Abstract
This paper develops an indigenous framework for peace, security, and sustainable development in Africa by reading biblical theology and African Traditional Religion (ATR) together as compatible traditions rather than treating one as a foreign import layered over the other. Drawing on scholarship published between 2021 and 2026, much of it written by African theologians and social scientists from within the communities they study, the paper argued that both traditions ground peace in restored relationship rather than the mere absence of violence, ground security in the wellbeing of the whole community rather than in state protection alone, and ground development in stewardship rather than extraction. It examined what each tradition specifically contributes: biblical theology’s covenant accountability and prophetic critique of injustice, and ATR’s practiced vocabulary of communal obligation, oath, and land-based responsibility. From this comparison it proposed a framework built from principles both traditions already hold, rather than principles imported from outside either. The paper closed by outlining what such a framework would require of religious leaders, policymakers, and development practitioners working in African, and especially Nigerian, contexts, where both traditions continue to shape everyday moral reasoning whether or not policy documents acknowledge it.
Keywords: Biblical Theology, African Traditional Religion, Peace, Security, Sustainable Development, Ubuntu.
Author name(s):
Peter Anakobe Adinoyi, Rev. Fr.
Federal University Lokoja
Department of Christian Religious Studies
peteradinoyi@yahoo.co.uk
+2348032780855 / +2348055214140
orcid: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-5880-9888
Olusegun, Bukola Comfort
Federal University Lokoja
Department of Christian Religious Studies
bukola.olusegun@fulokoja.edu.ng
+2348106224816
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1823-0202
DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23088033
Copyright © [2026] The Author(s). Published by the Journal of People and Worldviews (JPW). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are properly credited.