By Isaac Megbolugbe

Professor Tunji Olaopa’s memoir, The Unending Quest for Reform, contains a candid and explicit discussion of his religious formation and maturation. The book also reveals a few gaps that remain in his worldview about spirituality. He desires religious coherence, both personally and culturally. He believes the instrumental force that religion can play in fostering elite nationalism which is crucial to the transformation of Nigeria into both a capable developmental state and, ultimately, into a nation-state

 Olaopa’s search for religious coherence is both wise and strategic. The purpose of the search is to locate a safe place within the civil space to corral political elites for socialisation and cultivation of national consciousness in building a capable developmental state. Elite nationalism is cumulatively constitutive of ethics-based, culturally based and civic-based solidarities, loyalties, and allegiances. The best way to approach this exercise is through religion because of the basic sociological functions that religions already perform across societies. This is what Olaopa seems to be talking about in his excellent memoir. 

Prof. Tunji Olaopa

Religion serves several functions for society. These include (a) giving meaning and purpose to life, (b) reinforcing social unity and stability, (c) serving as an agent of social control of behaviour, (d) promoting physical and psychological well-being, and (e) motivating people to work for positive social change. The issue of coherence here does not pertain to ecumenism or syncretism but epistemic justification. It implies that, for a belief to be justified, it must belong to a coherent system of beliefs. For a system of beliefs to be coherent, the beliefs that make up that system must relate to one another. Coherence, in this instance, is essentially a syntactic relation that exists between various propositions but not between propositions and reality. This relation is typically defined as an absence of contradictions among various propositions. In other words, coherence does not have to correspond to reality. Navigating portfolios and systems of beliefs that members of different religious backgrounds can subscribe to must meet the test of coherence for sufficiency. Figuring out what set of beliefs must be articulated to enable the effective socialisation of elites into a shared and deep sense of nationalism is not a trivial matter. 

Olaopa believes that political elites constitute the fulcrum of the decision-making process on behalf of the people. However, the character of the political class across the world has undergone some transformations since the end of colonialism. Nevertheless, no matter how compromised they are, Olaopa sees the need to build their capacity to birth genuine nation-building and national development. Across the world, elite nationalism has a fundamental role to play, he claims, in not only the birthing of a nation but also in keeping that nation together, stable and progressive. As noted by Olaopa, It was a national duty on the African continent where the national political class played a significant role in the anticolonial campaigns that led to the official shutdown of colonisation. Olaopa proposes that a similar campaign remobilise the elites of different categories to cultivate elite nationalism, not so much as an ideological commitment but a meeting of the mind about the necessity to establish a capable developmental state including basic literacy in different aspects of modern life required for effective civic engagement, within the republic, in the economic, financial, political and religious spheres. They are the set of representatives that stand in the place of the modern-day ‘demos’, and are meant to make informed and enlightened decisions that are conducive to human well-being and flourishing. 

Before we discuss literacy education about religion and spirituality, let us review what Olaopa writes in his memoir about his spiritual journey. Olaopa was born into a Yoruba Baptist home. But, like most of us who are second-generation Christians, he never became a disciple.  He never had an opportunity to exercise his faith by choosing to accept Jesus Christ as his Lord and Saviour. He was not taught what it meant to be ‘born-again’. He never heard the Gospel of Christ preached.  Many of us joined the Fellowship of Christian Students or Scripture Union in college to learn how to be ‘born-again’ Christians. Olaopa struggled over his entire life to reconcile his Christian spirituality with his identity as a Yoruba man partly because of his lack of biblical grounding in what it means to be a Christian.  He experienced his Christian spirituality culturally in terms of his family practice of Christian worship which was guided by the Baptist devotional manual.  His family values and ethics revolve around being a good person. It is this indigenous ethical living he refers to as the doctrine of ‘omoluwabi’ which is the portrait of a valued personality worthy of being embodied. He found storytelling about characters of the Bible delightful. He was never taught about how every story in the Bible revolves around Jesus Christ as the second person of the Triune God of the Bible.  Some members of Olaopa’s family were involved in both Yoruba and Islamic religions. He felt like everybody was equally well-socialised into the same community and traditions of the Yoruba people. His family drew a distinction between aspects of the Yoruba culture that entertain and fetish practices that are involved in the worship of inanimate objects for their magical powers or their inhabitation by demonic spirit beings. Olaopa’s parents were wise to have circumscribed his engagement with fetish practices and instilled in him reverence for God.

Demons are the sources of these fetish practices everywhere. Demons, in the spirit world, canvass for worship by human beings in exchange for sharing some of their powers with human beings. Demons are spiritual beings who used to belong to the community of angelic beings or hosts created to worship the Almighty God. Demons are the fallen angels who followed Satan when he rebelled against God and still retain the power that God created in them.  Lucifer was the Angel who led the worship of God in heaven until he desired to be the object of worship himself. He wanted to be like God to receive worship from the other angels. He was cast out of heaven and a third of the angels followed him. These fallen angels parade the world to seek other beings who will give them worship. Remember Satan even asked Jesus to worship him in exchange for the riches and glory of the world.

