In this Master's dissertation, I would like to explore a symbolic reading of John 11 (The raising of Lazarus) from the perspective of the church's mission to bring about the liberation of the poor. I believe that as one does so, one might discover that in the Gospel writer's original intention, the figure of Lazarus may never have been intended as a literal historical person, but rather as a symbolic representation of the poor, the marginalized and the oppressed. Such a reading of John 11 might throw new light on the Fourth Gospel's understanding of Jesus and his mission. In doing so, I believe that John 11 might become a foundational text to guide and motivate committed Christian mission in favour of the poor. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M. Th. (Missiology)

This thesis looks at Blessed are the Poor?, a document presented to the General Synod of the Scottish Episcopal Church that sought to outline Liberation Theology to the Church. In response to this the Synod voted £1,000,000 of its resources to be used specifically in projects in the poorest parts of Scotland. The thesis outlines those projects and the way in which they sought to embody the "Option for the Poor". The thesis closes by looking at whether Blessed are the Poor? faithfully represented Liberation Theology and the "Option"; whether the projects represented that theology and concluding that they did not, recognises that it is the nature of both the "Option" and the institutional Church that such a task could never be achieved. In order to understand the pastoral project this thesis outlines the historical development of Liberation Theology after the Second Vatican Council and in Latin America with particular emphasis on the "Option for the Poor". This thesis proceeds to look at the development of an "Option for the Poor" in the work of Gustavo Gutiérrez, the leading Liberation Theologian. The critiques of that work from the Vatican, Pablo Richard and Hugo Assmann are then considered. Gutiérrez’s works are used to develop a theological matrix that identifies the essential elements of the “Option for the Poor”. Having considered the notion of the "Option for the Poor" the thesis proceeds to look at how the "Option" was taken forward in the Churches in Britain before focussing on the specific response of the Scottish Episcopal Church. The matrix is used as a tool to assess whether the various parts of the response truly reflected the “Option for the Poor”.

This study concerns the contribution that the church can make to small businesses in Zimbabwe through the development of an appropriate holistic training programme for entrepreneurs. Through a case study on the situation in Masvingo undertaken through participant observation and interviews with various role players, this thesis first identifies the fundamental reasons that lead to the lack of viability of the small businesses in Zimbabwe. To develop a response for the church, this study adopts a three pronged approach. Firstly, the theological basis for freedom is laid through a reading of four biblical stories: the creation story, the Exodus story, the prophets' story and the Messianic story. It is argued that these stories can influence and challenge the church to be meaningfully engaged in a freedom centred development process that can foster the freedoms and values that small businesses need in order to grow and flourish. Secondly, Amartya Sen's theory of freedom as development was engaged in a bid to find an interface between economic and development theory and the theological vision of freedom for socio-economic freedom in Zimbabwe. Thirdly, having established a linkage between a theoretical and a theological essence for freedom the research then examined the role the church can play in enhancing the freedoms for the operators of small businesses in Zimbabwe. The study suggests a freedom-centred entrepreneurial training model that is based on Paulo Freire's dialogical education model. A formal proposal of the key elements of such a training programme is explored. The study recognises that the socio-economic situation in Zimbabwe continues to deteriorate so rapidly that all research seems out of date; but it has proceeded with the hope that when the economic situation improves this study would become an important tool through which the church can begin to contribute to development and the revival of small businesses in Zimbabwe. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2007.

This thesis discusses issues relating to development, sin and salvation. It examines the development visions of the Millennium Declaration and NEPAD Documents and compares them with the values of the Kingdom of God. It identifies some lessons from the Millennium Declaration and NEPAD Documents, and the Kingdom of God for the Union Baptist Church of Mozambique. These lessons are to help the denomination as it involves itself in the mission of the Kingdom of God in the community in Mozambique. The thesis argues that there is a relationship between the visions of the Millennium Declaration and the NEPAD Documents, and the values of the Kingdom of God on a number of issues such as the issues of sickness, orphans, vulnerability, gender inequality, poverty, the poor, hunger, unemployment, oppression, exploitation, wars, crime, violence against women and children, injustice and corruption. The Kingdom of God is about love, health, well-being for all, care, justice, unity and solidarity; harmony, life, peace, freedom, restoration, acceptance, righteousness, community, and salvation that includes both spiritual and physical salvation of the whole person both now in this life before death and after death. However, the thesis argues that the eschatological aspect of the Kingdom of God helps us see that sin is deeply rooted in human life, and even our best efforts at development will not rid the world of sin. The Church therefore has to remind society of this deeper sin, and to proclaim the gospel of the forgiveness of sins, while struggling with the evidence of that sin in poverty, sickness, injustice and violence. The church, especially the Union Baptist Church of Mozambique, has to be a key player in striving for Kingdom values. The church is called to holistic and integral mission. It should take a leading role in the issues that concern our people and society today, because that is doing the will of God. The commandment to love our neighbour as we love ourselves has to be expressed through our participation in integral mission, which is concerned with all human beings and all God's creation. The shalom of the Kingdom has to be experienced by all, and the church must be the means through which shalom is realised. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of KwaZulu- Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004.

