

























84  Formation, The Catholic Priesthood and The Modern Age 

 

 

 

 

C H A P T E R  6  
 

 

 

The Primacy of Logos and Priestly 

Formation in Nigeria: Context and 

Content 
 

Paul Ọlátúbọ̀sún ÀDAJÀ 
 
 

 

Introduction 

A Priest must be convinced of two things. The first is the Faith. Faith 
in this sense means that his primary orientation must always be towards 
God. This is very similar to the understanding of Joseph Ratzinger 
when he avers that faith is “taking up a position, as taking a stand 
trustfully on the ground of the word of God.1 Essentially, Faith will, 
therefore, mean one “entrusting oneself to that which has not been 
made by oneself and never could be made and which precisely in this 
way supports and makes possible all our making.”2 The second is his 
vocation. Vocation must also be understood in the sense of its 
etymology which means “to call, to name, to summon.”3 At the 
background, a call is a tensive dynamic. One is always called from 
something or somewhere. One is also especially in the Christian sense 
of vocation called for something. There is, therefore, a call from 
something and a call for something. Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s statement 
that when “Christ calls a man; he bids him to come and die” should, 
therefore, be understood not in the sense of annihilation but a death to 
something that makes living for something else possible.4  

The certainty of a Priest’s faith and vocation is not of a static 
dimension. It is a certainty that abides in a spectrum. It is a tensive 
certainty. A certainty that is subject to doubt. However, the permanent 



 The Primacy of Logos and Priestly Formation in Nigeria…   85 

 

character of this doubt is that one’s orientation of always towards God. 
In the words of the anonymous writer of The Cloud of Unknowing. 

You must also know that this darkness and this cloud 
will always be between you and your God, whatever 
you do. They will always keep you from seeing him 
clearly by the light of understanding in your intellect 
and will block you from feeling him fully in the 
sweetness of love in your emotions. So, be sure you 
make your home in this darkness. Stay there as long as 
you can, crying out to him over and over again because 
you love him. It is the closest you can get to God here 
on earth, by waiting in this darkness and in this cloud.5 

This jarring subjection of a Priest’s certainty to doubt has been captured 
best in the words of Cyran that “Faith consists of a series of 
contradictions held together by grace.”6  

This certainty of Faith and Vocation in the life of a Priest was 
what I saw some twenty years ago when I got to All Saints’ Major 
Seminary, Uhiele-Ekpoma for my Priestly formation. That was where 
I met Fr Anselm Jimoh. The relationship has been one of respect of a 
brilliant scholar and of considerable distance since he was my formator 
and will always be. I do hope that the following pages I write will be a 
respectable testimony of what I have learned from Fr. Anselm Jimoh.  

My aim in this paper is to argue that it is upholding the primacy 
of the Logos in the context and content of Priestly formation guarantees 
the faith and vocation of the formandi. What this paper will not do is to 
argue that the present priestly formation efforts in Nigeria (of which I 
am a grateful beneficiary) is outdated or unproductive. My aim is to 
highlight our present remarkable efforts and argue that we can make 
them more productive with a better understanding of our context. 
 

The Nigerian Context and Content 

The Nigerian context today is that of a schizoid anthropological crisis. 
The average Nigerian is today locked in two worlds. We live in our 
own world, but our lives are characterized by continuous contact and 
interaction with the West. This contact was and has never been of equal 
partners and yet the inequality of that contact is both the source of 
repulsion and attraction in this relationship.  The most enduring effect 
of this contact has been a confusing picture of the human person that 
subsists afterwards.7 We are neither here nor there. We are neither fully 



86  Formation, The Catholic Priesthood and The Modern Age 

 

Nigerian nor Western. With us, “nothing is purely local, nothing is 
purely foreign, everything is remotely global.”8 Our orientation is to 
the West for an idea of humanity, but the Western idea of humanity is 
also sufficiently diseased. The crucial reality that determines the fate 
of so many is that we are more than ever submerged by ‘white 
material,’ but still, have only limited access to its trade secrets.9  Our 
bodies live in the land on the Niger yet our souls are all over the world. 
Our source of pride lies mostly on setting our feet outside our shores. 
Home is never enough, not just for the young (which is normal) but 
also for the old.  That we have even thrived at all in the midst of this is 
nothing short of a miracle.  

