Journal articles on the topic 'Family Man (Christian theology) Family'

The crisis situation of the present human society is considered in modern theology as a state of spiritual degradation, which in general is inherent in the whole human race. Ignoring the spiritual factor in public life, according to theologians, is a major source of deepening social contradictions. Impotence is the source of all misery in personal, family and social life. Therefore, today sermons from the church's ambon sound with appeals to the moral and spiritual revival of man, with the teachings of how to understand in their hearts.

Abstract Though it is generally acknowledged that Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1836) was the first to put mission studies in the curriculum of theology, the contents of his theology of mission are not very well known. This article offers a careful reconstruction of his mission theology based on a gender-critical and postcolonial reading of the main sources, in particular Christian Ethics. Schleiermacher made a case for a family-based type of mission, closely linking mission activity to religious education. He favored an organic and grassroots approach to mission. By highlighting his upbringing in the Moravian mission-oriented community and by analyzing his reluctance to morally justify modern foreign missions, the author replies to recently voiced criticisms that Schleiermacher’s theology takes a colonialist stance and contributes to the export of a “cult of female domesticity”. His views on the superiority of Christian religion can be counterbalanced and modified by his actual theology of the missional encounter. The article proposes to retrospectively regard Schleiermacher as one of the first theologians who convincingly expressed the notion of a missional church which is as inclusive as possible.

The article deals with the specifics of religion as a regulator of relations in society and family. The analysis of the actualization of Christian family values and the form of their implementation on the example of the Church "New Generation", in the conditions of the revival of religious life and the development of Ukraine as a polyconfessional state is analyzed. Shown is the change in the role of the church and the extent of the impact of Christian values on the social in the regional dimension, as well as those social problems that the church should deal with. It turns out that the crisis of a modern family prompts Christian denominations to react to the existing state of affairs. This forms a confessional specificity in understanding the roots and ways of solving the problems of society. Charismatic churches today are characterized by increasing recognition, increasing tolerance in society, deepening of institutionalizing change, and the formation of their own theology. They function in the Ukrainian society and cause more or less influence on different components of society. Charismatics do not have a single center or doctrine, so the purpose of this article is to clarify the peculiarities of actualization of Christian family values ​​and the specifics of their implementation in the theology and activities of the charismatic Church "The New Generation"). The task of the article is to determine the specifics of theological understanding, the main forms of the practical solution of the charismatic Church "New Generation" of those problems that exist in the Ukrainian society and are related to the family as a primary collective. Another task is to investigate the influence of the church's role on marriage relations and the family in the region. It is stated that the theological basis of the Church "The New Generation" is in the dynamics of formation, based on the general religious principles of Christianity in general and Protestantism in particular. The Christian system of values has a theistic-objectivist character for them. The Protestant principle of "Soli Deo gloria" ("only God's glory") laid the foundation for the formation of the family values of carismatic spirituality carriers. The charismatic church as an institution reacts to constant changes in all spheres of society's life. It becomes mobile, open to change, modernizes, and tests various forms of solving relevant social problems associated with the family. The charismatic church's position on marriage is serious and well-considered. In the ecclesiastical environment, a series of seminars devoted to family and marriage issues have been developed, and preventive and spiritual work is being conducted on the prevention of hasty marriages. The region's statistics indicate positive changes towards strengthening the family's institute, reducing the number of divorces, and so on. Such indicators allow us to speak about the positive influence of the activity of the charismatic Church "The New Generation" on church parishioners, on the situation in the city and the region, as the "New Generation" subsidiary churches are located throughout the region. This testifies to the effectiveness of the practical activities of the charismatic Church "New Generation" in the region and the desire to extend its experience to other regions of Ukraine. The results of the research can be used in religious studies courses, in particular in the teaching of disciplines related to the study of Christian and non-Christian trends, the specifics of new religious movements, as well as for state bodies, with the aim of improving the state-confessional relations and harmonizing social work with the population.

Numerous remarks which refer to the Christian social life in the writings of St Ambrose (339-397) offer us a relatively homogeneous picture of his pastoral opinions on marriage and family, work, property and virtues as considered in the theological context. God is the single aim of every man’s activity in the social activities. A systematic theological analysis led St. Ambrose to the conclusion that: 1) Marriage can have either a positive or negative sense and 2) that the male component in marriage is dominant over the female. He argued that the full libera­tion of both sexes would come only in Eternal Life. The emancipation of women is possible in this world through the Christian religion, through the role of a wife, mother or the consecrated virginity. Labor is inseparately related to human nature from its creation and before original sin. After original sin, human labor changed in the punishment for sin (pain and hardship) however in the same time became the means of salvation, and the redemption of sins. It is also necessary to sustain living and gives a chance to achieve moral virtues. Work and mutual assistance were made by the Bishop of Milan a model work in the society. St Ambrose ac­cepted both private possession rights and a community property of goods. The earthly goods should be used always with the religious perspective of the sole des­tiny – God. The main Aim-God, a temporary possession of goods (worldliness) and the purpose of the Main Owner- the good of every man (justice, fraternity, solidarity, mutual love) are the limits of a possession rights. The Bishop of Milan also introduced to the Christian moral theology the system of evaluation of the human deeds based on the Stoic categories of virtues and vices. St. Ambrose com­bined this system with the allegoric conception of the Four Rivers of the Philo of Alexandria and St. Paul’s moral theology. A Christian should be guided by the vir­tues of humbleness and fear of God. They will lead him to the wisdom and divine blessing, subsequently to the real knowledge of God. In this world the Christians should respect the sense of responsibility, the virtue of silence, freedom, cardinal virtues, honesty, charity and usefulness of his work. In the social life Christians are obliged to denounce the vices of egoism and arrogance, usury, greediness, vice behavior or giving unwise promises. The social problems were always subordi­nated to the theological purposes in the writings of St. Ambrose. The Christian are always obliged to be guided by Gods Commandments. St. Ambrose did not manage to work out a code of Christian moral behavior in a society, however he discussed many different problems, which were used by others (cf. St. Thomas of Aquino) to construct such a code. A synthesis of the Stoic philosophy, the philoso­phy of Philo Judaeus and St. Paul’s moral theology can be legitimately regarded as his valuable contribution to the studies of ethics.

