Download or read book A Pastoral Theology of Childlessness written by Emma Nash and published by SCM Press. This book was released on 2021-05-31 with total page 115 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The experiences of infertility and childlessness, while not worse than other griefs and disappointments people experience, are nevertheless distinctive in a number of important respects. Unlike other griefs, they often take place in private, with no body, no funeral, and no public acknowledgement of the loss. In her profound and wise theology of childnessness, Emma Nash takes her own story as a starting point, examining several distinctive features of this painful human experience. She asks what biblical and theological resources offer consolation, and what liberative action individuals and churches might take to make an appropriate response. Weaving trauma theology together with personal experience, Nash offers a profound and heartfelt theological reflection which breaks the barriers between pastoral resource and carefully constructed theology.
Download or read book Reconceiving Infertility written by Candida R. Moss and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2015-08-21 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A more complete picture of how procreation and childlessness are depicted in the Bible In the Book of Genesis, the first words God speaks to humanity are "Be fruitful and multiply." From ancient times to today, these words have been understood as a divine command to procreate. Fertility is viewed as a sign of blessedness and moral uprightness, while infertility is associated with sin and moral failing. Reconceiving Infertility explores traditional interpretations such as these, providing a more complete picture of how procreation and childlessness are depicted in the Bible. Closely examining texts and themes from both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, Candida Moss and Joel Baden offer vital new perspectives on infertility and the social experiences of the infertile in the biblical tradition. They begin with perhaps the most famous stories of infertility in the Bible—those of the matriarchs Sarah, Rebekah, and Rachel—and show how the divine injunction in Genesis is both a blessing and a curse. Moss and Baden go on to discuss the metaphorical treatments of Israel as a "barren mother," the conception of Jesus, Paul's writings on family and reproduction, and more. They reveal how biblical views on procreation and infertility, and the ancient contexts from which they emerged, were more diverse than we think. Reconceiving Infertility demonstrates that the Bible speaks in many voices about infertility, and lays a biblical foundation for a more supportive religious environment for those suffering from infertility today.
Download or read book Pregnancy and Birth written by Karen O'Donnell and published by SCM Press. This book was released on 2024-08-30 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pregnancy is a period of time that institutes great change in the lives of those who are pregnant. Regardless of whether a pregnancy concludes with the birth of a live child or not, there are experiences that are common for many people who are pregnant. Yet as a site of theological reflection pregnancy is underrepresented. This landmark book seeks to begin the conversation within theology about pregnancy, the positive and negative experiences, and the potential for pregnancy to be understood theologically. Chapters consider a number of avenues in this exploration, from early pregnancy loss to trauma in labour, from adoption to the end of reproductive years at the onset of menopause. Throughout, this book seeks to understand the resources that theology brings to the experiences of pregnancy as well as the situations of oppression and underrepresentation that currently exist. Allowing for intersections of race, parenting, childlessness, and disability, this book approaches pregnancy from different theological perspectives in order to complexify the theological response and engagement as well as produce constructive resources for both the academy and the church. Contributors include Chine McDonald, Julie Gittoes, Margaret Kamitsuka and Rachel Muers.
Download or read book Christian Couples Coping with Childlessness written by Auli Vahakangas and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2009-06-01 with total page 195 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Children are the focus of marriage in African cultures. Marriage is considered full and functional only if the couple has children--in many cultures preferably a boy. Becoming a parent also contributes to one's full adulthood in the sense that childlessness blocks ascent towards full personal dignity as an adult person in the community. As a result, childlessness is often a major disaster for both of the spouses. It has social, economical, and personal consequences, quite often including divorce. This book explores in depth how childlessness is perceived, dealt with, and coped with in two Christian communities in Machame on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Childlessness is approached through narratives of the spouses concerned and the members of their communities. Their stories reveal pain and courage, brokenness and strength, faithfulness and betrayal. Christianity presents itself in an ambiguous light, on one hand, pressuring spouses to keep up facades supporting oppressive structures. On the other hand, Christian faith provides childless couples with personal hope in the afterlife that the African traditional culture offers only to those with children. This study proves that childlessness is not only a personal but also a communal problem. Childlessness and the fear of having no children contribute to family structures and sexual behavior. In this way, they have a considerable impact on the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa. However, this study reveals that the attitudes and practices towards marriage and children need not be petrified, but rather that traditions can, and do, change.
