AN INTEGRATED HERMENEUTIC OF REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGY IN SELECTED BIBLICAL TEXT AND AFRICAN MARITAL VALUES IN CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIANITY

Abstract

Like its wave in the Western world, reproductive technology is fast becoming an unstoppable phenomenon in African societies. Its wide acceptance could probably be traced to African obsession for children, given its agrarian economy. In Africa, barrenness is a social problem that could lead to untold hardship especially for women. The phenomenon has however assumed a leading catalyst in the supremacy contest between naturalism and creationism. It has also become a serious threat to African value for morality, responsibility and accountability. Beyond the charge of Victorian morality, Christians are driven by the conviction based on biblical revelation concerning the nature of human origins and value for life. This paper studies the historical background of reproductive technology, its growth in contemporary age and its influence on African youths with regards to biblical revelations and hermeneutics through the exposition of Hebrew and Greek words. The aim is to ascertain whether reproductive technology can enhance African communalism or diminish it. The paper concludes that as lofty as the aims of reproductive technology are, with regards to the problems of human infertility, its derailment into socio–cultural issues, seems to have rendered God irrelevant given its assumed successes. The scenario is not considered helpful to African Christian religious and cultural values.