Can Biblical narratives be applied to the pastoral care of primary school children between the ages of 6 and 13? If so, how are Biblical narratives effectively applied in the pastoral care of primary school children between the ages of 6 and 13? With these questions in mind, this research was undertaken with the goal in mind to eventually put forward a model for the use of Biblical narratives in the pastoral care of primary school children between the ages of 6 and 13. The research was done by making use of the research method of Zerfass (1974: 166). * The basic-theoretical phase of this study was done by means of a study of available literature. It began by an enquiry into the relevant Biblical perspectives on pastoral care and was followed by a further inquiry into the relevant Biblical perspectives on narrative pastoral care. This phase of the study was completed by an inquiry on the basic principles of pastoral care of children, with specific reference to children between the ages of 6 and 13. * The meta-theoretical phase of this study was done by an overview of the handling of children between the ages of 6 and 13 through the course of history in Western society. This was followed by a study of adjacent disciplines concerning the value of a narrative approach to the pastoral care of primary school children between the ages of 6 and 13. The next part of this phase was done by identifying the most common pastoral needs of children between the ages of 6 and 13, by means of an empirical enquiry. * The practice-theoretical phase was done by providing guidelines for the application of Biblical narratives in the pastoral care of children between the ages of 6 and 13. This was followed by an illustration of the application of Biblical narratives in the pastoral care of children between the ages of 6 and 13, by means of case studies. This phase of the study was completed by providing a model for the use of Biblical narratives in the pastoral care of primary school children between the ages of 6 and 13. This study has achieved success by providing a model for the use of Biblical narratives in the pastoral care of primary school children between the ages of 6 and 13. The model was provided within the epistemological framework of a post-postmodern epistemology. This model shows that Biblical narratives can be successfully applied in the pastoral care of primary school children and it also provides practical guidelines in the practical application of it. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Pastoral))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

AFRIKAANS: Die navorsing is gedoen vanuit 'n postfundamentalistiese narratiewe prakties- teologiese benadering. Die fokus van die studie was tweeledig. Die eerste was om na die stories van 'n groep meisies, wat hulself as homoseksueel gesien het en daarom gemarginaliseer is, te luister. Die tweede deel was dat deur die proses daar intervensie sou wees wat aan die meisies die kennis en die mag sou gee om hulle verhale op so 'n manier oor te vertel dat hulle die hoofrolle van hulle eie lewensdramas sal word en nie net karakters of ekstras op die verhoog van die lewe sou wees nie. Verhale van nood moet dus verruil word vir verhale van hoop. Om die verhale van die meisies beter te verstaan is daar van 'n groep interdissiplinêre helpers gebruik gemaak. Die meisies se verhale is verder ook sosiaal-konstruksionisties benader. Die meisies se verstaan van hulle konteks, die kerk, hulle vriende, homoseksualiteit, God, kerkleiers en hulle inskakeling by die kerk en hulle identiteit is ondersoek en saam met die groep gedekonstrueer. Die navorsingsverhaal is dus 'n verhaal waar daar weer opnuut gekyk is na die hantering van tieners, hulle wêreldbeeld en soeke na identiteit en aanvaarding binne 'n wêreld wat hulle nie altyd verstaan nie, en die rol van die geloofsgemeenskap in die proses. ENGLISH: The research was done from a post-foundational, narrative, and practical theological position. The focus of the study had two intentions. The first was to listen to the stories of a group of girls, who saw themselves as homosexual and because of that was marginalised. The second intention was that in the process there would be intervention in their stories. This intervention was supposed to give the girls the necessary knowledge and power to help them to tell their stories. This telling would then place the girls not as extras on the stage of their own lives but as playing the leading roles. Negative stories had thus to be exchanged for stories of hope. To get a better understanding of the stories of the girls, there was made use of an interdisciplinary team of helpers. The stories were also interpreted from a social constructionist point of view. The understanding the girls had of their context, the church, their friends, homosexuality, God, church leaders, their membership of the church and their identity was researched and deconstructed with them in a process. The research story is a story where the handling of teenagers, their world view and their search for identity and acceptance in a world that doesn’t always understand them and their involvement in the church in this process was looked at with fresh eyes. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Practical Theology / unrestricted

