OpenUCT :: Browsing by Author "Cumpsty, John S"

Browsing by Author "Cumpsty, John S"

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Concepts of soul : an investigation into the concepts of the soul current at the inception of Christianity
(1976) Rawetzky, Greta; Cumpsty, John S
This thesis has been called forth by the debate about the concept soul which has been pursued in many fields: in theology by Oscar Cullmann and many others; in philosophy by Gilbert Ryle, among others. In psychology, we find that as early as 1926, at an International Psychological Conference, Pavlov declared that we must abandon the misleading term "soul". He stated that, in his opinion, "the proper study of psychology is physiology".
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Dialektikah verharmoniyah betefisot hahistoryah vehameshihiyut shel ha-Rav Kook
(1993) Lubitch, Ronen; Cumpsty, John S
This essay will attempt to examine Rav Kook's corpus of thought from the viewpoint of its systems of methodological foundations: dialectic and harmonistic. These two elements are the dominant components of his thought, both from the methodological and ontological aspects. As to the harmonistic element, it should be noted that Rav Kook's entire corpus of thought is stamped with the idea of monistic unity, and he believes in the unity of existence from the point of view of ontological monism. The monism is inherent even in the center of the theoretical method, or in the words of Rav Kook: "The various thoughts actually don't contradict each other, everything is but a unitary revelation which appears in different sparks".
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The dissonance of guilt : an examination of the human condition's fundamental dynamic of guilt feelings, referring to psychological and religious discourse and how they could be combined to facilitate mental health
(1986) Boothroyd, David Gordon; Chidester, David; Cumpsty, John S
Feeling guilty is an experience we all know. It is a condition that ensures we remain cognisant of our obligations to our- selves and to others so that we live within the bounds of appropriate behaviour. When obligations are violated and deviance is evident, the resultant dissonance between expected and contrary behaviour generates feelings of inner environment discomfort and self-criticism recognised as guilt feelings. Whether such states of internal dissonance are psychodynamically induced, as Freud maintained, or are the result of not meeting ethical obligations, as decreed by particular religious systems, or are due to an inevitable faculty of being human, they have to be controlled if the mental health of the individual experiencing them is not to be detrimentally affected. What psychology and religion have to say about ensuring that this control is effective has unfortunately become dichotomous and disparate realms of discourse. A common discourse is necessary if the insights of each are to most effectively deal with mental health care. To this end, this thesis is presented as a means for assisting psychotherapists in a re-assessment of the interface between psychology and religion.
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History of the theological method of Reinhold Niebuhr : a study of the relationship between past and contemporary events in Niebuhr's theological method
(1973) Leatt, James; Cumpsty, John S
Reinhold Niebuhr is widely acknowledged, by religious and secular opinion alike, as the most influential Christian social ethicist of the twentieth century. For over fifty years he grappled with the issues which confronted his native America at a time when that nation was undergoing the most dramatic period of change in its history. During this time there was considerable debate about method in Christian ethics, but with little or no success. By contrast Niebuhr hardly seems to have a method, but perhaps behind his considerable success lies hidden a method which must be made explicit for the contemporary debate in Christian ethics. Since we have summarized our argument at the beginning of each chapter, it is necessary here only to indicate the main outline of this thesis. The contemporary debate in Christian ethics forms the subject of our first chapter, and states the problem with which this work is concerned. We then examine the formative context of Reinhold Niebuhr's life and work, before giving an exposition and critique of his Christian realism. The last two chapters seek to elucidate the theological method of Reinhold Niebuhr, and to offer an evaluation and critique.
