This dissertation describes a movement I am calling Radical Social Activism that flourished among Catholic women between the years 1920-1960. The Catholic women participating did not abandon their Church's teachings on women but worked within the androcentric Catholic Church to achieve some lasting results as Radical Social Activists. This Radical Social Activism worked in the lives of Dorothy Day, Maisie Ward, and Dorothy Dohen, three women who retained a firm attachment to the Catholic faith and who would not align themselves with the incipient feminism of the times, but who, nevertheless, strove for social change and justice without regard for political or social recognition. Their work was radical because they were not complacent with the status quo and worked to change it. Their work was social because they ignored Church politics and reached outside their individual egos. And their work was definitely action oriented in that they practiced their beliefs rather than simply preach them. Few Catholic women were involved with the early women's Suffragist movement; the overwhelming majority did not participate in mainstream feminism, in part due to their immigrant background. Women stepped out of the family setting and into active roles in a society that increasingly measured success in terms of economic well being. These role changes produced trade offs in terms of how the family was viewed and it de-emphasized society's spiritual well being. Some of the issues and solutions for women in modern society collided with moral and ethical teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. I have selected three such women who responded with Radical Social Activism, and participated in the American Catholic Church, however, they did not participate in the general feminism of the times. These women, Dorothy Day, Maisie Ward, and Dorothy Dohen, represented in their Radical Social Activism, a feminism of the spirit, as it were, while still remaining within the structure and Magisterium of the Church proper. As women moved into secular society, they made compromises concerning their duties and responsibilities to family. Issues of divorce, birth control, and abortion became popular remedies that helped limit family duties and responsibilities. However, the Catholic Church has always viewed these as problematical and theological challenges to Catholic teaching and has consistently refuted the expediency of these solutions on moral grounds. Yet, if the Church's view on women limits women as feminists have claimed, it did not stop Day, Dohen, and Ward from participating and changing the secular world around them, while still remaining loyal to the teachings of the Catholic Church. / Christian Spirituality, Church History & Missiology / D.Th. (Church History)

no abstract available / Practical Theology / M. Th. (Pastoral Therapy)

The study focuses on the important issue of young adult female sexuality in an age of HIV/AIDS. The research question explores the influence of the parental home, the church and young black women's own belief on their sexual behaviour. Sexuality is influenced by societal voices that override religious and parental voices. Parents are hesitant to speak out, the church is burdened with an antiquated and unworkable sexual ethics and the young women's belief is overpowered by social discourses. Male domination and infidelity exacerbate female vulnerability and contribute to the powerlessness of young women in sexual relationships. Feminist theology puts forward an embodied theology that demands integrated embodiment and full humanity for women. This can be achieved when relationships are mutual, reciprocal and empowering. This study proposes an accountable sexual ethics that will renew and recreate the lives and relationships of young people in a confusing and perilous environment. / Sys Theology & Theol Ethics / MTH (SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY)

In the „coloured‟ community of Scottsville in the Western Cape, the historical legacy of political violence and abuse, combined with the current social hierarchies of violence, control and abuse, have serious consequences for Scottsville‟s young people. These traumas and the associated discourses create a culture of fear, distrust, hopelessness, humiliation and silence amongst the majority of the young people. I have employed feminist-poststructuralist analyses in order to grasp the complex nature of the challenges of „coloured‟ poverty. Foucault‟s analyses of power relations also offered this research ways to critique pastoral power. Because of Foucault‟s analyses, I became aware that „coloured‟ people‟s experience of poverty and invisibility could not be separated from my own experience of the power of privilege and visibility. The operation of unjust power relations in the „coloured‟ community therefore compelled me to use my education and privileges to work for the restitution of the voices and of relational and physical possibilities in the lives of „coloured‟ young people. What started out as a research project became a cross-cultural journey of reparation and of my own humanisation. I argue that the praxis of embodied solidarity with the „other‟ is the challenge that poverty ultimately poses to people of privilege and to the ways in which theology defines itself. In doing the work of reparation I was supported by the relational theme of solidarity with the marginalised provided by a feminist theology of praxis. The knowledges of the women in the community in particular served as resources of faith. The research methodologies I used in this research combined the practices of narrative therapy, creative writing, mentoring and drama. The purpose of these methodologies was to invite young people into various meaning-making processes which enabled them to become the agents of their own lives and of a culture of possibility. Derrida‟s work on deconstruction and the aporia provided this research with a framework for the theory of possibility. Through the methodologies of networking and advocacy, other people have joined us in going beyond the physical and relational limitations of poverty to create possibilities for the young people and their schools. / Practical theology / D. Th. (Practical Theology)