‘Just a Family’Birgit Michelsen: ‘The Catechist, the Dean, and the Socialist’. The History of Three Generations. Published by Anis, Århus, 1989.By Hellmut Toftdahl The writer has written about three people in the history of her family, for whom Christianity was a deeply personal matter. Their crises reflect the crisis which the Christian Church underwent in those years. We also meet several other people in the book, sons and daughters of the three. Their scruples and rebellions, ranging from radical free-thinking to an involvement in German Socialism, are woven together into a vivid presentation of the history of ideas of the time.The main character of the book is the restless, fascinating Christian, who ended his life in Leipzig as a Socialist and naturalized German. With his doubt about the ‘truths’ he had inherited from his family of clergymen, and in his search for the ‘right thinking’, he was ahead of his time. In his honesty and need to be true to himself, he had a good deal in common with both Søren Kierkegaard and Grundtvig, whose contemporary he was.In a Grundtvig context the book is interesting because it affords personal evidence of the ecclesiastical and existential forces that Søren Kierkegaard and Grundtvig, with their liberating theology, were up against among the representatives of the established understanding of Christianity of the time.

Kaj Thaning 4.6. 1904 - 6.6. 1994By Kim Arne Pedersen.A few days after his ninetieth birthday, Kaj Thaning died peacefully in his home in Båring, where he had been a clergyman for a generation, and where his monumental work, the thesis .Man First.... was made ready for publication in 1963. Kaj Thaning was bom into a family with roots in influential circles of Grundtvigianism, but as a young undergraduate he came into contact with the Danish Tidehverv movement which introduced the dialectic theology in Denmark. Together with a number of other young theologians Kaj Thaning was connected with both Tidehverv and Grundtvigian circles, and the group was consequently termed .Tidehverv Grundtvigianism.. Thaning became the Grundtvig interpreter within this group, and published his interpretations in a number of books and articles, and a precis of the main thoughts in his thesis was translated into a number of foreign languages in connection with Grundtvig’s anniversary in 1972. Thaning was a vicar through the greater part of his life, but was also deeply engaged in numerous other activities: establishing a folk high school, participating in debates on topical issues, and, in co-operation with the pioneers of the Grundtvig Society, working out the register of Grundtvig’s unprinted manuscripts, a work amply demonstrating his impressive abilities as a research historian. Thaning was a member of the Grundtvig Society Committee from 1948. As early as 1949 he wrote his first major article in Grundtvig Studies, and until recent years he contributed a large number of long or short papers to the yearbook, always impressive in their profundity and perspicacity. As an interpreter of Grundtvig, Thaning has reached far beyond the academic circles to which scientific research is usually restricted. Thaning’s thesis - that the modem relevance of Grundtvig’s writings is closely bound up with his struggle with his personal mixture of the human and the Christian - has had a decisive influence on the Danish cultural and theological debate in the years after World War II, in that it matches with Denmark’s development from an agricultural to an industrial and urban society, and with the decreasing influence of the religious revival movements. Thaning’s secular-theological emphasis on the separation of the human and the Christian as the essential theme in Grundtvig’s writings legitimized this development, but at the same time Thaning’s thesis bore evidence of a profound personal struggle and of a theologically thoroughly contemplated interpretation of Grundtvig, encompassing his entire work. All the same, it seems fair today to view Thaning’s thesis in the light of the theological currents he met on his way, a theological-historical view which may be understood in continuation of the criticism of Thaning’s thesis, raised by recent Grundtvig research, seeking its arguments in incarnation theology. In recent years, this criticism has paved the way for a renewed occupation with Grundtvig’s liturgical theology, and has been able to fertilize Grundtvig’s thoughts in an international, ecumenical-theological context. Thaning, however, was unaffected by this criticism; he remained forever prepared to raise objections to his critics. Thus, from recent years, the present writer remembers Thaning’s unremitting and unyielding defence of his thesis, but also his kindness and helpfulness in connection with the present writer’s first attempts in Grundtvig research.The fact that Thaning’s position has been abandoned in modem research does not weaken the greatness of his work. Thaning’s critics, too, have been - if adversely - influenced by his thesis, whose definition of the relationship between the human and the Christian has left an indelible trace in Danish theology.

Patriarchal culture has infiltrated many social, psychological, and historical aspects of Indonesian societies, including religious life. This study focuses on gender-role ideology of church leaders in Surabaya, Indonesia. As the second largest religion in Indonesia, Christian teachings inf luence 9.5% (or more than 19 million people)of Indonesian population. In this study, eight leaders of eight churches in Surabaya are involved in semi structured interviews, in order to reveal various aspects of their gender-role ideology. The member of these churches range from 1,000 to 17,000 people. The total number of people committed in these churches exceeds 30,000 people. The results show that most of the leaders believe in moderately egalitarian gender-role ideology. The most egalitarian aspects are privilege of man and household utility, while the mos t traditional are primacy of husband as breadwinner. The strongest traditional view – which is often overlooked by gender theories – is regarding the preference of male leadership both in spiritual, church, and family context. This is due to a Bible verse, Ephesians 5:22 – the most frequently cited verse by these church leaders in explaining male -female relationship – which explicitly states: “Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord”. Although there are feminist interpretations on that verse, they are not known by most of these leaders. Feminist theology is still aminority approach in interpreting Bible among churches in Indonesia. The implications of these findings are discussed.

This article consists of two parts. The first part focuses on the thoughts of the Pope, which we can treat as the author’s context and which is necessary for analysing the papal poetic meditations. The analyses are included in the second part. The context is made up of statements from the early period of the pontificate, which should be considered the most important in the teachings of the Holy Father about women. I am referring here to the following editions of John Paul II’s teachings: Vol. 1: He created man and woman. Christ refers to the “origin”: John Paul II’s theology of the body, Vol. 4: The Sacrament and Vol. 8: Familiaris Consortio: On the Role of the Christian Family in the Modern World, as well as the apostolic letter Mulieris Dignitatem: On the Dignity and Vocation of Women on the Occasion of the Marian Year. The aforementioned texts are the relevant basis for studying the papal poetic output, because, like the poetry of John Paul II, they capture woman in the metaphysical, spiritual and divine categories. Such an interpretational basis is not provided by feminism or even John Paul II’s project of new feminism, whose main and laudable concern was to restore woman’s personal dignity in the social dimension. The most important views on women in the papal teaching refer to the Book of Genesis, to the descriptions of the creation of the human being – a woman and a man who become, in the words of the Holy Father, one body, one heart and one spirit. It is in this paradigm, in the “sacrament of creation” (in union with a man) that a woman attains the highest status in the metaphysical and personalistic dimensions. This is confirmed by the meditation in Part 2 of the Roman Triptych. However, the universality of this anthropological paradigm means that it also applies to other texts whose protagonists are women themselves: Mary Magdalene, the Samaritan woman, Veronica, or the girl disappointed in love. The current study is limited to poetry. Undoubtedly, of great importance from the point of view of women’s issues is the interpretation of the drama In front of the Jeweller’s Shop: A Meditation on the Sacrament of Matrimony, Passing on Occasion into a Drama. This play will become the subject of a separate study.

