University of Nigeria

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Serial No ISBN:978-37547-6-9

Author 1
AGHA, U. Agha
Author 2

Author 3

Title Ethics of Responsible Self

Keywords

Description Ethics of Responsible Self

Category Social Sciences

Publisher Magnet Business Enterprises Enugu

Publication Date 2004

Digitally signed by Alice Okore

Alice
DN: CN = Alice Okore, C =
NG, O = University of Nigeria,
OU = Library Department
Reason: I have reviewed this
Signature Okore document
Date: 2008.09.22 13:53:41
+02'00'
ETHICS OF

RESPONSIBLE SELF
A Study of Terms in Relation to our
Responsibility to the Society.

REV. DR A G H A U. AGHA
(Senior Lecturer)
Department of Religion U.N.N.
2004.
 DEDICATION

As a token of administration and respect for

Elder Chief Ndukwo Ndukwo Ogbuja, Chairman &
Managing Director Gbujas lntkrbiz, Nigeria Ltd.
For his dedicated life of self-sacrifice and philanthropic
services to humanity.
 O A G H A U. U G H A

First Published 2004 by

Magnet Business Enterprises Enugu

All rights Rcscrvcd.

ISBN 978 - 37547 - 6 - 9

Printed by Saps N ig.

7 lsuochi Street. Uwani Enugu.
 PREFACE

There can be other time more apposite than this

when Nigeria is overwhelmed with impeachment
controversy between the Law makers and the President
of Nigeria. This work is on the moral obligation of
every individual to his neighbour and the society at
large. The Moral Imperative is aimed at reminding our
politicians and the general public of their Duty,
Obligation, Responsibility to the nation and to our
neighbours and to remind them of the importance of
telling the truth always to one another. The work was
informed by the non-challant attitude of the Nigerian
leaders towards the suffering masses. The work is
divided into two Chapters only with sub-headings.
The author is particularly grateful to Professor
O.U. Kalu, Professor E.N. Onwu, the entire staff of the
Department of Religion, University ofNigeria, Nsukka
for their incessant encouragement; and to Mr. & Mrs
John Nnachi Okoro who read the work and made
valuable suggestions and observations and who also
accepted to write the forward. The aythor is also
thankful to the authors whose works were consulted
which also received adequate acknowledgment in the
text. The author is responsible for whatever infelicities
of the subject matter or facts in this work.
AGHA U. AGHA
Department of Religion
University of Nigeria
Nsukka 2004
 FORWARD

In contemporary Nigerian Society, collective

efforts are necessary for our daily moral life
improvement if Nigerians should develop or forge
ahead to challenge other developed countries.
However, in this context, Ethics has a lot to do
with limits, values and the inner life of a man, that is
examining thc notions of good, right and obligation to
life, which is broadly a moral enterprise. Nigerians
need change and reformation in their behaviour pattern,
that is a total change of life style because the world is
full of dynamism and innovations.
The situation or trend of events in Nigeria has
warranted the writing of this book. Truth or sincerity
is dead in our society. People are not dedicated and
devoted to duty. Diligent ways of life is a thing of the
past in Nigeria.
In this book, the Ethics of Eternal Truth:
Obligation, Duty and Responsibilty and the Nigerian
situation, Rev. Dr. A.U. Agha has addressed the
problems which touches all aspects of life in the society
- Moral Life shown and taught by Christ and proved to
mankind.
We, therefore, very strongly recommend this
text for scholars, political leaders, Christians and all
workers of life.
MR. & MRS JOHN NNACHI OKORO
Local Govt. Education Authority
Afikpo North, Ebonyi State.
CONTENTS

Chapter 1

Introduction ... ...

Duty ... ... ...
Exegesis of the term Duty ...
Obligation . . . . . . ...
Responsibility ... ...
Ethics of Responsibility ...
Application in Nigeria Today
Reflections and Conclusion ...

Chapter I1 Eternal Truth and the Nigerian situation

Eternal Truth ... ... ... ... 34 - 4 4

The Corresponding Theory of Truth ... 44 . 45
Jesus Tells the eternal Truth ...... ... 45-48
Verification of Truth ... ... ... 48- 5 1
The Economy of Eternal Truth :.. ... 51 . 56
Truth and Falsehood in the Nigerian
Situation . . . . . . ... ... ... 56 . 57
Rejection of Truth for a Happy life ... 57 . 61
Situational Falsehood and Conclusion ... 61 - 6 3

Bibliography ... ... ... ... 64- 67

Index ... ... ... ... ... 68-83
Chapter 1

1. INTRODUCTION

What is happening in our society? What is happening

in the world today? What are the answers to the
events? These are questions we must ask in this age
of rapid, often chaotic, and frequently destructive
change. Although these questions do not yield any
conclusive answers, yet they are important in
revealing to us our duties, our responsibilities and Our
obligations to our neighbour, to the state and to God.
Honestly these questions challenge Our faith in God
in a society where vice is the order of the day. Ours is
a developing nation in which collective effort is
necessary for her success. Therefore, the description
of the terms-duty obligation and responsibility will
lead to self-understanding, guidance and the coming
to faith in God.
The present essay sets forth to study the terms
"Obligation", "Duty" and Responsibility" and their
relationships. Our task is to investigate the use and
meaning of these terms and to state how the three
terms are ethically related. The understanding of these
terms are fundamentally important to the spirit of
contemporary Nigerian society and her values. In
many forms the daily use of these terms have
penetrated every aspect of human experience, often
with consequences building or constructive to
habitual life-style and thought forms. We will pursue
this study tbough the examination and analysis of
these terms as they appear 'in various texts so as to
capture the real meaning of these words as they affect
our daily moral life. The christian life and thought
represent no exception to this. A thorough knowledge
of the meaning of these terms becomes imparative in
such society as Ours which is in the midst of great
upheaval and yet matching forviard.

2. DUTY
The term Duty is a word commonly used every day. It
has been defined as conduct due to parents and
superiors. It means an obligatory tasks, conduct,
service, function that arises from one's position.' It is
an assigned service or business, a moral or legal
obligation-fprce of moral obligation. It is a measure of
efficiency expressed in terms of the amount of work
done in relation to the energy consumed. In its
hnctional application, it means charge, responsibility,
demand, function. It is synonymous to obligation,
task, and responsibility. In a wider sense, duty is
essentially implied in every system of morality and
every ethical theory. Yet the notion of duty is far less
prominent and exclusive in some systems of morality

1. Websters' New Collegiate Dictionary 1 SO* Anniversary Edition.

The G.& C. Merriam Company. 1831-1981.
than in others2 In the Greek ethics the word is a type
of virtue or ejicellknce to be 'attain& Theji ~ m i that:t
., . &hati's good or t h e happiness, the '
'

health of the soul, i s shown to.lie ii.1 '

- . - ,the'life of virtue, 'the*perfonn&ce' of

' ! 'th* 'wb* .Or' funition
' his. oh
- nature'adl the part he has to play in'
. . thegenciral-life 'of the*communitymark '
I

,autfir him. Td se&ih.this life*f virtue"

his real happiness or good is miin's.
true wisdom, ;whereas thq,scepticism :
\r;picg;sl&'ih. it!:brdy ..ib&&*d ..&d.'ai
restraint imposed for the advantage '.of*.
, ,, . .o~&:i~~h&t'-$$hied
., ,. .
f&lly.3
.
..
.
. ' 1
.

,
, .
' '
,
, . , . '
"

'
The Atiori bfthty i&r''id ahorig ih'i'a&ci into
new ~distin&&s &id $iominefi& only when it '

realiied: itl ,' obeying,.

. a . co~rnical~ law 'of universal
reai;oh.- nis'
i$ nbt.6 &i+&-'the jinpre&idii fhat the
;

St&icsaid n& & the,g&niA . f k U l a r as'o&ers ha& .

,& & used a dl-ffe&htmeaning I

i n ,the p ~ l ~ s o p & i ~ stoics&A.

used tGe term
"Duty" to mean two different things: In orie sense it
was used9iorefer to zih .action that WAS fitting Or
prescribed by natiue 'w~?le'.in.>thesecond sense, it
implied an actbn'that w&c~n&pusly done for this
. . ' ' ..
, .. ,. . . -.. .

2. James Hastings (ed.) Encyclopadia of Religion and Ethics. Vol. V,

New York: Charles Scriner's Sons 1920, fi 1 19.
3. .lbid., Op.Cit., pp. 119.- 120. - .
reason by the good or wise man4 In other words the
term was used to express a distinction between
absolute and conditional duty.'
Consequently, the notion of duty became
prominent when morality came to be seen primarily in
the light of conformity to the law. In the course of
time christianity that sees morality in the light of
obedience to a law adapted and used the term in
various forms.

3. EXERGESIS OF THP TERM DUTY

The first use of the term in Old Testament

referred to it as the duty of everyday requirement 2
Chro. 8:14.' Solomon appointed the divisions of the
priests for their duties... "according to each day's
requirement." During the greaf feast it was the duty of
Ezra to read and expound the word of God to the
people. (Ezra 8:18). The psalmist qpds it as his
duty to perform his vow'daily (h. 61:8). The Bible
makes the keeping of comrnanQnent the whole duty
of man. It states:
Now all has been h a d , Hcne is the
conclusion of the matter: F m Ood and .
keep His commandments for this is
whole duty of man. (Ecc 12.13).

1. Ibid., Cit Op. P. 120.

5. E. Zeller's, Stoics Epicurans, and Sceptics. Eng. Tr., London,
-
(1892). pt. ii. Chp. XI, pp. 287 290.
 For the fact that T i is cdW to ministry.
Paul solemnly c k g e s T i d y before God to know
that his duty is to discharge all his duties. He says:
But you, keep your head in all
situations, e n d m hardship, do the
work of an evangelist, discharge,all the
duties of your ministry (2 Tim. 45).

When Pad was arraigned before the Sanhedrin, he

cIaimed that he had fulfilled his duty. to God in a11 the
good conscience; thus, .
Paul looked straight at the Sanhedrin
and said, My brothers, I have fulfilled
my duty to God in all good conscience
to this day. (Act. 23: 1).

In I Corinthian 7:3, Paul urges the husbands l o fulfill

their marital duty to their wives and vice-versa.
The husbands should fulfill his marital
duty to his wife, and likewise the wife
to her husband. (I Corinth. 73).

