This study was sparked by a concern abou t the impact of economic and social injustices and ecological destruction on the livelihoods of communities in Southern Africa. While the churches’ responses to th ese injustices have been palliative and benevolent, the study argues th at the church has not done enough to critically engage the oppressive systems which maintain these in justices. One of th e key questions that this study seeks to answer is: What is needed in order to develop a culture of ‘critical engagement’ given that the church has oppo rtunities, means and infrastructure to enable a critical and liberatory ethos, for the community at large? In order to answer this que stion, a case study with the Wo men’s Associations of the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa (UCCSA) was pursued. This case study allowed for an intensive investigati on of the Women’s Associations in the church through which pertinent questions we re asked of how and why things happen in the way that they do. The research question therefore was “In the light of the enormous challenges faced by women in church and society in the twenty-first century in Southern Africa, do the Women’s Associations in the UCCSA offer a liberatory learning ethos to enable individual and communal empowerment for its members?” The study first establishes principles of a liberatory learning ethos that could be empowering to women. These principles for a liberatory learning ethos are drawn from two theoretical frameworks, namely, Village learning and African Women’s theologies. Thereafter, the study describes the current challenges faced by women in Southern Africa so as to explain why a liberatory learning ethos is a necessity in the Women’s Associations of the UCCSA. A survey of the prevalent learning ethos is undertaken in order to demonstrate some of the limitations the Women’s Associations and the UCCSA experience in responding to the challenges faced by women. The study concludes with an exploration to establish the extent to which African culture and theological resources developed in Southern Africa can assist to construct a liberatory learning ethos for the Women’s Associations of the UCCSA. Such an ethos ought to enable individual and communal empowerment for its members. Key Terms: African and Black Theology; African Traditional Culture; African Women’s Theology; Apartheid Education; Ba tswana; Bible; Biblical hermeneutics; Botho; Council for World Mission; Feminist Theology; Jesus Movement; Kairos Theology; Liberatory Learning Ethos; Missionary Education; Mukti Barton; Paulo Freire; Southern Africa; Steve Biko; Tswana Learning; United Congregational Church of Southern Africa; Village learning; World Alli ance of Reformed Churches; Women’s Associations; World Council of Churches. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.

No abstract available.

This thesis considers the rapidly growing problems of poverty and urbanisation, especially in the contemporary South African context. It suggests that Christian churches, especially those in the Wesleyan tradition, have a special contribution to make concerning poverty and urbanisation. John Wesley was at the centre of the Evangelical Revival in England in the eighteenth century as well as the emerging Methodist movement. Besides his roles of preaching and organising, he made significant advances in caring for the poor as well as changing attitudes towards the poor. There is an examination of Wesley's social ethics and how this resulted in empowering the poor. Case studies of three very different churches within the Wesleyan tradition are examined. One is in the inner city of Pietermaritzburg, one in an informal settlement near Johannesburg and one in a middle class suburb in Cape Town. The particular focus is on methods used by each to provide low cost housing in their communities. Theoretical models of urban mission for the church in the city are examined. The contemporary context and assumptions of poverty are analysed together with Wesley's social ethics, and his critique ofthe dangers of wealth and riches. The basic thesis ofthis study is that the Christian social ethics of Wesley are relevant and applicable in congregations with the will to empower the poor. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2001.

Training and pastoral supervision in Christian ministry has been in existence prominently since the 1920s, when the development of pastoral education as a distinct discipline and function of ministry arose out of Clinical Pastoral Education. Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) has as it focus the professional education for ministry. This brings students of theology, ordained clergy, qualified laypersons and members of religious orders into supervised encounter with "living human documents" in order to develop their pastoral identity, interpersonal professional competence, and spirituality; including the skills of pastoral care and counselling, pastoral assessment, integration of theology and ministry, group leadership and pastoral theological reflection. The founders of Clinical Pastoral Education, Anton Boisen, William Keller and Richard Cabot, all from the East coast of the United States of America, adapted the methods of professional education in psychiatry, medicine and social work respectively. Some years later Seward Hiltner established a primary identity with theological education and ecumenical Christianity. A survey of literature from the 1960s shows a vitality and variety among CPE supervisors along with research and publications of theologians of note. These influential theologians are Don Browning, John Patton, Charles Gerkin and Steven Pattison to name a few. CPE originated in the USA and spread to Europe and Australia, but does not fit easily into the culture and methods of ministry training in South Africa. For CPE to be valid it must incorporate the cross-cultural customs and traditions in its context. The difficulties with CPE in South Africa centre on some components at the core of the process, and its paradoxical nature within the learning experience with regard to language, gender issues and questions of length and context. These and other specified difficulties open the discussion on the need for adaptation if CPE is to be successfully implemented in the South African context. Important as CPE is in pastoral ministerial training, it is recognised that it is not the only method of training and education in a cross-cultural context. This thesis explores and critiques the methods of CPE and argues that transplanting a process of education, albeit apparently successful, from overseas is not necessarily acceptable in a cross-cultural society. It is suggested that transformation along with a new model for the South African CPE process is necessary, taking into account the diversity of local African cultures. Existing theories, beliefs of CPE and current literature have been explored and applied to and tested in the South African situation. This thesis presents the results in the form of a design of a new model. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2001

