Nimi Wariboko: Between Liberal and Extremist Pentecostalism

                                       Nimi Wariboko giving "Demons as Guests" lecture

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Nimi Wariboko: Between Liberal and Extremist Pentecostalism

OLUWATOYIN VINCENT ADEPOJU·MONDAY, 1 JANUARY 201810 reads

Abstract

A brief exploration of the theological thought of Nimi Wariboko at the point of intersection of Pentecostalism and classical African spiritualities.

Contents

A Point of Entry into the Range of Pentecostal Thought and Practice

Classical African Religions and Philosophies in Relation to Pentecostalism

Christian Demonology in Relation to Deities in African Religions

Expanding Modes of Engagement with Classical African Religions and Philosophies​

Are the Deities of Classical African Religions Necessarily Equivalent to Demons as Understood in Christianity?

Further Developing and Publicizing Mystical Theory, Experience and Practice in Classical African Spiritualities

Further Democratizing Classical African Religions

A Pentecostal Between Two Worlds :Liberal and Extremist Pentecostalism and the Imperative of Non-Christian Thought and Practice

A Point of Entry into the Range of Pentecostal Thought and Practice

The ever resourceful organizer of scholarship, Toyin Falola, on the 24th of November 2017, announced on the USAAfrica Google group an invitation to contribute to a book of scholarly essays on the theologian and economic thinker Nimi Wariboko, described as a Pentecostal theologian.

I was struck because I have been wondering about the scope of Pentecostal theology beyond the work of those pastors whose books and some of whose physical activity I have encountered in Nigeria, from the US pastors Kenneth Hagin, Benny Hinn and T.D. Jakes and the Korean Yonggi Cho, to the Nigerians D.K. Olukoya, Enoch Adeboye, Chris Oyakhilome, Ayo Oritsejafor and David Oyedepo, among others, an international group sharing similar orientations. I did not know of other writings on or from the Pentecostal movement, and so wondered how what I had encountered so far compared with the classic tradition of Protestant theology to which they belong as a later offshoot and the older Pre-Reformation and Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions, which I understand as foundational for Christianity generally.

Drawing from his insights as a professor of the humanities, a broad ranging scholar across practically every field in African Studies, Falola praised Wariboko in exalted terms, describing him as

“a globally renowned transdisciplinary scholar, whose scholarship has been very influential in the academy and outside it. ... an excellent theorist, theologian, ethicist, and philosopher. ... a fine economist whose studies have impacted the understanding of African economic history and corporate management. He has been an economic and strategy consultant to the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Central Bank of Nigeria even as he continues to work as a theologian and social ethicist. … one of the finest thinkers of our generation. ...his thought [ cutting across] philosophy, ethics, theology, Pentecostal studies and African studies".

This magnificent summation prompted me to briefly research the theologian, philosopher and economist who had inspired those words.

Professor Nimi Wariboko, Walter G. Muelder Professor of Social Ethics, Boston University School of Theology

Classical African Religions and Philosophies in Relation to Pentecostalism

I was very pleased to observe that, though Nimi Wariboko is a pastor in the Redeemed Christian Church of God, a Pentecostal church originating and headquartered in Nigeria, his writings differ from the myopic attitude to classical African spirituality that dominates Pentecostalism in Nigeria, as different from the more mature perspectives of the Catholic church in particular and of older Christian denominations in general, priests of these denominations being amongst the richest contributors to knowledge of classical African philosophies and religions.

Bolaji Idowu's Olodumare: God in Yoruba Belief, for example, most likely remains unequalled decades after its publication, John Mbiti's African Religions and Philosophy retains its sublimity of spirit as a permanent virtue in its breath of synthesis and rich analyses and Placide Tempels' Bantu Philosophy still stands as a touchstone for studies in classical African metaphysics, ideas about the essential character and direction of the cosmos, along with many other examples, both published and unpublished, emerging from various priestly training programs and other scholarly efforts by Christian priests. Most Nigerian Pentecostals, however, from my limited but in my view representative encounters with a denomination to which I once belonged, which I am re-engaging with and from which I have gained, like I have gained from the various spiritualities I have practiced, are not only uninformed about the developments I have described but see classical African religions as the pristine exemplar of the work of the devil.

