At the end of June 1960, 28-year-old Father Francis Anizoba Arinze defended his Doctorate in Sacred Theology at the Pontifical Urban University in Rome, presenting his dissertation on the topic, “Sacrifice in Ibo Religion as an Introduction to the Catechesis on the Holy Mass.”
The main thrust of the book is that the Igbo traditional religious concept of sacrifice was a preparation (“preparatio evangelica”) for the reception of the Catholic understanding of the sacrifice of Holy Mass.
Cardinal Arinze’s thesis soon gained wide popularity and in 1970 the University of Ibadan Press requested to publish the first part of Arinze’s dissertation under the title SACRIFICE IN IBO RELIGION.
65 years after Cardinal Arinze first presented his dissertation and 55 years after the University of Ibadan published it in book form, SACRIFICE IN IBO RELIGION has remained a seminal text in the study of African religions, philosophy, and cultural anthropology.
When I met and interviewed the Cardinal last March for my dissertation project, he spoke about the book and about Igbo-African cosmo-theology in a genial tone.
“Catholicism more than any other religion fulfilled the longing for God in the Igbo soul,” Cardinal Arinze told me.
I kept reflecting on those words – the Igbo soul. Catholicism. Longing for God. Fulfillment.
In these past 65 years, Cardinal Arinze has not only authored several books that explain different aspects of the church’s faith with disarming simplicity, he has also been a formidable preacher and teacher of divine truths, particularly in the many ecclesiastical posts that he has held from Onitsha to the Vatican.
With Cardinal Arinze, education is not about the acquisition of formal diplomas or the parading of a long list of academic titles. It is about a humble service of faith in which one puts one’s God-given gift of intellect and wisdom to advance the learning, understanding, and communication of revealed truths.
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