In this study I present the results of interviews conducted with thirty-four students in the School of Theology, University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg. In the following eight chapters I have provided a description of the discourses and discourse communities in the School of Theology which have emerged from my analysis of the data collected from these interviews. These discourses fall into three categories: The primary discourse, which is the result of the students' socialisation within their family and the primary community structures of their childhood, the secondary discourse ensuing from their educational and denominational backgrounds and their relationships with their teachers and the hierarchy of their denominations and the tertiary discourse of critical biblical exegesis which they encounter in their studies in the School of Theology. The product of this encounter is a clash of discourses which challenges the students both academically, leading to poor academic performance on the part of many students, and spiritually, leading to such dire consequences as nervous breakdowns or the loss of faith and vocation. In describing this clash of discourses I include a plea for the management and staff of the School of Theology to provide both academic and spiritual support for the students' in their attempt to face and overcome the considerable challenges of studying in the School of Theology. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg,2001.

The contents of this dissertation is about the authoritarianism presently found in Lutheran churches in general and in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (ELCIN) in particular. In contradiction to the Roman Catholic Church, Luther advocated the participation of the laity in decision-making processes. However, strong offices of authority have been established in ELCIN and excessive powers have been granted constitutionally to the clergy against the laity, with the result that lay leaders are made to believe that the decision-making procedures belong to the higher authorities at all levels of the church. There is a lack of willingness among the higher authorities to motivate lay leaders to take up leadership responsibilities in their presence. The danger of this attitude is that most of the decisions made in the church are initiated by the clergy and are therefore not representative. The leadership style of ELCIN can be described as partially democratic and partially authoritarian. The authoritarian leadership style of ELCIN was not derived from the original Lutheran heritage. This situation is due largely to a combination of the leadership patterns of the Finnish missionaries and the prevailing Owambo traditional culture. Authoritarian attitudes remain an urgent challenge to ELCIN in particular, and to Lutheran churches in general. The formulation of a new concept of leadership in the church must embrace the collective participation of all male adult members of the community in decision-making processes as observed in positive elements of Owambo traditions and Luther's concept of the priesthood of all believers. This dissertation recommends that lay leaders must be allowed to chair decision-making bodies at all levels in the church and that clergy and lay leaders participate equally in these bodies. ELCIN theologians also have to formulate concepts which contextualise church leadership and dissociate it from foreign vessels of culture. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2001.

The thesis aims at bringing to light the immense, yet ignored, contribution of women to the establishment of Christianity in Northern Cameroon. Northern Cameroon has a quite different historical development from the south of the country, with a significant difference being the presence of Islam in the north, which dates back to the beginning of the eleventh century. However, the situation of women in the church and society in Northern Cameroon today is no different from that experienced by women throughout centuries of male domination and, indeed, still experience in most of the traditions and cultures of the African continent. In highly patriarchal societies, like the African traditional societies of Northern Cameroon, in which Islam and Christianity have increasingly silenced and isolated women, it is very difficult to see clearly the contribution of women in social, economic and cultural domains. In Northern Cameroon, as elsewhere, women's contribution to the country's development, as well as their involvement in planting Christianity has not been, and still is not being, properly acknowledged. Everything achieved for the advancement of the well being of society, even if achieved by a woman, has been attributed to a man. Yet, as my interest in the historical development of Christianity in Northern Cameroon grew, I realised that women were at the forefront of bringing Christianity into the region, and remain the main contributors in its spread throughout the region, even though official records do not mention them as the main contributors. Hence, this oral history study has made it possible to bring to light the role of not only the women missionaries, but also the African women in a major area of public life, the church, when their contribution to it has been denied for years. Therefore, the thesis is based mostly on oral interviews since nothing is written about the work of women in the church in Northern Cameroon, apart from the reports by missionaries for their mission societies. Hence, the aim of this study has been to explore both the past and the present of Christianity in Northern Cameroon in order to make known to a wider public the extent of women 's contribution to social, cultural, and religious change. Thirty-five people were interviewed for this study in three different countries, Cameroon, Norway and South Africa. Twenty-seven interviewees were women, eight were men and interviews were conducted in French, Fulfulde (an African language spoken by most people in Northern Cameroon), and in English. Fifteen interviewees either served or were still serving as missionaries in Cameroon, the remaining twenty were non-missionary Cameroon nationals, except for one person from Madagascar. Most of the women who contributed to this study were involved in the women's movement in the Lutheran church in Cameroon. Apart from a group of regional leaders of the Women For Christ (WFC), who were interviewed together during their annual meeting in 1999 in Ngaoundere, all interviews took place individually, and interviews were conducted in the form of free conversation so as not to limit the informant by a question and answer format. Despite telling their stories to myself, a man, the women were enthusiastic and openly willing to relate their experiences as church members, as well as their thoughts about how they believed relations between men and women should be. An explanation for this attitude is that most of the women knew me as one of the very few Lutheran ministers in the church in Cameroon with a concern for the position of women in both church and society. The thesis concludes with proposals in favour of the women's full participation in the ministries of the church, which include the ordained ministry, and some suggestions on the necessary mutual collaboration between men and women in social, economic and political domains in Northern Cameroon. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2002. / Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

