JOS JOURNAL OF RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY

Conflict is a major issue in any given human society and often it is inevitable but violence is avoidable. Research indicates that conflict is an on-going process in human relations and interaction and may occur within and among individuals, groups, communities and nations at any time.In the case of Nigeria, the frequency of inter-religious conflicts in the country from 1980 till date has left adverse effects on the Church and the wellbeing of the citizens. The paper therefore examines that in the course of these conflicts, Christians have at certain times, taken up weapons to counter the attacks from Muslims, claiming to do so in self-defense and Muslims have also done the same claiming to be in defense of Allah or his servant Mohammed (SAW).The researcher adopted observational and qualitative methods with the use of theories such as relational theory and greed and grievances conflict theories asmethods in eliciting relevant data required to do justice to this research. The paper therefore, presents an overview of the general concept, causes of religious conflicts in Nigeria and the role of the Church. This paper shows that the Church and her leaders have the potential to manage and resolve conflicts in Nigeria through their religious resources or values and frameworks involving love, forgiveness, contentment, justice, peace, respect and tolerance rather than sustained hostility and suspicion in Christian-Muslim relation. The paper concluded with a fervent plea for the revival of our distorted values and some possible avenues of achieving this which is through dialogue, interfaith dialogue, religious peace-building, seminars and workshops, as media of evangelizing and restoring hope in the country with their gospel of peace.

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