Enter into dialogue so that you can learn and grow, not necessarily to change the other person. Everyone must be honest and sincere, even if that means revealing discomforts with your own tradition or that of the other. Everyone must assume that everyone else is being equally honest and sincere. Everyone must be permitted to define their own religious experience and identity, and others must respect this. Do not feel that you are the spokesperson for your entire faith tradition or that you ought somehow to know everything there is to know about it. Admit any confusion or uncertainty you might have … Continue reading Key Points to Dialogue

Ikenna Paschal Okpaleke Despite the fact that our examination of learned helplessness is directed at the failure of dialogue within our society, whether among Christian churches, or among religions, or ethnic groups in Nigeria, one feels the need to further highlight the danger of learned helplessness in our daily lives. The aim is to become aware of it and then find ways of overcoming it. A couple of things are associated with learned helplessness: One begins to think that a repeated failure means there is no hope again. One starts having a negative feeling of loss of control Then there … Continue reading Learned Helplessness: An extra

Ikenna Paschal Okpaleke Do you often hear things like: It is not going to work? This is not the first time and so, we are better off divided as we are. There is no way we can have unity in this Nigeria. Ecumenical dialogue among Christians is of no use. Dialogue between Christians and Muslims is a waste of time. Are such comments not symptoms of learned helplessness? Yet one may argue, if they are signs of learned helplessness, where did we learn them? Of course, those who defend the impossibility of unity and dialogue do not speak from the … Continue reading Learned Helplessness: Part II

Ikenna Paschal Okpaleke American psychologist Martin Seligman and his colleagues discovered what they called ‘learned helplessness’. I shall present the description of this concept as given by Barry Schwartz in his work, The Paradox of Choice: Why Less is More (2004). [Seligman and his colleagues] were conducting a series of experiments on basic learning processes in animals. The experiments required animals to jump over small hurdles to escape from or avoid electric shocks to the feet. The animals typically learn this quickly and easily, but a group of animals that were exposed to the task after having experienced a series … Continue reading Learned Helplessness: Part I

Ikenna Paschal Okpaleke This story was narrated by a Ghanaian Catholic student-priest of Catholic Institute of West Africa (CIWA), Port-Harcourt. Fr. Thomas narrates that at one time in his local parish in Accra, he had organized a spiritual crusade with his pastoral team towards the end of the year. In a bid to reach out to other Christian communities in the area, the pastoral team had decided to invite an Anglican priest. Now, this was not a problem since the programme was a spiritual crusade and not a Eucharistic celebration. And given the relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and … Continue reading Our Mary!

Ikenna Paschal Okpaleke They held on to each other Surging forward as if in a flight mode With only a foot per person on the ground The other leg thrown like a propeller And come I to think of their balance Being together gave them harmony Like roses clustered in medieval garden Clinging together gave them beauty The beauty of a conscious unity Alongside and with one another They soar higher and forward in joy. Note: I saw this piece of art while taking a walk in the little village of Hervelee, near a church building. I had to pause, … Continue reading Bonded