Christian Family Research Articles

Exploring The Concept of Gratitude in Family Happiness: Insights from Maluku Society

Gratitude is a fundamental aspect of human experience, deeply intertwined with happiness and well-being, especially within the unique cultural context of Maluku society. This qualitative study aims to explore the concept of gratitude within Maluku families and its significance in nurturing familial well-being. Through interviews with five Christian families in Amahusu, Ambon, the study examines key aspects of gratitude. The findings reveal that family happiness in Maluku is grounded in positive interactions, spiritual values, personal achievements, and social relationships. Gratitude emerges as a crucial factor, shaping perceptions of happiness across various life circumstances. Particularly the emphasis on gratitude in confronting challenges, with faith and prayer serves as the essential coping mechanisms. Despite adversities, families maintain an optimistic outlook, deriving happiness from simplicity and social bonds. Thematic analysis of interview data unveils recurring themes, patterns, and insights about gratitude and familial happiness. By amalgamating qualitative inquiry with thematic analysis, this study endeavors to furnish a comprehensive understanding of gratitude's role in nurturing family happiness within Maluku society. Enriched by poignant narrative accounts and profound participant insights, this research contributes to the corpus of knowledge on gratitude and its implications for familial well-being across diverse cultural milieus. Keywords: gratitude, family happiness, Maluku

El valor de la educación familiar. Una aproximación desde la obra La vanagloria, la educación de los hijos y el matrimonio de Juan Crisóstomo

The following writing is the result of the interest in identifying elements that contribute to the deepening of the essential values that concern the Christian family. To this end, this writing seeks to approach the practical life of Christians and answer the question: What function did education in the family serve for Christians in the 4th century and what echo does it have for Christian life today? In this logic we focus on the Christianity of Antioch, led by John Chrysostom, in his work: Vainglory, the Education of Children and Marriage, a work written between the years 393-394. In this work it is possible to find various themes in relation to family education, Christian formation and its impact on daily life, showing in it the possibility of witnessing to Christ and conceiving a virtuous life. Finally, this work presents in a general way the vision of marriage as an opportunity to fully live the Christian faith, and a necessary pedagogical place for every Christian. With this we will present a contextual outline of the work, followed by an analysis of the work, presentation of constitutive elements of marriage, family education and some conclusions regarding the current reality of the Christian family. From the exercise of reviewing this style of Christian life, some lines of inspiration will be identified to contribute to the renewal of Christian life today, particularly in the family orbit as a space and formative path to live the Christian faith in particular societies.

Fracturing a Female Identity

As a white woman raised in a rural community in a heteropatriarchal, evangelical Christian family whose tradition is hard work and family values, the author lived within the boundaries of those archetypal, stereotypical roles until tragedy struck, shaking the foundation of her self-concept as mother, wife, woman. This crisis invited a deterritorialization of self-concepts that imprisoned her, exposing her gendered existence, which she chronicled in journals over the period of this reimagining of self. Reflection on this personal writing reveals its role in developing not only the identity of a writer but the identity of a woman in the shattering and reimagining of facets of her “self” when a spouse’s moral undoing threatens her sense of being. In this autoethnographic study, the author’s Deleuzian approach to reflecting on identity through journal dipping into her own writing in a time of trauma and self-examination explores the possibilities for applying hermeneutics to personal texts to free the potential for rhizomatic expansion of feminine becoming born when the cultural expectations of feminine being in the United States South are fractured.

Pork Barrel and Identity Politics: Explaining a Minority Party’s Electoral Success in Lithuania

Abstract Our article describes the lifecycle of Lithuania’s Electoral Action of Poles–Christian Families Alliance (LLRA-KŠS) party that has been a part of country’s political landscape for near 30 years. Despite its seemingly ethnic program, the party has a poor track record for delivering on its electoral promises. Yet, it has been continuously supported by the majority of Polish-speakers in Lithuania. The background of the nationalizing state, which encourages the party elites to conflate substantive representation with the signposting of ethnic identity in party politics, offers one of the reasons for the LLRA-KŠS’s electoral success. Although the party effectively consolidated its regional electorate, it came to control service delivery to their ethnic constituency by engaging in pork barrel politics. Poor performance in recent national and municipal elections put this strategy to bond with its voters into question, casting doubt on the LLRA-KŠS’s ability to survive as an ethnic party in the long term.

