The Christian family as the path to a 'culture of life' in the teaching of Pope John Paul II: Implications for Igbo Christian marriage and family life

Against the background of what he viewed as the modern society's anti-life mentality, portrayed in the various ways and the well-developed means by which human life is subjected to constant threats, attacks, and disvalue, John Paul II took a firm stand in opposition to such a mentality---one that fosters what he called a "culture of death." This dissertation demonstrates, as its thesis, that in the teaching of Karol Wojtyla/Pope John Paul II, the Christian family has the potential to help overturn the "culture of death" replacing it with a "culture of life." The dissertation also contextualizes and concretizes this teaching using the Igbo people of Nigeria.; After a short introduction, the first chapter explicates the author's notions of culture, cultures of death and life, and the civilization of love in order to establish that culture is constituted through human act and that the moral conscience is central to the making of culture good or bad. The second chapter looks at Karol Wojtyla/John Paul II's thought on marriage and the family which he set forth upon the foundation of his anthropology. The chapter also looks at the identity and mission of the family.; The third chapter studies the Igbo people of Nigeria, important aspects of their religious, moral, and social life especially, their traditional family values. The chapter also studies the contact between Igbo, Western, and Christian cultures and the impact of that contact on Igbo culture and life. The fourth chapter explores the role of the Christian family in the proper formation of the individual moral conscience of persons, a role through which the seed of the culture of life is sown first, within the family, and then in the wider society. The fifth chapter shows that John Paul's teaching affirms that the Christian family can be the concrete realization of the culture of life and the civilization of love and that the Christian family can spread that culture and civilization around. Thus, the chapter identifies the contributions which that teaching can make to the Igbo context. This chapter also summarizes the conclusions of the dissertation.