SPIRITUALITY oF BLESSED CYPRIAN MICHAEL IWENE TANSI: An Afronoid Encounter with Christ - Paperback

by Fada Jon Ofoegbu Ukaegbu (Author)

It is evident that the mysterious nature of God may contribute in no small measure to the complexities we seem to encounter in our search for Him. The mystery of the God's head, that is to say, of the Blessed Trinity or three persons in one God, may intrinsically imply the idea of union or community of life and also of communion. Thus we may infer that the idea of union or communitarian life is natural and intrinsic to the Blessed Trinity. At the dawn of creation, the communitarian nature of God was noticed when "God said, 'Let us make man in our own image, in the likeness of ourselves, and let them be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven, the cattle, all the wild animals and all the creatures that creep along the ground."'[Gen. 1:26] The plural form used for God in this text agrees with the popular Hebrew tradition wherein the common name for God in Hebrew is Elohim, a plural form. If God is presented in the plural form, it is, therefore, logical to experience differences in the manner of expressing the nature and manifestations of God. Jesus, being an essential part of this Trinitarian mystery, logically manifests himself to individuals in different ways. It could be better said that people may have and manifest complementary experiences of Jesus. We know that God is so infinite in his nature and it is therefore impossible for any individual or group of people to exhaust the treatise on the manifestation of God. These differences or peculiarities in the approach to the mystery of God could metamorphose into forms or types of spirituality which are complementary to each other. Thus we have complementary patterns of spirituality as it is reflected in the myriads of existing religious orders or congregations which parade peculiar spiritual patterns. An analogy from the experiences of each of the three blind people on what the elephant looks like could throw some brighter light on this topic. The story has it that when the first blind person touched the body of the elephant, the expression was: "The elephant is like a wall ."The second touched the leg of the elephant and reported that: "The elephant is like a tree." The third blind person touched the tail of the elephant and the report was: "The elephant is like a snake." The good news is that each of the three blind people gave a true but complementary report based on their individual and personal experiences of the nature of the elephant. Now it is clear that different experiences and approaches to the infinite mystery of God could provoke the birth of assorted spiritual currents or spiritual tributaries that empty into the main course of the central mystery of the Blessed Trinity.

Author Biography

Born into the precolonial ruling family of Chukwu Njoku in Umueze Enyiogwugwu, Fada Jon Ofoegbu Ukaegbu Ph.D., has the privilege of receiving both informal and formal education. He spent his childhood days in the company of many precolonial elderly Africans who are today in the list of African Ancestors. His precolonial African experiences justify the saying that what is learnt young is learnt forever. As a Biafran war veteran, he survived the bloodiest and first genocidal war in modern Africa. He earned his Theological and Philosophical degrees from the Pontifical Urban University Rome and the Pontifical University of Salamanca, Spain respectively. In 1991 he came back to lecture in his Alma Mater, Bigard Memorial Seminary, Enugwu. He served as the Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy from 1992 to 1995. He is currently a Professor in the Department of the Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York. He is equally doing some pastoral ministry. By training, he is a Theologian, a Philosopher, Cultural Anthropologist and Social Scientist. His research effort to blend theology with philosophy and anthropology gives rise to the theory of Cultural Communion and Spiritual Communion. His research on Cultural Symbolism from a philosophical perspective has given birth to Symbolic Philosophy and Cosmic Harmony. In this regard, he is the current Director of the Igbology Research Network. He is an advocate of Intellectual Honesty and Academic Excellence. One of the fruits of his research on Cultural Symbolism is the exciting theory on Cultural Government which is supposed to be in partnership with Civil Government in the new world order of the third millennium. Professor Ukaegbu has become an exponent of Afro-vision which propagates African Originality and Identity. He is an eloquent Pan-Africanist in the Afronoid context and a faithful Pan-Humanist in the larger human family. In his promotion of Philosophical Realism, he has become a champion of the cause of Igbonization and has emerged as an avowed Igboist and a protagonist of Igboism. His focus on Igbo civilization and heritage portray him as a dedicated Igbologist and this has earned him the title of "Founder of Igbology".