representations whether they are acquired or autochthonous to Africans. I concentrate at three levels in this engagement. First is the level of cultural knowledge where we are dealing with the funds of knowledge which have been transmitted from one generation to the next and the process and content of the socialization of people into this fund. In a word, one is concerned about how people's identity, values, plausibility structures have been shaped or is being shaped for better or worse through the epistemological foundation of their cultural and social reality. The second is cultural artefacts which will be described as those enduring heritage which people constantly refer to as Africans in understanding themselves as a people and in presenting themselves to others. These artefacts are both at the level of material and non-material cultures and also at the level of practice, ethics, and aesthetics as those performative occurrences in daily life which help to define the choices people make relative to their understanding of their place and role in history both local and universal. The Third is cultural symbol which refers to the external social, political, cultural and religious narratives which have been institutionalized in the course of history. This is mediated through what I will call 'hidden cultural grammar' that can help people understand the intentionality of certain institutions, customs, beliefs, and practices as well as those monuments of civilization in arts, legends, myths, cultural models which offer both an explanatory and descriptive lens for understanding and interpreting a people. I will be concerned in this lecture with the first, cultural knowledge and particularly with how African history and the so-called African predicament have been shaped by the kind of intellectual traditions, which unfortunately have been based largely on Northern epistemological hegemony. What do I mean by Northern epistemological hegemony? It refers in this lecture to three things. First, is the mainstreaming of ideas and forms of thinking and acting through the occidental thoughts and thinkers going back particularly to Greek philosophy. Second, is the dualism of thought carried on through this form of knowing which always presents reality in oppositional form (black or white, liberal vs conservative, traditionalist vs progressive, realist vs idealists). Third, is the false search for unity of human knowledge which goes back to Plato's attempt to find the origin of all knowing in the demiurge. Thus, the attempt to see all things as united; all knowledge as one; and the so-called universals have been the greatest obstacles to finding and appreciating new forms of knowing; suppressed thoughts and worldviews, new epistemologies, local knowledge, and the needed quest to stretch human knowing and thinking to roads less travelled. Whenever one hears of mainstream ideas, standard practice, educational model, it is important to realize that these are not disinterested claims.