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Identity and worldview issues in rural development : a case study : reintegration of ex-street children into communities in rural Transkei
(1992) De Wet, Jacques; Cumpsty, John S
This study explores the complex problem of socio-cultural change and continuity in Africa; the basic human drives for physical survival and identity; and how the danger of self-alienation and anomie might be overcome. Worldview Analysis and Human Scale Development are brought together and focused on a particular context of socio-economic development in a situation of competing worldviews in rural Transkei. People in rural Transkei experience competing worldviews and values out of a dual quest for economic advancement in an increasingly industrialized society, on the one hand, and the maintenance of identity, on the other. The prioritizing of economic development is seen to contradict the value of an African cultural identity. In the absence of a mediating symbolic network to facilitate the renegotiation of identity, these values remain in tension. In PART ONE I discuss the problem in the context of the necessity for economic growth and Human Scale Development in a democratic South Africa. My general research hypothesis is founded on this discussion. It states that "Social and economic development, in a situation of competing worldviews, depends on the mediation of conflicting symbols in a manner which is not inconsistent with the economic imperatives." In PART TWO this macro-study is scaled down to an empirically testable, research project. The hypothesis of the micro-study reads as follows: "Integrated identity and belonging for ex-street children, in a situation of competing worldviews, depends on the mediation of conflicting paradigmatic symbols." Both hypotheses are informed by theories of religion, identity and development drawing on the works of Max-Neef and Cumpsty. The situation of competing worldviews experienced by a group of ex- street children is described. I then show that social development in this context is impeded by the lack of mediation between conflicting paradigmatic elements and values. Thereafter, much attention is given to the difficult task of designing tools to map identity and values of individuals, locating critical points of tension between conflicting values and, finding mediating symbols. Finally, I examine a range of corporate strategies that demonstrate ways of mediating between the conflicting paradigmatic symbols.
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The Independent Churches of the Coloured people of the Cape Flats.
(1983) Aeschliman, Donald Ray; Cumpsty, John S
The Coloured people of the Cape Flats, which lie at the foot of Table Mountain adjacent to Cape Town, represent a people unique in many ways. Racially, they are the product of the mixing of several groups over the period of many years, but culturally they are very similar to the Whites who rule present-day South Africa. They have a strong religious heritage going back to their origins, and all the best known denominations and churches are to be found among them, and are generally well-supported. However, in the course of the past years, a considerable number of Independent Churches have appeared, and it is the purpose of this study to describe these groups as to their origins and make up, and to enquire into the reasons for their appearance. An early problem faced was that of classification, and when none of the widely-used forms put forth by authors in the field seemed to fit these particular groups a system based upon the individual's view of his linking to God and his personality type, revealed in his worship experience and practice, was devised. This is a division into Participant Type and Observer Type Churches. Case histories of meetings held by representatives of each of these groups reveal the differences between them, and also give insight into the manifestations of the differing personality types. Attention is given to the Independent Church Ring, an attempt to bring together into one body many of these groups, and a chapter is included on the leadership of the churches. The role of women in the churches is examined briefly, and an attempt is made to explain why the same people who formed no Independent Churches while in District Six immediately upon their expulsion became active in such a program in spite of the availability of the same denominations within which they had worked for many years. In a final chapter, the classifications here given are compared with a more general model suggested by Professor J. S. Cumpsty and which to a degree grew out of the findings of this same research.
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Metaphysical issues in Halakic process
(1985) Flegg, Asher Arthur; Duschinski. E J; Cumpsty, John S
This dissertation is a study of the method whereby the employment of variant philosophical, metaphysical, or theological data emanating from biblical or aggadic sources, yields variant practical halakic results. The extent to which the cogitative assimilation of these data directly affects one and influences one's actions in practice is the extent to which this process has been operationally effective in the concrete translation of thought into action.
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Ntsikana : history and symbol studies in a process of religious change among Xhosa-speaking people
(1985) Hodgson, Janet; Cumpsty, John S
The figure of Ntsikana, both as a man of history and as an historical symbol, is the focus of this study. I argue that change may come about by giving new meanings to old forms and images or by taking the new forms and content and filling them with the old, and that these two sets continue to exist side by side for a long time. Cumpsty's "Model of Religious Change in Socio-Cultural Disturbance" is used to identify the dynamics in the process and to explore the nature of the dialectic between innovation and assimilation of the new on the one hand, and continuity with the old on the other. The Ntsikana tradition is followed ever a period of two hundred years and well illustrates the need to see religious change as part of an ongoing process within a particular social and historical context.
