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This book is an attempt to explore the Igbo values of social justice in terms of social relationships. The philosophical concept of justice is broadened by the Igbo worldview, the core that shows how social relationships are the web of justice, which makes social connectivity indispensable and possible. The principles of these social relationships appear as obvious values of justice among the Igbo people and are examined in the light of Christian ethical values and their relevance explored in forging Christianity in the Igbo land. This book also acknowledges the difficulties involved in inquiring into the Igbo ethical values because of the integration of religious beliefs and ethical conduct and customs. Given the Igbo example of the Igbo-integrated life, justice simply becomes that inner compulsion that motivates the human in his/her relationships with others and with God. Consequently, the traditional Igbo people were able to build a harmonious, peaceful, and social order that ensured social justice in the Igbo communal and social interconnectivity. The author argues that the Igbo example can facilitate the growth of Christianity in the Igbo land.
This book explores in depth Ikpu-ala as a social justice value in the Igbo social justice system. The traditional social justice concept of ikpu-ala provides an important conceptual framework through which adult Igbo Christians can engage in a critical and conscious theological reflections upon how they can make the Igbo Christian community fully authentic and faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is a process that will highlight the total transformation of the Igbo society, which began with the arrival of the missionaries in 1885. This reflection is based on the Igbo experience and understanding of Omenala, the Igbo moral code, in which the world of the material and the spiritual, while occupying distinct domains, nonetheless remain deeply intertwined. In this book, the author explores that for the Igbo community, the reality of theology has evolved as a distinct from of experience that is deeply connected with tradition for the sake of praxis (Don Browning, 1995). Consequently, the author not only sees Ikpu-ala as authentic Igbo social justice value but also considers it as something that can be integrated into the Christian social values without either destroying Igbos longstanding cultures or traditions. The author highlights two key lessons from the Igbo integration of ikpu-ala into Christian social justice: (1) that the Igbo Catholic Church should engage the Igbo culture and traditions in a theological interactive reflections for the incarnation of the Word among the Igbo Catholics, and (2) that Ikpu-ala, with its theological values, can assist the Igbo Catholic Church in the sacrament of reconciliation and so transform the twenty- first century Igbo Catholic into an integrated and authentic Christian.
There has existed the naÔve assumption that until the unsolicited advent of colonialism, the so-called "noble and savage" tribes had no legal system worthy of attention. The Igbo people were not exempted from this assumption. Justice itself cannot be realized outside a system of law and its institutions. It is a system in which law is a vital aspect of man's culture and social existence; embodying the collective will of the community and binding the members of that community in a unity of purpose. In all of these, the exercise of reason is essential and indispensable. In the face of the colonial and neo-colonial assumption of the non-existence of law, the evidence on the ground suggests something totally different. If anything, that evidence shows that the assumption was an essential part of the ideology of colonialism and an important psychological armour which, in conjunction with the Bible and gun-powder, helped to bring about the physical, political, economic, and mental domination of non-Europeans. In this book, an attempt is made to elucidate the logical features of some fundamental concepts and phrases related to justice, dispute settlement, and the organization of life and work in Igbo communities in Aniocha north local government area of Delta State.
Where today is a specific, original and stable basis for a Political order to be found? What does the human dignity mean in the midst of the general crises of values? In the face of the ambivalent achievements of modernity and enlightenment, do the values of Christianity which until now have been regarded as the objective norm fail in its contact with the primal culture and the culture of the African communities? Where in this classes are the weakening and strengthening and specific challenges of this African People? This field of conflict must not only be described, but above all to ask about new opportunities to get out of the crisis of the value of human dignity in the Igbo society of Southeastern Nigeria. Ezenwas work seeks and aids understanding, using the facility of examining the subject of dignity in Igbo culture to throw light that casts much farther than the subject matter, begging for further inquiry into other complementary aspects of the culture. In other to achieve this, interdisciplinary research was needed.
