DECOLONIZATION OF BIBLICAL
INTERPRETATION IN AFRICA
GENERAL EDITOR
REV. PROF.S.O. ABOGUNRIN
EDITORS:
J.O. Akao
D.O. Akintunde
G.N. Toryough
P.A. Oguntoye
M.I. Oguntoyinbo-Atere
Biblical Studies Series
NNumber 4
A Publication of the Nigerian Association for
Biblical Studies (NABIS)
CHAPTER 26
DIVINE REVELATION IN CHRISTIANITY AND IN AFRICAN
RELIGION: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
Dr. Pius Oyeniran Abioje
Most Christians believe that Jesus Christ was God in human flesh
(incarnation), and so He represented t h e fullness of God's revelation.
Christians of that school of faith, who appeal io be in the majority,
find support especially in the Gospel according to John, where it is
written that: "No one has one up to heaven, except the one who came
down from heaven, the son of Man who is in heaven" (In. 3:13): and: "To
have seen me is to have seen th e Father' (In.14:9). Consequently,
many Christians see themselves as a privileged group who are superior
to non Christian, w i t h particular reference to adherents of African
Religion.
This study on the concept of divine revelation in (Christianity and in
African Religion aims at establishing why Christians should not allow
themselves to be consumed by superiority complex, but clothe
themselves in humility, which can allow for mutual respect and
integration in a religiously pluralism-, and culturally diverse society,
such as Nigeria. John the Baptist is quoted as warning the Jews not to
pride themselves in being Abraham's children, bin in being faithful to
God as Abraham was, and in producing fruits of good deeds (Luke 3:8-9). In
a similar vein, John F. Haught notes that "a strong temptation to
triumphalism can indeed accompany a naive doctrine of special
revelation.1 One can add that triumphalism very often begets arrogance.
This article advocates a recognition of the fact that God is the Creator
and Sustainer of every people lie has made. The argument is that God
would appear irresponsible if He does not reveal Himself and His will to
whoever is made by Him. As a corollary, human beings can be
responsible for their deeds only to the extent to which they know the
will of God. It is rightly said that there can be no sin, where there is no
law. The question then arises: Can there be a special revelation which is
indispensable for human salvation, but which is unknown to the
majority of human beings? This is the question to which one must
return throughout this study. The paper has three sub-headings, namely:
Divine Revelation in Christianity; Divine Revelation in African
Religion; and Revelation vis-a-vis God's Impartiality.
Divine Revelation in Christianity
Etymologically, the word "revelation" translates the Latin revelatio,
and the Greek, apocalypsis. In history of religions, two forms of divine
revelation are recognised, namely, natural or general revelation, and
special or historical revelation. The former is said to be accessible to
human beings through the natural order, which includes creation,
human experience, and the inner voice of conscience. Avery Dulles
notes that it is on the basis of natural revelation that Saint Paul could
assert, as he has done, that "the Law of God is inscribed upon the
human heart, so that those who have not got the code of the Law from
God can accomplish by nature what the Law requires (Rm.2:4)2. Thus, it
is generally believed that God's revelation is open to all human
beings.
On the other hand, special or historical revelation refers to God's
self-disclosure to individuals or groups through events within history.
With particular reference to the Judaeo-Christian tradition, Michael J.
Scanlon observes that special revelation means: "God's self-disclosure in
the history of Israel and in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of
Nazareth". As Scanlon further notes, "the normative testimony to this
divine revelation is the Bible.3 One would like to add that, with specific
regard to Christianity, special revelation should be thought of as
including not just the life of Jesus Christ, but also God's deeds in the
Acts of the Apostles, all the rest of the New Testament experiences, and
the history of the Church down the ages. It is obvious that in the
history of the Church, there have been positive contributions to the
understanding of the salvific knowledge of God, as encapsulated in
such doctrines as the incarnation, the trinity and the redemptive work
of Jesus Christ. In the words of Dulles:
A comprehensive doctrine of revelation cannot limit itself to
God's self-disclosure in biblical limes; it must deal with God's
active presence to the Church and the world today, without
which the good news of the gospel, which is admittedly
normative, might e a s i l y be dismissed as a piece of
inconsequential historical inhumation '
In that wise, it is said that divine revelation could not have ended with
the death of the last Apostle, as t h e C a t h o l i c Church used to teach.
