REREADING ROMANS 12:2 AS A FRAMEWORK FOR TRANSFORMING BRIDE PRICECULTURAL PRACTICE IN NIGERIAN SOCIETY

The bride price (also known as various ethnolinguistic terms in Nigeria) is one of the more contentious areas of African cultural heritage and Christian moral responsibility in the present day Nigeria. Culturalists celebrate the symbolic dimensions in promoting matrimonial legitimacy, community togetherness and covenantal honour, feminist scholars, gender activists and many Nigerian theologians raise alarm at how it tends to commodify women and perpetuate their subordination to men. This paper through contextual and exegetical rereading of Romans 12:2, the Pauline injunction of non-conformity to the present age and transformation through the renewal of the mind, is a hermeneutical and ethical framework and approach to engage critically bride price practice in Nigerian society. Because of the historical, social and religious aspects of bride price in Nigeria's major ethnic groups, a qualitative approach, which incorporates the following three: close exegesis of the Pauline text, African biblical hermeneutics, theological anthropology, is used in the study; and Hiebert's model of critical contextualization is used as a methodological scaffold. Evidence shows that although the covenantal and communal aspects of bride price have theological value that can be retrieved, the increasing commercialisation of the practice, the "commodification of women" and the use of bride price as a form of social control are all examples of conformity to "this age" that are expressly condemned by the Pauline text. The overall conclusion of the study is that while the practice of bride price is not called for by the commands of Romans 12:2, it is called for a gospel-based transformation of the practice discerned by the community. It helps to engage in scholarly discussions on inculturation, gender justice and African Christian ethics and suggests that a context sensitive and participatory process of reform should be led by the Nigerian churches which respects their cultural identity and upholds the dignity and freedom of the women.