Text in Afrikaans / Die Wetenskap filosofiese en prakties teologiese posisionering word deur 'n postmoderne benadering bepaal. Met die doel van die studie naamlik, dekonstruksie van die teologiese diskoers, liefde, in die oog, volg 'n blik op kwalitatiewe navorsing. Sosiale konstruksie diskoers word as epistemologiese vertrekpunt bespreek. Metodologies het die keuse op 'n narratiewe benadering geval. Voortvloeiend hieruit volg die gebruik van metafore, eksternalisering en dekonstruksie van die gesprekke. Die doel van die studie vereis ook bestudering van verskeie sienings oor liefde. Die literatuurstudie word bespreek onder die volgende metafore, naamlik algemene sienings, 'n historiese oorsig en teologiese sienings. Die relevansie van die gekose inligting word weerspieel in die gesprekke. Met behulp van veelvuldige reflekterende gesprekke word saam met gesinne gekonstrueer aan 'n nuwe verstaan van liefde. / Both the Scientific Philosophical and the practical theological positioning are determined by a postmodemistic approach. Keeping in mind the aim of this study, namely the deconstruction of the theological discourse, iove, a view on qualitative research is given. A review of social construction discourse as epistemological starting point is given. Methodologically a narrative approach was used. Emanating from this follows the use of metaphors, externalization and deconstruction of the interviews. The aim of this study also demands the study of various views on love. The study is arranged under the following metaphors, namely general views, a historic review and theological views. The relevance of the chosen information is reflected in the interviews, and new understanding of love is constructed in collaboration with the families. / M.Th.(Practical theology)

Text in Afrikaans / Hierdie navorsing is gerig op die aanwending van narratiewe pastorale terapie met breadwinners wat werksonsekerheid tydens 'n rasionaliseringsproses ervaar. Die studie is kwalitatief van aard en is gebaseer op narratiewe pastorale gesprekvoerlng esook die proses van meervoudige refleksie waardeur die navorsing gerig en aangepas word. As navorser was ek deelnemer in die proses van verandering waarin veralgemening genegeer is en die rol van persoonlike kennis beklemtoon is. Die terapie is gerig op proaktiewe optrede tydens die rasionaliseringsproses en is ten opsigte van elkeen van die deelnemers aangewend in pasmaakgesprekke waartydens hul unieke behoefles aandag geniet het. Deur die metode van eksternalisering is die invloed van werksonsekerheid op die deelnemers geeksploreer en is hulie aangemoedig om in 'n ander verhouding tot die probleem van werksonsekerheid le staan. Namate die deelnemers tydens hierdie proses belangrike skuiwe op die vlak van identiteit gemaak het, ken hulie die toekoms met nuwe hoop bejeen. / The research was directed at the application of narrative pastoral therapy with breadwinners experiencing job insecurity during a process of rationalisation. This qualitative study was based on narrative pastoral conversations as well as the process of multiple reflection through which the research was directed and adapted. As researcher, I was a participant in the process of change in which generalisations were negated and the role of personal knowledge emphasised. The therapy was directed at proactive action during the rationalisation process and was applied in respect of each of the participants in a customised conversation. The influence of job insecurity on the participants was explored through the method of externalisation and they were encouraged to adopt a new relationship to the problem of job insecurity. In the process, as each participant made important shifts on the level of identity, they wera able to view the future with new hope. / Philosophy, Practical & Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Praktiese Teologie (Pastorale Terapie))

Text in Afrikaans / Die Wetenskap filosofiese en prakties teologiese posisionering word deur 'n postmoderne benadering bepaal. Met die doel van die studie naamlik, dekonstruksie van die teologiese diskoers, liefde, in die oog, volg 'n blik op kwalitatiewe navorsing. Sosiale konstruksie diskoers word as epistemologiese vertrekpunt bespreek. Metodologies het die keuse op 'n narratiewe benadering geval. Voortvloeiend hieruit volg die gebruik van metafore, eksternalisering en dekonstruksie van die gesprekke. Die doel van die studie vereis ook bestudering van verskeie sienings oor liefde. Die literatuurstudie word bespreek onder die volgende metafore, naamlik algemene sienings, 'n historiese oorsig en teologiese sienings. Die relevansie van die gekose inligting word weerspieel in die gesprekke. Met behulp van veelvuldige reflekterende gesprekke word saam met gesinne gekonstrueer aan 'n nuwe verstaan van liefde. / Both the Scientific Philosophical and the practical theological positioning are determined by a postmodemistic approach. Keeping in mind the aim of this study, namely the deconstruction of the theological discourse, iove, a view on qualitative research is given. A review of social construction discourse as epistemological starting point is given. Methodologically a narrative approach was used. Emanating from this follows the use of metaphors, externalization and deconstruction of the interviews. The aim of this study also demands the study of various views on love. The study is arranged under the following metaphors, namely general views, a historic review and theological views. The relevance of the chosen information is reflected in the interviews, and new understanding of love is constructed in collaboration with the families. / M.Th.(Practical theology)

