Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M. Th. (Practical Theology)

Au sein de l’économie libérale, est né un modèle d’entreprise conjuguant altruisme et recherche du profit : l’Économie de Communion. À travers sa responsabilité sociale, cette entreprise adopte des stratégies particulières de gestion qui tentent de replacer l’homme au centre de l’activité de l’entreprise. L’objectif du mémoire est de présenter l’Économie de Communion, son but et les différents axes qui la soutiennent, ainsi que sa compréhension de l’interaction du monde des affaires avec l’éthique, la morale et le droit. À la lumière des expériences vécues par 811 entreprises, cet agir économique rend compte de l’efficacité de son mode de gestion au niveau de l’optimisation de la performance entrepreneuriale. L’Économie de Communion met en exergue notamment une approche où la dynamique économique repose sur la solidarité et la fraternité. / Within the liberal economy, a business model was born combining altruism and profit-seeking: the Economy of Communion. Through its social responsibility, this model adopts specific management strategies that try to put people at the center of the firm's activities. The aim of the paper is to present the Economy of Communion, its purpose and the various axes that support it, as well as its understanding of the interaction of the business world with ethics, values and law. In the light of the experience of 811 firms, the Economic of Communion acknowledges the efficiency of its management mode in terms of optimizing entrepreneurial performance. It emphasizes in particular an approach where economic dynamics are based on solidarity and fraternity.

Les écoles catholiques sont ordonnées à l’éducation chrétienne des jeunes, chrétiens ou non, qui leur sont confiés. En accueillant des élèves de toutes les confessions ou traditions religieuses, elles s’ouvrent en même temps à la diversité culturelle et religieuse. En tenant compte de celle-ci dans leur offre éducative, elles la valorisent. Cette valorisation signifie l’acceptation du pluralisme religieux en son sein. Comment ce fait est-il considéré dans l’éducation chrétienne des jeunes que donnent les collèges Bourget de Rigaud et Saint-Viateur de Ouagadougou ? Quels sont les enjeux et les perspectives théologiques d’une telle considération ? Puisque ces deux établissements appartiennent à la Congrégation des Clercs de Saint-Viateur, elles ont en plus des missions assignées à toute école celle d’évangéliser, donc d’annoncer Jésus Christ et son évangile, pour humaniser et donner du sens à l’existence humaine, pour faire naître de nouveaux chrétiens et susciter avec eux une communauté où la foi est vécue, approfondie et célébrée. Mais, dans un contexte de pluralisme religieux, comment évangéliser sans porter atteinte à la foi d’autrui ? Comment éduquer chrétiennement des jeunes non chrétiens et non croyants ? Quelle approche théologique adopter afin d’éduquer les jeunes en tenant compte du pluralisme religieux ? À la fin de cette étude, menée en suivant la démarche de la praxéologie pastorale, nous apportons des réponses à ces questions tout en proposant comme nouvelle façon d'évangéliser dans un tel contexte une approche éducative dite d'éducation des jeunes au pluralisme religieux. / Catholic schools are ordained to the Christian education of young Christians or non-Christians entrusted to them. By welcoming students of all faiths or religious traditions, they are at the same time open to cultural and religious diversity. By taking this into account in their educational offer, they enhance its value. This enhancement means the acceptance of religious pluralism within it. How is this fact considered in the Christian education of young people given by the Colleges of Bourget of Rigaud and Saint-Viator of Ouagadougou? What are the challenges and the theological perspectives of such a consideration? Since these two establishments belong to the Congregation of the Clerics of St. Viator, they also have missions assigned to every school: to evangelize, that is, to proclaim Jesus Christ and his Gospel, to humanize and give meaning to human existence, to bring new Christians into being and to foster with them a community where faith is lived, deepened and celebrated. But, in a context of religious pluralism, how can we evangelize without damaging the faith of others? What educational approach should be adopted to educate young people considering religious pluralism? How to educate young people of different religious and non-religious traditions in a Christian way? What theological approach is preferred in such an undertaking? At the end of this inductive research, carried out following the approach of pastoral praxeology, we provide answers to these questions while proposing as a new way of evangelizing in such a context an educational approach called the education of young people to religious pluralism.

