Hermeneutics Of Exousia And The Evangelical Mandate In Matthew’s Gospel: Dialectics Of Socio-Political Transformation For The Church In Africa.

ABSTRACT

The quest for hermeneutics of exousia in the gospel of Matthewtranslated

to mean authority or power and the need to unravel the

evangelical mandate-the exigent call to make disciples of all nations

became imperative in view of inherent abuse of power, unbridled level of

corruption and blatant waste of resources seen in our African sociopolitical

sphere. These the researcher sees as a result of corrupt privileged

political class in Africa using Nigeria as a case study. The Church that

possesses divine authority of Christ Jesus, seemed to had applied onesided

understanding and approach in carrying out her evangelical

mandate in the given exousia (authority) and the matheteusate (make

disciple) within the purview of our periscope (Matthew28:16-20); hence

the need for this dialectics. The specific objectives of the research

include: to (i) investigate through a critical hermeneutical paradigm the

evangelical mandate in Matthew; and to (ii) chart a new course for the

Church to arise and take up the mandate of discipleship of the nations

dialectically for socio-political transformation. The method applied in

this research is historical descriptive as well as hermeneutical approach.

In order to achieve the objectives of the study the tool of redaction

criticism -a modern, scientific and analytical method of Biblical Studies

was applied. The thesis discovered that exousia in Matthew Gospel

apart from its conventional meaning also denotes political as well as

governmental authority to rule, and exercise control over nations and

sphere of life. The research reveals that the Church while not neglecting

the ultimate task of evangelism should assume her position and exercise

her God-given exousia and transform the nations socio-politically. The

thesis has also unveiled the fact that the Church as well as real Christian

politicians are ‘city technocrats, transformers and builders as the real

meaning of ‘politicians’ imply given the etymology of politics being

“polis” (city) and “techne” (technocrats, transformers, builders,

organizers). The church is hereby called to combat the challenges of

misrule resulting from spate of corruption, and collapse of socio-political

values in Africa with her given exousia. The thesis calls the Church to

arise and transform socio-politically the nations, continent of Africa and

Nigeria in particular.