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The argument of this dissertation is that the garden can be considered a proleptic eschatological landscape outside of time. To prove this argument I pull together strands of philosophical reflections on death, history of religions analysis concerning sacred space and time and monastic spirituality. I develop this argument by focusing on the enclosed garden, which has connected with it, in myth and metaphor, abundant meanings concerning life after death in a paradisiacal state of bliss. These meanings also become evident in the physical layout of the garden, which, when analyzing it in terms of substantial and situational definitions of sacred space, becomes a prime example of a sacred space, linked physically and symbolically to an eschatological space. The enclosed garden plays a very important role in monastic spirituality as it is not only associated with the cloister, but also with the Virgin Mary, which both offer the monk a gateway to eternity in Paradise. Physically the enclosed garden becomes the very center of the monastic precinct, offering through a ritual-sensory experience of its spatial qualities an experience which allows the monk a moment of spiritual transcendence. It is also, thus, in this moment, when the monk's physical experience of the garden is woven together with ideas of paradise as an abode of eternity, that the garden becomes a sacred space which can lift him outside of time to experience paradisiacal happiness. This requires a process of hermeneutical interpretation from the monk and the theorist reflecting on this encounter. It is a dialogue between the garden and its interpreters, which leads to the conclusion that an encounter with the sacred never stands in isolation.

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Violence against women is a social reality in South Africa. In 2014, the country was named the world rape capital by media and humanitarian organizations because of the intensity of violence. Several legal reforms have been put in place to address such violence, which include the Domestic Violence Act 116 of 1998 and the establishment of Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences investigations units across all South African Police Services stations. However, because of the persistence of violence against women, it appears these laws and policies have not been successful in addressing the problem. As representatives of religion in the public sphere, Faith Based Organisations (FBOs) have also responded to the problem of violence against women. In this thesis, I study the interventions of Ihata Shelter, a Muslim organisation, St Anne's Homes, a Christian organisation, and South African Faith & Family Institute (SAFFI), a multi-faith-based organisation, in responding to violence against women in Cape Town, South Africa. Ihata Shelter and St Anne's Homes have established shelters to offer support to victims of abuse, and SAFFI provides education and training on violence against women to religious leaders and religious communities. Guided by Van Gennep's rite of passage theory, I argue that these organisations follow the model of a rite of passage in their interventions. I explain how the three stages of a rite of passage (separation, transition and incorporation) are embodied in these three organisations' interventions. My findings reflect that some of the women who had undergone the shelter programmes transformed from a state of trauma caused by abuse to a state of healing and empowerment, while some religious leaders transformed from a state of non-involvement to a state of positive engagement and action in addressing violence against women after undergoing SAFFI's teachings and trainings. Overall, I conclude that the work of these FBOs in addressing violence against women reflects the continued presence of religion in the public sphere and its role in addressing social problems.

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No description available.

This thesis is a theoretical discussion that brings together three major fields of enquiry. It is structured in two sections. In Part One, the notion of the social imaginary, as a theoretical response to the challenges of 'multiple modernities', is compared to the theories of the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. In Part Two, the findings from this comparison are applied to reflect on contemporary issues in Christianity in and out of Africa. The notion of the social imaginary represents a way of addressing issues of society through the lens of the subject's imagination, instead of thinking of society as external and bounded. Lacan helps us to ground this approach in a psychological appraisal of the subject, whereby the subject is 'lacking' and the external world functions as a source of identification and cognition that serves to cover up this void. This perspective allows us to re-think 'imagination' in terms of signification as, for Lacan, the writing of the self hinges on the subject's appropriation of signifiers. Similarly, the social imaginary could be understood in terms of the subject's assembly of images. The twist, for Lacan, is that the meaning ( signified) of the signifier can never be finally determined, which raises fundamental questions about the production of knowledge and the coherence of the social-ideological reality. This traumatic gap in the signifying chain is what Lacan's enigmatic order of the Real is about, and its repression requires from the subject a response that oscillates between thought and affect. Following Slavoj Zizek, we can develop a Lacanian parallel to the social imaginary around the notion of the master-signifier that 'quilts' the production of meaning and anchors our social reality. Crucially, it does so by producing 'objects' that address the subject's desire on the level of cognition as well as enjoyment, of thought and affect. The notion of the master-signifier provides an appealing approach to examine the Charismatic Christian revival taking place in Africa. Taking Ghana as example, I argue that this 'prosperity' -themed awakening could be understood as a response to a context in which symbolic and material voids converge to create a deficit of meaning in the postcolony. The effects of these developments also spill into Africa's 'new' diaspora in Europe, where African-led churches represent an intriguing test-case for a Lacanian reading of 'multiple modernities'. A central point emerging from this analysis is that the diaspora context requires quilting operations that halt not only the sliding of the signified, but of the signifier as such. This analysis could also be read as an indirect contribution to the debate on the significance of the African Christian diaspora in Europe, especially in the light of the idea of 'reverse mission'. In this regard, this thesis urges one to note the changing outlooks of African Christianity from the African continent to Europe, reflecting the changing and expanding psychological needs of its adherents.

