Ecumenical and Interreligious Identities in Nigeria: Transformation through Dialogue by Ikenna Paschal Okpaleke (review)

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• Ecumenical and Interreligious Identities in Nigeria: Transformation through Dialogue by Ikenna Paschal Okpaleke
• Effiong Joseph Udo

Ikenna Paschal Okpaleke, Ecumenical and Interreligious Identities in Nigeria: Transformation through Dialogue. London: Rowman and Littlefield, 2022. Pp. 422. $132.00.

Religious diversity anywhere in the world has implications for both social cohesion and conflicts. In the Nigerian socioreligious context, this phenomenon often generates more conflicts than peace and attracts regular scholarly debates and reflections by ordinary citizens. The severity of the issues involved is probably due to the uniqueness of the Nigerian religious scene. Nigeria is the only country where roughly one-half of its population is made up of Muslims and the other half of Christians. Thus, with Islam and Christianity being the dominant religions, an interplay of several factors, including political, economic, and [End Page 275] cultural forces, complicates social harmony and human security. A fitting response in recent times, however, is the attention given to the importance and practice of ecumenism and dialogue to help address the issues, which makes this well-researched book a timely and relevant resource for the ongoing search for solutions to intra- and interreligious conflicts and violence in Nigeria.

Okpaleke has undertaken a wide-ranging investigation into the "relationship: between identity and difference, between dialogue and transformation, between ecumenical and interreligious engagements, and between theology and praxis." He posits that dialogue brings about transformation, demonstrated in the case study of Anglican-Roman Catholic ecumenical dialogue and relations that has resulted in remarkable changes for both ecclesial communities. With this successful test case, Okpaleke concludes that transformation applies to individuals and groups, through both dialogue in general and ecumenical and interreligious dialogue in particular.

The author grapples extensively with the challenging issues of theological exclusivism, inclusivism, and pluralism. He draws the theological model of "inclusive pluralism" by which Jacques Dupuis constructed Trinitarian Christology to elucidate his identity-in-difference, not an identity-against-difference formula for Christian self-understanding in the interreligious encounter (see his Christianity and the Religions: From Confrontation to Dialogue [2001]). Particularly fascinating is his connection to and advocacy for the trinitarian paradigm for interreligious dialogue in Nigeria, which he also draws heavily from Michael Ipgrave's Trinity and Interfaith Dialogue: Plenitude and Plurality (2003).

Perhaps the major strength of this book is the blend of scholarship demonstrated by the author's use of an interdisciplinary approach, specifically, the combination of social science and theological approaches, which allowed the author the breadth needed to tackle sociological issues of identity, transformation, and dialogue that the subject matter deserves. Okpaleke is quite familiar not only with the "chaotic religious diversity" and the deplorable ecumenical and interreligious situations in Nigeria (as a Nigerian Christian whose family was once affected by Christian-Muslim conflicts), but he is also conversant with the various scholarly proposals that have been advanced to address the religious crises.

Taking a departure point from Olu Vaughan's Religion and the Making of Nigeria (2016) and Akintunde Akinade's Christian Responses to Islam in Nigeria: A Contextual Study of Ambivalent Encounters (2014), Okpaleke thinks that a theological approach, rather than a state (constitutional) approach, is needed [End Page 276] to address the situation in Nigeria. Hence, he proposes that ecumenism in Nigeria will be effective if there is a reexamination of the Christian self-understanding and the recognition of the relationship between ecumenism and interreligious dialogue. Here, he appears to suggest that the distressing interreligious situation in the country could be solved through a Christian approach. Is the problem entirely Christian-induced to warrant only the Christian solution? Certainly not, for the problem is not caused by Christians or Muslims alone but also by state (governmental) factors. Thus, solutions must be sought from different angles.

A major oversight of Okpaleke's analyses of the causal factors for the deplorable state of ecumenism and interreligious situation is that of ignoring the role of the colonial system in Nigeria. It is well-established in scholarship that the favoritism of the colonialist government shown to either the Muslims in certain sections of the country or to the Christians in other sections sowed the seeds of interreligious suspicion and misunderstanding that have worked against the people...