### CRS 001: OLD TESTAMENT STUDIES
1. God's relationship with Israel is symbolically depicted in Hosea's family life. Discuss. (15 Marks)
2. David's kingship is often described as a "Golden Reign". Discuss. (15 Marks)
### CRS 002: NEW TESTAMENT STUDIES
3. Highlight the similarities and dissimilarities between the Synoptics and St John's Gospel. (15 Marks)
4. Attempt a critical explanation of the Messianic Secret motif in Mark's Gospel. (15 Marks)
### CRS 003: HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN WEST AFRICA
5. Explain why Sierra Leone may be described as the cradle of Christianity in West Africa. (15 Marks)
6. List six of the causes of proliferation of churches in Nigeria and discuss any four of them. (15 Marks)
### CRS 004: RELIGION AND SOCIETY
7. Give four definitions of religion and state how it relates to the society. (15 Marks)
8. (a) Define cultism and trace its historical background in Nigeria. (5 Marks)
(b) Highlight five ways of curbing it. (10 Marks)
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## CORRECT ANSWERS
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### CRS 001: OLD TESTAMENT STUDIES
**Question 1 — God's Relationship with Israel as Depicted in Hosea's Family Life**
The Book of Hosea is unique in that God used the prophet's own painful domestic experience as a living parable of the divine-human covenant relationship. The personal becomes theological; Hosea's marriage is not merely biographical background but the central vehicle of prophetic revelation.
**The Marriage Command and Its Symbolism**
God commanded Hosea to marry Gomer, a woman described as one who would prove unfaithful (Hosea 1:2). This was a deliberate symbolic act. Just as Hosea would love a wife who repeatedly betrayed him, so God had entered into a covenant relationship with Israel — a people who persistently turned away from Yahweh to worship Baal and other foreign gods. Gomer's prostitution and adultery directly symbolize Israel's spiritual adultery through idolatry and covenant-breaking.
**The Children and Their Symbolic Names**
Hosea and Gomer had three children whose names carried powerful prophetic messages about God's response to Israel's unfaithfulness:
- **Jezreel** — named after the valley where Jehu committed violent acts (2 Kings 9–10), signifying that God would soon bring judgment and end the dynasty of Jehu
- **Lo-Ruhamah** (meaning "not pitied" or "no mercy") — indicating that God would no longer show compassion to the Northern Kingdom in its current state of rebellion
- **Lo-Ammi** (meaning "not my people") — the most devastating declaration, reversing the covenant formula of Exodus 6:7 ("I will be your God and you will be my people"), signifying covenant rupture
**The Restoration — God's Persistent Love**
Despite the rupture, the narrative does not end in abandonment. God instructed Hosea to take Gomer back after she had gone after other lovers and fallen into slavery (Hosea 3:1–3). Hosea redeemed her and restored her as his wife. This act of undeserved, costly love mirrors God's promise to woo Israel back, to speak tenderly to her, and to restore the covenant relationship (Hosea 2:14–23). Significantly, God promises that the children will be renamed — "not my people" will become "my people," and "no mercy" will become "shown mercy."
**Theological Themes**
Hosea's family life thus illustrates several key aspects of God's relationship with Israel: the depth of God's covenantal love (*hesed* — steadfast, loyal love), the seriousness of Israel's sin as spiritual adultery, the reality of divine judgment as a consequence of covenant betrayal, and ultimately the persistence of divine grace and the possibility of restoration. Hosea presents a God who disciplines but refuses to permanently abandon, whose love is stronger than Israel's unfaithfulness.
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**Question 2 — David's Kingship as a "Golden Reign"**
David's reign (c. 1010–970 BC) is widely regarded as the high point of the Israelite monarchy — the standard against which all subsequent kings were measured. The description "Golden Reign" is justified by his achievements across military, political, religious, and administrative dimensions, despite his personal failures.
**Military Achievements**
David was an extraordinarily successful military commander. He decisively defeated the Philistines, who had been a persistent threat since the days of Saul, and neutralized them as a major enemy. He also subdued the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Amalekites, and the Aramean kingdoms of Damascus and Zobah (2 Samuel 8), expanding Israel's territory to its greatest extent in history. The result was a period of regional dominance and security that Israel had never previously experienced.
**Political Unification and the Capture of Jerusalem**
One of David's most politically significant acts was capturing the Jebusite city of Jerusalem (2 Samuel 5:6–10) and making it the capital of a united kingdom. Jerusalem was strategically located on the border between the northern and southern tribes, making it politically neutral — not historically associated with any single tribe. By establishing his throne there, David unified the previously fragmented twelve tribes under a single monarchy, creating the nation of Israel as a coherent political entity.
