Religion and Societal Development: A Philosophical Appraisal of African Situation

Abstract

Religion can serve as a strong force in boosting societal development and can as well retard it. This, for me, is as a result of man's inability to discover his place and role in existence as a being with responsibility and sequel to this, he always fails to contribute his own quota in solving a myriad of problems surrounded him and the society at large rather, usually waits for divine intervention believing that manna will fall from heaven with little or no effort of his own. This is more prevalent among the Africans. This work will employ the philosophical methods of hermeneutics and analysis in proffering answer to questions like: how can religion help in fostering societal development? What are the limitations of this help? How does man come in the issue of societal development? What are his roles in this regard? This work is an effort to stress that extreme religiousness of Africans is among the factors retarding development in Africa but that does not mean that the work condemns the practice of religion among Africans for it is also part of its aims to establish some of the roles religion can play to facilitate progress in Africa.

Not all deities were transformed in Igboland: a cultural history of the Api-Opi deity

“…From the above postulation, it can be deduced that too much of everything is bad. However, the work of Obi (2012) gives a clear view of how religion can be used for societal development through its functionalities, which is in line with where this study is headed.…”

“…Ikuenobe (2014) submits that the religious problem in Africa must be addressed to have a practical implication for finding solutions to African's environmental issues. And because religion serve as strong hold that can boost or retard societal development, Obi (2012) opined in his work titled "religion and societal development: A philosophical Appraisal of African situation", that this is as a result of man's inability to discover himself and where he is coming from in other to know how things are fixed around him with what he has, rather than expecting manner from heaven with no effort put in. In trying to comprehend the concept of religious functionality and application in societal development, Obi (2012) adopted philosophical method of hermeneutics which provide answers to his roles and finally the functionality aspect when analysed in the context of the worshippers as in the case of Api-Opi.…”