The article focuses on the education of spiritual values of personality. Spiritual values have a great influence on the formation of personality of young generation. First, as a component of world culture, knowledge of which is necessary for every educated person. Secondly, as a universal value can make a child's life happier, full of intelligence, decency, peace. That is why the formation of spiritual values of each individual makes up a general picture of spirituality of society, on which largely depends the main vector of its socio-cultural, economic and political development. Spirituality is one of the most important values of personality. In a broad sense, spirituality is the core, the foundation of inner world of a person, creative orientation, inspiration of a person; certain type of perception: the trinity of attitude to the absolute, to the world of nature, society, to other people and to oneself, as creative orientation, as the development of intelligence and decency. Teachers of the Western region of Ukraine in their scientific heritage also paid attention to the peculiarities of spiritual education. O. Vyshnevskyi emphasized the two most important values – the ideology of statehood and service to God and Ukraine and highlighted the following absolute, eternal values: Faith, Hope, Love, Dignity; H. Vasianovych noted that a person with a high level of spiritual values is that real phenomenon which forms the nation's elite; H. Vasianovych noted that a person with a high level of spiritual values is that real phenomenon which forms the nation's elite; M. Stelmakhovych saw in spirituality a set of mental phenomena that characterize the inner, subjective world of a person, their life views, ideals, attitudes to life, to other people; R. Skulskyi believed that the educational ideal of society and individual, in particular, should be based on such highest spiritual values as humane treatment of people, love, loyalty, courtesy, beauty of feelings. Teachers drew attention to the need for spiritual education both in family and during studies. If parents are interested in the spiritual growth of their children, are able to create appropriate moral, ethical, pedagogical conditions, cooperate with teachers, then children in such families grow up spiritually rich, developed, with stable valuable ideals. In school, introduction into school system of such subjects as «Christian ethics», «Fundamentals of Noology», «Fundamentals of Theology» and others should contribute to the formation and development of a spiritual person, the formation of Christian spirituality of personality. Therefore, we agree with the opinion of B. Stuparyk that family, school and church should determine the ways of their cooperation in the education of spiritually rich, morally perfect citizens of independent Ukraine. are able to create appropriate moral, ethical, pedagogical conditions, cooperate with teachers, then children in such families grow up

AbstractThis article is an effort toward practical, pastoral, theological correlation, an effort to bring together the American cultural tradition and the Christian theological tradition. Its argument develops in four cumulative theses to be explicated: (1) there is a crisis of family in the United States today; (2) what is said of family in both First and Second biblical Testaments is of no direct help in that crisis; (3) what makes a family Christian is not the slavish following of some biblical saying about family but the following of Jesus confessed as the Christ; (4) the Christian family has an important contribution to make in the contemporary crisis of family in the United States. Each thesis is developed in turn.

The Family International (TFI) is a religious movement that emerged in the late 1960s. It was founded by David Berg (1919?1994), who later came to be perceived by adherents as the End-Time Prophet. The movement is based on Christian theology but has never had more than 10 000 followers. It has, however, made itself internationally famous through a radical interpretation of the Bible and critique of mainstream society. The Family has received media attention partly due to its liberal views on sexuality. The group is well-known within the research field of sociology of religion and new religious movements, and has been extensively studied as a “high-tension” group that has limited and regulated contact with mainstream society. Although there are some excellent in-depth case studies on the Family, the group is constantly changing due to its theology being based on continuous prophecy. This means that the group’s doctrines and praxis have changed considerably over the course of its 40-year history. This article examines the latest change in The Family International, called the Reboot, which was implemented in September 2010, in order to get a clearer picture of what constitutes this shift. This article also aims to show how changes in social boundaries due to the implementation of the Reboot are perceived by some members of The Family International.

[The author argues that Christian parents have a dual vocation: to care for their children and to contribute to the larger society. Recent theology on the family shows that most writers emphasize only one part of that dual vocation. The author argues that this tendency diminishes family ethics. She roots the obligation to care for one's own in natural inclinations and the experience of Christian parents. The obligation to serve society is rooted in Catholic teaching on work and family.]

RÉSUMÉLe principal objectif de cet article est d’encourager une approche plus large, supraconfessionnelle, du mariage et de la famille à l’époque moderne. La conjugalité a été “désacralisée” par les réformateurs protestants du 16e siècle. Martin Luther, parmi d’autres, a refusé le statut de sacrement au mariage, tout en valorisant celui-ci comme une arme contre le péché. En réaction, le concile de Trente a réaffirmé avec force que le mariage est bien un des sept sacrements chrétiens. Mais, promouvant la supériorité du célibat, l’Église catholique n’a jamais beaucoup insisté sur les vertus de la vie et de la piété familiales avant le 19e siècle. En parallèle, les historiens décèlent des signes de “sacralisation” de la famille protestante à partir du 16e siècle. Leurs conclusions doivent être relativisées à la lumière de recherches plus récentes et plus critiques, centrées sur les rapports et les représentations de genre. Elles peuvent néanmoins inspirer une étude élargie et comparative, inexistante dans l’historiographie traditionnelle, des réalités et des perceptions de la famille chrétienne au-delà des frontières confessionnelles.MOTS-CLÉ: Époque Moderne, mariage, famille, protestantisme, Concile de TrenteABSTRACTThe main purpose of this paper is to encourage a broader supra-confessional approach to the history of marriage and the family in the Early Modern era. Wedlock was “desacralized” by the Protestant reformers of the 16th century. Martin Luther, among others, denied the sacramental status of marriage but valued it as a weapon against sin. In reaction, the Council of Trent reinforced marriage as one of the seven sacraments. But the Catholic Church, which promoted the superiority of celibacy, did little to defend the virtues of family life and piety before the 19th century. In parallel, historians have identified signs of a “sacralization” of the Protestant family since the 16th century. 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Within the Christian community, diverse views exist on the theological and moral dimensions of family planning, and specifically of contraception. Discussion of these issues frequently focuses on the family planning as a collection of methods and commodities used to space or limit pregnancies. Often missing from the discussion is the notion of family planning as a social and political movement, and the degree to which this movement’s philosophy and goals are compatible with Christian theology. Nevertheless, faith-based aid organizations, including those with no objection to contraceptive use, must seriously grapple with the moral and practical implications of partnering with the institutions of the global family planning movement.

