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RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AND SOCIETAL DEVELOPMENT: THE NIGERIAN CONTEXT
Abstract
The present writer is drawn to write on this topic based on the realization that the Nigerian society seems to be one that is bereft of the practicalisation of the ideal standards of virtues. There is apparent lack of objective measures of rightness and wrongness of actions, especially in the present dispensation, irrespective of the so much touted religiosity of Nigerians. A particular action is regarded (by implication and praxis) as right when performed by persons of a particular religion, tribe and party affiliation, but as an abomination when performed by some other persons. This beats one’s imagination to the core, especially given the fact that the religio-tribal considerations appear to be the major driving force. This paper is therefore interested in the contents of the religious education of the various major religious types and how these contents that are imbibed by their adherents aid or mar the development of the Nigerian society. It was discovered, through personal observations and through the tools of analytical and deductive reasoning via library research methodology, that certain aspects of certain religious teachings have great positive impact on societal cohesion which leads to development in the Nigerian society while some others rather sow the seed of discord, injustice, hate and rancor that have led to killings, oppressions and upsurges that have characterized the Nigerian social space for decades on end and have drastically militated against social development of Nigeria. Recommendations include: religious education must consider the virtue of justice, it must adhere to the demands of rationality, it must be universalizable and not myopic, it must be dynamic, and it must be morally honest and must proceed from right conscience rather than a sick conscience.
Keywords: religious education, Christian, Islam, ATR, societal development, Nigeria