The colonialists from Europe that brought Christianity to Africa were not necessarily genuinely interested in spreading the Gospel of Christ alone. Christianity was just used like other religions for sociological reasons to soften and pacify the people they wanted to rule. They left their own fetish practices back in Europe and condemned the ones in Africa. Both sets of fetish practices were and remain demonically orchestrated. Olaopa narrates the gamut of sociocultural dynamics he went through that informed his values and sense of ethics. He also says that Christianity was sufficient for his parents’ faith practices but the Yoruba culture offered them a relational framework. This observation or experience is not unique to the Yoruba culture. It is a universal feature of humanity. Apostle Paul says that much about the Gentiles, which include all Africans, in Romans 2:14-15:

14 Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.

Olaopa was fascinated with his encounters with a few manifestations of mysticism and occultism in college. His curiosity got the best of him. He went on a wide goose chase for a taste of the other practices of spirituality that he might, perhaps, add as additional menus to the practice of his Christian spirituality. He got close but decided not to jump into the river. Thank God, his personal experience of the providence of God a few times might have put fear and reverence for God in his heart.  Nevertheless, his lamentations about how all these spiritualities fit together remain and are expressed honestly and directly in his memoir. He wants to understand African religions, African Christianity, Abrahamic religions, Jesus Christ and his ministry and how they all fit or not fit together. In addition, he interrogates whether any of these have much bearing on the ministry of the Nigerian Church and the appropriateness of her roles and responsibilities in the struggle for the emergence of Nigerian as a nation. Moreover, Olaopa is fully aware of his stature as a public intellectual and the range of intellectual and epistemic burdens that come with the status. Consequently, he wants to gain a broader understanding of the interdependent relationship among people of different persuasions and religious backgrounds. 

In his memoir, Olaopa states, specifically, the areas he wants input from his readers. He states his desire to achieve personal religious coherence. He also wants to know how to experience God and Jesus Christ. In other words, he wants an introduction to his Lord and Saviour, according to his worldview. A basic review of the philosophy of religion is helpful to frame the discussion that follows. A basic understanding of what and who we are, and what and who God is is helpful to a discussion of the philosophy and anthropology of religion that Olaopa seeks. This basic knowledge is foundational to the socialisation of the elites into a community of human beings who happen to be citizens of Nigeria. Accepting everyone as belonging to the same species is huge for cultivating solidarity. The Bible is the most complete and accurate source of both human beings and God.  We are human beings. The definition of the ‘beingness’ of God is his essence and, in the case of God, it is also his existence.  We also know, by implication, that God is love by virtue of the love that eternally exists within the Godhead. God is a Supreme Being. What we are is our essence or purpose and who we are is our personhood.  God created us for fellowship, that is, to love him. God’s personhood comprises three persons. Every human is a singular being and person in the normative. God is one being but three persons. Jesus Christ is the only person of the three that is fully God in his being and fully human too.

God has no parts. Human beings embody two parts. One is the material part. The Bible calls that flesh. This is also called the body and it is mortal. The body consists of hydrogen, oxygen, carbon and nitrogen. These account for more than 99 per cent of the atoms inside the body. The other is the immaterial part which is immortal. This part comes from the breath of God which is the source of human life. This inner life is like an intelligent platform with an operating system and the energy that powers is enabled by God.   One spiritual disc stores the relationship of the inner self with his own experience. This is called the soul. The other spiritual disc stores the experience of the relationship between the inner self and God. 

Our life has both outer and inner parts. The outer part is how we live, that is, our behaviour, including the fruits. Our inner life engages with two relationships. First is the Soul which is the embodiment of our life in relation to our own experience: mind, heart, will and imagination. It also embodies our thoughts, desires, passions and dreams. Second is the Spirit which is a part of God that is in human beings; The Bible refers to it as the breath of God. The presence of God’s spirit in humans enables the conduct of inner life in relation to God. God initiates and powers human life. Our intellect, emotions, fears, passions, creativity and mental functions enabling awareness, insight, understanding, judgment and reasoning powers are the embodiments of our inner life in relation to God. At death, there is a separation of the parts of a human being. The body that is material returns to the earth as dirt. Our spirit returns to God. The souls of those who die in Christ go to Heaven where Abraham’s bosom is. The souls of those who do not die in Christ go to Hades. Hopefully, this brief discussion answers all of Olaopa’s questions and that of his readers.

