Masters Degrees (Systematic Theology and Ecclesiology)
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Browsing Masters Degrees (Systematic Theology and Ecclesiology) by browse.metadata.advisor "Van der Walt, Charlene"
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- ItemPatriarchal inscribed bodies : a feminist theological engagement with body and sexuality in the “Worthy Women Movement”(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2016-03-01) Stander, Sunelle; Forster, Dion Angus; Van der Walt, Charlene; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. of Systematic Theology and Ecclesiology.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Gretha Wiid is the female leader of the Worthy Women Movement in South Africa. Wiid‟s discourse promotes female subordination and male headship. Her teachings seem to suggest that when wives submit to their husbands, husbands will be enabled to take back their rightful and God-given position as head of the household. Through a feminist theological lens, Wiid‟s discourse can be categorised according to the following themes: Female submission and male headship; Gender identities; and the female body and sexuality. Despite the oppressive nature of Wiid‟s discourse, with its patriarchal and formenist overtones, the Worthy Women Movement is highly popular and attracts thousands of women to yearly conferences. When approaching the question with regard to the reasons behind the popularity of the movement, the context of a post-apartheid South Africa that is in transition, as well as the intersections that exist between gender, class and race (more specifically whiteness), seem to play a significant role. Although internalised oppression might play a role in the popularity of the movement, themes of patriarchal bargaining can also be detected. With all of these factors taken into consideration, it seems as if Wiid and the followers of the Worthy Women Movement are bargaining with female subordination in exchange for a utopian future of a faithful and loving husband, as well as more stability and security in the post-apartheid South African context.
- ItemPlanetary health in the anthropocene : sharing agency in the body of God(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-03) Greyvenstein, Juanita; Forster, Dion Angus; Van der Walt, Charlene; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. of Systematic Theology and Ecclesiology.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The earth, more-than-human communities, and many marginalised human communities are currently suffering because of the immense strain industrialised societies place on the earth’s life-support systems. Climate change is but one of the symptoms of a planet in peril. A number of earth-system processes are functioning in high risk zones and being fundamentally altered by the impact of society. To signal the changes observed by many scientists in the functioning of the earth, this epoch has been named the Anthropocene. This term is however more than a scientific designation, it disrupts our understanding of the presuppositions on which we have built both environmental and humanistic sciences and it specifically challenges their absolute separation. The Anthropocene as term itself is, however, controversial because it is not without cultural and gender bias. For theology to take up its public and prophetic role, it is necessary to engage with the wide range of disciplines that are defining, characterising and critiquing the Anthropocene. This study engages these disciplines through a specific methodology – through an eco-feminist critique. It shows how an androcentric bias has informed both scientific and religious understandings of the world – leading to a perception of the more-than-human world as inert, mechanic, fully knowable and primarily a human resource. This study suggests that an organic and agentic cosmology – as e.g. defined by Sally McFague in her model of the universe as the body of God, provides a more appropriate religious cosmology that takes the natural sciences and specifically an evolutionary cosmology seriously. I argue that this religious cosmology may offer a framework for ethical reorientation in the time of the Anthropocene. McFague’s theology gives fundamental value to embodied existence. It is through the matter of our bodies that we experience life and do theology. In this perspective it is also through our bodies that we share in the body of God, who is “transcendently immanent” through the physical processes of the universe. The doctrine of incarnation is both complexified and radicalised to apply to all fleshly bodies. To further understand how entities relate to one another in McFague’s model of the universe as the body of God, her conceptualisation of agency is explored. Masculinist formulations of agency as autonomous efficacy are shown to have cost the bodies of women and the earth dearly. To think more democratically and organically about being agentic beings, Bruno Latour’s argument of “sharing agency” is explored. When we realign human history with the common creation story we begin to see that humans are not the only actors in this world. An agential view of all matter allows us to articulate new orientations between the call for humans to be heroic earth stewards and the call to return to “wild untouched nature.” Sharing agency brings us to the humble acknowledgement that we are not the sole authors of bodily life but that our bodies are intertwined and implicated by the lives of other more-than-human bodies and the body of God.
- ItemTelling her story : constructing a historiography of mrs Alice Brink – Afrikaner woman in mission(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-03) Botha, Bianca; Muller, Retief; Van der Walt, Charlene; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. of Systematic Theology and Ecclesiology.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study is an exploration of the life and history of Alice Mabel Brink, a woman who dedicated her life to the Dutch Reformed Church’s missionary endeavours in Nigeria in the early twentieth century, but who has been overlooked in the authoritative histories of Dutch Reformed mission in the past. In accordance with a new approach to history and church history, that focuses on uncovering untold stories and unknown dimensions of the past, this study seeks to tell the untold story of Alice Brink. It is an attempt to give a new perspective on a history that has previously only been viewed from the dominant, white, male perspective. This is done by reading and analysing four diaries (from 1913-1939) and one unpublished manuscript written by Alice Brink, and telling her story according to those writings. This historiography is constructed through the lens of feminist theory and therefore is concerned with analysing and exposing instances of oppression in Alice Brink’s story, as well as celebrating her flourishing and acts of resistance to the dominant order. Telling and listening to this story, however, also requires a general understanding of the contexts in which it takes place. Chapter 2 of this study, therefore, explores the context of early twentieth century mission, while chapter 3 discusses the context of gender and being a woman in early twentieth century South Africa. Chapter 4 contains the story of Alice Brink, constructed from my reading of her diaries. In chapter 5 a few themes are discussed, which emerged from my reading and telling of Alice Brink’s story. Chapter 6 presents a general conclusion regarding Alice Brink’s story and the themes discussed.