**Religious Significance — The Ark and Worship**
David brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem (2 Samuel 6), transforming the city into both the political and religious centre of the nation. This act was profoundly important — it united political power with the presence of Yahweh and gave Israel a visible symbol of divine dwelling among them. David also organized the Levites, priests, and musicians for structured Temple worship and made extensive preparations and plans for the building of the Temple, even though God reserved the actual construction for his son Solomon (2 Samuel 7; 1 Chronicles 22).
**The Davidic Covenant**
God entered into a special covenant with David (2 Samuel 7:8–16), promising that his dynasty would endure, that his son would build the Temple, and that one of his descendants would reign forever. This Davidic Covenant became one of the most theologically significant promises in the Old Testament, forming the basis of messianic expectation and finding its ultimate fulfilment in Jesus Christ (Luke 1:32–33).
**Personal Failures**
The Golden Reign was not without its shadows. David's adultery with Bathsheba and the arranged murder of Uriah (2 Samuel 11) brought lasting consequences — the death of the child born from that union, the rape of his daughter Tamar by his son Amnon, the rebellion of his son Absalom, and ongoing turmoil within his household (2 Samuel 12–18). These failures demonstrate that even the greatest of Israel's kings was a flawed human being in need of divine grace.
**Conclusion**
Despite his failures, David's reign remains "golden" because of the extraordinary combination of military dominance, political unity, religious centralization, and divine covenant that characterized it. His reign established the template for ideal kingship in Israel and cast a long theological shadow over the rest of the Old Testament and into the New.
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### CRS 002: NEW TESTAMENT STUDIES
**Question 3 — Similarities and Dissimilarities between the Synoptics and St John's Gospel**
**Similarities**
- All four gospels present Jesus as the Messiah and Son of God, centering their narratives on his person, ministry, death, and resurrection
- Both the Synoptics and John record the ministry of John the Baptist as the forerunner who prepared the way for Jesus
- The feeding of the five thousand is one of the very few miracles recorded in all four gospels (Matthew 14; Mark 6; Luke 9; John 6)
- Jesus walking on water appears in both John (6:16–21) and the Synoptics (Matthew 14; Mark 6)
- All four gospels give extensive coverage to the Passion narrative — the Last Supper, betrayal, arrest, trial, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus
- The entry into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday) is recorded in all four gospels
- All four present Jesus as a teacher and miracle-worker whose works demonstrate divine authority
- Peter's denial of Jesus appears in all four gospels
- The resurrection appearances and the empty tomb are recorded in all four, though with varying details
**Dissimilarities**
- The Synoptics focus primarily on Jesus' ministry in **Galilee**, while John emphasizes a largely **Judean** ministry centred around Jerusalem, with multiple trips to Jerusalem during Jewish feasts
- The Synoptics make extensive use of **parables** as Jesus' primary teaching method; John contains **no parables** but instead records long theological **discourses** (e.g., the Bread of Life discourse, the Good Shepherd discourse, the Farewell Discourse in John 14–17)
- In the Synoptics, Jesus' divine identity is often concealed — the **Messianic Secret** — while in John, Jesus openly and repeatedly declares his divine identity through the **"I Am" statements** (I am the bread of life, the light of the world, the resurrection and the life, etc.)
- The **cleansing of the Temple** is placed at the end of Jesus' ministry in the Synoptics (Matthew 21; Mark 11; Luke 19) but at the **beginning** in John (John 2:13–22), suggesting either a different event or a deliberate theological placement
- John records **seven signs** (miracles) as the structural backbone of his gospel, selected specifically for theological purposes; the Synoptics record a much wider and less curated range of miracles
- The **Last Supper** in John contains no institution of the Eucharist; instead, John records the **washing of the disciples' feet** (John 13) — absent from all three Synoptics
- John's **prologue** (John 1:1–18) presents a high, pre-existent Christology — "In the beginning was the Word" — with no parallel in the Synoptics
- John includes extensive teaching on the **Holy Spirit** (the Paraclete/Comforter) in John 14–16, which has no Synoptic equivalent
- **Lazarus' resurrection** (John 11) — one of the most dramatic miracles in John — is not mentioned in any Synoptic gospel
- John's language is more **philosophical and symbolic** (light, darkness, truth, life, glory), reflecting a distinct theological vocabulary not characteristic of the Synoptics
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**Question 4 — The Messianic Secret Motif in Mark's Gospel**
**Definition and Identification**
The Messianic Secret refers to a recurring pattern in Mark's Gospel in which Jesus repeatedly commands those who recognize or experience his messianic power to keep silent about it. This motif was formally identified and named by German scholar Wilhelm Wrede in his 1901 work *Das Messiasgeheimnis in den Evangelien* (*The Messianic Secret*), though the pattern itself is embedded in the text of Mark.
