Igbo Culture and the Christian Missions 1857-1957

Conversion in Theory and Practice

By (author) Augustine S.O. Okwu

Hardback - £83.00

Publication date:

05 November 2009

Length of book:

348 pages

Publisher

UPA

ISBN-13: 9780761848844

Igbo Culture and the Christian Missions 1857-1957: Conversion in Theory and Practice uses historical perspective to explore strategies and methods of the Protestant and the Roman Catholic missionaries in Igboland and the Igbo response during the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries.

The subtitle of this book points out the objective, premises, and thrust to the reader. Using oral traditions, primary sources, and the present writer's own life experience both as a Christian convert and a missionary co-partner in the evangelization enterprise, the text examines the missions' programs and missteps, as well as their impact on the people.

Appropriate for both specific and generalized audiences, this book will appeal to readers interested in cultural sublimation and in the overall Christianization efforts in Africa.
A splendid account of the missionary programs among the Igbo, cast in vivid detail, against the background of the indigenous culture. While most studies on the subject concentrate mostly on the transformation of indigenous societies by foreign male evangelists/educators, this author, in addition, deftly integrates the multifaceted role of the Irish Holy Rosary Sisters into the absorbing story…The reader is irresistibly draw into the world of the octogenarian author, a convert to Roman Catholicism, a former RC teacher and government administrator, and a seasoned diplomat…Full of vivid color and emotion and in parts, controversial…a book that should be on the bookshelf of students and scholars, as well as the general reader, interested in the subject of social change.