This dissertation has been motivated by the prevailing trends of violence in Nigeria and the
detrimental effects on human dignity as understood from a theological perspective. The call for
peace building by the Decade to Overcome Violence (DOV) programme of the World Council of
Churches (WCC) is an important attempt to address the issue of violence which should be taken
seriously by the Christian church in Nigeria in its own efforts to address this problem. The
increasing deteriorating relations and persistent inter-religious, socio-economic, political and
cultural violent strife constitute primary contributing factors that threaten peace in Nigeria. For a
long time, this concern has necessitated careful, honest and sincere revisiting. This research
which is based on the DOV is motivated by the framework of the global human community
which has been marked by numerous structures of violence, injustice, oppression and
discrimination causing suffering to millions of men, women and children.
Violence, whether physical, structural, psychological or in other forms, is shown to be a denial
and abuse of life. Affirming human dignity, the basic rights of people and their integrity, shows
that justice is vital to lasting peace and that the denial of the dignity of others serves as
motivation for and usually also constitutes the first casualty of any form of violence. Violence,
therefore, reaches beyond physical harm to the violation of the personhood of the other. Victims
of violence referred to in this study are mostly the innocent and the powerless whose dignity is
being violated by religious, social, economic and political structures. Nigerian history testifies to
such denials of human dignity through the deplorable and persistent violence in the country.
Furthermore, the world is responding to this situation, and similar situations elsewhere, with
growing concern and determination. Since 2001, the World Council of Churches has been
addressing violence in many different ways. It has generated significant alliances and measures
to prevent violence and educate people on peacemaking, by declaring 2001-2010, the Decade to
Overcome Violence. Through the DOV, the WCC has declared prevention of violence a public
and organisational priority, thus, requesting all member states to establish violence prevention
programmes within their ministries.
One of the questions posed at the onset of the programme is whether it is possible to eradicate
violence completely and establish world peace within a decade. However, the initiative does not
Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za
iii
actually claim that it would overcome all forms of violence. At the end of the Decade, violence
might still be witnessed, but by participating in this global movement for peace, the churches
would have become sensitised to situations of violence within and around them and would have
been sufficiently motivated to participate in the task of healing the brokenness around them. The
desire and aspiration to overcome the spirit, logic and practice of violence in a Christian and
ecumenical spirit, however, is rooted in the gift and promise that Christ made to his disciples:
“My peace I give you”, and “blessed are the peacemakers…” (Matthew 5:9).
Against this background, engaging Hans Küng’s work becomes consequential, since a number of
key implications for the Nigerian church and society have emerged in the attempt to consider
Küng’s Christology of peace as a framework. Küng’s work is employed as the basic framework
of this research as he provides us with a Christology of active non-violence and an ideology of
peace. He presents us with a historical Jesus who demonstrated peace building and reconciliation
in his ministry. Therefore, if the Christian tradition wants to contribute to peace in the
contemporary world, then it needs to rediscover the radical non-violence of its founder and take
seriously his disclosure of God. For Küng, peace can only have its root in the world (and that
includes Nigeria), if it is established through radical humanism, transcendence, love and
obedience.