This study enquires into the influence of the philosophical stance of a narrative pastoral therapist in therapeutic groups for people living with depression within a church context. For the purpose of this study, a philosophical stance is defined as a metaphorical position which represents the therapist's epistemological stance and which shapes his or her interactions with the therapy group members. An explanation of the building blocks of the therapist's preferred philosophical stance is provided, the influence of modern and postmodern discourses in developing such a stance is discussed, and the effects of the therapist's philosophical stance on the group members are explored. The research is directed towards everyone who is involved in pastoral therapeutic groups for people with depression. The study found that concepts such as 'relational', 'collaborative', 'participatory approach', 'mutual care,', 'self-other growth' and 'co-creation' highlight some of the most helpful contributions provided by the therapist's preferred philosophical stance. / Practical Theology / Thesis (M. Th. (Practical Theology with specialisation in Pastoral Therapy))-

Relational theology became a major voice in the theological conversations of the twentieth century and now in the twenty-first century it is poised to become the major influence in doctrine of God discussions. Relational theology argues for a model of God that emphasizes a dynamic interaction between God and the cosmos. Reformulating the divine nature contra Classical theism, Relational theology instead includes images of God as sympathetic, mutable, limited in power and knowledge, creative, and as a risk-taker. The assertion is that such images or metaphors for the divine are necessary rightly to understand and discuss God's relationality with the world. This thesis argues that given the relational nature of God the metaphor of faith should be added to the list of God's attributes. The thesis begins by discussing issues of methodology then reviewing Relational theology in the forms of process and open theism as contrasted with Classical theism. This is followed by explorations of various depictions of faith as found in the Old Testament and New Testament. Faith is also examined theologically and philosophically as including the elements of belief, trust, hope, and risk. It is then argued that faith has a decidedly relational nature in that faith most properly takes place between persons. The crux of the thesis is the development of a theology of divine faith. Because humans are free, God is limited, and creation has a purpose, the argument is made that God relates to the world through faith. A case for God's faith is developed exegetically and logically through explorations of the concepts of divine belief, trust, hope, risk, and doubt, concluding that faith is a necessary inclusion for Relational theology. Finally, two primary Church doctrines, creation and christology, are explored through a theology of divine faith. God demonstrates divine faith in bestowing an evolving creation with both freedom and a purpose. God has faith in the creation to produce persons who can freely share faith and love with God. The fully kenotic coming of Jesus Christ demonstrates the Father's faith in the Son, the second person of the triune God. The coming and death of Christ also reveals God's faith that the cross will be efficacious in reconciling those who have abused their God-given freedoms. / Sysytematic Theology & Theological Ethics / D. Th. (Systematic Theology)

This dissertation attempts to show that the phenomenon of loneliness is written into Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient. The Introduction offers a description of the origins of loneliness as a field of study, presents key instances of loneliness in literature, and investigates the nature of loneliness. In the first chapter, the Villa is introduced as a figural and conceptual framework for analysis. The second chapter focuses on the patient’s room and the library, leading to a discussion of personal and existential loneliness, identity and naming. The third chapter investigates social loneliness with reference to the kitchen, garden and hallway, addressing notions of race and othering, home and family. The fourth chapter discusses the body and embodiment, as well as emotion and metaphor. The dissertation argues that the stylistic, thematic and structural features of The English Patient suggest and reflect the complexities and characteristics of loneliness. / English / M. A. (English)

This dissertation examines Breyten Breytenbach‟s memoir Dog Heart, and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong‟o‟s novel Matigari, with particular attention to the use of a mother tongue or another language in the texts, and whether these reflect or impact on the writers‟ sense of personal, cultural and political identity. It compares and contrasts the authors‟ views on, and experiences of, culture, language, translation and exile, and whether these aspects appear in the two primary works. Dilemmas associated with the authors‟ choice of language in their creative works, preferred audiences, and affiliations to their mother tongue speech communities are also explored. By drawing on Breytenbach‟s and Ngũgĩ‟s diverse stances on these issues, and following their respective publishing decisions, it is hoped an interesting conversation is created between these significant political activists and their writing. / English Studies / M.A. (English literature)

Philosophy & Systematic Theology / D. Th. (Systematic Theology)