Text in Afrikaans / Hierdie navorsing is gerig op die aanwending van narratiewe pastorale terapie met breadwinners wat werksonsekerheid tydens 'n rasionaliseringsproses ervaar. Die studie is kwalitatief van aard en is gebaseer op narratiewe pastorale gesprekvoerlng esook die proses van meervoudige refleksie waardeur die navorsing gerig en aangepas word. As navorser was ek deelnemer in die proses van verandering waarin veralgemening genegeer is en die rol van persoonlike kennis beklemtoon is. Die terapie is gerig op proaktiewe optrede tydens die rasionaliseringsproses en is ten opsigte van elkeen van die deelnemers aangewend in pasmaakgesprekke waartydens hul unieke behoefles aandag geniet het. Deur die metode van eksternalisering is die invloed van werksonsekerheid op die deelnemers geeksploreer en is hulie aangemoedig om in 'n ander verhouding tot die probleem van werksonsekerheid le staan. Namate die deelnemers tydens hierdie proses belangrike skuiwe op die vlak van identiteit gemaak het, ken hulie die toekoms met nuwe hoop bejeen. / The research was directed at the application of narrative pastoral therapy with breadwinners experiencing job insecurity during a process of rationalisation. This qualitative study was based on narrative pastoral conversations as well as the process of multiple reflection through which the research was directed and adapted. As researcher, I was a participant in the process of change in which generalisations were negated and the role of personal knowledge emphasised. The therapy was directed at proactive action during the rationalisation process and was applied in respect of each of the participants in a customised conversation. The influence of job insecurity on the participants was explored through the method of externalisation and they were encouraged to adopt a new relationship to the problem of job insecurity. In the process, as each participant made important shifts on the level of identity, they wera able to view the future with new hope. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Praktiese Teologie (Pastorale Terapie))

In hierdie verhandeling reflekteer ek oor my godsdiensdiskoers en die invloed daarvan op my lewe, beide as persoon en as terapeut. My werk vind 'n nis in die wyse waarop dit die 'stil, onsigbare mensa' benader wie se stories gevorm is deur diskoerse van die modemistiese samelewing. In my navorsing kry ek te doen met problema wat in die algemeen met die praktyke van marginalisering geassosieer word. Die narratiewe gesprekvoering met 'medeskrywers' aan my storie en interaksie met hulle verskillende horisonne kristalliseer in 'n bevrydende en veelvlakkige insig. Hierdie kennis stel my in staat om nuwe keuses te maak en 'n alternatiewe storie vir myself te formuleer. Die studie illustreer dus nie net hoe narratiewe terapie die 'stil, onsigbare' produkte van 'n paternalistiese samelewing kan bemagtig nie. Dit wys ook op die waarde van die oopstelling van die terapeut se eie verhaal vir sy/haar vorming as terapeut. / In this dissertation I reflect on my religious discourse, its influence on my life and how it affects me, both as a person and a therapist. It addresses a niche in its approach to the 'silent, invisible people' whose stories are authored by the discourses of a modernistic society. My research stumbles on all kinds of problems that are generally associated with the practices of marginalisation. Acting as both client and therapist, I enter into numerous interactive conversational sessions with 'co-authors' of my story, afJ with different contexts and horizons. This process crystallises in a liberating and multi-faceted truth. The newly gained knowledge enables me to make new choices and formulate tor myself an alternative story. This study illustrates not only how narrative practices may empower the 'silent, invisible' products of a patemalistic society. It also shows how therapists may benefit from the deconstruction of their own story in both a personal and professional way. / Practical Theology / M. Th. (Pastoral Theology)

