Original Contribution to a Nigerian Womanist Theology: Reconstructing Theological Anthropology from the Margins

African women's experiences of poverty, patriarchy, and cultural marginalisation have been insufficiently addressed in both Western feminist theology and male-dominated African theology, creating a need for theological voices that speak from the specific social location of Nigerian women. This study makes an original contribution to a Nigerian womanist theology by reconstructing theological anthropology from the social margins of Nigerian women's experience. A womanist theological methodology drawing on Katie Cannon, Mercy Amba Oduyoye, and the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians is employed, alongside constructive theological engagement with the imago Dei tradition, Christology, and pneumatology. The constructive methodology employs three stages: phenomenological research through biographical interviews with 40 Nigerian women from diverse denominational, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds across six geopolitical zones, exploring their experiences of church, theology, and societal marginalisation; critical theological analysis identifying how existing theological anthropology in Nigerian Christianity functions to support or undermine women's dignity; and original constructive synthesis developing a Nigerian womanist theological anthropology grounded in the experiences and wisdom of Nigerian women. Original contributions include the concept of dignified communal personhood as a Nigerian womanist reconstruction of imago Dei, a Christology of liberating solidarity drawn from the community-sustaining Christological images of northern and southern Nigerian women, and a Nigerian Womanist Pneumatology grounded in women's Spirit-led leadership in Nigerian church communities. Expert validation by fifteen Nigerian women theologians confirmed the framework's representational authenticity.

Keywords: womanist theology, theological anthropology, Nigerian women, imago Dei, African feminist theology