This philosophical, anthropological study within a fundamental agogic perspective, employed an existential phenomenological approach to find out what adulthood is, fundamentally. Adulthood as being-ethical, is a more adequate description than chronological, biological, psychological and sociological descriptions of adulthood. Finding out what being-ethical is, required investigating what it means to be human. Only humans exist, and must participate effectively in agogic-dialogic relationships to alleviate existential yearning and experience dignifiedness. A code of effective agogy is presented. This code is the basis for a universal, fundamental code of ethics which transcends particular moral codes and professional codes of ethics. The words "ethicals", "ethicalness" and "ethicality" are employed to name, respectively, individual requirements in the code; acting according to the code; and the inescapable interrelatedness of experiencing dignifiedness and adhering to ethicals. Detailed explanations are given of what it means to respond fundamentally ethically. Adultness, humanness and ethicalness are different perceptions of the same continuum. All humans, whether aware of it or not, have an unattainable ideal of perfect humanness, to which they must perennially progress in order to experience dignifiedness, and humanness entails perennially becoming more human. Since no human can become perfectly human, the ideal of perfect humanness can be called "God". This means that the code of humanness is also the code of Godliness and the word "spiritual" is used to distinguish fundamental God from religious Gods. Spiritual responsibility is the interrelatedness of being-questioning and being-questioned. Ultimately, a person's humanness is assessed against the ideal of perfect humanness, by his or her own spiritual conscience. Humanity is the interrelatedness of the realities of existentiality, agogicality, ethicality, and spirituality and humanness is the inseparability of the continua of existentialness, ethicalness, agogicalness and spiritualness. A detailed existential-ethical description of education is given. The thesis ends with a post-scientific view of what essentially agogic orientated (educative) teaching is, and four recommendations are offered to enhance the effectiveness of agogy in teaching and learning institutions. Despite an extensive and radical study, it is acknowledged that the mystery that is humanity, can never be totally revealed. / Educational Studies / D. Ed. (Philosophy of Education)

Revelation is God's Word addressed to the human being and so speaks of God in relation to the person and the world. Revelation can therefore only be fully understood, proclaimed and lived through an encounter with the world and its conceptions. To understand the evolution of human consciousness and the creation of the soul, we look to the sources of revelation (scripture and tradition) in dialogue with secular anthropology. The latter's paradigm of development and growth is not foreign to the former's understanding of conversion and growth in grace . The image of God, which characterises the human person, is shown to be an emergent likeness, which is created and drawn to its fullness by God. This accounts for Pius XII' s insistence that the soul is created immediately by God, who is responsible for the physical dynamics that bring forth consciousness and the personal dynamics that empower the human soul to develop. / Philosophy Practical &Systematic Theology / M.Th (Systematic Theology)

Virtue can be seen as a core construct of pastoral theology when it is understood as a relational dynamic which includes the experience of suffering and the pastoral response of compassion. This thesis probes the philosophical theology of Jonathan Edwards, who proposed that virtue is a form of beauty defined as "consent to being." Edwards' construct of virtue is examined from its inception in his pastoral work at Northampton parish. Although it was offered in the context of the 18th century debates in moral philosophy, it is argued that Edwards' idea of virtue is a unique theological contribution to our understanding of the nature of virtue. The implications of this conception of virtue are weighed against current discussions in ethics and moral philosophy on the theme of virtue. Edwards' idea of "consent to being" is expanded from a pastoral theological perspective to include the notion of compassion as an integrative motif. The structure of experience and how we speak about our experiences are explored in relation to this aesthetic understanding of virtue as a form of beauty. This leads to the notion of compassion as ontological consent. Since language is the vehicle by which our experiences are conveyed, the thesis probes the issue of how moral vision is expressed in "experience-near" language through parable, poem, and lament. Moral vision is articulated most adequately through such language, the formulation of which takes the form of a necessary quest. The thesis concludes with a constructive proposal concerning a mature pastoral theology of virtue. This may be seen as an expansion of Edwards' concept of "consent to being" from the vantage point of pastoral theology. It is argued that a dynamic vision of virtue requires some connection between the experience of suffering and the inward striving toward the greatest good. The essence of virtue can be best understood, from a pastoral theological perspective, as the relational dynamic of "suffering with" another human being. / Practical Theology / D.Th. (Practical Theology)