Download or read book Sexual Reformation written by Manitza Kotze and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2022-02-28 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inasmuch as “sex” and “sexuality” are not words often spoken from pulpits and in academic theological circles, a vast number of utterances have been made in the name of so-called “Christian values” and “biblical views” on sex and sexuality. These are often given from moral-ethical perspectives, and seemingly very prescriptive: who should have sex with whom, when sex should take place, which purposes sex should serve—and especially, when sex is wrong. Moreover, often there is little or no recognition of the complexities surrounding human sexuality, resulting in what appears to be a blueprint for sexuality, applicable to all persons. This volume contains fourteen theological and ethical reflections by South African scholars on human sexuality, with the aim of exploring what a sexual reformation within Christian dialogue might entail. Presented in three sections—namely, systematic theological reflections, biblical reflections, and ethical reflections—the essays represent a range of topics from a variety of perspectives: Luther and marriage; sexual abuse in the Catholic Church; body theology and the sexual revolution; reproductive technologies, sexuality and reproduction; reproductive loss; hermeneutical choices and gender reformation in (South) Africa; queer engagements with “bra” Joseph; explorations on Paul and sex; rape culture and violent deities; the church’s moral authority and sexual ethics; practical-theological considerations regarding infertility; empirical research on masculinities in Zambia; and the lived experience of transgender people in African Independent Churches.
Download or read book New Dictionary of Christian Ethics Pastoral Theology written by David J. Atkinson and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2013-11-21 with total page 1054 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Encompassing a wide range of topics--from the timely (health care and business ethics) to the traditional (atonement, suffering and the kingdom of God)—this work features an easy-to-use reference system and eighteen articles that introduce readers to key themes in moral, pastoral and practical theology. Edited by David J. Atkinson and David F. Field with consulting editors Arthur Holmes and Oliver O'Donovan.
Download or read book Salt Water and Honey written by Lizzie Lowrie and published by Authentic. This book was released on 2020-03 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An honest look at the messiness of life when you are forced to live the life you didn't imagine. Salt Water and Honey is a story about pregnancy loss and childlessness that doesn't end with a baby. It's told from the messy middle, allowing space for the tension between faith and loss to remain rather than trying to neaten it up with solutions and reasons. Lizzie has experienced the pain of multiple miscarriages and writes honestly about her struggle and fight to find God in her suffering. She is honest about the low points and the pain, but she also shares her journey as she comes to understand that her true identity is not defined by motherhood but by being a child of God. Lizzie's story provides a safe space to remind people that they're not alone, it's okay to grieve and their story matters. Covering many universal truths such as unanswered prayer, grief, disappointment, vulnerability and faith in crisis this book is actually for anyone who has lost their dream and is struggling to understand that their story still has meaning and purpose even when life looks nothing like they hoped it would.
Download or read book African Women and the Shame and Pain of Infertility written by Damasus C. Okoro and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2020-06-24 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In African Women and the Shame and Pain of Infertility: An Ethico-Cultural Study of Christian Response to Childlessness among the Igbo People of West Africa, Okoro discusses the shipwreck that is associated with infertility in marriage in Africa. Within this space, childlessness places a big question mark on a woman's femininity and the self-esteem of the man. The stigma of infertility most often leads to social isolation and humiliation, particularly of married women, even when the source of infertility may not have come from them. Unfortunately, this situation goes against the highly valued Igbo ethical principle of onye aghala nwanne ya, meaning "no kith or kin should be left behind." Therefore, the purpose of the book is to help married people in Igbo land and Africa at large to appropriate this indigenous principle in their response to the problem of infertility. To attain this, the author critically evaluates discrimination and oppression of infertile couples, particularly women, and shedding light on the paradoxes found in Igbo cultural expressions. He employs a constructive, ethical, cultural, religious, contextual, and theological approach that explores important Igbo religious paradigms like Chi (an Igbo religio-cultural understanding of personal destiny) and Ani (the feminine deity in-charge of the land and fertility) to argue the case for the liberation and integration of infertile couples.
