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A Comparative Study Of The Concept Of Priesthood In Igbo Traditional Religion And Catholic Priesthood
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1.1. BACKGROUND OF STUDY
The observer in Igbo traditional
priesthood sees the priest as crooked and tattered. This is because they
wear tattered clothes; carry dirty bags and many other things, which
make them to be feared. This helps to make the casual observers to think
that they are only perpetrators of evil in the community. They see him
also as a fetish priest or idolatrous priest, but no Igbo traditional
priest worships idols or fabricated objects as they think.
Nevertheless, they fail to understand that they have their dos and
don’ts and their deity will kill them if they do evil. The
traditionalists believe with their whole heart that their priests are
genuine priests dedicated to offer sacrifices to the spirits for the
benefit of humanity. This long essay will try to clear the prejudiced
views on priesthood especially, that of Igbo traditional religion, and
try to raise the status of this office of priesthood in Igbo traditional
religion, to the actual elevated status it is supposed to share with
the office of priesthood of other religions (especially catholic
priesthood).
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
It is quite
unfortunate that this Igbo noble institution has not received fair
treatment from many scholars of African Traditional Religion. So, it has
been the subject of wrong labelling, caricature, ridicule and disdain.
The worst part of it is complete misunderstanding, miss-interpretation
and miss-representation or wrong labelling which Parrinder and Arinze[1]
rightly considered as serious obstacles to positive picture of the
institution in African Religion.
Igbo traditional priests have been
labelled fetish-priests, witch doctors, medicine men, sorcerers,
magicians, juju-men devilish priests and so on. The majority of
Christians and many others in various religious sects regard them as the
promoters of idolatrous worship. In the whole world, moreover, this
type of misconception has caused a negative attitude to the study and
complete disdain for African traditional priesthood. On the other hand,
since a traditional priest in African society can also be a herbalist,
diviner, witch-healer, and seer and so on; then the problem of
identification of specialized boundaries emerges. There are also
problem of modern life in Africa whereby anything tagged traditional is
equated with being archaic, obsolete, primitive, useless and irrelevant
as the case may be. So with all these in mind, reflections on the
priesthood in Igbo traditional religion may not be considered
worthwhile.
1.3 PURPOSE OF STUDY
One may ask what is
it that still arouses interest in the study of priesthood in Igbo
traditional religion at this modern era. The reason is that the
institution has witnessed a radical change caused by the attitude of the
Christians. This can be observed in what we call evangelization,
conversion and so many other tenets, which they use to confront the
traditionalist. At the same time telling them that without entering
their own religion that heaven is not for them; that is (salvation). And
that is why I developed an interest in studying of the concept of the
priesthood of the two religions meticulously to do a comparative
analysis of both without any bias in mind.
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