Prospects and Challenges of Teaching Religious Ethics in Nigerian Universities

Abstract

Human societies are quickly drifting into serious moral decadence as various ills are plaguing the world. This situation makes the teaching of religious ethics, the academic discipline that studies the morality of human act based on the tenets of various religions, a necessity. In some parts of the world, the teaching of religious ethics is booming. Unfortunately, the opposite is the case in Nigeria. Teachers of religious ethics are few in the country. This chapter investigates the reason behind this unpopularity of religious ethics as an academic discipline in Nigerian universities. The chapter exposes in great measure challenges facing teachers of religious ethics in Nigerian universities. To do this, the author employs the phenomenological approach of religious studies. The author also draws insights from religious ethics and cultural hermeneutics. The author recommends that the teaching of religious ethics in Nigerian universities should be encouraged through provision of scholarships and research grants.