This study presents St. Augustine’s personal experiences related to marriage and family that eventually influenced his views on these topics. Augustine of Hippo is considered one of the greatest theologians of the ancient Christian world. Although he was unmarried, he was born into a Christian family and experienced what it was like to live with a woman in a quasi-married state before he converted to Catholicism. Augustine left behind a large body of writings dedicated to the topics of marriage and family. Even though these works do not constitute a coherent treaty on marriage and family, they do shed light on these issues. They also reflect the current and pressing problems that affected not only St. Augustine but also the people of his time. St. Augustine’s views on marriage and family have had an immense influence on the entire Latin Church’s position on these issues. In this regard, the primary source that contains a lot of biographical information is Augustine’s Confessions. This study is made up of two parts. Part I describes Augustine’s childhood experiences and family life. Part II describes youth and his experience living with a female concubine. This original study presents the sources of St. Augustine’s views on human sexuality and his relationship with his family.

This study explores and analyses funerary rite struggles in a nation where Christianity is a comparatively recent phenomenon, and many families have Christian and Hindu, Buddhist and Traditionalist ( kiranti) members, who go through traumatic experiences at the death of their family members. The context of mixed affiliation raises questions of social, psychological and religious identity for Christian converts, which are particularly acute after a death in their family. Using empirical research, this thesis focuses on the question of adaptation and identity in relation to church life, within the familial and social sphere of individual Christians and within the wider society in which they live, particularly with reference to death and disposal. This research has used an applied theology approach to explore and analyse the findings in order to address the issue of funerary rites with which the Nepalese church is struggling. For the need of adaptation, this study seeks to understand the funerary rites of the host culture alongside Jewish-Christian characteristics of adaptation, especially in terms of the Nepalese Evangelical Christian context. It also poses the challenge of finding an identity in a wider cultural and societal milieu. The case studies and interviews have portrayed tripartite relationships and tensions between an individual, family and church or community at the death in a ‘split’ family where a Christian convert’s loyalty to the deceased and the family is tested. Participation and non-participation in the last rites create problems for both the church and the family, and some solution needs to be found. The study has discovered that adaptation of the technique of the funerary rites, rather than of their content, could ease this tension in a ‘split’ family, and enhance a family and community’s reconciliation and solidarity. The mode of disposal, whether burial or cremation, could be used and a theology of cremation be developed in order to provide a theological framework.

Twentieth-century feminist scholarship has largely ignored the foundational role of theology in Wollstonecraft's moral and political philosophy, and its role in shaping the development of her philosophy of the family through three distinct stages. Wollstonecraft was a traditional trinitarian Anglican in her early writings, a rationalistic unitarian Christian Dissenter in her middle writings, and a Romantic deist, skeptic and possible atheist in her late writings. The early Wollstonecraft views the traditional family as a cave that traps humanity in a morass of corruption with no hope of escape except in the next life; the middle Wollstonecraft believes that once the family takes a new, egalitarian form, it can serve as a “little platoon” (to use Burke's phrase) that instills the moral, social and political virtues in each generation of citizens; while the late Wollstonecraft fears that the traditional family is a prison from which women have little hope of escape, either in this world or through passage to the next.

Abstract. New normal era, with social and physical distancing, has made Christian Javanese family difficult in fulfilling their spirituality need. The churches have tried to fill their need by online service but still had problem. Family based discipleship proposed to solve this problem. Family based discipleship implementation in Christian Javanese family was obstracted by leadership, interpretation, and subject matter problems. This research aimed to develop a family-based discipleship model for Christian Javanese family at New Normal era Covid-19 pandemic by promoting a correct, easy, and right Bible interpretation. This research is an applied research with qualitative approach and fenomenology theology. Finally, this research proposed family - storytelling - inductive discipleship model for Christian Javanese family at new normal era.Abstrak. Era New normal dengan social and physical distancing, membuat keluarga Jawa Kristen kesulitan memenuhi kebutuhan kerohaniannya. Gereja mencoba memenuhi kebutuhan tersebut dengan ibadah online namun masih bermasalah. Pemuridan berbasis keluarga diusulkan untuk menyelesaikan permasalahan ini. Penerapan pemuridan berbasis keluarga pada keluarga Jawa Kristen terhalang masalah kepemimpinan, penafsiran, dan materi pemuridan. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menemukan model pemuridan berbasis keluarga bagi keluarga Jawa Kristen di era new normal pandemi Covid-19 dengan interpretasi Alkitab yang benar, mudah dan tepat. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian terapan dengan pendekatan kualitatif dan paradigma hermeneutik fenomenologi. Penelitian ini menemukan model pemuridan keluarga - bercerita - induktif sebagai model yang cocok bagi pemuridan keluarga Jawa Kristen di era new normal.

At the annual conference of The American Psychiatric Association (APA) in Miami, there was a workshop entitled "Family Crisis". The results of a study said that in the last 30 years, 60% of families in the United States ended in divorce, and 70% of their children did not develop well, behave deviant or antisocial. For example seen juvenile delinquency, abuse of NAZA (Narcotics, Alcohol, and other Addictive Substances), promiscuity, deviant sexual behavior and so on. It was also stated that divorce rates are increasing, marriages are decreasing because many people choose to live together without marriage or single life and free sex. Disloyalty (abuse) among families in the US turned out not to be the monopoly of husbands alone, but 40% of the wives there were also involved in affair with third parties. Of the five marriages in the first five years, three divorces occurred. The author gives the purpose of writing to discuss the crisis in the household, rebuild the household and give Christian values ​​in counteracting divorce. The author uses descriptive literature research method data and provides research results: How a harmonious family can be established dynamically if we base our family building on the basis of strong Christian spirituality values ​​accompanied by a fabric of good communication between us and our children. Surprisingly few studies have explored the implications of divorce happened because family can not be established, especially in young adulthood. This study addresses several theoretical arguments linking divorce in the side of spiritual value with reduced religious involvement in young adulthood and tests relevant hypotheses using data from a unique sample. Results show that divorce in the side of spiritual value is associated with substantially lower communicate religious involvement among young adults in their families house.

