The growth of independent churches has long been a source for social and religious research in Southern African countries. The swell of such churches is said to be equal to the spread of fire across dry grassland. Lately, Pentecostalism in Africa has reached proportions that inevitably lead to questions about why there is such a need for conservative fundamentalist congregations, where the members tend to identify with subordination to a strong and powerful leader. This study explores the link between submission and supremacy in the “ingroup”versus “out-group” controversy. The study examines how a particular Pentecostal church in Cape Town is creating a space for their members to belong and to relate. My questions pivot around how dynamics play out between the leaders and the members of this group, and how crucial aspects of their identity, personal and collective, are formed within the community and their particular faith. This project shows how African Pentecostals are negotiating a way to resist the modern world and invent a way to live lives where spirituality is the starting point for everything and for everyone. Further, the study demonstrates how the embodiment of servant hood and godliness serves as an important reference point for these people in their attempt to bridge the dissonance between the secular and the sacred. It is argued that the opposition of good and evil is the common ground for negotiating their theology and that all aspects of their lives are centred on this dualistic worldview. The study also examines the importance of ritualised group activity and interaction, as well as demonstrating how the motifs of salvation, as opposed to damnation, are used to unify the group. It further shows how ideology is reproduced through a militant language that pushes people into a battle between dark and light forces in everything that is happening and everything they do in life.

The goal of this study is to examine the historical circumstances and individuals involved in this narrative as a way to critically reflect on the use of comparison in the production, circulation, and perpetuation of knowledge about religion.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 92-101). / This essay seeks to unearth the historical development of madrasah education in South Africa from 1973 to 2008. It identifies transformations that have taken place in the madrasah education landscape in the last thirty to forty years. This work may be seen as largely an exercise in contemporary historical excavation. In addition to determining whether the transformations have changed or sustained the central function of madrasahs as spaces for religious socialization and sectarian identity formation, the essay is an attempt to underline the link between these changes and the broader shifts and developments that have taken place in Muslim communities and the country. The conclusion suggests that while major transformations have taken place at South African madrasahs, the changes - in a broader sense - still fall very much within the central function of madrasahs historically and globally. There has been no radical shift, or even a conception thereof, beyond often sectarian religious orthodoxy.

Bibliography: pages 89-94. / Education is perhaps the area which has been affected most profoundly, both by the policy of Apartheid and the resistance to that policy. Since 1976, the year of the Soweto uprising, people have been talking about the Crisis in Education. Sporadic student uprisings have occurred from time to time. The education system has been rejected by many teacher and community organisations. This state of affairs is hardly surprising if we consider the main characteristics of the present education system as seen by Ken Hartshorne, "It is based on race and apartheid ideology. It is·based on class and economic discrimination. The central state authority is dominant. The education system is authoritarian in character. The education system is the site of crisis and struggle. It is permeated by contradictions and uncertainties" (1992, 4-8). This thesis is an attempt to locate the curriculum practice in Religious Education during the height of the Apartheid era, to consider what options we have and to make proposals as to what can be done in terms of philosophy and practice for the future.

Bibliography: leaves 122-128. / The principal objective of this research paper is to explore the foundation of human rights according to the Social Teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, the UN Declaration of human rights and the African Charter. However, the African Charter reflects the carbon copy of the UN Declaration and they both demonstrate that the origin of human rights is human dignity and the worth of the person.

Bibliography: leaves 139-155. / The New Constitution protects Muslims and Jews as part of the minority religions in a pluralistic South Africa just like the rights of women are procured in the public and private arenas. Multiplicity usually exacerbates a more interactive relationship between divergent faiths thereby bringing into sharp focus the strained association of local Muslims and Jews considering the escalating violence in Palestine/Israel. This study firstly attempts to examine the status of traditional Muslim and Jewish women autonomously in the sacred spaces of the mosque, synagogue and home to highlight the customary gendered issues in the related spaces. These gendered sacred spaces are managed via ritual activity detennined in traditional law, which is rooted in genderized cosmogonies and myths founded in theology consequently exhibiting the interplay between theology and law. The study also endeavors to analyze the position of traditional Muslim and Jewish women reciprocally in the public and private sacred terrains of Cape Town to underline gendered similarities. These commonalities akin to genderized sacred spaces could serve as a forum for bridging the local Muslim-Jewish divide by stimulating discourse among intellectuals; community organizations negotiating public and private matters; and individual members of the respective religious traditions. Gendered resemblances could additionally amplifY the debate of women's rights in the public and private sacred domains to evoke an equitable understanding of each other (in the binaries of Muslims and Jews as well as men and women).

