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Document Details :

Title: Settling Down in Unsettling Times
Subtitle: How African Culture Can Help Influence Ecclesial Praxis in Relation to Marriage Today
Author(s): ANUFORO, Temple
Journal: Marriage, Families & Spirituality
Volume: 25    Issue: 1   Date: 2019   
Pages: 17-34
DOI: 10.2143/INT.25.1.3286429

Abstract :
The way we approach any social issue is defined by the 'social ontology' or the situation of the world in which we live. Over the last three centuries, modernity has led to tremendous transformations of the very nature of society and social institutions. Marriage, as part of the social process, has not been spared from these transformations. Marriage, today, is experiencing a two-fold crisis – a sociological and an ecclesiological one. At the heart of these crises is a transformation – marriage has moved from being perceived as an institution to a committed relationship. The marriage crisis, this paper argues, not only mirrors an ecclesial crisis but also presents an opportunity for ecclesial conversion. It is in becoming the kind of church that married people want and need that the church can also become who she is supposed to be. The African sociology of marriage, this paper argues, can help inform this new process of ecclesial conversion towards a new way of being church for and with married people today.

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