This thesis has been written at a time when sub-Saharan African people are facing great religious and socio--political challenges in their history. These challenges have been such since 1960. Many questions regarding identity, religion and socio-political situations have been raised. This includes questions relating to God and the oppressive religious and socio-political leadership class and the oppressed people of sub-Saharan Africa. Indeed this thesis tries to face the question of God's pathos, making connections or looking for resemblance between Hosea's time and the religious and socio-political situations of sub-Saharan Africa. Therefore the main purpose is not to go back to the large already explored debate about the question of God's pathos over centuries, but to see how God's, Hosea's and sub-Saharan African people's pathos interact each with other, and how such an interaction could be used for the religious and socio-political transformations of the sub-Saharan Africa. In terms of methodology, we introduce a new paradigm called tautegory in place of the typical allegorical, holistic, literal, typological, inculturation or liberation approaches used by most of African scholars. This new paradigm warrants the creation of a new theological framework. We think this new framework could correspond to sub-Saharan culture. This new paradigm could also be used to throw new light on how to resolve some theological contradictions that classic theism has brought through the missionaries' work in the sub-Saharan African context. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2002. / funding from the African Theological Initiative, Prof Kwame Bediako, Dr. Anthony Balcomb and Dr. Andreia Solomon.

This study uncovers the underpinnings of a Malagasy Lutheran oral theology of homiletics. Using original sermons collected in the field from a cross section of Lutheran preachers and places in Madagascar this study is anchored in contextual materials. To the close readings of these materials the author brings anthropological, textual and Biblical exegetical methodologies for their analysis. Making the distinction between oral and literate composition and cultures, using the theories of Werner Kelber, Walter Ong, Eric Havelock, et al., the author demonstrates the oral structure of the socio-intellectual milieu of Malagasy society. In order to display this mindset in Malagasy theological thinking, this study sets the Malagasy exegesis of the Longer Ending of Mark’s Gospel against the horizon of Kebler’s theory regarding the written gospel as a “parable of absence” in the main body of the Gospel of Mark. This study makes manifest the Malagasy theology of presence, an oral theology. Framing his research with the Fifohazana (Revival) movement, the author briefly surveys the history of Christian missions in Madagascar. This history serves to demonstrate Western missionary literate culture and theology entering into dialogue with the oral culture of Madagascar and the subsequent indigenization of Christianity in the Fifohazana movement. This Fifohazana serves as a paradigm of the Malagasy homiletic and oral theology. Key leading figures of this movement, Rainisoalambo and Volahavana Germaine (Nenilava) are discussed. Extensive appendices of original Malgasy material, while not forming part of the body of the thesis, are provided for reference. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2010.

This is a case study that focuses on how John 10:10, with its mention of abundant life, has been interpreted by some Yoruba preachers of the ‘prosperity gospel’ in the course of preaching and teaching. The quotation below is one way in which John 10:10 has been understood: No one has an inheritance in a family to which he does not belong. In the same way being born again is a prerequisite for you to be an inheritor of the rich heritage made available by covenant through the shed blood of Jesus. It is our heritage to be fruitful, prosperous, healthy and to enjoy long life among other things because Jesus came to give the believer an abundantly good life (Jn. 10:10).1 The underlying presupposition that has facilitated this understanding is usually left undisclosed; rather all the congregation hears is that “this is the word of God”. The manner in which this understanding is attained and grounded is the concern of this study. Is this type of reading responsible or legitimate? Does it commit God to do what the preacher says God would do? Does it adequately reflect the message of Jesus as portrayed in the fourth gospel? To what extent is the interpretation in continuity or discontinuity with past understanding of other readers of the same text? From what vantage point is this type of reading taking place? These are the issues that this study grapples with. The hypothesis of this study is that the context of the Yoruba prosperity preacher has a great influence on his/her understanding and interpretation of this passage of scripture. In terms of the social location of the researcher, she is a Yoruba who has lived in the Yoruba context since birth until about a decade ago to engage in further studies. She got exposed to Campus Christianity in the early 80s and became ‘born-again’ then. She is a member of one of the Classical Pentecostal churches in Nigeria. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2010.