The Catholic Church And Human Development In The Catholic Diocese Of Otukpo

ABSTRACT

Human development is one of the Catholic post Vatican II vision in modern times. Co-incidentally, traditional Idoma society epitomized this vision in the paradigm of Inyilowo. Unfortunately owing to their negative attitudes to traditional Idoma society, the early missionaries did not reckon with the entrenched influence of Inyilowo figure in meaningful talk of human development. The thesis is an effort in integrating the rich meanings of traditional Inyilowo into the central Christian vision of Christ as the new Inyilowo of Idoma, for proper inculturation of Catholic human development in the area. Data for this thesis are sourced from primary and secondary sources. Primary sources include oral interviews from randomly selected individuals in (six) selected circumscriptions of the Diocese, observations and casual discussions with experienced people within and outside the Diocese. Secondary sources consist in consulting library and archival materials, books and journal’s articles, newspaper publications and magazine articles. Data are gained and presented through descriptive method. The over all findings of this thesis are that the missionaries bequeathed to us a distorted image of Christ. But the Catholic Church in this diocese can, through the inception of this new programme on human development carry the masses along on a positive attitude to their traditional culture using Christ as the Inyilowo of the people. Secondly, both the elite and educated illiterates of Idoma avidly desire an integration of the best in their traditional culture with the current programme of the Catholic Church in their area. It is therefore envisaged that the content of this thesis will serve the desired need:

genuine human development based on the model of Christ the Inyilowo in the light of the findings and suggestions of this thesis.