Download or read book Resurrection Year written by Sheridan Voysey and published by Thomas Nelson Inc. This book was released on 2013 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Perhaps a greater tragedy than a broken dream is a life forever defined by it." - Sheridan Voysey Your dream might be over, but your life isn't. Embrace your broken dream as a chance for a new beginning and see how a "Resurrection Year" can restore your soul. Voysey chronicles their return to life. From the streets of Rome to the Basilicas of Paris, from the Alps of Switzerland to their new home in Oxford, they begin the healing process while wrestling with their doubts about God's goodness. One part spiritual memoir and one part love story, Resurrection Year is an honest, heart-felt book about recovering from broken dreams and reconciling with a God who is sometimes silent but never absent. A hope-filled story about starting again after a dream has died'an emotive, poetic, and at times humorous discovery of the healing qualities of beauty, play, friendship, and love. "Some dreams come true, but others die a painful death. We can learn from both. In Resurrection Year, Sheridan Voysey writes from experience-there is life after the death of a dream. Your dream may be different, but the road to resurrection will be similar. I highly recommend it." - Gary Chapman, author of The Five Love Languages
Download or read book African Women s Theology Gender Relations and Family Systems Theory written by Mpyana Fulgence Nyengele and published by Peter Lang. This book was released on 2004 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: African women theologians have written extensively about problems in gender relations in African contexts, identifying oppressive elements and their effects on women's self-concept and status in the church, family, and society. This book provides much-needed pastoral theological attention and a response to the psychospiritual, relational, and sociocultural effects of gender injustice and marginalization of women. It critically examines concepts, methods, and principles of family systems theory, analyzes gender relations in African families and churches, and develops a theology of pastoral care (based on the Trinitarian concept of perichoresis) that offers pastoral guidelines for effective pastoral counseling with women and men, as well as recommendations for corrective and preventative care grounded in educational strategies. The paradigm of pastoral care that emerges attends both to women affected by gender injustice and to the sociocultural norms that cause distress and perpetuate gender oppression.
Download or read book African Women and the Shame and Pain of Infertility written by Damasus C. Okoro and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2020-06-24 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In African Women and the Shame and Pain of Infertility: An Ethico-Cultural Study of Christian Response to Childlessness among the Igbo People of West Africa, Okoro discusses the shipwreck that is associated with infertility in marriage in Africa. Within this space, childlessness places a big question mark on a woman’s femininity and the self-esteem of the man. The stigma of infertility most often leads to social isolation and humiliation, particularly of married women, even when the source of infertility may not have come from them. Unfortunately, this situation goes against the highly valued Igbo ethical principle of onye aghala nwanne ya, meaning “no kith or kin should be left behind.” Therefore, the purpose of the book is to help married people in Igbo land and Africa at large to appropriate this indigenous principle in their response to the problem of infertility. To attain this, the author critically evaluates discrimination and oppression of infertile couples, particularly women, and shedding light on the paradoxes found in Igbo cultural expressions. He employs a constructive, ethical, cultural, religious, contextual, and theological approach that explores important Igbo religious paradigms like Chi (an Igbo religio-cultural understanding of personal destiny) and Ani (the feminine deity in-charge of the land and fertility) to argue the case for the liberation and integration of infertile couples.
Download or read book Hope Deferred written by Nadine Pence Frantz and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Infertility affects nearly 6.1 million women and 2.1 million married couples in the United States. Additionally, 25 percent of women of childbearing age will experience a miscarriage and one in 80 pregnancies will end in a stillbirth. In Hope Deferred, we hear the voices of five female scholars from a variety of Christian denominations--Church of the Brethren, Disciples of Christ, Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Roman Catholic--as they share their very private stories of painful loss in the hope of bringing comfort and a theological understanding to those who have experienced reproductive loss.
Download or read book Religion Women s Health Rights and Sustainable Development in Zimbabwe Volume 2 written by Sophia Chirongoma and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-08-26 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume brings to the fore the interface of religion, women’s sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR), and the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in Zimbabwe. It emphasizes that empowering African women is a pivotal pillar for attaining sustainable development. Contributors discuss the need for implementing structural changes as a prerequisite for social progress and development to occur in Southern Africa. They interrogate the extent to which religious beliefs and practices either promote or impede women’s SRHR. The contributors also proffer several ways in which addressing the themes of health for all and equality for all women and girls can make a meaningful contribution towards the fulfillment of the goals set for Agenda 2030.
