“Philosophical Psychology and Power of Imagination (Book 1) by Rev. Fr. Dr. Mark Omorovie Ikeke; Concerned Development and Environmental Ethicists, Effurun; 2022:148 pages
The realization that we live in a fast changing world inundated with unimagined oddities, complexities and intricacies, compels us to think anew and reimagine ways through which we can come to terms with the compelling issues of the day. Our world is assailed by novel challenges which demand new engagements. Contemporary realities change from age to age and epoch to epoch. Every generation, every society has its core challenges as well as antidotes. However, the world of the last 20 years, beginning with the turn of the present century, has created challenges that can be best described as stranger than fiction. The phenomenal advancement in science and technology which is presently driven by information and communications technology (ICT) has not only foisted on humanity the concept of a global village, encoded in globalisation, but has seriously impacted on lives in Third World countries in more ways than one.
The West from whence technology spewed forth globalisation produces and the Third World consumes. What the West produces are often entrenched in culture conflict with the essential way of life in the Third World. The new deal from the West thus creates a new paradigm shift for the Third World which often leads to dislocation. Although, I am not one to blame Africa’s nay Nigeria’s woes on the West, it is trite to state that despite the benefits of Western incursion into Africa, its brash advancement has had negative consequences for the continent. Colonialism, economic exploitation, let us take a leap to the present, cybercrime, terrorism, wars, drug abuse and other confounding indices of immorality that have held Africa down are largely the consequences of our encounter with the West.
Some of the questions that should arise from the foregoing grim scenario should be: should Africa nay Nigeria wallow in anguish and do nothing about her fate? If Africa nay Nigeria were to escape from the sordid predicament what should she do? What route should she follow? These salient questions have refreshing, insightful and inspiring answers in the book Philosophical Psychology and Power of Imagination by Rev. Fr. Dr. Mark Omorovie Ikeke, an Associate Professor of Religion and Philosophy as well as founder and teacher of Potentiality Thinking, a priest and professor for whom the pulpit and podium have become habitats.
The book under review is being presented to commemorate the 25th (quarter of a century) ordination anniversary of Rev. Fr. Mark Omorovie Ikeke as a priest. Dedicated to all those who stood by him in the last 25 years as well as his “father of blessed memory, Mr. Julius Efeaguono Ikeke”, the book is divided into ten illuminating chapters which attest to the infinite possibilities of the human imagination in its capacity to change the world for good. The compelling and academically crafted chapter one is the book’s introduction where Fr. Ikeke puts his academic prowess to task by enunciating the concepts of philosophy, psychology and then tweaking them into the complex manifestation of philosophical psychology and philosophical science. I do not want to entangle or frighten this audience with the details of Fr. Ikeke’s disquisition in this chapter. It is better left for a seminar on campus.
The other nine chapters, apt, telling, pointed and inspiring as they are, speak to the motif of the book which inheres in the positive and transformational power of imagination. Hear the titles of the chapters: Meaning of Imagination, Boosters and Bandits of Imagination, Profiles in the use of Creative Imagination, the Power of Imagination in Entrepreneurship, Ideas: Product of Imagination, Creativity: the Product of Imagination, the Role of Reading, Listening and Speaking in Fostering Creative Imagination, Critical Thinking: A Critical Tool for Imagination and last but not the least, Dreaming and Your Imagination.
As earlier noted, the chapters speak to different, but related concerns which coalesce into the book’s motif. The priest and teacher as explicator, Fr. Ikeke through the chapters takes us through the meaning of imagination in its variegated essence. The artistic and fictional manifestation of imagination, conditions necessary for imaginative flowering, indigenous knowledge systems as conditioned by folk imagination and the salient point that every field of human endeavour is conditioned and advanced by imagination.
He argues, and convincingly, that Western and indigenous philosophies are products of imagination and that the creative mind is perpetually at work to advance humanity. He links the possibilities inherent in the power of imagination to the military victories of Hannibal of Carthage, the Wright Brothers who invented the airplane, the magic of the internet and communication gadgets, as well as how the alternative views that change the world from Galileo to the present were products of the human imagination about what can be and what could have been.
It is appropriate to insert two quotes from the book under review to depict Fr. Ikeke’s sublime thought on and articulation of imagination. Here is the first:
Imaginative people are dreamers. They are equally achievers. They know that
a new world is possible than the present one. Think of religious thinkers like
Confucius, Jesus Christ, Mohammed, Buddha and many others. They dreamt
of a new world different from the one they met. They are all products of
imagination.
The figures mentioned in the foregoing excerpt remain the most significant in the annals of humanity and their followers continue to grow in number till this day. The primary essence of what powered the alternative order of reality they envisioned is entrenched in imagination.
The second quote is a clarion call to deploy imagination to change our world for good:
We must use our mind and imagination to further the human story and make this
planet a better place…..feed your imagination with positive and healthy images.
There is a great power that you have been given, go and prosper with it. Your
imagination is the key to your wealth and health. Use it wisely.
If we want to change the world for good then we must heed Fr. Ikeke’s call and recharge our imagination to help illuminate our path. His is a clarion and timely call. The ravages of COVID-19 and the new world order it foisted on us as well as the imminence of a New Brave World come 2050 makes this call truly compelling. This book is a must read for our youths, ourselves, our parents, and friends. I strongly recommend this book to all.