An Analysis of Liberation Theology’s Relevance to Nigerian Christian Social Ethics

Liberation theology, developed in Latin American Catholic and Protestant contexts, offers a systematic theological methodology for engaging poverty, oppression, and structural injustice from a Christian perspective. Its relevance and applicability to the Nigerian Christian social ethics context has been noted but not systematically analysed. This study provides a systematic analytical assessment of liberation theology's relevance to Nigerian Christian social ethics, examining both its potential contributions and its contextual limitations. A comparative theological analysis methodology was adopted, examining the classical liberation theology works of Gutierrez, Cone, and Boff alongside the writings of Nigerian social ethicists and theologians from Adeyemo, Obi, and Ukpong to contemporary voices. The analysis is grounded in an assessment of Nigerian socio-economic structures, forms of oppression, and existing Christian social ethics traditions. Key liberation theology themes, including preferential option for the poor, base community praxis, and structural sin analysis, are evaluated for their contextual translatability. Results indicate that liberation theology's methodological approach, beginning with the social reality of the oppressed, is highly relevant to Nigerian Christian engagement with poverty and injustice, though its Marxist theoretical apparatus requires contextual adaptation. The Pentecostal spiritual warfare tradition offers a partially compatible but doctrinally distinct framework for engaging systemic evil. Original contributions include a contextualised Nigerian liberation social ethics framework. The study recommends that Nigerian theological seminaries engage liberation theology systematically in their social ethics curricula.

Keywords: liberation theology, Nigerian social ethics, structural injustice, analytical study, African Christian ethics