Research Papers/Topics in Religious Studies and Theology

“SOWING AT THE APOSTLE’S FEET”: NATURE AND EFFECTS OF RELIGIOUS EXTORTION AMONG CHURCH MINISTERS IN NIGERIA

The teachings of most religions of the world condemn corruption. It considers it as an offense against humanity and divinity. As Faleye (2013:175) asserted that, “Religion has brought peace and harmony to the world and that its leaders are motivated by the service of their God. However, religion had used fear, hate and sometimes lies to control and manipulate people for the advantage of a selected group of individuals. In Nigeria, greater number of the citizens are religious enthusiasts and...

ERODED REVERENCE OF YORUBA ROYALTY: PROGNOSIS TO MORAL BANKRUPTCY IN YORUBALAND

Abstract  The Yoruba, as a people, culturally have great respect for their kings. The kings were taken to be the representatives of the gods until the advent of the Westerners. The respect the Yoruba had for their kings was primordial. The kings were the executive heads of government as well as the spiritual heads of the traditional religion. However, civilization has diminished the role and importance of kings in the Yorubaland. The kings who upheld the moral values of the people are no l...

Is the Future of Israel at Stake

Professor Alexander Tyler of the 1970s elaborated on how democracy and democratic governments rise and fall in history. He noted that “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy f...

The Foundation and Sustenance of the Church

The world has witnessed human institutions and organizations that were built on the foundation of one’s dream and passion. They were and have been sustained by various human philosophies, a range of policies, standardized financial generation and management theories, and most of all, shaping and contextualizing them to meet the desires of the generation(s) of their day. All that, mostly for self-aggrandizement, or to find one’s fulfillment through philanthropic service to the community. V...

How the New Tetstament Validates the book of Genesis

A tsunami of questions has been raised regarding the validity of the Bible. For Millennials, Biblical scholars have ventured into a quest to provide answers to satisfy easy this tension with logical validation of the Bible. Nevertheless, other books such as the foundation book of Genesis from which the whole biblical narrative is built have received a huge bombardment due to the fact that it declares the narrative of the beginnings of the world. While scholars have worked hard to validate the...

TITHING CONTROVERSIES IN 21ST CENTURY NIGERIAN CHURCHES

ABSTRACT This work addressed controversies surrounding the payment of tithe and its upshot in the 21st century Nigerian churches. While some Nigerian churches claim that tithing is not part of the responsibility of the churched formed after the time of Christ, some are of the opinion that since there was no record of tithing in the New Testament, the church of today should not pay tithe, another group of scholars and teachers postulate that if tithing should be accepted in today’s church, i...

Does Interreligious Dialogue Negate Evangelism and Conversion?

Christians engage in dialogue with their religious and non-religious neighbors for a variety of reasons. They might want to get to know them better, or they might want to draw from the wisdom that their neighbors have acquired in the course of their lives. They might want to work out how to live together when their communities are in tension, or they might want to discuss projects of joint interest for the benefit of our communities. One of the principal reasons for engaging in such attentive...

Against Prosperity Gospel (Theology) in the Christian Community Today: An Exegetical Study of Galatians 1:6-12

Prosperity theology has remained a religious phenomenon contemporary Christianity still contends with. This teaching is justified by those who argue that Jesus came to liberate the “poor” from the bondage of poverty and brought healing to all areas of a believer’s life. Healing, it is believed, was linked to the work of Christ on the cross and demonstrated his victory over all forms of affliction. The Prosperity Gospel is the doctrine that God wants people to be prosperous, especially f...

RASTAFARIANISM AND ITS IMPACT ON RELIGION AND THE CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY

Rising from the proliferation of Ethiopianism and Pan-Africanism, Rastafarianism took root in Jamaica following the coronation of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I in 1930. A spiritual movement based on the belief in Selassie’s divinity, its followers congregated around preachers like Leonard Howell, who founded the first prominent Rastafarian community in 1940. Additional branches surfaced by the 1950s, and within two decades the movement had earned global attention thanks to the music of...

The Impact of the Holy Spirit on Church Growth

Abstract This work “The Impact of the Holy Spirit on Church Growth” addressed the neglect of the churches on the place of the Holy Spirit in Church growth. It is aimed at bringing to limelight the birth of the church at Pentecost in Jerusalem and the explosive growth from that moment was the beginning of the church planting and growing. It adopted a descriptive method of research. It observed that there are impacts of the Holy Spirit in Church growth as found in the New Testament and by d...

Paul's Bodily "Marks of Jesus" in Galatians 6:17 and Its Implications to Christian Witness in the 21st Century Nigeria

ABSTRACT The issue of stigmata with reference to Galatians 6:17 has raised a number of theological issues which centre on Paul’s spiritual relationship with Jesus Christ. This paper sets out to investigate the correct interpretation of the text. In doing this a historical critical method of exegesis is adopted. This enables the research to place the text within its historical context in an attempt to understand what Paul meant when he wrote Galatians 6:17. The researcher has carried out an ...

SUSTAINING THE REFORMED WITNESS AND MISSION OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF NIGERIA (SUMMARISED VERSION))

A reformed understanding of Church will clearly reveal that it is the creation of God. As a creation of God, it is accountable to God and work in different ways to please its creator. One of such ways is to promote reach out to the unreached and hold firmly the word of God. God in His sovereignty also calls the church to collaborate with Him in mission; and as Onwunta quoting Emil Brunner said that “The Church lives by mission as fire lives by burning.”1 This means that the Church and mis...

SUSTAINING THE REFORMED WITNESS AND MISSION OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF NIGERIA (UNABRIDGED VERSION)

A reformed understanding of Church will clearly reveal that it is the creation of God. As a creation of God, it is accountable to God and work in different ways to please its creator. One of such ways is to promote reach out to the unreached and hold firmly the word of God. God in His sovereignty also calls the church to collaborate with Him in mission; and as Onwunta quoting Emil Brunner said that “The Church lives by mission as fire lives by burning.”1 This means that the Church and mis...

RELIGIOUS AND CULTURAL DYNAMICS AND THEIR NEED FOR SOCIETAL RESULTS

Religion and culture seem like complex ideas to study from the perspective of International Relations. After all, scholars and philosophers have long debated the meaning of these terms and the impact they have had on our comprehension of the social world around us. So is it an impossibly complicated task to study religion and culture at the global level? Fortunately, the answer is ‘no’, for we can recognise and respect complexity without being confused about what we mean by each term. In ...

God’s Image in Man: A Biblical Perspective

Over the years, the nature of mankind portrays that he is implicitly created in a special way. The generally known concept of man depicts a ruler of the universe. Regardless of the race, color,tribe, gender, language and other seeming physical differences of man, man is still rated higher than animal everywhere in the world. This is explicitly seen in the biblical account of Genesis; man is directly referred to as the climax of God’s creation (Gen 1: 28-30). The murder of a man is blata...


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