Department of Practical Theology and Missiology

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Equity and access for persons with disability in theological education, Ghana
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2016-11-22) Amenyedzi, Seyram Bridgitte; Simon, David Xolile; Claassens, L. Juliana M.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. of Practical Theology and Missiology.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Persons with disability in Ghana experience stigmatization, marginalization and exclusion from society; this accounts for their lack of participation in society, equitable access to the Christian life and theological education. By means of a qualitative approach, this study sought to investigate equity and access for persons with disability [blind persons, Deaf persons and persons with physical disability] in theological education in Ghana. The aim was to explore and realistically evaluate the cultural dimension of the stigmatization and exclusion they experience. In my endeavour to do so, a missiological approach to culture from a social constructionist perspective was employed to explore and to some extent realistically evaluate [context-mechanism-outcome (CMO) configurations] the social and theological factors that influence equal accessibility to theological education for persons with disability. The use of stigmatization and inculturation theology as a conceptual framework showed that the Ghanaian culture and traditional belief system has indeed influenced the interpretations and constructions of disability in the Ghanaian Christian context. The dialogue between the Ghanaian culture/traditional belief system and Christianity is a reflection of sociological-anthropological inculturation theology, which is an aspect of contextualization. The stigmatization and exclusion of persons with disability from theological education in Ghana was explored from a perspective that takes into account perceptions (worldview and meanings) of disability in the Ghanaian culture and also considers how these influence equal accessibility for persons with disability in theological education. Hence, contextualization is a relevant and appropriate way of making sense of the disability situation in Ghanaian Christianity and theological education. It was found that Ghanaian Christians construct disability as a curse and as being unacceptable in a similar manner as it is constructed in the Ghanaian culture itself. Consequently, constant pressure is exerted on persons with disability to be healed by means of exorcism, or through faith healing. However, if healing does not occur, the person is accused of lacking faith and the situation is compounded even further. It was therefore established that the churches and theological institutions need to realistically engage in dialogue from a disability theology and a theological hermeneutic of disability (Reynolds, 2008:34-35) perspective in order to integrate, include and embody persons with disability in their ministries and activities. The Ghanaian culture and Bible were thus proposed as two interventions, among others, for equal accessibility for persons with disability in theological education. Although the Ghanaian culture has negatively influenced stigmatization and the exclusion of persons with disability from society at large, and theological education in particular, I suggest that the same culture can also be viewed as an intervening resource. In the final chapter, I list a number of recommendations as ways forward to resolve/address this issue. In addition, I propose that Ghanaian churches and theological institutions as instruments involved in God’s mission have the task of ensuring equal accessibility for persons with disability in theological education. To conclude, from a missio Dei dimension, Ghanaian churches and theological institutions as instruments involved in the mission of God need to be all-inclusive in all their ministries and activities without any form of discrimination, stigmatization or exclusion. Hence, it is only when persons with disability are ensured equal access to churches and theological institutions in Ghana, that they can reflect their true involvement in the missio Dei.
Facing a masculine God : towards a pastoral care response in the context of gender-based violence
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2023-03 ) Msibi, Msizi Cyprian; Mouton, Dawid P.; Claassens, L. Juliana M.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. of Practical Theology and Missiology.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study aimed to provide a critical theological reflection on the possible links between masculine images of God and gender-based violence. The objectives of the study included exploring possible alternative images of God that could be helpful in providing pastoral care to victims of gender-based violence (GBV). As such the study further set out to explore and reframe appropriate pastoral care approaches in response to the plight of victims of GBV. Osmer’s four tasks of practical theology provided a broad framework for the research methodology and theological reflection. This study made use of desktop research to conduct an extensive literature survey as input for the conceptualisation presented in the thesis. In addition to engaging with pastoral care, as an academic field and its associated concepts, the thesis also unpacks and engages the concepts of gender, gender-based violence and various nuances in the discourse on masculinity and its relation to GBV. It includes reflections on Biblical texts containing potentially problematic notions of masculinity with regard to characters in these texts and which are also applied to God. In engaging with some of the violent and abusive male metaphors of God in Scripture, the study highlighted the potential for these depictions to be abused in perpetuating the phenomenon of GBV. However, the study also succeeds in presenting life-giving and feminine images of God which might offer tools for pastoral care and hope for those living with the effects of GBV. These alternative female images of God have been employed as a pastoral care response to the scourge of GBV. Feminist pastoral care, womanist pastoral care and narrative pastoral care together may offer a framework for even more practical responses in this regard.
