So much has been said about the involvement of the Church in socio-economic and political development globally, in Africa, and in South Africa in particular. The appalling fact is that division of the Church into several denominations, and also division along racial and tribal lines, has crippled the much-needed unity for rural, urban and human development. This division, especially when it is expressed within the body of a particular denomination, tends to cut asunder all the connections between the Christian faith, with its concern for love, reconciliation and justice, and the striving to make life worth living for the poor and the marginalised in society. The impact of the Church in community development is very likely to be zero if the Church is divided against itself within racial lines, doctrinal issues and lack of cohesive leadership structure. The focus in the present study is on the Assemblies of God denomination in South Africa. This Church fully reflected and manifested the racial complex of South Africa. The Assemblies of God denomination, instead of creatively making this racial complex a prototype ofChrist's wise blending of his twelve Apostles from various social and tribal backgrounds, used this mosaic complex to destroy and to operate as a divided people along racial lines. The justification for this found expression in the ways and manners in which important doctrines such as ecclesiology, eschatology, soteriology and Christology were taught and upheld by each group in the Assemblies of God. This being the case, the Assemblies of God denomination sought to contribute to development along racial and group lines. Some of the groups became involved in community development and made meaningful impacts. Others did not concern themselves with development, yet others found dualism, individualism and privatisation of faith as the best way to excuse themselves from community development and/or anything that has to do with improving better the life ofthe poor. Did the Church work together or did different groups engage development from their own contexts? The thesis is that the Assemblies of God failed to work together in unity. They operated as a divided group. This is an unhealthy testimony to the world, to whom Christ had told his Church to shine as lights in darkness and to serve as salts to preserve. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2002.

Through the oral history approach, this study documents shifts in the pastoral agency of manyano leaders in the HIV and AIDS context of the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands from 1990-2000 and 2000-2010. The two time periods are significant as they mark changes in socio-economic and socio-political influences on HIV and AIDS in South Africa. The model used to investigate the agency of the manyano leaders has been drawn from James Scott’s (1990) theory of power relations between dominant and subordinate groups. Scott’s (1990) theory guided this study in analysing the agency of manyano leaders in two ways. Firstly, the theory guided the study’s analysis of the interviews beyond the superficial level to uncover discourses that in Scott’s (1990) terms operate in the public realm, hidden realm and in the realm of ‘infrapolitics’. Secondly, Scott’s (1990) theory helped uncover some of the shifts in the subversive agency of the manyano leaders’ response to the HIV and AIDS epidemic during the two time periods of 1990-2000 and 2001-2010. In both periods, the manyano leaders’ agency revealed that they opt for just and liberative responses on behalf of those that have been marginalised by the epidemic. The study revealed that in the first period, the agency of the manyano leaders’ faced more resistance in the public realm due to dominant political, religious and social attitudes that fuelled HIV and AIDS-related stigma and denial. As a result, much of their response to challenges raised by the epidemic took place in the hidden realm. In the second period, discourses of HIV and AIDS became more public and as a result, this study has argued, their agency has also become more public. From the results of this study, lessons have been drawn that contribute to a critical appreciation of manyano leaders’ pastoral agency in the context the HIV and AIDS epidemic in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.

The Church social missions have undergone different paradigm shifts whilst trying to respond to challenges faced by the poor in the society. It seems that at the beginning the Development paradigm was the one used by churches in designing their social mission strategies. According to this paradigm, help for the poor in the society was to come from the Western countries’ development initiatives; in the process of implementing such strategies the local people’s cultural aspirations were often neglected. On the other hand, the poor were not given a chance to take destiny into their own hands in order to define the solutions to their problems. However, this paradigm was later declared a failure and a need to move to the Post Development Paradigm was advocated. This study argues that most churches in Mankweng still base their social missions strategies on the Development paradigm and therefore they fail to adequately respond to the challenges faced by the poor in that community. The study therefore looks at a possibility of developing a new social mission strategyin Mankweng that is based on the Post Development Paradigm. Though the title is about Mankweng, the focus of the study is on the Western part of the Township called Ntshitshane. Observations and interviews were conducted amongst the community members in that area. After a thorough analysis of the findings it was established that the poor in that context relies among other things on their cultural ethic of bothoas a means of addressing their social challenges. This study concludes that the same cultural ethic of botho used by the poor there can be a viable point of departure in defining a social mission strategy within that context. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M. Th. (Missiology)

