The influence of urbanization on christian marriage
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Date
2015-04-21
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Abstract
During the industrial revolution when agricultural Jobs had become less common, workers
moved towards manufacturing hubs in cities to obtain Jobs in factories. The exodus of People
from rural areas to urban centers altered the orientation of marriages and the values the
institution of marriage espoused.
Urbanization and its consequences touch on the various facets of our lives, and even though there
are positive effects, Marriage as a social institution, and the famil ies involved undoubtedly have
not been spared of its negative repercussions.
For instance, it was identified in the research that to a large extent, the increase in the number of
People living in these cities has contributed to the adoption of certain types of marriages among
which are ―trial‖ and ―gay/lesbian‖ marriages. These marriages are seen to be gaining grounds
and establishing deep roots in the society thereby militating Christian ma rriages and taking the
beauty out of them. Although these types of marriages may not be common in our part of the
world, they are worth discussing them because of the global nature of urbanization and the
institution of marriage.
Again, the results of the research indicate that the exposure of People to certain factors of social
change in the city has changed their taste and preferences and therefore impacted on their
Fertility rates, Families and living arrangements, Domestic relations, and also deepened their
Consciousness on the ―foreign‖ types of marriages.
Based on the findings gathered from the study, the researcher concluded that Urbanization
involves major shifts in the ways People work and live, and offers unprecedented opportunities
for the improved standards of living, higher life expectancy and higher literacy levels, as well as
v
better environmental sustainability and a more efficient use of increasingly scarce natural
resources. For women, urbanization is associated with greater access to employment
opportunities, lower fertility levels and increase independence.
However, the urban family is immersed in a complex social environment that encompasses the
entire breath of human experience. Marriage as a social institution is caught up in the web/
entanglements of urbanization and therefore has not been spared of the pressures that seem to be
exerted on families which have tasted and continue to taste urban life. A balanced treatment of
the impacts of urbanization is therefore useful, though empirical evidence suggests that positive
aspects generally outweigh negative ones.
African traditional marriage is a process oriented to the extended family. Today the influence of
the extended family has dwindled and as a result there‘s been a shift of attention to the nuclear
family. These factors among others as identified in the study have been deemed to have influence
the status of marriage.
Description
A thesis submitted to the Department of Religious Studies at the Kwame
Nkrumah University of Science and Technology-Kumasi, in partial
fulfilment of the requirement for the degree
of
Master of Philosophy