Infertility a female problem? : engaging with narrative theory and biblical narratives
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2019-12) Strydom, Natalia; Penxa-Matholeni, Nobuntu; Claassens, L. Juliana M.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. of Practical Theology and Missiology.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The aim of this study to present the problem that there is a large faith community, especially ministers and counsellors, who are not sensitive to the matter of infertility. By employing a feminist and gender lens, I also wish to point out that male infertility is an often taboo topic. Nevertheless, couples come to ministers and counsellors for counselling. By conducting this research, I want to to explore possible ways that ministers and pastoral counsellors can help to deconstruct the dominant stories regarding infertility, which are loaded with stigma. By employing the narrative approach, the counsellor and the counselees can construct a new preferred reality and make new meanings out of the crisis of infertility. Secondly, I argue that by being informed about the crisis of infertility, the counsellor will be better equipped to engage with empathy in a pastoral counselling journey with the couple. It is important that couples discover safe spaces to share their infertility story. The pastoral counsellor or minister should be one of those safe spaces and not contribute to the dominant problem story. By following the narrative approach and by sharing a self-narrative of infertility, I wish to paint the background of why a study such as this is important. The study offers an in-depth investigation to find biblical narratives that could be used by pastoral counsellors. The Bible stories that were chosen for this aim are mainly the stories of Ruth, Judah and Tamar. Other biblical and extra-biblical stories are also investigated as sub-narratives. However, this endeavour points to the fact that these are narratives that only illustrate implied male infertility. There are no biblical narratives regarding male infertility due to the stigma that has enveloped infertility from the earliest times. The researcher also unpacks male infertility and how it affects male identity, in other words, masculinity. The link between virility and fertility is explored in an attempt to better understand to what extent infertility causes a crisis for males and for the couple. By understanding this link, we are better equipped to understand that two individuals are affected by this crisis, but they are also affected as partners in the marital unit. The narrative counselling process allows the couple to create new meaning around the crisis and allows them to build preferred realities of what other goals they have for their marriage. It is also critically important that ministers, pastors and members of congregations begin to realise that they have the responsibility and privilege to form a support structure around this couple.
Microfinance as a tool for socio-economic empowerment of rural women in Northern Malawi : a practical theological reflection
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2022-04-04) Chilongozi, Mwawi Nyirenda; Bowers-Du Toit, Nadine; Claassens, L. Juliana M.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. of Practical Theology and Missiology.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Poverty is a multifaceted, gendered global challenge that affects women significantly more than men. To alleviate poverty and achieve sustainable development, women in the Global South are engaging in microfinance. Microfinance is the provision of financial services to underprivileged people who cannot access credit from commercial banks and is proving to be a tool of socio-economic empowerment of women from rural areas. This study explores the ways in which the church can promote the microfinance model of savings and loans in a holistic and sustainable way. This study discusses poverty and the feminisation of poverty in the light of the gender and development (GAD) approach and explores the status of women in Malawi in terms of education, health, agriculture, the environment, politics, issues of gender-based violence and socio-economic empowerment. African women theologies and transnational feminism are the theoretical lenses used to explore the advancement of the socio-economic empowerment of rural women in the Global South in the context of economic globalisation. Identified as feminist liberation theologies that seek justice and liberation of all people, African women theologies, are used as the theological lens to analyse the socio-economic empowerment of women in order to explore how women can be liberated from the oppression caused by economic injustice. As a qualitative empirical study, this research explores the nature and impact of existing savings and loans groups run by rural women in the communities of Bwengu and Bolero in Northern Malawi. With a view to understanding the role of the church in microfinance with regards to rural women, clergy from the Henga and Nyika Presbyteries and church leaders of the CCAP Synod of Livingstonia and the Malawi Council of Churches were also included in the study. The findings from the empirical research indicate that microfinance is beneficial to individual women, their families and communities as the savings and loan model encourages women to save money from their resources. Through the savings and loan groups, it appears that women are empowered socio-economically and they become financially independent. The findings also indicate that women who are involved in savings and loan groups can now participate in decision making at household and community levels. Furthermore, women’s involvement in such groups assists in reducing incidents of gender-based violence at the household level because women are making a substantial contribution to the household income. The microfinance model of savings and loans is, therefore, deemed to be both holistic as it encourages women to save from what they have and to generate social capital and spiritual inspiration as they work together in solidarity through the groups. These findings call the church to engage with such models of economic development as they highlight the fact that the churches are aware of microfinance initiatives but the churches have not engaged in the initiatives. However, there is need for the churches to engage in such initiatives because they empower the communities. In order to promote holistic and sustainable microfinance, the church has to advocate for economic justice and build the capacities of its members concerning microfinance. The church should, therefore, seek to encourage all including men, women and youth to engage in microfinance so that the entire community is lifted and empowered socio-economically.
