Theology of the Family: A response to Postmodern Challenges Facing the Family Institution in African Context
ISSUE: Vol.5 No.1 February 2019 Article 10 pp.118 – 127
AUTHORS: Francis Appiah-Kubi & Isaac Karkari
DOI :10.32051/02211910
ABSTRACT
The concept of the family and its importance to human development has been subjected to diverse social and cultural reality checks. The society in which we live is increasingly secularized and does not favour the growth of faith with the consequence that many Christians struggle to bear witness to a style of life in accordance with the Gospel, and so with regard to the sacrament of marriage. Indeed diverse cultures have their constructs for the family and pose a threat to its usefulness and universal appropriation in contemporary times. Understanding the reality of the family from a biblical perspective enables us to provide the theological foundation of the community of human existence which the family remains a basic truth. Catholic theology has remained focused in its teachings and doctrinal formulations in safeguarding marriage and the family as a divinely instituted human community from postmodern vicissitudes. This article tries to furnish theological response to the many rampaging, both positive and negative exchanges confronting marriages and families. It emphasizes theologically on the need to return to the biblical principle for family life.
Keywords: Humanization, Personhood, socialization, Marriage, Extended Family, Individuality, Community, Postmodernism, sociality.
© 2020 The Author(s). Published and Maintained by Noyam Publishers. This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).