Our desires as Nigerians seem to have an anthropological 
disorder that is not only painful but crisis-ridden. Unfortunately, it is a 
problem that ravages the African continent. The human person has 
never been so poor and yet our understanding of the human person has 
never been so impoverished. Benedict XVI describes this 
anthropological crisis by saying that like the rest of the world, Africa 
is experiencing a culture shock which strikes at the age-old foundations 
of social life, and sometimes makes it hard to comes to terms with 
modernity.10 I must note here that though both the West and Africa are 
facing an anthropological crisis, they are of different kinds. 
Everywhere the modern person, after all, suffocates in a world that 
offers everything except answers to the deeper ‘why ‘questions.’11 In 
the West, this crisis is borne out of a large-scale rejection of values that 
have mainly held the West together. Ratzinger notes that “in this central 
question of man which still remains of the greatest importance, all the 
human problems of our time converge.”12 However, in Africa, the 
anthropological crisis started as a result of the ‘violent’ disruption of 
life as it was known before the contact with the West. Since this contact 
is still ongoing and will be ongoing for a while, it is the most significant 
background that shapes this anthropological crisis. This does not mean 
this contact is directly responsible for everything in Nigeria presently, 
it simply means that our presently anthropological crisis is simply 
incomprehensible without the context of this contact.  
Ela captures the reality of this contact when he states that: 

The problem is further complicated by the fact that the 
current generation does not necessarily look to African 
cultural traditions for answers to all its questions. 
Because the young people of today have emerged from 



 The Primacy of Logos and Priestly Formation in Nigeria…   87 

 

school systems conveying alienating messages and few 
have experienced initiation rites, the totality of the 
African universe is not open to them, and they cannot 
draw on the knowledge transmitted by the great masters 
of oral tradition.13 
 

Every African (Nigeria inclusive) value that has held for centuries can 
no longer be taken for granted. Our value of family life is so overrated 
and exaggerated nowadays that we are often ashamed to admit it. How 
do we explain our respect for life amid the bodies lying in many parts 
of Africa? Suicides which in the past was a rarity and mostly occurs in 
the case of honor is now not only common but also has roots in the 
depression holding sway in many African societies.14 How do we 
understand the richness of the Ubuntu philosophy with the xenophobia 
in South Africa? How about many of our inter-tribal conflicts which 
now have a dimension that we could never have imagined. The context 
of the Western contact has also transformed our capacity for conflict. 
For instance, a conflict between a citizen of Nigeria and South African 
would have been unimaginable 200 years ago. We also deal today with 
the crisis of advanced fee fraud in which Nigerian scammers are the 
role models who even have biblical links.15 How do we fit our increased 
level of poverty, human trafficking, kidnapping, prostitution into our 
understanding of the human person? What has happened to our ideals 
of Orúkọ rere dára ju wúrà òun fàdákà?16 One of the saddest realities 
that mirror the anthropological crises in Nigeria and across Africa is 
child soldiers. How did we really get so low in our idea of the human 
person?  

A further appreciation of this contact between the West and 
Nigeria has also introduced some ideas which could not have been 
imagined without this contact. The value of Western medicine which 
has helped us understand more some of our common ailments like 
malaria cannot be overestimated. The fear and killing of twins were 
also a scourge which came to end with this contact. This contact has 
also transformed our world in terms of art.  Our array of the musical 
instruments has also been expanded, thanks to this contact. Also, the 
rise of soccer in the continent especially Nigeria is unimaginable 
without contact with the West. For the most part, in Nigeria, this game 
keeps us united. In some cases, this contact has been for good and in 
some cases, it has left us for the worst. However, the worst outcome of 



88  Formation, The Catholic Priesthood and The Modern Age 

 

this contact is the anthropological crisis our country suffers from today. 
Yet, I am not sure we can resolve this crisis outside the context of this 
contact.  

While the context of Nigeria today is the anthropological crisis, 
the content of that crisis is Pentecostal. While Pentecostal is 
immediately thought of a religious phenomenon, my understanding of 
this phenomenon extends beyond the religious connotations. It is a 
national phenomenon, especially in Nigeria. However, this non-
religious aspect of this phenomenon can be well understood if we put 
attention to its religious manifestation.  