 Back to the necessary literacy education in religion and spiritual life for the purpose of achieving and sustaining religious coherence, it will be essential to learn the dominant worldviews that citizens have. It will be a useful acknowledgement of the multiplicity of backgrounds and cultures we come from and the fact that the realities that each of us has experienced and perceived are indeed fragmented and confused by the different windows of popular media. With so many different windows to look through, how do we discern the key ingredients of a worldview? Most of us will agree that an external world outside our own awareness does exist. We all have the use of our five senses to make sure of that. But we might be apt to believe that our window gives the clearest reflection of ourselves and the best views of our world. A worldview, therefore, consists of our assumptions about what makes our world.

There are six major religious worldviews: monotheism, deism, naturalism, nihilism, existentialism and pantheism.  Monotheism is the belief that God exists and he is separate from but involved with the universe. The three great monotheistic world religions are Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Together, they believe that God is an eternal Spirit who brought our material world into existence and enables it to operate according to natural laws. Deism is the belief that God created an orderly world to operate on its own. Great champions of this philosophy were John Locke and Voltaire. Reason became more important than revelation that monotheists rely on.  Naturalism is the belief that matter is all that exists and is best understood through science. During the 18th century, most scientists believed in a creator who is the first cause of our universe. But with the publication of Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species, a naturalist explanation for origin was proposed and embraced. Nihilism is the belief that objective truth and positive values are to be questioned and dismissed. Nihilism is more of an attitude than a formal philosophy. It questions the validity of knowing the truth and moral values. It favours the destruction of existing traditional social institutions as a means of making ways for improvements. Existentialism is the belief that life has no objective meaning; so, significance must be subjectively created within entities. Its main tenets include the meaninglessness of life and the isolation of the individual. Pantheism is the belief that everything that exists is God (Spirit). The matter is regarded as an illusion. Hinduism and Buddhism are the proponents of this worldview. The way to become one with the universe and escape the external world is through meditation. These themes have been popularised in the West by the New Age Movement.

Worldviews are very important because every religion can be understood by its underlying worldview. Similarly, every secular ideology reflects a worldview. Some examples are Darwinism, postmodernism etc. Worldviews help us understand why people believe what they do. This is why we can understand where everyone is coming from and how we can tailor what we want to communicate in a way that others may understand us better. What is in a Worldview? First, there is theology which addresses questions like what is God like? How does He relate to us? Second is anthropology which examines where humans come from and What their purposes are. Third is knowledge which covers what we can know about God and the world. Fourth is ethics which inquire about what is right and wrong and the defining principles for determining that.  Finally, there is what people believe about the afterlife or the stories that are told about salvation or redemption. The matters of the afterlife, salvation and redemption have been considered humanity’s biggest problem and solutions have been sought and canvassed. 

Two issues are important to understand about worldviews. First, almost everyone combines elements of these worldviews in the conduct of their lives. For example, may believe in the scientific method as the ultimate guide to truth while using transcendental meditation to relieve stress. Others think like existentialists by believing that all objective values are meaningless while joining social activism to fight for social justice. Second, there are several methods to determining the ‘truthfuness’ of these worldviews. My favourite method was promoted by the late Dr Ravi Zacharias who suggested a simplistic test. Worldviews make four truth statements on four subjects: origin, morality, meaning and destiny. He suggests that all the four answers must be put under two tests; they must be logically consistent and all the four answers must cohere with one another. Additionally, all the answers must correspond to reality.  According to Zacharias, Christianity is the only worldview or religion that passes this test.

In conclusion, I want to note that Olaopa’s memoir is extraordinary in the juxtaposition of his biography, intellectualism, professionalism and spirituality. This memoir is, indeed, one of a kind. It is brilliant and creative. It is really an autobiography written as a memoir about exploring his cultivated identity as an intellectual. He employs the construct of a scholar-bureaucrat to examine the trajectory of his career, including the evolutionary path of the growth and character of his professionalism that has transformed him into becoming the scholar-reformer that he is today.  He utilises a 19th-century approach to the study of history, the great man theory of history, to explain the impact of great men on his life and his country. He detailed how his love of books led him to study a long list of great men or heroes that are highly influential and unique individuals who, due to their natural attributes, such as superior intellect, heroic courage, extraordinary leadership abilities or divine inspiration, have a decisive historical effect. The long list of men that he studied includes Plato, Wole Soyinka, Obafemi Awolowo, Thomas Paine, Thomas More, Niccolò Machiavelli, Karl Popper, Bertrand Russell, Albert Einstein, Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandela, Che Guevara, Max Weber, Napoleon Bonaparte and D.O.Fagunwa. He also discusses a pantheon of mentors that have inspired his professional life and legacy in public service: Professor Ojetunji Aboyade, Simeon Adebo, Jerome Udoji, Allison Ayida and Prof. Akinlawon Mabogunje. Yet, he paid equally clinical attention to reporting intimate accounts about his spirituality and devotion to public service and professionalism. This is simply breathtaking! 

. Megbolugbe is a former Christian Apologist, Church of the Redeemer, Maryland, USA. He is also a retired Professor, Carey Business School, Johns Hopkins University, and Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.