Bachelor of Arts in Theology

Permanent URI for this collection

http://192.168.4.170:4000/handle/20.500.12342/182

Welcome to Bachelor of Arts in Theology collection

Browse

Browsing Bachelor of Arts in Theology by Subject "A Social Issue"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Polygamy, A Social Issue Vs. The Christ Teaching (In Reference to The Luo Of Western Kenya)
    (Tangaza University College, 2004-12) Oguda, Owanoh Francis
    With over one billion Catholics the world over, the law governing the Church is undisputedly the law with the largest following by any standard. Whereas the law of any given state is only binding as far as the subject lives, the law of the Church is aimed at guiding the life of the Christian to a better afterlife after the present state. This is why Christians are forever striving to uphold the stipulations of the teaching of the Church in order to merit a good relationship with God for lies in the future. In this work, I seek to explore one of the situations which has often made some Christians believe that they are in a perpetual state of sin, something that offers no hope for a better afterlife. This is polygamy. Polygamy as will be further explained in this work, is the state in which a man has more than one wife. It is simultaneous polygamy if the said man lives with these women at the same time, or serial polygamy if he takes one wife after another. The Church however teaches that marriage is divine (ordained by God), and is exclusively a covenant between one man and one woman. It further teaches that this union is indissoluble inasmuch as it is unitive. For this reason, it can only be dissolved by death. If we go by this therefore, anything that interrupts this covenant is not only an offence, but also a sin. While admitting that Christian values are superior to any world culture, present or past, it is also paramount to admit that there is a natural law that God infused in the hearts of humanity even before they received the Gospel message. This natural law — which I also dare to call divine, varies in expression from one location to another depending on the variety of ways in which people express themselves in their different cultures. In this work, I pick on one of these cultures that I understand best, that is the Luo of Western and Southwestern Kenya. In this culture, I take a keen consideration in the cultural practice of polygamy. The first chapter is dedicated to this exploration, at the end of which I come up with what I consider as the values and counter-values within polygamy. The second chapter treats polygamy in the Biblical tradition, both in the Old and the New Testaments. Even here, we realize that polygamy is an age-old practice, which had its own values and counter — values even then. Then there is the social aspect of polygamy in chapter three. Here, I seek to delineate the effects of polygamy in the society, and how this affects the societal structure where man and woman are the core protagonists. The closing chapter (four) contains the teaching of the Church on polygamy within the broad spectrum of marriage. My aim in this study is to consider a soft landing for the Gospel within a polygamous tradition. If polygamy is sinful, then the Gospel is the best tool to address this sin. Why? Because the primary orientation of the Gospel is to lead all men and women to salvation which is a universal call by God. If on the other hand, the Gospel excludes a category of people from its purpose, then the Gospel will be self-defeating. This has been, and is still in fact my preoccupation, namely how the Gospel can transform the lives of those in a polygamous state of marriage without cutting them off from the life and the support of the Church.