Religious Pluralism & the Nigerian State — (1996)

By Simeon O. Ilesanmi

“In Religious Pluralism and the Nigerian State, Simeon Ilesanmi brings historical, socio-ethical perspectives to the relationship between religion and the State in Nigeria. In this well-researched and in-depth study, Ilesanmi prescribes certain remedies to the perennial problems of religious violence and conflict, formulating a united public ethic to deal with Nigeria’s diverse political situation. The book is a significant addition to the existing literature on religion, state, and society in Africa. I highly recommend it to all students and scholars of social ethics, history of religions, theology, and African studies.”

Jacob K. Olupona, Professor, History of Religions, African and African-American Studies, University

In the case of Nigeria, scholarship on religious politics has not adequately taken into account the pluralistic context and the idealistic pretensions of the state that inhibit the possibility of forging an enduring civic amity among Nigeria’s diverse groups. Ilesanmi proposes a new philosophy or model of religio-political interaction, which he calls dialogic politics. Dialogic politics celebrates pluralism and suggests that religious institutions he construed as mediating structures functioning as buffers between individual citizens in search of existential meaning and cultural identity and the impersonal state, which tends to gravitate toward instrumental objectives. Ilesanmi’s study offers a fresh perspective on the complex relations between political attitudes and religious convictions.