JORAS - Nigerian Journal of Religion and Society

It is frustrating doing interreligious dialogue in traditional societies. Ironically, in such societies religion is relevant and thereby fuels different forms of crisis. Why should it be difficult to undertake this valuable exercise in such a context, where it is indispensable? I propose that interreligious dialogue (a form of retraditionalization) was occasioned by detraditionalization in the Western religious tradition. There, the struggle between Christianity and Secular Humanism led to the process where Christianity was marginalised and disengaged from the society. This trend, coupled with the discovery of other religious traditions, initiated the need for cooperation not only with secularism but also with other religions. In traditional societies like Northern Nigeria, detraditionalization is yet to take place. Islam and Christianity are married to politics and economics and the adherents of these two religions consider them important in bargaining for their place in the politico- economic space. Such a situation occasions competition and not cooperation, which interreligious dialogue requires. It is only detraditionalization that will occasion a reverse in the current trend and free the context for interreligious dialogue.

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