Nigeria has some of the biggest Pentecostal churches in Africa 
if not in the world. The pentecostal presence in Nigeria is not limited 
to the religious space. It has spilt into politics, organized crime, and 
education. A good number of private universities are owned by 
Pentecostal churches (or more accurately Pastors).17 Anthonio Spadaro 
describes Pentecostalism as “the belief that God wants his followers to 
have a prosperous life, that is, to be rich, healthy and happy. This type 
of Christianity places the well being of the believer at the center of 
prayer, and turns God the Creator into someone who makes the 
thoughts and desires of believers come true.”18 Spadaro makes an 
obvious link between the prosperity gospel and the American Dream. 
This trend is not absent in Nigerian brand of Pentecostalism like John 
Odeyemi argues that most prominent and at the forefront of Pentecostal 
evangelism is material wealth, suppression of demonic forces, healings 
and miracles, and speaking in tongues.19 In a sense, material prosperity. 
Hence the main prayers here are for “financial breakthrough, success 
in business or advancement by promotion at jobs, opening and 
begetting the “fruit of the womb,” success in exams, securing a life 
partner, and even the securing of travelling visa documents.”20  

Many scholars argue that the rise of Pentecostalism can be 
linked to both factors of indigenous traditions and the social-economic 
conditions in Africa. Ebenezer Obadare in, Pentecostal Republic avers  
that “not only does the Pentecostal worldview draw directly from 
indigenous traditions of witchcraft, but Pentecostalism also presents a 
unique blend of more traditional and modern perspectives.”21 Odeyemi 
also thinks that “one of the earliest things that made Pentecostalism 
appeal to a wide range of people is its experiential African world view 
of mystical and diabolical causalities. The African mind is always alive 
and aware of these realities.”22 He also thinks the socio-economic 



 The Primacy of Logos and Priestly Formation in Nigeria…   89 

 

realities have a part to play in this case since this form of Christianity 
thrives because it provides a creative response to many destabilizing 
aftereffects of failing or failed political systems.23 The present socio-
economic as a result of these failed political systems include a plethora 
of problems like ethnicism, poverty, illiteracy, irresponsible and 
corrupt governments.”24 

The idea that the problems that confront Africans are 
sociological and a result of our socio-economic realities has led to 
African theologians arguing that theologizing in Africa must always 
carry a political character. Emmanuel Katongole for instances argues 
that “the faith crises in Africa is neither primarily nor predominantly 
cultural but political.”25 My concern is that seeing African problems as 
largely political is playing directly into the hands of the Pentecostal 
orientation. One way it does that is to see religion as primarily as a 
message of socio-political redemption and hence lead to an 
exaggerated concentration on a form of liberation theology on the 
continent that neither liberative nor touches the question of the human 
person. This is evident as one scholar noted that “Third world 
theologians are agreed that theology must be liberative and has to be a 
critique of “injustice, inequality, corruption, and authoritarianism.”26  
Éla also notes that “at a time when Africans, like other peoples, are 
facing the shock of technological and cultural modernity, liberation of 
oppressed must be the primary condition for any authentic 
inculturation of the message.27  

While it will be foolhardy to deny the socio-economic realities 
in Nigeria, I want to argue that the origin of these problems is not 
sociological but anthropological. In fact, the argument that our 
challenges are sociological in character is to play directly into the hands 
of the Pentecostal context of Nigerian life. While I am not against a 
theology that critiques the power structures in Africa, we must always 
acknowledge that the fact that politics is related to human salvation, 
does not mean that human salvation can be realized through politics.28 
This is because a Christianity that defines itself essentially in terms of 
social ‘involvement’ has contours that are too blurred and ignores a lot 
about the human person.29  Such a Christianity has attempted to bring 
God down to the level of a Deus ex machina who becomes superfluous 
through the advance in man’s own capacity.30 I also think that more 
importantly, it is all scratching the problems on the surface. This is 
because our challenges are deeper than the social and political 



90  Formation, The Catholic Priesthood and The Modern Age 

 

dimensions, though, that is the more visible symptoms that we can 
observe. We are dealing more with a human person that is broken at 
the level of the understanding of the human self.  

A closer look at the modus operandi of Pentecostalism in 
Nigeria abundantly reflects an anthropological crisis. Odeyemi notes 
that these new-age pastors are a crossbreed between motivational 
speakers, marriage counsellors, life coaches—even boot camp 
instructors and preachers.31 These pastors acting on an idea of how a 
human being should be and wants to create a new person in the shape 
of their ideas. Interestingly, they are getting successful.  Smith, notes 
the individualistic mentality of Pentecostalism, as many of these born-
again Christians are more individualistic than their parents but less 
isolated than their counterparts in the west.32 Odeyemi avers that “while 
in the older traditions, prayers seek a connection with the Divine in the 
self, amongst the Pentecostals, it seeks it in an explosion outside of the 
self.33 It shows we are really dealing with a problem of the idea of the 
human person. Hence, our social under-development should be seen in 
its naked reality as representing a fundamental aspect of the 
anthropological pauperization of the African person.34  It is easy to 
dismiss rampant kidnappings, persistent corruption, child soldiers, 
bribery, examination practices and other punishing circumstances as 
indices of social realities but what does it tell us about the idea of the 
human person we now hold as a people. Our orientation of the human 
person seems to be warped for the most past. We have in essence a 
restless human person whose main yearnings are both disordered, 
irrational and unfortunately unknown to him/her.  