It seems unimaginable that God would, at any lime, cease revealing
Himself to those H e has created in His own image, and, probably more
so, to those He is said to have specially chosen for Himself through the
life, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Michael Scanlon explains
that revelation was conceived as the unveiling of certain truths to be
believed by faithful Christians in the Roman Catholic tradition. As he
further notes
This 'truths-belief paradigm led people to conceive of revelation as
'information from the Beyond’ to he accepted on the authority
of God revealing through t h e mediation of the ecclesiastical
magisterium This idea t h a t revelation, so understood; ended
with the last apostle and was stored in a 'deposit of faith'
rendered revelation something static, past, and closed.5
Apparently, religious persons would fossilize if God were to stop
illuminating them at any point in history. For instance, the Jews were
said to be miserable when God would not send them prophets, at a
point in biblical times. They, therefore, complained: "We see no signs, no
prophets any more, and none of us knows how long it will last" (Psalm
74:9).
The agents of divine revelation in the Old Testament were, basically,
the prophets. The Lord Jesus Himself was said to be a prophet. But, in the
New Testament, God is said to have guided His people through the
Apostles. Even Saint Paul, who was not a disciple of Jesus Christ in His
earthly ministry, called himself an apostle, rather than a prophet as such
(cfr., for instance, Rm. 1:1). The words "prophet" and "apostle" are,
however, not to be counterposed, since the apostles were known to
have performed prophetic roles.
Much more worthy of note is that many theologians nowadays do not
believe that there are impeccable agents of God, both in the Bible and
outside of it. In that respect, Herman H. Riffel notes, for instance, that
all who heard from God needed "correction, reproof, or
confirmation, just as we do."6 The fact that the Old Testament contains no
pretext that the prophets were more than human beings is testified to by
such stories as the inability of Samuel to recognize the voice of God(l
Sm. 3:1-14). In his epistle, Saint James notes that "Elijah was a human
being like ourselves" (Jas. 5:17). In the New Testament, Saint Peter was
rebuked several times by the Lord, Jesus (cfr., for instance, Luke 22:3134 & John 13:36 -38). Beyond that, he was said to have denied knowing
Jesus Christ three times, at the critical moments of the latter's travail. It
is interesting to note that the story is carried by all the Gospel accounts
(Mt. 26:69-70; Mark 14: 66 -68; Luke 22 : 57- 59; and John 18:17-18). On
one occasion, Peter was also seriously rebuked by Saint Paul (cfr. Gal.
2:14). It should not be forgotten that Saint Peter is only being used as a
case study to emphasise that biblical agents of God were human beings
in every sense of the word. Another typical example is Saint Paul who
spoke about the sinful nature of human beings as it applied to himself,
personally (cfr. Rms. 7:18- 20).
The hagiographers who were the authors of the books in the Bible
are said to be inspired by God who imbued them with inerrancy. In his
second letter to Timothy, Saint Paul maintains that: "All scripture is
inspired by God and can profitably be used for teaching, for refuting
error, for guiding people's lives and teaching them to be holy" (2Tim.
3:16). Many biblical scholars of today are of the opinion that while the
scripture contains the fundamental truth that can lead one to salvation,
some elements of imperfection cannot be ruled-out, based on human
limitation. As Richard T. A. Murphy explains, for instance, "the human
author is not shunted into the background", and so, the Scripture
constitutes "the product of God and of man".7 Understandably, since no
human being is believed to be perfect, and the hagiographers enjoyed their
autonomy in the choice of method and materials, the Scripture cannot
be said to be the perfect word of God, as if it was written personally by
God, without any contribution from any human being. A typical
example of the human clement is when Saint Paul forbids women to
speak in the assembly of God's people, and that they should not give any
teaching to their husbands (cfr. 1 Cor. 14:34-35, ITim. 2:12- 15). That
instruction from Saint Paul might have been culturally expedient and
wise in his own milieu, but that is not the case in most contemporary
situations, in which there are female ecclesiastical overseers or
bishops, and pastors of various categories, who lead liturgical services,
and render b r i l l i a n t homilies, offer exhortations, instructions and
injunctions. The difference in the perception of the place and role of
women not withstanding, one would venture to assert that when the
Pauline corpus is considered wholistically, Saint Paul remains, in his
epistles, the greatest Christian missionary of all times. On another note,
there has been a review of the traditional understanding that God's
most definitive final revelation has taken place in Jesus Christ, through the
incarnation. In the words of Michael Scanlon:
Thanks to the biblical scholarship of the twentieth century, we
now have significant knowledge about Jesus ol Nazareth. This
knowledge informs contemporary attempts to construct a
theocentric Christology wherein the fundamental issue is not the
divinity of Christ but the kind of God disclosed by Jesus in his
words, deeds, and destiny."