The environmental crisis and the poverty crisis, are among the major challenges the Church in Zambia is facing. In this work I argue that poverty and the ecological crises are interrelated. However, a major problem has been that many programmes carried on by the Churches or church-based organizations seem to focus on poverty alleviation not recognizing the linkage between poverty and the ecological crisis. For this reason, this study represents the situation of poverty in Zambia and indicates its links to the environmental crisis. The aim of this dissertation is to remind the Free Methodist Church in Zambia and the Church in Zambia in general, that as Christians we are mandated to respond to these social issues of poverty and ecological degradation. We have the theoretical and theological contributions necessary to address the above two challenges, if we are keen to transform and build up the community we are ministering to. What is needed is to put into practice our beliefs. I argue that unless adequate environmental awareness is carried out, and that Christians understand the relationship between poverty and the ecological crisis we will not manage to break the cycle of poverty in the community. The Church efforts to carry out environmental awareness based on biblical and theological foundation teachings are a unique contribution that Christians can offer to respond to the earth crisis as well as to contribute to poverty eradication. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004.

Since independence in 1964, Zambia in general and the Copperbelt Province in particular have largely depended on the mono-economy based on copper mining. Around the 1970s the copper prices started falling causing the mining industry to collapse leading to economic stagnation. Efforts to revive the economy, such as the Structural Adjustment Programme implemented since the late 1980s have not brought about well-being for the people of the Copperbelt. As a result the government of the Republic of Zambia decided to launch an economic diversification programme for the Copperbelt province whose main aim is to seek and implement alternative economic activities that would accelerate economic growth thereby improving people's living conditions on the Copperbelt. This thesis proposes that in order to overcome poverty and improve people's living conditions, we need to shift our policy and practice from free market economic growth centred approaches, to shalom. The shift is based on the argument that development seen through the lenses of free market economic growth alone has not sustained life; instead it has contributed to environmental degradation and poverty creation in Zambia and the Copperbelt Province in particular. The thesis argues that shalom is an authentic development paradigm. This argument is based on three fundamental integral parts of shalom namely creation, people and justice. In order to bring about comprehensive well-being for people there is a need to a) appreciate creation as a phenomenon with its own integrity. It should not be destroyed for selfish economic ends; b) give pre-eminence to people as free agents who could participate in creating their own destiny based on their capacities and social conditionalities; and c) ensure social justice as a necessary condition for human relations and economic dispensation. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004.

This thesis is an evaluation of the members of the missionary religious Congregation of the Holy Spirits' understanding of their mission to the poor in the Dioceses of Bethlehem and Durban in South Africa. The Congregation of the Holy Spirit was founded on 27th May, 1703, Feast of Pentecost. A group of poor clerical students knelt before the statue of the Black Virgin of Paris (Our Lady of Deliverance) in the Church of St. Etienne-des-Gres. Their friend and leader was Poullart des Places. This small group of young men consecrated themselves to the Holy Spirit so marking the foundation of the Congregation. In the year 1848 some forty missionaries of the Congregation of the Holy Heart of Mary founded by Francis Libermann in 1841 were integrated into the Congregation of the Holy Spirit. From its foundation, the mission of the Congregation has always been the "evangelization of the poor" (Luke 4:18). For the founders, the poor meant those who were oppressed and marginalized among whom were the poor students and slaves in the colonies. My particular concern, however, is to evaluate the members of the Holy Spirits' understanding of their mission to the poor in the Dioceses of Bethlehem and Durban in South Africa. How do Spiritans in these two dioceses understand or interpret "the poor" whom they serve? How does this contemporary South African Spiritan understanding of the poor match with that of the founders or constitution of the Congregation? My response to these questions is an affirmation. In the evaluation, we will discover that the poor in the dioceses of Bethlehem and Durban include those who are unemployed, HIV/AIDS patients, orphans, children and women who are abused, refugees / asylum seekers, street children and many others. In summary, it is noted that the poor are those who lack physical necessities, socially oppressed and spiritually poor. In faithfulness to the intuition of the founders, it is observed that Spiritans in both Bethlehem and Durban Dioceses are attempting to be at the service of the poor. They are serving the poor through the proclamation of the Word, administration of the Sacraments, visitation of people in their own homes, attending to those who are infected and affected by HIV/AIDS pandemic, promoting the values of the Kingdom of God through justice and peace ministries and finally, Spiritans are working among the refugees, prisoners and hostel dwellers. Looking at these Spiritan ministries, it is noted that their choices of works are in accordance with the vision of the founders a well as what is in the Spiritan Rule of Life or constitution. Spiritans in both Bethlehem and Durban perceive their vocation as being at the service of these people. However, as religious, there are other elements which should be taken into consideration, such as prayer, community life and missionary spirituality. These are essential elements in the life of the members of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit. In general, the interviews show a lack of community life among members of the Congregation. This lack of community life affects prayer life as well. Other important elements include the need to revisit the idea of education and recovery of prophetic dimension of the Congregation where its members are always at the frontier situations. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2007.

