Department of Practical Theology and Missiology

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Browsing Department of Practical Theology and Missiology by browse.metadata.advisor "Green, Sulina"

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    Spirituality as dimension of integrated community development
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2013-12) Murray, Isabel; Swart, Ignatius; Green, Sulina; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. of Practical Theology and Missiology.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Following the democratic elections in 1994, many South Africans are still suffering due to the country’s inability to meet the challenges of peace-making, reconciliation and nation building, and dealing with socio-economic realities such poverty and inequality. It is in this context where “personal problems [are] becoming public issues” (Sacco, 1999:3) that the researcher posed the questions: What additional undisclosed/hidden resources can be uncovered to be utilised in meeting the challenge? How can we as practitioners in the field of community development contribute constructively to this process? One such a resource is the untapped spiritual potential of people. A focus on people’s spiritual potential will bring another dimension to people and community development and could proof invaluable in helping communities to better utilise their inner strengths and knowledge. Translated into practice, it would require an in-depth and research-based creative, non-prescriptive bottom-up approach to and knowledge of community development to prompt practitioners to acknowledge and utilise the spiritual dimension of the community development practice (cf. Weyers, 1991:130– 149; Ife, 1998:xiv). Inconceivably, notwithstanding the increased recognition of spirituality as an important dimension of working with individuals and communities, the dimension of spirituality has not been included or fully developed as an integral component of community development practices. A literature survey clearly indicated that, though traditionally the key role-players in the field of social development have been community and social work practitioners in faith-based organisations and churches alike, little or no attention is paid to spirituality in current community development literature and practice (Ver Beek, 2003:31). Confronted with this deficiency, in this study the researcher argued for a convergence of the three disciplines of (1) social work community development, (2) the newly emerging discipline of spirituality and (3) practical theology. Since practical theology recognises both the fields of spirituality and community development as basis for their praxis focusing on poverty and suffering, justice and liberation, it was further asserted that the field of practical theology offers a home for the development of an integrated framework for community development. Thus the goal of the study was threefold: - To theorise the inter-relationship between spirituality, theology and community development, building a triangular theoretical construct between the disciplines of social work, spirituality and practical theology. - To explore the practice of transforming people and communities through incorporating a spiritual dimension into an integrated community development approach. - To propose a praxis framework for the incorporation of spirituality in community development. An inter-disciplinary action research design was utilised to follow a cyclical process consisted or a preliminary literature search, and a field study which involved ‘on site’ visits (village walks) in the pilot and two sample communities, healing retreats and capacity building worksessions. Subsequently, an in-depth literature study on the topics of spirituality, community development and transformation as covered in the disciplines of social work and practical theology, was undertaken. The findings indicated spirituality as source of survival and hope; at the heart of community development (and therefore a legitimate focus of the action research project) and lastly as source of renewal for community development practitioners. Other key findings were the centrality of relationships and transformation; and the importance of a radical shifting of the focus from previous top-down problem-/project-/programme-centred models to unlocking the potential interconnectedness/relationship between God, people and creation as the core substance of participative, transformational development. These findings were utilised in the proposal for a relational praxis framework for community transformation.