This new perspective of the reality of Jesus Christ makes a continual
search for God necessary in and outside of Jesus Christ, in and outside of
the Bible, to include human encounters, and every historical event that
is experienced by individuals, social groups, communities and
societies.
Divine Revelation in African Religion
The Bible is known to have derived from the religious, socio-political
and economic history of the Jews. While Africans are not known to
have such a record, there is every indication that God communicates
with them from time immemorial. Scholars, such as Emmanuel Bolaji
Idowu and S. 0. Oso note that:
The keynote of African life is African Religion. The Africans
believe that the world belongs to God and without him, there is
confusion and the world comes to nothing. Therefore in man's
earthly life, he is in the hand of the Deity, and to live a good
real life, the behests of the Deity must be fulfilled.9
That is what is at the heart of many African myths, which
correspond to similar ones that are found in the Bible, such as those on
creation generally, and on the fall of humanity. The word "myth"
translates the Greek muthos, which means a fable, otherwise called a
tale of fiction. In contemporary understanding of myths and legends,
however, they are taken as constituting a sacred tradition or primordial
revelation. In that sense, every myth or legend expectedly has some
sacred lesson to teach, beyond the material detail. Robert G. Tikpor
notes that: "If theology may be defined as a supernatural science which
treats of God and of creatures in their relationship to God, then the
myth is indeed a depositum of natural theology."'"
It has been observed by many biblical theologians that the first
chapters of the book of Genesis contain religious lores and legends that
are classified as myths. As Raymond E. Brown notes, the author(s; of
Genesis must have learnt the stories from popular "legendary
imaginings", and used them to convey the lesson that "God is sovereign of
all and creator of the universe".11 One can add that the first chapters of
Genesis are not the only portion of the Bible that contains mythical
stories. The Book of Job, for instance, has been used to answer several
t h e puzzles, but there are indications within the text that it is a
composed work. A critical study of the opening chapter is sufficient to
realize that the story is not historical but fictional. A commentator
notes that: "The Book of Job is the literary masterpiece of the wisdom
movement".12 In the African context, S.O. Oso notes that African myths
represent "the mental effort of African ancestors to interprete the
various cosmological and biological phenomena that they
experienced".'13
It is worthy of note that many of the African myths are already
found in books by scholars, such as Idowu,'4 Oso,15 and Awolalu/
Doparnu.'6 Basically, the myths portray God as the Supreme Being,
who is the Creator, the Alpha and the Omega of the universe and
human life in particular. Many Christians and Muslims may conceive
African Religion (acronymed Afrel hereafter) as idol worship or
submission to creatures, rather than to the Creator, but many adherents of
the religion maintain that all the divinities and spirits that are
worshipped are agents of God who should not be mistaken for devils.
Both Christians and Muslims also recognize some agents of God, such as
Jesus Christ for Christians. The Muslims are likewise known for
invoking the grace of the holy Qur'an and of Prophet Mohammad in
their prayers. In Yoruba cosmogony, for instance, the Archdivinity,
Orisa-nla, is regarded as God's minister for creation, assisted by
Orunmila, the witness of human destiny. Each of the divinities is said to
have his own portfolio in the theocratic governance of the world. None
of them is believed to have an independent existence, apart from their
derivation from, and relation to God, the King of heaven and earth.