Coming Out Queer: Sexual and Romantic Exploration and Identity Development of LGBQ+ College Students

LGBQ+ youth from conservative Christian families and/or communities face challenges developing positive understandings of their sexualities. Many view college as a more welcoming space that will allow them to conceptualize and enact their sexual identities in new and beneficial ways. Yet college campuses may support some aspects of LGBQ+ identity development at the expense of others. Through interviews with 26 LGBQ+ students from conservative Christian backgrounds, we show that the transition to college served as an opportunity to access supportive spaces that encouraged exploration and self-development and affirmed LGBQ+ identities, increasing self-esteem and well-being. However, many students still struggled to access sexual and romantic relationships, limiting opportunities to learn about themselves and their emerging desires. Our findings demonstrate how the interplay between communities of origin and destination conditions shape identity development in emerging adulthood and make clear the importance of sexual and romantic exploration to this process.

Peran Doa dalam Kehidupan Keluarga Kristiani sebagai Ecclesia Domestica

Prayer is an integral part of family life. It helps family to face many problems in society even as the vital cell of society, family needs more prayers. Christian Families, as “ecclesia domestica”, obtain their identity from the Church, the bride of Christ. They have duty to pray because prayer unites them to Christ, the centre of family. Moreover, Christian families as “ecclesia domestica” have the same mission as the Church. Christian families need prayer in their daily lives because, identical to the Church, they pray together as community to invoke the help of God for their families lives. Thus, based on this context, this paper wants to explain how prayers in Christian Families have a significant effect in assisting and protecting them from dangerous ideologies such as secularism that break families in modern society.

A Traumatology Case Study of an Indonesian Theological Student

Indonesian theological students often come to seminary with handful of problems from the onset of their life. The expectation from the traditional Christian family for their children to set the behavior right in the seminary is outdatedly common. This study explores a case of a 21-year-old theological male student who suffered verbal and physical abuse from his parents. During the initial four weeks of therapeutic alliance with the author, the student exhibited traumatic symptoms of severe hostility and somatic re-enactment of past adverse experiences. He had been known to possess talisman and some sacred relics for witchcraft in the past which contemporarily yield nightmare and terror at night. The qualitative case study explored the traumatic problem of the student through a 12-month observation and in-depth interview. Through experiential therapy of gestalt, CBT, and forgiveness therapy in the last seven months, the student showed reduced symptoms of hostility, somatic complaints, and impulse-behavior. The spiritual formation of prayer and meditation of the Scripture have been useful for the patient in dealing with his spiritual problems. Keywords: counselling, trauma, seminary, students, syncretism, theology, therapy

Calvinist Women’s Fate and Women’s Issues in the First Half of the 20th Century. Part I. The Life of Gabriella Victor (1891–1971) and Her Position on Women’s Movements

The purpose of the research is to present the scientific and religious foundations of Gabriella Victor’s pedagogy. The name of the Victor family is inseparable from the cause of the reformist revival and the internal mission. Gabriella Victor (1891–1971) is the first teacher of the Reformed Teacher Training School in Kecskemét, Head of the Lórántffy Zsuzsanna Association. She published a number of articles, children’s Bible, juvenile novels, and informative books for parents and teachers. She was the Doctor of Philosophy (1917) and Theology (1950). The main topics of her scientific work are women’s education, Christian family education, and school religious education. In this study, we present the activities of the Victor family in the internal mission, Gabriella Victor’s opinion on women’s issues, and her views on the characteristics of the female psyche. Keywords: Hungarian Reformed internal mission, Reformed female education, women in theological academic education, Reformed Teacher Training School in Kecskemét

Keteladanan Keluarga Kristiani Seturut Ajaran Amoris Laetitia Di Paroki Santo Yoseph Long Pahangai

This research aims to get an overview and describe the forms of exemplary Christian families according to the teachings of Amoris Laetitia in Santo Yoseph Long Pahangai Parish and to find challenges in providing role models to children. This research was conducted at Santo Yoseph Long Pahangai Parish using qualitative descriptive methods and the data collection techniques used were observation and interviews. The informants from this research were 12 people from marriage ages 10 to 15 years. Based on this research, it was found that parents have provided an example for their children. These forms emerge from within parents with full awareness of their responsibility as first and foremost educators. However, in implementing these forms of example, several obstacles and challenges arise from the parents and the children. The example of parents is very important for children, because everything starts at home, especially in family life. In this way, one day children will be able to follow in the footsteps of their parents' family example to prepare them for the future.