Nimi Wariboko, in contrast, has drawn significantly from classical African thought in developing his philosophical perspectives, along with having published at least two books, The Mind of African Strategists: A Study of Kalabari Management Practice and Pattern of Institutions in the Niger Delta: Economic and Ethological Interpretations of History and Culture, on classical organizational systems from his ethnic origins in Nigeria's Rivers State. Wariboko's The Depth and Destiny of Work: An African Theological Interpretation and Ethics and Time: Ethos of Temporal Orientation in Politics and Religion of the Niger Delta bring ideas from the Kalabari and the Niger Delta generally to bear on the experience of work, that fundamental social necessity, a nexus of economic and political challenges which many struggle with, and on the nature of time, the inexorable determinant of finitude as a fundamental condition of material existence. Of course, anyone who is able to study successfully in a mainstream theological facility like Princeton Theological Seminary where he got his PhD must be deeply grounded in the breadth of Christian theology, an orientation that seems weak in Nigerian Pentecostalism, although exposure to the scope of Christian theology and of its history of ideas and practices does not seem to be a strong point of lay Christians generally across the world.

The signposts of the long struggle of the Church do not seem to be common currency among Christians, struggles beginning with a band of persecuted figures who rose to constitute the national religion of an empire and beyond, journeys involving grappling with the myriad challenges of being human in a difficult world, struggles represented by the world shaping reflections of the 5th century North African St.Augustine of Hippo to the ideas of the 20th century French Jesuit Teilhard de Chardin, the theses of the German Protestant reformer Martin Luther to the ideas of the German-US thinker Paul Tillich and the German Karl Rahner, the mystical tradition from Augustine to the Spaniard St. John of the Cross to the US monk Thomas Merton, to give a small but representative list from across the centuries, though weighted in favour of my better exposure to Catholicism. Wariboko's co-edited book with Amos Yong on a great Protestant theologian, Paul Tillich and Pentecostal Theology: Spiritual Presence and Spiritual Power , on the other hand, bears out his development beyond the circle of the theologies of contemporary Pentecostal pastors, reviewers of his work describing them as also demonstrating an engagement with a broad spectrum in Western philosophy.

Beyond the Niger Delta, Wariboko's "The King’s Five Bodies: Pentecostals in the Sacred City and the Logic of Interreligious Dialogue", engages Jacob Olupona's City of 201 Gods: Ilé-Ifè in Time, Space, and the Imagination, in a very rich dialogue that deeply empathizes with Olupona's complexly beautiful elaborations on the conception of symbiotic relationship between king, people and land in Ille-Ife in Nigeria's Yorubaland, going beyond that to suggest how Pentecostals, described by Olupona as virulently opposed to classical African religions, can identify with Ife sacred kingship as a demonstration by another ideological group of the perennial human quest to make meaning of existence, a quest carried out in different ways by various people.

How did a Nigerian Pentecostal pastor become so accommodating, so ecumenical in spirit, so catholic- all embracing, in orientation?

Perhaps his two books on Pentecostalism, The Pentecostal Principle: Ethical Methodology in New Spirit, an exposition of Pentecostalism generally, and the country focused Nigerian Pentecostalism could provide some clues.

