EMBATTLED GODS: THE CHRISTIANIZATION OF IGBOLAND, 1841-1991
By: KALU, OGBU U.
ISBN: 9781592211159
$29.95
The Embattled Gods: The Christianization of Igboland 1841-1991 has three concerns: the first is to serve as a handbook on how to do church history in an African context. The story of the presence of the gospel in many African communities must be told in such a manner that it is the people's history on how, when and where the rain of the gospel met them and how they responded. It starts from their cultural backgrounds and contours through the patterns of the insertion of the gospel to the challenges of the new change agent to the ingredients of Igbo worldview, culture and religious traditions. The book starts with a discussion of church historiography. Researchers will find the discussion on history, ideology and methodology useful. There is rejection of Euro-centric historiography and yet a critique of nationalist historiography. The author advocates in irenic, ecumenical history that searches the memory of the people and empowers their future. The past has uses for the present. From here the book reconstructs a profile of the Igbo and their gods. The relationship is a strong one and the indigenous symbols are not museum pieces. The rights of passage, the agricultural cycle and festivals embody an alive universe.