The current vast sociocultural shift from Modernism to PostModernism forms the backdrop to this study. Whenever paradigm shifts occur, the metaphors which depict human experience and identity also change. The mechanistic metaphors of Modernism are giving way to metaphors derived from art and literature, in particular narrative theory. Self, as one of the most pivotal notions in philosophy, literature, and psychology, should not be excluded from this process of reconceptualisation. As the point of intersection between the personal and the cultural, the notion of Self now needs to bereformulated to become more coherent with Post-Modernist ideas. Within this framework the Modernist notion of a Self which is unified, substantial, and stable across all contexts, is deconstructed in this study to reveal the linguistic and ideological codes and conventions which are used in its construction. It is proposed that the Self can be viewed as embedded in relationship with others and as inscribed by the prevailing cultural ideologies regarding personhood. As such the Self can be regarded as held together reflexively by narrative codes and conventions. These ideas are demonstrated in an analysis of two written self-narratives and applied to the conventions and practices in psychotherapy. / Psychology / D.Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study examines the construction of cultural identity in Mamma Medea by Tom Lanoye (2001) and it’s translation by Antjie Krog (2002) by employing various theories as well as exhausting binary oppositions, and analysing the way it relates to the difference in language use between the conflicting individuals and groups in the drama. Mamma Medea is based predominantly on two versions of the Greek myth of Medea and her shocking tale of infanticide in order to wound her deceitful spouse, Jason. It follows the long tradition in literature and art wherein Medea is used to comment on the subjugation and oppression of women and non-dominant groups, as well as on the formation of the Other. Lanoye uses the details of the Ancient account, but broadens the spectrum to include commentary on contemporary themes in order to seek an alternative motivation for her premeditated infanticide. The drama does not stay within the details of the intertexts, however, and is altered so that both Medea and Jason each kill one of their children. A context-relevant approach is followed to examine how Lanoye’s drama challenges modern myths surrounding cultural identity in the Flemish-Dutch context. The latter interpretation is warranted by linking Flemish en Dutch with the groups in the drama, in accordance with the real language tension between the two language regions. In contrast to this Krog makes use of much more dialectal forms of Afrikaans reflecting the multicultural and multilingual South-African context. Her translation is not studied from a purely translational, theoretical perspective, considering that the focus of the study is on differences in cultural identity and on the differences in context wherein the respective drama and translation is produced. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie ondersoek die konstruksie van kulturele identiteit in Mamma Medea van Tom Lanoye (2001) en in die vertaling daarvan deur Antjie Krog (2002) aan die hand van verskeie teorieë, asook met behulp van binêre opposisies, en analiseer die wyse waarop dit onder meer saamhang met die verskille in taalgebruik tussen konflikterende individue en groepe in die drama. Mamma Medea ontgin veral twee weergawes van Griekse mites oor Medea, wat haar twee seuns op skokkende wyse vermoor om haar verraderlike eggenoot, Jason, leed aan te doen, in aansluiting by ’n lang tradisie in die literatuur en kunste waarin dié figuur veral gebruik is om kommentaar te lewer op die uitbuiting en onderdrukking van vroue en nie-dominante groepe, asook die formasie van die die Ander in verhoudinge. Lanoye verruim in sy drama die onderwerp van die konvensionele huweliksdrama en betrek hedendaagse kwessies ten einde ’n geldige eietydse motivering te verskaf vir Medea se optrede. Hy wyk onder meer doelbewus af van die brontekste deurdat hy Medea en Jason elk ’n seun laat vermoor. ’n Gemeenskapsrelevante benadering word gevolg om na te gaan hoe Lanoye se drama in die proses moderne mites rondom kulturele identiteit uitdaag binne ’n Vlaamse-Nederlandse konteks. Laasgenoemde interpretasie word ondersteun deur onderskeidelik Vlaams en Nederlands te verbind met die hoofgroepe in die drama, in ooreenstemming met reële taalspanninge tussen die twee taalgebiede. Hierteenoor maak Krog van veel meer dialektiese taalvorme gebruik in aansluiting by die multikulturele Suid-Afrikaanse konteks. Haar vertaling word nie soseer vanuit ʼn vertaalwetenskaplike perspektief nagevors nie, aangesien die hooffokus val op sowel die verskille in kulturele identiteit as op verskille rakende die konteks waarin onderskeidelik die drama en die vertaling geproduseer is.