A close reading of Freud's texts reveals that they make a surprising historical argument by virtue of their metaphors. The fantasy world of the family romance (primary process or the unconscious) and the world of consciousness (secondary process or the ego) are represented, respectively, by the vocabularies of feudalism and capitalism. Even after Freud's mid-career revision of his model of the mind, in which the difference between consciousness and the unconscious and between ego and libido becomes less important, he continues to use the metaphors to describe primary and secondary processes. The author demonstrates how durable and precise this double tropology is, and how clearly it conforms to representations of feudalism in classical historiography and Christian theology and to representations of capitalism in Hegel, Marx, and John Maynard Keynes. The result is a picture of the Freudian psyche as a storehouse of the concrete, material history from which modern subjectivity derives.

The thesis of this essay is that—before writing—theologians should get to know their subject matter. Prayer is the lifeline of theology, because God is the subject matter of theology and prayer is our way of being in the world with God. Developing this idea first with human family and partnership models brings out how multifaceted prayer is, and how it is a way of being in the world not only for individuals but for Christian communities. Applying these observations to the task of theology, the essay attempts to clarify the thesis by answering the charge that it makes theology perniciously subjective.

This article presents a review of the interface of family systems theory and therapy with religious, spiritual, or faith perspectives, with particular emphasis on Christian theology and Scripture. A brief review of the literature shows the relative paucity of work in this area to date. It is argued that family therapy is a particularly fertile ground for the integration of theological, religious, and spiritual considerations. Three points of intersection between family systems theory and biblical concepts—context, legacy, and body life—are discussed to illustrate the considerable promise of family systems theory for future integrative work. Implications for practice are discussed within a framework outlining three means of including religion or spirituality in the clinical work of family therapy—as resource, as culture, or as context. Borrowing from the family systems theory emphasis on epistemology, a definition of “second-order integration” is suggested, which may help to clarify the field's “thinking about thinking” about integration.

This print version of an address given in February 2018 at Columbia Theological Seminary pursues the question, How do we follow Jesus the Christ in this religiously plural world? Martha Moore-Keish tells the story of how Presbyterians, as one particular Christian family, have wrestled with this question for the past 500 years. After reviewing five historical interpretations of religious diversity, the essay introduces the emerging field of comparative theology, as a promising next step in engaging a world of many religions. Finally, it offers a trinitarian Reformed theological rationale for engaging in comparative theology.

AbstractIn The Nature of True Virtue, Jonathan Edwards does not deny that common morality is important; benevolence, beauty, conscience, justice, love for family and country are all threads in the fabric of a common morality. Without love for God as their chief end, however, the ‘virtues’ of common morality do not rise to the level of true virtue. This incommensurability can be problematic for Christian ethics in the public square. Edwards understood his project within the horizon of a commonwealth founded on Christian faith, but modern liberal democracies envision a different relationship between religious discourse and public life. In these contexts, so different from Edwards’ setting, pluralism and tolerance are among the keys to a peaceful pursuit of the common good. With these differences in view, then, I explore what contribution Edwards’ work on virtue might make to the practice of public theology in the areas of environmental ethics, bioethics and immigration policy.

The unique philosophical problems of Christianity derive from the fact that it is not a philosophy, but a gospel. That is to say, its teaching and institutions are distinctively what they are by virtue of their relation to particular divine acts rather than because they are primarily a general teaching or philosophy. Whatever general teaching there is is rooted in particularities. It is not, then, difficult to come to a provisional understanding of the reference of the ‘particular’ in the title. Christianity as a particular religion, distinct from other religions and philosophies, is a distinctive way of appropriating what is believed to be salvation, deriving from a centre in a specific pattern of divine action. That centre, to be sure, gives rise to a range of conceptions of salvation sharing a family resemblance, but is none the less common to all those that are recognisably within the Christian fold.

The article examines the aesthetic principles of Islam and their influence on the family, including the Islamic one. A person in an Islamic family is focused not on a specific image, but on the emotional world. In a family, a person seeks an exquisite sensual being, mental and spiritual pleasure. The Islamic family is beauty-oriented, where calligraphic symbolism is associated with sensual emotions. The article substantiates the idea that Islam and the Islamic family reject Christian imagery. This also affected the Bashkir family, which is largely predetermined by such a mild form of Islam as Sufism. But the author of this article was primarily interested in the moral substance of the people, the family as a natural and moral union of man and woman. In this respect, the antinomical nature of love, the teachings of I. Kant and I.G. Fichte about love and family. The author comes to the conclusion that the ideology of the Islamic family and its aesthetic principles coincide with the national and artistic thinking of peoples. The family is focused on the beauty and morality of interpersonal relationships.

(1567) is a Northern Russian hagiographical work devoted to the founder of the St. Niсholas Alexander-Oshevensky Monastery, which was located nearby the town of Kargopol. The article analyses hagiographer Theodosius’ techniques for dealing with literary sources, especially with two Byzantine texts, The Ladder by John Climacus and The Life of Alexis the Man of God. Theodosius uses these sources to develop one of the major themes of his own work, that is, the relationship between St. Alexander and his family. The family theme bears ambiguous meaning. On the one hand, the family is rejected from the standpoint of monastic asceticism, but on the other hand, it is rendered as the ultimate value and stronghold of Christian morality.

Western and Chinese scholarship on Wang Mingdao has with good reason focused exclusively on the apologetic aspect of Wang's ministry, his polemics against modernist theology and his resistance to the Chinese Communist regime in the 1950s. Yet a significant, albeit smaller, portion of his writings and preaching emphasised practical Christian living. In Wang Mingdao Wenku, a seven-volume collection of Wang's sermons and writings, there are a total of twenty-one articles, sermons or allegorical stories dealing specifically with women, marriage or family relations: six from the 1930s, fourteen from the 1940s and one from 1950. They span Wang's most productive years, and some deal with issues specific to China's dramatic social changes in the Republican era, such as concubinage, widowhood and women's fashion. Many of these profound changes, especially changes in gender relations, were advanced by the May Fourth Movement. One sees in Wang's writings and sermons on marriage, women and family relations a concrete example of the indigenisation of Christianity in China, as this Chinese Christian leader wrestled with the implications of his Christian faith in a process complicated by China's encounter with Western modernity.

The Roman Catholic Church is not experiencing the best of times: here the problem of Islamization of the Christian world, and the degradation of moral values, the destruction of the institution of marriage and family. Pope Francis proclaims turn the Church back to its New Testament pattern, back to the purity and simplicity of the gospel. Here we need not rebuild the Church and even its reformation, but in the literal sense of its «pivot» back to all 180 degrees to the Evangelical foundations of Apostolic Christianity. Theology women and the theology of the poor is the effective mechanism that starts the process of conversion of Catholicism to the Christianity of Jesus.

