The interest for this dissertation arose in an empirical context where the researcher was confronted with some problems widows experienced. Primarily, the research has been done for these widows. This was research into especially the socio-cultural conventions of first century Palestine (Chapter 3); the notion of widow in the Old Testament (Chapter 4); an interpretation of 1 Timothy 5: 1-16 (Chapter 5); and the interpretation of widows in the context of the theology of 'God the Saviour'. For this purpose and in these contexts, a theory of 'symbolic interactionism' within the larger ambit of social-scientific research has been developed and illustrated and used to various degrees. This was to meet the challenge to contribute to theory development in our current theological context of transformation. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1998.