African women theologians have written extensively about problems in gender relations in African contexts, identifying oppressive elements and their effects on women’s self-concept and status in the church, family, and society. This book provides much-needed pastoral theological attention and a response to the psychospiritual, relational, and sociocultural effects of gender injustice and marginalization of women. It critically examines concepts, methods, and principles of family systems theory, analyzes gender relations in African families and churches, and develops a theology of pastoral care (based on the Trinitarian concept of perichoresis) that offers pastoral guidelines for effective pastoral counseling with women and men, as well as recommendations for corrective and preventative care grounded in educational strategies. The paradigm of pastoral care that emerges attends both to women affected by gender injustice and to the sociocultural norms that cause distress and perpetuate gender oppression.

The Author: Mpyana Fulgence Nyengele is Associate Professor of Pastoral Care and Counseling in the William A. Chryst Chair of Pastoral Theology at the Methodist Theological School in Ohio, Delaware, Ohio. He holds an M.Div., an M.A. in theological studies, and a Ph.D. in theology and personality with an emphasis in pastoral care and counseling from the Claremont School of Theology in California. A native of the Democratic Republic of Congo, he is an ordained pastor in the United Methodist Church.