Many scholars who have taken the pain to study Afrel critically have
concluded that there is no justifiable reason to suggest that it is a demonic
religion. If anything, n is said to be a religion that has a high premium for
moral probity. No wonder swearing to an oath is not considered to be as
easy as in Christianity and Islam. Many African Christians and Muslims
even opt for swearing and oath-taking in Afrel when they mean a real
business or when they desire a strict compliance to an agreement. It seems
Pope John 1'aul II knew what he was talking about when tie described
primal religions, such as Afrel, as "systems of worship and ethical
systems with a strong emphasis on good and evil".17 In Africa very often
oath-taking imports disaster for defaulters, as a practical solution and
deterrent to problems that are associated with deception, due to human
i n a b i l i t y to read other people's minds. Apparently, there is seldom
divine revelation at critical moments to know when a counterpart
would renege on an agreement.
Before the conclusion of this section, it should be noted that divine
revelation as a deposit in Afrel is not limited to mythical stories. Many
tales, such as that of the Book of Job, also exist all over Africa. In
Yorubaland, for instance, there is the story of a king whom God gave
the gift of understanding the language of animals. He was warned not to
try to avert any danger that might be foretold about him by any animal.
One day, the king heard some sheep lamenting that the king's horse
would die in eight days. He could not resist, the temptation to act on
the information, and so he sold the horse immediately. On the eighth
day, the latter died as foretold, and many of the king's subjects were
congratulating him for having sold the horse before it died.
On another occasion, the king heard some sheep discussing how
disheartening that the palace would get burnt in two weeks. He quickly
packed to another location. The palace got burnt as predicted, and the
king was again glamorously congratulated by his subjects.
On the final occasion, the king heard some sheep expressing sadness
that he was going to die in five days. As usual, he was beside himself,
and could not resist the temptation to act on what he heard the animals
saying. He asked the animals what he could do to ward-off death. The
animals answered that he had failed to do what he should have done to
avert his own death, They said he should have allowed the horse to die,
and the palace to get burnt, Explaining the point, the animals said a
person should get worried if she/he is congratulated every time,
without any occasional sympathy greeting. Indeed, among the
traditional Yoruba, if a person suffers any loss, such as death of an
animal, or a house is gutted by fire, the greeting is: "May God buy your
life with the loss," And so, the story concludes that since the king
missed the sympathy prayer that he would have received if he had
allowed himself to suffer the loss of his horse and house, there was no
option for him than to become the victim.
The big lessons of the story are that a person should not be
disobedient, and that human life is incomplete and unrealistic without
some losses. That seems to be the way God has designed human life,
experientially speaking.
It should be noted that apart from myths and tales, there is evidence of
divine inspiration, and an appreciable degree of inerrancy with regard
to African proverbs, maxims, renditions, and even incantations.
Some Yoruba examples are as follows:
1. Proverb, an example: Eni t'oyido b'ori t'o tafa s'oke, b'oba aye o
rii, t'orun n woo. Translation: He who covers himself with a mortar
and shoots up an arrow to kill a fellow human being, if he is invisible
to an earthly king, the One in heaven is looking at him.
2. Maxim, an example: Iwa Voba aivure, Translation: Good character
is superior to occultic charm /or good luck.
3. Rendition, an example: From Ogun worshippers:
Verse: T'aaba wo'lu 1'aa ba I'enikan,
Chorus: Iwa laa ni
Translation of verse and chorus: II a person finds himself in a
town where she has no relative or acquaintance, all that is
needed is good conduct.
4. Incantation
Paradoxical as n may seem, many All nun occultic charm
incantations also reflect a mark of divine revelation. Many
traditional informants held that occultic charms owe their
efficacy to God. When asked about occultic charms that are
used to achieve tyrannical ends, the informants insisted that such
charms also enjoy God's blessing, somehow. An informant put the
argument to rest when he asked: 'Who made snakes and
scorpions? He said it was the same God who made sorcerers and
witches. Thus, many traditional Africans find nothing wrong in
believing that occultic charms owe their existence and efficacy
to God. In then perception, life is not black or white, darkness
or light, good or bad, it is all of the above. Life, for traditional
Africans, and probably for humanity as a whole, remains a
mystery which only God can fully understand as its Architect.