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Religion of the ancient Basotho with special reference to "water snake"
(1996) Rakotsoane, Francis Lobiane Clement; Cumpsty, John S
It still remains the case that there has been very little attention given to African Traditional Religion in Southern Africa by both Western and African authors. It is not an easy area to research for it no longer exists in its undisturbed coherent form, but only as preserved in fragmented bits of culture. This thesis attempts some reconstruction of Basotho religion just prior to their settlement in Lesotho and the arrival of the Christian traditions. It makes use of whatever sources are available both written and oral including interviews in the field. It also employs Cumpsty's theory of religion to raise some questions about what might be expected given what is known of the pre-history of the people. Through a critical analysis of various Basotho cultural elements, oral prayers, sayings, beliefs, songs, rites of passage and other customs, a picture of early Basotho religion begins to emerge focused around the Supreme Being, Water Snake, and his different manifestations. It seems that we are looking at a group who had never been settled until they came to Lesotho, although they may have remained in particular places for considerable periods of time. On the other hand they were probable not, as some other groups were, consciously migrating, looking for a place of their own. It may well be this situation which is reflected in the constant prioritizing of the high god (Water Snake) in their dealings with the ancestors, and even their direct dealings with Water Snake, while at the same time other aspects of transcendence do not become emphasized.
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Religion, identity, and pastoral care : gender related perspectives of reality. A quest for method
(1994) Nixon, Marion; Cumpsty, John S
My study investigates the possibility of gender preference for the possible paradigms of reality established in Cumpsty's theory of religion. According to him there are three possible paradigms for the nature of the ultimately-real to which one would belong. These generate three ideal types of religious tradition he has labelled Nature Religion (NR), Withdrawal Religion, and Secular World Affirming Religion (SWAR). These labels reflect the adherents' understanding of and engagement with their immediate 'world-out-there'. Using CUmpsty's general theory of religion and writers on feminine identity, I explored the theoretical relationship between paradigms for reality and gender. This indicated a theoretical preference for NR by women within a SWAR dominated western culture. I then report field studies in which instruments were tested which were themselves intended to test the existence of the relationship between paradigms of reality and gender.
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Religious education as a multi-process curriculum
(1996) Burke, Michael Terence; Cumpsty, John S
Finding a satisfying approach to Religious Education is a problem even to schools with a specifically religious character; it is even more of a problem to multi-faith public schools. The root of the problem may lie in the monolithic way that "religion" and "religious education" are perceived. Everyone develops ways of making sense of life, however inadequate, and everyone possesses the same range of faculties for doing so. In a broad sense, this is religion - even if only some are conditioned to call it this - and any assistance given to awakening the faculties concerned is religious education - even if only some recognise it as such. Agnostics often possess highly developed faculties that in believers are seen as belonging to the fabric of their faith. In devising a programme of Religious Education for Catholic Schools, my starting point was to examine the range of faculties involved and how learning and growth happen in practice. It became apparent that, just as a language is approached by many routes (such as learning to understand, speak, read, write, and appreciate it) so too a number of processes operate in parallel to produce the effect called Religious Education. The analysis crystallised fifteen distinct learning processes. Some are immediately recognisable as "religious"; others are partly motivated and orientated by religion; still others are religious only in implicit ways.
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Religious experience of the destined human being
(1995) Wayland, Anda; Cumpsty, John S
Six people fitting the above description of "destined human beings" were studied as far as possible from their own work, i.e. writings, paintings, music, speeches, letters, etc. They were studied on two levels, that of their own metier, and then how they retained that holistic quality which enabled them to remain in touch with a greater vision of life and humanity as a whole. They are Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt van Rijn, Johann Sebastian Bach, Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein, and, as an exception to some things which have been said, Pablo Picasso. It is hoped that this research demonstrates that these people understand humanity and its needs for religion, and that their experiences and interpretations thereof help humanity engage those needs sanely and fruitfully. In other words, they enrich religion as a quest. Different senses of identity, modes of engagement, models of reality, methods of expression are examined, all of which demonstrably fit into Cumpsty's Theory of Religion of Belonging. One of the case studies demonstrates what happens when the sense of belonging is impaired. The thesis takes a very broad view of what constitutes religious experience, but the expressions of the case studies can be considered as religion at its best, or most universal.
