no abstract available / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M.Th.(Systematic Theology)

Inner healing prayer (IHP) warrants greater practical theological attention. The practice of IHP, most significantly developed by Agnes Sanford, has been described by many of those individuals and ministries that have seen God transform lives through it. This study focuses especially on the models developed by John and Paula Sandford, Leanne Payne, and Ed Smith as representative of IHP. Social constructionism, particularly as it has drawn attention to the significance of narrative, provides a fresh perspective with which to interpret what is taking place in IHP. A theology centred on Jesus' proclamation and demonstration of the in-breaking reign of God combines with social constructionism to suggest that a personal Creator God, who has a privileged perspective on reality, actively joins in the social processes by which we construct our understandings of reality. Interpreting IHP from this social constructionist perspective, this study proposes that IHP can be described as a practice in which God is invited and expected to experientially enter into the social processes by which people construct their reality. Traumatic or hurtful events have often created apparent realities that persons are unable to integrate into the central stories that identify their lives. IHP facilitates an encounter in which God•s loving, forgiving presence is experienced in the midst of such hurtful events allowing a new, more integrated and hopeful, construction of reality. The faith, hope and love of those leading in IHP and the symbolic, metaphorical language contribute to the ability of IHP to affect change at an emotional level, but the central role of the imagination, especially in visualising Jesus' presence, is the most unique and characteristic aspect. This interpretation provides a viewpoint to critique the practice of IHP and suggests some ways that an understanding of God's kingdom might further enhance its practice. A small~scale qualitative interview project offers the opportunity to assess whether this social constructionist interpretation corresponds to the way in which participants in IHP make sense of their experience. It is hoped that the constructionist perspective offered here provides a language that can broaden an understanding of IHP, enhancing dialogue and further research. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / D.Th. (Practical Theology)

Text in English / This research investigated the ability of employees to survive experiences of major career changes and how they managed to build career resilience during the process. Adopting an action research approach, it continues to research the role the church can play in this process, suggesting ways in which the exponents of practical theology, and more specifically, pastoral ministries can extend their role into non- or de-institutionalised areas, becoming industrial or organisational pastoral professionals in their own right. The second research question investigated ways in which career resilience can improve agency in upholding values in the face of the employee exploitation onslaught? A narrative approach was used and discourses of ethics and power were discussed. It was indicated how these could be subjected to a process of deconstruction to create alternative and preferred career stories. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M.Th. (Practical Theology - with specialisation in Pastoral Theraphy)

When a translator gets a new mission, even though he or she has a lot of experience in the subject, there are great responsibilities when it comes to the exactitude of the information in the translation. The translator can be responsible that the reader miscomprehends the text if the translation is perceived as strange in the target culture. Proper names are very close to cultural differences and, as such, are quite problematic to translate. What the translator can do in order to avoid these problems is to apply a translation strategy during his work. This study has the aim to find an adequate strategy to the translation of proper names in French socio-political texts. In order to analyse different proper names and apply a method, we had to translate a socio-political text into Swedish, more specifically a part of a political text written by Denis Pelletier in 2005 called “L’école, l’Europe, les corps: la laïcité et le voile” which is about the banning for young girls to wear the Islamic veil in French schools. The study highlighted two matters. First, is there a specific strategy that can be applied to French proper names when they are translated into Swedish that are not well known to a Swedish reader? Second, are there any complications to solve in proper names that are related to cultural differences between the source language and the target language? In order to answer these questions we chose to use the theories of Jean-Paul Vinay and Jean Darbelnet presented by Jeremy Munday in Introducing Translation Studies. Theories and Application (2012) that helped us when certain translations of proper names were complicated and it helped us justify changes in the translation. The work on proper names by Peter Newmark presented in A Textbook of Translation (1988) helped us to identify six categories of proper names precisely; toponyms, names of ministries, institutional names, names of public bodies, anthroponyms and names of political parties. While analysing the result we found that the different solutions proposed by Newmark were not applied to each translation of proper names. In addition, the most frequently used translation method was the procedure of couplets.

For the past three decades, there has been a rapid growth of African Pentecostal Christianity on America’s Christian religious scene. In general, researchers in Christian mission studies have concluded that the flow of Christian religious currents from Africa and other Third World countries to the West is something of a Christian mission in reverse process. Using agency and invention of tradition as the theoretical leads, this study explores the roles lay immigrants played in the rooting of the Christian Restoration Ministries International (CRMI), a Ghanaian founded charismatic church, in Miami, as a case study of how African Pentecostal churches originate in America. The study also shows how the Christian Restoration Ministries International (CRMI), practices an invented version of Ghanaian Pentecostalism. The study is field-work based. It concludes that the so called reverse mission thrives on the crucial roles of lay African migrant worshipers and their inventiveness.

During the 1890s in the United States, Midwestern YMCA missionaries challenged the nexus of power between Northeastern Protestant denominations, industrialists, politicians, and the Association's International Committee. Under Kansas YMCA secretary George Fisher, this movement shook the Northeastern alliance's underpinnings, eventually establishing the Gospel Missionary Union. The YMCA and the GMU mutually defined foreign and domestic missionary work discursively. Whereas Fisher's pre-millennial movement promoted world conversion generally, the YMCA primarily reached out to college students in the United States and abroad. Moreover, the GMU challenged social and gender roles among Moroccan Berbers. Fisher's movements have not been historically analyzed since 1975. Missionary Millennium is a reanalysis and critical reading of religious fictions about GMU missionaries, following the organization to its current incarnation as Avant Ministries.