It is evident that there are duties we owe to otirselves

in the sense that we perform them all; while in the
more literal sense there are situations in which a debt
or obligation is owed from A to B and this involves
two parties. J. S. Mill contends that:
The only part of the conduct of any
one for which he is amenable to
society is that which concerns others.
 while in the which v l y
concerns himself, his independence
is, of right ab~olute.~

But this view is in the real sense, contrary to our

moral judgment which asserts and condemns
extravagance, drunkenness arid idleness in themselves
without waiting to see their directnr indirect harmful
consequences on other agents other than the person
himself. Secondly it assumes discriminiition between
injury to self and injury to others. We have what
might be described as immanent and transit &uties. In
the former we practice the duty of temperance by
ourselves while in the later we practice the duty of
speaking the truth only in relation to others. This later
type of duty can further ,be (classified) divided into
those that are general e.g. Keeping-promise, honesty,
and those that depend on some more specific
relationship or institution e.g. Parental or filial duty-
family. Other types of duties include: strict, perfect
and imperfect. The fulfilment of Duty therefqre takes
both horizontal and vertical dimensions.

6. Liberly, People's ed., 1865. p. 6 in encyclopadia of religion and

Ethics, Vol. V . p. 122
 -Vertical Duty to God
Vertical Duty to God
God's Duty to Man

The most important factor in the internal over-

all development of modem ~ i ~ e r i $ s o c i ehas
t ~ been
the national conscious-ness forcefully expressing
itself in political activity. The achievement of both
political and economic stability solely depends on
each person performing his moral and political duties.
For it is the duty of the Nigerian leaders to remove the
"moral and intellectual rust,"' which had accumulated
on the principle of unguided disciplined freedom over
the past years. Our duty to the Nation must be seen as
our obligation. This consuming loyalty to the Nation
impresses others of our genuineness 'to bring social
and moral changes to the Nation.
. -
3, OBLIGATION
The word obligation is derived from the latin

7. Roland W. Social Ethics in Modern Hinduism. Calcutta: Y M C A.

Publishing House. 1953. p. 73
word OMi' which means bound to some rule or
norm, It is the action of obligating aneself to a course
of action. It is the demand of conscience or custom, in

I
which one is bound to do or forbear something -
social pressure, law d conscience. It means duty - a
condition or feeling of bei g indepted especially
?
legally, ethically or socially. t is not unusual for one
to feel a sense of the personality being bound by that
which may have no external authority to enforce it.
The term has both moral and legal implications. In the
legal aspect, it involves some external coercion while
in moral aspect, it assumes an inner compulsion, the
'oughbessS, the inner voice that says "I Must".
However, in practical life it is not easy to separate the
inner compulsion from the sense of the external
coercion.
In the African context it is shaped and
sustained in an increasingly elaborate system of
'taboos' (tabus) which form a connection between the
external and internal powers. Obligation implies
compulsion, debt, duty, good deed, liability, necessity,
promise, undertaking and biding.

EXERGESIS OF THE TERM: BIBLICAL

CONTEXT
When the Jews were rebuilding the Temple in
Jerusalem following the permission granted them by
king Cyrus, Rehum, the governor and Slwshai, the
enemies of the Jews wrote to King Artaxerxes
(Xerxes) of Persia to stop the rebuilding work. In their
.etter they claimed that being his subje+, they were
mder obligatim~tohis Majesty. They said.
Now, %muse we are under obligation
to Your Majesty, we do not want to
see this happn, and sa we suggest that
you order a search to be made in the
records your ancestoqs kept If you do,
you will discover that this city has
always been rebellibus and that from
ancient times it has given trouble to
kings and to ruIers of the provinces...
(Ezra 4! 14-15).

St. Paul desires that christians should live a life in the

spirit. He posits that it is ,the obligation of christians
to put to death their sinfiil actions through the power
of the spirit so that they might live (Rom. 8:12). In
another place Paul claimed that it is his obligation to
win converts to God irrespective of nationality or
status in life, for he said:

For I have an obligation to all peoples,

to the civilized and to the savage, to
the educated and to the ignorant. So
then, I am eager to preach the Good
News to you also who live in Rome.
(Row. 1: 14-15).

While in Galatia, Paul urged them not to give in for

circumcision for the fact that they have been set free
 . - . . . . . . .;J . L .

by ~ h r k t arid
, thkrefore t h i i .shbuld~b&ive hke free
people. He reminded 'them that thbse who aObw
themselves to be circum&sed &al& ...oblig&dto obey , . r

the whole Jewish law. And ,htthosq of then' who try

to be put with God by obji@'tht la(; I.have cut
(a.-
I

themseh& off from Chtist. 1': 3,. . 4). , . . , i : :"b' . p ,

Chrktenjoins sll,chrlibii ta.,,.!, @ d.,.& t it is .v

their o'bligation to f q i v e their *ies, ,not only

'

"seven times, but until &venty ti- s+ny,:j~tt.. 18

- 22). It is only those who w i t their,ddftq forgive
all who &g them will in turn receive','$&jiveness
from God. The injunction impties that people are
bound to an unqtinted and ~mcalculatingforgiveness.
God s loving kindness obliges m& to seek.'first:the
kinidom. of Heaven (MI& 6:33) arid::'& t~eiSarnk
reason;,man..has :the obligation io , a , . cheerful
::
, '

acce&mceof
. .. . . :'Ood s will. (Mitt.
. . 7:11].
..
..
.
,
.
: .
. .
4 RESPONS~BILIT* .
The term responsibility is "of rda&ely &ent
origin and has taken a new meaning in our age.
According to H. ~ i c h a r d~ i e b u h r there
, was a time
when the word meant "C~rres~ondent."~ One could
say "The mouth large but not responsible to so large a
body."9 The word is not the only child of the mother
for it came into a family 'where there .were older

. .. ,.; - .. I i
8.
'
id The ~e&onsible ~ c t ~ . ' : ~ e k ' ~ o r k : ' ~ a ~ k r s t o w n .
1-1. ~ ~ c h a ~iebuhr.
San Francisco. 1,ondon:Harper 811dR13uPublish'kis: 1963.'~. 471'
9 Ihid.
 11
\

siblings like the words duty, obligation, law,

goodness, and morality. Niebuhr posits that every free
human being has:
The will to pleasure, the will to live,
the will to power, the will to
self-fulfilment, the will to love and
to be loved, the will to death and many
other hormetic drive may be posited as
most natural to man, whether as most
compulsive or as setting before him
the most attractive. future state of
affairs. 'O

Responsibility is the quality or state of being

mswerable for all acts of thought and conduct. It- is a
state of being responsible-as a moral, legal or mental
accountability. It me.ans . reliJability and
trustworthiness. Christim-responsibility iSanswerable
to the teachings of Jesus a i k civil responsibility is
being answerable to the civi.1 or state laws. The word
or Term is synonymous to the terms: duty, attribution
commission, operation or supervision. Two
significant elements have to be taken into account
before we proceed. First and foremost responsibility
relates closely to freedom of choice and the object to
which it is answerable; and human responsibility to
3

' further matters require elucidation; the extended

10. Ibid., p. 50
sphere of answerableness in the light of civil law or-
the ideal set up by Christ (a) Freedom of choice and
Resmnsibility. Man has free choice from either
higher or lower duties. Without real freedom of
choice there could be no real moral responsibility."
Every individual has the ability to choose. By this we
mean that man no doubt has a certain amount of
freedom which enables him to change, to improve his
lot, to direct his future. His free will is the fqculty that
enables him to choose between good and evil which
in turn leads to doing right or wrong. It is true that
man can not alter his heredity and environment yet he
has a certain degree of freedom to influence his
environment and work with his partiplar talents. To
the religious mind man has no absolute freedom,
because there is always the immanent presence of
God. Man's freedom, therefore, is within gracious
boundaries, within the full tide of Divine love and
mercy.

(b) The object to which Responsibility is Due:

Modem moral teachings claim that the object

to whom answerableness is due i,s oneself, or one's
neighbour or one's God. But it is the (sphere)
conscience which controls the enforcement of these
spheres of duty, therefore the man is really subject to

I I. Shadworth H. Hodgson. The Metaphysic o f Experience. London:

1898, p. iv, 120.
conscience as the authority which imposes
ordinance^.'^^ Jesus did not reject for'the most part,
the Jewish culture of responsibility which was
essentially answerableness to God. It will be the duty
of every individual to give an account of himself on
the last day (Matt. 1236).Therefore every man has the
obligation to pursue perfection in order to be with
God in heaven (Matt. 548). We owe duties to our
neighbours, love to our enemies, almsgiving to the
poor, food to the hungry, water to the thirsty and
clothing to the naked according to Christ's injunction.
As we fulfil these duties to our neighbours we do
them even to God.

BIBLICAL USE OF THE WORD

When the people of Israel were in the

wilderness during their journey to the promised land,
the Levites were given the responsibility of protecting
the tabernacle. So they f o r m 4 a protective hedge
against trespassing by the non-Levites to keep them
from experiencing the wrath of God. The ~ i b l states:
e
The Levites, however, are to set up
their tents around the tabernacle of the
Testimony so that wrath will not fall
on the Israelite community. The

12. James Hastings (ed.) Encyclopadiaof Religion and Ethics, Val. X.

I?
-
New York: Charles seribner's Sons, 1920. pp. 439 40.
 Levites are to be responsible for the
care of the tabernacle of the
Tesdmony. (Nun. 1 :53 (NIV).

In the New Testament Jesus enlarged man s sphere of

responsibility and increased the feeling of it. The
neighbour is not only the man of our own nation, but
it indudes any person whom circumstance gives us
the opportunity of assisting (Lk. 10:25-27).
The story of the Good Samaritan defied all
artificial barries through which people seek to limit
their obligations to their neighbour. A new set of
obligations to hospitality are laid upon every christian
by Jesus (LK. 14: 14). He urges us to include in our
friendship all men, friends, the poor and Our foes
alike and even those who persecute and those who
despite fully use us (Matt. 544). Therefore Christ has
laid on all christians an extensive field of
responsibility to the despair of the moralists.
Responsibility does not only mean the
outward act but it includes inner thought. A man i s
held answerable not only for murder but also for
angry thought from which murder issues. (Matt. 522).
We are held responsible not only for licentious deed,
but also for unholy imagination. In fact, for the
obligation to be moral, it must be an obligation that
preserves the heart in purity and love because "out of
the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery. sexual
immorality. theft, false testimony slander.(Matt. 1519).
 St. Paul was aware of his duty to minister the
word of God first to the Jews. He did not hesitate to
do that until the 'Jews questioned his authority to dc
so. Then lie shook out his clothes in protest and said
to them: "Your blood be on your own head! I am clear
of my responsibility. From now on I will go to the
Gentiles." (Acts. 18:6).
Paul enjoins every christian to realize that in a
spiritual sense he belongs to Christ and because of his
allegiance to Christ he has it as a duty not to oppress
the underprivileged in the society.
(I Cor. 7:24Cf. Eph. 6 : 5 , 9 ;Col. 3:22; 4: 1).