I term this content of this crisis as Pentecostal because the 
Pentecostal spirit is the most pervasive spirit in Nigeria today. The lure 
of Pentecostalism for the Nigerian Christian is so much that Pentecostal 
ideas have filtered into the mainline churches.35 Politically Odeyemi 
and Obadare argue correctly in their works that, the Pentecostals 
churches are rarely against the government because they are really 
thriving with the status quo. There are even Catholic Priests who are 
publicly linked to government officials. Interestingly, these Catholic 
Priests’ modus operandi in worship and sermon is overtly laden with 
Pentecostal themes. That is why I think the pervasiveness of the 
Pentecostal spirit is more widespread, non-religious and more secular 
than we imagine. This strengthens my argument that we are dealing 
with an anthropological crisis. We use language like ‘it is well’ 



 The Primacy of Logos and Priestly Formation in Nigeria…   91 

 

profusely even when it is not well. Some even say, ‘it is well even 
inside the well’. There is an unmitigated yearning for success that has 
no respect for the other person. Interestingly, the idea of success is 
largely defined within the context of this continuous encounter 
(contact) with the West. We deceptively look as if we are oriented 
towards God but actually, we are not. We are oriented towards the West 
and its diseased idea of life and the human person.  

And how does this relate to the Priestly formation? I think two 
ways. One is the fact that every seminarian today is a product of this 
anthropological crisis which has Pentecostalism as its content. It is the 
world in which we move, live and have our being.36 Some are even in 
the seminary and have as role models some of these Pentecostal 
pastors. We may therefore not agree with the Pentecostal content out 
there, but we cannot ignore it. Secondly, this is the content they are 
being called out from and for. It is a very difficult situation when you 
combine this context and content. If we do not take time to think about 
this crisis now, there is a great danger ahead. To combat this situation, 
I propose the primacy of the Logos 

 
The Primacy of the Logos.  
Logos as a word has a significant wide range in the ancient world 
ranging from every day to philosophical usage. The root λεγ represents 
a comprehensive and overarching unity of meanings. These include 
gather, collect, select, report and speak.37 As a concept, Logos was 
introduced into Greek philosophy by Heraclitus of Ephesus (circa 6th 
century BCE).38 The fluidity of the interpretation of logos is attested by 
the fact that over time, it acquired a variety of meanings and these 
include word, speech, language, narrative, statement, pronouncement, 
question, report, account, sermon, teaching, call, sense.39 An interesting 
usage of this term was by the Stoics who saw in Logos the universal 
divine reason inherent in the cosmos.40 Hence Logos moved from a 
particular understanding to the universal principle of rationality. This 
means we can now translate this ubiquitous word as wisdom, reason, 
speech or rationality. While, the Septuagint translates the common 
Hebrew word dbr (word, report, command, thing, matter, affair) 
especially in the Pentateuch, the connection between wisdom and logos 
was made explicit in the Wisdom of Solomon around first century 
BCE.41  



92  Formation, The Catholic Priesthood and The Modern Age 

 

Thomas H. Tobin notes that Logos is an important concept in 
Hellenistic Judaism with a complex and long history starting from 
second century BCE with the Jewish writer Aristobulus.42  However, it 
was in Philo that this concept reached its full flowering in Jewish 
literature. Philo relying on the Stoic idea of logos as the principle of 
rationality interpreted it to be the intermediate reality between God who 
was essentially transcendent, and the universe.43 In some instances, 
Philo’s idea of logos has been translated to be a metaphor for God’s 
action in the world.44 However, Tobin’s position on Philo’s idea of the 
logos is worth quoting in full.  