This is a first attempt at the philosophical articulation and projection of the Igbo concept of law and the role of law in the traditional environment. In the Igbo traditional setting, the rules of law are uncodified. The author, who teaches philosophy of law and logic at the University of Nigeria, defines the law of a given community as the body of rules recognised as binding by its members. On this concept of law, he has based his attempt to elucidate the philosophical underpinning of those rules recognised in Igbo traditional legal system as law. Unless the philosphical foundation is understood, the traditional law, machinery for enforcement, and legislative and judicial processes may appear incomprehensible. The first part gives a descriptive insight into the moral, religious, socio-political and legal background of the Igbo. The second part is devoted to the fundamental questions concerning the concept of law, the various types of laws, the reciprocal influence between law and Igbo religion and the end of laws. Finally, the author examines the nature of right in Igbo traditional thought and locates the philosophical background.
The need for renegotiation of the place and role of women in the family, the Church, and the society cannot be any more urgent than now, especially as people are more aware of the devastating effects of the evils of inequality, discrimination, and oppression. It is a pity that the excellent qualities of bravery, industry, resilience, and perseverance historically attributed to African women, with which they negotiated for better place in the family, the Church, and the society, have been manipulated to serve as instruments for their denigration. The problem is that the patriarchal articulations of gender relations from the western world that entered Africa through colonialism, Christianity, western education and globalization allied themselves with the macho elements in African culture, and institutionalized the oppression of women; a move that women have always resisted both overtly and covertly. But how long could they hang on? This book provides exceptional and critical assessment of these issues, especially from the perspective of the Igbo society of Nigeria. Apart from assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the efforts made by women themselves to surmount these challenges, it also explores how the autochthonous values of the traditional culture could integrate with Christian values to enthrone gender equality in the society. "Fr Muonwe demonstrated in this present publication his pastoral zeal for justice especially on the predicaments of women in African nay Igbo society. He regrets as it were that the African (Igbo) traditional society is still far from realizing the Christian gospel ideal of dignity and equality of human person because of the obvious environment that is strictly androcentric and carefully crafted in patriarchal hegemony... I thank Fr Muonwe for... this timely publication especially for many Igbo Christian communities today experiencing crisis in several aspects of our culture... I hope the Bishops, the Priests, the Religious and Laity will find in this present work a rare and indispensable treasure for solutions to our pastoral predicaments." Rev. Fr. Prof. Anthony B. C. Chiegboka. "New Dawn for African Women is encyclopaedic in content and daunting in its wealth of documentation... [It] is a well-written book. The contents covered much more than Igbo women, or gender issues. It addressed such other issues as Igbo cosmology, Igbo concept of life and death, the history of Christianity in Igboland and Igbo social anthropology, among others. It is a book, which every Nigerian, especially the Igbo, should read. The book is inspirational and provocative in the extreme; it is original and displays 'learning lightly carried.' One cannot but return to it over and over again after the first reading. I very strongly recommend it to the Nigerian and African reading public." C. Ego Uzoezie (Ph.D.)
“A true classic of world literature . . . A masterpiece that has inspired generations of writers in Nigeria, across Africa, and around the world.” —Barack Obama “African literature is incomplete and unthinkable without the works of Chinua Achebe.” —Toni Morrison Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read Things Fall Apart is the first of three novels in Chinua Achebe's critically acclaimed African Trilogy. It is a classic narrative about Africa's cataclysmic encounter with Europe as it establishes a colonial presence on the continent. Told through the fictional experiences of Okonkwo, a wealthy and fearless Igbo warrior of Umuofia in the late 1800s, Things Fall Apart explores one man's futile resistance to the devaluing of his Igbo traditions by British political andreligious forces and his despair as his community capitulates to the powerful new order. With more than 20 million copies sold and translated into fifty-seven languages, Things Fall Apart provides one of the most illuminating and permanent monuments to African experience. Achebe does not only capture life in a pre-colonial African village, he conveys the tragedy of the loss of that world while broadening our understanding of our contemporary realities.
Achievement seems to be a first-class value in our world today. With the ongoing global debate on what constitutes identity, can we include achievement as one of the constituents? In the Igbo/African identity, the achievement instinct is basically innate. The ethics of this phenomenon needs an evaluation, aimed at improving the status quo. What is the plight of the Igbo/African "achieving" in the face of modern capitalistic tendencies? What has become of the many other values in her identity, which has been her pride as a race? How is her religiosity (which is inseparable from daily living) affected by "modernity" and its new trends of the achievement ethos? These are some of the issues that are addressed in this book with the conviction that theology, achievement and identity are continuity.