The main research topic of our study is the issue of re-emigration and repatriation movements into Czechoslovakia after the First World War and the Second World War, in terms of comparative analysis. The study focuses on Czechoslovak executive institutions as key actors of migration movements. It analyzes their competence, financial possibilities and the objectives they pursued by promoting migration. The first part of this study defines the concept of migration and incorporates it into the postwar concept. The study also focuses on migrants (in our case re-emigrants and repatriants) and their efforts to return in Czechoslovakia. The central part contains analysis of the three most important executive state institutions - Ministry of Welfare, Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Foreign Affairs. These ministries carried out specific re-emigration and repatriation projects. Our study also draws attention to concepts of "home law" and "citizenship". These two concepts are compared in the third part, from the perspective of executive institutions. This part analyzes the whole process of allocation of citizenship in postwar periods. Our study seeks to answer the questions of what event initiated re-emigration and repatriation processes and what were the intentions of the involved participants. The...

This diploma thesis focuses on determining the internal and external factors (both economic and social) that affect the motivation of civil servants to conduct and perform their work activities in ministries of the Czech Republic.The research that forms the basis for it is primarily a follow-up to the quantitative research of prof.PhDr.Arnošt Veselý, Ph.D. The diploma thesis is multidisciplinary and not only deals with human resource management in terms of its functionality, efficiency, and effectiveness, but also in terms of its influence on, among other things, public policy, sociology, psychology and public economics. The theoretical part is based on the theory of motivation (Madsen), McGregor's theory of X and Y, Maslow's hierarchy of needs and the theory of bureaucracy (Weber). The work is theoretically and methodologically anchored in the findings of alternative action theory (Weinberger, 1997), the ontology of ethical phenomenon (Hartmann, 2002) and the concept of public accountability (Veselý). The empirical part includes the results of qualitative research conducted in the form of semi-structured interviews with 17 ministerial officials across 8 ministries of the Czech Republic. During the interviews, research topics were presented in the form of questions, the answers to which were...

The researcher proposes working toward a more integrated approach of faith formation in the local church - where one's immediate family plays the central role and the congregation as the extended family functions as a support system. The church as family becomes a community where faith formation is continually nurtured as a lifelong process and by means of all the ministries of the church. The conscious furthering of faith formation should, therefore, not be confined to the ambit of the Sunday School. Its target group cannot be limited to children and adolescents, but should be be broadened to include the adult members, thus serving the totality of the congregation. The researcher proposes an approach where the different generations are not separated in the process of faith formation, but become an integrated learning community where all the different age groups and generations learn from each other and with each other. / Die navorser stel `n meer geïntegreerde benadering tot geloofsvorming binne die plaaslike gemeente voor - waar die gesin of familie die sentrale rol speel en die gemeente as geloofsfamilie as `n ondersteunende sisteem funksioneer. Die gemeente as familie word `n leergemeenskap waar geloofsvorming `n lewenslange proses is en plaasvind binne al die bedienings van die gemeente. Die navorser stel voor dat geloofsvorming nie net beperk moet word tot die tradisionele kategese of "Sondagskool" wat grootliks gerig is op kinders en adolessente nie, maar verbreed moet word om alle gelowiges van alle ouderdomme in te sluit en so die gemeente as geloofsfamilie te dien. Die navorser stel `n benadering voor waar die verskillende generasies nie van mekaar geskei word in die proses van geloofsvorming nie, maar `n geïntegreerde leergemeenskap vorm waar al die verskillende ouderdomsgroepe en generasies saam met mekaar, asook by mekaar kan leer. / Social work / M. Diac. (Youth Work)

The subject of migrants’ social integration in receiving countries is a growing debate in the 21st century amongst the international community and the nations of the world. It is a serious concern for many organizations advocating for social justice. The Church worldwide and the migrant church in Durban South Africa in particular, is called to be among the defenders and promoters of migrants’ social integration; integration which will bring forth migrants’ social and economic contribution to the development of Durban’s social and economic life. This view of this study is that in the post-apartheid period sufficient attention has not been paid by the South African government, policy-makers and the church in the welcoming and protection of migrants who have “flooded” the country. The lack of preparedness has resulted in migrants being used as scapegoat by some South Africans on the pretext that they lower the country’s social life, steal national citizens’ jobs and commit crime. This growing social and economic discomfort in South Africa resulted in xenophobic violence in May 2008. The dissertation surveys migrants’ challenges in South Africa and Durban in particular. It explores the response of a migrant Pentecostal church called Faith Ministries Durban (FMD) to these challenges, as well as its contribution to the promotion of Congolese migrants’ social integration. The study further explores, among other aspects, the theology of migration. This exploration is a call to theologians to advocate for migrants’ care and rights so that they may not endure discrimination, abuse and struggle because of them being outsiders. Migrants have to benefit equal rights as fellow South Africans. From the life narratives of ten FMD’s members, the study explores FMD’s role in the lives of its migrant members. / Christian Spirituality, Church History & Missiology / M. Th. (Missiology)