Philippine E-Journals

Divorce and Remarriage in Nigeria: A Spiral Hermeneutical Approach to MK 10: 1-12

George O. Folarin

Discipline: Religion

 

Abstract:

This is a re-interpretation of Mark’s version of Jesus’ teaching on divorce and remarriage text in 10: 1-12 in the context of the experience of the Christian church in Nigeria. The application of spiral hermeneutical method to the passage involved first the grammatical exegesis of the passage, second the exegesis of the Nigerian cultural experience, third the identification of challenges and conflicts in the findings of the two exegeses, and fourth, the re-visitation of the biblical text for better interpretation. The work points out that while the passage discourages divorce, it does not totally rule it out. The conclusion is that while it is biblical that the church in Nigeria discourages divorce, there are times when there may be no better alternative.