For Philo, the logos served as the intermediate 
metaphysical reality through which the universe was 
originally ordered and by which it continues to be 
sustained in an orderly state. It was not simply a 
metaphor; it was a real aspect of divine reality through 
which God was related, although indirectly, to the 
universe. Although a derivative reality, the logos was 
not created as was the rest of the universe. In much the 
same way, the logos cannot aptly be characterized as 
either personal or impersonal. Rather it was the source 
of intelligibility of the universe and so was itself 
intelligent in a way that transcended the universe and, 
in that sense also went beyond the categories either of 
personal or impersonal.45 

 
Logos made a significant presence in the New Testament, occurring 
330 times but it was in the Johannine literature that its presence is most 
remarkable. Logos was understood in the Johannine prologue in the 
sense of the historical appearance of Jesus, the eternal and divine giver 
of life on earth.46 Thus, the logos of middle Platonists (including Philo) 
enters into history. Tobin argues that identification of the logos with a 
particular human being was indicative of the author of the Johannine 
prologue though keeping with the speculative character of Hellenistic 
Judaism but moving the conversation in a new and quite different 
direction.47 Joseph Ratzinger notes that  

John takes up again here a paradigm of theological 
thought that is extremely widespread in both the Greek 
and the Jewish intellectual world and naturally adopts 
a series of connotations that are already developed 



 The Primacy of Logos and Priestly Formation in Nigeria…   93 

 

within it, so as to apply them to Christ. Perhaps one 
could maintain, however, that the new element that he 
imparted the Logos concept lies significantly in the fact 
that was decisive to him was not the idea of an eternal 
rationality—as the Greeks supposed—or whatever 
other speculations there might have been previously, 
but rather the relativity of the existence that is 
inherence in the concept of the Logos.48 

As a result of this, Ratzinger sees the Christian faith, not as a 
renunciation of reason, but rather, is the acceptance of the extreme 
depth of divine reason.49 Whether in the sense of the word or in the 
sense of a Person, Christianity must never oversee an amputation of 
reason.50  Neither must it entertain within its ranks, a diremption of 
faith and reason. Faith is not to be placed in opposition to reason since  
it has always been clear from its very structure that Christian Faith is 
not to be divorced from reason.”51 Faith is also not the resignation of 
reason in view of the limits of our knowledge or even circumstances.52 
Faith “grasps reason in its whole breadth and depth and protects it.53 
When the Christian faith submits to any form of irrationality, not only 
is religion threatened, reason too is at risk.54  In its missionary activity 
in Africa, Western missionaries failed in many aspects but not in the 
reasonableness of faith. This is evidenced in the fact the investment the 
missionaries made into education in Africa. 

Today, the Pentecostal content of our anthropological crisis 
attempts to view religious experiences outside the realm and sometimes 
against the realm of reason as the new way of approaching the Divine. 
To be against the reasonable is the new definition of religious 
experience.55 I take as an example, the approach to human health. 
Elnathan notes satirically that the Nigerian God cures everything from 
HIV to high blood pressure.56 This is not only an attack on reason, but 
there is also little reason to develop our health sector if a majority of us 
have that understanding of God and humanity. Our health sector was 
almost better when the missionaries were among us because they have 
an understanding of what humanity needs to do in terms of health; that 
is exactly where the Pentecostal overlords want us. This phenomenon 
has become a challenge for Priests of the 21st century since 
unfortunately, we have in our midst today Priests who either 
intentionally or unconsciously oversee this diremption of faith and 
logos. We also live among people who daily do this.  This reality 



94  Formation, The Catholic Priesthood and The Modern Age 

 

becomes absurd when one finds cases in which either Priests or 
laypersons who oversee some liturgical events often pass off this 
diremption as the “new reason” creating an epistemological crisis.57 At 
the heart of our Pentecostal content is the separation of faith and reason. 
This is so much evident in not only in the teachings but in many of the 
Pentecostal attitudes that subsist in Nigeria. When we separate faith 
and reason, what we have is this anthropological crisis in which ‘gods’ 
become a tool in the hands of man. That way not only is religion 
threatened, reason too is at risk.58 We have a marriage between faith 
and any other things ‘out there.’ And God has never stopped calling 
people from ‘out there’ 

 
The Way Forward 

My suggestion is that we need to devote a lot of resources in studying 
the idea of the man that has resulted in Nigeria in the face of this 
continuous contact with the West. We should risk studying what sort 
of humanity we now have today.  Having this idea of what sort of 
humanity is prevalent in Nigeria will also help know which ideas we 
need to hold on in this contact and which one we need to jettison. Our 
philosophy classes in the Seminary should have a course on the various 
ideas of the human person that subsists in Nigeria today. As Ratzinger 
states: “One must know oneself as one really is if one is to know God. 
The real medium, the primordial experience of all experiences, is that 
man himself is the place in which and through which he experiences 
God.”59 