This thesis focuses on the Afrikaans Christian Women's Organisation (ACVV), placed within the context of Afrikaner nationalist activity, and traces the variety of ways in which white, Afrikaans, middle-class women sought to construct a racially exclusive 'Afrikaner' people. Stereotypical portrayals of Afrikaner women as passive followers of an ideology constructed by men are challenged. The gendered construction of nationalism is initially examined by tracing the transition from a religious, evangelical, late nineteenth century gender discourse to an increasingly explicit Afrikaner nationalist discourse in the early twentieth century. The ACVV participated in the construction of a popular Afrikaner nationalist culture that portrayed Afrikaans women as mothers of the people or volksmoeders. The first ACVV leaders were acutely aware of the 'New Women' who abandoned conventional notions of femininity - they tried to construct a public, political identity for Afrikaans women that met the challenges of the 'modern' world, yet remained true to Afrikaner 'tradition'. The ACVV sought to fashion Afrikaans whites into 'Afrikaners' through philanthropic activity. At first, this was especially true of rural branches, but from the early 1920s, Cape Town's ACVV also responded to the growing influx of 'poor whites' by focusing specifically on social welfare work. One particular concern was the danger that women working together with blacks posed for the volk. Research on the ACVV's philanthropy is complemented by a study of the lives of landless and impoverished whites in the Cape countryside and Cape Town. Archival material and 'life history' interviews are used to explore the working lives of white, Afrikaans-speaking women who moved from rural areas to Cape Town during the 1920s and 1930s. Complex and contradictory strands made up the private and political lives of female Afrikaner nationalists. During the 1920s, they sought to create a political role for themselves by constructing a 'maternalist', nationalist discourse that articulated the notion of separate spheres for men and women -but extended vrouesake (women's issues). In many ways these were conservative women - yet they adjusted, even challenged, conventional gender roles in Afrikaans communities. In the 1930s, the four provincial Afrikaans women's welfare organisations sought to shape state-subsidised social welfare programmes. The ACVV and its sister organisations had increasingly fraught dealings with Afrikaner nationalist men in the state and church. who did not share the women's vision of female leadership in social welfare policy.

No abstract available / Systematic Theology / D. Th. (Systematic Theology)

Text in English / With the start of democracy in South Africa and the end of the legal Apartheid rule, it became apparent to those who identified the church with the liberation struggle that Christian communities had lost their significance in society today. This feeling, although not popular among theologians, became widely held by those who thought that we had arrived politically. This feeling was also supported by views which felt that democracy was the ultimate human form of governance. In this light, it is conceivable for churches to abandon the struggle because of the irrelevance of agitating a form of government that is affirmed and celebrated globally. Also, it became justified to abandon the struggle, if indeed the struggle was against Apartheid, because the enemy had been defeated. Consequently, this meant a withdrawal from siding with those whose rights were marginalised. Such an abrupt withdrawal from championing the rights of those who are marginalised (especially as displayed by the church during the Apartheid era) also raises many concerns pertaining to the role that the churches ought to be playing in the current democratic dispensation. It is also conceivable that the initiative to struggle against Apartheid was motivated only by the fact that the Apartheid regime was unjust and that it discriminated against certain groups of South African citizens. The attainment of liberation in South Africa has plunged churches into an illusion that democratic states are capable of good governance and that when such a government exists, churches can safely concern themselves with their primary ecclesiastical duties—of preaching the Word of God and administering the sacraments and leave the socio-economic and political affairs to those who are governing. It seems that this view is especially prevalent among the constituency of the church that brought forward a theological confession against the theological legitimacy granted to the Apartheid ideology. To unapologetically declare its association with those on the margins, and to defy Apartheid for the evil that it was, this church brought about the Belhar Confession as proof of its allegiance to those on the margins. This study shall confine itself to the realm of the Christian community. It will look to the historicity of the URCSA precisely because it has been bold enough to pen a confession that chastised Apartheid. / Philosophy & Systematic Theology / D. Th. (Theological ethics)

