Browsing by Subject "religious studies"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    A critical analysis of the assumptions, aims and methods in Saward Hiltner's approach to pastoral counselling in the light of the major Christian traditions of pastoral care
    (1986) Cook, Jonathan Thornhill; Cumpsty, J.
    In this study Seward Hiltner's approach to pastoral counselling is analysed on the basis of a number of criteria derived from a survey of the history of pastoral care. On the assumption that any trend in pastoral care which gained enough support from a wide enough section of the Church for a long enough period of time to warrant attention from recognised historians of pastoral care qualifies as a significant aspect of the tradition, the criteria take the form of questions arising from these trends. The questions are grouped so as to qualify or balance each other. The themes covered are those of discipline in the Church as both restoring the individual and protecting the Church; the definition of sin varying with the social role of the Church and providing both a boundary around the group and a code for individual guidance, while also representing an inner attitude; good and evil in human nature and the need for both absolute demand (including the provision of an ideal with which to identify the ideal self) and unlimited acceptance; the extent to which the pastor may exercise authority over the client; the need for both lay and ordained ministries; the scope of pastoral care, including the functions of healing, facilitating spiritual growth, sustaining, guiding, discipline, restoration, and liberating from oppressive institutions and customs; the need to provide people with a clear logic of belonging to God; and appropriate openness to the Christian tradition, secular social sciences and the sociopolitical context of the Church. On these criteria Hiltner's approach was found to have been well matched to the particular social context of America in the fifties, but to lack several aspects for the changed context of the present. These would either have to be accommodated in the counselling approach or be catered for in the pastoral context in which counselling should be offered. They include providing a demand both in the sense of a powerful ideal and a moral standard; integrating healing and sustaining in counselling with the other pastoral functions; reintroducing a sense of pastoral authority together with greater recognition of the role of lay ministry; providing a stronger and more explicit "logic of belonging"; and drawing more deeply on the pastoral traditions. Although there is overlap between the various criteria, it is suggested that they have proved useful in analysing Hiltner's approach and could be used to expose other approaches to the wisdom of the tradition. Suggestions are made for the development and use of the criteria in further research.
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    Religion, memory and reconciliation in the new South Africa: an African interpretation
    (2005) Imhanwa, Jude Onos; Chidester, David
    South Africa is faced with the challenge of reconciling the memory of the past. The widespread desire to live in peace exists in tension of two extreme possibilities: either to take refuge in amnesia by forgetting the past and moving forward or to remember by making rigid recourse to the past and paralysing the present. These two extreme positions find expression in the collectivity of the community and the nation state. The victim of their tension is the individual in the form of identity crisis as a result of disfigurement. This thesis examines this tension and offers the African marriage covenant as a multi-dimensional model for memory and reconciliation for resolving this tension. Having introduced the thesis in Chapter One, Chapter Two stipulates African hermeneutics of memory and African marriage covenant as its methodology and analytical tool respectively. Chapter Three analyses the different aspects of memory as embodied in the African marriage covenant in terms of meaning and understanding, forms and types and preservation. Similar analysis of identity formation is in Chapter Four. Chapter Five discusses the relationship between memory, truth and healing. Chapter Six postulates memory as the true means for reconciliation. Concluding the thesis, Chapter Seven advances important features and implications of the African marriage covenant for memory and reconciliation in South Africa.
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    Solidarity and salvation : the relationship between personal transformation and community in Dietrich Bonhoeffer
    (1991) Shay, Donald J; de Gruchy, J.W.
    The major thesis of this dissertation is that personal transformation is grounded in community existence and experience. Bonhoeffer's understanding and experience of community provide key insights into this dynamic relationship. The development of his theology, shaped by his experience of struggle and solidarity in Nazi Germany, can also provide valuable resources for the struggle for justice and peace in South Africa, especially at this transitionary period in its history. The first chapter, A Theoretical Perspective: Sociality in Sanctorum Cornmunio and Creation and Fall, attempts to establish the theoretical underpinnings and centrality of Bonhoeffer's notion of 'sociality' which, it is argued, remains at the heart of his writings and praxis to the end of his life. It is in the concept of sociality that the influence of community on personal transformation is grounded. The second chapter, Reflections on Life in Community: Discipleship and Community in The Cost of Discipleship and Life Together, examines key issues at the heart of Bonhoeffer' s struggle for justice based in the concrete experience of intentional community life at the Finkenwalde seminary. In the context of the Church Struggle (Kirchenkampf) the community of faith was integral to helping pastors be obedient disciples in the midst of tremendous political struggles with an evil regime. The third chapter, A Vision - The Church for Others: Suffering, Metanoia and Responsibility in Ethics and Letters and Papers from Prison, explores the implications of personal transformation for a life of responsible discipleship. There is continuity in Bonhoeffer's thinking about personal transformation and community, but his context had changed during this period resulting in more emphasis on involvement in 'the world' and taking responsibility for changing the world.
