Family Life and its Civil Significance: A Conversation on Paradigm Shifts in Modern Society

Abstract

Various disciples interested in the phenomenology of human life have depicted the institution of the family as a cornerstone in the building up of healthy society and formation of functional community among humans. Scriptural scholars, philosophers and anthropologists echo in equal measure the importance of the family in the formation of future active members of society and the continuity of societal norms, characteristic of each community’s identity in the league of divergent cultural heritages among human societies. Conscious of the complex realities that come along the evolution of the ever changing human living conditions, societies have accumulated new trends, partly informed by new emerging constraints of human survival and evolution of perceptions as regard individual freedoms. The institution of the family has subsequently found itself under threat, and these present developments call for a collective consciousness of all that is found at stake in result. This essay’s argument holds that the Church and the politics can work hand in hand to mitigate the unfortunate consequences that risk crumbling the family institution.