Death, and in special ways, sudden death has struck the church and various families at different times in our lives. The grief in the bereaved has challenged the church, in numerous ways including having to deal with people who are out of possibility with regard to the competencies of the church due stress disorders. This has asked serious theological questions about the pastoral care of the church who is expected to be the custodian of healing through faith. Sudden death as a stressor, has grown to be more common in recent years, and having checked a number of church registers and finding out that there are more funerals than baptisms the church has to conduct, one looks and evaluate the effectiveness of the counseling done through funerals that the church has had to handle---whether there is still meaning accorded to such services or not---whether there is any attempt to engage the bereaved during their mourning in the sound theological reflection on to the questions:<ul><il> “Where, o death, is your victory? “Where, o death, is your sting? (1 Cor. 15: 55).</ul></il> Paul puts it in his address to the Corinthians “the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. This understanding, and several others usually cited has needed theological reflection in helping the people in grief for their loved ones snatched from them by sudden death, especially when it is through no fault of their own. Quiet practically, many people have befallen prey to stresses of different kinds trying to cope with big losses through sudden death, and this has manifested itself differently. In the event of lack of knowledge of what to do to help such people, the church and pastoral care givers have either conducted many ordinary services (common to those done usually) or have coincidentally engaged one or more of the other fields namely: <ul><il> The medical sciences</il> <il><br> Psychological sciences and/or</il> <il><br> Psychiatrical sciences. </il></ul></il> The work enquires into the improvements that have happened in the course of time in the theological sciences in dealing with people stricken by sudden death through pastoral care, and attempts to allow theology to claim her responsibility in the midst of all mentioned sciences. The work attempts to empower the church and guide all pastoral care givers to skillfully deal with such circumstances as sudden death, invoking the methodology of shepherding to alley the sting of death that has found the church to be lacking, and questioned her credibility on the subject. Effort is put into comparing sudden death with the common ‘bad luck’ perception brought about by cultural traditions. It will attempt to craft the common ground from which the church and all the sciences mentioned can cooperate fruitfully for common goals and better assistance to the people we all serve today. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Practical Theology / unrestricted

This dissertation concerns itself with the task of creating a pastoral care model in order to offer care for the people in Zimbabwe, whilst the political instability causes much suffering to these people. It was motivated from the author's personal relationships with various Zimbabweans and his understanding that Zimbabweans are his neighbours in need. Through Narrative Therapy, the author used his understanding of Christian hope, creating positive future stories with Zimbabweans. The hope and focus of this dissertation is to research the problem in Zimbabwe, in order to help the Church in its role as prophet and pastoral caregiver. However, this dissertation would have been to no avail, if it did not attempt to create a model of caring which will empower the South African Church to become pastoral caregivers towards the Church in Zimbabwe. <ul><li> Firstly, the author will strive to clarify the problems faced by the Zimbabwean Church. </li><li> Secondly, the author will seek to bring an awareness of this problem in Zimbabwe to the Church in South Africa, through its prophetic voice. </li><li> Thirdly, the author hopes to create a model of pastoral care that will not only care spiritually for the people, but will also meet some of the physical and emotional needs of the people in Zimbabwe.<br> </li></ul> / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Practical Theology / unrestricted

For many decades, violence that is perpetuated by parents and loved ones against children in the name of physical child discipline or corporal punishment, has been a major concern for various governments and church leaders among most nations of the world. This does not only take into account hitting or beating a child with a stick, belt, slapping, or choking, but also spanking; especially when it is aggressive or excessive (Bradshaw 2009; Straus 1994; Kanyandago in Waruta & Kinoti 2005, Wolfe 1991; Carl 1985). A very prominent and highly respected religious figure, here in South Africa, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, made the following notable assertion to show his support towards the elimination of the practice of corporal punishment in the home: I support the Global Initiative to eliminate all corporal punishment at home, at school, in institutions and community. … Progress