The present research study is a deconstructive collaborative project situated within a postmodern paradigm. The research is premised on a notion that disability has been constructed by societies to reflect their values and norms. Despite various ancient and contemporary worldviews stabilising this normative paradigm, disability has remained a shifting and fleeting concept. For the most part, it has cast the disabled identity in more negative and alienating ways than positive. The Christian cultural context of Lesotho within which the study is situated has not done any better in terms of portraying people with disabilities. Instead, it has inherited the legacy of the ancient Mediterranean world and further re-read it in the light of the demands of contemporary society on the disabled identity. For instance, people with disabilities are still constructed as „sinners‟, „monsters‟, „add-ons‟, and pathological burdens who cannot by themselves survive the challenges of the contemporary world. Using the ideas of Foucault and Derrida, the study examines ways in which such a notion of disability is not only linguistically unstable but also founded on the binary opposites. The participatory nature of the study brings the important voices of people with disabilities to further destabilise the notion of disability and to deconstruct the dominant disability story. The immersion of this study within the participatory ethics and consciousness of Kotzé and Heshusius respectively, has led to an ambitious proposing of the participatory model of disability. The latter has leanings towards metaphors of the church as communion founded on and nurtured by the theologies of embrace, interdependence, healing and botho. It also resonates with the metaphor of the church as expounded in I Corinthians 12. As members of the body of Christ, no member can suffer without the rest of the body feeling the same. If one member of the body is disabled all the body is disabled. Alienating and marginalising others has no place in such a metaphor of church as communion, since by its own definition, all belong to and participate within it. / Practical Theology / D. Th. (Practical Theology with specialisation in Pastoral Therapy)

This dissertation suggests the Song of Songs as a biblical paradigm for Christian spiritual direction based on the poem’s human dynamics, theological poetics and mystical aesthetic. The Song of Songs is paradigmatic as a journey from a state of self-neglect (depletion), through dynamic encounters of love (transformation), to living who I am in union with the divine I AM (deification). Identifying the human beloved as archetypal seeker and positing transformation in love as the raison-d’être for spiritual direction, the research delineates important implications for spiritual praxis, namely: the human subject (locus); human yearning (focus); the human search (journey); dynamics of human transformation and spiritual maturation (process); aspects of life-integration and union with God (purpose); and becoming a living sacrament in the world (epiphany). With its experiential-existential approach, The Canticle of Spiritual Direction serves as an interdisciplinary and intercultural resource on the Song of Songs, Christian spiritual direction, and Christian mysticism. / Christian Spirituality, Church History & Missiology / M. Th. (Christian Spirituality)

The last Supper Jesus had with his disciples on the night before he died on the cross is the foundation of a major liturgical celebration in the Catholic Church called 'the Eucharist'. One of the major designations of the Eucharist is that it is a sacrifice. The starting point of this work is that the sacrificial character of the Eucharist is not as meaningful and relevant for Xhosa people as it should be. The way forward is to study the Eucharistic and Xhosa sacrifices, compare them and suggest ways of rendering the Eucharistic sacrifice meaningful and relevant to Xhosa the people. Although not conclusive, the New Testament gives a strong foundation for the sacrificial understanding of the Eucharist. The Eucharist, as interpreted through the Last Supper accounts, covers all the conventional intentions of sacrifice, i.e. propitiation, communion, thanksgiving and mutual responsibility. The Fathers of the Church affirm the sacrificial character of the Eucharist with varying emphases, but taken together, their understanding shows development of thought and complementarity of themes. In the Middle Ages the most pronounced intention of the . Eucharistic sacrifice is propitiation and post Tridentine theological reflection is informed by this mentality. According to modem and contemporary thought, Christ's death on the cross, which is sacrarnentally represented in the Eucharist, is not an act performed on our behalf to appease an angry God but God's act of love towards us. The emphasis is on self-offering to God as exemplified by Christ. The Xhosa people still have regard for sacrificial rituals, but modernity has modified and sometimes changed their understanding and practice of sacrifice. The principle of God's universal salvific will and the doctrine of incarnation provide theological grounds for inculturating the Eucharist. Thus the inclusion of ancestors and use of cultural symbols in the celebration of the Eucharist may render it meaningful to Xhosa people. Relating the Eucharist to Xhosa culture will revitalise the communion element in Eucharistic sacrifice, which element has been lost sight of through the centuries. Eucharistic sacrifice in its turn will help Xhosa Catholics to have a deepened understanding of sacrifice that extends beyond performance of rituals to include self-giving. / Philosophy, Practical & Systematic Theology / D.Th.(Systematic Theology)

This dissertation examines the dynamics of the oral communication which takes place in the Easter Vigil at St. Augustine's Anglican Church, Thaba 'Nchu. The study uses an analytical framework drawn from Orality Theory and Speech Act Theory, to analyse oral communication in the preaching and singing of the Vigil. Through an approach of Participant Observation, details were obtained of the Easter Vigils of 1994, 1995 and 1996. The historical and cultural background of this All-Night Vigil is traced in European Church History and African Traditional Religion. The roles of the Mothers' Union, the St. Agnes Guild and the Guild of Bernard Mizeki are also highlighted. / Missiology / M.Th (Missiology)

