The study reveals the contextual theological, social, and cultural dynamics of conflicts within these families and shows that there is a need for an pastoral care and counselling approach that includes work on systemic causes of conflict in the family and that empowers people for transformation.

Destructive and violent conflicts in Tanzanian Christian families motivated to do this research. As part of a conceptual study of conflict and Conflict Transformation the author conducted interviews with lay and clergy leaders of the ELCT and supplemented these data with statistical material collected from a few selected congregations. The study reveals the contextual theological, social, and cultural dynamics of conflicts within these families and shows that there is a need for an pastoral care and counselling approach that includes work on systemic causes of conflict in the family and that empowers people for transformation.