This book provides a unique insight into understanding the Igbo social, economic, and political world through comprehensive analyses of indigenous and foreign religious practices, issues surrounding women, literature, language, sexism in musical lyrics, films, and community development and government. It also explores thought-provoking cultural practices relating to marriage and divorce, reincarnation, naming, and masquerade dance. The themes covered in the book help readers appreciate the often-neglected multifaceted local and external forces that continue to shape the Igbo experience in southeastern Nigeria.

A Biblical Approach to Mission in Context is an erudite collection of twenty essays with forewords and epilogue produced to honor Professor Teresa Okure’s contribution to the study of biblical theology in context. It also stands in its own right as a vade mecum of current trends in biblical scholarship, gender, and contextual hermeneutics. Written by an international array of respected scholars—Okure’s colleagues, former students, siblings, and fellow commentators—this volume includes detailed exegetical studies, discussion on theological methods and contextual approaches from a variety of standpoints, and an effort to relate biblical exegesis, theology, and inculturation—faith—hermeneutics to the current interest in social-contextual interpretation that reflects values beyond the African context. In sum, the breadth of interests and enthusiasm found in this volume is a testimony to the intellectual and pastoral vitalities and passion that Teresa Okure herself brought to the discipline of biblical studies. The brief narrative of personal encounter written by Bernadette Okure, SHCJ, forewords by John Cardinal Onaiyekan and Bishop Camillus Raymond Umoh, as well as an insightful epilogue by Fr. Aniedi Okure, OP, provide additional insight into the historical and socio-cultural contexts within which Okure’s formation and contributions unfolded.

This piece articulates in a theological manner African earth-based spiritual traditions and innovative spiritual practices that are emerging in response to the painful realities of climate change, mass extinction, biodiversity loss, and the disruption of local and global ecosystems which have for long not received the attention that it deserves. It is in this sense that this Book of Readings titled African Eco-Theology: Meaning, Forms and Expressions will become one of the greatest ornaments and lights in the world of eco-theology as it responds to fundamental questions looming at the corridors of ecological discourses.

The dynamic nature of Christianity has necessitated its movement from the cathedral to the mountain top. This has occasioned a proliferation of Prayer Mountains throughout Africa. In Yorubaland of southwestern Nigeria, Prayer Mountain is known as Ori-Oke. Like many communities in Africa, the Yoruba are confronted with fundamental challenges in life for which people do not rest until they find solutions. Within the praxis of Nigerian Christian lexicon Ori-Oke is synonymous with the enactment of a sacred space on a mountain top characterised by various prayer regimes, rituals, exorcism and religious practices, aimed at eliciting the help of the divine to alleviate the existential challenges of devotees. This book explores the resacralisation of space on the mountains, highlighting how humans and the divine interact in Yorubaland. It brings into conversation 35 empirically rich scholarly essays on the role of Ori-Oke to those seeking divine intervention in their lives. Today, Ori-Oke have become centres of pilgrimage as a result of the lived experiences of devotees, creating unique religious value quite distinct from the aesthetic value of these mountain tops. The spirituality of Ori-Oke is anchored on the absolute belief in God and the infusion of traditional African worldview sensibilities in religious rites and worship. Ori-Oke spirituality employs resources of Christian tradition, introduced by the formal agents of Christianity, synthesised with traditional culture, to develop a life based on the precepts of an African Christianity. The book is an intellectual discourse on Ori-Oke spirituality, reflecting its contemporary relevance in a context of religious innovation and competition.

The Oxford Handbook of Human Development and Culture provides a comprehensive synopsis of theory and research on human development, with every chapter drawing together findings from cultures around the world. This includes a focus on cultural diversity within nations, cultural change, and globalization. Expertly edited by Lene Arnett Jensen, the Handbook covers the entire lifespan from the prenatal period to old age. It delves deeply into topics such as the development of emotion, language, cognition, morality, creativity, and religion, as well as developmental contexts such as family, friends, civic institutions, school, media, and work. Written by an international group of eminent and cutting-edge experts, chapters showcase the burgeoning interdisciplinary approach to scholarship that bridges universal and cultural perspectives on human development. This "cultural-developmental approach" is a multifaceted, flexible, and dynamic way to conceptualize theory and research that is in step with the cultural and global realities of human development in the 21st century.

Offering the first comprehensive and international work on cultural policy, Toby Miller and George Yudice have produced a landmark work in the emerging field of cultural policy. Rigorous in its field of survey and astute in its critical commentary it enables students to gain a global grounding in cultural policy.

Five specialists examine the historical relationship of culture and conflict in various regional societies. The authors use Adda B. Bozeman's theories on conflict and culture as the basis for their analyses of the causes, nature, and conduct of war and conflict in the Soviet Union, the Middle East, Sinic Asia (China, Japan, and Vietnam), Latin America, and Africa. Drs. Blank, Lawrence Grinter, Karl P. Magyar, Lewis B. Ware, and Bynum E. Weathers conclude that non-Western cultures and societies do not reject war but look at violence and conflict as a normal and legitimate aspect of sociopolitical behavior.