5 VTHICS OF RESPONSIBILITY

Jesus constantly rebuked the Pharisees for

their Legalism, that is, their tendency to
overemphasize external observance of the Law at the
price of forgetting the fundamental inner attitude ol
seeking always to do God s will. The danger of
legalism is not a thing of the past. it is present today
among some Nigerian Christians. Some church
leaders do not even wadt to have anything in
Common with other denominations.
Moral Responsibility demands that we avoid a
legalistic attitude. I do not need to remind you that a11
morality is about love of God and love of nei$;hbour.
Jesus loved us as the Father loved him, therefme, we
have to live on in his love by keeping his
commandments of loving one-another as he loved us.
(Jn. 15:12).
Ethics of Responsibility is the theocentric
ethics in which the self and community are dominated
by the action of God-God is the center of action and
attention. It involves the following dictum:

Unrelenting faith in God;

An active concern for the other-self - and
willingness to serve others - community and
Nation.
It involves doing more than expected
(Forgiveness) uncalculating forgiveness.
Willingness to suffer for the sake of others,
ever. the enemies.
Prayer and good works done in a spirit of
humility.
It denotes a putting o f f Of the world's goods
in Perspective, using them, not becoming their
slave.

Responsibility is an ethics of faith which is the mode

of life that issues mainly out of faith in God, given in
and through Jesus Christ.
It is an ethics of freedom - freedom from and
freedom to. When faith in God predominates, the self
is free from concern for itself and is able to accept
itself as a forgiven self. The self is free from bondage
of cultural values. At that point our entire value
system changes because God is our new centre and
we are related to Him. The self is also free from its
bondage to the law. Our whole comprehension of the
law is transformed because we are related to Jesus
Christ who kept the entire law for man. Responsibility
then means freedom to love other people and freedom
to deal creatively with the personal and social
situations we encounter and are adequately able to
deal with the situation.
Ethics of Responsibility regards man as one
who is deeply involved in dialogue with another and
who tries to make fitting response to the address of
the others' action upon him. It desires us to know
what is going on or happening and the proper
response to make. According to H. Richard Niebuhr ''
the responsible self wants to know what is going on
and what will be the most proper response to make. It
is fundamentally ethics of social character in which
self is understood as existing primarily in relation to
other selves,

PEOPLE IN DIALOGUE

13. H. Richard Niebuhr, The Responsible Self. New York: Harper and
-
Row. Publishen. (1968). pp. 55 68.
 Neibuhr has four characteristics of the
Responsible Self:
1. He maintains that persona1 action is a
responsive action which is like the action of
one who answers and responds to another.
2. It is a reaction to action, but it must be a
response to an interpreted action. This occurs
in accordance with the self interpretation of
the deed and the pawer to which it reacts.
3 It involves accomtability.We are accountablc
to whatever responses we make or the action
we take. Our deeds are responsible not only
insofar as they are reactions to the interpreted
actions that affect us. but also insofar as they
are made in anticipation of answers to our
answers.

We must point out here that our responses to

actions upon us differ significantly simply because
our interpretations vary and also for the fact that the
time spans into which we fit our actions change
dramatically.

4. It demonstrates social solidarity. Niebuhr, like

Royce, Buber, and George Her-ben Mead, postulates
that there is no sclfhood a part from the community.
The self is not an island, but a social being who is
dependent upon the faith response of others in the
community in order to form a reliable sense of
identity. Niebuhr asserts that the self is hardly alone
as a knower. valuer, initiator or responder.
Thus the self ushers into the present its social
past and is challenged to act in the future in a way that
is fitting. However, what a person may consider as
fitting or unfitting response to an action depend
mainly upon his understanding of its historical
context. In whatever situation he finds himself,
response must be a total trust in God and universal
responsibility.

Duty Oblr(lsllonlResponslbili~lo

Jesus Christ brings to expression the true w q

of life for man, and especially the Nigerians at this
time. He is the responsible man par excellence,
responding in love and trust to his Father and bringing
the universal love of his Father to bear upon all men.
Universal Love of God through Christ.

Christ fulfilled His Duty, Obligation and

Responsibility to man His Universal Love.

6 APPLICATION IN NIGERIA TODAY

God made -man a social animal, and in so
doing He sanctions the formation of the State as the
necessary means of regulating man s social life and
gives the state the authority for the fulfilment of this
purpose. Therefore, in the natural order the State is
the institution entrusted with the task of framing civil
laws as the positive laws needed to supplement the
natural law. The civil law applies the natural law to
human society. Moral obligation is implied in the
civil law.

In a developing nation like Nigeria it becomes

imperative for the citizens to conform their conduct to
the norms of morality which includes man s social
relations to his fellow man. We are obliged to be
obedient to the civil law which is indispensable to our
life in the society. Human society, unlike the animal
kingdom, must he guided by law.

The destruction of the state is inevitably by

any acts of disobedience either collectively or by
individual citizens. It is the individuals that make up
the group, therefore, both the individual and the-
group are obliged to be responsible to the state law.I4
No one citizen has better right to disobey than
another, it is a case of all or none. It is not an
overstatement to say that as citizens we must be
united into one body demanding cooperative action
aimed at building the Nation, each contributing to the
common good and that can only be achieved by
keeping the law.

The most peculiar question people ask in our

Nigerian society is not "what is the Law" or 'what is
the objective" but "what is happening and what is the
most appropriate response to what is happening. The

14. Fagothey. p. 200

prophets of Israel eg. Isaiah -were interested to know
the intentions of God about what was going on. Like
the lsraelites who were worried about the drought, the
enemy invasion, the fall of their great nation, the
responsible citizens in Nigeria should be concerned
with what is happening to our economy, collapse of
morality, education and civil administration. It should
be the responsibility of the Nigerians to seek and
understand the action of God in everything that is
happening and to make every effort to find the
solution through making fitting responses. Even Jesus
who points us to God was mainly concerned not with
the law but with what happens to man and he gave a
fitting response to the situation. It was his concern for
humanity that he came into the World. He fulfilled his
duty or responsibility by dying for man. This should
offer every christian an absolutely new way of
understanding our responsibility towards the
rebuilding of our country a Nigeria.

In Nigerian situation some medical doctors do

not keep up with the latest developments in medicine
thereby causing patient S death certainly as if he had
neglected him. His moral responsibility is questioned.
The drivers of Luxurious buses, Tracas, Public
transport drivers are blamed for not exercising due
care and for being irresponsible as well as rude in the
sense of Traffic Code.

While we are aware that we are all human and

make mistakes, it is nevertheless the duty every moral
earnest man to make himself as wise and well
informed as possible. All persons who drive a car on
the highway, or manages an enterprise which is
closely related to the welfare of other persons owe
responsibilities to the public.

If a man professes some special knowledge or

skill and, upon the basis of his claims, offers a service
to society, those who accept the service assume
ordinary care and diligence. If such a person shows
gross neglect leading to injury, the courts have a duty
to support a claim against him. Those who employ the
services of people have the moral responsibility to
remunerate them adequately according to their out put
and not to intimidate them by threatening their
dismissal from the job for asking legally for their
rights. Those who maintain services or employ
agencies that may get out of order or do damage or
escape, as in the case of animals, are expected to
exercise care in keeping them within proper bounds.
It is only on this basis can men go about their affairs
in society without constant fear and worry and
without danger to general security.

Those who offer such services to the public

have definite obligation, including willingness to
serve all persons sincerely, equally and to be
responsible for safe delivery. Even little children are
held responsible for their acts, in proportion to their
age and experience, especially when they can clearlj
grasp the significance of a given act and it5
wrongfulness, or rightfulness. They are held
accountable. All we are trying to communicate to OUI
readers is that our system of reward and punishment,
approval or disapproval, praise and balme should
assume freedom and responsibility. Our responsibility
increases with the growth of intelligence and one is
held liable in order to make one's future conduct
change. It would be absurd to hold a coconut or an
orange responsible when it falls from the tree and
injures a person or to blame falling tree which crushes
a passer-by. These are inanimate objects that do not
interact with conditions about them as to learn, so as
to modifl their attitudes and disposition^.'^

7 REFLECTIONS

Relationships: A careful study of our essay will show

that a cursory view of these three related terms is
instructive in understanding man's constructive moral
duties. A few conclusions have issued from our study.
(a) It is concluded that the use of each term reflected
to man's moral responsibilities. (b) There is the right
and wrong application of the the terms. (c) These
terms (words) are equally related to morality and legal
norms.

15. J. Dewey, and J. H. Tufts, Ethics. (Rev. Ed.) New York: Henry Holt
and co., 1932, p. 337.
 Obligation may be regarded as a divine
implanting in the human soul because it ascribes a
certain absolute and fixed character that often ended
in an unreal and static morality. Through religion and
philosophical history and reflectionhe have come to
realize the fact that all codes are, in part at least,
subject to constant change according as social,
economic and political conditions change.

The three terms can hardly be dissected or

separated in their ethical, religious and legal use.
They are inter-related.

We have also come to the conclusion that

Responsibility can either be perfect or imperfect. It is
perfect when an agent has full control and freedom of
choice and full consent. It is imperfect responsibility
if there is something wanting in the person s
knowledge. If either the knowledge or free choice was
wholly lacking, so that there was no voluntariness at
1
all, then it is imperfect responsibtlity. If a person lacks
! knowledge. while he is capabfe of it, he may not have
! the obligation to have such knowledge. A duty will
receive perfect execution if one knew exactly what
one was supposed to do. That is one has full
knowledge of one s obligation.

ETHICAL VALUES IN THEIR RELATIONSHIP

~ i g u s t i nFagothey contends that "Responsible
individual is one who is consciously and hlly in
control of his will. It is only on this ground can his act
be regarded as human act (actus humanus)'~ndcan
he be held responsible for his act. But if a man is not
I the master of his act because he did not consciously
control it, that act is not human act but "an act of a
man" (actus hominis. Therefore the man will not be
actively held responsible The acts we did in infancy,
while asleep, delirium, insanity, or fits of abstraction
are some examples, and they have no ethical values."
Accordingly an agent is responsible, answerable,
accountable for his act, and responsibility for a bad
act is called 'guilt . I 8 ~ ~maintains~ that
"Responsibility arid imputability are the consequence
of voluntariness, the essential constituent of a human
act, an act in-which man is master.'"