Gender may have been one of the main reasons behind the rejection of the Peace Agreement in Colombia. A few hours after the narrow victory of those who opposed the deal, Senator and ex-president Álvaro Uribe Vélez gave a speech calling for the strengthening of religious family values. His words echoed an argument that gained traction in recent months in Colombia, particularly in the Evangelical Christian community: that the content of the Peace Accord dismantled traditional mores, such as the biological difference between man and woman, the importance of the heterosexual family, and the place of religion in public life.

Lemuel Haynes was a black Congregationalist minister to mostly white churches in New England and New York between 1788 and his death in 1833. Abandoned as an infant, Haynes was reared as an indentured servant in a pious white Massachusetts family. He served in the American Revolution in 1774 and 1775 as a Minute Man and in 1776 as a soldier in the march to Fort Ticonderoga. In 1776, Haynes composed an essay, “Liberty Further Extended: Or Free Thoughts on the Illegality of Slave-keeping.” After the Revolution, he acquired a reputation among his white contemporaries as an inspiring preacher. In 1788, Haynes accepted a call to minister in Rutland, Vermont, where he served for thirty years before being dismissed, perhaps because he was a black man. While at Rutland, he published a number of essays and sermons, including in 1801The Nature and Importance of True Republicanismand in 1806Universal Salvation. Universal Salvationultimately appeared in seventy editions, fifty-four of them within Haynes's lifetime.

The article considers Leo Tolstoy's views on marriage in the evolutionary aspect. For young Leo Tolstoy, marriage and family is one of the main values. He understands them as a sphere saving a person from disharmony, despondency, sin, helping to find the meaning of life. The family is interpreted by Leo Tolstoy as the main purpose of person's life. In his early works, he builds a family model. Marriage and family for young Leo Tolstoy are considered to be the main condition for happiness. Love for the spouse is understood as a sense of respect for parents of their children. Over the years, Leo Tolstoy’s views on marriage have changed significantly. This is due to the change in Leo Tolstoy's attitude to the Church and to Church religion (by his definition), the writer's complete denial of private property, the complication of relations with his wife and children. Leo Tolstoy explains his point of view on marriage by following the true Christian teaching. Leo Tolstoy motivates the denial of marriage in the Christian way by the fact that the main purpose of a Christian is to serve God; marriage makes people serve themselves. Leo Tolstoy identifies justification by the church of the marriage with the excuse of "physical love". Leo Tolstoy considers marriage as a veiled form of fornication. However, he denied divorce because he believed that a woman left without a husband or a man without a wife would be exposed to moral decline. The author finds contradictory Leo Tolstoy's assessments of the marriage in the later work.

AbstractUNkulunkulu was a term taken up by certain missionaries in Natal as synonymous with the Christian God. Though the idea of uNkulunkulu is now well entrenched in African as well as missionary Christian theology, historically the concept of uNkulunkulu, as the High God of all, is inaccurate. This paper will argue that there was actually a multiplicity of oNkulunkulu (plural of uNkulunkulu) in the early nineteenth century – including females. UNkulunkulu was simply a generic name for particular significant Zulu ancestors – family, chiefly or ‘national’. The development of the concept of uNkulunkulu, as the High God of all, obscures important aspects of the relationship that formerly obtained between chiefs and their departed ancestors. The attainment of Zulu political ascendancy, which has so often been viewed in purely secular terms, had a critical religious dimension.

In an old man, Clement of Alexandria sees the ideal of a perfect Christian, who thanks to intellectual and moral formation, reached the status of God’s friend. For this reason, he is entitled to the care of his family, to be honored and respected by the young people, to drink a wine and conduct conversations during the feasts and to undertake the functions of the teacher and housemaster. The old man is required to maintain a senile appearance without cosmetic procedures and to hold tactful conversations and to drink a wine in moderation during the feasts.

Many Muslim women care about their communities. This has propelled some of them to faith in Jesus. In him they have seen a righteous citizen, a just man. Since Muslim women are diverse, others have come to faith in other ways: through reading Scripture, through dreams, visions, exorcisms, or healings, through Christian friends, through awareness of Jesus' affirmation of women, through an assurance of heaven, through emotional healing from dysfunctional relationships or through a joint family decision.

Abstract Since Pope Franziskus, there is an approach between Protestant and Catholic theology exactly in the gaze on sexual-ethical questions. However, this “new” proximity stands in continuity with the Catholic thinking, because it is not simply about the appeal on a purely subjective and quite private conscience in the positions of Pope Franziskus and of renewed moral-theological teachings. Also Protestant theology always has faced fidelity in love and partnership under God’s assistance - within all human fragility and limitedness. More clearly than it, however, the theology in Catholic tradition has described exactly this solidity of Christian experience in the modes of obligation and objective bonding. Freedom and personal responsibility must be evaluated in many areas of modern society in a new manner today. In the ecological ethics the self-linkage to standards is discussed, which orientate the own lifestyle on the natural balance for to safeguard human life in community with the nature, for example. In the formation of love and family, it needs the freely approved relationship at objective social and biographical contexts, which enable succeeding relationship basically.

The purpose of this article's research is to examine the role of Christian parents in building the sacred ecosystem in the family during the new normal from the perspective of Pentecostal theology. The method used is descriptive and literature review. This article discusses how the Bible views joy, the importance of joy to believers in particular in the new normal, and the role of parents in building a joyful ecosystem in the Christian family. Through the research results of this article, there are six practical ways that parents can apply in building an ecosystem of joy in the family of believers, namely through behavior that does not like anger, avoiding fighting with partners, building a culture of joking, living by the moral standards that the Bible teaches, develop love language communication, and be role models.Maksud dari penelitian artikel ini ingin menelaah peran orang tua Kristen dalam membangun ekosistem sucakita di keluarga pada masa kenormalan baru dari sudut pandang teologi Pentakosta. Metode yang digunakan adalan deskriptif dan kajian literatur. Artikel ini membahas bagaimana pandangan Alkitab tentang sukacita, arti penting sukacita bagi orang percaya secara khusus dimasa kenormalan baru, dan peran orang tua dalam membangun ekosistem sukacita di keluarga Kristen. Lewat hasil penelitian artikel ini ada enam cara praktis yang orang tua bisa terapkan dalam membangun ekosistem sukacita di keluarga orang percaya yaitu melalui perilaku yang tidak suka marah-marah, menghindari bertengkar dengan pasangan, membangun budaya senda gurau, hidup dalam standar moral yang Alkitab ajarkan, mengembangkan komunikasi bahasa cinta, dan jadi teladan.