We can do this most by paying attention to works of fiction that 
come out of Africa today. Many of these works, aptly express desires 
or dreams than philosophical sobriety can.60 Fortunately, we have an 
abundance of them nowadays, and they also have been gathering 
international awards (again the continuous contact).61 We also must 
pay attention to the music that trends nowadays. Some of these songs 
not only reveal the influence of the West but also conceals some of the 
persistent African ideas.62 I think we need in our seminaries courses on 
contemporary African literature. Future priests sitting down and 
analyzing the ideas of the human persons we have in this novel will 
equip them with a good knowledge of the context that they will work 
in. It will also give them an idea of themselves and how much of these 
ideas show up in their own thinking. It is a tremendous epistemological 
and metaphysical task that is necessary. If it is not done, we are going 



 The Primacy of Logos and Priestly Formation in Nigeria…   95 

 

nowhere. It is easy to think we can change our structures or politicians 
but if we still have the same thinking about the human person, every 
change will be an illusion.  

After we have studied the humanity that has emerged out of this 
contact, we must hold this humanity against the standard of the Logos 
both in terms of rationality and in his Person, Jesus Christ. This is 
because, “Christ is like a signpost indicating where humanity is 
tending”63 This is the only way we can have in the words of Ela 
“another history, another society, another humanity, another system of 
production, another style of living together.”64

 What Jesus actually 
wants is not for us to change our bad water/poor water into a cleaner 
one which is what the sociological interpretation of our condition will 
do. What is required by our philosophical and theological 
investigations into our understanding of man in Africa is to change our 
water, whether poor, dirty or clean into wine.65 As Sarah Oakley notes 

Theology involves not merely the metaphysical task of 
adumbrating a vision of God, the world, and humanity, 
but simultaneously the epistemological task of 
cleansing, reordering, and redirecting the apparatuses 
of one’s own thinking, desiring, and seeing.66 

This may be difficult to even start to think about but as Rumi once 
wrote “If the nut of the mystery can’t be held, at least let me touch the 
shell.67  
 
Conclusion 

With that, we return to the question of Faith and Vocation as certainties. 
Our Faith should be rooted in the person of Jesus Christ, the second 
Adam, from whom alone the Christian picture of man can be correctly 
developed.”68  However our vocation is a calling from a Pentecostal 
reality which has a distorted vision of man to proclaim a vision of man 
‘most human of man’69 We, therefore, need men in our seminaries who 
have their eyes fixed straight on God, and who learn from him what 
true humanity is because God returns among men only through men 
who are touched by God.70 This reiterates the position that 

Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or 
a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, 
which gives life a new horizon and a decisive 
direction71 

 



96  Formation, The Catholic Priesthood and The Modern Age 

 

Endnotes 

1 Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger Introduction to Christianity, (trans. J.R. Foster. With 
a New Preface trans. Michael J. Miller, San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2004), 69.  
2 Ratzinger Introduction, 70. 
3 See vocare in John C. Traupman, The Bantam New College Latin & English 
Dictionary, (3d ed., New York: Bantam Dell, 2007), 453. 
4 Dietrich Bonhoeffer The Cost of Discipleship (New York: Simon &  Schuster, 
1959), 89.  
5 The Cloud of Unknowing with the Book of Privy Counsel: A New Translation by 
Carmen Acevedo Butcher, (Boulder: Shambhala, 2009), 12. 
6 Saint Cyran as quoted by Joseph Ratzinger, Introduction to Christianity, 173 
7 While I am of the opinion that Colonialism holds a prime place in the disruption 
of Life as Africans as we know it (a disruption in which they have little or no say), 
it is only but the beginning of a contact that continues till date. That is why my 
focus will be on contact which for me is imperfective in character and not aoristic. 
Cf. Sandra R. Shimoff, “Banquets: The Limits of Hellenization,” Journal for the 
Study of Judaism, XXVII, 4. (1996): 440-452. Shimoff notes that “When two 
cultures compete for allegiance of a single people, the politically weaker culture 
has three options: Assimilation, rejection or accommodation… accommodation 
to the dominant culture while maintaining cultural identity and integrity may be 
the only option that allows for survival.” 
8 Stephen Smith, The Scramble for Europe: Young Africa on its Way to the Old 
Continent (Cambridge, Polity, 2019), 33. 
9 Stephen Smith, The Scramble for Europe, 79 
10 Benedict XVI Africae Munus (http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-
xvi/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_ben-xvi_exh_20111119_africae-
munus.html) No11. 
11 Lieven Boeve, “Christ, Humanity and Salvation” The Ratzinger Reader: 
Mapping a Theological Journey (ed. Lieven Boeve and Gerard Mannion, (New 
York: T&T Clark, 2010), 51-79. 
12  Joseph Ratzinger, “The Dignity of the Human Person” in H. Vorgimler (ed.) 
Commentary on the Documents of the Documents of Vatican II: Pastoral 
Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Vol 5, New York: Herder and 
Herder, 1969), 115-163. 
13 Jean-Marc Éla My Faith as an African (trans. John Pairman Brown and Susan 
Perry, Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock, 2009), xv. 
14 Iku ya ju esin is a Yoruba Proverb which loosely translates “death is better than 
shame.” 
15 Cf. “Letter from Africa: Why Nigeria’s internet scammers are ‘role models’ “ , 
September 23, 2019 in https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-49759392  
16 A good name is better than gold and silver. (cf. Proverbs 22.1). Though a 
Biblical Proverb, it has a home even before the biblical in many languages/ethnic 
groups with an emphasis on honesty as the best policy. 

