Duquesne University Duquesne Scholarship Collection Electronic Theses and Dissertations Spring 2012 The pirS it as the Lord and the Giver of Life: Recovering Relational Pneumatology and Its Significance for Being Church in Postcolonial Nigeria Okechukwu Njoku Follow this and additional works at: https://dsc.duq.edu/etd Recommended Citation Njoku, O. (2012). The pS irit as the Lord and the Giver of Life: Recovering Relational Pneumatology and Its Significance for Being Church in Postcolonial Nigeria (Doctoral dissertation, Duquesne University). Retrieved from https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/982 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]. THE SPIRIT AS THE LORD AND THE GIVER OF LIFE: RECOVERING RELATIONAL PNEUMATOLOGY AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE FOR BEING CHURCH IN POSTCOLONIAL NIGERIA A Dissertation Submitted to the McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Art Duquesne University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Okechukwu Camillus Njoku May 2012 Copyright by Okechukwu Camillus Njoku 2012 THE SPIRIT AS THE LORD AND THE GIVER OF LIFE: RECOVERING RELATIONAL PNEUMATOLOGY AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE FOR BEING CHURCH IN POSTCOLONIAL NIGERIA By Okechukwu Camillus Njoku Approved March 30, 2012 ________________________________ ________________________________ Gerald M. Boodoo, Ph.D. Elochukwu E. Uzukwu, Th.D. Acting Director, Center for African Rev. Pierre Schouver, C.S.Sp., Endowed Studies Chair in Mission Associate Professor of Theology Associate Professor of Theology (Dissertation Director) (Committee Member) ________________________________ ________________________________ Radu Bordeianu, Ph.D. George S. Worgul, Jr, S.T.D., Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Theology Chair, Theology Department (Committee Member) Professor of Theology ________________________________ James Swindal, Ph.D. Acting Dean, McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Art iii ABSTRACT THE SPIRIT AS THE LORD AND THE GIVER OF LIFE: RECOVERING RELATIONAL PNEUMATOLOGYAND ITS SIGNIFICANCE FOR BEING CHURCH IN POSTCOLONIAL NIGERIA By Okechukwu Camillus Njoku May 2012 Dissertation supervised by Professor Gerald M. Boodoo This dissertation seeks to recover the relational quality of the Holy Spirit who is the Lord and the Giver of life as enshrined in the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed (381). Neo-Scholastic theology had utilized the conceptual categories of Aristotelian metaphysics with its orientation to foundationalism and immobility in a manner destructive of difference, plurality, and the relational language of the Spirit as witnessed in the Bible. One of the upshots became the totalizing bent of Western epistemology which eventually found concretion in colonialism and the slavery of Africans among others. This dissertation utilizes the category of “relationality,” a core tenet of West African Weltanschauungen, as an organizing and interpretive device for reinterpreting the creedal affirmation in a way that allows for new understandings of the Spirit. In our iv world in which there is an increasing awareness of the simultaneity of the dialectic of differences and interconnectedness due to the process of globalization, we are compelled to seek ways of living together without subordinating difference to the regime of sameness. The thesis is that relational pneumatology provides template for negotiating an other discourse on the Triune God which recognizes and respects equality-in-difference. To develop this thesis, I utilize an anthropological, interdisciplinary, critical, and descriptive approach. I argue that relational pneumatology invites that subalternized epistemic potentials be foregrounded and legitimized in a manner that fosters “solidarity of others.” I also draw the implications of this perspective for the Nigerian church with regard to ecclesial structures and authority, interreligious dialogue, and the question of holistic liberation that fosters justice and peace. v DEDICATION To my beloved parents Mr. Daniel N. Njoku and Mrs. Felicia D. Njoku vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENT In this dissertation, I utilize the concept of relationality—a core tenet of the Etche and most West African world-views—as its organizing interpretive framework, and which finds concrete expression in hospitality and friendship. God’s hospitality engenders friendship with God which cannot be separated from friendship with one’s fellow human beings amidst differences and ambiguities in our interdependent world. Since the concretion of relationality issues in hospitality and friendship, I have actually experienced the kind gestures and enjoyed the friendship