The purpose of this study was to investigate recommendations regarding professional standards for training and registration in pastoral work. The aim is to obtain professional recognition for Pastoral Counsellors/Therapists by accreditation and recognition from a relevant professional council. The goal is also to formulate these standards in line with the processes of the South African Qualification Authority (SAQA). The following four forms of pastoral work were distinguished and discussed: Mutual care, Pastoral care, Pastoral counselling, and Pastoral therapy. The Accreditation Committee proposed the following sub-fields: Human and Social Studies (Field 07): Religious and ethical foundation of society (sub-field). Health Sciences and Social Services (Field 09): Promotive health and developmental services, Preventative health, Curative health, Rehabilitative services (sub-fields). Proposals was adopted for the following Pastoral Counselling/Therapy The purpose of this study was to investigate recommendations regarding professional standards for training and registration in pastoral work. The aim is to obtain professional recognition for Pastoral Counsellors/Therapists by accreditation and recognition from a relevant professional council. The goal is also to formulate these standards in line with the processes of the South African Qualification Authority (SAQA). The following four forms of pastoral work were distinguished and discussed: Mutual care, Pastoral care, Pastoral counselling, and Pastoral therapy. The Accreditation Committee proposed the following sub-fields: Human and Social Studies (Field 07): Religious and ethical foundation of society (sub-field). Health Sciences and Social Services (Field 09): Promotive health and developmental services, Preventative health, Curative health, Rehabilitative services (sub-fields). Proposals was adopted for the following Pastoral Counselling!Therapy qualifications: Certificate in Pastoral Counselling (Basic) Certificate in Pastoral Counselling (Post Basic), Certificate in Pastoral Counselling (Intermediate), Diploma and post graduate degrees in Pastoral Counselling (Advanced), Masters and Doctorate Degrees in Pastoral Counselling (Specialist). After narrow consultation the level descriptors were discussed and accepted. As all proposals this will still be open for changes. The following roles were described using the format of a Qualification based on Unit Standards. Unit Standards are linked to the proposed six "roles" which are seen as generic to all Pastoral Counselling practices: Maintain effective relational and communication competence, Apply and maintain professional work ethics, Plan and facilitate pastoral counselling process, Engage in an effective personal development process, Design and conduct course of treatment, Conduct research, The roles and applied competencies for the pastoral counselling/therapy specialised field were defined. These roles may be used to re-shape current qualifications, as well as to research and design new qualifications. They are intended as initial guidelines for providers. The following registered categories for pastoral counsellors/therapists were proposed by the accreditation committee and accepted by SAAP: Category 1: Basic level pastoral counsellor (NQF Level 2) Category 2: Post basic level pastoral counsellor (NQF level 3) Category 3: Intermediate level pastoral counsellor (NQF Level 4) Category 4: Advanced level pastoral therapist (NQF Level 5/6) Category 5: Specialist level pastoral therapist (NQF Level 7 /8) The following outcomes (unit standards) for Pastoral Counsellors/Therapists were identified: UNIT 1: Applying work ethics UNIT 2: Understanding pastoral counselling theory UNIT 3: Facilitating pastoral counselling skills UNIT 4: Conducting research UNIT 5: Developing self-knowledge Some of the recommendations were: It became necessary to have some form of regulation and/or even "control" to prevent the abuse of people who ostensibly suffer from mental illness. To establish professional standards for training in pastoral counselling and to obtain professional recognition for pastoral counsellors/therapists through accreditation and recognition from a relevant professional council. In doing this we should also come to an agreement on a proper set of work ethics. It was recommend that the level descriptors should be further elaborated through a careful analysis of the standards proposed, but that the process of moving from general to specific descriptors should be adopted in the absence of meaningful generic level descriptors. It was recommend that the proposed standards and qualifications should only be adopted once processes is established where an SGB has been established and registered with SAQA, and these standards and qualifications have been accepted by providers, professional Pastoral Counsellors/Therapists, professional associations, etc. / Philosophy, Practical & Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Practical Theology (Pastoral Therapy))

