The Lucan Jesus as the Model for Transformative Masculinity: A Lesson for Nigerian Conservative Churches on Gender Equity

Abstract

Gender inequality has become one of the challenges that the continent of Africa is facing due to how men and women socialized through culture, social norms, and religious interpretations influenced the religious sphere. This has led to toxic masculinity that begins from childhood socialization and how women/ladies are the victims of such abuse and is reflected in conservative Nigerian churches. This paper employs contextualization on the model of Christ Jesus as presented in Luke’s gospel as a model of transformative masculinity towards gender equity. It sheds light on how Jesus relates to women offers ways to deconstruct toxic masculinity within the Nigerian conservative churches. This paper employed African women’s Christology to address gender inequality challenges in the Nigerian church. It sheds light on how to transform toxic masculinity for gender equity. This paper thus provides the model of Jesus as a transformed man towards gender equity in Nigerian conservative churches that have a gender imbalance in the religious space and secular including the home.