AN INTERCULTURAL THEOLOGY OF MARRIAGE BETWEEN CHRISTIAN AND IGBO TRADITIONAL MARRIAGES

Abstract

Marriage guarantees the continuation of the human society locally and globally. In Igboland of Nigeria, marriage is the official rite of passage into the family-hood. With the mass exodus of Igbos into the Christian religion, it became dually celebrated. Unlike during the heydays of the missionaries, some people who necessarily wed traditionally are less resolute in performing the Christian marriage. The question follows: what went wrong, when and why? Interculturation remains a veritable answer not only to Church marriage decline but also the intercultural and religious issues between Christianity and African religious cultures. No culture is unilateral nor comprehensive. Therefore, the need to have a single rite from the existing duple marriage ceremonies is overdue. This is the feat of the intercultural theology of marriage developed in this research. Keywords: Missiology, Christian marriage, Igbo traditional marriage, matrimonial consent, igba nkwu, interculturation, church marriage decline, inter-drinking, materialism, childlessness, global Christianity.