Integrasi Ketaatan Dan Kesetiaan Hosea Sebagai Refleksi Iman Bagi Kepala Keluarga Kristen Masa Kini Berdasarkan Hosea 3:1-5

Obedience and loyalty are an inseparable integration in the life of a Christian. As a follower of Christ, these two personality traits are characteristics that must be possessed. This character was owned by a prophet named Hosea. The rise of infidelity and divorce, which is increasingly rampant at the moment, is attracting deep attention because Christian families are also falling into it. The head of the family plays a very important role in controlling and controlling the family. This research uses the method. In this article, the author uses the library study method, where this literature study is a study of ideas, concepts or theories originating from related literature sourced from books and journals that are recognized nationally and internationally using a hermenetic approach and phenomenology so that this method can help in analyzing and identifying scientific articles. This research examines how Hosea's obedience and loyalty are a reflection of faith for today's Christian family heads.

DUKUNGAN ORANG TUA BAGI REMAJA KATOLIK DI TENGAH MASALAH KENAKALAN REMAJA

Juvenile delinquency refers to such actions that violate laws as well as societal values. It is caused by unresolved internal conflicts within adolescents. Parental support is crucial for adolescents regarding to this unresolved conflicts. This research aims to empirically examine the parental support for Catholic adolescents related to the issue of juvenile delinquency. The study was conducted in the Rejoso Basic Chiristian Community of the St. Mary Parish, Blitar, focusing on Christian families with adolescent children. Respondents for this research were selected through purposive sampling. This technique allows the researcher to personally choose appropriate informants who are knowledgeable or have extensive information related to the researched issue. Data collection methods for this study included structured interviews and observation. Structured interviews used an interview guide consisting of questions formulated based on the research problems. The research results indicated that parental support for Catholic adolescents significantly influences their church life related to the current issues of juvenile delinquency. The role of parents in the religious education of adolescents in Catholic families in the digital era involves guiding, supervising, and supporting the adolescents. The presence of parents must be friendly and become a good role models for their teenagers.

Berteologi Kontekstual Ditengah Jemaat Yang Merindukan Kehadiran Anak Ditengah-Tengah Keluarga Dan Hubungannya Dengan 1Korintus 7 : 40

The presence of a child is a blessing in the midst of a Christian family, having children is a very great joy. But there are many brothers and sisters around us who have been building a household for a long time but don't yet have anam, this is a big struggle for them, and has invited a lot of views from various parties. Therefore, the author is interested in using this title to provide contextual theology in the midst of the congregation by completing the 4 stages of Frans Witjen's circle.

Assessing the Role of Parents in Ensuring Child Welfare: Integration of Basic Needs, Education, and Christian Family Values in Indonesia

The perception that having children is an honor and aspiration illustrates the importance of genealogical elements within the family. This concept is linked to the belief that children, especially sons, are a gift and blessing from God. The child’s name is considered significant, often theophoric, reflecting the parents’ hopes, beliefs, and faith in God. In daily life, children play a crucial role in continuing the lineage, engaging in family work, and assisting in strengthening family authority and local governance. Education is imparted within the family, with the mother taking on the role of providing moral instruction, and the father providing religious and practical life teachings. Young girls are taught about their roles as wives and household managers. This research, therefore, aimed to explore the role of parents in ensuring the well-being of children. Based on the research findings, respondents acknowledged the crucial role of parents in ensuring the basic needs of children, shaping family culture, managing roles and responsibilities, preventing conflicts, and educating children about important social and cultural values. Open communication and a holistic approach, including religious values, were recognized as essential elements in the development of a healthy family. Based on this research, the researcher recommends developing and implementing educational programs for parents focusing on their crucial role in meeting the basic needs of children, shaping family culture, addressing roles and responsibilities, preventing conflicts, and imparting important social and cultural values to their children, encourage collaboration between churches, educational institutions, and government agencies to provide educational support and resources to Christian families. Keywords: Role of Parents, Child Welfare, Basic Needs, Education, Christian Family Values

