Re-Reading African Traditional Religion Through a Christian Theological Lens: An Original Systematic Framework

The theological relationship between African Traditional Religion and Christianity in Nigeria has been characterised by both outright rejection and uncritical syncretism, with insufficient systematic theological engagement that neither dismisses traditional religion nor compromises Christian theological integrity. This study develops an original systematic theological framework for Christian engagement with African Traditional Religion, using Yoruba, Igbo, and Hausa-Fulani traditional religious traditions as primary case studies. A systematic theological construction methodology is employed through four stages: rigorous phenomenological study of three traditional religious systems through fieldwork with practitioners (n = 30), religious texts, and ethnographic material; theological analysis of each tradition's understanding of God, humanity, spirit beings, ethics, and eschatology using comparative categories; critical theological assessment of areas of preparation, continuity, partial truth, and incompatibility with the Christian gospel, drawing on the missio Dei framework, common grace theology, and the Augustinian concept of restless hearts; and original constructive synthesis producing a systematic framework for contextual Christian theological engagement with African Traditional Religion. Original contributions include a Nigerian Christian Pneumatological Engagement Model for relating the Holy Spirit's work across religious traditions, a typology of theological evaluation for African traditional religious elements (gospel preparation, acceptable cultural form, requiring transformation, and incompatible), and a Contextual Apologetics Framework for Nigerian Christian witness to traditional religious communities. The framework is validated by 25 Nigerian theologians and missiologists.

Keywords: African Traditional Religion, systematic theology, contextual framework, Yoruba, Nigerian missiology