As a social worker at the Desmond Tutu Child and Youth Care Centre in Gauteng province, the researcher noticed an increase in the number of applications for adolescents’ admission to the Centre due to a breakdown in their foster care placements. This raised a question regarding the factors contributing to this breakdown. The aim of the study was to develop an in-depth understanding of factors contributing to the breakdown of foster care placements from the perspectives of the adolescents who were fostered and from those of their foster parents. The qualitative research approach was used applying an explorative, descriptive and contextual design. Purposive sampling was used to select the participants. Data was collected using semi-structured interviews and was analysed according to the framework provided by Tesch (in Creswell, 2009:186). For data verification, Guba’s model (in Krefting (1990:214-220) was applied. Conclusions are drawn and recommendations made about foster care involving adolescents. / Social Work / M.A. (Social Work)

The study investigated the role of churches in HIV prevention among young adults in the Polokwane Municipality of the Limpopo Province. Qualitative research method was followed. Data was obtained and tape-recorded during the in-depth face-to-face interviews. Fourteen churches are affiliated with the Limpopo South African Council of Churches, seven of which run HIV/AIDS programmes and services. They were the target of this study, which investigated how churches could give more support to people infected with HIV. Results show that churches are determined to assist in the prevention of HIV. They have already contributed to supporting those with HIV and those affected by HIV and AIDS. The findings / Sociology / M.A. (Social Behaviour Studies in HIV/AIDS)