towards abolishing corporal punishment is being made, but millions of the world’s children still suffer from humiliating acts of violence and these violations …can have serious lifelong effects. Violence begets violence and we shall reap whirlwind. Children can be disciplined without violence that instills fear and misery, and I look forward to church communities working with other organizations to… make progress towards ending all forms of violence against children. If we really want a peaceful and compassionate world, we need to build communities of trust where all children are respected, where home and school are safe places to be and where discipline is taught by example” (http://www.rapcan.org.za/wgpd/documents: Waterhouse 2012. Retrieved 23th February 2013). However, in spite of the various voices and movements against corporal punishment of children; especially the aggressive form of this practice (as will be analyzed later on in this study), the practice is still a common phenomenon in many African countries, including South Africa. Furthermore, as some research studies have shown, a literalistic view of certain texts of Scriptures in the OT (which are mostly from the Book of Proverbs) do not only seem to influence the widespread of corporal punishment of children, but also the abuse of this form of physical discipline (e.g., Prov. 13:24; 22:15; 23:13-14, 22:15) (Bradshaw 2009; Capps 1995; Straus 1994; Greven 1991). This assumption seems plausible, seeing that as Tripp T & Tripp M (2008:138) rightly allude to, as Christians, “God’s Word is our rule for faith and practice.” The authors, also expressed that, “the Biblical laws and standards sound oppressive and strict in our lawless, arrogant, twenty-first century culture.” However, it is important to also acknowledge that we, as Christians, can be wrong in our interpretation and application of certain Scriptures; thereby, leading to flawed practices (Pohlmann 2007; Pollard 1997). As Pollard (1997:91) has rightly observed, “Clearly, both personal experience and church history teach us that we can be wrong. It is vital, then, that we have a genuine humility as Christians. We must recognize our fallibility, and constantly reassess what we believe.” In other words, there are many well-meaning Christian parents who have put their children in harm’s way by frequently administering spanking to them in ways that are, evidently, excessive or aggressive: while claiming that they are obeying scriptural injunction on child discipline, and are also doing it for the moral and ethical good of their children (Bradshaw 2009; Greven 1991). The researcher, himself, was brought up in a Christian home; where the use and abuse of both high violence (e.g., beating a child with belt, stick, etc) and low violence (e.g., forcefully beating a child with bear hand) methods of physical child discipline were the order of the day (or a frequent occurrence). Furthermore, his well-meaning father often seemed to find justification for his actions based on scriptural grounds. Incidentally, the researcher noticed that this form of child discipline also seems to be widely used by many parents in his local church and many other Christian parents, whom he has come in contact with. And many of these parents seem not to be aware of the immediate and long term negative effects that aggressive corporeal punishment has on their children. The widespread of this phenomenon (corporeal punishment of children) and the traumatic impact it has on children, has led the researcher to do this research study in his local church context (a Pentecostal church), and to develop/propose a biblically sound or balanced model of pastoral care that can help pastors in rendering effective care, to those faced with this problem situation within the church. The theoretical frame work of this research study is based on Pollard’s model of positive deconstruction, as well as some contributions from Straus’ book Beating the Devil out of Them; Corporal Punishment in American Families. The purpose for choosing Pollard’s model of positive deconstruction was to help the researcher in: 1) Identifying the underlying worldview. 2) Analyzing the worldview. 3) Affirming the elements of truth in it (as every world view has some truth in it that needs to be recognizes and affirmed, which makes the process positive and 4) discovering the error in the worldview. These are the four elements in the process of positive deconstruction, as proposed by Pollard. Straus explores the phenomenon of corporal punishment and the traumatic effects of this method of child discipline both in term of its immediate and long term harm (later in life or in adulthood) psychological harm to children. The research methodology that was employed by the researcher in carrying out this research study is qualitative. Consequently, questionnaires were given out to 50 parents in the researcher’s church to fill. Also, one-on-one interviews were arranged with four parents, two children, and also with two pastoral caregivers in the church, on the issues of corporal punishment and child abuse within the Christian home. / Dissertation (MA Theol)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Practical Theology / unrestricted