Religion and Everyday Life in Nigeria

Résumé

How might we understand religion, particularly Christianity, in a country that exudes real paradoxes in politics, culture and development? Religion is an ambivalent phenomenon. It can either be used to wage war or peace; engender love or hatred, build a society or destroy it, fight against corruption or enable it, and so forth. In Nigeria, religion has become a powerful and obsessive instrument to mediate or construct anything. Religion is used to create, secure, maintain, defend one's space and attack another's. This volume, in honour of an erudite New Testament scholar, Professor Olu E. Alana, is an assemblage of essays that critically examine how religion has been utilised to nuance philosophical, political, indigenous, social, theological, sexual, health and educational issues that border on Nigeria's development.