Mobilising Kinship as a Modern Network: Syrian Christian Family Associations

This article analyses the meanings, practices and socio-historical contexts of kudumbayogams (family associations) among the large, relatively prosperous, multi-denominational community of Syrian Christians in Kerala, who are today spread across the globe. Kudumbayogams present new ways of mobilising and displaying family, kinship and community ties. The article argues that while earlier socio-economic shifts inaugurated the spatial dispersal and reconstitution of Syrian Christian patrilineal families and households, they also led to the formation of family associations, alongside other modern associational forms. Based on a detailed analysis of printed family histories, and allied documents, this study conceptualises kudumbayogam as a modern fortification of attempts to resolve the ambiguities of changing times by tethering a Christian brand of upper-caste social conservatism with ‘neoliberal’ individualism. This modern fortification mobilises households and families through an array of structures and activities that seek to foster cultural continuity, communication, conflict resolution and charity among its members. In the process, kudumbayogams actively blunt intra-group contradictions and highlight inter-group differences.

Enfance, martyre et mission dans L’Histoire des martyrs du Japon de Nicolas Trigault (1624)

Abstract This article analyses a still understudied figure that is present in martyrological accounts of the Early Modern Period: the child martyr which is an intriguing and important character in Catholic propaganda during the wars of religion that shook Europe. We will see how a Jesuit missionary uses this character in his account of the Christian mission in Japan. Nicolas Trigault (1577–1628), in his work L’Histoire des martyrs du Japon (The History of the Martyrs of Japan) takes up a long Christian martyrological tradition while anchoring it in a context of cultural exchanges between Europe and Japan. Using various biblical narratives (whether the Passions of Christ or the martyrdom of the Maccabees) as a point of comparison with these Japanese martyrs, Trigault places these Christians, so far removed from his target audience, in a Catholic community that extends over a long period of time and a vast geographical territory. In this use of the martyrological narrative, the death of the children proves to be a powerful argument. As exceptional figures of martyrdom, they act as witnesses to the level of faith of a community, the sacrifice of the children being the ultimate demonstration of its constancy. However, the figure of the martyred child also comes into conflict with the figure of the morally crippled child, testifying to the ambiguity that European culture and the Christian religion have with this period of life. These stories, later exported to Europe, are used to edify both the youngest children, urging them to imitate their Japanese counterparts, and the parents, presenting an ideal imagery of the Christian family.

The spiritual and social role of the mother in the Ukrainian family

The relevance of the topic lies in the study of the spiritual and social role of the mother in the Ukrainian family due to the crisis of the family in modern society. This crisis is manifested in the increase of divorces, fatherlessness, a free attitude toward sex before marriage, abortions, homosexual behavior, and a lack of trust and love between family members. Currently, during the war waged by Russia against Ukraine, Ukrainians are subjected to terrible sexual assaults, destruction, and abuse by the enemy. Because of this occupational war, the crisis in the family worsens even more. The study was conducted in 2021, before Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine. The sample included families living in Kyiv. It was advisable to experiment with 30 families who believe in God and 30 atheist families. The following methodical tools were used in the research: T. Alordey’s questionnaire, the method of ‘Normative resistance’ according to E. Eidemiller, and the projective method of ‘Draw-a-Family-Picture’. The aim of the research was to show a special vital resource of Christian mothers, which affects the creation of an atmosphere of love and respect in their families, in contrast to the vital resource of mothers in families that do not believe in God. This vital resource affects the performance of the role of the mother. As a result of the questionnaire, husbands’ understanding of the mother’s role in the family was studied. Christian and non-Christian men showed that most of them were grateful to their mothers. From the answers in the questionnaires, it is clear that the life principles that husbands learned from their mothers, they practice in their own families. This forms the authority of the wife in the family and affects the role of the mother. Normative resistance in mothers from non-believing families was not ascertained. These mothers considered terrible, negative situations to be normal. Mothers who confess Christ ascertain normative resistance. They make great efforts so that children grow up in an atmosphere of joy and mutual understanding. Analyzing the drawings of children from non-Christian families, one can see psychological and spiritual problems in families. The pictures reflect children’s experiences of conflicts in the family. An atmosphere of love and strong family relationships can be observed in the drawings of Christian children. Children have mothers who pray for them. The effectiveness of the ‘I am a mother’ training aimed at biological and social mothers is shown. The social mothers are preschool educators, schoolteachers, and academics in higher education institutions. Ukrainian mothers, teaching their children to love God and the motherland, positively influence society and form the spiritual, professional, and business cultures of the young generation. Christian families have a special, vital resource. This resource enables mothers to fully fulfill their spiritual and social roles in the family. During the war in Ukraine, such mothers laid the foundations of new values that affect the whole world.