Preaching reconciliation : a study of the narratives in Genesis 37-50
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-03) Daniel, Nicodemus Pele; Cilliers, Johan; Claassens, L. Juliana M.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. of Practical Theology and Missiology.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis is a practical theology endeavour that evaluates the narrative preaching of Genesis 37-50 as a means of promoting reconciliation and social cohesion in a situation of religious and ethnic conflict in a context of the employment or mobilisation of religion and ethnic identity to the exclusion, marginalisation and, according to some, dehumanisation of others. The region specifically referred to is that of the Middle Belt Region of Nigeria, where religious and ethnic differences between people are being used to advance inequality and to dominate others. The study critically examines how actions such as the traditional African concept of ethnicity, the traditional African concept of land ownership and boundaries, manipulation by the elites of ethnicity and religion, religion fanaticism, and poverty and unemployment fuel ethnic and religious division, conflict and violence. In addition, the study examines how these phenomena may be engaged with through the technique of using narratives to create points of identification, narratives as imageries to shape imagination, and narratives as sermon illustrations. As such, the research argues that the narrative of Joseph and his brothers, found in Genesis 37-50, may be used to create a point of identification in preaching reconciliation and social cohesion, because the story depicts defamation of character, egocentrism, favouritism, dehumanisation, and pain and trauma as elements that fuel divisions, conflicts and violence. Furthermore, the study also considers the use of the narrative of Joseph and his brothers as imageries for shaping imagination in preaching reconciliation, because the story pictures changes of thought, changes in actions, forgiveness devoid of confession of evil done in the past, and building a common future as bases for coming together, staying together and walking together as ingredients of reconciliation. Therefore, the study proposes prophetic preaching, biographical preaching, pastoral preaching and economic preaching of the narrative of Joseph and his brothers as techniques for preaching reconciliation and social cohesion.
The role of the church with regards to maternal health : a case study of the church of Central Africa Presbyterian, Synod of Livingstonia
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-03) Chilongozi, Mwawi Nyirenda; Bowers-Du Toit, Nadine; Claassens, L. Juliana M.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. of Practical Theology and Missiology.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Many women in Sub-Saharan Africa, and Malawi, in particular, die during childbirth due to preventable and treatable complications that develop during pregnancy and childbirth. This study is motivated by the need to reduce the maternal mortality ratio in Malawi, which higher in comparison to other countries in Southern Africa. Therefore, the study aims to interrogate the role the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP), Synod of Livingstonia plays or can play to reduce maternal mortality. The study is undertaken within the field of Theology and Development with a focus on the intersection between gender, health and theology. The study discusses development approaches and discourses; the historical perspectives of issues of women in development and how it has shifted from Women In Development (WID); Women And Development (WAD) to Gender and Development (GAD). It placed maternal health within the Gender and Development approach. It further explains how the global initiatives on maternal health and the Millennium Development Goals and the Sustainable Development Goals have brought awareness of maternal health as a developmental issue. The initiatives have assisted governments and non-governmental organisations to put strategies that would assist in reducing maternal mortality and it has been noted that Faith-Based Organisations play a crucial role in the health sector in most countries in Africa, including Malawi. The findings indicate that maternal health mirrors the disparities between developed countries and developing countries, between the rich and the poor, between the educated and the uneducated, between the urban and the rural women. Maternal deaths are caused by preventable and treatable complications that develop during pregnancy and childbirth, however, these complications result from socio-cultural, religious, economic and political factors. Above all, maternal mortality is perpetuated by gender inequality in societies. Further the study analysed the role of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian, Synod of Livingstonia with regards to maternal health using Mercy Oduyoye’s four theological themes as the theological lens. It has been noted that the Synod of Livingstonia is playing a crucial role in the education and health sectors in Malawi. However, the Synod of Livingstonia regard maternal health as a health issue and women’s issue and therefore does not tackle maternal health at different forums. This study concludes that maternal health is a socio-cultural issue, a developmental issue, a gender issue, an economic and political issue that needs to be tackled through the collaboration of the government and churches and the communities in general. Denominations such as the CCAP, therefore, has a crucial role to play in addressing this challenge and the study concludes with recommendations to the Synod of Livingstonia as to how it could assist in issues of maternal health.
