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Christian Supersessionism and the Dilemma of Dialogue in Jos Nigeria: Exploring Panikkar’S Dialogical Dialogue As a Paradigm for Interreligious Dialogue Martin Ahiaba

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Duquesne University Duquesne Scholarship Collection Electronic Theses and Dissertations Fall 2016 Christian Supersessionism and the Dilemma of Dialogue in Jos Nigeria: Exploring Panikkar’s Dialogical Dialogue as a Paradigm for Interreligious Dialogue Martin Ahiaba Follow this and additional works at: https://dsc.duq.edu/etd Recommended Citation Ahiaba, M. (2016). Christian Supersessionism and the Dilemma of Dialogue in Jos Nigeria: Exploring Panikkar’s Dialogical Dialogue as a Paradigm for Interreligious Dialogue (Doctoral dissertation, Duquesne University). Retrieved from https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/59 This One-year Embargo 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]. CHRISTIAN SUPERSESSIONISM AND THE DILEMMA OF DIALOGUE IN JOS NIGERIA: EXPLORING PANIKKAR’S DIALOGICAL DIALOGUE AS A PARADIGM FOR INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE 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 Martin Akowe Ahiaba December 2016 Copyright by Martin Akowe Ahiaba 2016 CHRISTIAN SUPERSESSIONISM AND THE DILEMMA OF DIALOGUE IN JOS NIGERIA: EXPLORING PANIKKAR’S DIALOGICAL DIALOGUE AS A PARADIGM FOR INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE By Martin Akowe Ahiaba Approved November 9, 2016 ________________________________ ________________________________ Dr. Gerald Boodoo, Ph.D. Dr. Anna Floerke Scheid, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Theology Associate Professor of Theology (Committee Member) (Committee Member) ________________________________ Dr. Marinus Iwuchukwu, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Theology (Committee Director) ________________________________ ________________________________ Dr. 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 CHRISTIAN SUPERSESSIONISM AND THE DILEMMA OF DIALOGUE IN JOS NIGERIA: EXPLORING PANIKKAR’S DIALOGICAL DIALOGUE AS A PARADIGM FOR INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE By Martin Akowe Ahiaba December 2016 Dissertation supervised by Dr. Marinus Iwuchukwu, PhD The Middle-belt and Northern Nigeria are notoriously known as the epicenter for ethnic and religious warfare. The hostility between the two dominant religions—Islam and Christianity—has a beginning that pre-dates the British colonial occupation in 1903. Islamic opposition to British cultural imperialism and religious superiority continues in its outright rejection of Christian supersessionism and the formation of fundamentalist sects. Though not denying the importance of addressing the economic, ethnic, and political context of the problem of violence, this work focuses on exclusivist Christology and its hermeneutical use in framing the dialogue between Christians and Muslims in Jos Plateau. We analyze the nature of absolute claims emanating from Christian supersessionism and evaluate how these have served as triggers to violence, provoked by the slightest religious misunderstanding. Such an exclusive Christological definition lends to religious extremism, and iv it raises serious ethical and theological questions for Christianity as a religion that preaches love and hospitality for neighbors, especially the stranger. In this sense, Christian supersessionism poses grave ethical danger to the virtue of hospitality in that it reduces the horizon of Christian compassion, making it accessible only to members of the Christian faith community. By applying Raimon Panikkar’s non-dualistic method and his post-colonial critique of Western theological imperatives, this works seeks to liberate exclusivist Christology from its totalizing tendencies. It is our intention to develop an alternative dialogical pneumatology of charity and hospitality that is necessary for the interreligious encounter and mutual coexistence between Christians and Muslims. This investigation shows that Panikkar’s cosmotheandric vision of reality which promotes “individuality, irreducibility and reciprocity,” remains the sine qua non for interreligious peace in a pluralistic setting. Cosmotheandrism offers a deep complementarity of perspectives, insights, and approaches. In sum, cosmotheandrism within the context of interreligious dialogues argues that there is no “one religion” that can be imposed on the “many,” and there are no “many” that can be reduced to the “one.” Thus, we contend that Panikkar’s concept of dialogical dialogue, which draws from the cosmotheandric vision, remains an effective method for formulating both the theoretical and hermeneutical principles required for addressing Christian exclusivism. v