Christ The teacher Institute of Education

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Browsing Christ The teacher Institute of Education by Subject "African Christian Marriages"

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    Divorce as a Challenge to African Christian Marriages
    (Tangaza University College, 2005) Mumburi, Francis
    Marriage is divinely instituted. In the book of Genesis we read: So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them (Gen 1:27). And again in the same book we read, "That is why man and woman leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife and two of them become one body (Gen 2:24). According to the present legislation, marriage is a covenant between a man and a woman who are not impeded by law.' It is the command of our Lord that Christian marriage is stable. "What God has joined together no human being must separate (Mt 19:6). The church in her teaching on marriage sticks to this command of the Lord. It is obvious that the Christian marriage is reflected in the essential properties of marriage namely Unity and Indissolubility. Unity in the sense that Marriage is between one man and one woman. Thus polygamy that is common in many African societies, have no place. Indissolubility in the sense that Christian marriage being sacramental, reflects the unbreakable union of Christ with his church and so it is especially indissoluble. Pastoral experience shows that many African Christian marriages are unstable. They are in crisis because of some factors like drunkenness, bride-wealth infidelity, diseases, economic setbacks and so on. So married people think that any misunderstanding or conflict that makes conjugal life difficult is a sufficient reason to terminate the marriage bond. They are ignorant of the fact that marriage is permanent union. Indeed the question of instability of many marriages in the church is not a small problem. It is for this reason that our research becomes significant. We therefore intended to contribute towards challenges facing African Christian marriages. Our thesis has four chapters. Chapter one gives the background information of marriage and divorce in traditional African societies. Chapter two gives the analysis of divorce in scripture. It discusses the way divorce was handled in the Old and New Testament. Chapter three concerns itself with the causes of crises in marriage. In other words it deals with the factors that lead to the divorce in African Christian families. Chapter four puts forward the church's teachings on marriage, and we also present our proposals and recommendations for stability of African Christian marriages.