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 166 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 Faith in African Lived Christianity written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2019-09-16 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Faith in African Lived Christianity – Bridging Anthropological and Theological Perspectives offers a comprehensive, empirically rich and interdisciplinary approach to the study of faith in African Christianity. The book brings together anthropology and theology in the study of how faith and religious experiences shape the understanding of social life in Africa. The volume is a collection of chapters by prominent Africanist theologians, anthropologists and social scientists, who take people’s faith as their starting point and analyze it in a contextually sensitive way. It covers discussions of positionality in the study of African Christianity, interdisciplinary methods and approaches and a number of case studies on political, social and ecological aspects of African Christian spirituality.
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 The Ambiguous Figure of the Neighbor in Jewish Christian and Islamic Texts and Receptions written by Marianne Bjelland Kartzow and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2021-09-12 with total page 243 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 African Proverbs Reveal Christianity in Culture written by W. Jay Moon and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2009-06-01 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In many oral cultures local proverbs are highly regarded for their wisdom and prized for their aesthetic expression. In this study Jay Moon provides an in-depth look at the use of local proverbs among the Builsa culture of Ghana, West Africa. In particular, the author's research shows how local proverbs can facilitate contextualized expressions of Christianity that are both biblically authentic and culturally relevant. The process of initiating and sustaining this form of expression is explicated with the help of an engaging narrative, providing valuable insights for those striving for genuine and meaningful expression of Christ in culture. This study will be especially beneficial to the missionary community, particularly for the purposes of appreciating oral literature in primary oral cultures, finding proper roles in the contextualization process, identifying cultural values via the window of local proverbs, training missionaries in cultural understanding, and tailoring discipleship training to incorporate significant aspects of orality
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 Context Plurality and Truth written by Mika Vähäkangas and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2020-02-10 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world has shrunk in the processes of globalization, and the old ways of actively ignoring plurality in theology are no longer viable. Contextual differences between different Christian traditions and theologies are highly visible due to improved communications and migration. These differences also witness that this plurality has existed since the very beginning of Christianity. Religious studies demonstrate that no religion is pure and hermetically sealed from others, but they all are syncretistic in the sense of giving and taking. In the world of religions, where boundaries are porous and the internal plurality of Christianity is vast, there is a temptation either to reject the plurality in a fideistic manner or succumb to relativism. The first solution is intellectually hard to defend, and relativism is often seen as detrimental to Christian identity. This book proposes a way of recognizing the contextual and syncretistic dimensions of pluralism while not surrendering to relativism. Christian identity and tradition can be affirmed while staying open to the challenges of pluralism.
Download or read book Wolaitta Evangelists written by E. Paul Balisky and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2009-09-01 with total page 411 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study presents the religious dynamics of the Wolaitta Kale Heywet Church in southern Ethiopia from 1937 to 1975. On the basis of detailed research from within southern Ethiopia, E. Paul Balisky demonstrates that the indigenous extension of the Wolaitta Christian movement into southern Ethiopia, through the instrumentality of her evangelists, helped Wolaitta regain her own religious center and subsequent identity after centuries of various forms of colonialism and imperialism. Wolaitta Evangelists broadens one's understanding of how an imported model of Christianity provided religious answers to the ideals of a particular Ethiopian society and continues to motivate her members to evangelize. The evangelists who went to people of similar culture and worldview were successful in effecting social change. To ethnic groups who had moved beyond their former primal religions, and to those of disparate culture, the evangelists were those who scattered the seed and impacted the religious, social, economic, and political life of southern Ethiopia. Wolaitta Evangelists tells the story of how missionary activity played a role in Wolaitta once again becoming a people.
