The most representative authors of this African theology of inculturation have difficulty in avoiding a disjunction between Christology and theology, which results in God not being thought of primarily in terms of God''s self-identification in Jesus Christ. The point of departure of African theology then becomes the God of what is claimed to have been primitive African monotheism, whose continuity and compatibility with Western theism is then shown. As we shall see, from this difficulty in truly thinking theologically the identity of God, there follows a difficulty in thinking the identity of the African human being before God and in envisaging the relationship between Christian mission and inter-religious dialogue in a way that assumes the specificity of the Christian faith. It is important first of all to define the problematic of this research by giving an outline of the debates to which it wishes to contribute and of the reasons which led us to formulate the hypothesis of the relevance of the doctrine of the humanity of God proposed by the German Lutheran theologian, Eberhard Jüngel, for the renewal of the naming of God in the context of African theology of inculturation. The Domestication of God in Religions and the Critique of Monotheism. The contemporary world is witnessing the increasing phenomenon of the manipulation of God''s name for the service of violence and domination. The conflict between the two monotheisms, Christianity and Islam, seems to suggest that religion is being transformed into ideology to the detriment of human beings and their social life. Without endorsing the pessimism of those who equate religion with violence, we must take seriously the fact that religion occupies an important place in the confrontations that mark our current societies.

The case of Nigeria is compounded by many factors. They include, the manipulation of religions for political purposes and Islamic fundamentalism which is expressed through the havoc wrecked by Boko Haram and the Fulani herdsmen, who systematically persecute Christians, kill people and destroy their farms, homes and places of worship. One cannot exclude Christian fundamentalism which is promoted by some Pentecostal churches and the systematic attacks launched regularly by different Christian denominations against African traditional religions. They destroy shrines and symbols of African traditional religions in the name of the fight against demons and paganism. The conflicts between the two great monotheisms of Nigeria, Islam and Christianity, fuel the trial of religions. They are accused of having transformed religion into ideology and idolatry to the detriment of human beings and life in society. This trial has been systematized and crystallized since the 1960s in humanist literature, notably those of two Nigerian writers, Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka. Indeed, humanist literature rejects monotheism, considered too absolute and violent.

To this conception of God, it opposes a conception of truth as unfinished, always negotiable between people who know they are interdependent in the same community of destiny. The risk is that this trial will lead to discrediting the God of the Christian faith and other monotheistic religions. Some young people and intellectuals are distancing themselves from the claim of the Christian religion to be the sole custodian of truth. These trials, which echo the contestation of religion in Western societies, also destabilize churches and missionary congregations. Faced with the contestation of the civilizing mission, the secularization and the multi-polarization of religious affiliations, churches and missionaries come to doubt the relevance of the idea of carrying to all peoples the salvation that God offers to the world through Jesus Christ. This goes hand in hand with the tendency to renounce the truth claim of the Christian faith on the one hand and the proposition of a Christian lifestyle on the other. The following questions then arise: how does one think about the specificity of the God of the Christian faith in this context of religious pluralism? Can this specificity of the God of the Christian faith make it possible to identify a specifically Christian way of entering into dialogue with other religions and proposals for meaning? Can this specifically Christian way of practicing dialogue make it possible to avoid the domestication of God denounced by humanists? (excerpted from the Introduction).