Perceived Roles of Religious and Cultural Teachers in Implementing the Curriculum towards Achieving and Sustaining Peace in Imo State

The study investigated the perceived roles of Religious and Cultural Teachers in Implementing the Curriculum towards Achieving and Sustaining Peace in Imo State. The study was guided by two research questions and one hypothesis. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. Multistage proportionate stratified random sampling techniques were used to draw a sample of 224 Christian religious teachers from population of 602 Christian religious teachers in junior and senior public secondary schools. Researchers developed two rating scales: Religious and Cultural Teachers Roles in Peace Achievement Rating Scale (RCTRPARS) and Level Religious and Cultural Teachers Discharge their Roles Towards Achieving Peace Rating Scale (LRCTDRTAPRS). The reliability of internal consistency of RCTPPARS and LRCTDRTAPRS are 0.86 and 0.82 respectively while reliability of temporal stability are 0.80 and 0.83 respectively. Mean and standard deviations were used to answer the research questions while z-test statistics was used to test the hypothesis at 0.05 significant levels. Findings showed the sixteen specific roles religious and cultural teachers are expected to play in discharging these duties, the religious and cultural teachers have significantly performed below the expected average level. Religious and cultural teachers should endeavour to be more proactive in the discharge of their duties in these areas through effective curriculum implementation so as to enhance the realization of peaceful society for all citizens

Seeing the world through the eyes of God : reading the Book of Qoheleth in the light of Genesis 1:1–2:4a

Religious and existential concerns interweave in many books of the Bible to give attention to human’s existential anguish, the sense of guilt, the horror of death, the atrocious experience of the absurd. While many contemporary existentialist philosophers prefer to do without God in the attempt to deal with human’s existential contradictions, the search takes the authors of the Bible through intense spiritual struggles as they attempt to confront the belief in the goodness of God with the human experience of futility in all its facets. We want to seek a meeting point between the existentialist concerns of the book of Qoholeth with the profound theology of meaningfulness as elaborated in Genesis 1:1–2:4a. Our article therefore, has a decidedly pastoral orientation. We will attempt to move, through an analysis of select texts, to a re-affirmation of one of the spiritual truths that many mystics have tried to teach: that reason alone is not enough to guide the human person to the mysteries of life, the believer has to learn to unite with God or to the realities themselves to discover the fundamental goodness in many of the experiences that, in human perspectives, seem to be absurd. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: We believe such union is needed in a world where racism, violence to minorities, gender inequalities, homophobic attitudes are thickening the clouds of discrimination and threatening some to doubt the fundamental goodness of creation as made by God.http://www.ve.org.za/index.php/VEdm2022Old Testament Studie