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This seven-chapter book begins with the thorny subject of marriage. Chapter one deals with marriage as sanctioned in the Bible. Over the years Africans have struggled with what form of marriage to consider Christian. The main argument of this chapter is that the form that marriage rites should take is more of a cultural issue than a religious one. However, the ways in which Christian couples are to live must follows some universal principles laid down in the Bible.

Chapter two focuses on the question of divorce and remarriage. It is evident from the examination of the relevant Bible texts that God’s ideal is that marriage should last forever as long as the partners are alive. There are, however, extreme cases where divorce may be allowed. The next two chapters discuss polygamy and homosexuality. Both practices apparently fall short of biblical standards. The study noted that polygamous converts must be allowed to decide what to do with their multiple wives rather than being forced to divorce them.

The fifth chapter, which deals with childbirth, argues that while the Bible exalts child-bearing, it also recognises that certain circumstances in one’s life may necessitate putting a limit on the number of children born. Similarly, a couple may delay childbearing under certain circumstances as husband and wife seek to fulfill the mandate of being stewards over creation. The use of alcohol by Christians is examined in the next chapter. The chapter concludes that even though the Bible does not explicitly prohibit the use of alcohol, it is better to abstain from it in order not to sin by mistakenly getting drunk.

Finally, the study evaluated ethical issues related to funeral expenses in Africa. This is a big issue in contemporary African Christianity. The study contended that funeral expenses should be cut down and funds used rather for socio-economic development. A funeral does not have to be extravagant in order to fulfill its purpose of properly seeing off the departed into the unseen world.

In dealing with the various topics discussed in this book, we have contextualized what the Bible teaches for the African community. There are situations where we found the African worldview as a catalyst for appreciating the gospel. In other instances, however, the African worldview contradicted the gospel message. We have tried in each case to comment on such situations to help our readers to recognise what we consider to be proper contextualisation of the issue.