Download or read book The Ambiguous Figure of the Neighbor in Jewish Christian and Islamic Texts and Receptions written by Marianne Bjelland Kartzow and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-09-12 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines an undertheorized topic in the study of religion and sacred texts: the figure of the neighbor. By analyzing and comparing this figure in Jewish, Christian and Islamic texts and receptions, the chapters explore a conceptual shift from "Children of Abraham" to "Ambiguous Neighbors." Through a variety of case studies using diverse methods and material, chapters explore the neighbor in these neighboring texts and traditions. The figure of the neighbor seems like an innocent topic at the surface. It is an everyday phenomenon, that everyone have knowledge about and experiences with. Still, analytically, it has a rich and innovative potential. Recent interdisciplinary research employs this figure to address issues of cultural diversity, gender, migration, ethnic relationships, war and peace, environmental challenges and urbanization. The neighbor represents the borderline between insider and outsider, friend and enemy, us and them. This ambiguous status makes the neighbor particularly interesting as an entry point into issues of cultural complexity, self-definition and identity. This volume brings all the intersections of religion, ethnicity, gender, and socio-cultural diversity into the same neighborhood, paying attention to sacred texts, receptions and contemporary communities. The Ambiguous Figure of the Neighbor in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Texts and Receptions offers a fascinating study of the intersections between Jewish, Christian and Islamic text, and will be of interest to anyone working on these traditions.
Download or read book Love Joy and Sex written by Stan Chu Ilo and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2019-07-30 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is no papal document that has generated as much interest, controversy, and debate in recent times as Pope Francis's Amoris Laetitia. This document, which came out of two very divisive synods of Catholic bishops and leaders in Rome in 2014 and 2015, will probably be the most discussed document ever produced by a pope in modern Catholicism on marriage and family life. This volume has gathered seminal commentaries on Amoris Laetitia by African Catholic theologians, social scientists, and pastoral workers. They offer African theological and pastoral responses to the principles and practices proposed by Pope Francis and the Synod on the family on such contested issues as same-sex relations, divorce and remarriage, and reception and denial of Holy Communion in the church, among other divisive issues. These important essays and commentaries show the strengths and weaknesses of this papal commentary and point out the missing link in the global conversation on marriage, family, and same-sex relations. Their argument for the inclusion of African perspectives and moral traditions in the search for a third way in finding an inclusive and integrated pastoral art of accompaniment is very compelling. The authors here also call for the inclusion of Africa's own unique challenges--like polygamy, childless marriages, and the impact of migration, civil conflict, diseases, ecological and population crises, and the rights of African women--in the global discussion on marriage and family life. They also challenge uncritical cliches in world Christianity that Africa's opposition to same-sex marriages (or Western propaganda about population or birth control and contraception) are conservative, while showing diverse African conversations on these topics in the search for abundant life on this beautiful continent.
Download or read book Longing for Motherhood written by Chelsea Patterson Sobolik and published by Moody Publishers. This book was released on 2018-03-06 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When hopes for motherhood are deferred... Childlessness remains a taboo topic in today’s culture, especially in Christian circles. Many women feel isolated, ashamed, or uncertain of how to reconcile this trial with a loving God. The death of the dream of motherhood—whether from infertility, barrenness, miscarriage, or the loss of a child—is one of the hardest journeys women can walk through. In Longing for Motherhood, Chelsea Patterson Sobolik speaks to these burdens specifically. She shares vulnerably about her own journey of childlessness and how she has ultimately come to view her story through the lens of Scripture and our hope in Christ. While remaining tender and empathetic toward suffering and longing, she discusses the comfort we have in knowing that the Lord is sovereign over all, and that His love is sufficient to carry us through any and every situation. A timely book for women struggling with childlessness, as well as for pastors, friends, and family who want to care for them well, Longing for Motherhood is a tender, truthful companion for a difficult journey.
Download or read book Under the Laurel Tree written by Nicole M. Roccas and published by . This book was released on 2019-10-25 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Infertility ranks among the hardest griefs a couple can face. Yet this painful issue is all too often neglected in both Church and society. Under the Laurel Tree traces one God-fearing couple's journey through the emotional turmoil of childlessness. By following the story of Saints Joachim and Anna, this book helps individuals and couples navigate the loss inherent in infertility amid the pain of shame, separation, anger, bargaining, and blamelessness. In walking alongside Joachim and Anna, we encounter not only a life-giving template for grief, but also the path back to ourselves, our partner, and our God-given vocation of eucharistic thanksgiving.
