A THEOLOGICAL EVALUATION OF THE FAMILY AS THE FIRST SCHOOL OF CHRISTIAN INITIATION IN THE LIGHT OF ECCLESIA IN AFRICA
Ecclesia in Africa emphasizes that the family is the foundation of society and the first school of Christian initiation. Findings show that the fruitfulness of conjugal love extends to the fruits of the moral, spiritual, and supernatural life that parents hand over to their children education. It is the function of the Church to protect and evangelize the family to strengthen the larger society. However, the family has become an object of numerous complexities due to rapid challenges and forces of change such as single-parenthood, domestic violence, family instability, and poverty which appear to distort the very essence and notion of family. This paper examines the theological foundation and meaning of the family as the “first school of Christian initiation” in the light of Ecclesia in Africa and identifies and analyzes the contemporary challenges threatening the family's role as the primary educator in the faith. This paper is relevant to our contemporary world as it seeks to respond to the pastoral urgency of the African family, which has forgotten its role as the first family of Christian initiation, by proposing some pastoral recommendations for empowering African Christian families.
Keywords: Ecclesia, Initiation, Family, Education