Gasson Hall spires, Boston College in Massachusetts, Wariboko's home, photographed by Caitlin Mann, in majestic balance with the radiance of the sky aflame with the fires of the setting sun. Biophilia, sensitivity to the beauty of nature, is central to the philosophy of Nimi Wariboko, as evident in the magnificent first paragraph of the acknowledgements pages of his book Nigerian Pentecostalism and his book The Charismatic City. His manner of demonstrating this orientation suggests affinities with the Christocentric nature spirituality of St. Francis of Assisi, as represented by his "Canticle of Creatures", where he salutes all primary elements of existence, from the sun to death, as brothers and sisters, to the depiction of delight in the senses as portals for entry into the source of existence by the Hindu school of Trika Shaivism exemplified by Ksemaraja and Abhinavagupta to modern Western Paganism and classical African, Native and South American and other animistic spiritualities

Christian Demonology in Relation to Deities in African Religions Watching on YouTube his lecture , “Demons as Guests: Aesthetics of African Traditional Religion & Pentecostal Hot Prayers in Nigeria”, a discussion made exciting by the manner in which his movements and manner of emphasis express his enthusiasm, I watched out for how he would handle the prevalent Nigerian Pentecostal conviction that the deities of African religions are no better than evil spirits, particularly, since, as he states in the lecture, the title of that talk is adapted from the pioneering study by Robin Horton, The Gods as Guests: An Aspect of Kalabari Religious Life. Does his title imply siding with the view that the Kalabari deities, for example, are demons? I got the impression that is what he does at the early part of the lecture. During the question and answer session, however, he seems to approach the subject from a more nuanced perspective, questioning even the validity of the Christian belief that the distressed behavior of those seen as victims of demonic possession as they writhe under the influence of Christian prayer is due to the prayers tormenting the demons possessing the victims, asking if the affected people's responses could be purely psychological, prompted by evocations of buried trauma associated with the Christian deliverance prayer, a question he describes himself as addressing in his book on Pentecostalism in Nigeria. That approach to the subject could be problematic though on account of the range of situations in which these manifestations are described as occurring.

Expanding Modes of Engagement With Classical African Religions and Philosophies​

Investigations into the true nature of the spirits related with in African spiritualities would be enriched by practical exploration of African religions as well as by a study of their conceptions of good and evil. Religions may be understood as systems of value development and ritual practice which may be adopted in an experimental manner, facilitating entry into a mindset that enables particular ways of perceiving the world and the gaining of particular experiences less accessible outside those contexts. With the conclusion of the experiment which may be a "willing suspension of disbelief that constitutes poetic faith" as Samuel Taylor Coleridge defines the pull of poetry, or a critical examination of the orientations of a faith in the spirit of Augustine's description of theology as "faith seeking understanding" or simply an effort to engage critically with the implications of the ideas that inspire a religious community, one is likely to be much better informed about the vitality, the heartbeat of the culture in question, one might even have gained access to the privileged revelatory experiences these ideas and practices are supposed to be grounded on or to inspire.

Such an approach to religion as an experimental possibility frees one from the claim that religion necessarily implies beliefs to be taken fully on trust or faith, faith itself being approached, in this context, as a mental attitude that may be consciously assumed in the understanding that its assumption is an experimental strategy rather than a fixed commitment.

This approach to religion as experimental praxis has been well developed in modern Western magic, particularly in its sub-field of Chaos Magic. A magician in the Western tradition, perhaps Moloch in the Evocational Magics Yahoo group, sums up a similar perspective in stating to the effect that "We don't fully understand the nature of the spirits or powers we are dealing with, but we conduct certain actions in a particular manner and get certain outcomes, suggesting interaction between our actions and possibilities that are not fully, if at all within our own making, indicating there is something perhaps out there we are relating with". Much greater exposure is needed to the manifestation of the sublime and the holy in African religions. Just as it is possible to experience divine presence through Christianity, one can also encounter divine presence through African religions and spiritualities. Just as it is possible to engage with spiritual evil through African religions and spiritualities, I expect its possible to experience evil through some ways of practicing Christianity.

Are the Deities of Classical African Religions Necessarily Equivalent to Demons as Understood in Christianity?