Thesis (DTh (Practical Theology and Missiology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Gangsterism, as described in this study, is a serious problem. It has deep historical roots in Cape town has developed into a kind of ‘resident evil’ that rears its ugly head time and again, despite several efforts by state organs to crush it. The study was not attempted as a thorough and in-depth research on gangs as such. The main research question was: How do faith communities, in particular Christian churches, respond to the challenges of gangsterism on the Cape Flats. The research gives an overview of gangsterism as a global phenomenon and how it specifically manifests and presents itself within the context of the Cape Flats of Cape Town. The discussion of gangsterism deliberately wanted to dispel the notion that there are quick-fix solutions to gangsterism. People of faith should guard against superficial analyses and over-simplification of social issues, including gangsterism, poverty and unemployment. With this in mind, the research has traced the historical origins of gangsterism in Cape Town, highlighting various socio-political, economic as well as cultural and personal factors that contributed to the formation and establishment of street gangs. It was also noted how some of these factors still exist in postapartheid South Africa and continue to provide fertile ground for gangsterism to continually raise its ugly head in communities on the Cape Flats. It was important to note that many gangs have evolved from ordinary street gangs to sophisticated, high-profile crime syndicates that have built strongholds in poor communities. This furthermore underlines the fact that there are not quick-fix solutions to gangsterism as if it is only a few youngsters causing trouble that should be sorted out [Chapter 2]. Faith communities on the Cape Flats have come a long way themselves. These communities have shown an incredible resilience in the face of many challenges as a result of socio-political factors. It is therefore important to discuss some of the elements that contributed to this resilience as the research explores the nature of the ecclesiology that has developed over a period of time. What transpired is that the ecclesiology under discussion is dynamic, not static in nature. The type of ecclesiology on the Cape Flats may be called a social-systemic ministry of inter-contextual presence. It is responsive to the social context, and is kept alive by the context with a huge emphasis on orthopraxy rather than orthodoxy. The situation on the Cape Flats requires a missional ecclesiology as faith communities are challenged to continuously involve themselves in the mission dei. While reaching out to the world, faith communities are also called iv upon to be open, practicing hospitality as they welcome gangsters and ex-gangsters into their spaces of worship [Chapter 3]. The next question to explore is: What kind of pastoral care is needed when faith communities on the Cape Flats have to deal with the challenge of gangsterism and other social phenomena like poverty, unemployment and substance-abuse? In order to answer this question, it was necessary to trace back the development of pastoral care and counseling over many centuries. Learning from these historical developments, a communal-contextual paradigm for pastoral care was chosen as a base theory. This choice indicates a move away from individual care with a focus on the human “self” to a hermeneutics of systemic, public care and compassionate presence. Some of the elements of this kind of care is discussed which include contextuality, as well as the eco-systemic, hermeneutical, anthropological, relational and public nature of pastoral care. It is also important that pastoral care operates and is practiced inter-disciplinary in order to provide the best possible help to care-seekers. The final question that is posed is: How different is the care that faith communities provide from the care of any other welfare agency or non-governmental organization (NGO)? In order to link an eco-systemic and social hermeneutic paradigm to the theology of presence of God within communal and contextual systems, a pneumatological approach to theory formation in pastoral care is proposed. Pastoral care has to offer more than behavioural and social sciences, because we believe that the salvation and grace it offers are good news to people. Pastoral care offers not only comfort and consolation, but also transformation (change and growth) and the fostering of a mature faith and spirituality by means of Scripture, prayer and the sacraments within the communion sanctorum, the familia dei. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Gangsterisme, soos dit in hierdie studie beskryf word, is ‘n ernstige probleem. Dit het diep historiese wortels in Kaapstad, wat met die verloop van tyd ontwikkel het in ‘n tipe ‘plaaslike euwel’ wat gereeld kop uitsteek, ten spyte van talle pogings deur staatsorganisasies om dit uit te roei. Die studie is nie aangepak met die doel om ‘n deeglike en in diepte navorsing te wees op bendes as sodanig nie. Die hoof navorsingsvraag was: Hoe reageer geloofsgemeenskappe, meer spesifiek Christelike kerke, op die uitdagings van gangsterisme op die Kaapse Vlakte? ‘n Oorsig word gegee van gangsterisme as ‘n wêreldwye verskynsel en hoe dit spesifiek manifesteer en voorkom in die konteks van die Kaapse Vlakte van Kaapstad. Die bespreking van gangsterisme stel ten doel om die idee te verwerp dat eenvoudige oplossings te vinde is vir gangsterisme. Gelowige mense moet waak teen oppervlakkige ontledings en oorvereenvoudiging van sosiale aangeleenthede, insluitend gangsterisme, armoede en werkloosheid. Gedagtig hieraan, het die navorsing die historiese oorsprong van gangsterisme in Kaapstad nagetrek, met klem op die verskeie sosio-politiese, ekonomiese sowel as die kulturele en persoonlike faktore wat bygedra het tot die vorming en vestiging van straatbendes. Melding was ook gemaak van die feit dat sommige van hierdie faktore steeds bestaan in post-apartheid Suid-Afrika en voortgaan om ‘n geskikte milieu te skep vir gangsterisme om voortdurend kop uit te steek in gemeenskappe op die Kaapse Vlakte. Dit was belangrik om te vermeld dat bendes ontwikkel het van gewone straatbendes na gesofistikeerde, hoë profiel misdaadsindikate wat hulle ingegrawe het in arm gemeenskappe. Dit bevestig verder dat daar geen eenvoudige oplossings is vir gangsterisme, asof dit slegs ‘n paar jongelinge is wat kwaad aanvang en uitgesorteer behoort te word. Geloofsgemeenskappe op die Kaapse Vlakte het self ook ‘n lang pad gestap. Hierdie gemeenskappe het ‘n ongelooflike weerstand getoon in die aangesig van menigte uitdagings as gevolg van sosio-politiese faktore. Gevolglik is dit belangrik om sommige van die elemente te bespreek wat bygedra het tot hierdie weerstand in die lig van die bespreking van die aard van die ekklesiologie soos dit met die verloop van tyd ontwikkel het. Dit het geblyk dat die ekklesiologie onder bespreking dinamies en nie staties van aard is. Die ekklesiologie van die Kaapse Vlakte kan na verwys word as ‘n sosiaal-sistemiese bediening van inter-kontekstuele teenwoordigheid. Dit reageer op die sosiale konteks, en word aan die gang gehou deur die konteks, met meer klem op ortopraksie eerder as op ortodoksie. Die situasie op die Kaapse Vlakte vereis ‘n missionale ekklesiologie soos geloofsgemeenskappe voortdurend uitgedaag vi word om hulle te betrek in die mission dei. Wyl hulle uitreik na die wêreld, word geloofsgemeenskappe ook opgeroep om toeganklik en gasvry te wees teenoor bendelede en gewese bendelede deur hulle in hul midde in plekke van aanbidding te verwelkom. Die volgende vraag om te ondersoek is die vraag na die tipe pastorale sorg wat nodig is wanneer geloofsgemeenskappe op die Kaapse Vlakte te doene het met die uitdagings van gangsterisme en ander sosiale verskynsels soos armoede, werkloosheid en dwelmmisbruik. Om hierdie vraag te kan beantwoord, was dit nodig om die ontwikkeling van pastorale sorg en berading oor die eeue na te speur. Gegrond op hierdie historiese ontwikkelinge, is besluit op ‘n gemeenskaplik-kontekstuele paradigma as basis teorie vir pastorale sorg. Hierdie keuse dui op ‘n wegbreek van individuele versorging met die fokus op die menslike ‘self’ na ‘n hermeneutiek van sistemiese, publieke sorg en medelye teenwoordigheid. Sommige van die elemente van hierdie tipe sorg word bespreek, wat kontekstualiteit insluit, sowel as die eko—sistemiese, hermeneutiese, antropologiese, relasionele en publieke aard van pastorale sorg. Dit is verder ook belangrik om kennis te neem dat pastorale sorg interdissiplinêr werksaam is en uitgevoer word om die bes moontlike sorg te bied aan diegene wat om sorg aanklop. Die laaste vraag wat gestel word: Hoe verskil die sorg wat deur geloofsgemeenskappe voorsien word van die sorg van enige ander welsynsorganisasie of nie-regeringsorganisasie (NRO)? Om ‘n eko-sistemiese en sosiaal hermeneutiese paradigma te verbind met die teologie van teenwoordigheid van God binne gemeenskaplike en kontekstuele sisteme word ‘n pneumatologiese benadering tot teorie vorming in pastorale sorg voorgestel. Pastorale sorg het meer om te bied as die gedrags- en sosiale wetenskappe, want ons glo dat die verlossing en genade wat dit bied goeie nuus is vir mense. Pastorale sorg bied nie net bemoediging en vertroosting nie, maar ook transformasie (verandering en groei) en die kweking van ‘n volwasse geloof en spiritualiteit deur middel van Skrif, gebed en die sakramente binne die communion sanctorum, die familia dei.

