Influences of Christian Religion on African Traditional Religion And Value System

Abstract

African society is a homogenous and close one with its unique belief systems.  Some of these beliefs and practices have been found to be evil and out dated in nature in the contemporary times.  Such obnoxious practices like caste-system (osu-one dedicated to idol/god), and slavery (igba-ohu) in Igboland, killing of twins, and abinos, ritual killing, oppression of widows,  to mention but a few. This need to be sermonized against so as to review them in the light of superior religion like Christianity. The methodology adopted for the study is the qualitative phenomenological approach whereby data were collected from both primary and secondary sources and treated analytically and descriptively. The findings of the study validated the fact that there are some practices in the traditional society that needed to be dropped completely, some to be amended. and some to be retained because of their rich qualities and  that in spite of the influx of foreign cultures and values the core values of the people still remain the same in most places.

Key words: Religion, Christian, Influence, African traditional religion and Value systems