of many people whose various contributions have made the accomplishment of this work a reality. First of all, I would like to express my profound gratitude to Most Rev. Alexius O. Makozi, my bishop emeritus, for giving me the opportunity to engage in advanced studies in DuquesneUniversity. I remain grateful as well to my present bishop, Most Rev. Camillus A. Etokudoh for his unflinching support. I am particularly indebted to Professor Gerald M. Boodoo, my dissertation director, for his indefatigable commitment to this work. His immense availability, generous understanding, friendship, and scholarly assistance in providing valuable suggestions, and in critically directing and correcting this dissertation ensured its shepherding to a successful and timely completion. I am deeply thankful to Professor Elochukwu E. Uzukwu, C.S.Sp, one of my committee members, whose indefatigable endeavor toward developing authentic African theology remains an abiding inspiration for me. Indeed, his numerous writings utilizing “relationality” immensely influenced my own thinking. I thank Professor Radu Bordeianu, my second committee member, and for vii his assistance in providing me with valuable sources and materials on pneumatology. I am immensely grateful to Professor George S. Worgul, Jr., Chair of Theology Department, for not only placing me on an advanced program but also for offering me tuition scholarship to enable me complete my studies. I am grateful to all the professors in the Theology Department whose exposures through seminars and directions helped to sharpen my critical thinking. My special gratitude goes to Mrs. Marlene Joseph, “mother,” for her unquantifiable support during these years of intensive academic work. She has typified for me what friendship and hospitality are about in a very profound manner by providing me a home away from home. With heartfelt appreciation, I would like to acknowledge the generous assistance of the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh for the hospitality offered me while my studies lasted. Particularly, I would like to thank Rev. David H. Taylor, my Pastor, and the good parishioners of St. Charles Lwanga Parish for their love and support. My special thanks go to Msgr. Cyprian E. Onwuli for his generosity and unflinching support all along. I am very thankful to Dr. Caroline N. Mbonu, HHCJ, for her solicitude and for helping me with the translation of certain Etche concepts and idioms. My deep appreciation goes to Rev. Dr. Alexander C. Okoro for his immense fraternal support. I am equally grateful to all my brother priests in Port Harcourt for all their love and prayerful good wishes and encouragement. To many other friends whose names I am unable to mention, but who, in one way or another were helpful to me in the process of completing this program, I am sincerely thankful. viii Finally, my unalloyed appreciation goes to my parents, sisters, brothers, and relatives for all their love, prayers, comradeship, and encouragement. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………...iv Dedication………………………………………………………………………………...vi Acknowledgement…………………………………………………………….................vii List of Abbreviations……………………………………………………………………xiii Introduction……………………………………………………………………….........xv 0.1 The State of the Question………………………………………………………xv 0.2 Scope and Methodology……………………………………………………….xix 0.3 Value of the Study……………………………………………………………..xxi 0.4 Structure of the Dissertation…………………………………………………...xxi 1 The Crisis of Pneumatology in Western Systematic Theology……………………...1 1.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………...1 1.2 The Inadequate Attention to Pneumatology……………………………………..2 1.2.1 The Medieval Synthesis and Neo-Scholastic Substance-Theistic Theology......4 1.2.2 The Subordination of the Spirit……………………………………………….13 1.3 Dialectical Philosophy, Europeandom, and the Modern/Colonial World System…………………………………………………………………………..20 1.3.1 René Descartes………………………………………………………………..21 1.3.2 David Hume…………………………………………………………………..26 1.3.3 Immanuel Kant……………………………………………………………….28 1.3.4 Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel……………………………………………...33 1.3.5 Auguste Comte……………………………………………………………….38 1.3.6 Herbert Spencer………………………………………………………………39 1.3.7 Placide Tempels………………………………………………………………42 1.4 Appraisal of Modernity and Its Promised Utopia………………………………45 1.5 A New Turn to Pneumatology………………………………………………….50 1.5.1 The Person and Proprium of the Spirit……………………………………….52 1.5.2 Biblical Testimony to the Personhood of the Spirit…………………………..57 1.5.3 The Spirit and Gender………………………………………………………...62 1.6 Terminological Clarifications…………………………………………………..67 1.6.1 Alterity/Other and Same/Self…………………………………………………67 1.6.2 Identity and Difference……………………………………………………….70