Family Visit Implementation Maintains Human Dignity in Public Life

The research aimed to describe the urgency of family visits as an implementation of maintaining human dignity in social life. Currently, violence in the family has become widespread and even increased over time, and the victims of violence are generally women and children who are completely helpless. The method applied was a literature review from various sources, namely indexed journals and books with a good impact factor. Literature reviews were collected, selected, and analyzed by identifying relevant topics, recording and reviewing concepts found from various sources, and systematically compiling the results of literature reviews. The results found are that family visits have three values that can be applied to maintain human dignity: building brotherhood as social creatures in society, listening to each other, and applying security principles to maintain collective integrity and security within the family. In conclusion, family visits are very important and needed by today's society because families need to greet each other, listen, and protect each other from crime. This effort is made so that human dignity in the image of God is maintained. Advice for Christian families is that carrying out family visits at this time is very important as a form of implementation of maintaining human dignity, which is starting to be shifted due to developments in science and technology in society.

Who Did Bamsı Bäyrek Marry? Was it Banı Čičäk or Badasar Mälik’s Youngest Daughter?

In Dädä Qorqut’s book, the person whom Bamsı Bäyräk married is a matter of debate. Some versions say that Bamsı Bäyrek married Banı/Banu Čičäk, the daughter of Bay Bicân/Pay Bičän Mälik, while other versions say that he married the youngest daughter of Badasar Mälik. This situation raises the possibility that Banı Čičäk may have come from a Christian family. Various linguistic and historical analyses suggest that Badasar Mälik’s daughter was probably the one Bamsı Bäyräk married, while at the same time suggesting that Banı Čičäk may have been of Christian origin. However, no definitive conclusion can be drawn. Although both options are mentioned in the text, it is important to consider the religious barriers to Banı Čičäk marrying a Muslim. This debate arises from the different terms used in different versions of the Dädä Qorqut’s book and no definitive answer has been reached.

COVID-19 and Sunday worship in the wake of the pandemic at Our Lady of Loreto, South Africa

Christians, and those of the Roman Catholic Church, have made significant adjustments to their participation in Sunday liturgy in the wake of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This is especially the case for Catholic Christians at the ‘Our Lady of Loreto’ (OLL) Church in Kempton Park in South Africa. Sunday Church services that used to be compulsory for most Catholic families and community members, are now attended by few and in some cases none from staunch Catholic families and communities. However, this is not a new phenomenon in the Catholic Church. It signals the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic has altered and continues to affect Christian families and their commitment to the Sunday liturgy. Drawing from qualitative interviews conducted with eight staunch Catholic community leaders of OLL Church in Kempton Park, Johannesburg, this paper explores the motivations for their continuous participation and/or non-participation in the Sunday liturgy in the wake of the pandemic. The findings reveal that certain behavioural patterns or activities associated with the COVID-19 pandemic motivate Catholic Christians and families to continue to participate and/or not participate in the Sunday liturgy.Contribution: The article explored and examined the way in which COVID-19 has affected Catholic Christians’ ability to attend Sunday liturgy. It discovered that while some Christians returned to church after the pandemic, others have continued to worship from home because of the influence of changes adopted during the pandemic.

Voorbij de nationale kerkenstamboom: naar een inclusieve genealogie van het christendom in Nederland

Since the sixteenth-century Reformation, Christianity in the Netherlands is characterized by pluriformity. Besides the Catholic Church of Rome and the Reformed ‘public church’, there were ecclesial bodies of ‘Protestant Dissenters’. The 1834 Secession provoked a lot of splits and (re)unions up to the present, whereas the breakthrough of religious freedom in 1848 enabled the establishment of many new groups (partly imported from abroad). In the past fifty years, several didactic and sometimes ecumenical or apologetical schemes of denominations were published, showing in particular the labyrinth of the Reformed world. At the same time, the Christian landscape underwent structural changes because of repatriation from former colonies, immigration from numerous countries, and regrouping of evangelical believers. Given the developments of secularization (and, as a result, declining knowledge of the national church map), internationalization (rising non-Dutchdenominations), and inclusivity (dealing with the colonial past), a new design of the Dutch ‘Christian family tree’ seems to be welcome. Therefore, this article offers a basis by discussing earlier examples, presenting a historically justified alternative, while welcoming feedback from the field and recommending a creative elaboration with digital tools.