The secrecy commands appear in three main contexts:
- **Silencing of demons:** Whenever unclean spirits recognized Jesus as the Holy One of God or the Son of God, Jesus rebuked them and ordered them to be silent (Mark 1:23–25; 1:34; 3:11–12)
- **Commands to healed individuals:** After healing people, Jesus often sternly instructed them to tell no one — for example, after cleansing a leper (Mark 1:44), healing Jairus' daughter (Mark 5:43), and restoring a deaf man's hearing (Mark 7:36)
- **Commands to the disciples:** After Peter's confession of Jesus as the Christ at Caesarea Philippi (Mark 8:29–30), Jesus ordered the disciples to tell no one. Similarly, after the Transfiguration, he charged Peter, James, and John to tell no one what they had seen until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead (Mark 9:9)
**Purposes and Significance of the Motif**
**1. Preventing Political Misunderstanding**
In first-century Jewish context, the title "Messiah" (*mashiach*) carried strong connotations of a military and political liberator who would overthrow Roman rule and restore Israel's national sovereignty. A premature and public proclamation of Jesus as Messiah would inevitably have been misunderstood in these terms, inviting popular revolt and Roman intervention before Jesus had fulfilled his true mission.
**2. Defining Messiahship Through the Cross**
Mark's gospel consistently redefines what it means for Jesus to be the Messiah. True understanding of his identity is only possible in light of his suffering, death, and resurrection — not his miracles alone. This is why the secrecy commands are frequently linked to passion predictions (Mark 8:31; 9:31; 10:33–34). Miracles without the cross produce an incomplete and distorted picture of Jesus.
**3. The Lifting of the Secret**
The Messianic Secret is progressively and finally lifted at the crucifixion. When Jesus dies, the Roman centurion declares, "Truly this man was the Son of God" (Mark 15:39) — the first human being in Mark's Gospel to fully confess Jesus' identity, and significantly, a Gentile. The resurrection command to the women (Mark 16:7) further signals that the time of secrecy is over.
**4. Mark's Theological Purpose**
Scholars debate whether the secrecy was a historical feature of Jesus' ministry or a theological device Mark used to explain why Jesus was not universally recognized as Messiah during his lifetime. Most likely it reflects both — a historical core of Jesus managing popular expectations, shaped by Mark into a theological framework that leads the reader to discover Jesus' true identity only through the lens of the cross.
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### CRS 003: HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN WEST AFRICA
**Question 5 — Sierra Leone as the Cradle of Christianity in West Africa**
Sierra Leone occupies a foundational place in the history of West African Christianity for a combination of historical, institutional, and missionary reasons that together justify the description "cradle of Christianity in West Africa."
**Historical Background — Freetown and the Freed Slaves**
The British colonial government established Freetown in 1787 as a settlement for freed slaves, later receiving thousands of "Recaptives" (Africans liberated from illegal slave ships by the British Navy after 1807). Many of these recaptives had already been exposed to Christianity in the Americas or through earlier missionary contact. They formed a distinctly Christian community in Freetown — the Krio people — who became agents of Christian spread throughout the region.
**Missionary Base of Operations**
The Church Missionary Society (CMS), founded in 1799 as a direct product of the Evangelical Revival, established its West African headquarters in Freetown. Sierra Leone became the primary base from which missionary expansion into the interior of West Africa was organized and launched. Missionaries trained in Sierra Leone or passing through it went on to serve in Nigeria, Ghana, and other parts of West Africa.
**Fourah Bay College — The University of West Africa**
Perhaps the most significant factor is the founding of **Fourah Bay College** in **1827** by the CMS. It was the first Western-style institution of higher learning in sub-Saharan Africa. It trained African clergy, teachers, evangelists, and later graduates in arts and sciences. Its alumni spread across West Africa carrying both the Christian faith and Western education. Notable among them was **Samuel Ajayi Crowther**, a recaptive Yoruba who became the first African Anglican bishop (consecrated 1864), translated the Bible into Yoruba, and pioneered missions along the Niger River in Nigeria.
