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 194 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 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 Christian Couples Coping with Childlessness written by Auli Vähäkangas and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Perceptions of people towards childlessness in marriage Negative effects of childlessness on couples and their coping mechanisms written by Ifeanyichukwu Uche and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2024-04-24 with total page 66 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Doctoral Thesis / Dissertation from the year 2022 in the subject Psychology - Social Psychology, University Of Abuja (Social Science), course: Social Studies, language: English, abstract: Infertility is one public health issue with major social and psychological implications. It is well acknowledged that infertility in married couples represents a serious life crisis that jeopardizes the stability of individuals and relationships. Apart from the magnitude of the problem, women have received the majority of the attention when it comes to infertility care, with men receiving less attention. Nonetheless, this study evaluates the perceptions of people towards childlessness in marriages. However, data collection was accomplished through the use of a questionnaire. A simple random sampling technique was used for the study. The study has a sample size of 347. SPSS software was used to analyze the gathered data. The study's conclusions highlighted a number of negative effects of childlessness, including as labelling, abuse, depression, anxiety, and stigmatization. Other effects included labelling, denial of cultural rights, disrespect from a spouse, and polygamy. Furthermore, 57.0% of the respondents agreed that there was a link between spirituality and not having children, while 34.5% disagreed and 8.5% was unsure. The study also discovered that childless couples used self-control, positive self-talk, escape/avoidance, and social support as coping strategies. In the end, infertility is a medical condition requiring appropriate treatment. Therefore, this study recommends that the government give top priority to the creation of short-term plans and programmes that aim to set up easily accessible, reasonably priced medical facilities and infertility counselling centres.
Download or read book Plus or Minus written by Matt Appling and published by Moody Publishers. This book was released on 2015-02-01 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Infertility—a long and quiet war... Matt and Cheri Appling couldn’t get pregnant. One minus sign after another cast them into a long season of trying, failing, waiting, and hoping—into the wilderness where faith grew tired before it got stronger. And in that wilderness they wrote this book. A blend of story, reflection, and lament, Plus or Minus is the chronicle of three couples warring with infertility. It depicts life, faith, and love amidst the ebb and flow of gain and loss. Amidst empty nurseries and quiet hallways, another baby shower for someone else. As you journey with the Applings and their friends, you will learn to cope when dreams and reality collide. You will learn to cling to God’s real promises even as you long for gifts he may not give. You will see marriage in sickness and in health and witness strength in weakness. You will see what it means to live fruitfully amidst barrenness and to be thankful in every season. This book provides solace for those battling infertility and a window into their pain for those who aren’t. Poetic and raw, Plus or Minus is a portrait of faith in the trenches of infertility.
Download or read book Counseling the Childless Couple written by William T. Bassett and published by . This book was released on 1963 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Intercultural Discipleship Encountering Mission written by W. Jay Moon and published by Baker Academic. This book was released on 2017-12-05 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This addition to an acclaimed series brings cutting-edge research to bear on a topic of perennial interest: making disciples. The book looks at disciple-making from multiple cultures to help readers discover contextual approaches that are culturally relevant and biblically faithful. It emphasizes methods that are especially effective with contemporary converts and includes practical examples from around the world. Each chapter includes sidebars, discussion questions, an activity for discipling, and a case study. An appendix contains further suggestions and exercises for instructors.
Download or read book Childless by Marriage written by Sue Fagalde Lick and published by . This book was released on 2021-06 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First you marry a man who does not want children. He cheats and you divorce him. Then you marry the love of your life and find out he does not want to have children with you either. The three he has are more than enough. Although you always wanted to be a mother, you decide he is worth the sacrifice, expecting to have a long happy life together. But that's not what happens. This is the story of how a woman becomes childless by marriage and how it affects every aspect of her life. This is the book of my heart, the one I had to write. Ever since I realized I was not going to have children, I have felt recurring grief and an emptiness in my heart. I am different from most women, but I have found that I am not alone. There are many of us childless women, and I think it's important to share our stories about what it's like when you don't have children in a world where most girls grow up to become mothers. I hope this book offers comfort to those who are childless and understanding to those who are not. If it makes you smile here and there, even better.
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 Blessed Events written by Debra Evans and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Glocal Theological Education written by Bard Norheim and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2024-06-14 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a vision for Glocal Theological Education, an invitation to rethink and reshape theological training in times of crisis. The aim is to train theological judicium, the ability to exercise sound judgment and practice discernment in the face of the different crises in the world of today—like the climate crisis, the changed role of the church, and the challenge of youth citizenship. It explores what has been learned from developing shared, global learning within the framework of local learning communities in Norway, South Africa, and beyond. The book also discusses key practices, such as the combination of coteaching online and learning in local contexts, and best-practice research on other educational activities. Contributors also reflect more theoretically on where, how, and what we can learn from crisis, and how these theoretical insights can help us shape theological leaders for the future who can read the times.
Download or read book Sarah s Daughters written by Tresmaine R. Grimes and published by Gazelle Press. This book was released on 2009-07-15 with total page 147 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Infertility is a problem that affects thousands of Christian couples. Most of these people suffer in silence because few people truly understand their plight. Their involuntary childlessness can lead to feelings of inferiority, shame, and depression. Often, well-meaning friends and loved ones can intensify these feelings by making thoughtless comments or even blaming the woman for her condition. Sarah's Daughters speaks directly to the hearts of these individuals. Dr. Grimes examines the lives of people like Sarah, Abraham, and Hannah who struggled to conceive their promised child. It also addresses the fruitful, blessed lives of women in Scripture who were not mothers and provides practical steps to becoming fruitful that apply to everyone, whether a parent or not.