This thesis is a socio-historical account of the founding and development of the largest Christian denomination among South African Indians - Bethesda, or the Indian branch of the Full Gospel Church of Southern Africa, with reference to a model religious belonging and change developed by Professor J.S. Cumpsty. The members of Bethesda are drawn largely from the descendants of Tamil and Telegu speaking indentured labourers who were brought to South Africa mainly to work in the sugar plantations of Natal in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The early chapters of the thesis examine the background of these people, including the circumstances surrounding their emigration from India, most often due to famine, and the harsh conditions they endured on the estates in Natal in the early years of indenture. The religion the indentured brought with them to Natal was the 1 folk 1 Hinduism of their native Indian villages where worship often centred around local deities who needed to be propitiated to prevent outbreaks of epidemic diseases. This religion conformed to what Cumpsty has called 1Nature Religion 1 in which immediate experience is conceived of as real, reality as monistic and time as cyclical (biological). It is corporate, present texture of life oriented and largely a behaviour pattern. Religious knowledge is typically wisdom. Although some effort was made to convert Indians to Christianity at this time, notably by Methodist and Anglican missionaries, little success was achieved and Christianity remained for Indians in South Africa a 'white man's religion 1. Later chapters in the thesis show that by the nineteen twenties, however, the socio-cultural experience of the Indians had changed. Few then remained in agricultural work, most were employed in unskilled or semi-skilled positions in manufacturing industries or service positions in the rapidly growing urban areas. It was at this time that Bethesda was founded as the United Pentecostal Mission in Pietermaritzburg by J.A. Rowlands and Ebenezer Theophilus. Although the appeal of Pentecostalism was limited among Indians initially, and there is some evidence that early Christian converts were ostracised by their relatives, when J.F. Rowlands, the elder son of J.A. Rowlands, moved to Durban and founded Bethesda, within a few years the church succeeded in becoming well established in Durban and surrounding areas of Natal. This phase in the history of Bethesda may be correlated with what Cumpsty, in terms of his model of religious belonging, has called the Irrational or Paradoxical Stage. In this stage religious beliefs gain their authority from their success in creating the required sense of belonging because they are independent of the chaotic or unacceptable socio-cultural experience. In this paradoxical stage the highly emotionally charged religious meeting, charismatic experience and charismatic figure find their place, as Rowlands provided with his revival campaigns, 1Bethesdascopes 1 , 'Musical Sermons' and the puritanical life style and ethic enjoined in his teachings. By the sixties the chaotic life experience of South African Indians has stabilized. Increasing levels of education for young people and expectations of a better life than their parents had led were reflected in a new emphasis in Bethesda on theological training, dignity and order in both worship and the appearance of church buildings. Thus the members of Bethesda sought to enter an Integrative stage where beliefs and practices had to be relevant to the socio-cultural experience. By the nineteen eighties, and consequent on the death of J.F. Rowlands and closer links with other Full Gospel churches in South Africa, Bethesda has clearly moved away from being an Indian Christian church to an emphasis on_ a wider humanitarian concern in which Indian identity is subsumed under a Pentecostal umbrella which includes missionary activity overseas and links with Pentecostal churches in the United States. The success of Bethesda, in contrast to the relative failure of other Christian denominations among Indians in South Africa, can be clearly seen in its ability not only to provide a sense of belonging in changing sociocultural experiences but to actively promote the aims and aspirations of its members in a rapidly changing world.

In this study Seward Hiltner's approach to pastoral counselling is analysed on the basis of a number of criteria derived from a survey of the history of pastoral care. On the assumption that any trend in pastoral care which gained enough support from a wide enough section of the Church for a long enough period of time to warrant attention from recognised historians of pastoral care qualifies as a significant aspect of the tradition, the criteria take the form of questions arising from these trends. The questions are grouped so as to qualify or balance each other. The themes covered are those of discipline in the Church as both restoring the individual and protecting the Church; the definition of sin varying with the social role of the Church and providing both a boundary around the group and a code for individual guidance, while also representing an inner attitude; good and evil in human nature and the need for both absolute demand (including the provision of an ideal with which to identify the ideal self) and unlimited acceptance; the extent to which the pastor may exercise authority over the client; the need for both lay and ordained ministries; the scope of pastoral care, including the functions of healing, facilitating spiritual growth, sustaining, guiding, discipline, restoration, and liberating from oppressive institutions and customs; the need to provide people with a clear logic of belonging to God; and appropriate openness to the Christian tradition, secular social sciences and the sociopolitical context of the Church. On these criteria Hiltner's approach was found to have been well matched to the particular social context of America in the fifties, but to lack several aspects for the changed context of the present. These would either have to be accommodated in the counselling approach or be catered for in the pastoral context in which counselling should be offered. They include providing a demand both in the sense of a powerful ideal and a moral standard; integrating healing and sustaining in counselling with the other pastoral functions; reintroducing a sense of pastoral authority together with greater recognition of the role of lay ministry; providing a stronger and more explicit "logic of belonging"; and drawing more deeply on the pastoral traditions. Although there is overlap between the various criteria, it is suggested that they have proved useful in analysing Hiltner's approach and could be used to expose other approaches to the wisdom of the tradition. Suggestions are made for the development and use of the criteria in further research.