ABSTRACT
Christianity seems to be losing focus on violence and the Christian response. Therefore, this work sought responses to violence found in the teachings and examples of Jesus Christ and His apostles, that honour the Godhead, are faithful to the Bible,
relevant to, and redemptive in the context of violence; sensitive both to victims and victimizers of violence; are theologically healthy and give voice to the sufferers of violence.
It employed the historical-grammatical method of to study the Biblical (especially the New Testament) data on violence and the interdisciplinary method to analyze and construct a paradigm for a biblical theology of violence.
It discovered that 1) in the , Christians can unlearn the logic and mentality of violence; 2) proactive engagement of the structures of violence can transform violence for redemptive purposes; 3) although prevalent in the African experience,
scholars have not done enough to explain violence in African worldviews and religions and show its role and relationship to human existence; nor have they shown how to respond to violence in African religions and worldviews; 4)
the conflagration of violence in African Christian experience is a menace that if not taken seriously, will hinder effective future Christian witness; 5) the implications of the logic and operations of violence for Christian education, theology, ethics, and mission, particularly, require the Church to be more proactive against violence.
BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT OF THE STUDY
is on the threshold of making a significant global impact, although it also seems to be losing its cutting edge in responding to violence.
But African Religious Studies Lecturer at the University of Leeds, Kevin Ward, is very optimistic that Christians in Africa will make a noble contribution to a global Christian identity in our pluralist world.
Leading the way is Nigeria which Wagner and Thompson describe as “a giant of today’s Christian landscape” and “Pearl of Africa,” with its Christian community and spreading the gospel throughout Nigeria, Africa, and the once historic Christian lands.
This is starkly contrary to E. D. Morel’s skepticism expressed nearly three and a half decades ago in his Nigeria: Its Peoples and Its Problems. Morel was sceptical about Christianity’s inability to advance in Nigeria over Islam as a religion for Africans.
He argued that Christianity was incapable in West Africa to divorce itself from the West and be at home in Africa. Nigerian Christians did not need 35 years to prove Morel wrong.
They now constitute the major missionary bodies, Christian teachers, Church planters, pastors and in Nigeria and Africa.
Morel was also mistaken and misled in stating that Islam has become “a religion of the people, losing much of its rigidity and fanaticism as it works down to the coast absorbing the true Negro”.
“Everything is against Christianity as presented to the Nigerian…, and everything is in favour of Islam, although Christianity in itself, contains more that should appeal to the Negro character than does Mohammedanism…,” Morel contended.
That may have been true depending on what Morel meant by “everything” and the “true Negro.”
Both “everything” and the “true ” have shown that Christianity is at home among Africans. Mark Shaw’s remarks about the growth of Christianity in Africa also show how seriously misleading Morel’s scepticism was.
The surge in the growth of professing Christians from 4 million in 1900 to 300 million in 2000 is an astounding surprise for 21st century .
Shaw argued that this phenomenal growth is “one of the most surprising facts of twentieth-century church history”.
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StudentsandScholarship Team.
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