Philosophy, Practical & Systematic Theology / D.Th.(Systematic Theology)

Title in English and Afrikaans / Summaries in English and Afrikaans / In this dissertation an attempt has been made to investigate the means by which God is at work in our world. The researcher has acted on the assumption that God rules in our world, but investigates the content of such a belief The question whether God acts in our world from a basis of control, or from a motivation of shared interest is currently brought to the surface. Instrumental is the use of Critical Theory to investigate the above mentioned problem. With this instrument oppressive perspectives (paternalistic views) are identified and unmasked as well as new perspectives (stewardship) implemented. Biblical stewardship seems to be a perspective on how God wants to use the local church to assist in his plan of salvation for those in need. Authority with others rather over others seems to be the stewardship strategy God wants us to participate in. / In hierdie verhandeling word ondersoek ingestel na die wyse waarop God in die wereld betrokke is (Missio Dei). Daar word uitgegaan van die veronderstelling dat God in die wereld regeer en wil hierdie navorsing poog om te verstaan hoe God in die wereld regeer. Die problematiek wat deurgaans in hierdie studie hanteer word, hou verband met die vraag of God vanuit 'n beheerstelsel (pantokratiese stelsel) in die wereld betrokke is en of sy werksaamhede eerder vanuit 'n bestuurstelsel (oikonomos) verstaan moet word. In 'n poging om bogenoemde probleem op te los word gebruik gemaak van die Kritiese Teorie. Met hierdie instrument word enersyds gepoog om onderdrukkende perspektiewe (soos God as Pantokrator) te weerle, wat onderdrukkende ideologie instand hou. Andersyds word die Kritiese Teorie as instrument gebruik om alternatiewe te ondersoek (soos God as bestuurder van ons heil) wat nuwe perspektiewe daar kan stel. Bybelse rentmeesterskap hou gevolglik daarmee verband dat God die mens/kerk medeverantwoordelik maak in bogenoemde bestuursproses ten einde God se Missio Dei deelnemend te bestuur. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M.Th.(Missiology)

One of the presuppositions of the present research is that readers and their contexts play a significant role in the interpretation of biblical texts. The key text of this thesis is Proverbs 31: 10-31 and the main readers are African women in a kyriarchal South African (Northern Sotho) context. Given their context of a multiplicity of oppressive forces ( racism, sexism, classism and African culture), how can these women read Proverbs 31: 10-31 appropriately with a view to their liberation? The researcher proposes a new woman's liberationist perspective, a Bosadi perspective, a perspective committed amongst others, to the African-ness of the African woman in South Africa. The question is: If Proverbs 31:10-31 is read from a Bosadi (Womanhood) perspective, how will the Northern Sotho women in a South African context find the text - a text emerging from a kyriarchal Hebraic culture? Will they find it to be oppressive or liberative or will it be found to be containing both elements? The present researcher, like many reformist women liberation biblical scholars (cf some feminists and womanists ), argues that though the Bible emerged from patriarchal cultures, and contains elements oppressive to women, it also has liberative elements. Through the use of socio-critical hermeneutics, reception criticism and historical-criticism, evidence supporting this came to light as the present researcher re-read Proverbs 31:10-31 from a Bosadi critical perspective. It is therefore argued that when the Bible was used by the previous proponents of apartheid to subordinate people of other races, Black Theologians re-read the Bible from a Black perspective and used it for the racial liberation of Black South Africans. Likewise, an average South African woman, particularly an African woman, is basically a victim of male interpreters who use the Bible to subordinate women. It is the task of all African women to take the responsibility upon themselves to use appropriate tools in re-reading the Bible in order to discover that the Bible does not only alienate them, it is also the liberating word; the word which makes more sense to them because of their relationship with the Word which became flesh (Jn 1:1). / D. Litt. et Phil. (Biblical Studies)