                                                           



 The Primacy of Logos and Priestly Formation in Nigeria…   97 

 

                                                                                                                                  
17 John Segun Odeyemi Pentecostalism and Catholic Ecumenism in Developing 
Nations: West Africa as a Case Study for a Global Phenomenon (Eugene, Oregon, 
Wipf & Stock, 2019), 55.  
18 Anthonio Spadaro, “The Prosperity Gospel: Dangerous and Different.” 
(https://lacivitacattolica.com/free-articles/) Published Date: 18 July 2018.  
19 John Segun Odeyemi Pentecostalism and Catholic Ecumenism in Developing 
Nations, 32. 
20 John Segun Odeyemi Pentecostalism and Catholic Ecumenism in Developing 
Nations, 13 
21 Ebenezer Obadare Pentecostal Republic: Religion and the Struggle for State 
Power in Nigeria, (London: Zed Books, 2018), 22. 
22 John Segun Odeyemi Pentecostalism and Catholic Ecumenism in Developing 
Nation, 55.  
23 Odeyemi, Pentecostalism and Catholic Ecumenism in Developing Nation, 51. 
24 Odeyemi, Pentecostalism and Catholic Ecumenism in Developing Nation,33 
25 Emmanuel Katongole, “The Gospel as Politics in Africa” Theological Studies 
77:3 (2016): 704-720. 
26 Mercy Amba Oduyoye “Commonalities: An African Perspective” in The World 
Theologies: Commonalities and Divergences: Papers and Reflections from the 
Second General Assembly of the Ecumenical Association of Third World 
Theologians, December 1986, Oaxtepec, Mexico (ed. K.C Abraham, Maryknoll, 
New York: Orbis Books, 1990): 100-104.  
27 Jean-Marc Éla My Faith as an African, xvi.  
28 Lieven Boeve, “Christian Faith, Church and the World” The Ratzinger Reader: 
Mapping a Theological Journey (ed. Lieven Boeve and Gerard Mannion, (New 
York: T&T Clark, 2010): 119-138. 
29 Joseph Ratzinger as quoted in The Ratzinger Reader 169 
30 Joseph Ratzinger, “The Dignity of the Human Person” 157 
31 Odeyemi, Pentecostalism and Catholic Ecumenism in Developing Nation, 52.  
32 Stephen Smith, The Scramble for Europe, 62 
33 Odeyemi, Pentecostalism and Catholic Ecumenism in Developing Nation, 15 
34 The World Theologies: Commonalities and Divergences, 35 
35 Obadare Pentecostal Republic,30.  
36 Acts 17:28 
37 Horst Robert Balz and Gerhard Schneider Exegetical Dictionary of the New 
Testament, (1990), 2, 357.  
38 Joseph Komonchak, Mary Collins and Dermot A. Lane, The New Dictionary of 
Theology (2000), 601.  
39 Balz and Schneider, 357.  
40 Komonchak, 601. 
41 Thomas H. Tobin, “The Prologue of John and Hellenistic Jewish Speculation” 
Catholic Biblical Quarterly 52 (1990):252-269. 
42 Thomas H. Tobin, “The Prologue of John” 256 
43 Tobin, “Prologue of John” 257. 
44 Tobin, “Prologue of John” 266 



