IGWEBIUKE PHILOSPHY1 AND POPE FRANCIS‟ APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION EVANGELII GAUDIUM

Abstract

The dignity of the human person and the common good are the two cornerstones of social life. These are not posible without advancement in the construction of peace, justice and brotherhood. Pope Francis in Evangelii Gaudiun proposed four principles necessary for the ahcievement of human dignity and common good. This paper has discussed aspects that seem very important to these principles in relation to Igwebuike philosophy. This philosophy is based on the Igbo-African worldview of complementarity, that is, the manner of being in African ontology. It is a worldview in which individuating differences must work towards a corporate existence where the ‘I’ does not stand as the ‘I’ but as a ‘We’, where life and living makes meaning. In a scenario of this kind, difference does not divide neither does it constitute a threat, but rather unites and gives hope that future existence would have meaning. In a cosmogony of this kind, while the ontology of the person is founded on the particularity of the individual, implying that it is the metaphysics of the particular that founds identity, it is the community that gives meaning to such an existence and grounds such an identity. This is a culture of encounter; it is a call to dialogue between all peoples.