Bachelor of Arts in Theology

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Browsing Bachelor of Arts in Theology by Subject "Abuse"

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    Begging: A Challenge to the Church in Kenya.
    (Tangaza, 2002-02) Oduor, Maurice
    Human life is a gift from God, the sole Creator of all that exists (Genesis 1:27- 28). For this reason, it is something precious which has to be handled with great care. Nevertheless, at times this care is so minimal that more often than not, each person is more concerned about his / her own welfare and not of the other. The world is full of Cainine attitude. The Lord asked Cain, where is your brother Abel? He answered, I don't know. Am I supposed to take care of my brother? (Genesis, 3: 4-9). Cain knew the injustice he had dealt his brother and was not ready to take responsibility even over his dead body. In the world today, it is a matter of survival for the fittest. News of war and refugees seeking for a place to settle occupy a considerable space in the daily newspapers. For instance, the Afghans fleeing their country in fear of the United States of America attacks, the killing of Israel tourism minister Reharam Zeevi followed by Israel threats to Palestine that Arafat must hand over the assassins or face harsh retribution. Kenya, for example, hosts thousands of ref-Lines from various countries such as Rwanda, Burundi and Somali. Situations of war lead people to become destitutes while others, even though not real destitutes still want everyone to know that they have problems hence in need of help. One of the Little Sisters of St. Francis dealing with refugees had this to say, When people are displaced by war, they become desperate psychologically so much that even those that are able to do some work simply sit to be dished with money, food and clothing freely. According to them people should help them and so they keep knocking at the office for assistance'. Begging can be an attitude in a person. All in all, whether people beg out of the desire to acquire more, or out of real need for basic provisions, the truth of the matter is that, begging is a reality today particularly in the third world countries. This becomes a big challenge to the Church whose mission is that of Jesus as He described it, The Spirit of the Lord is in me. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed and announce that the time has come when the Lord will save His people (Luke 4: 18-19) The Church exists so as to continue the mission of Christ and therefore faces the challenge of finding ways and means of bringing hope to the hopeless, particularly to beggars scattered all over the world.
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    Death Rituals among the Chagga Of Tanzania: A Pastoral Challenge
    (Tangaza University College., 2002-02) Kessy, Marcel G.
    This thesis is a study of Chagga death rituals, their pastoral challenge to the mission and their significance for Christian inculturation. In this chapter we are going to focus mainly on; the background of the study, statement of the problem, objectives of the study, significance of the study, the research hypotheses, scope and organization of the study, methodology and finally limitations of the study. My choice of this topic has been prompted by many questions raised by the Catholic church in Moshi diocese - Kilimanjaro Tanzania about the Chagga funeral rites, and other commemorative rituals connected with the dead. In most of African cultures, people value their traditional practices very much. Some of these practices are categorized according to their values in the society. Among these practices are the rituals performed for the dead, the spirits and for appeasing the ancestors. In some other places, some rituals are performed for the living. One finds these rituals and sacrifices having cosmological and vertical dimensions. But after Christianity had been introduced to the African people, these cultural and traditional practices have been deteriorating. In most of East Africa, especially among the Chagga, in Central Africa, where I did my pastoral work, and the several places I visited in 1998, these traditional practices have been considered as a kind of double standard by the missionaries. You find that on the one hand keep the traditional practices are very strong and most valued. Some of these practices are being performed in hidden places while others are done openly. On the other hand, Christianity is very strong and explicitly practiced. This does not only apply to funeral rituals but also in every kind of traditional beliefs and practices. The teachings which African people received from the early Missionaries were very negative to their cultural and traditional practices. They were told that their traditional practices were pagan and devilish. People grew up in this mentality and this led many to perform these traditional practices secretly out of fear. According to Mzee Bernard Kiwory, "the people fear that spirits of the clan will turn against them, harm them and even cause death in the family". During funeral rites among the Chagga, you find that traditional rituals are performed first and then Christian ones follow later. The traditional rituals are done secretly and hurriedly before the arrival of the priest who comes to conduct the Christian funeral service. I have seen these in many places where I have attended funerals or burials. In these practices, I discovered that most of what is practiced traditionally is related to what is done by Christians. This has prompted me to deepen my understanding through this study in order to discover more about our culture. The aim is to find out the good elements which can be incorporated in Christian funeral rites as one way of bringing the Gospel message closer to the Chagga People. It is obvious that, not every thing which is practiced traditionally is positive and can be incorporated in Christianity. Some traditional practices have very good elements which can be useful for inculturation while some are against Christian values.
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    Domestic Violence and Abuse: An Urgent Call to an Informed Pastoral Response Towards A Wholistic Healing
    (Tangaza University College, 2001-02) Ndunda M., Urbanus
    Many Christians who today are victims of domestic violence and abuse suffer their memories or current critical situations in silence. This has been because of the lack of trust that they would be treated appropriately once in the limelight. Many of the pastoral agents do still hold to the notion that these problems are not a common occurrence, and if they do happen, it is not among their people, less expanding their knowledge on the issue and striving to address the same. They are far removed and as such, for them anything to do with domestic violence and abuse such as battering, incest, rape, sexual harassment and other forms of domestic violence and abuse happen to people unlike them. The truth is that great majorities of their flock walk in the daylight happily while in the night they have to struggle as victims and survivors with their experiences of domestic violence and abuse 'To a certain extend, our pastoral agents are ill-prepared to respond to these challenges. There is the need to know more about domestic violence and abuse in the family for unless the pastoral agents come out in the open and speak of the same, their congregations will never cultivate the trust needed to come to them and help stamp out this problem. A challenge must here be considered for the pastoral agents to attend to their own houses too. This is for the pastoral agents who themselves have been victims of domestic violence and abuse and live with these memories. The same applies to pastoral agents who are perpetrators of this violence and abuse. The church must therefore incorporate new awareness of domestic violence and abuse in every aspect of ministry and teaching. It must start now to address the issue in its particularity as a deeply rooted problem in our social, cultural and religious contexts, pastorally and individually. This essay sets out to try and address this problem hopefully offering pastoral agents some new insights on how to help reduce the occurrence of domestic violence and abuse.