Biblically speaking, Prophet Isaiah quoted God as saying:
I am Yahweh unrivalled,
I form the light and create the dark.
I make good fortune and create calamity.
It is I, Yahweh, who do all this (45:7).
Thus, as far as- the Prophet was concerned, God could not be
simplistic-ally alienated from the good and the evil found in the world.
With specific reference to incantation which means a set of efficacious
words, the Book of Genesis states, without mentioning incantation of
course, that God created the world through His words of command, for
instance: "Let there be light, and there was light" (1:3). The fact
remains that many African incantations contain some obvious
elements of divine revelation, for example, in Yoruba:
A kii fakaaba di Olorun. A kii ko
ibusun akan A kii ti igbin bo Ogun
A kiifi igun rubo K'enike ni ma lee
fi emi omo Abioje se nnkan kan.
Translation:
No one binds God with spell
Nobody packs a crab's bed.
Snail is not offered in sacrifice to Ogun.
Nobody offers a vulture in sacrifice.
May no one be able to victimize me,
Abiofe's son. (Ogun, is the tutelary divinity for makers
and users of iron and steel products).
This example indicates that irrespective of outsiders' opinion or
prejudice, many traditional Africans do not believe that God can be
compartmentalized, and excluded altogether from certain arts, such as
making and usage of occultic charms, as if he was not the source and
the omnipotent Lord of all. Occultic charm connotes power, and a
misuse of it represents abuse of power. Many Nigerians testified in a
series of interviews conducted for this paper that, more often than not,
vigilantees who relied on occultic charms saved them from armed
robbers much better than the police who supposedly relied on
sophisticated weapons.
Along with the various forms of deposit of revelation already
discussed, one should touch on the issue of prophecy in Afrel. If a
prophet signifies a person who gives a message of salvation in God's
name, then, it is difficult to imagine that traditional Africans would
have no prophets. One's observation is that such men and women
exist, particularly in African priests and priestesses, in diviners, and in
any other person(s) that God may choose to deliver his message and
champion His cause among the people. Bolaji Idowu already noted
that traditional Africans "believe priests and diviners to be the
interpreters of the will of the Deity".111 K. G. Parrinder also notes that
many African diviners are men and women with "wide experience,
keen perceptiveness, and deep i n t u i t i o n . . He notes further that:
There is undoubtedly some degree of telepathy and extrasensory perception at work at times The great popularity of the
diviner shows that the has a leading function to perform in society,
and this he does as mediator and guide in many quarrel, trouble and
sickness.1'1
All that Parrinder has mentioned implies a g i f t ( s ) of God. to certain
individuals for the benefit of the people Many Africans believe that there
are certain persons w i t h i n s i g h t a n d divinatory talents, and so,
they patronise such individuals. Many Christians and Muslims also visit
them covertly or overtly, directly or indirectly by proxy.
At a more private level, it is not uncommon 10 hear an African
saying: "My mind told me", "Something told me"; "I come to realize
that...", and so on. These type of expressions indicate that revelation is
an ungoing activity by winch God continues to guide His people.
Although they may not be always reliable, some dreams and visions
are also believed to convey divine revelation in Africa, as in the
experience of humankind, generally speaking.