This thesis is a search for the relationship between the church and SMMEs in the Tswaing Municipality, in the North West Province. It concerns the role of the church in supporting SMMEs in such a way that they benefit the whole community instead of individuals, thus contributing towards the building of the economy in selected areas of rural Tswaing. The selected areas are Khunwana, Atamelang, Manamolela and Gannalaagte/Vrischgewaagd. It is written in the context of the church that has come to understand that ministry to the poor is never complete without dealing with wealth creation, and in recognition of the fact that the church can offer alternative economic values. Small business development and support in rural communities is seen to be a key factor in the building of the community economy. It is argued that rural economies have generally collapsed due to various factors. First the apartheid policies which displaced communities from areas where agricultural ventures were thriving to areas that were not suitable for subsistence farming. Second was rural urban migration which caused some Tswaing community members to go to cities to find work, leaving behind elderly people and youth who could no longer or were not willing to live off the land. Whilst in the cities such migrants were marginalized and remained jobless. Research findings indicate that the Tswaing community have assets and entitlements that could be harnessed by the church and other stakeholders like Government and big business, using Kretzmann and McKnight’s approach to community development; that of building the community from the inside out to enhance the economy. Four areas of involvement have been identified for the church (i) engaging the three tiers of government by advocacy for small businesses and ensuring implementation of policy; (ii) promotion of development and support for SMMEs and (iii) that the church sets up its own development project. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2009.

This thesis concerns the role that the church can play in alleviating poverty in Black rural communities in South Africa, through a case study ofthe Thaba'Nchu community in the Free State Province. The thesis argues that the policies of racial segregation of the apartheid era impacted very strongly on the Black communities in our country. Blacks were dispossessed, marginalized and suffered greatly. It is further argued that the New Dispensation after 1994 did very little to ensure that the poor in places like Thaha'Nchu enjoyed a meaningful standard of life. Poverty has continued to be a large factor in the lives of the rural Black South Africans. This situation obliges the church according to its calling to make a difference in the lives of the rural poor communities such as in Thaba'Nchu. It is argued that the Church does have a contribution to make in development. When poverty and unemployment have entrenched themselves in the community, the Church locally and ecumenically have the capacity and the potential to wage war against the scourge. To combat poverty, a clearly drawn programme of action needs to be formulated. This research proposes a two-pronged strategy where first, hunger gets addressed and second, sustainable income generating projects are initiated to empower the poor. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2002.

The genocide of April 1994 left the Rwandan society completely ruined and the survivors totally disoriented with numerous problems ranging from material deprivation to bodily and psychological injuries. As in other conflicts, especially in Africa, women and children were the most affected by the Rwandan genocide; consequently Rwanda has a sizeable number of widows and orphans. After the genocide, Rwanda witnessed an influx of many non-governmental organizations, which came with the aim to help the Rwandans in general, and genocide survivors in particular, as part of a program to put the Rwandan society back on its feet. Rwanda claims to be overwhelmingly a Christian nation, which theoretically gives the Christian community in Rwanda a prominent hand in all efforts of rebuilding the Rwandan society. This work therefore, is a Case Study, which seeks to investigate the role of Christian Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in responding to the needs of genocide widows residing in Kigali-Ville province-Rwanda. The study thus aims to assess efforts of the above-cited Christian NGOs and highlights their success and shortcomings in the light of a Christian model of understanding and responding to human needs. The investigation also surveys the background to the genocide. It focuses on the interpretation of the history of the people of Rwanda, the role impact of the colonial rule and Christian missionaries, and the role of the civil war of early 1990s. The study also investigates the plight of genocide widows from fives angles: economic loss, personal and social relationships, bodily injuries, psychological damage and spiritual welfare. The assessment was carried out through the analysis of the data collected mainly from selected Christian NGOs, genocide widows, churches, and written materials. The paradigm used to critically analyze the response of Christian NGOs has stemmed out of a body of literature that focuses on Christian response to human need, with particular emphasis on the distinctiveness of the Rwandan context. The findings, conclusion, recommendations of this study are of cardinal significance not only to Christian NGOs operating in Kigali-Ville province but also to other groups involved in the ministry to the needy in other parts of Rwanda and beyond her boundaries. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2005.