Text in Afrikaans / Hierdie navorsing handel oor die pastorale begeleiding van 'n gemeentediensjaarspan deur 'n pastorale berader. Die studie is kwalitatief van aard en vind plaas binne die diskoers van praktiese teologie. Die pastoraal-narratiewe metodologie wat aangewend is in die begeleidingsproses, en die narratiewe mikrokaarte van onderskeidelik not-knowing, deursigtigheid, ekstemalisering, dekonstruksie, her-skrywe, rituele, die vermyding van 'n taal van tekortkoming, briewe, re-membering, metafore, die skep van 'n gehoor, vraagstelling en reflektering word bespreek. De Jongh van Arkel se onderskeidings vir die pastoraat word indringend bespreek. Besondere aandag word geskenk aan die vierde onderskeiding wat hy byvoeg, naamlik pastorale terapie. Die navorsing is gerig op almal wat betrokke is by die opleiding en begeleiding van diensjaarspanne, asook op gemeentes wat diensjaarspanne huisves. Voorstelle vir die toekomstige opleiding en begeleiding van diensjaarspanne word gemaak. / This research deals with the pastoral accompaniment (by a pastoral counsellor) of a congregational team that does a service year for Christ. The study is of a qualitative nature and takes place within the discourse of practical theology. The pastoral-narrative methodology that is used in the counselling process, and the narrative micro maps of notknowing, transparency, externalisation, deconstruction, re-authoring, rituals, the avoidance of a language of shortcoming, letters, re-membering, metaphors, the creation of an audience, questioning and reflection, are discussed. De Jongh van Arkel's distinctions for the pastorate are discussed in detail. Special attention is paid to the fourth distinction that he makes, namely pastoral therapy. The research is directed towards everyone who is involved in the training and accompaniment of teams that do a service year for Christ, as well as congregations who host teams that do a year of service. Suggestions for future training and accompaniment of such teams are made. / Theology / M. Th.

Generic transformation of the castaway novel is made evident by the various ways in which the narrative boundaries that separate fiction from reality and history, the past from the present, and the rational from the irrational, are reconfigured in Umberto Eco’s The Island of the Day Before (1994), J.M. Coetzee’s Foe (1986) and Yann Martel’s Life of Pi (2002). The dissolution of boundaries reflects the dominant shift that has occurred in the castaway novel from the 18th century literary context to the present postmodern, postcolonial context. In this regard, the narrative utilizes various narratological strategies, the most significant being intertextuality, metafiction, historiographical metafiction, allegory, irony, and the carnivalesque. These narratological strategies rewrite, revise, and recontextualize those generic conventions that perpetuated the culture of masculinity and conquest that defines colonialism and the traditional castaway novel epitomized by Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719). From a postcolonial perspective, the castaway’s state of being reflects on the condition of the colonized as well as the colonizer: his/her experience of displacement is similar to colonized peoples’ separation from their cultural, spiritual and personal identities; simultaneously, processes of appropriation, adaptation and control of space resemble colonization, thereby revealing the constructed nature of colonial space. As such, space is fundamental to individual orientation and social adaptation and consequently, metaphorically and metonymically linked to identity. In the selected postmodernist and postcolonial texts, the movement from the position of castaway to colonist as originally manifested in Robinson Crusoe is therefore reinterpreted and recontextualized. The postmodernist and postcolonial contexts resist fixed and one-dimensional representations of identity, as well as the appropriation and domination of space, that characterize shipwreck literature from pre-colonial and colonial periods. Rationalist notions of history, reality and truth as empirically definable concepts are also contested. The castaway identity is often characterized by feelings of physical and spiritual displacement and estrangement that can be paralleled to postmodernist themes of existential confusion and anxiety. / Thesis (PhD (English))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013

Generic transformation of the castaway novel is made evident by the various ways in which the narrative boundaries that separate fiction from reality and history, the past from the present, and the rational from the irrational, are reconfigured in Umberto Eco’s The Island of the Day Before (1994), J.M. Coetzee’s Foe (1986) and Yann Martel’s Life of Pi (2002). The dissolution of boundaries reflects the dominant shift that has occurred in the castaway novel from the 18th century literary context to the present postmodern, postcolonial context. In this regard, the narrative utilizes various narratological strategies, the most significant being intertextuality, metafiction, historiographical metafiction, allegory, irony, and the carnivalesque. These narratological strategies rewrite, revise, and recontextualize those generic conventions that perpetuated the culture of masculinity and conquest that defines colonialism and the traditional castaway novel epitomized by Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719). From a postcolonial perspective, the castaway’s state of being reflects on the condition of the colonized as well as the colonizer: his/her experience of displacement is similar to colonized peoples’ separation from their cultural, spiritual and personal identities; simultaneously, processes of appropriation, adaptation and control of space resemble colonization, thereby revealing the constructed nature of colonial space. As such, space is fundamental to individual orientation and social adaptation and consequently, metaphorically and metonymically linked to identity. In the selected postmodernist and postcolonial texts, the movement from the position of castaway to colonist as originally manifested in Robinson Crusoe is therefore reinterpreted and recontextualized. The postmodernist and postcolonial contexts resist fixed and one-dimensional representations of identity, as well as the appropriation and domination of space, that characterize shipwreck literature from pre-colonial and colonial periods. Rationalist notions of history, reality and truth as empirically definable concepts are also contested. The castaway identity is often characterized by feelings of physical and spiritual displacement and estrangement that can be paralleled to postmodernist themes of existential confusion and anxiety. / Thesis (PhD (English))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013