This paper investigates “Divorce: Causes and Effects on Children.” Worthy of note is that the fact that, divorce is not an uncommon experience in human history. It is experienced by couples irrespective of their social, religious, academic, political, economic, etc. status. One of the most hit in the saga of divorce are children born into the wedlock where divorce is experienced. The effects of this divorce on children are most often not well considered by the parents who embark on taking the status of divorcees. This becomes the onus of this paper using sociological and psychoanalytical approaches to the study of human institutions to study these effects on children, though not without looking at the causes of divorce. The paper reveals that the effects of divorce on children often are emotional, psychological, economical and religious spheres among others and recommends ways in which these effects can be minimized among children.

It is the view of most people who claim the authoritative nature of the Bible that, women assigned secondary status in relation to men is ordained and supported in the Bible. Many have quoted different texts of the holy writ to support their culturally-biased position on issue of gender equality. Most often views in respect to gender issues are culturally-based and interpreted rather than divinely-based and interpreted. There is therefore the need to look back at Jesus’ words, “But at the beginning of creation God 'made them male and female.” (Matt 19:4; Mark 10:6 King James Version). The two accounts in the Book of Genesis by the Priestly and Yahwistic strands give a complimentary account of the creation of humankind (both male and female) in the image and likeness of God and their creation from a single stock אדם who was not a male gender. At a cursory reading of the creation accounts, one will tend to see האדם as the male gender, but looking at the Hebrew text more closely it will be noticed that the Hebrew words אישה and אישwere only introduced after the two genders have been separated. Note carefully that it was not איש that was asked to tend the garden, who named the animals, was given instruction of what to eat or what not to eat, who fell into a deep sleep or whose ribs was used in the creation of אישה but it was האדם . It was after the creation or ‘separation’ of אישה (woman – the female האדם) that the other part was called איש (man – the male האדם) (see vv 23 & 24 King James Version). It will therefore not be right to speak of the creation of אישה out of איש, because as at the time of the creation of the former, the later was not in existence as איש To view these creation accounts with the sense of gender superiority (either male over female or vice versa) is to read the texts using lenses which have been obscured and tainted by patriarchal, matriarchal or cultural biases.

Prosperity gospel is increasingly becoming a salient feature of Christianity in contemporary societies and especially on the African continent. Many consider it a supernatural alternative offering existential hope amidst insecurities of present life, rather than eschatological heavenly life yet to come. Its popularity is premised on the fact that the doctrine presents itself as holding the key to material prosperity, as well as the promise to provide followers with the weapons to overcome witchcraft, demonic forces and other malignant spirits through the power of the Holy Spirit. Drawing upon an extensive contemporary research on prosperity doctrine and based on content analysis, this chapter examines prosperity teachings and claims and identifies ethical issues that relate to the doctrine. Findings reveal that what makes prosperity gospel unique among religions is its overt promise of temporal, material rewards. In the absence of “natural” opportunity, prosperity gospel offers a supernatural means to material advancement.

Old Testament studies have posed a lot of challenges to scholarship. They made people like Marcion read it with a pen-knife frame having in mind to cut off those texts of ‘horror' which present the Old Testament God as a wicked God who lacks compassion and the spirit of benevolence. This monstrous presentation of the Old Testament God has propelled some scholars like Pail Copan to ask, is the God (of the Old Testament) a moral or monster? This view of the Old Testament God is occasioned by the challenges involved in the studying of the Old Testament as an ordinary literary work, historical work, archaeological work, or a theological document. Viewing this canon from a theological perspective leads one to reading it from a religious perspective. This brings to the fore studying the religion of the Old Testament from a phenomenological perspective with an eye specifically on the concept of the Old Testament God. From a phenomenological perspective, it shows that the theistic concept was borne from varied experiences. It shows the nature and character of their God.

The Concept of Atonement has been an old concept in the biblical world. The Old Testament speaks of it using mainly the Hebrew word כפר (kphr), with its attendant various implications. This concept wasn’t alien in the Greco-Roman world which formed part of the New Testament background. The New Testament writers pushed the concept of atonement beyond the level of animal sacrifice in the Old Testament, and the gods allowing themselves to be reconciled to sinful humanity in the Greco-Roman religious context, to the point of Jesus Christ being viewed as the Lamb of God, i.e. both the sacrificial lamb and the priest that offers the sacrifice. In this way, Christ is presented both as the offering and the offeror. The New Testament uses two main Greek words καταλλαγή/ (katallage) and ἱλασμός (hilasmos) in driving home this important concept which stems from God’s love towards the creation and results in forgiveness, restoration of estranged relationship, maintenance of divine justice and expression of divine mercy. The work used content analysis method of research and comparative theory in the study of religion in dealing with the subject of atonement in the Old Testament, Greco-Roman Context and the New Testament. Significantly, the work draws a thread of thought from Old Testament through Greco-Roman thought on atonement to that of the New Testament. It therefore also serves a point of comparative religious study of this thought among these three world views.