A Theological Analysis of Confessional-Centric Curriculum Of
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Duquesne University Duquesne Scholarship Collection Electronic Theses and Dissertations Spring 5-11-2018 A Theological Analysis of Confessional-Centric Curriculum of Christian Religious Education: Towards an Inclusive Religious Pluralistic Centered Curriculum for Nigeria Colleges of Education Ilesanmi Ajibola Follow this and additional works at: https://dsc.duq.edu/etd Part of the Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons, Christianity Commons, Community College Leadership Commons, Curriculum and Social Inquiry Commons, Higher Education and Teaching Commons, Practical Theology Commons, and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Commons Recommended Citation Ajibola, I. (2018). A Theological Analysis of Confessional-Centric Curriculum of Christian Religious Education: Towards an Inclusive Religious Pluralistic Centered Curriculum for Nigeria Colleges of Education (Doctoral dissertation, Duquesne University). Retrieved from https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/1437 This Immediate Access is brought to you for free and open access by Duquesne Scholarship Collection. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Duquesne Scholarship Collection. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A THEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF CONFESSIONAL-CENTRIC CURRICULUM OF CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS EDUCATION: TOWARDS AN INCLUSIVE RELIGIOUS PLURALISTIC CENTERED CURRICULUM FOR NIGERIA COLLEGES OF EDUCATION A Dissertation Submitted to the McAnulty Graduate School of Liberal Arts Duquesne University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Ilesanmi Gabriel Ajibola May 2018 Copyright by Ilesanmi Gabriel Ajibola 2018 A THEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF CONFESSIONAL-CENTRIC CURRICULUM OF CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS EDUCATION: TOWARDS AN INCLUSIVE RELIGIOUS PLURALISTIC CENTERED CURRICULUM FOR NIGERIA COLLEGES OF EDUCATION By Ilesanmi Gabriel Ajibola Approved April 5, 2018 ________________________________ ________________________________ Prof. Elochukwu Uzukwu, Ph.D. Dr. Maureen O’Brien, Ph.D. Professor of Theology Associate Professor Department of Theology Department of Theology (Committee Member) (Committee Member) ________________________________ ________________________________ Dr. Julia Williams, Ph.D. Dr. Marinus Iwuchukwu, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Associate Professor School of Education Department of Theology Instruction and Leadership Chair, Consortium for Christian-Muslim (Committee Member) Dialogue (Committee Director) ________________________________ ________________________________ Prof. James Swindal, Ph.D. Dr. Marinus Iwuchukwu, Ph.D. Dean, McAnulty Graduate School of Chair, Department of Theology Liberal Arts Associate Professor of Theology Professor of Philosophy iii ABSTRACT A THEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF CONFESSIONAL-CENTRIC CURRICULUM OF CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS EDUCATION: TOWARDS AN INCLUSIVE RELIGIOUS PLURALISTIC CENTERED CURRICULUM FOR NIGERIA COLLEGES OF EDUCATION By Ilesanmi Gabriel Ajibola May 2018 Dissertation supervised by Dr. Marinus Iwuchukwu, Ph.D. Desire to live in peace and unity despite the multi ethnic and multi religious composition of Nigeria, remain ideals that are constant in the nation’s Constitution. However, accruable benefits of a culturally and religiously pluralistic society have continued to elude Nigeria due to incessant religious violence arising from the mutual suspicion of Christians and Muslims in the country. Nevertheless, the nation’s National Policy on Education proposes the education sector as one of the platforms to inculcate a sense of unity and religious tolerance in the country. The policy considers the nation’s learning centers and religious courses offered in such institutions as media to attain the goals of peaceful co-existence and unity of all citizens. Unfortunately, this goal has remained unrealized. It is from this background that this dissertation conducts a theological analysis of the curriculum of Christian Religious Studies operative in Nigeria Colleges of iv Education and finds it defective by default for the purpose of facilitating religious harmony in the country. For one, the curriculum is mostly catechetical in content, and transmits a confessional orientation of religious studies across board from the training of CRS teachers, to their engagement in teaching at primary and secondary school levels. The project deploys Jacque Dupuis’ ‘inclusive religious pluralism’ in drafting a Christian religious studies curriculum for Nigeria Colleges of Education. The submission is made on the assumption that a robust community of religiously pluralistic society operates on respect for each other’s’ religious views, and avoidance of attempt at relegating adherents of other religions and their religious views to an inferior status. v DEDICATION To victims of interreligious ruckus in Nigeria vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENT My unalloyed gratitude goes to God Almighty who have been my Guide, Protector and Provider especially in circumstances where human supports are at the lowest ebb; and to Dr. Marinus Iwuchukwu, my supervisor, and provocateur of my interest in this area of research. I am grateful to Dr. Elochukwu Uzukwu and Dr. Maureen O’Brien of Theology Department, and Dr. Julia Williams of Instruction and Leadership in the School of Education, for their immense suggestions and contributions to the completion of this work. I am especially grateful to the management and staff of Federal College of Education, Zaria for the opportunity to pursue a doctoral degree. In a special way, I wish to express my gratefulness for the various forms of financial supports from the Department of Theology, and for the award of the 2017-2018 McAnulty Dissertation Fellowship by the McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts. Similarly, I acknowledge the support of Fr. Chris Promis, CSSp, the Hickman family, Revd. Steve and Lynn Nichols Dull, and the entire community of the Harmonie Church, Wright City, Missouri. I also fondly remember the academic support of Dr. Marie Baird, and the friendship of Jay and Zenaida Cullers, Paul Mueller and family, the Lourde’s Sisters, Frs. Emmanual Ahua and Kenneth Oguzie, CSSp, Drs. Simon Aihiokhai, Martin Ahiaba, and John Odeyemi. These and many others have aided my experiences at Duquesne University, in ways that are too numerous to count. My family has endured the taunt of my absence with patience and understanding. The reward of my absence for the period of my studies in the US is the joy we all share at vii the completion of this work. I love each one of you dearly. Thank you for being supportive. To the entire faculty in the Department of Theology, I remain eternally grateful indeed. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................................. IV DEDICATION.......................................................................................................................... VI ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .................................................................................................... VII LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................XII INTRODUCTION 0.1 An Overview ...................................................................................................................... 1 0.2 Background to the study .................................................................................................. 4 0.3 Statement of the problem ................................................................................................ 7 0.4 A Literature Review on the State of the Question ................................................... 11 0.5 Purpose of the study ....................................................................................................... 22 0.6 Research methodology ................................................................................................... 26 0.7 Research Questions ......................................................................................................... 28 0.8 Research population ....................................................................................................... 29 0.9 Scope and limitation of the study ................................................................................ 30 0.10 Significance of the Study .............................................................................................. 31 0.11 Chapter Synopses ............................................................................................................ 32 CHAPTER ONE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AND POLARIZATION OF THE NIGERIAN SOCIETY 1.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 36 1.2 The Geography and people of Nigeria ....................................................................... 39 1.3 Nigeria Religious landscape ......................................................................................... 42 1.4 The Advent of Islam and Christianity into Nigeria’s Religious and Political Landscape ......................................................................................................................... 45 1.5 From religious interest to political finagling ............................................................. 50 1.6 Christian-Muslim relationship in Nigeria: A story of tension and toleration..... 57 1.6 Nigeria educational landscape