RETHINKING RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE IN THE LIGHT OF ASOUZU'S COMPLEMENTARY ONTOLOGY AND THE IDEA OF GOD

Abstract

This work addresses the problem of religious intolerance which is borne out of some religious adherent's humanistic tendency to monopolize and canonize the idea of God making Him a private property confined to the limits of their religion only. The authors argue that this selfish and grossly parochial outlook has led to the development of extreme doctrines and practices that have helped in no small measures in fanning the embers of religious violence in our society today. The work decries the divisive, bifurcating polarising and domineering approach employed by some religious adherents to protect their interest. This unintended ethnocentric commitment and ambivalent tension engendered by ihekpuchianya (phenomenon of concealment) is the major cause of almost all the religious conf ids today. This work argues that religious intolerance stifles and closes the mind there by making it non-receptive to other religious views. Thus in a bid to be fanatically theistic, the mind becomes more atheistic. This is because it objectifies God and reduces Him to a property that can be privatized and caged for only a specific religious group. On the contrary, the authors see religion as a unifying factor that binds all humanity together in more cohesive and concrete whole. The authors maintain that the mind will be more receptive and open to welcome other religious views through noetic propaedeutic pedagogy, a rigorous process where the human mind will be purged of every bifurcating and divisive tendency and be educated to think in a humancentric and mutually complimentary way, since to be, according to Asouzu's ontology is to be with others. As an addendum to Asouzu's complementary ontology, the authors make some recommendations for fostering and promoting of religious tolerance in Nigeria nay Africa. The paper employs critical analytical method of reflection to drive home her points.