The Church as Family in Africa: A Renewed Debate and Modern Challenge to Christianity

Abstract

Problematizing the idea of church as family in Africa today is inevitable in an African ecclesiology. The concept of “family” is both a hermeneutical key for inculturaltion and also a model of being church in Africa. Going from the person of Jesus Christ, the Ujamaa and Palaver models of church as family can be developed and lived in such a way that the church becomes a locus for dialogue, healing – physical and spiritual – and an active protagonist of sustainable development. It is also a place for education through the word and the ear. Nevertheless, this church is challenged by an anthropological poverty, “la pauperisation anthropologique” which justifies the misery in the church. The parish, a family of families, can be the place where some of these challenges are met through sharing the joys and sorrows of the day-to-day Christian calling