16 Fagothtv,. 1). 75
17. Ihid:
18. [hid.. p. 1x7.
19. 1 1 4 . . p. 1x7.
 One might like to pose the question. What is
this oughtness, or obliyation. or duty and how does it
obtain its binding power? This is an important
question in ethics whose significance is evident. In
some cases we impose the oughtness, or obligation or
duty on ourselves and in other cases it is imposed on
us from the outside. When the later is the case, it must
com~eeither from God through 'natural law or from
.. . I . ,.'.
fello~w men politically organized into the state or
'

group ~ivlngana in eacn case we reel a sense of duty

or obligati~n.~' lmmanuel Kant argues that "the moral
positivists draw all moral oblieation
" from the state.
thus makinig the moral law and the civil law
equivalent," 2' and he centers his ethical system'on the
idea of duty
Duty has been aennea as a moral omiyatlon or
ksponsibility to do or not to do something. Duty can
be taken subjectively or objectively. The former is the
moral obligation to do or omit something while the
later is the moral obligation of that which must be
'done or omitted. We can say "He has a duty"
peaning that thek ,erson is morally obliged, and "He
&
does his duty" w h means that he does the thing he
is obliged to do. According to Fagothey subjective
and objective duty agrees with subjective and

20.. Ihid.. p. 170.

.- - .

21. l&anual Rant, Foudations oflhc Metaphysics?f Moral iq L.W.,

Beck. Chictigo: llnivenity of Chicago Prean. 1949. S w h n 1.
..
objective right.* Therefore, one can conclude that
right is limited by duty. A person Can only exercise
his duty up to the point where his duty to others
supercedes his right. Any right that injures other
rights ceases to be an objective right. So does duty.
Parents, for instance have the moral duty or obligation
to their children's training and obedience, but not in
their choice of a state of life. The child, in this case
has the inherent right to choose his state of life.

Fagothey contends that right and duties are

m l a t i v e and complementary as a result of the fact
that of moral inviolability of a right.23If I have a right,
everyone else had a duty to respect my right, in that
case the term of a right becomes the subject of a duty.
Fagothey posits that:
If I have a duty, someone else has a
right to the the thing I must do or omit;
If no other man appears to have such a
right, then at least God has it, as in my
duty to preserve my life. If I have a
duty, I have also the right to fulfill that
duty mddo all the things necessary for
its fhlfilment; otherwise it could not be
a genuine d ~ t y . 2 ~

Fagothy. p. 256.
$1 Fagothey, p. 257
24. Ibid. Cit. Op. P. 257.
On the other hand if I have a right, it is not necessarily
a duty to exercise that right. It is not possible for any
one to exercise all his rights, rather he must have to
choose between the incompatible and compatible, for
instance a right to stand and a right to sit.

All duties are moral obligations which come

from the law. A part from the fact that duties d be
classified into natural or positive, divine or human,
ecclesiastical or civil, yet the most significant
classification is the affirmative ,and negative.
Affirmative duties stem from affirmative laws -
(commands) which in turn require consumation of an
act. Negative duties come as a result of negative laws
(e.g. prohibition) which require the difference
between the affirmative and the negative duties is that
they impose a different type of obligation.

EXECUTION OF' RIGHTS AND DUTIES

It is not unusual to find a situation in which

one man has moral power to execute a thing and
another has moral power to stop his fulfilling it. In
some cases a person may have two incompatible
duties to discharge for two separate individuals at the
same time, or the same man has a duty to one person
to execute a thing and also a duty to another person to
refiain from executing it. However, this idea of
conflict between rights and duties can hardly be over
emphasized since there can be no real conflict of
rights and duties. All duties and rights come from law
and all law is taken from the<naturallaw based on the
eternal law in God. Therefore, the natural law can not
at same time command and forbid the same thing, for
this will suggest a contradiction in the will of God.
Therefore the conflict is only apparent.

PERMISSION FROM DUTY

Duty as we know is imposed on us by law for

the common good of men. The purpose 'is not to
create unnecessary burden for man. Some time we
have legitimate or illegitimate excuses from duty.
There may be causes that can excuse us from duty for
one reason or the other. Whatever reason that can be
given to excuse us from duty can be measured against
the importance of the duty and the type of law from
which it (emanated)originates.

Fagotheyz5has summarized the idea of excuse

from duty in the following three main categories:

(a) A negative duty issuing from the natural law

does not permit any excuse at all. Such can be seen in
matters prohibited by natural law as intrinsically
wrong. God may not even give permission to do such'
things.

25. lhid., Cit. Op. P.261f

In that we prefer death to committing the offence.

(b) A person can be excused from an AfErmative

duty which stems from the Natural law, as a result' of
the excessive pains. The duty could be postponed for
a more favourable opportunities when the hardship
will not be present the omission of an act of worship
must not be regarded as a denial of God.

(c) One can be excused from a duty arising from

human positive law, whether afirmaIive'^or negqive
because of the excessive hazards-Wghts of a child
%sed on dutids to parents. Such law$ are not meant to
be a hindrance but to help human exjstence.

CONCLUSlON
All through Our essay we have shown in different
ways how the three terms are closely related -
ethically and legally. One can hardly claim to be a
responsible individual withkyt filfilling one s civil
duties. Both the individual ahd corporate bodies owe
both ethical and legal obligations to the increasins
complexity of the Nigerian society. This brings us to
what we might call corporate duty and responsibility
which ha's become a modem problem to our society.
The failure of corporations and business organizations
to fulfil their obligations to the community in which
they have established their business and to their
workers has resulted to unbalanced development and
hardships to the workers. It has also made possible
great concentration of wealth and power on the few
hands while the masses suffer. Their refusal tc
employ more hands has contributed in no shall
measure to heighten the problem of unemployment.
There are now numerous bandits who press
the aut~maticpistol to acquire quick wealth in our
society. The lack of complying to corporate
responsibilities lead to committing group crimes and
when this happens where to place responsibility and
how to distribute blame becomes a problem. Do nor
let our brief discussion lead you into thinking that ttic
issue we have raised is a simple one. The constant
increase of price of commodities in the market come
from these corporate bodies and big business
organizations. Every effort should be made to allocate
blame in order to hold the Officials responsible either
individually or collectiveIy for their unethical and
illegal actions.

The problem of making people in our society to

recognize their civic, ethical and legal responsibilities
is continuos Progressive problem today. This can only
he brought to a halt when people act well their part to
maintain their honour and human dignity.
\
 ENDNOTES
1. Websters' New Colleeiate Dictionarv 150'
Amiversary Edition, The G & C. Merriam
Company, 1831- 1981.

2. James Hastings (ed.) Encvclo-pedia of Reli-

and. Ethics Vol. V, New York: Charles
Scribner's Sons, 19 p. 119.

3. Ibid., Op. Cit. pp. 1'19-120.

d. Ibid. Op. Cit., p, 120.

5. E. Zeller's, Stoics. E~icureans.a d Sceptics,
(Enq, tr.) hndon:(1892), pt. ii, Chp. Xi, pp.
287-290.

6. "Liberty, People'sWed.,1865, p.6 in Encyclopedia

of and Ethics, ~ o lv,. p. 122.

7. Roland W. Scott, Social Ethics in Modern

Hinduism. Calcutta: Y .M.C. A. Puhlishing
House, 1953, p. 73'.

8. H. Richard Miehuhr, 'T'he'RestmnsibleSelf.

New York, Hagerstown, San Francisco,
London: Harper and Row Publishers, 1963, p.
47f,
Chapter 2

8
In our primary schdol days, we memorized all
Mathematical rules onl;r to realize later that the pursuit
of knowledge, the recognition of truth and the wisdom
of life is totally outside these well ordered rules. And
yet we can hardly ,ride forth on our quest of truth
without considering in advance what we are looking
for, and how we propose to seek it, and how we shall
know that we have Nchieved our objective We might
join Socrates to pose the question as to whethgr it is
possible for the humari to discover any universal truth '
The cultural differences between various races and
peoples have made the question to defy every possible
answer to it so that the question about truth has become
deeply implicated with the problem of goodness. The
good must be done and the evil avoided is like sayitlg
the truth must be spoken and falsehood avoided. But
bow are these related to theword "Truth?' The sophist
were skeptical about the possibility of attaining my
absolute truth by which the society will have to order
its life. This skepticism came from making knowledge

1. San~uelEnoch Stnmpl: Socratcs to Sartre. A History of Philosophy.

Ye\\ I'ark. St. L.ouis. San Francisco, London: McCmw-Hill Book
Company. 19GO. p. 32.
to be a relative matter The purpose of this paper is to
revisit the ethics of eternal truth which Jesus referred to
when He told Pilate that He came into the world to
speak about the truth (Jn 18 37") and perhaps be able to
draw the attention of our readers to re examine the
impofi of truthfblness and how it is applied in their
various situations. Our purpose here is to show that
truth is dynamic. We want to examine the economy and
the ethics of the word 'Truth and how it could be
used logically. Various theological and philosophical
aspects of the word will be briefly elucidated But as a
result of want of space in this type of paper, we will not
claim to have been comprehensive
We will be carefid not to Join the queue of
scholars who have constantly fallen into the error of
over-simplification of the 'Word 'Truth. The mystics
claim that the truth that comes to them proves to be a
-
force that they can live b y . W e have no mandate to
doubt their claim Just because we have not had the
experience for they may be speaking the 'truth. Our
conscience usually assure us of certain states of facts,
but the mystical experiences are said to be direct
perceptions of facts for those who have them as any
sensations ever were for us
What is Truth?
What did Jesus mean when He said: ... I came "

into the world to testitjl to the truth. Every one on the

side of truth listens to me?" (Jn. I 8 : U ) . Here the very
truth was affirming his testimony of the truth. This
reminds us of what the Roman Viceroy - the Roman
Pilate, who shamelessly mishandled the word "Truth"
but enriched the New Testament and the World by
asking the important question "What is truth?" Anatole
France considers this to be the profoundest qrrestion
ever posed.' ,

The word 'Truth' has been defined as the

conformity to fact or reality or the agreement between
ones thought and the objective condition.' It is a
judgement or proposition which has no .falsity6 a
statement that is in accord involves with reality or fact.
Truth is fidelity or constancy. However, this invoilves
the intention and the responsibihty of the person.
Truthfulness implies keeping ones agreements, stated
or implied until they cease to be valid agreements. It is
not impossible for a truthful man to say what is untrue
or false, and the liar may speak the truth because he is
mistaken.