AbstractMany husbands do not understand their responsibility to love their wives at all, and for centuries, many fathers have become fathers who do not play their roles properly so that they do not feel their positive contribution to society. The research method used in this research is the library research method. The purpose of this research is to review the important role of a man as head of a Christian family through theological studies. The results of this study conclude that the role as head of a Christian family is a mission of life responsibility and the correct response to the cultural mandate of God, and to be an effective head of a Christian family must have a vision of a great obsession that is planned, focused and has a goal according to biblical truth. AbstrakBanyak para suami sama sekali tidak memahami tanggung jawabnya untuk mengasihi istrinya, dan juga sudah berabad-abad, banyak kaum bapa yang telah menjadi seorang ayah yang tidak memerankan perannya dengan baik sehingga tidak dirasakan kontribusinya yang positif bagi masyarakat. Metode penelitian yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah metode penelitian kepustakaan. Adapun tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mengkaji kembali peran penting seorang pria sebagai kepala keluarga Kristen melalui kajian teologis. Hasil dari penelitian ini menyimpulkan bahwa peran sebagai kepala keluarga Kristen adalah sebuah misi pertanggungjawaban kehidupan dan respon yang benar atas mandat budaya dari Allah, dan untuk menjadi kepala keluarga Kristen yang efektif harus memiliki visi obsesi agung yang terencana, fokus dan mempunyai tujuan seturut kebenaran Alkitab

Abstract: Family is the most important thing for every human being, where the family became a major educational institution that given by God for every person in the world. The family plays a very important for the growth and changesof behavior in human life from childhood to adulthood. Therefore, we need a good family’s care so that people can have a good behavior too. Likewise, the Christian families. It is an important thing for Christian families to pay attention for parenting to their children, especially when they start to enter their teens. Adolescence is the period where a man has begun to want to show his identity, therefore parenting pattern can determine behavioral changes in young Christians. When, the parenting of Christian families well done, the result is the behavior of Christian teens will experience a positive growth and forming a good adolescent behavior that can be a blessing to everyone. Abstrak: Keluarga adalah hal terpenting bagi setiap manusia, dimana keluarga menjadi institusi pendidikan utama yang diberikan oleh Tuhan untuk setiap orang di dunia. Keluarga memegang peranan yang sangat penting bagi pertumbuhan dan perubahan tingkah laku dalam kehidupan manusia dari masa kanak-kanak hingga dewasa. Oleh karena itu, diperlukan pengasuhan keluarga yang baik agar masyarakat dapat berperilaku baik pula. Begitu pula dengan keluarga Kristen. Penting bagi keluarga Kristen untuk memperhatikan pola asuh kepada anak-anak mereka, terutama ketika mereka mulai memasuki usia remaja. Masa remaja merupakan masa dimana seorang pria mulai ingin menunjukkan jati dirinya, oleh karena itu pola asuh dapat menentukan perubahan perilaku pada anak muda Kristen. Apabila pola asuh keluarga kristiani terlaksana dengan baik, hasilnya perilaku remaja kristen akan mengalami pertumbuhan yang positif dan membentuk tingkah laku remaja yang baik yang dapat menjadi berkat bagi semua orang.

The present study sets out to shed light on R. Yaakov Moshe Harlap (1882–1951), Kabbalist, head of the Merkaz Ha-Rav yeshivah, in his understanding of ontological theology—material labor, meaning the basic life pattern, in which one gets up daily in the morning and goes to “work.” Did R. Harlap see labor as no more than a need and an obligation incumbent upon man to provide for his family? Or did he, perhaps, see labor as a religious value, an outgrowth of the theology he upheld? The conclusion is that work in the teaching of R. Harlap is not only needed to earn a living, but part of the multidimensional theology of Torah, textual–spiritual study and practical work effort. All this is part of the perfecting of the Land of Israel, which became central in the messianic age. Labor is a precondition and an indication of redemption—national, human and Divine.

