Main Article Content
Abstract
Christian Religious Studies (CRS) occupies a distinctive place in Nigeria's formal education system as a faith-based subject intended to form moral character, civic responsibility, and social harmony. This article examines the impact of CRS on conflict resolution in Enugu communities, a predominantly Christian, Igbo sociocultural setting in southeastern Nigeria that nonetheless experiences communal land disputes, farmer-herder confrontations, youth restiveness, and occasional ethno-religious tension. Drawing on curriculum documents of the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) and the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE), published empirical studies on religious education and peacebuilding, and documented cases from Enugu (including Nimbo, Oruku-Umuode, and intra-community disputes), the paper argues that CRS contributes to conflict resolution through four interrelated pathways: (a) internalization of biblical ethics of forgiveness, empathy, and non-retaliation; (b) formation of teachers and church-based mediators who operate as local peace actors; (c) reinforcement of Igbo hospitality norms toward strangers; and (d) school-community linkages that transmit peace values beyond the classroom. The analysis also identifies constraints: a predominantly confessional curriculum with limited interreligious literacy, uneven teacher capacity, weak integration of structured peer-mediation practice, and the persistence of structural drivers of conflict (land, political patronage, and youth unemployment) that education alone cannot dissolve. The article concludes that CRS is a necessary but insufficient instrument of peacebuilding in Enugu. Curriculum reform that embeds dialogic pedagogy, local case studies, and school-church-traditional-institution partnerships would strengthen the subject's contribution to durable community conflict resolution. Implications are offered for education policy, diocesan peace commissions, and community stakeholders.