Text in English / With the start of democracy in South Africa and the end of the legal Apartheid rule, it became apparent to those who identified the church with the liberation struggle that Christian communities had lost their significance in society today. This feeling, although not popular among theologians, became widely held by those who thought that we had arrived politically. This feeling was also supported by views which felt that democracy was the ultimate human form of governance. In this light, it is conceivable for churches to abandon the struggle because of the irrelevance of agitating a form of government that is affirmed and celebrated globally. Also, it became justified to abandon the struggle, if indeed the struggle was against Apartheid, because the enemy had been defeated. Consequently, this meant a withdrawal from siding with those whose rights were marginalised. Such an abrupt withdrawal from championing the rights of those who are marginalised (especially as displayed by the church during the Apartheid era) also raises many concerns pertaining to the role that the churches ought to be playing in the current democratic dispensation. It is also conceivable that the initiative to struggle against Apartheid was motivated only by the fact that the Apartheid regime was unjust and that it discriminated against certain groups of South African citizens. The attainment of liberation in South Africa has plunged churches into an illusion that democratic states are capable of good governance and that when such a government exists, churches can safely concern themselves with their primary ecclesiastical duties—of preaching the Word of God and administering the sacraments and leave the socio-economic and political affairs to those who are governing. It seems that this view is especially prevalent among the constituency of the church that brought forward a theological confession against the theological legitimacy granted to the Apartheid ideology. To unapologetically declare its association with those on the margins, and to defy Apartheid for the evil that it was, this church brought about the Belhar Confession as proof of its allegiance to those on the margins. This study shall confine itself to the realm of the Christian community. It will look to the historicity of the URCSA precisely because it has been bold enough to pen a confession that chastised Apartheid. / Philosophy and Systematic Theology / D. Th. (Theological ethics)