Christianity, Sexuality, and Postmodernity: The Case of Nigeria

In this paper, I explore the disjunction between Christianity and postmodemity, focusing especially on the ethics of sexuality. While Christianity is a belief system with a body of doctrines on right and wrong conduct, Christian ethics takes its source from the Mosaic laws which cover every aspect o...

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Published inReligions (Dawḥah, Qatar) no. 17; pp. 62 - 142
Main Author Gbadegesin, Enoch Olujide
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Doha Doha International Center for Interfaith Dialogue 01.08.2023
Subjects
Bible
Christian life & ethics
Christians
God
Jesus Christ
Marriage
New Testament
Postmodernism
Sexuality
Nigeria
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Summary:In this paper, I explore the disjunction between Christianity and postmodemity, focusing especially on the ethics of sexuality. While Christianity is a belief system with a body of doctrines on right and wrong conduct, Christian ethics takes its source from the Mosaic laws which cover every aspect of life, including human sexuality, forbidding bestiality and homosexuality. Jesus Christ, the son of God according to Christian belief, who was the origin of the Christian faith, declared that he did not come to destroy the (Mosaic) laws but to fulfil them. With this, it is the belief of Christians that Mosaic laws of sexuality are valid for all time. Postmodemity, on the other hand, eschews the notion of an absolute value and dismisses ethical fundamentalism as a mistake. On this, it sees both secular ethics and Christians on par even though, unlike secular ethics, Christian ethics anchors its doctrines on the authority of a divine being. Postmodernism finds the defence of absolute values in both secular and divine ethics as wrong-headed. My interest is not to adjudicate in the matter of the dispute between Christians and postmodernists. Rather, I am interested in why Nigerian Christians in particular and African Christians in general, insist on the scriptural doctrines on sexuality, including transsexuality/transgenderism which critics dismiss as archaic and outdated. I argue that with the injunction in Matthew 24:35 from the author of their faith, and the declaration in Revelation 22: 18-19 about the fate of doctrinal revisionists, believing and practising Christians really have no choice than to follow the biblical injunctions, including those on sexuality. In the end however, I solicit a level of mutual respect on both sides to the debate.
ISSN:2218-7480