Download or read book When Two Become Three written by Mark E. Crawford and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2007-06-01 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Raising children is one of life's greatest joys, but the impact of introducing a child into a marriage is staggering. Many couples don't realize the relational stress that parenting can cause. Most parents experience decreased intimacy and increased conflict. They may even find themselves asking, "Am I still in love?" When Two Become Three helps couples recognize the inevitable challenges to their relationship that occur during the childrearing years. It provides practical advice designed to help couples nurture their marital relationship in order to ensure it remains strong during this phase of life and beyond.
Download or read book Two Is Enough written by Laura Scott and published by Seal Press. This book was released on 2009-09-22 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fall in love. Get married. Have children. For most couples, marriage and children go hand in hand. And yet, the number of people choosing childlessness is on the rise. These are the childless by choice—people who have actively decided not to have children—rather than the childless by circumstance. In Two Is Enough, Laura S. Scott explores the assumptions surrounding childrearing, and explores the reasons many people are choosing to forgo this experience. Scott, founder of the Childless by Choice Project, examines the personal stories of people who have faced this decision and explores the growing trend of childlessness. Scott’s expert knowledge and analysis offer a picture of the childless by choice—who they are, why they’ve chosen to remain childless, and how they’ve had these conversations with loved ones. Honest and unapologetic, Two Is Enough recognizes the challenges of being childless in today’s society and offers suggestions on how that same society can change to make room for the childless and the childfree.
Download or read book Unmarried Couples with Children written by Paula England and published by Russell Sage Foundation. This book was released on 2007-10-17 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today, a third of American children are born outside of marriage, up from one child in twenty in the 1950s, and rates are even higher among low-income Americans. Many herald this trend as one of the most troubling of our time. But the decline in marriage does not necessarily signal the demise of the two parent family—over 80 percent of unmarried couples are still romantically involved when their child is born and nearly half are living together. Most claim they plan to marry eventually. Yet half have broken up by their child's third birthday. What keeps some couples together and what tears others apart? After a breakup, how do fathers so often disappear from their children's lives? An intimate portrait of the challenges of partnering and parenting in these families, Unmarried Couples with Children presents a variety of unique findings. Most of the pregnancies were not explicitly planned, but some couples feel having a child is the natural course of a serious relationship. Many of the parents are living with their child plus the mother's child from a previous relationship. When the father also has children from a previous relationship, his visits to see them at their mother's house often cause his current partner to be jealous. Breakups are more often driven by sexual infidelity or conflict than economic problems. After couples break up, many fathers complain they are shut out, especially when the mother has a new partner. For their part, mothers claim to limit dads' access to their children because of their involvement with crime, drugs, or other dangers. For couples living together with their child several years after the birth, marriage remains an aspiration, but something couples are resolutely unwilling to enter without the financial stability they see as a sine qua non of marriage. They also hold marriage to a high relational standard, and not enough emotional attention from their partners is women's number one complaint. Unmarried Couples with Children is a landmark study of the family lives of nearly fifty American children born outside of a marital union at the dawn of the twenty-first century. Based on personal narratives gathered from both mothers and fathers over the first four years of their children's lives, and told partly in the couples' own words, the story begins before the child is conceived, takes the reader through the tumultuous months of pregnancy to the moment of birth, and on through the child's fourth birthday. It captures in rich detail the complex relationship dynamics and powerful social forces that derail the plans of so many unmarried parents. The volume injects some much-needed reality into the national discussion about family values, and reveals that the issues are more complex than our political discourse suggests.
Download or read book RELIGIOUS SYNCRETISM IN AFRICAN CHRISTIANITY written by ISAIAH OLUWAJEMIRIYE OLATOYAN and published by Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.. This book was released on 2024-04-18 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Christianity among the African people, whether on the soil of Africa or in diaspora, is perceived and defined differently by different people. For instance, among African traditional religious people and Muslims, Christianity is a foreign religion that must not be allowed to thrive in Africa. To several Africans who profess Jesus, Christianity is good, but it is not adequate and effective enough to handle all human needs. Still, among some Western Christians and missionaries, African Christianity is superficial and lacks total commitment to Christ. Of course, the Africans are a cultural people with profound religious inclinations. Their traditional religion (ATR) has tremendously shaped their worldviews and socioeconomic and political activities. Consequently, when traditional Africans are converted to Christianity, they do not break ties with their traditional religions completely. The examination of relevant biblical texts on syncretism, however, reveals that God condemns the worship of many gods and places a curse on anyone who offers sacrifices to carved images and bows to them in worship. Therefore, this work investigates the root cause of religious syncretism among African people. In the attempt to find answers to why the average African Christian finds it difficult, if not impossible, to abandon his/her traditional religious belief systems completely to embrace Christianity, the author concludes that unless the issues surrounding the African forgotten and secret covenants are exposed and decisively addressed in the light of biblical teaching, syncretism will continue to be a stigma on the fabric of African Christianity. Therefore, to overcome the threats of syncretism in African Christianity, there is a need to establish a sound theological and missiological framework that can address the problems associated with the African worldviews and belief systems. This task must be carried out under the searchlight of Scriptures.
Download or read book When You Are Coping with Infertility written by Vera Snow and published by Augsburg Books. This book was released on with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offering biblical promises and prayers for comfort and strength, Snow guides readers through the often rocky terrain of infertility, encouraging them to recognize what they can and cannot control in their situations and suggesting ways to live with these challenges.
