No piece of work is created in isolation. The original idea for this book emerged in the context of my 2020–2021 postdoctoral position as a visiting researcher at the Institute of Hermeneutics, under the Protestant Theology Faculty of the University of Bonn. I had joined the research circle of Bonn Global Network for Excellence in Theology (Bonn G-NET) coordinated by Prof. Dr. Cornelia Richer (ev. Theol.) and Prof. Dr. Dr. Jochen Sautermeister (kath. Theol.), and facilitated by Prof. Dr. Matthew Ryan Robinson, with a focus on exploring theologically the intersections of transcultural theo-logics, religions in the Global South and social response-abilities. The project recognizes how religion in the Global South is underrepresented and seeks to increase transcultural exchange both in terms of theological investigation and personnel. Two of the articles that make up this book emerged from this fellowship but were not published at the time given the suggestion of the research group that a collection of similar articles that explore the ‘theo-logics’ of resilience within the church and society would serve readers better. This book, which is largely a collection of articles that focus on resistive performances are a direct response to the initial suggestions of the Bonn team. The chapters explore the handling of resilience, resistance, or dissent by both the Church and democratic society both as a unit and in a comparative but mutually enriching manner. The aim is to investigate the possibilities of mutual accountability and learning, on the one hand, and to examine the theological and pastoral value of resistive performances within the church, and society by extension.
In terms of context the book pays attention to African Christianity, particularly Nigeria as a geographical template for the interplay of many possible forms of religious and democratic resilience in sub-Saharan Africa. This is quite evident in almost all the topics addressed in this book. The reason emerges from my familiarity with the context, as well as how a response to the context transcends the context itself. This is explained by the plurality of issues within Nigeria, which means that it embodies several questions that may resonate in other contexts, sometimes with different intensities. A personal bias is evident in the first chapter that engages the 2020 #EndSARS protest that not only captured my theological imagination but also compelled me into taking concrete action. The protest was violently quenched on the eve of my birthday and so turned what would have been a joyful moment into a memory of sadness every other year. A theological response to such an event became at once a process of healing to the scared bodies and minds of many young people in Nigeria who performed an embodied resistance to a regime of terror. The question of young people re-appears again in the chapter that addresses the need for a comprehensive pastoral response of the Catholic Church to the restless youth in Nigeria.
This book is about bringing together some ideas that highlight important scholarly questions and approaches. No matter how it is understood, dissent, masked as resistive action, resilience, and even restlessness remains a constant feature in both Church and society as means of negotiating interests and contesting power structures in institutions and outside of these. A scholarly approach to these questions reveals an application of interdisciplinarity as explored in the combination of theology, political studies, sociology, human rights. Additionally, it concentrates its focus on intra-disciplinarity in which the theological fields of ecclesiology, ecumenism, interreligious dialogue, and pastoral studies interact. It is clear therefore that the approach in this work intentionally departs from mere theoretical analysis of the different manifestations of dissent to highlighting a practical value of social analysis and theological investigations.
There are several individuals who were directly or indirectly instrumental to the realization of this project and they all deserve profound acknowledgement and gratitude from me. I therefore owe special thanks to my friend Prof. Dr. Matthew Ryan Robinson (Leuphana University) for nudging me to explore the idea of dissent from different perspectives in a more context-focused manner. I also owe the idea of mutuality between democracy and ecclesiology to Prof. Dr. Annemarie Mayer (UniTrier) who has remained a trustworthy academic guide over the years. Many thanks to Prof. Dr. Anthony C. Atansi (McGill University), and Dr. Johnbosco Kamoga (Makerere University) for their insightful suggestions. Great salute to Maximilian Nwosu and Chidinma Onuoha who were very helpful in the design and selection of the photo for the cover page. I am very grateful to Elizabeth Bento, associate editor of De Gruyter Brill’s Theology & Mission in World Christianity for facilitating the entire process of this publication. Many thanks to the editor and the entire team of the TMWC series. I also enjoy the support of family and have profited from friends with whom I practice the everydayness of resistance and restlessness, particularly Ernest Izummuo, Raphael Nwosu, John Udochukwu, Stan Chu Ilo, Ugo & Chizoba Njoku, Jos Janssen, Mary Keller Bechem, Uzoma Okponewu, Uche Onyekwelu, Angelo Unegbu, Philip Omenukwa, Anthony Jude Okafor, Charlotte Mavandalt, and Chinenye Ozoemena. Finally, I salute colleagues from my present academic home, the Université Catholique de Louvain, specifically, the amazing team at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, the Institut de recherche Religions, Spiritualités, Cultures, Sociétés, as well as the Centre Vincent Lebbe, where I serve as the director. With you all, I live the wrestle called life.