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The source and authority of prophecy in the Old Testament period
(1979) Rayner, Paul Anthony George; Cumpsty, John S
Our thesis is that the prophet in the Old Testament period was an ordinary man with a specific ministry. His ministry was both to communicate the word of God to man and also to be consulted by man about the hidden things of life. We consider some of the many factors which went to constitute the prophet the man he was and thus enable him to have that assurance of being God's spokesman. These factors are both the religious experiences to which he laid claim, and the many human influences that derived from his family life, the accumulating tradition which he inherited and upon which he was nurtured, and the varied experiences that cmne his way in his personel life.
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The struggle of man, religious and social, as a central motif in the writings of S.Y. Agnon
(1975) Herczl, Moshe Y; Cumpsty, John S
In this paper, we will assume that Agnon's writing has, in addition to its aesthetic and artistic value, also a clearly didactic intention, and in the course of this paper we will attempt to verify this assumption. There are therefore two basic assumptions at the heart of this paper. 1. There is a unity in Agnon's writing. 2. Agnon had didactic intention. The object of this paper is to clarify the nature of the unity and the intention: what is a unifying theme in the work, and what does it come to teach? Our thesis is that Agnon deals with the theme of man's struggle and conflict. His attitude to any character is in direct proportion to its willingness to take upon itself a direct confrontation with the . problems which it faces. We will attempt to show that this subject moves throughout Agnon's varied and diversified writings.
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A study of change and continuity in the world-views of isiXhosa-speaking school leavers in their quest to succeed in the world of work without abandoning their African identity
(2000) De Wet, Jacques P; Cumpsty, John S
The people with whom this thesis is concerned have chosen to participate in charge and technological advancement. They are engaged in development. Development, as here understood, requires that individuals contribute to the advance of a technological society while affirming their Africanness, albeit a changing Africanness. The study addresses the basic question "How can African youths, who desire to succeed materially, maintain some sort of integrated sense of self in a working environment dominated by a Western style of operation which potentially undermines their Africanness?" The answer is sought in terms of "mediation" between the conflicting African Traditional and Western Industrial world-views in such a way as to enhance development, while not being inconsistent with economic imperatives. It investigates empirically the content of what is being mediated and the mechanisms of the mediation.
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A study of pastoral care to the terminally ill in a multi-cultural context with specific reference to India
(1997) Rajakumar, Selvaraj Samuel John; Cumpsty, John S
In the circumstances prevailing in contemporary India, and certainly since AIDS, it is hardly possible for Christian Pastors to limit their hospital ministry, especially their ministry to the terminally ill, to members of their own denomination or religion. India is notoriously rich in its variety of religious traditions and, as we will see, there is a universal Indianness which seems to stamp itself upon even the representatives of the Abrahamic faiths present on that Continent. It is therefore vital that the Pastor should be able to enter gently and swiftly into a patient's religious world-view. To do this we need to see if the teeming chaos cannot be reduced to some conceptual categories and ways found to describe those categories and locate individuals within them. For this purpose we employed Cumpsty's General Theory of Religion. The theory establishes three coherent ideal types and sub-types of religious tradition in relation to which all actual traditions can be located. Central to the distinctions between them is that immediate experience can be real and ultimate, not real, or real but not ultimate, that is, reality can be monistic (in corporate or individual style) or dualistic. There are consequences of these, for example, the powers-that-be can be essentially personal or neither clearly personal nor impersonal; time is conceived as circular, rhythmical or linear. Sometimes life events are partially predictable and/or partially controllable or they are not. It is the mixing and matching of these, and similar, possibilities together with the affirmation that experience is chaos (the only overtly non-religious position) which provides a number of theoretical but recognizable profiles within the Indian situation. The crucial stage of the project was that in which these theoretical possibilities had to be operationalized in a set of questions meaningful within the context being investigated. The questionnaire which resulted was used to structure interviews in a pilot study in the Hindu, Muslim and Christian communities of Tamilnadu State, in response to which the questionnaire was accepted, but slightly extended for use in the main survey. The data obtained from both surveys allowed a number of actually existing profiles of different kinds to be identified and described, and also identified those questions which were the most discriminating in the location of respondents within these profiles. The instrument was then used in interviews with a, necessarily smaller, sample of terminally ill patients. The data from this study showed that in general the terminally ill fitted into the profiles identified for the "healthy". It also provided interesting information on the similarities and differences between the "healthy" sample and the terminally ill and (unexpected in its level of distinctiveness) differences between AIDS and cancer patients. The data also enabled the questions to be prioritized for use with terminally ill patients who had been located in a particular profile. Finally, a suggestion for an approach to pastoral care in each profile, based on an understanding of the "logic of belonging" operative in that profile, is offered.
