Austin Echema Boeken

Igbo Funeral Rites is about the rigorous and complex nature of death and burial obsequies in Igboland. Analytical as it is descriptive and anthropological as it is theological, the book is an attempt to provide new insights for handling some of the pastoral challenges of Igbo funeral rites. „The abundant sources, the descriptive, formative, informative, and scholarly qualities that characterize this work speak loud and clear about the enviable originality of the author“ (Rev. Fr. Dr. P. Chibuko, CIWA, Port Harcourt). „. The work exhibits admirable maturity by acknowledging the need for flexibility along with harmonization.“ (Rev. Fr. Dr. L. Madubuko, Blessed Iwene Tansi Major Seminary, Onitsha).

Christian faith is not a stranger to problems of health. The basic reason for this lies at the heart of its message, namely, the proclamation of a saviour Jesus Christ. In the footsteps and in the name of Jesus, the Church continues to engage in symbolic actions of salvation encompassing the somatic, psychological and spiritual dimensions of the human being. The integration of these various dimensions has always been a source of ambivalence. Through its practice of healing down the ages the Church has been able to inculturate the Christian message; but not without the risks of the ‘manipulation’ of the divine power which have gone with these practices. Throughout its long history anointing of the sick has almost constantly oscillated between physical and spiritual effects. This book critically examines the manifold practices of healing which flourish today in our midst especially in Nigeria. It emphasizes the teaching of the Church on healing and the healing power of the sacraments and proposes the inculturation of the ritual of anointing the sick that will be truly Christian and authentically African.

Contemporary studies in both anthropology and sociology reveal that rites develop and have meaning within the life of particular communities and their culture. Rites are thus human creations, though in a unique way. When rites and the words that go with them are no longer affecting choices about the crucial issues of life, they gradually lose their status; they are revised or even rejected. This appears to be the fate of the sacrament of reconciliation today. Although so central in the mission of Jesus that it became a sacrament in his Church, reconciliation has fallen into disuse at a time when most needed. This book contends that the importation of cultural elements, notions, signs and symbols from a different cultural setting to another is responsible for the crisis in the present practice of confession among the Igbo Christians.