4. J.J. Brousson. "Analole France rn Piin~oullrs."On Litb and Lcnelx.

First Scrics. Pnris; 1324: p. X
\.
. Harold H. Titus. IMic For Todnv. New York: american Book
company. 1957, p. 265.
6. Wzhslcr New Collegii~lrDictiona~v1 50Ihh i v e w a n ) Ed.
SprinJicld. \4nssa~hi1wnz: G Xr C \lcn.i;~n corniipn!; 198 1
 However, there are sages who quip that there is
nothing which is intrinsically true of intricically untrue
Truth and falsehood are not built in, essential,
unchangeable, qualities of anything, it is only a thing
which happens to actions in different situations
Bonhoeffer quiped that "truth telling, contrary to what
we often think, doknot mean correspondencebetween
what we say and what actually happened 'Every word
I utter he says, is subject to the requirement that it
shall be true.""e must not overlook the relational
character of truth. While the factual account of truth
could not be avoided, we must not fall into the error of
being literatist. Truth is only the description of things in
different circumstances, it is not a property by a
predicate. There may be statements that might be true
to me today in my own situation but it may not be true
to another person in a different situation. This is not an
eternal truth. Yet there are those who posit that Truth is
as absolute as love is. It was once held for instance, that
the World is round but today the truth has changed.

Therefore, we might attempt to answer Pilate s

question by saying that truth is "What you taste, touch,
smell, hear or see."RBut Plato who strongly objected to
this claim, opined that "if this is 'truth , there is no

7. Didrich BonhncHi-r."What Is Meant hy Telling thc T~uth'"!In

Ethics, p. 365.
X. Will Grant, ~ h l i n w i o n of
s Philosophy. Nc'w I'ork: Simon and
Sshoster. 1929. p. 26.
'truth for we all taste, smell, hear, touch and see
things differently."' For Plato, reason was the test of
truth. Aristotle was in agreement with Plato. For him
nothing could be considered true unless it is made to be
the conclusion of a perfect Syllogism, Sage Pyrrho
opposed Aristotle s proposition and concluded that
nothing is certain, Pyrrho himself wis in error in
concluding that nothing is certain. If he was correct in
his assertion then, we shall join his students in their
refusal to mourn his death, for we are not sure that he
was dead. For if nothing is true then, the claim that he
is dead is not true, It is not even true to say that he ever
existed.

The School men in their age argued that truth is

the adequate correspondence of thought to things,
thereby exalting reason.I0Ideas, they say, were greater
realities than and sights, for things of the flesh had their
beginning and ceased to exist, but class-ideas were
deathless,, existing before, and in, and after those things
frodwhich they originated. Man was more real than
man and beauty more real than any rose. Man is the
minister and interpreter of nature. Hc understands the
truth of his observation of the nature, and beyond what
he can, and he knows very little about the truth except
to conjecture. Kant, Hegel and Bacon riddled the senses
with doubts and upheld the claims of human reasons as

9. Ihid.
10. Durranl. p.27
the arbiter of all sense reports. On the other hand
Hobbes and Locke and Mill Scorned as senseless a
reason that would seek the truths beyond the reach of
the sense of sight, touch, taste, smell and sound."

Kant quiped that Mathematics was clearly

independent of any sensation and truth a priori.
According to him, the square of five (5' ) would be
twenty-five)2S) no matter what the senses might say.
Yet Mill objects to Kant's claim. On his part sage
Whitehead made a significant contribution to the
comprehension of the word "truth" when he defined
truth as:

A form of words is true when it has a

certain rel~tionto a certain fact. What
relation to what fact? I think the
fundamental relation is this: a form of
words when he finds himself in an
environment which contains features
that are the meanings of those words,
and these features produce reactions in
him sufficiently strong for him to use
words which mean thern.I2

The author has clearly stated the meaning of truth in

I I. Ibid., p. 28
12. A.N. Whitehead, Science and Modern World New York: Philosophy,
1926, p. 262
terms that even the business man, would understand.
Truth is efficacious.

John Dewey, in his book, "Democracy and

Education" contends that, "The conception of mind as
a purely isolated possession of the self is at the very
antipodes of the t r ~ t h . " 'For
~ him what is taken for
knowledge - for fact and truth -'at a given time may not
be such in the course of time. The Sophists differ in
their conception of truth from the Pragmatists. The
Sophists not only maintain that the senses are test of
truth, but they also contend that "Truth" is consistent
sensation.' v e t sensation can hardly be excluded fiom
all that we learn from the instruments with which we
enlarge and develop our sense. This means that truth
being relative, it must always be one-sided and
precarious. There are various persons in the World and
their senses and therefore their ''truths'' will not always
agree with ours. Durant holds that:

Where more than one of us is

concerned, truth must be socially
consistent sensations; and when more
than one moment of time is concerned,
it must be permanently consistent
sensation. Reality is a dome of many -

13. John Dewey, Democracv and Education. New York, London: Collier
Macrnillan Publishers 1944, p. 295.
14. Durant. p. 30
 colored glass - each of us sees a
different combination of cotours in the
Kaleidoscope. Perhaps truth is only the
common denomination of our
delusions, and certainly is an error in
which all men agree.I5

From the above it is easy to realize that the

definition of the word 'Truth' has been a subject of
dispute among scholars. Philip Phenix (1958) defined
truth as "know1edge which is confirmed by validation
pr~cedure."'~According to P.C. Okafor,I7 in the
approach of Phenix, there seem not to be any one
yardstick for measuring truth. We agree that it is not
easy to find "truth".

That not withstanding there are various criteria

of truth according to different fields of human pursuit.
In any case, an item ofknowledge is regarded as 'truth'
if and only if it agrees with the generally accepted
concepts within the given system. It is our thesis that
truth is dynamic because it changes with time' for in a
theorem in geometry will depend mainly on its
consistency with the axioms of the particular system
being applied. In his Metaphysics, Aristotle postulates

15. Ibid. p. 3 1
16. he nix Philip H. ~hilosophvof Ed. New York: Holt, Rinehart and
' Winston. 1958, p. 313.
17. Festus C. ~kttfor.Pblosonhy of Education and Third World
Perspective Enugu: R~nswickPublishing Company, 1992, p. 1164.
12

that "truth consists in affirming of being, that

it is, and non-being, that it is not."

Criteria of Truth and Levels of Truth

There are various levels of truth which include:

Immanent Truth - This type of truth is inherent and

abiding.
Transcendent Truth - This involves proven
empirical data. The immanent truth is the theory of
truth that is always true.

It is evident that 2 + 2 = 4 and this is an abiding truth

that does not need any disputation. However, the truth
that 2 + 2 = 4 can only change when the rnathematkal
sign changes from plus to minus (2 - 2 ='0) sign.

The Ontological truth: This occurs when truth is

examined in the abstract as the conformity between the
thing and its mental type.

Temporary Truth: There are truths that are short

lived. If we say that Ada is a student in the
Department of Sociology at Nsukka this year 1995, It
does not mean that Ada will ever be a student
throughout the rest of her life. It is also not unlikely that
Ada could change her course before she graduates. The
fact that Ada is a student this pear is a true statement.
 \I

The statement can only be true as long as Ada

continues to study as a student. Temporary truth
changes with time and season.

~klationalTruth: This is the truth that emerges at the

end of reasoning. It is also called logical truth. It is
more correct to say that it emerges out of judgement.
This is more so because in reasoning, we search for x
new knowledge or new truth in agreement with the
knowledge already in existence. The truth is known
when judgement .ls made .and reasoning stops.

Ldgical Truth: Truth can be said to be logical under

any circumstance. If for example, you were asked
whether Uka is a man, and in reality Uka is a man, and
you affirm that Uka is a man, then your affirmation is
a truth and logical too, because, no matter the situation
and circumstance, Uka is a man. That truth is
irrevocable. But on the other hand if you were asked to
state whether the name Uka'applied to male or female
and you stated that the name Uka was the name of a
man, the statement may be true according to the system
of name giving in that particular area. But the same
statement may be untrue in another locality where the
name Uka could be applied to either male or female.
The Statement will become untrue because it does not
correspond to, or agree with the external reality -The
correspondence theory.
The Correspondence Theory of Tmtb:'"
Aristotle was the father of what is now called
the "Correspondence Theory of Truth'. He assertedthat
What is, that it is, and what is not, that it is not."'9 From
all indications, the concept of truth involving the view
of correspondence seems to show that truth is in some
way relational. To conclude, therefore, that something
is true is to say that it fits that claim that it corresponds
to what is the case, and fitting and corresjhndingseem
to be relations.

However, Austin and Frege object- to the

relational concept, because, according to Frege, it is
contradicted by the use of the word "true," which he
claims, is not a relational word and contains no
reference to anything else to which something must
correspond.20

In any event, it is pertinent to observe that if truth was

a relational property of this kind, it would mean that it
stood in a given relation to a given object, and to say
that was not true would tantamount to denying that it

18. Komer, p. 101

19. Vide Supra, p.67 seq.

20. Gottlob hge. "The Thoughtwin P.F. S u a w m ( e 4 PhRosphkd
Logic. Oxford: O.U.P. 1967. p. 18. Also J.L. Austin, "Truth" in
Proddings Of The Aristotelian Society, Suppltmentafy Vol. 24,
1950, reprinted in J.L Austin, Philosophid Plpas. Oxford, O.U.P.
1970 p. 120. and in Pitcher. Vide Infm p.31
stood in that relation to that object. if the statement
"Kalu sighed" is true, it would, on this concept, fit, or
otherwise be related to, the fact that Kalu sighed.

Logically, the correspondence Theory must be

rejected if it implies that saying that something is true
meant saying that some relation holds between it and
the object. But otherwise the theory holds true . In
reality if Uka says that the door was unlocked and the
door was in reality unlocked and then, what Uka said
was truth.

10 JESUS TELLS THE ETERNAL TRUTH

The golden rule requires that we should speak

the truth in love (Eph.4:15) and fear of God as we
would like others to speak to us. It was St. Augustine
who exclaimed in his book titled "Confessions" VII: 15,
"I have met many who wished to be deceived." Truth is
synonymous to the character of Jesus Christ. He spoke
the eternal truth when he said that men love themselves
excessively at the expense of their neighbours. He sees
man s inordinate love of self as the main root of the
moral decadence in our society. This is the main reason
why many people in the present age want to Fnjoy
pleasure to its full, and to escape the pains of life,
without due regard to the rights and welfare of the
society to which they belong. Self-love &the source of
moral evil today.
 Telling the truth is a virtue. The Scripture
underscores this claim by listing lying as one of the
deadliest sins that God abhores and cannot tolerate
(prov.6:17). The Word of God enjoins man to put off
falsehood and to speak the truth one to another
(Zech.8:16) Jesus constantly informed his hearers that
he is the way, the truth and the life (John 11:25). He
was telling the eternal truth, especially when he said: "1
am telling you the truth: The man who does not enter
the sheepfold by the gate, but climbs in some other way
is a thief and a robber."(John 10:l). That means that
any person who does anything not in conformity with
the law is contravening God s law. His discourses
were often packed with the words "Verily, verily"
which literally means "1 am telling you the truth ,
Alternatively, 'I tell you the truth. This sentence
appears about (71 times) seventy one times in the
four(4) Gospels of the N.T.This underscores the claim
that the word 'truth was very important to Jesus.