Revelation vis-a-vis God's Impartiality
At a point in history, the Jews thought they alone belonged to God, and
that only they knew God. I hey were convinced that God did riot reveal
Himself to any other people. That sentiment is clearly indicated in the
story of the contest between Prophet Elijah and the priests of Baal (I
Kgs.18:22-20). The conviction also informed such phrases as "God of
Israel". (2Kgs. 19:15) and "the Holy one of Israel. (2Kgs. 19:22; Ps. 71 :22;
Isa. 1 :4; Jer. 51:5 and Ex. 39:7). Later in history, the belief that Jesus
Christ was the ultimate revelation of God (Jn. 14:9) culminated in the
exclusive claim that Christians are the new People of God, and that
made the Jews to be regarded as the old People of God. Jesus Christ is
reported as congratulating the Apostles, saying: "I tell you solemnly,
many Prophets and holy men longed to see what you see, and never saw
it; to hear what you hear, and never heard it" (Mt. 13:17). Anybody who
is familiar with the development of the scenario would have realized that
Muslims are also of the belief that Mohammad was the last of the
scriptural prophets, and so, he presented, according to the Muslims, the
latest revelation of God's will, and, therefore, he should be followed,
much more than any other man of God. Indeed, many Muslims hold
themselves to be the most up-to-date People of God, even when they
tolerate Judaisers and Christians. Claude Molla notes that:
For Muslims, the Qur'an is not only a holy book. It is unique
and extraordinary because Allah is its author. It gives a
recapitulation of all preceding revelation. It is entirely God's
Word.20
That is the Muslim position. Like its Judaic and Christian counterparts, it
is regarded in many academic circles as both subjective and absolutist in
disposition. Contrary adjectives are objective and liberal
dispositions. Avery Dulles, writing on the subject of special and absolute
claim on revelation, notes that: "the limitations imposed by the
particularities of time and culture, has difficulty in admitting that there
.can be any absolute or unsurpassed disclosure within history".21 On a
much more elaborate note, John Haught observes that:
In order to obviate arrogance, many contemporary theologians
emphasize that the primary meaning of revelation is God's
gift of self to the world. Such a formula prohibits our restricting
this gift to a specific Church community. Revelation in its
fundamental meaning is universal. If we still continue to speak
of a special historical revelation, we do not mean that it is
special in the sense that the people to whom it is communicated
are thereby superior to other human beings. Nor do we mean
that they are any more valued by God.22
The biblical basis for emphasizing that "God's gift of self to the
world" is universal is found in such passages as Romans 1:20, where the
author notes that: "Ever since God created the world, his everlasting power
and deity - however invisible - have been there for the mind to see in the
things he has made". Psalm 50:12 also quotes God as saying that" the
world and all it holds is mine". With specific reference to the Roman
Catholic Church, Michael J. Scanlon observes that:
With the new appreciation of world religions, the Roman
Catholic Church has in principle extended the need for
ecumenical conversation beyond the Christian pale. As
Catholics, we are Christocentric, but we are not Christomonist.
While we witness to Christ in our dialogue with people of other
religions, we would expect to learn more about the God of Jesus
who is Promise for all people."
That seems to represent the current position in the liberal Roman
Catholic and Protestant ramps John H. Taylor, who was an official of the
World Council of Churches, once observed that: "Our neighbours with
primal views on life and ways of l i f e have much to teach us."24
The points highlighted by Scanlon and Taylor make it reasonable
and fair to assume that like biblical hagiographers, African sacred artists
are both inspired and inerrant, as far as humanly possible, since God is
also the Lord in their historical narratives, in their myths and other forms
of fiction. Realising how God blessed a G e n t i l e household, St. Peter
could not help saying: "The Truth I have now come to realise is that God
does not have favourites, but that anybody of any nationality who fears
God and does what is right is acceptable to him" (Acts 10:34). The
statement expresses God's impartiality in respect of every people and
individual human being who is created in the imago Dei.
Conclusion
In the course of this study, one discovered that unlike Judaism,
Christianity and Islam, Afrel is not conceived as an absolute religion. It
is said that traditional Africans are never known to have taught that God
or love is to be found only in Africa or only among some Africans. They
are said to have always believed God to be unique and universal, with
justice and impartial love for all humanity. Even though Afrel is in
denominations, such as Orisa-nla, Orunmila, Ogun and so on, in
Yorubaland, for instance, the denominations are found to be nonopposing and unconfrontational. Thus, it can be said that Africa
enjoyed religious harmony, to a great extent, before the advent of
Christianity and Islam.
With specific reference to divine revelation, one can note that
traditional Africans do not know such personalities as Abraham,
Moses, David, and Jesus Christ, but apart from the name of God, certain
names are found in their oral and the emerging literary traditions.
Among the Yoruba, for instance, the people of Ile-Ife are not likely to
ever forget Lady Moremi who is said to have risked her life, and offered
her only son, Oluorogbo, in sacrifice for the liberation of her people.
