Proliferation of Churches

In the village of Umuofia, the Igbo people worship a religion of many deities. Their polytheistic religion consists of gods related to nature such as rain, sun, etc. The most important deity is the goddess of the Earth; Igbo people frain from committing sins against the goddess of the Earth in fear of complete genocide. The European missionaries introduce Umuofia to a monotheistic religion, Christianity. The Igbo people fear what they can’t understand, such as medicine. Igbo people feared the “white man”, however, missionaries successfully convert some Igbo people into Christian, causing them to be shamed by the hierarchy of men in the village. The conversion caused changes in Igbo culture and influenced the Igbo people to behave in a way that was unheard of before the European missionaries arrived. Enoch, a recently converted Christian, committed one of the worst crimes in

A major aspect of one’s society is religion. Without it, the way people hold themselves accountable would be nonexistent. In addition, many moral standards that exist today are values taken directly from religions such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Currently, there exists a feud between people who believe in a god, and of those who do not. Eventually those who believe in a higher power will fight against each other. In “Things Fall Apart”, Chinua Achebe brings to light the differences and similarities of Christianity and Animism in order to demonstrate the effects of religion upon one’s society, which is exemplified by Okonkwo and his people. This is noticed in the lives of the Ibo, the missionaries, and

In Worldviews: Crosscultural Explorations of Human Beliefs, Ninian Smart attempts to explore that ‘make up’ of a religion, through classifying the different components as dimensions. The social dimension, as he referred to it, could possible be playing the most crucial role to the components of a religion. This is evident through his question of: ‘To what extent is religion a reflection of what goes on in the structure of society, and to what extent does it bring these structures about? Or to put it more directly: What effects does religion have? Or is it itself just an effect?’ Smart attempts to look into the social dimension very thoroughly through his discussion of an array of topics: the factors to consider when studying this dimension, the cycles of religions and the roles played, the values of society on religion and vise versa, which could be impacted by the structure of society, and also, how crucial a role time plays towards religion and society, not only through his comparison of past and present, but more interestingly, his exploration of this dimension’s role in the modern day and how it has been affected by globalization.

As a result of this coming together, the Nigerians saw that they had more in common with each other than they had previously thought. This sparked unprecedented levels of interethnic teamwork. Nigerian political movements, media outlets, and trade unions whose purpose was the advancement of all Nigerians, not specific ethnic groups, became commonplace. the nationalistic movement grew out of some of the modernization the British had instituted in Nigeria. The educated elite became some of the most outspoken proponents of an independent Nigeria. This elite had grown weary of the harsh racism it faced in business and administrative jobs within the government. Both the elite and the uneducated also began to grow fearful of the increasing loss of traditional culture. They began movements to promote Nigerian foods, names, dress, languages, and religions. Increased urbanization and higher education brought large multiethnic groups together for the first time. As a result of this coming together, the Nigerians saw that they had more in common with each other than they had previously thought. This sparked unprecedented levels of interethnic teamwork. Nigerian political movements, media outlets, and trade unions whose purpose was the advancement of all Nigerians, not specific ethnic groups, became commonplace. As calls for self-determinationand a transfer of power into the hands of Nigerians grew, Britain began to divest more power into the regional governments. As a result of early colonial policies of divide and conquer, the regional governments tended to be drawn along ethnic lines. With this move to greater regional autonomy, the idea of a unified Nigeria became to crumble. Regionally and ethnically based political parties sprang up as ethnic groups began to wrangle for political influence. That is some of the religion That how something what okonkwo

Before plodding full steam ahead, it would behoove us to pin down some important definitions and qualifiers. First- the term "emerging church." In 2006, at a lecture at Westminster Seminary, Scot McKnight proffered that, "there is no emerging 'church'...it is a movement, or a conversation." This statement, now nearly a decade old was made in an attempt to clarify to his audience that "emerging/emergent" ≠ "denomination". This clarified distinction still stands; however as time has gone by, the aforementioned conversation- as well as the term "emergent" itself- have experienced some emergence. Indeed, there are now some churches that would willingly self-identify (or allow others to take the liberty of identifying them) in such a manner. More often than not, however, they would also (and preferably, I might add) identify themselves as "missional". (More on that in a bit).

Sociology of religion is the study of the views, practices and structural forms of religion using the tools and methods of the discipline of sociology. Religion and power are both inseparable, as defining religion is an act of power. Academics, political figures, lawyers and religious leaders all have their followers, who all have interests of how religion is defined. This essay will follow up on sociological religion from the views of Emile Durkheim, Karl Marx, and Ulrich Beck last but not the least Edward Burnett Tylor. These sociologists searched for comparable views and practices in all groups of cultures, especially those from basic backgrounds, irrespective to the moment and where it was based. They mainly depend on finding that were made by preachers, inventers, and also majestic servants. These were all individuals who had a religious background themselves, this is because they could look at religion from the inside.