Et rids af Grundtvig-forskningen og dens stilling i efterkrigens Danmark. William Michelsen in memoriam [A sketch o f Grundtvig scholarship and its position in postwar Denmark. In memory of William Michelsen]By Kim Arne PedersenWith the death of William Michelsen a distinct era in the history of Gr scholarship reached its close, for he was the last surviving member of the small circle who (gathered in Bishop C. I. Scharling’s residence in Ribe for Gr’s birthday ) celebrated on the stroke of midnight the founding of The Grundtvig Society of 8th September 1947 [Grundtvig-Selskabet af 8. September 1947] which was to prove such an important initiative in Danish academic activity and in Danish culture more widely. In the forthcoming reinstatement of Gr in the mainstream of Danish scholarship and debate Michelsen was to maintain a long, unstinting and untiring involvement, both through his own scholarly output and through the encouragement, advice and criticism he offered to younger and rising scholars.Michelsen was markedly the product of his own background in a middleclass family linked over two generations with teaching, a liberal theological outlook and a quiet Christian piety in the home. Similarly, the motives and objectives of his involvement with Gr over his long working-life were distinctly responsive to the times through which he lived, and not least to the threats posed to democracy in the twentieth century by totalitarian regimes.Like others of his distinguished contemporaries, notably his lifelong friend Henning Høirup, he perceived Gr as »our contemporary« whose life-work remained of living relevance and should be accorded a functional place within the national cultural inheritance.Though not a theologian by formal education, Michelsen along with his generation came to be influenced by Karl Barth’s insistence that the revealed word of God must be the premise of any confession. This principle inspired his own studies of Gr’s thought-world, and particularly of Gr’s thesis of history, which in turn led him to see that religious idealism alone was not a sufficient response to the actualities of living in the present moment. Here he was also fairly clearly influenced by Hal Koch who, during the years of the German occupation of Denmark in the Second World War, was most instrumental in presenting Gr as his generation’s contemporary.With fellow-scholars such as Høirup and Regin Prenter, Michelsen found Gr’s authorship informed not only by Christianity’s radical profession of the forgiveness of sins but also, equally importantly, of a creation-theology which for them made it possible to harmonise the modem world’s scientific awareness with a belief that life and the universe were created by God. His contribution to the anthology Grundtvig og grundtvigianismen i nyt lys [Gr and grundtvigianism in a new light] (1983) is a key discussion of Gr’s conversion in 1810 and Gr’s relationship to Søren Kierkegaard. Various of Michelsen’s writings set forth Gr’s historical perspective as being based upon a mosaicchristian view, in a consciousness of Gr’s shift from faith to knowledge, from church to school around the critical year 1832. The view that he and Kai Thaning constitute opposite poles misrepresents the affinities and distinctions carefully drawn by Michelsen himself (‘Brev til en Grundtvigforsker’ [Letter to a Gr-scholar] in Dansk Udsyn 1964,443); nevertheless, his analysis of Gr’s universal-historical work formulates a significant challenge to Thaning’s reading of Gr and demonstrates the sense in which Gr was, as Michelsen later wrote in Grundtvig Studier 1983, ‘Sin samtids kritiker’ [Critic of his own times].After early work on H. C. Ørsted, Michelsen wrote his doctoral thesis, published as Tilblivelsen af Grundtvigs historiesyn [The formulation of Gr’s view of history] (Copenhagen, 1954). During this period (1941) he married Signe, niece of the Greenland explorer Knud Rasmussen who was herself an authority on Greenland and collaborated in translating Gr into the Greenlandic language. His doctoral thesis was based on an examination of the works Gr is known to have studied in his formative years (though he has been criticised for exaggerating the cohesion of the sources of influence upon Gr) out of which Gr shaped a view of history which was not a learned construct or theory but a conscious expression of the picture he formed for himself of existence.Michelsen depicts Gr as standing in opposition to the contemporary compromise between Christianity and romanticism, and as allowing the biblical perspective of history to model his own exposition of history.Characteristically, when his doctoral thesis was eventually overshadowed by the work of Sigurd Aa. Aames (1961) with its different approach, methodology and findings, Michelsen responded constructively (Grundtvig Studier 1962). Meanwhile he had been extending his own exploration of the way in which Gr’s Christian view of history developed after 1810, in Den sælsomme forvandling i N. F. S. Grundtvigs liv [The strange Metamorphosis inNFSG’slife] (1956). His two studies together raised issues-concerning for example Gr’s relationship to Lutheran tradition, his view of the divine image in man, and affinities between Gr and Kiekegaard’s existential standpoint - which ought to have generated a greater scholarly response than has been the case.Many of Michelsen’s articles in Grundtvig Studier remain indispensable items for students and researchers. He made a distinguished contribution to the great catalogue of the Grundtvig archives in the Royal Library, Copenhagen. Much work (in which his son Knud collaborated) on the transcription of unprinted Gr manuscripts and the identification of textual correlations illustrative of Gr’s philosophical thinking remains unpublished - though the big two-part introduction to Gr’s thought as reflected in his Danne-Virke (Grundtvig Studier 1985-86) to some extent compensates for this. Michelsen’s appointment (1968) to a lectureship in Aarhus University, in fulfilment of Professor Gustav Albeck’s desire to give Gr a central place in Danish studies, coincided with turbulent times which he did not find easy, but the fruits of his teaching are seen in the long series of fine articles by his pupils in Grundtvig Studies, of which he became an editor in 1969, scrupulously active to the last. In 1997 he was honoured by the Grundtvig-Selskab upon its Fiftieth Anniversary. He was an active participant in the newly-founded Grundtvig Academy in Vartov, in 2000.With William Michelsen’s death a notable Christian humanist and scholar has passed on. May his memory be held in honour.

ORIGINS OF CARL SCHMITT’S POLITICAL ANTHROPOLOGYThis text concerns the political anthropology of Carl Schmitt. Schmitt says that man is inhe­rently evil, he is born in evilness. On this thesis he builds their theory of politics and the concept of the authoritarian state. But he nowhere is developing his political anthropology. It does not explain why the man is born evil and does not explain what is the source of this view? The literature about Schmitt’s theory proposes three interpretations: Christian inspiration, lecture of the writings of Tho­mas Hobbes, fear of Bolshevism. The author examines these three interpretations and proposes his own. The political anthropology of Carl Schmitt is the mixture of orthodox St. Augustine’s teaching, Hobbes’s theory, fear of Communism, perhaps the tribulations of family life.

This article studies the symbiotic relationship between social networks and Christian conversion among some Seventh-day Adventists in contemporary China. Drawing on the Chinese Adventist testimonies, I argue that the longstanding kinship, friendship, and discipleship networks (guanxi 關係) are fundamental to the Adventist conversion process. This extensive web of human relationships helps sustain potential converts’ interest in Christianity, nurture their understanding of Adventism, and reinforce their efforts to cultivate a distinctive Christian selfhood and identity in Adventist terms. These relationships also give meaning to the Adventist congregational practices such as Sabbath observance and healthy lifestyle, insofar as the converts rely on the relational resources of the family and church for support. In addition to the positive connection between social mobility and conversion, these stories reveal the challenge of downward social mobility when the converts are confronted with the tension between adhering to Adventist doctrinal practices and pursuing higher education in secular institutions. Lastly, this study addresses the function of Christian publication in the conversion process. Through the publication of their conversion testimonies, the converts seek to make Adventism easily accessible to ordinary people by showing the relation between Adventist theology and the daily lives of Christians.

The quest for a contextual African Christianity is one that theological scholarship in Africa should be keen to formulate and construct if the Christian message is to gain the much-needed impact and transformational agenda that will facilitate the process of evangelization of the continent. This is because our theological discourse must be incarnational in theology and methodology. Our study endeavours to submit a contribution in this solemn expedition through an emphasis on the necessity of a contextualized Christology that is cognizant of the African realities and heritage to make the message of Christ be at home to the indigenous African audience. This calls for a paramount understanding of the history of the African people, the African primal religions and most importantly the African culture. The Understanding of these critical issues that together construct the identity of the African will enable the presenter of the Christological message to present the person of Christ that is relevant and addresses the perennial problems that are faced by African communities. This will in the long run make the African to be persuaded to the need to establish a relationship with Christ who is to him a friend or family, Mediator or Ancestor per excellence, Life giver or Healer, and Leader per excellence. These are the realities that Africans would be quick to identify and associate with. To accomplish this, the study observed the significance of the doctrine of Christology in the theological framework; it explored the means with which Christology was administered in Africa in the past. We were able to tackle the subject of Christological Contextualization by observing matters sources and methodology of African Christology and building on the same towards the models that are favourable to Christology in Africa