Likewise, the Ijesha people immortalize the name of Obokun, who
played a role that was similar to that of Moremi, and the Egbas
commemorate their ancient political liberator, Lisabi. For the people of
Ijebu-Ode it is Obanta, while the people of Ibadan celebrate the
memory of Oluyole. Collectively speaking, Oduduwa corresponds to
Father Abraham in Judaeo-Christian history. Many local martyrs,
heroes and heroines are said to be known in traditional African societies
and communities. One learnt that many Africans believe that God
had revealed Himself in a special way in the biographies of such men
and women.
The bottom line is that whether in Christianity, Afrel or any other
authentic religion or culture, it does not seem that God has left anybody or
people without revealing Himself to them, one way or another,
whether in the past or at the present time, and on continuous basis.
The modes of revelation have also been found to be similar in many
respects. God is said to have revealed Himself to human beings through
the created order, historical experiences, conscience, creative and
philosophical works of art, as well as in dreams and visions. Of course,
each case requires discernment for authentication.
In the final analysis, some quotations in this study indicate that
many Christians have realised that in spite of the doctrine of the
Incarnation, God, as a spiritual Being, remains largely mysterious.
Nobody seems to possess an infinite key to unravel God's invisibility
and intractability. The impocketability of God makes nonsense of any
form of triumphalism, arrogance and pretentiousness in respect of
divine revelation. That gives room for humility, mutual respect, and
brotherly sharing of knowledge and experience.
End Notes
1. John F. Haught, "Revelation", in Joseph A. Komonchak, Mary
Collins, and Dermot A. Lane, The New Dictionary of Theology
'(Bangalore: Theological Publications in India, 1996),p. 335.
2. Avery Dulles, "Faith and Revelation", in Francis Schussler
Fiorenza and John P Galvin, cds., Systematic Theology: Roman
Catholic Perspectives (Dublin X: Gill and Macmilan Ltd , 1992) p
95.
3. Michael J. Scanlon, "Revelation", in Michael Glazier and Monika
K. Hellwig, eds., Modern Catholic Encyclopaedia (Minnesota: The
Liturgical Press, 1994), p. 747.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Avery Dulles, 1992, p. KM
Michael J. Scanlon, IW4,p. 7 4 7
Herman H. Riffel, Voice of God. The Significance of Dreams. Visions.
Revelations (Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.. 1978), p. 39
Richard T. A Murphy, Background to the Bible: An Introduction to
Scripture Study (Michigan: Seivani Hooks, I978), p. 69.
8.
9.
Michael J. Scanlon, 1994, p. 7-17.
S. O. Oso, Lectures on West African Traditional Religion (Ado-Ekiti:
Bamgboye& Co. Press (Nig) Ltd., 1979), p.25.
10.
Robert G. Tikpor, "Myths", in E.A. Ade Adegbola, Traditional
Religion in West Africa (Ibadan: DaySiar Press, 1983), p. 369.
11. Raymond E. Brown, Response to 101 Questions on the Bible (New
York: Paulist Press, 1990), p. 311.
12. The Jerusalem Bible (New York: Double Day & Co., Inc', 1966) p
726.
13. S. O. Oso, 1979, p., 22.
14. E. Bolaji Idowu, Olodnmare: Cod in Yoruba Belief (London:
Longman Group Ltd., 1977 j, p. I XI1& p. 48ff.
15. S. O. Oso, 1979, p. 22ff
16. J. Omosade Awolalu & E Adelumo Dopamu, West African Traditional
Religion (Ibadan: Onibonoje Press & Book Industries (Nig.) Ltd.),
p. 54ff.
17. John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, edited by Vittorio
Messori (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994), P82.
18. E. Bolaji Idowu, 1977, p. 5
19. F. G. Parrinder, African Traditional Religion (Third Edition)
(London: Sheldon Press, 1962), p. 122:
20. Claude Molla, Islam and Christianity: ISO Questions and Answers,
Translated from the French by Ronald Nel son (Ibadan:
PROCMURA, 1997), p. 16.
21. Avery Dulles, 1992, p. 101.
22. John F. Haught, 1996, p. 885.
23. Michael J. Scanlon, 1994, p. 749
24. John B. Taylor, "Preface", to John B. Taylor, ed., Primal World
Views: Christian Dialogue with Traditional Thought Forms (Ibadan:
Day-Star Press, 1976), p. v.