Doctoral Degrees (Systematic Theology and Ecclesiology)

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    In search of congruence between confessional theology and church polity discourse : a church judicial inquiry in light of the reception of the Belhar Confession in the Dutch Reformed family of churches
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2024-03 ) Pekeur, Andre Herman; Mahokoto, Sipho; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. of Systematic Theology and Ecclesiology.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study searches for the relevance between and the parallelism of Confessional Theology and church polity discourse. The premise of the researcher is that the DRC family1 should come to grips with an understanding of Reformed confessions of faith as expressions of what a body of Christians believe in common. Reformed confessions are widely accepted but their authority is rooted in Scripture, and it is important to remember that a confession cannot exceed the Word of God. When we look at churches and confessions it is important to note that confessions can say a lot about the church’s integrity, identity, and faithfulness. We must also keep in mind that confessions are relevant to a specific time and place. One of the important premises of the research is that confessions or creeds are often born in difficult times when the true gospel is at stake and the church needs to affirm what it believes. It needs a faith community to confess and act to protect God’s honour. The study will look at how Reformers of the past and present view confession and how this has impacted the Reformed tradition. It will focus on the origin of confessions, and the specific time, context, and history that impacted the confessions. In this study, it is clear that the origin of confessions, the status confessionis, is an important aspect of a confession. So, the study will investigate what urges a church to declare a confession. The Dutch Reformed Mission Church (DRMC) was established in 1881 and grew from the mission endeavours of the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC). It is very important to note that on a church judicial2 level the DRMC was subordinate to and to a large extent directly governed by the DRC. The study includes research of primary documents reporting how the DRMC was initially established and governed, as well as how separate development was later enforced by the DRC. These documents include acts and agendas of the DRMC Synod. The DRMC was a racially segregated church for people of mixed descent, in which the power resided with the Mission Commission of the DRC. I will argue that the apartheid laws impacted the church and how the DRMC and ecumenical partners struggled with apartheid. Out of this struggle in South Africa, the racial segregation and injustice towards God’s people, WARC declared a status confessionis, which in turn led to the DRMC reaching a kairos moment and declaring apartheid a heresy. This ultimately led to also declaring a status confessionis at the DRMC Synod of 1982 and drafting the Belhar Confession. The study will then attend to the advocacy, reception, and protestation of the Belhar Confession. History shows that the church was stiving for a position of ecclesial autonomy and the acknowledgment of its autonomy by the DRC. In April 1994, the DRMC and the Dutch Reformed Church in Africa (DRCA) united in forming the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (URCSA). This church has as its confessional foundation the Belgic Confession of Faith, the Canons of Dordt, and the Heidelberg Catechism, as well as the Belhar Confession. The church order of URCSA is built on these confessions and in particular on the Belhar Confession. The DRCA and Reformed Church in Africa (RCA) were reluctant to accept the Belhar Confession, but eventually they added it to their confessional basis. URCSA and the DRC agreed to the Memorandum of Understanding that paved the way for accepting the Provisional Order.
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    A theology of spatial justice in relation to land in South African History : 1856–2020. With reference to three South African congregations
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2024-03 ) Mlambo, Ntandoyenkosi Nomkhosi Nokuphiwa; Mbaya, Henry; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. of Systematic Theology and Ecclesiology.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The history of South African land contains power imbalances, conflict, and dispossession. In the history of South Africa, this power imbalance is entrenched socially, economically and spatially. Also, the institutional church, at the beginning of the colonial endeavour, was intricately connected to the imperial force that built these unequal dynamics. Therefore, the institutional church is historically linked to the framework that brought about this systemic spatial oppression in South Africa. Also, there has been limited theological thinking on the issue of justice in land. There is thus a need to deepen and develop theologies on the issue of land. This study aims to use history in some churches and wider South Africa to develop a theology of spatial justice. The study discusses the concepts of space, justice and spatial justice. This aims to show the conceptual frameworks and their developments around these concepts. In addition, an overall history of land in South Africa is provided and an overview of historical land ownership by churches is also provided. Moreover, the study discusses and analyses historical acts in spaces through church case studies in order to develop a possible theology of spatial justice.
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    The recognition of queer bodies in the URCSA : towards a hermeneutic of hospitality
    (2023-10-31) Davids, Hanzline Rudolf; Jones, Chris; Forster, Dion Angus; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. of Systematic Theology and Ecclesiology
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa, an African Reformed church, is standing at a crossroad about whether to recognise queer bodies in the denomination or not. Focusing on the URCSA as a case study, this dissertation employed queer theology as a theological framework, utilising the four main sources of doing theology: Scripture, tradition, reason, and experience. Using these sources in no specific order, this study starts with reason, which delves into the philosophical and theological meanings of recognition and a hermeneutic of hospitality. Subsequently, the study revisits reason, examining the discourses that impede the recognition of queer bodies within the URCSA. The first discourse under study is the compounding impact of heteropatriarchal ideologies of biological essentialism and gender complementarity. The second discourse centres on the politics of biblical authority and queer interpretation. Lastly, using a queer theological approach, this study turned to tradition by identifying and analysing the theological decisions regarding homosexuality from 2005 to 2022, theological reports on Homosexuality (2008) (URCSA, 2008b), the Traditional View on Homosexuality (2016) (URCSA, 2018), and the Belhar Confession. In this exploration, it becomes evident that bodies transcend the confines of biological essentialism and gender complementarity, and that a queer theological approach to Scripture open doors to readings and interpretations of recognition. Ultimately, this investigation concludes that the identification and acknowledgement of queer bodies within the URCSA should find its foundation in the Triune God. Guided by the recognition of the Triune God, a hermeneutic of hospitality directs the process of identifying discourses that contribute to misrecognition.