The belief that demons as understood in Christianity are necessarily equivalent to deities in African religions is not tenable. An appreciation of the possible scope of approaches to demonology in relation to African religions is facilitated by considering the range of characterizations of spirits in African thought and particularly how African religions conceive of and relate with what may be described as spirits of obstruction. Also helpful is comparison of these attitudes to those from other religions, such as my correlation of the story of the dealings of the Yoruba Orisa cosmology deity Orunmila with the ajogun, destructive spirits, with the account of the interactions of the Tibetan Buddhist hermit Jetsun Milarepa with a group of demons in "Orunmila and the Sixteen Evils: Yoruba Divination Poetry in Comparative Context by Aníbal Mejía. Commentary by Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju".

Further Developing and Publicizing Mystical Theory, Experience and Practice in Classical African Spiritualities

The development of a greater body of writing on religious experience in African religions should help expand the scope of this field further in what are understood as the higher ranges of religion, with the mystical, the theory and practice of direct encounter with or union with ultimate reality, being perhaps the most exalted and an area in which African religions are very inadequately represented, a negative point that can't be made for Hinduism and Buddhism, for example, enabling the full range of the actualized possibilities of those Asian religions to be readily obvious.

Wariboko is a philosopher of the cosmopolis, exploring its human and financial flows, its dynamisms of power and inequality, its reflection of the configurations that define global society, as he projects perspectives on how human aggregations within space and time but ultimately grounded in eternity may be best developed to promote human well being. Picture of busy Boston street incidentally evoking the human dynamism and its suggestion of cosmic dynamism central to Wariboko's work from Toyin Falola's Flickr album on Wariboko's assumption of the Walter G. Muelder Professor of Social Ethics, Boston University School of Theology.

Further Democratizing Classical African Religions

It would also be wonderful if the practice of African religions is better intellectualized, the logic of its practices better clarified and publicized and its techniques more simplified in ways that facilitate its practice by anybody, anywhere. To give an example, its possible to buy a witchcraft kit in a shop in England, and, without reference to any authority or other paraphernalia, practice something of what is known as modern Western witchcraft. The impression I am getting from my yet unsystematic exposure to the practice of various African spiritualities is that they are too often overly mystified, too fixed in traditional modes of practice, too fixated in unjustified and uncritiqued beliefs and methods of operation, in sum too localized to their belief communities and the cultures represented by those communities. Religions travel best when they are portable, when they can be dismantled and reassembled in various locations, when their attributes can be modified by the devotee or adapted to new environments.

Jesus, the founder of Christianity, incidentally sums up the mobility and ubiquity of the religious spirit "The spirit bloweth where it listeth, and none knows whence it cometh and whither it goeth". A Pentecostal Between Two Worlds I get the impression that Wariboko is treading a fine line between the perspectives represented by his actual experience of spiritual action, the purported manifestation of the supernatural in expressing the extraordinary, an exposure perhaps defined by his life as a Pentecostal, particularly emerging from his earlier formative years in Nigeria, in contrast to the religious and philosophical plurality inspired by his broader academic study. Reading his other works, I expect to be able to better understand how he meets this challenge.

Liberal and Extremist Pentecostalism and the Imperative of Non-Christian Thought and Practice His work helps me arrive at what I describe as the difference between liberal and extremist Pentecostalism, with the liberal attitude ready to admit value in non-Christian religions, including the otherwise heavily demonized African religions and the extremist perspective not wiling to grant any value to non-Christian spiritualties and certainly not to African religions, a stark example of the latter being the novels of Frank Perreti, Piercing the Darkness and This Present Darkness in which a broad range of non-Christian religions and philosophies, all the non-Christian spiritualities in the books, are depicted as evil, in stories both thrilling and informative, their thrill and ideas of cultivating spiritual power ironically making them among my particularly treasured books in spite of their myopic understanding of non-Christian orientations.

Cover image: Nimi Wariboko giving @Demons as Guests” lecture Also published in Encounters blog academia.edu (PDF) Scribd (PDF)