Assignment (M. Div.)--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: HIV/AIDS has a great impact on lives of all South Africans – but especially on women. HIV/AIDS also presents the greatest threat and danger to the ones living in poverty and without sufficient education and independence in relationships –that mostly includes South African women. In a first chapter I will discuss the connection between poverty and HIV/AIDS as well as between HIV/AIDS and the status of women in South Africa. In a second chapter I want to discuss a feminist ecclesiology of memory and hope and how it is presented by the catholic feminist theologian Elizabeth A. Johnson. In a third chapter I want to use the feminist ecclesiology of memory and hope to link it with the context of South Africa. In that last part I want to give a framework of the effect that a feminist ecclesiology of memory and hope could have on the South African society. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: HIV/VIGS het 'n groot impak op die lewe van alle Suid-Afrikaners - veral op die lewens van vroue. HIV/VIGS is ook een van die grootste bedreigings en gevare vir mense wat in armoede leef en geen toegang het tot voldoende onderrig en onafhanklikheid in verhoudings nie. Vroue word weereens die meeste geimpakteer. In die eerste hoofstuk sal ek hierdie verhouding tussen armoede en HIV/VIGS bespreek sowel as tussen HIV/AIDS en die status van vroue in Suid-Afrika. In die tweede hoofstuk wil ek die boek aangaande ’n feministiese ekklesiologie deur die katolieke feministiese teoloog Elizabeth A. Johnson bespreek. In die derde hoofstuk wil ek hierdie feministiese ekklesiologie van herinnering en hoop gebruik en dit toepas op die konteks van Suid-Afrika. In die laaste hoofstuk wil ek 'n raamwerk oor die effek wat hierdie feministiese ekklesiologie van herinnering en hoop op die Suid-Afrikaanse gemeenskap kan hê, weergee.

This study argues that literary and womanist perspectives on the book of. Esther can be used as resources for gender-social transformation in the South African Indian Pentecostal community. It maintains that Biblical scholarship cannot be confined only to the academy, while the Bible is used in the community to oppress women. When culture and interpretation both collude in the oppression of women, putting their lives at risk, it is imperative, this study argues, for those working in the field of liberation hermeneutics to not restrict their work to the academy. Hence, this study seeks to find ways to read the Bible in ways that liberate rather than oppress. The dissertation is divided into two sections. An examination of the ways in which ideology, plot, narrative time and characterization elucidate the theme of power in the narrative of Esther, form the first section of the dissertation. Each chapter of the first section focuses on the literary details of the text, but always with a hermeneutic of transformation in mind. In the second section, an analysis of how these critical interpretations contribute to the process of gender-social transformation is undertaken. This is done through a process of an analysis of a series of Bible studies conducted by the author with South African Indian Pentecostal women from the Durban area. Issues of representation and the scholar's role in the process of the transformation and conscientization of the community are also examined in this second section. The conclusion is a reflection of the implications of this study both to the academy and to the community. It reiterates that the collaboration between scholars and the community is a vital one, and the challenge that remains is for more organic intellectuals to use the opportunities which they have been given through their privileged access to education, to empower those in the community who have afforded them the opportunity. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2003. / The National Research Foundation (NRF) and The Eastern Seaboard of Tertiary Institutions (ESATI).

This study investigates the paid and unpaid work experiences of Indian Christian women in Pietermaritzburg as they would inform a framework for a gendered theology of work. Intersecting gender and development theory with theologies of work, the study asserts that gender, particularly as it relates to understandings of what constitutes "work", has been neglected by theologians. In order to better understand the "work" roles of women, gender and development theorist, Caroline Moser (1993) has provided a framework. She asserts that women‘s work roles can be categorized in three important ways namely, productive work, reproductive work and community work. The gender-based division of labour has contributed to socially ascribed gender roles that cause women to be primarily responsible for monotonous, exasperating, tiring, time-consuming and economically unrewarding activities. Men on the other hand occupy "productive" roles that are economically rewarding and community roles that are usually seen as prestigious. Similar roles carried out by women are often not rewarded and are undervalued. Due to the social construction of differentiated gender roles, tasks associated with the reproduction of society fall almost entirely to women. Moser‘s (1993) conceptualization of women‘s roles is useful in this study, highlighting the different types of work that Indian women are involved in. However, this gendered analysis has not been prevalent in existing theologies of work. Rather, these focus solely on doctrinal, class or ethics perspectives. Furthermore, it is argued that these theologies of work are developed without the first-hand knowledge of the experiences, struggles and challenges that workers themselves encounter. This is particularly the case for women workers. In order to investigate women‘s work experiences in this study, extensive fieldwork was carried with a group of Indian Christian women in Pietermaritzburg. Four research tools, namely a questionnaire, a 24-hour time study diary, semi structured interviews and focus group discussions were developed and employed to better understand their work roles. The findings revealed that Indian women continue to remain confined to these roles of productive, reproductive and community work because of the impact of culture as well as religion. While some Indian women have entered the productive market and are financial contributors to households, they still assume the roles that are culturally seen as 'women‘s work‘. In addition, their theological understandings and Biblical interpretations of work have resulted in women remaining acquiescent to such roles which are often depicted as 'the ideal woman‘. In a context where women find themselves immersed in roles of production, reproduction and community work, it is crucial that theological reflection engages these work experiences which are intertwined with women‘s faith practices. This study is an attempt to do this as it offers a framework that points toward a gendered theology of work. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2012.