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A study of the nature of religious knowledge and its role in the life of the individual and the community, with special reference to the content, aims and methods of bible teaching
(1976) Schein, Aviva; Cumpsty, John S
This thesis had its point of departure in a concern with the aims and methods of Bible teaching in the Jewish day high schools in South Africa. The work began with a survey and conflation of recent scholarly writings concerned with the teaching of the Bible, and with an extensive survey, by face to face interview, of Bible teaching methods in Jewish high schools in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Pretoria. Although this last occupied a great deal of time spread over more than a year, it does not now form part of this thesis, whereas the former does. The reason for this is that neither the current practise, nor most of the scholarly opinion, with notable exceptions, seems to have asked the basic questions concerning the essence of what is being communicated, how it comes to be embraced by the individual, and how it functions in the social context, before becoming involved in the matters of aims and methodology. Even those like Goldman, who have pioneered the study of Bible teaching methodology have been primarily concerned with what the pupils could receive, and that on the cognitive basis, rather than with the essence of the Bible itself. We have retained in Part I a survey of ten scholarly opinions, ranging all the way from the ultra-orthodox, through the modern religious, the nationalists, the humanists to the marxists. Although almost all of these are drawn from Israeli experience, almost all that they have to say is generally applicable to the teaching of the Bible in any place where the Hebrew tradition is taught. It represents as wide a cross-section as one is likely to find anywhere, and it is with this, or something like it, that the intending teacher of the Bible is confronted when he begins his task. The conflicts are deeply rooted in the understanding of the essence of what is to be taught. Part II, the central contribution of this thesis, is therefore concerned with the basic questions of what the Bible is in itself, what is the experience which men have called God, and how they have sought to communicate about it (Section A), how religion is held by the individual (Section B), and how it functions in society (Section C). We have endeavoured to bring the model thus developed to bear upon the opinions reviewed in Part I in order to reject those that will not stand up, to resolve seeming conflicts and to glean that which, by the criteria of our model, will be of lasting worth. Only then have we made an attempt to express what, in the light of our model, would seem to be the real essence and the possible aims of teaching the Bible. Throughout this section we have presented our summary points and our conclusions based upon them separately, which may be a little awkward for the reader, but allows the summary points, standing on their own, to be a clear presentation of the heart of each model. Part III aims only at presenting some basic considerations for the development of a methodology. It makes no pretence to be itself a methodology. Even for this purpose, however, it was felt necessary to review Goldman's contribution and to look at its roots in Piaget, in order to see what, in the light of our findings about essence, was still lacking. To meet the discovered needs, we have drawn upon Erikson, and to some small degree, upon Sears. We have felt that this thesis draws upon so many disciplines that no reader could be expected to be familiar with them all. We have therefore tended, more than otherwise would be the case, to include extensive accounts of our source material. This is particularly the case in Part III where we have included a summary of the three theories of child development drawn from a secondary source, H.W. Maier. This in no way form part of the thesis, and the reader who is familiar with Piaget and Erikson, and even Goldman, is invited to pass over this summary presentation to our resulting critique of Goldman's contribution and to our basic considerations for a development of methodology.

Browsing by Author "Cumpsty, John S"

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