Unmasking violations against human dignity in selected Afrikaans films in South Africa 1960-1976 : a practical theological investigation
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-12) Van Huyssteen, Elmarie; Cilliers, Johan; Claassens, L. Juliana M.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Three Afrikaans films were released in South Africa during the tumultuous apartheid years (1960-1976) with the focus on the Afrikaner identity, the policy of apartheid and the injustices suffered by its people as a result, specifically focussing on the so-called Coloured community. These films were received with enthusiasm by the mostly Afrikaans viewers, but a dissonance became clear between the “message” delivered by these films and the perception of the content of the films by the public. Human dignity, and its relation to human rights, is offered as a theoretical tool in understanding this discrepancy between message and audience. It seems as if the filmmakers understood that the social injustices they portrayed in the narratives touched on the very fibre of a person’s humanity. In uncovering these injustices, the violations that were done against the human dignity of persons and groups were clinically unmasked as the realities of the current social circumstances were offered as background. The assumption of this study is that human beings are created as imago Dei, in the image of God, to His glory. Violations done to the identity, relationships and the indwelling of God, to a person, violate not only the other, but also the own self as perpetrator, and most importantly, God (the Other) as the grantor and origin of the dignity of each person on earth. Four different “movements” are applied as framework for analysis in order to unmask the manifestation of violations as perpetrated against human dignity, namely observation, interpretation, anticipation and transformation. The material is analysed against the context of the historical background. The dissonance between message and perception by audiences was found to be a consequence of the difference in perceptions of humanity and intent because of the different lenses used. The filmmaker, as artist, portrayed persons as valuable because of their “being human beings”, whereas the audiences accepted the films through the various filters that were operative in society at the time, and which acted together in preserving the value of group interest. The divergence between the view offered by the films and the filters through which they were received was too deep to offer integration, and resulted in dissonance instead. Within any culture the artist may act as a prophet, and this role is investigated by analysing the message brought to the audiences by these artists. The impact of the artist on society may differ, depending on the lenses and filters present as a result of the openness or closeness of a society. Future studies may hopefully shed light on the way in which murky filters may become enlightening lenses in changing societies. It seems as if the dissonance may only disappear when the human glance at our reality, through the eyes of faith, becomes one with the vision of God for His Kingdom.
Yithi Uyindoda! (Say, you are a man!) : an ethnographic study on the religion and masculinities in initiation schools in Cape Town Townships
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2014-04) Ncaca, Mawethu; Simon, David Xolile; Claassens, L. Juliana M.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. of Practical Theology and Missiology.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis investigates the construction of masculinity in the Xhosa initiation school (ulwaluko) in the townships of Cape Town, South Africa from a religio-cultural perspective. This ethnographic study utilized interviews with participants, observations of the initiation school, and is also complemented with documents that are written by Xhosa authors Thando Mqolozana, Nelson Mandela, Peter Mtuze, and A.N.N. Ngxamngxa. The documentary by Mayenzeke Baza and a blog post by Xhosa journalist Luzuko Pongoma were also used. The data collection and analysis was done with the Grounded Theory Approach using Atlas.ti version 7. The ontological and epistemological premise is of the constructivist understanding. The conceptual framework is grounded within the African philosophy of Ubuntu and African religio-cultural underpinnings. A new term, ancestral masculinity, was given to depict the type of masculinity described by the findings. It is marked by participating in a ‘manhood’ rites of passage and adhering to its prescribed processes and procedures, according to the ‘living and dead’ ancestors, in order for one to be accepted and recognized as part of the community. The findings show that ancestral masculinity, in its micro context of ‘boyhood’, is a searching route to acceptance. The initiate longs and finds acceptance in the initiation school through enduring pain and fostering a relationship with his guardian and teacher (ikhankatha). Secondly, ancestral masculinity is seen as the yearning to be African in its macro-context. It was demonstrated by admonishing (ukuyala) that helps the initiated to live an exemplary life of honouring (inhlonipho) those who are living and dead. This honouring is portrayed by doing everything possible to be helpful and to accord respect and care to elders. Inhlonipho also challenges individualist accomplishment and materialist flaunting and any ills that negate relational harmony. The study reveals challenges in the ulwaluko institution and construction of masculinity, such as alcohol abuse; carelessness, neglect, and passivity by elders in the process; exclusivity that discriminates against others; and inflexibility toward other constructions of masculinity. However, opportunities are also present within this institution to encourage dialogue and reconciliation, to create flexibility, and to utilize existing values to promote social cohesion amidst the challenges of the contemporary South African context.

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