If Christ is the truth and spoke the truth always,

it then means that truth and truth telling are consistent
with Jesus Christ. He is the truth that bore witness to
the truth. He expects that our character should
correspond with his qualities. He said that he came to
-
bear witness to the truth - that is Himself 'Christ .

When truth is allowed to be potentially truth,

then the very truth retreats, lying takes precedence,
society suffers and morality is trampled underfoot and
/ the very truth is denied. .

1 It was .C.S. Lewis who averred that:

All religions except Christianity are

partial truths masquerading as the whole
truth and drawing their power from
their element of truth. The partial truths
isolated from the whole truth become
deadly and end up destroying
themselves as well as everything
else.(Case for the Christian Faith
198:92)

Truth telling and falsehood are therefore, incompatible

options and as moral agents we are bound to prefer
truth telling to telling lies.

When Christ claimed to be one with God, he

was either telling the truth, or he was insane, or he was
a liar. Christ was neither insane nor a liar. Therefore his
claim was authentic - the truth. Who can forgive sins
except God? Jesus told the paralyzed man, "My son
your sins are Torgiven, (Matt.2:12) and he healed him
without due reference to any other higher power. H e
healed the sick in his own name. When a leper came to
him he said to him, "If you want to, you can make me
clean." Jesus filled with pity said to him, "I want, be
thou clean." (Matt. 811-3)
 God-the eternal truth jqives life to the sick, and
even the dead. He said to Lazarus who was dead for
four days, "Lazarus come forth."(John 11:35f) in a loud
voice and Lazarus came forth, and was a life again.
Who can give life except God? These and other
numerous miracles of healing sustain the claim that he
is the truth and lift?

Before he departed thts earth he promised to

send his disciples the Spirit of truth which proceedeth
from the l at her (John 15:26). On the Day of Pentecost
the promise was fblfilled for the truth descended on all
who were there. Therefore, man should allow the spirit
of truth to guide him into all truth (Jn. 16:13).

11 Verifioation of Truth

Truth is something that can hardly be separated fion~

experience, therefore, its criterion must be founded in
experience. Otherwise it stands to reason that nothing
could be considered as true unless it is experientially
and emperically verifiable. If the statement "There is a
goat in the next classroom" is a true. statement, it is
verifiable because anyone who goes there will see the
goat. Although a thought dogs not agree with any
reality, yet it is said to be 'true on the basis that it
'works out convincingly in practical terms.
Abstractions can hardly be considered as truth unless it
can be scientificalry verified. Therefore, in
metaphysical realm, the concert of the existence of
God, which is d i h t from a scientific hypothesis and
which is tested by experien~e,~' can not be verified
experientially, and the proposition cannot be accepted
as truth because it cannot be verified because in our
present human situation our knowledge of God is very
limitedt? But that is false, because it is true to those
who perceive it so. Truth therefore isverifiable.

The Coherency of Truth

Brand ~lanshard*claims that truth is coherent,

a claim which r&s on a theory of the relation of
thought to reality which forms the central problem of
the theory of knowledge. Truth, it is said, is the core of
life, when spoken you dam all evil machinations.

The claim presupposes that the test ot truth is

the actual conformity of a representative idea with the
object which it is required to portray. It is true to say
that idea and object are two separate entities, distinct
from each other just as a man and his portrait or
photograph are possessed of a separate existence.Truth

2 2. M,p.173
23. Brad l3bddW, Tht N.lwo d'lhou*. Loadoa: Gwrgo Allen dt
Umvfn hl,10 1939. AQo 8hcbto#, William T.(od)., Meaning
md ErrbtcnuaNew Yark, Chiorgo:Halt, R h b r l and Winutone.
lw., 1971,p. 657,
and false are, for the fo
belonging to arguments,

from the h o w l S q g d1Le Wty of thc contradictory

of this propositim. fIk p n p w e me beEaWeee
they P O ~ Y ~ *
an ideal that &'M$4
exists is an ideal truth although this claim may be
12 The Economy of Eternal Truth.

What did Jesus mean when he said, "I am the way, the
truth and the life?' ((John 14:6). This implies that the
very truth says that he is the truth. It is doubtfi~lwhether
there can be any other truth other than the eternal truth
itself. Christ who is also God is divine, and if there is
no other truth than God, to be true therefore, is to be
divine. The vrovosition is: God is divine. Divine is
a .

truth. Therefore, God is truth. Contingently, there seem

to be corruptible truth. The claim that.God is truth is in
.. . . . .. . .
no way corruptible, therelore the claim is the supreme
truth.
It is the eternal truth that Jesus taught his
disciples. It is also immutable for even when we receive
admonition through a changeable creature we are led
3f truth is the
cumstance. No
that which is

I[n the study of Epistemology we belie\re that

Being and the truth are interchangeable. But on~lyone
A. ..
thing is eternal. ~nererore,
-1 -1 P - . t .- eternal in the
only rrurn is
r I 1 A. 1

economy of theology.24 In this case then, truth means

a proportion and commensuration. Thus something is -
believed to be true jlust as it is said to be commensurate.

24. Reginald F. O'Neill, SJ. Readings in Epistemology. Englewood

Clitis, New J a y : Prentke-Hall. Inc., 1962, p.49.
2F Ibid.,
Similarly, a thing can be said to be true in two ways -
by its inherent truth or by an extrinsic In the
Iatter all thines receive the name truth fiom the first
V

truth, and since it is evident that truth in the inte:llect is

meaured by things themselves, it then follows tlhat not
*..I<. * -&-4l.:--.. L.4 ..la-....I* 4-.4L , .$*La :..
LIIC LI ULII VI U1111g3, V U L IZ13U LIICLI ULII UI LIIC~litellect
L
. &-dl.
"illy
signlifying what is understood, receives its name fiom
the first truth. The law of the economy of eternal truth
states that although the truth of anything may not be
seen as existing now, it will exist in future. Hence, it
would not be true to affirm that "the Anti-Christ will
be boq."

The proposmon tnat uoa existea berore tne

foundation of the world and that God created all things
are true propositions fiom eternity because of the
eternal truih. O'Neill, the Epistemologist posits that:
If we take it to mean the truth of true
- - -...- - thines.
created -,which~-all are said to
---- --,bv
.~ .--. ..--.--- .-

be true their extrinsic measure, as it

were, which is the first truth - then the
truth of everything - of things,
propositions, and intellect - is eternal.26

St. Augustine of Hippo and Anselem made fMtic

efforts to search for the eternal truth oft1le type referred
to above by O'Neill.

26. Ibid, p.50

 Yet there are schools of thought who pose the
question as to whether "there are some items of
knowledge that are not only seen by people as true, but
that are always and eternally true in every century and
for all time, and universally true in all societies and in
all places."27Is there any Truth that is absolutely true
without qualification? They ask. These sages doubt if
such kind of knowledge can be found in the universe.
However, some sages generally will accept the
statement that "The internal angles of a triangle equal
180 degrees is an absolute truth.28But there are those
who have challenged this assertion because Morris and
Pai opined that in non-Euclidean geometry, such
statement does not hold water.

Augustine asserts that men s heart is empty of

truth although they cry 'Truth , 'Truth and speak
much about it, yet they do not have the truth. They pay
lip service to 'truth . He stated our genuine concern
aptly by saying that: "We are not so much concerned
with philosophical truth or the truth as conceived of by
the philosopher or logicians." The main concern here is
to treat or the "real" truth, the eternal truth as it exists
now or will exist in hture. Augustine lamented on how
he had been deceived by the philosophers who claimed

27. Van Cieve Morris and Young Pai, Philosophy md American School.
Boston, Atlanta, JMlas elat.: Houghton Milllin Company. 196 1, p.
106.
28. Ibid.
to be speaking the truth. Thus:
...they spake falsely not of thee only -
who verily, art the Truth - but al- nf
these elements of this world,
creatures. And I, in truth, should
n a a o n r l htr m h ; l r \ a n n h o r a tL
h11
YLL0PL.U VJ ~ i I l 1 V U1m11, fnr t n s r n
m
~ W ~ l I ~ l IU1
~ ~ 1W V U

of Thee, my Father, Supremely good.,

beauty of all things beautifitl! 0 Truth,
- .. . ..
.lTuth! how Inwardly even then dld the
... .
marrow of my soul pant after Thee,
when they frequently, and in
multiplicity of ways, and in qumerous
and huge books, sounded out Thy name
to me, though it was but a voice.. 29

There is little dc~ u bthat

t he had the expe:rience with the
Manicheaean pnilosopners ---- --.L-
1-:1---- -I-:---
I
wnu cliurned to 1Know *me
LA A-

truth a.nd who may be regarded in various ways as

kindredI to modern Rationalism. According 'to
:.- r . - * r :- LL - T-.*l- - LL
Augustine, 3 TT!
uoa nirnselr is me I rum, .lL!-w m -I.wnorn mere .-- - - a

is no variableness, He went on to describe truth as the

'Artificer 30 of the creature, which means that ~ o d ' i s
the craftsman of the creature and which the
Manicheaeans failed to recognize. They changed
God s Truth into a lie.

29 Whitney J. Oat- (sd)Basic Writingm of'lainl Augusline Grand

Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, vol. I.P. 33
30 Ib~d.
 l"hornas Aquinas quipped that if we wiped out
the created being, the pure meaning of essense would
still persist; if all human beings are destroyed,
nationality would still remain a predicate of human
nature."This is because theoretical Truths are eternal in
their content, and that the first truth is the eternal
foundation which is the universal cause containing
every Joseph Fletcher says "Every word I utter
is subject to the requirement that it shall be true."i3
Bonhoeffer an his own maintains that "Man's chief
concern in all situations is to discern what God's will
is."34 This calls for truth telling always.

Subjectivity and Objectivity of Truth

Soren Kierkegaard holds to the duality of truth.