**Bible Translation and Vernacular Christianity**
Missionaries in Sierra Leone were pioneers in the translation of Christian scriptures into African languages. This was essential for the development of an indigenous Christianity that could take root in local cultures rather than remaining a foreign transplant.
**Educational Infrastructure**
Mission schools established in Sierra Leone were among the earliest in the region. The literacy and professional formation they provided produced a class of educated Africans — the Krio elite — who carried Christianity as they migrated for trade and professional work throughout coastal West Africa.
**Conclusion**
The combination of a Christian settler community, CMS headquarters, Fourah Bay College, Bible translation work, and the training of indigenous clergy made Sierra Leone the strategic and institutional foundation from which Christianity radiated across West Africa in the 19th century. For these reasons, it is rightly called the cradle of Christianity in West Africa.
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**Question 6 — Six Causes of Proliferation of Churches in Nigeria; Discuss Four**
**Six Causes:**
1. Leadership tussles and power struggles
2. Doctrinal differences and theological disagreements
3. Quest for self-government and indigenous autonomy
4. Cultural conflicts with mainline churches
5. Economic motivations and desire for financial gain
6. Charismatic movements and claims to divine revelation
**Discussion of Four:**
**1. Leadership Tussles and Power Struggles**
Conflicts over authority, succession, and control of church resources have consistently been a major cause of church splits in Nigeria. When a pastor or group feels marginalized, overlooked for leadership positions, or unable to influence the direction of a congregation, the path of least resistance is often to break away and establish an independent church. This pattern is observable at both local congregation level and at the level of denominational headquarters. The result is a proliferation of splinter groups, each carrying the name of the parent body with slight modifications or adopting entirely new identities.
**2. Doctrinal Differences and Theological Disagreements**
Disagreements over the interpretation of Scripture, the practice of spiritual gifts, the theology of healing and prosperity, the role of the Holy Spirit, modes of baptism, or approaches to sacraments frequently cause groups within a church to separate. The rise of the prosperity gospel in Nigeria, for example, created tension within older evangelical and mainline denominations, leading many prosperity-oriented preachers and their followings to establish independent ministries. Similarly, debates over speaking in tongues and charismatic worship have caused rifts in historically non-charismatic denominations.
**3. Quest for Self-Government and Indigenous Autonomy**
From the late 19th century onward, African Christians increasingly resisted the racial paternalism of European missionary-controlled churches. The desire to worship in culturally appropriate ways, to have African leadership, and to exercise self-determination in church governance gave birth to the African Independent Church (AIC) movement. In Nigeria, this impulse produced churches like the Christ Apostolic Church (CAC), the Celestial Church of Christ, and the Cherubim and Seraphim movement. This nationalist-religious drive continues today as pastors and leaders seek to build institutions they fully control.
**4. Cultural Conflicts with Mainline Churches**
European missionaries imposed prohibitions on African cultural practices as conditions of church membership — banning polygamy, traditional music and drumming in worship, certain burial rites, and other cultural expressions. Many Africans found these prohibitions culturally alienating and theologically unjustified. Rather than abandon their cultural identity, they formed new churches that accommodated African traditions within a Christian framework. This produced the rich tradition of African Indigenous Churches that blend Christian theology with African cultural expression — including the use of traditional instruments, robes, and in some cases the acceptance of polygamous households.
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### CRS 004: RELIGION AND SOCIETY
**Question 7 — Four Definitions of Religion and Its Relation to Society**
**Four Definitions of Religion:**
**1. E.B. Tylor's Anthropological Definition**
Religion is "the belief in spiritual beings." This minimalist definition, proposed by the father of cultural anthropology, focuses on the universal human tendency to posit the existence of souls, spirits, and supernatural entities as a defining feature of religious thought.
**2. Émile Durkheim's Sociological Definition**
Religion is "a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things — beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them." Durkheim emphasizes that religion is fundamentally a social phenomenon — it creates and maintains community cohesion.
**3. Paul Tillich's Theological Definition**
Religion is "the state of being grasped by an ultimate concern." For Tillich, religion is not primarily about beliefs or rituals but about that which a person regards as of supreme importance — that which commands total devotion and gives life its deepest meaning and direction.
**4. Friedrich Schleiermacher's Experiential Definition**
Religion is "a feeling of absolute dependence" on a being greater than oneself. This definition locates the essence of religion in personal, interior experience — a sense of creaturely dependence and awe before the transcendent — rather than in doctrine or institutional practice.