This dissertation investigates the evangelical ethics of Prof. Oliver O’Donovan in order to explore the implications of his “evangelical realism” for theological anthropology, moral knowledge and the concept of moral order. The Barth-Brunner debate regarding natural theology provides a lens onto these issues. Theological case studies are used to test our findings. Chapter 1 provides an overture to these issues, paying attention to current ideas about human nature and morality, and the growing influence of neuroscience and evolutionary psychology. Chapter 2 focuses on Resurrection and Moral Order, elucidating the salient factors in its outline for evangelical ethics. Chapter 3 diagnoses the challenges which a dialectical epistemology presents to the development of a doctrine of evangelical ethics. Chapter 4 delves into O’Donovan’s treatment of the Barth-Brunner debate over natural theology, and discovers therein an illuminating correspondence between O’Donovan’s ethics and the concept of a human “capacity for revelation” (Offenbarungsmächtigkeit), which became a hinge issue in the debate. This provides a helpful lens onto O’Donovan’s concept of moral order. Chapter 5 examines the intrinsic connection between the concept of moral order and the epistemic role of faith. Kierkegaard’s treatment of the paradoxical aspects of faith as an event of epistemic access figures prominently in this analysis. Chapter 6 brings together the results of our analysis and applies them to the thesis that: the transformation of persons lies at the heart of evangelical ethics. The cosmology of faith emerges as a critical hermeneutical factor in the development of a doctrine of evangelical ethics. We explore here the doctrinal implications for Trinitarian theology. Chapter 7 draws out practical implications of our thesis. We see the central place of prayer and worship in evangelical ethics, and point out implications for teaching. Lastly, we show practical applications of our thesis by examining the bio-ethical issues of human reproductive technologies, with special attention to O’Donovan’s work, Begotten or Made?

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)

This study builds on Jesse Mugambi's post-Cold War proposal for a paradigm shift, from liberation to reconstruction. Mugambi's line of reasoning is based upon his understanding of the post-Cold War period in Africa, and the need for a shift from the "dominant" paradigm of liberation, in articulating African theology, to reconstruction. The Cold War had divided Africa (and the rest of the world) into two ideological blocks, namely, the East Bloc nations (i.e., Warsaw Pact) vs. the nations in the West (NATO). With the destruction of the Berlin Wall, the end of western colonial rule in Africa, and the demise of apartheid, Mugambi prods that, there is a need to shift the theological emphasis from the Exodus motif to that of a Reconstructive motif. While the former motif was biblically modelled on Moses, and the Exodus from Egypt and the Journey to the Promised Land, the latter is biblically modelled on Nehemiah who led the Jews in the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem following their return from Exile after seventy years of Babylonian captivity. Thus Mugambi sets the stage for the debate in this study, by his proposal that the post-Cold War Africa should now shift its paradigm in theo-social discourses. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2007.

Since independence in 1964, Zambia in general and the Copperbelt Province in particular have largely depended on the mono-economy based on copper mining. Around the 1970s the copper prices started falling causing the mining industry to collapse leading to economic stagnation. Efforts to revive the economy, such as the Structural Adjustment Programme implemented since the late 1980s have not brought about well-being for the people of the Copperbelt. As a result the government of the Republic of Zambia decided to launch an economic diversification programme for the Copperbelt province whose main aim is to seek and implement alternative economic activities that would accelerate economic growth thereby improving people's living conditions on the Copperbelt. This thesis proposes that in order to overcome poverty and improve people's living conditions, we need to shift our policy and practice from free market economic growth centred approaches, to shalom. The shift is based on the argument that development seen through the lenses of free market economic growth alone has not sustained life; instead it has contributed to environmental degradation and poverty creation in Zambia and the Copperbelt Province in particular. The thesis argues that shalom is an authentic development paradigm. This argument is based on three fundamental integral parts of shalom namely creation, people and justice. In order to bring about comprehensive well-being for people there is a need to a) appreciate creation as a phenomenon with its own integrity. It should not be destroyed for selfish economic ends; b) give pre-eminence to people as free agents who could participate in creating their own destiny based on their capacities and social conditionalities; and c) ensure social justice as a necessary condition for human relations and economic dispensation. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004.