This dissertation considers the possibility that, flowing from his broader theological framework and historical background, John Calvin’s eucharistic theology ‘re-invents’ a doctrine where the ‘substance’ (meaning) of the elements becomes the body and blood of Christ, and the believer who receives them is drawn, through understanding, into participation in Christ. The study begins with the historical setting and the second chapter sketches Calvin’s life. Chapter 3 considers epistemology and the impact of classical rhetoric on Calvin’s approach to knowledge. The following chapter considers Calvin’s understanding of our relationship with the Father, and of Christ as Mediator and as means of salvation. Chapter 5 considers the work of the Spirit in nurturing faith, a ‘higher knowledge’, through preparing us for knowledge of Christ and mediating our understanding of and participation in him. In this manner the Spirit acts as an instrument of revelation to enable us to participate in Christ. Chapters 6 and 7 move to consider Calvin’s writing on the Sacraments, their nature as sign and seals of the promise made in Christ, their substance and their role in our participation in Christ and, in the light of the duplex gratia, as gateways to participation. In Chapter 8 Calvin’s teaching is examined in terms of his opposition to the doctrine of transubstantiation, and his understanding of substance is considered. The possibility that Calvin ‘re-invents’ the doctrine is proposed. This is not to suggest that there is a conscious copying of the doctrine, but that through the process of forming his doctrine, using an alternate philosophical framework, Calvin’s understanding bears significant similarities to the doctrine he so deeply opposed. His key opposition to transubstantiation can then be seen to be to the materialist interpretations that impede the ability of the believer to lift his attention beyond the physical elements to the divine offer they represent. The study concludes by briefly considering the significance of Calvin’s ‘reinvention’ for contemporary understandings.

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[pt] Esta pesquisa analisou características de quatro empresas brasileira, vinculadas ao Projeto de Economia de Comunhão - EdC, buscando comparar seu comportamento com as orientações da Teoria dos Stakeholders. Além disso, foi feita uma comparação de indicadores sociais destas empresas, tomando por base o conjunto oferecido pelo Instituto Brasileiro de Análises Sociais e Econômicas - IBASE, com as empresas constantes no Baco de dados desta instituição, buscando compreender como se dá sua performance em termos de responsabilidade social corporativa. A metodologia utilizada foi o estudo de caso múltiplo, o que permitiu incluir tanto uma abordagem qualitativa, no caso fortemente apoiado em entrevistas, quanto quantitativas. A intenção declarada desta investigação é a de avaliar se as quatro empresas que formam o núcleo da pesquisa têm aumentado seu desempenho competitivo por conta das características inerentes à Economia de Comunhão. O trabalho conclui com o estabelecimento de um conceito de Economia de Comunhão, que esteja de acordo com as orientações da Teoria dos Stakeholders. Para que este objetivo fosse alcançado, foram realizadas visitas a dois Congressos Nacionais sobre o tema, no local onde ocorreu o lançamento mundial do projeto EdC, em Cotia , São Paulo, e foram realizadas visitas às quatro empresas, com o intuito de entrevistar stakeholders internos e externos. Além das entrevistas pessoais, foi realizada uma survey exploratória com todas as noventa empresas filiadas ao projeto no Brasil, e foram mantidos contactos telefônicos e por meio eletrônico com órgãos de classe e o escritório central do Movimento das Focolares, organização da qual a EdC se originou. O trabalho conclui que há grande semelhança entre as características observadas nas quatro empresas visitadas e as propostas da Teoria dos Stakeholders, sem haver, contudo, uma sobreposição perfeita. Quanto à vantagem competitiva, foram identificadas fontes seguras que a estimulam, as quais são de difícil reprodução fora do contexto da EdC. No que se refere ao desempenho no campo social, alguns indicadores mostram-se bastante desenvolvidos, mesmo levando-se em consideração o pequeno porte das empresas consideradas. / [en] This research analised the characteristics of four brazilian companies, that belongs to Communion Economy Project - EdC, trying to compare their behaviour as a whole with the guidances of Stakeholder Theory. Besides, another comparison has been made among the social scorecards of these companies, using the framework of Instituto Brasileiro de Análises Sociais e Econômicas -IBASE, and the companies that belong to the data base of this organization. By doing that, this paper tried to find out how stands the performance of these four companies, in terms of the corporation social responsability. The main goal of this investigation is to estimate whether or not the four companies, that build up the core or the research, have improved their competitiveness due to EdC distinctive characteristics. The research concluded by creating a concept of Economy of Communion enterprise, giving the companies a road map that allows them to keep closer to the Stakeholders Theory guidelines. To reach such goals, was necessary to take part in two annual National EdC Meeting, that took place at Mariápolis Ginetta, in Cotia, São Paulo, the same place in which the EdC`s project has been released to the world. After that, the four companies has been visited, so that it could be possible to make interviews with some internal and external stakeholders. Besides, several contacts has been made by phone and by eletronic mail with unions and other representatives, and a exploratory survey has been launched in order to reach all ninety EdC companies in Brazil. The research concludes that there is a great similarity between the characteristics of the four visited companies and the Theory of Stakeholdes proposals, although they do not fit perfectly. Mentioning the competitive advantage, it has been recognized that there is, indeed, a great source of it by following the EdC framework, although it is pretty hard to reproduce the same behaviour outside it. In relation with the social performance, the research has noticed that some of them are much better than the IBASE average, even in comparison with big companies.