Polygamy Comes Home to Roost

Abstract

This article is only partly about the Church in Africa — and the theological and pastoral dilemmas it faces in its encounter with traditional marriage patterns. It is also about the Church in America — and the similar dilemmas we face in coping with altered cultural attitudes toward marriage and family. Fr. Horan is very candid as he makes telling pastoral analogies between the birth control problem his tradition now faces in America, and the polygamy problem all churches face in Africa. Protestants can take no comfort as they mull very similar analogies in the sticky divorce problems that deeply affect all traditions in America today. With good humor, yet in deep seriousness, Professor Horan urges further and truly sensitive studies, at both theological and pastoral levels, which may prove at least as helpful to our own dilemmas as to those of Africa.