DEDICATION To the victims of the 2001 Jos crisis To all Missionaries Through the Congregation of the Holy Ghost Fathers and Brothers (Spiritans) vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First and foremost, I would like to express my immense debt of gratitude to God for the gift of the Ministry of Reconciliation, through which peace among religions becomes the precondition for peace on earth. Second, my regards to Dr. Marinus Iwuchukwu, my supervisor, who took more than a personal interest in getting me to work, reading the manuscripts, and offering very useful and productive suggestions. More than this, he continued to drum into my ears the increasing concern that exclusivism has brought to the entire debate on interreligious dialogue and the need for alternative hermeneutics as justification for completing the investigation. Similar thanks go to Dr. Gerald Boodoo and Dr. Anna Florke Schied, who serve as members of my dissertation committee. They painfully read through all the lines and made many useful suggestions; my gratitude is unlimited. To them and the entire faculty in the Department of Theology, I remain eternally grateful indeed. I should also like to thank all of the students and my colleagues whose encouragement and support I consider invaluable. I extend special gratitude to Dr. SimonMary Aihiokhai; Dr. Carlos Brossard; Rev. Dr. John Odeyemi; Fr. Emmanuel Ahua, CSSp; Fr. Carmen D’Amico; Rev. Sr. Dr. Felicia Agibi, HHCJ; and Sr. Helen Ojuh, DC, all of whom provided the logistical support needed for the duration of this research. Special regards also to Dr. Charity Lami Adama and Ilesanmi Ajibola for proofreading the manuscript. Finally, I should thank the Holy Ghost Fathers and Brothers (Spiritans) worldwide for providing me with the initial formation that led to production of this research. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………………...iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………………….…...vii TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………...…………………….…...viii CHAPTER ONE: HISTORICAL CONTEXT, RESEARCH QUESTION AND METHODOLOGY OF STUDY………………………………………………………………...1 1.1: Introduction…………………………………………………………………………...1 1.2: Northern Nigeria Background of Religion and Conflicts…………………………….8 1.3: Research Questions………………………………………………………………….44 1.4: Definition of Terms…………………………………………………………………47 1.5: Thesis………………………………………………………………………………..52 1.6: Theological Methods………………………………………………………………..56 1.6.1: Dialogue, Contextual and Incarnational Method………………………….58 1.6.2: The Librational and Hermeneutical Method………………………………66 CHAPTER TWO: HERMENUETICS OF EXCLUSION: JOS AS CHRISTIAN CITY AND MUSLIM RESPONSE…………………………………………………………………...70 2.1: Introduction………………………………………………………………………….70 2.2: Pre-colonial and post-colonial Critical Review of Violence in Jos…………………78 2.2.1: The Jos Crisis of 1932…………………………………………………….82 2.2.2. The October 1945 Jos Crisis………………………………………………84 2.2.3: The Jos Crisis 1994……………………………………………………….86 2.2.4: The Jos Crisis 2001………………………………………………………..87 2.2.5: The Jos Land Controversy: Indigenous verse Settlers..…………………...88 2.3: Christian Supersessionism and Jos—Jesus Our Savior—Narrative………………...99 2.4: Protestant and Evangelical Hermeneutics. ………………………………………...103 2.5: Nostra Aetate and Christological Triumphalism…………………………………..113 2.6: Review of Dialogue by Christian Association of Nigeria…………………………119 2.7: Review of Islamic Response to Dialogue in Nigeria……...……………………….129 2.7.1: Islamic Fundamentalism: The birth of the Izala sect…………………….133 CHAPTER III: PLURALISM, INCLUSIVISM AND DIFFERENCE: TRADITIONAL CHRISTOLOGY AND PANIKKAR’S CHRISTOPHANY………………………………..135 3.1: Introduction………………………………………………………………………...135 3.2: The Challenge to Traditional Christology…………………………………………144 3.3: The Task of Christophany………………………………………………………….156 3.4: Panikkar’s Religious Pluralism………………………………………………….....167 3.4.1: Panikkar and Kant………………………………………………………..175 3.4.2: Panikkar and John Hick………………………………………………….180 3.4.3: Panikkar, Paul Knitter, and S. Mark Heim………………………………186 3:5: Panikkar, Peter Phan, and Jacques Dupuis: Logos Theology……………………...199 viii CHAPTER FOUR: RAIMON PANIKKAR THEOLOGY OF DIALOGICAL DIALOGUE……………………………………………………………………………………208 4.1: Introduction………………………………………………………………………...208 4.2: Panikkar’s Relational Trilogy……………………………………………………...211 4.2.1: Trinitarian discourse: Father—apophatism, Son—theism, Spirit— monism………………………………………………………………………….216 4.2.2: Spiritualities: Iconolatry, Personalism, Mysticism...…………………….230 4.2.3: Cosmotheandrism: Cosmos, God and Humans..………………………...238 4.3: Panikkar’s Christophany and Interreligious dialogue……………………………...243 4.4: Panikkar and the problem of the ‘one’ and ‘many.’……………………………….246 4.5: Panikkar’s Religious
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