New Testament Contextualization and Inculturation in Nigeria

Abstract

The New Testament was written to the audience of the Graeco-Roman world of which the authorial intentions were crystal clear to the then audiences. There is the temptation of eisegesis in the application of the text to the Nigerian context which of course differs in many ways to those of early societies. Consequently, there is the need for the New Testament to be ‘more at home’ within the Nigerian cultural milieu and worldview for it to be relevant to the Nigerian culture. The New Testament was written within a specific context and it needs to be decontextualized from the Graeco-Roman culture and re-contextualized to suit the Nigerian Context and culture for proper contextualization and enculturation to occur. Inculturation is a term that is also applied to denote a progression of engagement between the Christian Gospel and specific cultures. The term is proposed conceptually both to defend the integrity of the Gospel and to encourage understanding to numerous cultural contexts. The method adopted in this study is a theologico - analytico method which emanates from the application of the methods and concepts of late-twentieth-century analytic philosophy (Wood, 2021). African inculturation theology is in essence a contextual theology that pursues an agenda to make the Holy Gospel far more meaningful within diverse cultural milieus. In this article the milieu is Nigeria. This type of theology has an important religious aim, which is essentially to make the Gospel all culturally embracing to non-Europeans. Without a contextual theology serving any missionizing activity it is difficult to make the gospel message totally understandable in any particular context. It makes it harder to motivate people to deeper faith and to equip ministers more faithfully and effectively to preach the gospel.