Christian theological understanding of the handling of infertility and its relevance in the Indonesian context

HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Christian theological understanding of the handling of infertility and its relevance in the Indonesian context
 
Creator Susanta, Yohanes K.
 
Subject — infertile women; descendants; ancient Israel; God’s grace; Indonesia
Description Infertility is one of the key themes in the Old Testament narrative. This infertility was experienced by the Israelite matriarchs Sarai, Rebekah and Rachel as well as several other women. This article argues that the concept infertility has given rise to injustice and discrimination, especially against women. For this reason, a constructive and a contextual dialogue between the biblical context and the context of the present is required to offer a new understanding and a liberating spirit to women and men. It is crucial because there is a traditional assumption that infertility is a disgrace and misfortune for a family. The inability to have children can create problems in the home, such as divorce or polygamy for the sake of having children. Infertility constitutes a severe problem for couples in a culture that emphasises the importance of producing descendants.Contribution: This article offers a theological contribution from the Old Testament as a critique of the culture in terms of how infertile women are treated, that is, infertility as God’s grace. Also, this article offers a Christian theological understanding of the handling of infertility in an Indonesian context. It aims to redefine infertility and bring each couple to the realisation that the plight of infertility or having no children should no longer be seen as a burden for a couple but rather as part of God’s grace for their lives.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2021-07-07
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — —
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/hts.v77i4.6508
 
Source HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies; Vol 77, No 4 (2021); 6 pages 2072-8050 0259-9422
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/6508/18375 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/6508/18376 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/6508/18377 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/6508/18378
 
Coverage — — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2021 Yohanes K. Susanta https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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