98  Formation, The Catholic Priesthood and The Modern Age 

 

                                                                                                                                  
45 Tobin, “Prologue of John” 266. 
46 Balz and Schnedider,357. 
47 Tobin, “Prologue of John” 267-268. 
48 Joseph Ratzinger Dogma and Preaching: Applying Christian Doctrine for 
Daily Life, (trans. Michael J. Miller and Matthew J.O. O’Connell, Edited by 
Michael J. Miller, San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2005), 188.   
49 Elio Guerriero Benedict XVI: His Life and Thought (trans William J. Melcher, 
San Francisco: Ignatius, 2018), 367. 
50 Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger Introduction to Christianity, 139. 
51 Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Principles of Catholic Theology: Building Stones 
for a Fundamental Theology, (trans Sister Mary Frances McCarthy, S.N.D. San 
Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1987), 325. My idea of the primacy of the logos is from 
here.  
52 Joseph Ratzinger, A Turning Point for Europe? The Church in the Modern 
World: Assessment and Forecast  (2nd ed. trans. Brian McNeil, C.R.V, Foreword. 
James V. Schall, S.J. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1994),110 
53 Joseph Ratzinger, A Turning Point, 112. 
54 Elio Guerriero Benedict XVI, 432 
55 Interestingly, this is also a trend in the Western World where there is now an 
established distinction between being religious and spiritual. There is also an 
increase belief (misguided I think) that Psychedelics can induce religious-like 
experience. This argument holds that at best Psychedelics can replace religion or 
at worst become its substitute/alternative. This is the position of Michael Pollan 
“seems to me the great gift of the psychedelic journey, especially to the dying: its 
power to imbue everything in our flied of experience one heightened sense of 
purpose and consequence. Depending on one’s orientation, this can be understood 
either in humanistic or in spiritual terms—for what is the Sacred but a capitalized 
version of significance?... Religion has always understood this wager, but why 
should religion enjoy a monopoly?” How to Change your Mind: What the New 
Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us about Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, 
Depression, and Transcendence (New York: Penguin, 2018), 355. It is obvious 
that the notion of religion as argued in Pollan’s work does not capture Christianity 
as I have argued so far. This is not to say Christianity has not overseen some 
absurd and irrational events. I am arguing that such moments have been corruption 
of the Christianity.   
56 Elnathan John, Be(com) ing Nigerian: A GUIDE, (Abuja: Cassava Republic, 
2019), 12. 
57 One of the classes I took with Fr Jimoh is Epistemology.  
58 Elio Guerriero Benedict XVI, 432 
59 Ratzinger, Principles of Catholic Theology, 354 
60 Rémi Brague The Kingdom of Man: Genesis and Failure of the Modern Project, 
(trans. Paul Seaton, Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 2018). 
xiv 
61 Chigozie Obioma, An Orchestra of Minorities New York: Little Brown and 
Company, 2019. Ayobami Adebayo Stay with Me (New York: Vintage Books, 



 The Primacy of Logos and Priestly Formation in Nigeria…   99 

 

                                                                                                                                  

2018); Akwaeke Emezi, Freshwater (New York: Grove Press, 2018). One must 
also mention a writer like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie who has published some 
bestsellers like Purple Hibiscus, Half of a Yellow Sun and Americanah. 
62 I find interesting a Podcast Jesus and Jollof by ‘two proudly Nigerian women’ 
talking about the things they love, their stories and life in general. The interesting 
part is that while they are first generation immigrants in America, they exhibit in 
their show persistent Nigerian values.  
63Joseph Ratzinger Dogma and Preaching 194 
64 Jean-Marc Éla My Faith as an African, 84 
65 Ratzinger, Principles of Catholic Theology, 324. 
66 Sarah Oakley as quoted in Lauren F. Winner The Dangers of Christian 
Practice: On Wayward Gifts, Characteristic Damage, and Sin. (New Haven: Yale 
University Press 2018), 179.  
67 The Essential Rumi, (trans. Coleman Barks, New York: HarperOne, 2004), 65.  
68 Joseph Ratzinger, “The Dignity of the Human Person” 120 
69 Aidan Nichols, The Thought of Benedict XVI: An Introduction to the Theology 
of Joseph Ratzinger, (new ed. New York: Burn and Oates, 2007), 87. 
70 Joseph Ratzinger as quoted in The Ratzinger Reader, 132-33 
71 Benedict XVI Deus Caritas Est No 1 


