Africa and the New Face of Mission A Critical Assessment of the Legacy of the Irish Spiritans Among the Igbo of Southeastern Nigeria

In Africa and the New Face of Mission, Ebelebe argues that the mission theory and practice of the Irish Spiritans in Igboland (1905-1970) was forged in the socio-political and faith environment of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Ireland; an environment that produced a Church that was sacramentized, devotional, conservative, and clerical. It was this Church that the Irish Spiritans took to Igboland, and the Church that has largely endured there until now. The author considers this regrettable and calls for inculturation as the only way forward. He highlights the significant contribution of the Igbo Catholic Church to the growing pool of missionaries from the South and argues that for this Church to be truly Igbo, it must be selective in what it reclaims from its Irish Heritage and must draw from the resources of Igbo traditional culture and religion. In this way, the Church can better equip its growing number of missionaries to other nations. Book jacket.

Charles A. Ebelebe, C.S.Sp., Ph.D., is a Spiritan priest from Nigeria. He received his academic formation in the seminaries of the Spiritans in Nigeria and was ordained in 1995. He has served as a missionary among the Borana of southern Ethiopia (1997-2001) after which he went to Marquette University in Wisconsin for both his graduate and doctoral studies. He teaches theology at the Spiritan International School of Theology in Enugu, Nigeria.