For him truth is both subjective and. objective. The
truth for him is subjective in the sense that for the
existing, striving, deciding persons, there is not
available "out there" an already existing tmth.j5
Contending with the pragmatic view of William James,

.. - .. .......- . -.-,
.. -- -
....
. ....-. .. . ..-..-
.... ..-..
Oilby. Durham, North Carolina: The Labyrinth Press 1982, ed. P.30f
32 lbid. D. 60
33 ~ i e k j c hBonhc~ffer,"What Is Meant by Telling the Truth?" in

34
Ethics, p. 365
- ... - .*. .-
Dietrich Bonhoerter, waco, lexas: wora moks, Publisher, 1972, p.

35
94
-
Samuel E.nmh Stumpt, Smrates ta Sartn A History of Philosophy.
New York. London, Tokyo el al: McGraw-Hill Book Company.
1966, p. 463.
who asserted that "truth is made" by an act of will, S.K.
posited that what is "Out there" is "an objective
uncertainty" and argued that "the highest truth
attainable for an existing person "is (simp1y)merely an
objective uncertainty held fast in the most passionate
personal experierice..."36 He regarded Spcrate's claim
to ignorance as a good example of the-notion of truth,
and he regarded his silence on the questfon of truth as
an expression or the principle that the eternal truth is
related to the Existing individual. God is described
philosophically or rationally as the Absolute and
knowable Truth and therefore, objective.37

Truth and Falsehood in the Nigerian Situation

Thn s h i & r nf tha t h m n m r rrf trnrth rran hsvA1.r

compl 1f
Falseh h
when it is devoid 01falsehood. What is false cannot' be
true under the same circumstance because truth Iis
opposed to falsehood. The statement: "God is" cam
. a * . .
never be false at the same time but the statement mav
be conceived and interpeeted differently by differeit
persons. According to 1Strawson, if a person says
-. -
nothing or says more than one thrng, the question of the
truth or falsity of what the person said does not arise.
--.e two

3(
37 Ibid. p. 466
different claims which are true and false respectively
cannot be disputed.

md the Truth
r be to those
mvoivea. ~t is m e ro say mar lwgeria is blessed with
crude oil, at least in this century, but there is falsehood
in the disbursement of the revenue derived from it.
However, some people may contend that the claim is a
dangerous generalisation although the truth is evident.
The ~roblemthat is hunting Nigerians todav is that
Y Y

many prefer falsehood to truth telling, because they

believe that those who speak the truth are always poor
and inconsequential.

accepted way of life in Nigeria. We therefore, claim

that it is the major cause of emotional, social and
economic instability in Nigeria. It bas also caused
insubordination and deviance in childen and the young
adults.

n G J G F I l U U U 1 I 1 UIU 1 U I - I ZIIppy JAlG

nn~A n ~ c nnt need tn A n anv ~ u t ~ n c i v q

investigations to discover the nature of honesty and
\I. . ..
C .
dishonesty in Nigeria today. Many people today inI
.. .
..N1 ..
N igena may rina it atrriculr to answer wnetner rney w11i
. .I .I*

ratherrejoice in truthor in falsehood. They will hesitate

to say in truth, and will prefer to say that they desire to
be happy. We need to appreciate the fact that a happy
life, joy In the truth. Everyone wishes to live a happy
life, therc.1.m only in truth do people find happiness.

attltuaes w n m nave been mantpulatea successru~~y.

Evert people who tell Iies frown at being told lies. Men
like truth that is- whv
. '
thev
a
will not want to be deceived.
Happy life cannot come apart from the truth.
A ..L ---.1:c..
fi l l z l y y y I l l C
:- -..*L:--
la -I-,. L.4 :*..
:- +-.A
l l U l l l l I l g C l J C UUL JVY 111 LIULII,

therefore, men certainly love truth. Yet people are

unhappy when the truth is told because they hate to be
told their faults. Truth can hardly be hidden for a long
time. Truth should be treasured above falsehood.
TTIL-. &-.&L LA--&L
.
.d
".
.
.a ..-.I-..L.. A- -..--I-
w lly u v ~ UULII
s ucgci rraucu lulu wr~yuu yc;uylc
who speak the truth easily make enemies? The simple
answer to this question is that people do not love the
truth which the old addage saysTis'bitter*.Unless truth
is loved people will nc,t see themselves as they are.
Augustine posits that:
...they hate the tturn lur ine sat: ol uiut
thing which they love instead of the
tnith
L I U C I I .
h ~ r Alnve
T11s-J r U I U trrlth urhen
b l U L l l V.AAVI1
E
01.U
~ chinee
D
OIIIIIUY

on them, and hate her when she rebukes

them. For, because they are not willing
. . . . . .. . .
to be deceived, and w s h to deceive,
they love her when she reveals herself,
 and hate her when she reveals them. 38

Indeed people hate to be exposed to light by truth.

Augustine quipped that he found the truth where he
found God who is truth itself.

- UnclerStOOd and imbibed are now taken lor granted,

trodden underfoot, and deceptive principles now
meticulously observed both.in lower and high places,
and everyone still rides on the streetbuss without
regarding himself a thief. The result is that an entirely
honest may he embarrassed, shocked and.
insulted. even at the Air port in foreign countries.
Today in Nigeria, deception seems to be the order of
the day. Banks are robbed, offices set ablaze to cover
up crime of embezzlement, people are assassinated to
make way for another politician, to fose-tall
professional ingenuity and competition and to conceal
crime; electoral votes are sold and purchased;
examinationresults, questionpapers and admission into
institutions of learning are sold, essential commodities
are hoarded, prices of commodities are increased daily,
people buy employment, contracts are sold, even an
honest election was cancelled, you name them. No one

38 Oats Vnl. 1, p.11

would doubt,why a foreigner was courageous to saj
"Everything is possible in Nigeria if you just givc
money."

Deception is so common among the people that

it has become worse than the 'AID syndrome and
there is no attempt being made to cure it but rather
there is a care fiee attitude towards it. Situations in
which some honest people are placed have forced them
to toe the line of the general public to avoid being
regarded as the odd men and the black legs, because
situations in Nigeria today have common elements.
Everybody seem to have joined to learn to be dishonest
although no one will pretend not to be aware of the
implications and the consequences of dish~nesty.~~ .
.-. .
However, we believe that God will not !&ve
Himself without a witness. There are still a few honest
. . .
.. . . .* .. .
. ..
people wno s p a tne trutn to the snarne ot the devtl
.. .
and still do honest business. This group of people
strongly disapprove of dishonesty and. deception in the
Nigerian society. They advocate the reordering of .our
priorities, reconstruction or remolding the attitudes and
habits of our children in schools, We recognize the
truth of their suggestion, but even that will not be an
easy task because the school teachers suffer the same
national sickness. How can one expect a faitffil deal

39 Columbia University, Teaohas Colago, Shrdia in the N.Qrrs of

ChamAer. New York: 'Ihe Maanillan Co., 1930, Ip. 380.
 Although we have stated already that truth must
be spoken, yet there are exceptions which should be
allowed when some greater value is at stake or when
greater hart can thereby be avoided, We call that
situational falsehood, That is when a person may be
free t o play falsehood in order to save lives thereby
mraoa-.a n r r r a o + a r ..ol..a T h n * men-n +kn+ +.-.~+h
mo-r n n 4
p 1 ~ 3 V~G 1a 61G a w a value. I llaL IIlF;aua L I ~ LL I UCII zuay Ilwr

be spokefi at this particular situation. Harold H. Titus

refers to this as "mnventional lies," or "white lies" and
"Polit,e lies:"(p. 270). In this case, no one is seriously
misled, no embarrassment caused and no fiends lost.
Let us take some examples:

suspecrea or oeing a wlzaro in me commurury. Bur

many people including his friends know him to be
innocent so he was informed of the intent of the people.
He ran to the reverend minister at mission compound
and hid. When the mob asked the reverend gentle man
if he knew where the man was he did not feel obligated
to tell the truth, to avoid the man being lynched.

A grand mother and a mother lost a son who

was the source of their livelihood and who was also
noble. The only son now living decided not to tell t t -
old parents the truth to avoid burying more than one
corpse. He announced to the villagers to conceal the
truth from the parents until after the burial. When he
went to see the parents before the corpse was broughl
home, he toid them that everything was alright and that
he had come home for a specific purpose. If you were
the man would you tell them about the death of their
son? Will you like to tell them the truth even before the
.. . m

- -- - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - -- - - - - - - - -. - - - - - - - - - - -- - -.

feel remorse if asked to deviate from telling the truth

but the same people may feel more remorse if asked to
deviate from telling the truth but the same people may
feel more remorse'if their insistence upon the truth
caused a catastrophe which could have been avoided.
"If a guest, though still hungry, sees that the food is
running short (in fact, no other food in the house) is it
wrong for him to say "No, thank you" when the hostess
inquires to know if he cared for rn~re."~"f a man visits
a home where a girl who is to get married the next day,
is mourning the sudden death of her parents in an
accident, will it be right to infonn her of the intended
- .-- - . .
Ihusband's
- - death?
- - However,
- truth still maintains its
validity, we must hold fast to it.
 CONCLUSION
Although we have stated that there may be
exceptional cases when a higher value may take
precedence over tnithfulness, yet, we have consistently
maintained that tmthfblness is a virtue which should be
cultured. It is important not only for personal but also
for social well-being of the people. It is the believe of
the author that the dutv of truthhlness is more than
absolute with few exceptions as noted above. 01 ur case
for exceptional cases must not be seen as a denial of
.. -. ,.-. .
-
truthfulness. Because accordlnn to I ~ t u "Krght
s -
action
is action le:ading to theagreatestgood in the situation
presented .''4' Truthfblness and untruthfblness are not
.. a - . ...*
synonymous and must not be contused. Both of them
appear in the same person but only one of them will
manifest in a particular cituation. Therefore, truth must
be spoken and deception avoided. Falsehood and
deception on the part of 'the members of any society are
-L-L:I:L-. TL :- L L -
inimical to progress, , ,,
peaw,, ,A
a11u siaulniy. 11 IS LIIC
gteatest obstacle of the society. It keeps people away
from God. Pursue the truth at all cost and at any time
and you will f ind God.
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-I .I .
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I-Iuman Ad-iustment 2nd ed. Boston: Houghton
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Oates, Whitney J., Basic Writings of Saint Augustine

2vols. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book
House, 1948

Okafor, Festus C. Phildsoph~of Education and Third

World and Third World Perspective. Enugu
Brunswick Publishing Company, 1992.

O'Neill; Reginald F.S.J. Readings in Evistemologv.

 .
,. .
~ o o Cliffs,
Inc. 1961'.
d New Jersey Prentice -Hail,

Phenix, Philip H. Philosophy of Education. New York:

Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1958.

