A Critique of the Transcendental and Pantheistic View of God in the Ibibio Tradition

This study presents a philosophical critique of the transcendental and pantheistic conceptions of God within Ibibio cosmology. In this worldview, the universe is structured as a hierarchy of beings, with Abasi (the Supreme God) at the apex, followed by Ndem or Obot Emana (guardian spirits), the ancestors, human beings, and finally Isong (the physical environment).
Over time, the Ibibio understanding of the divine has often been misinterpreted as pantheism, which holds that God and the universe are identical. Drawing on ethnographic, anthropological, and African philosophical sources, this study employs critical analysis to examine the concept of Abasi as both transcendent and immanent within the hierarchical structure of being.
While the Ibibio metaphysical framework avoids crude anthropomorphism and upholds the supremacy of the divine, its simultaneous affirmation of transcendence and immanence raises important philosophical questions concerning divine personality, causality, moral agency, and metaphysical coherence.
The study argues that the diffusion of both transcendental and pantheistic elements in the conception of Abasi reflects a dynamic metaphysical outlook in which the divine participates in the ongoing shaping and co-creation of the world. It concludes that this understanding also reinforces a sense of relational solidarity among human beings and their environment within Ibibio thought.