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    The curse of Ham: An Africentric-postcolonial reading of Genesis 9:18-27 in the context of the coloured people of the Cape, South Africa
    (2024) Allies, André Christain; Ukah, Asonzeh
    his dissertation investigates the history of the interpretation of Genesis 9:18-27, erroneously referred to as ‘the curse of Ham' and its application in the social-cultural history of the coloured people of the Cape in South Africa. The term Gam (which is the Afrikaans word for ‘Ham') is embraced and accepted by many coloured people on the Cape Flats as a descriptor of their ethnic and cultural identity. Yet also, many other coloured people reject this concept of Gam given the connotations of slavery and servitude that are connected to it. This dissertation unpacks the notion of Gam, and the ethnic and racial classification ‘coloured', and seeks to trace the origins of these terminologies and concepts dating back to the colonial period, and how they came to be linked to the biblical ‘Ham'. This dissertation interrogates the extent to which rhetoric was used for the promotion of the curse of Ham (for example, Separatism and Chosen people), to justify the enslavement of Black people, for slavery was considered a godly imperative to be used by the colonisers and slavedrivers to cure the degradation of the African slave. In unpacking the biblical text, an Africentric – postcolonial interpretation is used as a tool to analyse, reread, and reconstruct the text. This dissertation determines how this text has been used ideologically to justify oppression and marginalization of dark-skinned people. This dissertation concludes with demythologising the terms Gam and ‘coloured', starting with the biblical text and the colonial narratives that supported oppressive and exploitative interpretations, and a consideration of these terms to be used as catalysts for inclusivity and nation-building. It ends by highlighting the unique contribution that coloured people can bring about when they embrace their African-ness, knowing that every other person in South Africa, irrespective of ethnicity or race, has a connection with the coloured people of the Cape because of the heterogeneity of the coloured people.
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    The theme of tribulation as a literary strategy of an alternative self-definition in the book of revelation: a sociolinguistic perspective
    (1993) Nogwina, E. M.; Wanamaker, Charles A.
    This study focuses on the significance of the theme of tribulation as developed by the author of the Book of Revelation. Its main concern is to examine what the author wants to achieve by depicting the tribulation of his audience. As such, the emphasis is on the social function of the notion of tribulation within the context of the social environment shared by the author and his audience. The methodology adopted here is that of a sociolinguistic perspective. This approach is based on the premise that language both provides information about the social context in which it is used and serves certain functions in the process of social interaction within that context. Within the wider perspective of sociolinguistics, the model that is used here is that of Antilanguage An antilanguage is a language that is generated by an antisociety, that is, a social collectivity which is embedded in another society but feels threatened or alienated by the dominant conventional norms of the wider society, and therefore sees itself as a conscious alternative to it. The language generated by such a social collectivity serves to express its alternative view of social reality and becomes a mode of resistance to the prevailing social order. This study proposes that the author of Revelation assumes that his audience constitutes an antisociety. Therefore, through the language that he uses to depict what he considers to be a state of tribulation for his audience, the author is engaged in the discourse of anti language. This provides the author with both a mode of resistance to the dominant social system and an alternative framework in terms of which his audience can understand and define themselves, relative to the wider society. To arrive at the above conclusion, however, it has become essential to delineate the scenarios proper to the social environment shared by the author and his audience. It has been noted that the tribulation addressed by the author of Revelation is a complex phenomenon in which various elements and forms of social conflicts coalesce. Such conflicts emanate from everyday interaction with other social groups such as the Roman authorities, Jews, Gentile neighbours and Christian rivals. From the perspective of the author of Revelation, however, the ultimate source of the alienation of his audience is the social system promoted and dominated by imperial Rome, imperial cult. antilanguage is particularly as it manifests itself through the Therefore, the actual target of the author's the imperial world view expressed through the practices associated with the imperial cult.