Russel, pertrand. The Prob

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Stumpf, Samuel Enoch. S ~ w a w s1 .XU UG-a

LJ KUWI v

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.. ,1047
,, ..
. 4

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c: 1926
GENERAL INDEX

Note: This Index does not include the main

headings given in the table of contents.

t a r t a n k a nbq o

Arraigned, 5
Accumulated, 7
Authority, 8,15
A oman+nnea .rF OA's 1.611 A AV
V a U\N D 11111, 1
I LLLbYCa1JC.G

Absolute freedoni, 12
Answerableness' _ _to_ God, 13
Angry thought, 14
Adultery, 14
Administration, 22
Accountable, 24
Affirmative, 29
Aristotle,'41,46,
Ada, 45,46
Austin, 47,
Augustine, 48,55,56,57,62
Adinomition, 53
Anselem, 55
RIDS, 63
B
Bible, 4, 13
Blood, .13
D
Duty, 1
Divine, 12,54
Desires, 17
Developing nation, 21,
Destruction,.21,
Disobedience, 2 I,
Developments, 22
piligence, 23
Disapproval, 24
Discover, 37,

E
Effort, 1,
Experienck, 1,24,5 1,57,59
Efficiency, i,
Energy, 2,
Extravagance, 6
Economic stability, 7
External, 8,46,53,
Elucidation, 1I,
Environment, 12,
Ethics, 16,17,32,
Exprmion,l9,59
Evident, .Z7,
Exercise, 29,
Eternal, 40,49,51,54,56,57,59
Efficacious, 43
Enemies, 61
Emperically, 51
Experientially, 5 1,52,
Epistermology, 54,
Euclidean, 56,
Embezzlement 62,

F
Forth, 1,37,
Fumtion, 2,3,
Formular, 3,
Filial, 6,
Fulfiment, 6 , l l , 20,28,
Freedom, 7,11,12,16,17,
Friends, 14,64,
Fundamental, 15,42,
Father, 15,19,
Formation, 20,
Fitting response, 22,
Fagothey, 27,28,30,
Fidelity, 39,
Falsity, 53,59,
Foundation, 58
False hood, 59,60,64,6
Foreigner, 63
G
Greek, 3,
Good, 3,9,14,21,
Galatia, 9,
Goodness, ll,37,
George, 18,
Group 32,
Gospels 49,
Guest, 63

H
Honestly, 1,
Human experience, 1,
Happiness, 3,
Hardship, 5
Husbands, 5
Heaven, loy
Hormetic, 11
Hungry, 13,65,
Hedge, 13,
Hospitality, 14
Hesitate, 15,
Happening, 17,
However, 19,29,39,40,65
Historical, 19, I
Human society, 2 1
Hegel, 41,
Hypothesis, 52,
Hippo, 55,
Harold H. Titus, 64
I
Independence, 6,
Indirect, 6
Imperfect, 6,26,
Implications 8
Internal, 8,56,
Influence, 12
Immanent, 12,45
Injunction, 13,
Imagination, 14
Immonality, 14
Interpretation, 18
Identity, 18,
Island, 18,
Indispensable, 21
Intimidate, 23,
Insanity, 26,
Immanuel Kant, 27,
Inviolability, 28
Inc~mpatible,29,
Illegitimate, 30,
Int-lly, 30,40
Intricically, 40
Inordinate, 48
Immutable, 54
Investigation, 60
Ingenuity, 62
Judgement, 6
Jerusalem, 8
Jews, 8,15 I

Jewish4 10,13 . .
Jesus, 11, l3,15,16, 17, 19,35,36,45,46,47,5l,~ ,,.;
Journey, 18 . ,
Job, 23, .
I

Join, 34,60 , ,, 4 p

Just, 35,
John Dewey 40 .. , <.

Judgement, 43, ,a' l i

Joseph Fletcher, 55, . .

,- 1- '

K t '
. /

Knowledge, 2,25,26,40,48,52, . . .,-

Keep, 5,23 . , + i t ;

King Cyrus, 8, . . . .
Keeping, 15,23, 7 ,

Know, 22,30,49,54,60
- . .
- , - .., ,
,

. ,. . .
L '. I '
. .
Life-style, 2, ._..,...,
. . . .._
Life, 2,3,9, 16,20,28,57, ., . , ., .(
.,. + &. ..
Legal, 2,24,25,31,32, ., , i , . :. ,. . -. ..*

Light, 4,
Law,4,15,17,20,21,27,29,30,31,
Literal, 5
Leaders, 7,
 75
Loyalty, 7
Latin, 7
Liability, 8
Letter, 9,
Like, 10,18,21,27,
Love, 11,14,15,
Levites, 13,14,
Licentious, 14,
Legalism, 15,
Liable, 24
Lead, 32
Learn, 39,
Levels, 41
Logical, 42
Lying, 45
Lewis, 46,
Lazarus, 47
Loud, 47,
Legician, 49

i
.caning, 1,3,10,
.orality, 2,4,11,22,24,25,45
histry, 5
.oral;7,8,11,24,27,28,~9,46
.ems, 8,38,41,43,45,
,ajes ty, 9,
,other, 10
,an, 11,12,13,14,20,21,22,35,39,42,45,46
iental, 41
Murder, 14
Mainly, 19,22,40
Maintain, 23,26,32,39,
Master, 26,
Masses, 2,
Memorized, 33,
Mathematical, 33,38,41
Mystics, 34,
Mourn, 38,
Mill, 38,
Mind, 39
Metaphysics, 40,

N
Necessary, 1,
Nature, 3,56,
Nation, 4,7,2 1,
Nigeria, 7 , 2 1,22,56,58,59
Nation, 7, 14,22,
National, 7,
Norm, 8,
NOW,9,
Niebuhr, 10,11,18,
Natural, 20,27,30,31,
None, 2 1,
Norms, 24
Negative, 29,3 1,
Numerous, 32,47 ,

Nsukka, 41,
0
Obligation, 1,2,8,9,10,11,14,2
31,
Obligtory, 2,
Others, 3,4,6,17
Obedience, 4,
Our, 7, 13,14; 17,18,22,24,31,34,
Oneself, 8,
Oughtness, 8,27,
Operation, 11,
Owe, 13,
Opportunity, 14,3 1,
outward 14,
Overemphasize, 15,
Observance, 15,
Order, 18,
Officials, 32,

P
Position, 2,
Parents, 2,31,
Prominence, 3,4,
Psalmist, 4,
Paul, 5,9,15,
Perform, 5,
Person, 6,19,23,31,35,39,45,5
Sractice, 6,
Principle, 7,55,58,
Political, 7,25,
Practical, 8,
78
Promise 8,13,47
Permission, 8,30,
Provinces, 9,
Power, 9,27,32,
Perfection 13,
Persecute, 14,
Pharisees, 15,
Prayer, 16,
Predominates
Personal, 17,18,
Prophets, 22,
Philosophical, 25,52,
Pilate, 34,35,36,
Plato, 36,37,38,
Pyrrho, 38,
Pragmatists, 39,
Philip Phenix, 40,

Q
Quality 1 1,
Questioned, 22,
Question, 27,33,35,36,52,55,57,
Quick, 32,
Quest, 33,
Qualities, 36,45,
Qualification, 52

k
Responsibility, 1.10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,
19,20,22,23,24,25,26,
Repreknt, 2,
Relation 2,6,21,
Requirement, 4,36,54,
Rehum, 8,
Reliability, 11,
Religious mind, 12,25,
Responsible self, 18,19,2 1,
Reactions, 18,
Responses 17,18,19,21,22
Remunerate, 23, ,
Rightfulness, 24,
Realize, 25,
Reflection 25,
Responsibility 24,25,26,27,32,
Refrain 29,
Relational 43,
Representative, 48,
Rationalism 53,

S
Study 1,
Spirit, 1,
Society, 2,5,7,20,21,23,31,32,33,
Synonymous, 2,11,
Stoics, 3,
Solomon, 4,
Sanhedrin 5,
System 8,16,27,40,42,
Sustained, 8,
Slumshai 8, Transformed 17,
Subjects 9, Trust 19,
Seventy 10, Trafic Code 22,
Siblings 1I, Tracas 22,
Supervision, 11, Terms 1,2,4,25,39,
Samaritan, 14, Truth 33,34,35,36,37,38,
Suffer, 16, 39,40,41,42,43,44,
Social situations, 17, 4% 4bJ47, 48,49,50,51,52,
Spans 18, 53,54,55,56,57,58, 60,
Solidarity, 18, Tantamount 43,-
Selfhood, 18, Thomas Aquinas, 54
Service, 23,
Supercedes 28,
Socrates, 33,
sophist, 33,39,
Skeptical, 33,
Syllogism, 37,
Sensation, 38,
Square, 38
Sociology, 41,
Student 4 l,42,

T
Tasks, 2,
Theory, 2,42.43,44,
Timothy 5
Temple, 8,
Testimony 13,
Tabernacle 13,
Theocratic, 16,
u
Upheaval 2
Universal, 3,2
Urges 5,9,
Unusual, 8,29
Undertaking 8
Until, 10, 15,
Unstinted 10,.
Uncalculating
Unrelenting 14
Understood, 1'
Unfitting 19,
Understandinl
Unreal 25,
Unbalanced 31
Unemploymer
Untrue 35,36,42
Unchangeable 36,
Upheld, 37,
Underfoot, 45

v
Values 1316,19, 26,63
Various 2,4,34,53
Virtue 3,45,63
Vice-Versa 5,
Vertical 6,7,
Voluntariness'25; '

Viceroy 35,
Validation40,
Verified 47,48,
Valid 49,
 . .
Vice-Versa 49
Votes, 58,
Validitv 61.

W
World, 1,16, 2 5 34,36,39,53,
Words, 2,3,4,8,10,ll, 15,33,34,35,38,43,45,
Without-waiting 6
While 9,32,
Whether 1I, 33,42,52,
Within 12,40,
Water 13,52,
WiUingness 16,23,
Wanting 25,
Whatever 30,
Worship 3 1,
Wisdom 33,
~irhstanding40J
Welfare 4%
William James,54

Y
Yet 2,29,36,39,47,57,
YQU5,9,32,36,46,48,58,59,61;62, .- .
Your 15,
Young 60 -.
 -a
*
ABOUT Tm AUTHOR'
Agha U. Agha holds double doctorate dcgrccs.
Hc is presently a senior Lecturer in the Department
religion, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State.
Hc has authored and published several articles in j
both renowned local and international journals.
He is the author of several books including:
Puritan Presbyterian Polity in Elizabethan England
-
1559 1593. (1985) U.S.
The New Meaning of Fasting in our Age (1989)
Light on the Hill Top (1988)
Introduction to Logic and Scientific ~ e t h o d(1993)
Christianity and Culture - A Case Study of Unwana
(1993)
Early European Missions To West Africa (1997)
Whoever comes - The Economy of Baptism in a'
Contemporary Saciety (1999)
Doctrine of predestination - The View of St.
Augustine and John Calvin (2000)
~ o i i Made
c & scientific ~ e t h o d (2002)
s
10. , ~ l h r s hini ~the-church (2003)
11. Religious Ethics in a Permissive society (2003)
12. Ethics of Responsible Self (2004)