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.