**Relation of Religion to Society:**
Religion and society are deeply intertwined. Religion shapes and is shaped by social forces in the following ways:
- **Moral Foundation:** Religion provides the ethical framework — values of honesty, justice, compassion, sanctity of life — that undergirds social order and law. In Nigeria, both Islamic and Christian moral teaching permeate legal, cultural, and political discourse.
- **Social Cohesion:** Shared religious beliefs, rituals, and symbols create bonds of community and solidarity. Religious institutions — mosques, churches — function as social units that provide belonging, mutual aid, and collective identity.
- **Social Control:** Religion reinforces behavioural norms through the authority of the sacred, fear of divine sanction, and the moral accountability of community. It discourages antisocial behaviour and promotes conformity to communal values.
- **Cultural Expression:** Religious festivals, music, art, architecture, and literature are among the most powerful expressions of cultural identity. In West Africa, Christianity and Islam have both shaped and absorbed indigenous cultural forms.
- **Social Change:** Religion can be both conservative and revolutionary. Prophetic religion challenges unjust social orders — as seen in the role of churches in opposing colonialism, apartheid, and political corruption. Religion has historically been a driving force behind major social reforms including abolition of slavery, the founding of schools and hospitals, and advocacy for human rights.
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**Question 8(a) — Cultism: Definition and Historical Background in Nigeria**
**Definition:**
Cultism refers to the activities, membership, and practices of secret societies or groups — commonly called "cults" — that operate with hidden membership, initiation rituals, oaths of secrecy, and often engage in criminal, violent, or exploitative activities. In Nigeria, the term is most commonly applied to campus-based secret fraternities and sororities that have become associated with violence, intimidation, extortion, rape, and murder.
**Historical Background in Nigeria:**
The origin of modern campus cultism in Nigeria is traced to **1952** when the Nobel Laureate playwright **Wole Soyinka**, along with six other students at the **University College, Ibadan (UCI)**, founded the **Pyrates Confraternity** (also known as the National Association of Seadogs). The group was originally established with noble intellectual and social ideals — to combat elitism, colonial mentality, and the snobbery of fraternities imported from British and American universities, and to foster brotherhood among progressive African students.
Over time, however, the Pyrates Confraternity grew and attracted members with less principled motivations. Rival groups broke away or emerged independently. By the **1970s and 1980s**, campus confraternities had multiplied and increasingly turned violent, engaging in inter-cult rivalry, gang warfare, and criminal enterprises. Groups such as the Buccaneers, Black Axe (Neo Black Movement), Vikings Confraternity, Eiye Confraternity, and Maphite emerged, each with its own rituals, symbols, and territorial claims on campuses. By the 1990s, cult violence had become a serious national crisis, leading to deaths of students and staff, closure of universities, and legislative prohibition of cultism in several states.
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**Question 8(b) — Five Ways of Curbing Cultism**
**1. Strict Legal Enforcement and Prosecution**
State and federal governments should enact and vigorously enforce legislation that criminalizes cult membership, initiation, and activities. Perpetrators of cult-related violence must be consistently prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced without the political interference and impunity that has historically shielded cult members. Laws prohibiting secret societies on campuses should be actively enforced by university authorities and security agencies.
**2. Comprehensive Public and Campus Education**
Awareness campaigns targeted at secondary school students — before they enter university — can demystify the false glamour of cult membership and clearly communicate its dangers: criminal records, expulsion, injury, death, and destroyed futures. Schools and universities should incorporate anti-cult education into orientation programmes and civic curricula.
**3. Strengthening Campus Security and Intelligence**
University security departments should be equipped and empowered to identify cult activities, monitor suspicious gatherings, and report intelligence to law enforcement. Confidential reporting systems that protect informants can help break the wall of silence that allows cultism to thrive.
**4. Counselling, Mentorship, and Psychosocial Support**
Many young people join cults out of loneliness, identity crisis, desire for protection, peer pressure, or the absence of positive male mentorship. Universities and communities should invest in robust student counselling services, mentorship programmes, and mental health support that address the underlying vulnerabilities that make cult recruitment effective. Faculty-student mentoring relationships can provide the sense of belonging that cults exploit.
**5. Religious and Community Engagement**
Faith communities — churches and mosques — play a vital role in providing young people with alternative social networks, moral frameworks, a sense of identity and purpose, and community accountability. Religious and community leaders who actively engage youth, speak honestly about the dangers of cultism, and create attractive alternative spaces for fellowship and personal development can significantly reduce the appeal of cult membership. Collaboration between religious bodies, civil society, and educational institutions creates a multi-layered social defence against cultism.