Bibliography: leaves 80-88. / In a post-apartheid, recently democratised South Africa African identity is constantly being negotiated within the media, the political sphere, and a variety of cultural expressions. Firstly, I explore the ways in which the popular musical forms of Hip Hop, Kwaito and Reggae in South Africa are contributing to the forging of a global African identity which challenges Eurocentric conceptions but also inserts an implicit response into recent debates about the limitations of an essentialist, Afrocentric paradigm. Secondly, I argue that the construction of this identity can be located within an interpretative framework that examines how popular music is engaged in a kind of religious work. Historically, musical expressions emerging out of the diaspora as well as from the continent have been media for retaining and reformulating African religion and culture under conditions of extreme social upheaval. Scholars such as Jon Michael Spencer have argued that the religious aspect of black music is informed by the need to be liberated from an oppressed mentality and therefore liberation needs to be regarded as a religious activity, an alternative spirituality which challenges existing socio-political values. Musical expressions such as Hip Hop, Reggae and Kwaito can be understood as creative transpositions of indigenous African religion within the context of a worldview informed by the supernatural power of the spoken word, the production of a sacred sonic space, and the advancement of what Hip Hop scholar Nelson has referred to as a "combative spirituality."

Includes bibliographical references. / This study examines the biblical texts of Luke-Acts in an attempt to reconstruct the general first century eastern Mediterranean context in which Luke wrote. Specific features of urban Greco-Roman society will be analysed. These include the social, cultural, political, economic and religious dimensions, all of which will be used to construct a particular understanding of Luke’s attitude to the issues of wealth and poverty in his own setting. I argue that the specific features of urban Greco-Roman society gave rise to a particular type of Lucan ideology which aimed to secure and legitimate the role and place of the poor in the Christian community. Within this process I will trace the traditional understanding of wealth and possessions within the Greco- Roman world and link it to the manner in which Luke wished it to be used within the Christian community. I specifically make use of techniques and models developed by the social sciences in the construction of my argument. The purity and honour codes, as well as the model of patronage, form a significant part of my analysis. Finally, I use my construction of Luke’s understanding of wealth and poverty and its religious significance, and extract from this, via the process of hermeneutics, a message which is relevant for Christians in South Africa today. I argue that Christians in South Africa need to become involved in the process of reconstruction and development by adopting a 'critical solidarity' stance towards society. Christians are reminded of what true Christian fellowship entails and that spirituality is embedded in a 'concrete' reality. The role which Christians can play in the 'healing' process of our country, especially in their adoption of appropriate biblical attitudes to the use of wealth in their homes, churches and communities, is a prime concern.

Includes bibliographical references. / This study is about the renewal of theology and the role of the church in the social reconstruction of Zambia. It proceeds from the understanding that theology has and always will have a crucial task to perform in Zambia, a nation that professes itself to be Christian. This potential to contribute to public life, unless otherwise, demonstrates that theology is not primarily an abstract talk or a description about God-in-himself. Rather, it is an attempt to reflect critically on, and to express in the most clearest and coherent language possible, what it means to be involved by God in the divine creative and redemptive process of transforming the world into his reign. To examine this question, the study engages an inter-disciplinary theoretical approach, making use of various sources. It has drawn on liberation and post-liberation theories, popular language and sociolinguistics. The thesis examines the context of contemporary Zambia, analysing the social, economic and political situation for the past thirty-four years. This analysis is linked to the ecclesiastical history of Zambia. Particular attention is given to the mainline Protestant Churches. Directed towards bringing to realisation the vision of God's reign on earth today, imperatively, God's reign is defined. The definition sees reign from two dimensions: as a future hope and as earthly utopia. An interpretive link is then made between God's reign and concrete utopia. To root the theological argument, some theological currents operative in Zambia are examined. This analysis is necessary as it serves as part of the strategy to see the typology of theology in Zambia and how, need be, this theology can be renewed. The thesis ends with some theological propositions for re-imaging God's reign on earth today. Although they are not novel suggestions in theological method, to bring attention to these propositions in this study at the dawn of the new millennium, the church and theology in Zambia are offered yet another chance to reconsider their position so that they may live up to the challenge of their existence.

Includes bibliographical references. / This thesis seeks to illustrate how Thomas Merton's life, spiritual journey, work and understanding of Zen is still relevant to contemporary religious challenges. Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk, had a unique spiritual journey with the ability to be open to new experiences and to embrace the good in other religions. Today in our global village, we live and work among people who practise religion differently to what we might think and do.