Nigeria has been having a lot of problems lately, but the most important problem Nigeria is facing is genocide; committed by Boko Haram. Stated by World History of Gale, “Boko Haram is a militant Islamic extremist group that has been terrorizing the civilian population of Nigeria since 2009. The group’s official name in Arabic is Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati Wal-Jihad (Which means People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet’s Teachings and Jihad). In 2009, the Boko Haram began a series of attacks in Nigeria that included taking hostages and bombing the government facilities, security installations, banks, schools, and other public places. In 2011, they bombed the United Nations Headquarters in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. The terrorist group raided villages, torched houses, and staged mass abductions, which became increasingly frequent in the bloody, violent conflict” (“Boko Haram Hostage Crisis in Nigeria”). Genocide has been a problem in a lot of places in the world and not just Nigeria; In World War II there was an event of genocide called the Holocaust. Through the Holocaust, many innocent Jews are being killed by the Nazis who believed they should exterminate Jews because they were the cause of the Germans losing World War I. The Jews were taken of their belongings and left to starve till death or die of sickness. These events remind people of the damage genocide has done to humanity over the years. Genocide in Nigeria is the result of the terrorist group

Religion is one of the most sensitive issues and almost all people participate in some kind of religious practice. Even though every religion encourages the idea of peace, tolerance, and acceptance almost no person stays peaceful or tolerates anyone or anything when it comes to religious differences. History is full of religious wars and some of them have continued for years and were the cause of many of men, women, and children’s deaths. The issue of religious freedom and expression across the world has been apparent since the beginning of time and it seems as though these expressions have separated many groups of people throughout history. Issues of religious confliction and persecution has also been a major problem throughout the history of mankind. From Wars to genocide and slavery, religion has been on the forefront of some of mankind’s most disturbing moments and is commonly used as a justification of such acts. These events have effected not only America but every country in the world and every demographic across the globe. Throughout this paper many of these events will be discussed in an attempt to open our eyes to how much religion really does separate us as a people.

Even in its earliest stages, religion has been a major key in conflict. It has driven individuals, groups, and even entire nations apart. Many of the reasons for the disagreements, however, can differ greatly from one another. They can come from people of the same religion but with different views, it can be from a long history of hatred between two religions, it can originate through two countries that hate each other and then turns into a religion battle, and many other possibilities. Most of the results, though, are the same. Religion can strike fear in some, it can lead to distrust and miscommunication, and it can lead to assaults and killings of certain people.

Christian persecution by Muslim extremists in (mainly) northern Nigeria is and has been a serious problem for several years. The main contributors to this issue are the Islamic extremist and Muslim purist organization, Boko Haram. According to Religion Today, over 3000 people have been killed since Boko Haram began it’s insurgency. Murders and jihads are a regular occurrence in Nigeria, with new reports seemingly coming out every day of another terrorist attack or mass shooting. With government being unsupportive of Christians and the constant persecution by extremists, the outlook has seemed bleak for a very long time, but quite recently the announcement of NASOC (Nigerian Army Special Operations Command) things could be starting to look up for the persecuted.

Religion is the centrifugal configuration of Nigerian cultures. Religion is the matrix of Nigerian culture, which cut across institutions, systems and people. If one should better understand the issue involved in religion and culture in general, it will go along way to stem the tide of ignorance, conflict, homelessness, fanaticism, disequilibrium and lack of sustainable development. Crisis in Nigeria has taken hundreds of lives of different people in different era. The pain, anguish, fear, psychological trauma, and economic instability it has caused the families, communities, states and the nation is innumerable. Some of those who survived those violent periods spend the rest of their life in perpetual suffering due to the aftermath of such violent act. The story is not far fetched, the April, 2011 election has the story to tell. Some States experience serious violent act in the course of the election. But the most pertinent one is that of Northern States, whereby human and material resources were destroyed. Some of the future hopes (corps) of this nation were terminated. Although, the families of the victims were compensated, nevertheless, the hopes, aspirations and talents of those corps have been lost forever.

Islam, Christianity, and indigenous religions are central to how Nigerians identify themselves because in the Yoruba , it was propagated by the Church of England, while in the Igbo the Roman Catholic Church dominate , and In the late 19th century Christianity became established. The religions that are in

The method by which Britain colonized Nigeria set the stage for many problems in the future as it was founded on the ability to exploit Nigeria’s markets. Nigeria was not colonized all at once. It was a slow process that began with some contact between Europeans and Nigerians. “Their primary contact with Europeans was with traders, who wanted to monopolize their markets, and with missionaries, who wanted to convert them to Christianity… British expansion in Nigeria was largely the result of the actions of these traders and missionaries. After 1885, however, the British government moved swiftly to annex all the territory that comprises modern-day Nigeria” (Hunt, 1). The process in which Britain was able to colonize Nigeria through mainly traders, caused many problems. It resulted in a divide

Salawu [2010: 46] defines ethno-religious conflict as a situation whereby, the relationship among members of one ethnic or religious group and others of such groups in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society are categorized by lack of affability, mutual suspicion, more like the state of nature as Hobbes would regard such a setting, full of fear and aversion and a propensity towards violent confrontation. Ethnicity and religious intolerance have become the point of multiple forms of self-rule ranging from the proclamation of the language barrier, cultural independence and religious dominance. These have been seen to lead to a contextual discrimination of conflict between, one ethnic or religious group against another on differentials on the biases of systems of socio-cultural symbols and religion. In a state like Nigeria where there are multiple ethnic and religious groups with some relative discrimination, how relationships are characterized is by lack of affability and fear. Ethno-religious conflicts in Nigeria date back as far as the 1980s

Because of the nation being so varied, the government is very unbiased towards religion and states that one is a Nigerian citizen before one is a Christian or a Muslim. However, not all agree this should be true (Phillips 59). Even though the nation’s government is secular, twelve northern Nigerian states, which is one-third of the country, have adopted Sharia law in addition to Nigerian law as a second set of regulations (Davis). Sharia law is an Islamic law based on the Koran, Muslims’ sacred book, with extremely strict and horrid punishments, and many Muslims believe this constitution should be just as important as Nigerian law. These opinions have caused many extremists to feel negative towards the Nigerian government (Phillips 59). Because of this aggression, religious violence has been going on since the 1960’s (Bumgardener).