JORAS - Nigerian Journal of Religion and Society

There is no doubt about it, that the only Christianity that would be accepted and acceptable by and to the people of Nigeria in particular and Africa at large in the twenty-?rst century, is the Christianity that takes into cognizance what the cultural sensibilities of the people are. In fact, if we forget the cultural sensibilities of the people, the tendency is that we lose the people, either to the whims and caprices of materialism or to the verbosity of Pentecostalism. After hundred years of living together as Nigeria and as Nigerians, however, we soon discover that it is not so easy where we have to define what constitutes our cultural sensibilities, or to decide which cultural sensibilities to engage in the process of inculturation that makes meaning to our collective identity. This paper seeks to propose that finding the genius of the Nigerian culture is a necessary starting point for inculturation in Nigeria today. It proceeds, by demonstrating the complexity of the process of inculturation, especially in Nigeria, showing why the search for this genius is necessary and ends by proposing some elements of the Nigerian genius which are suitable for inculturation.

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