An Inquiry into Ethnicity in the Structures of the Church

Bücher

Angebote / Angebote:

The study seeks to understand how the New Testament Church functioned since it was constituted by Jews, Romans and Greeks on the basis of the common belief in Christ in the multi-cultural situation. This study reflects on the factor why the contemporary Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) Church in Malawi suffers division on the baseline of ethnicity while it was not a problem in the New Testament Church. The study works with two realities, firstly the CCAP Church in Malawi being divided by ethnicity and secondly the New Testament Church being a pluralistic community. The challenge in the New Testament Church was to resolve linguistic tension, on the one hand between Jewish believers and those of the diaspora, and on the other cultural hostilities between the Jewish believers and Gentiles regarding enforcement of the Jewish laws of Sabbath, worship and traditional customs. In the contemporary church, people are in serious dilemma as they struggle to understand archaic church polities in their own challenging context. In Reformed perspective, Christ is the only Head of the church and that he governs the church, the objective of the church order is to serve the church.