Diss--Universiẗat Wien, 2007.

This thesis is a moral and theological interpretation of the book of Jeremiah (primarily chapters twenty-one through twenty-nine). The prime focus is on the Hebrew term  and associated vocabulary and terminology which enable an understanding of how the book of Jeremiah sets up knowledge of Yahweh as a primary concern. Such a concern reinforces the rhetorical and ethical nature of the textual witness and elevates the significant and profound challenge that is put forth. For instance, Jeremiah 22:16 is a prime example within the book where an understanding of  of Yahweh should be given adequate attention, although it has not in Old Testament scholarship, to arrive at the kind of moral and theological interpretation that is voiced in this ancient Israelite prophet. Knowledge of Yahweh in the text of Jeremiah is to be distinguished from a purely cognitive knowing that removes from the equation, in any way, living a certain kind of life with Yahweh - a life which is measured only by the highest of moral and religious standards. Indeed, there is a direct relationship between a certain kind of action/way of living and a genuine knowledge of Yahweh. Key texts explored in this thesis then, are those which bring the challenge of a true knowledge of Yahweh to the Judean king, priest, prophet, and people. An overall coherent vision of what it means to know Yahweh, the God of Israel, in the text of Jeremiah, is the aim of this thesis. / Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern Studies / D.Th. (Old Testament)

This study engages in an ethical examination of contemporary socio-ecological and economic issues which takes seriously the plight of Africa, African communities, indigenous knowledge and biodiversity. It studies the impact of bioprospecting, biopiracy and intellectual property rights regimes on the protection, use, access to, and conservation of biodiversity and indigenous knowledge in Africa. The study also examines the ways in which northern multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and their agents prospect and convert African resources (biological commons and indigenous knowledge) into their intellectual property as well as private property. It argues that the transfer of African biological commons and indigenous knowledge is exacerbated by economic globalisation and the neo-colonial mentality of conquest concealed under the guise of commerce. The study demonstrates through concrete case studies the tactics used by northern multinational corporations to claim these resources as their intellectual property rights and private property. It observes that the privatisation of biological commons and indigenous knowledge only brings about nominal or no benefits to African communities who have nurtured and continue to nurture them. It also observes that this privatisation results in fewer benefits for biodiversity as they lead to the promotion of monoculture, i.e. commercialisation of all things. To address the injustice and exploitative implications of bioprospecting, biopiracy and intellectual property rights, the study recommends the adoption and implementation of the African model law, the establishment of defensive intellectual property rights mechanisms, and the strategy of resistance and advocacy. It suggests that these measures ought to be grounded on the African normative principle of botho and the Christian ethical principle of justice. / Systematic Theology and Theological Ethics / D.Th.(Theological Ethics)

Systematic Theology and Theological Ethics / D.Th. (Theological Ethics)

In formal statements, the international organization Youth With A Mission (YWAM) clearly endorses female leaders. In YWAM Germany, however, women are underrepresented in leadership positions. This dissertation seeks to explain this dearth, especially in terms of the role played by Scripture. By means of interviews with leaders in YWAM Germany, possible answers were explored. Surprising for an evangelical organization, the interpretation of Scripture proved not to be a significant factor. Other factors that emerged are church background, the lack of female role models, lower self-confidence of women, and the role of incumbent leadership. The latter appeared to be the most crucial factor, since incumbent leaders, mostly men, select and appoint new leaders. It is likely that in this they are influenced by stereotypical conceptions of the leader as male and inclined to prefer those like themselves. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Theological Ethics)