CHAPTER TWO
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS AND METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATION
a patient listener. Such listening takes ample time. Describing this process as African
“Palaver”11 Uzukwu (1996:128) notes it as the liberation of speech at all levels of community in order to come close to that Word which is too large for an individual mouth, the Word which saves and heals. The ample time devoted on communication is not so well received in the western (European) tradition. This brought conflict in the nature and manner by which missionary work was brought to the Igbo and elsewhere in Africa.
Overall, the sharing of the Word among the Igbo people Uzukwu (1996:128) differs on levels and patterns of listening and communicating depending on whether the system of social organization prefers authority in many hands (as with the Igbo Ohacracy of decentralized governance) or centralized in one hand authority (as in the Roman Catholic Church). The centralized Catholic system of governance did not find it peaceful among the Igbo since the Ohacracy tradition is in conflict with power concentrated on one or few individuals over the entire community. In this case therefore, the listening concept of the “large ear” theory enables me in this study to explore the dialogue, consultative, collaborative and inclusive nature of the Igbo Ohacracy tradition as identified in the decentralized system of social order.
This, of course, allows me to interrogate and explore new and alternative ways for governance to the Roman Catholic Church’s conflicting centralized model of governance in the Igbo society.
The heavily centralised system referred to as the “short ears” attitude which still persist today in contrast with the “large ears” was not readily embraced by the early missionaries among the Igbo communities where they were compared with dictators, charlatans and fanatics to the traditions. In today’s Roman Catholic Church in some indigenous communities (among the Igbo and elsewhere), the bishop or priest is addressed as local chiefs given the “large ears”
paradigm as proposed by Uzukwu (1996). Though this image is being alluded to, the reality on the ground remains a highly centralized governed church; which does not “talk or listen”
much of what the community says or discusses. This kind of “imposed” governance did and does not find favour among the Igbo people who are free thinking and communicating people to find a humane just and equitable community. It is however based on such challenges faced
11 African “palaver” refers to the ample time given for all necessary discussions and agreement to be reached without any party involved feeling cheated or side-lined. It must not be mistaken with incessant, time- consuming, endless, aimless, useless discussions. It is rather the ever-living process by which Igbo traditions have provided to take all on board at all levels of social engagement for good and fair governance. This process is evident in the decentralised system of Igbo governance where the Oha rules.
by the Igbo Catholic Church of today that the “large ears” sociological theory12 falls under the functionalist perspective (Crossman 2018). Hence, Uzukwu (1996:130) concludes that we must take care to underline that the image of the chief or community leader which will influence a truly Christian and truly African ministry in our Church is not the bastardization of the image of the chief by African tyrants, nor the imported Roman and medieval autocracy which dominates the present ministerial or governance practice of the Roman Catholic Church.
The second theory applied in this study is ‘inculturation’ as a missiological approach to contextualization of the gospel which illustrates that the result from the impact of the Christian faith in a particular culture should reflect in the context. Inculturation as a theory therefore aims to appropriate meaning and value in a given cultural context or situation within the Roman Catholic Church governance. While etymologically defining inculturation, Waliggo shows inculturartion to mean:
… the insertion of new values into one’s heritage and world-view. This process applies to all human dimensions of life and development.
…inculturation signifies the movement which takes local cultures and their values as the basic instrument and a powerful means for presenting, reformulating and living Christianity. Within this process effective dialogue between Christianity and local cultures is carried out. …therefore, becomes the honest attempt to make Christ and his liberative message better understood by people of every culture … (1991:506-507).
The significance of employing this theoretical framework according to Kiarie (2014:48) who cites Minichiello and Kottler is that “each theories attempts to understand how people perceive and make sense of the world as well as what motivates them to act the way they do.”
Hence, the inculturation theory as applied in this study acts as a conceptual frame to analyse and interprete the understanding of the Catholic Church’s governance in the Igbo Ohacracy social order. Indeed, the contextualisation, indigenization, Africanisation or the movement towards cultural independence among indigenous cultures while embracing Christianity becomes real in inculturation theology. Context in this regard becomes very vital since it serves as a practical means of “communicating the message of the Gospel” (Kaufmann 2001:9).
12 This represents the functionalist perspective, also called functionalism, and is one of the major theoretical perspectives in sociology. It has its origins in the works of Emile Durkheim, who was especially interested in how social order is possible and how society remains relatively stable.
Meanwhile, in its historical inception, scholars are not certain who first used the term
‘inculturation’ as noted in the theological circles (Ukpong 2013:531). Even so, Ukpong was certain that the term “inculturation” however, was first used in the Roman Catholic arena (2013:532). In its application, Ukpong (2013) concludes that it expresses the process of rooting the church in a particular culture. It was in the first plenary Assembly of the Federation of Asian Catholic Bishops’ conference in 1974, that the first use of the expression:
“a church indigenous and inculturated” finally appeared. In their 32nd General Congregation of the Jesuits at the 4th General Synod of the Catholic Bishops in Rome in 1977, the term
‘inculturation’ was used to replace the use of the term “adaptation” (Ukpong 2013:532). John Paul II however became the first to utilize the term ‘inculturation’ in official Roman Catholic Church document in his Apostolic Exhortation on Catechesis in October 1979 (Shorter 1988:10).