The thesis deals with the small church communities and their relations to the religious education - catechesis. Three ideal types of the small church communities are designed: family, parish, non-parish community. The two suitable religious approaches are the shared Christian praxis by T. H. Groome and mystagogy.

This dissertation evaluates the vision of empowering African elites iQ the International Church of Pretoria and suggests the ways to successfully train and empowers these Africans for the positive socio-political transformation of Africa. Such Christian empowering is so complex that it has to deal with the spiritual, psychological, intellectual and/or technical and socio-political aspects of the life of the trainee. After describing the problems that prevent these elites from behaving adequately and the portrait that can facilitate the successful selection of their trainers the dissertation proposes the guidelines of the empowering programmes for different elite groups. In the main the curriculum comprises a four-level conversion component for proper Christian life, and a psychotherapy empowerment coupled with horizontalisation for their liberation from psychological and socio-political evils, and a programme for the selection and the training of the spiritual leaders of the African elites. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M.Th. (Missiology)

This dissertation evaluates the vision of empowering African elites iQ the International Church of Pretoria and suggests the ways to successfully train and empowers these Africans for the positive socio-political transformation of Africa. Such Christian empowering is so complex that it has to deal with the spiritual, psychological, intellectual and/or technical and socio-political aspects of the life of the trainee. After describing the problems that prevent these elites from behaving adequately and the portrait that can facilitate the successful selection of their trainers the dissertation proposes the guidelines of the empowering programmes for different elite groups. In the main the curriculum comprises a four-level conversion component for proper Christian life, and a psychotherapy empowerment coupled with horizontalisation for their liberation from psychological and socio-political evils, and a programme for the selection and the training of the spiritual leaders of the African elites. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M.Th. (Missiology)

[pt] O problema do mal é algo que, infelizmente, está presente na história da humanidade e que afeta o ser humano, independente de sua crença, religião ou cultura. Aliado a isso, podemos considerar o mal como a ferida aberta da teologia e a rocha do ateísmo. No entanto, apesar de sua imbatível presença, esse problema precisa ser combatido através de uma práxis cristã responsável, coerente e obstinada. Dito isto, esta pesquisa, através de uma revisão bibliográfica, tem por objetivo propor uma reflexão coerente e relevante sobre o problema do mal e a presença de um Deus amoroso e bondoso. Sendo assim, para concatenar esses dois fatos, que aparentemente parecem contraditórios, recorreremos à teologia do teólogo alemão Jürgen Moltmann como uma proposta de resistência diante do problema do mal. Para isso, iniciaremos esta pesquisa refletindo sobre o problema do mal numa perspectiva filosófica e teológica cristã, já que o ser humano sempre buscou uma solução racional e/ou teológica para esse problema. Em seguida, nos perguntaremos sobre o lugar de Deus no sofrimento, apresentando a teologia moltmanniana a partir teobiografia do nosso autor, passando pelas teologias da esperança e da cruz, chegando ao exercício da justiça de Deus. Depois dessa etapa, chegaremos a pergunta sobre o lugar do ser humano diante do mal e como ele deve agir na sociedade a partir da teologia moltmanniana. Assim, esperamos que essa reflexão produza um sentimento de inconformidade, resistência e denúncia do ser humano em relação à quantidade de mal e sofrimento experimentados pela sociedade. / [en] The problem of evil is something that, unfortunately, is present in the history of humanity and that affects human beings, regardless of their belief, religion or culture. Allied to this, we can consider evil as the open wound of theology and the rock of atheism. However, despite its unbeatable presence, this problem needs to be tackled through responsible, coherent and obstinate Christian praxis. That said, this research, through a literature review, aims to propose a coherent and relevant reflection on the problem of evil and the presence of a loving and kind God. Therefore, to concatenate these two facts, which apparently seem contradictory, we will resort to the theology of the German theologian Jürgen Moltmann as a proposal of resistance in the face of the problem of evil. For this, we will start this research reflecting on the problem of evil in a Christian philosophical and theological perspective, since the human being has always sought a rational and/or theological solution to this problem. Next, we will ask ourselves about the place of God in suffering, presenting the Moltmannian theology from the theobiography of our author, passing through the theologies of hope and the cross, arriving at the exercise of God s justice. After this stage, we will come to the question about the place of human beings in the face of evil and how they should act in society based on Moltmannian theology. Thus, we hope that this reflection produces a feeling of nonconformity, resistance and denunciation of the human being in relation to the amount of evil and suffering experienced by society.