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    The missionary women in the Huguenot Seminary : a case study in vocational formation through education
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2023-03) Pascal, Pienaar; Muller, Retief; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. of Systematic Theology and Ecclesiology.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This dissertation is written with the goal of examining the influences and motivations behind the decisions made by some of the 19th-century women at the Huguenot Seminary in Wellington, South Africa to follow a missionary vocation. The Huguenot Seminary and the environment which it created had a substantial impact on the vocational formation of the women who attended the institution. However, when one examines the primary accounts of these women, for the most part only spiritual motivations for becoming missionaries are given. In the light of this, this study seeks to “uncover” the largely overlooked history of the Seminary as well as the South African missionary women who studied there. An investigation into these women’s vocational development is needed to construct a more nuanced and comprehensive image of the influences which motivated them. These include spiritual factors, but are, in fact, comprised of an amalgamation of factors both secular and religious. In order to achieve this, this dissertation firstly, after having presented the history of the Huguenot Seminary and the development of missionary interest at the institution, employs a framework to categorise the various identified influencing factors extrapolated from various primary sources, for easier further examination. The study then engages with Social Cognitive Career Theory and Calling Theory. Through this, new perspectives on the various identified influencing factors are brought to the fore. An examination of the spiritual and theological influences on missionary vocational development at the Huguenot Seminary is then presented, as well as an investigation into the way in which these influences coexisted and intertwined with the previously discussed secular impacting elements of the women’s decisions to become missionaries. Finally, the dissertation examines all the preceding information and outcomes of the study from a critical standpoint. Within this critical reflection, identifiable areas of caution with regards to the research as well as proposals for avenues of future research, are presented.
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    Revisiting Pentecostal spiritualities with reference to African traditional religious practices and Pentecostal theologies of prayer in Ghana
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2023-03 ) Buertey, Joseph Ignatius Teye; Hansen, Len; Elorm-Donkor, Lord Abraham; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. of Systematic Theology and Ecclesiology.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study examines prayer as practiced by Pentecostal churches in Ghana and the fact that new Ghanaian prayer practices are developing as variations of Classical Pentecostal Spirituality. The study focuses on Pentecostal Spirituality and theology of prayer while considering these new developments and situating them within an African Traditional spiritual context. It was established that primal, dualistic and causal ATR worldviews also confront many Africans with ideas of a cosmic struggle. Facing the latter challenge has led to adopting practices similar to, or at least influenced by, ATR practices, especially in neo-prophetic churches. Although admittedly, some Ghanaian Pentecostal spiritualities and practices are discontinuous to or broke with ATR worldviews and practices, it is postulated that some also are not or have not done so, particularly regarding prayer. Defining Pentecostal Spirituality as a praxis of integrated beliefs, practices, sensibilities and values, it was argued that Pentecostal Spirituality, with the Holy Spirit as its fulcrum, is particularly clear in its praxis and experiences of prayer. It was, furthermore, held that Pentecostal Spirituality can never be understood without reference to Pentecostal theology and vice versa, as ‘two sides of the same coin’. As such, both Pentecostal Spirituality and theology are discussed in detail. In evaluating Pentecostal theology of prayer, it is also shown that there may be many possible motives behind (Ghanaian) Pentecostal prayer, including fear, threat, uncertainty, joy, need and spiritual desire. Some of these drivers, however, have resulted in a shift from the more experiential Classical Pentecostal model of prayer to one of demand-driven causality – one that includes an increasing element of ‘glossolalic abuse’ that also needs careful theological attention. The Ghanaian Pentecostal theology of prayer is therefore conceptualised as transactionally Christological, spontaneously ‘glossolalic’, lyrically doxological, and ontologically authoritative. An investigation into the emerging neo-prophetic prayer practices revealed that the African worldview of evil and the proponent’s quest for the ‘magicalisation’ of instant results have led to the assimilated neo-prophetic sacramental and transactional ritual prayer evident at the prayer markets via prayer giants who monetise prayer. Refocusing on a theological examination of Pentecostal prayer practices, it was revealed that although the Pentecostal Spirituality of prayer is intended to attract people to and strengthen believers’ relationship with God, emerging prayer practices are mostly driven by fear and uncertainty, resulting in the pursuit of hierarchical, consequential, solution-centred prayers. In light of the findings, the study proposes a four-fold integrated prayer model (a modification of Horton-Clowney’s model) with the introduction of an African worldview as the fourth motive for prayer, whilst upholding that African Pentecostals do not pray driven by one motive but a combination of motives. Therefore, a contextual Pentecostal practice of prayer is proposed based on an ‘ACTS Model’, that takes into account African traditional praxis, the Christocentric Full Gospel, Transactional Nomenclature, and Spirit-centrality.