Bibliography: leaves 85-86. / Talk about church unity evokes differing responses, with people responding both positively and negatively. These responses stem from memories of the past, realities of the present, and expectations of the future. Many believe that history is opening a door to a new ecclesiastical era. A door of opportunity, an opportunity to address the divisions that exist within the Church of Jesus Christ. But are churches prepared to forget their divided past, strive to find new expressions of fellowship, of witness, of communion with one another as the new South Africa promises to open the political door a little wider? In the attempt to wrestle with the unity negotiations between the Bantu Presbyterian Church (renamed Reformed Presbyterian Church of South Africa in 1979) and the Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa, this paper will look at opportunities that were missed. South AfriG.an history, bitter as it has been, provided the churches with possibilities to work towards unity. But these were not grasped. The Bantu Presbyterian Church and the Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa confess the same faith with no doctrinal differences. One would have hoped that it would have been less problematic to bring them together than two denominations from different confessional backgrounds. But the history of colonisation and of African resistance to it has largely shaped attitudes against proposals for a united church. European missionaries were seen by many Africans as identical with the colonial powers, and the gospel was regarded as a weapon to disarm them. In a brief historical discussion of missionary expansion I will trace the origins of the two churches, the Bantu Presbyterian Church with a history of African control, and, in fact a near total absence of whites, and the Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa which has always been white dominated. This will highlight the historical reasons that led to conservative attitudes grounded in racial prejudice, the main stumbling block for organic unity. Anyone who is aware of the level of race relations in South Africa since 1 948 cannot avoid asking questions on how the two churches even came to dream of such a union between white and African Christians. In this thesis it will be argued that the ecumenical movement and the World Council of Churches contributed much to challenging these two churches to talk about unity. Through their participation in conferences and programmes of the ecumenical movement, problems resulting from a divided witness became more glaring. The need to address these problems became an urgent matter. The clear witness of the World Council of Churches, its uncompromising challenge to social, economic, and political structures of injustice shaped the agenda for the General Assemblies of both the Bantu Presbyterian Church and the Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa.

Includes bibliographical references. / This research into the religious outlooks of two Xhosa prophets of the nineteenth century establishes the importance of sociopolitical factors as determinants for theology. A need has been felt therefore to investigate matters of a historical nature in the inquiry on the existence of diverse religious reactions of amaXhosa to Christianity. It has been on that same basis that the missionary activity of that same era has been evaluated in this study. Part one deals with the social life of amaXhosa as well as their political systems. It is recognised that land was regarded as an essential component of the religious life of amaXhosa. The close integration of the socio-political, economic and religious spheres of the life of amaXhosa determined that their religious ritual should be a celebration of that unity of life. The chief and inyanga were essential officiants at such religious rituals. All this arrangement accounted for a cohesion in the African traditional life. There were at the same time in-built measures for social control. Part two attempts to evaluate the reaction of nineteenth century missionaries to Xhosa traditional religion. Here there is recognition that in the coming together of amaXhosa and Europeans, there were meeting exponents of different symbolic universes. A faithful adherence to what accounted for traditional background on the part of any of the two sectors, meant that there would be conflict. Because European Christian religion had the necessary strong, political and military supportive structure, it did not simply survive but made divisions in the Xhosa religious life. This it did by posing demands that Xhosa converts should make a complete break with their past. The study ends by concluding that Western Christian religion erred in the demand to Europeanise Africans. It is suggested that so long as the tendency to destroy African traditional practices persists, there will be conflict within the church in South Africa. The church needs to relate its programme to the life of its African context.

Bibliography: leaves 147-155. / The new democratic South Africa is a society that is bedevilled by violent crime. The reintroduction of the death penalty, in the view of many of the victims of violent crime and a section of the politicians, seems to be the only solution. This thesis: "Religious Ethics, Capital Punishment and Reconciliation in a New South Africa," contends that reintroducing capital punishment is not a solution to the problem of violent crime, for two principal reasons: It violates the principle of legitimate pluralism as it infringes on the right of religious and cultural freedom, and it is incompatible with the notion of reconciliation. First, the thesis discusses the justifications of punishment from the perspectives of reason and faith. Then, it goes further to look at the seriousness and causes of violent crime in the new South Africa. In addition, it presents the teachings of five religions - Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and African traditional religion - on capital punishment and reconciliation, comparatively. In the concluding part, it makes an evaluation of crime, capital punishment and reconciliation. This thesis identifies the root cause of violent crime as "poverty", defined as "lack of'. It ends, therefore, by suggesting that the solution to violent crime in the new South Africa is reconciliation as it is the solution to "poverty" as the root cause of violent crime.

Bibliography: leaves 116-122. / This thesis considers South Africa's Nederduitse Gerefonneerde Kerk (NGK) in its journey toward confessional orthodoxy and isolation which began already in the late nineteenth century and continued, through the apartheid era, well into the twentieth. The dates chosen roughly to frame this inquiry (1907 to 1962), however, drive equally toward a particular ecclesial unity. For in 1907, the NGK synods established, out of a desire to cooperate more closely, the Federal Council of Churches (FCC). In 1962 this drive toward ecclesial unity then culminated in the convening of the General Synod, where delegates from all the church's "mother" synods gathered in a single synod for the first time in one hundred years. So united, however, the NGK was, in its ecumenical affiliations, at an all-time low. What were the circumstances within which this unity-in-isolation occurred? In light of the NGK's role in sanctioning and advancing apartheid, this thesis explores Afrikaans church and missionary periodicals and church documents from these years with a view to evaluating what went wrong. More specifically, however, the inquiry is driven by an interest in the complex role of doctrine in hermeneutics and the life of the church. Indeed, this thesis views doctrine as the key to understanding the NGK's journey to isolation and apartheid and asks, how did it function - in the church's ecumenical decisions, internal church matters and even its political involvement during this period? In The Nature of Doctrine1 George Lindbeck offers a metaphor within which to conceive doctrine's role for a healthy church: doctrine is "grammar" for the primary language of Scripture. This thesis employs (with several critical divergences) Lindbeck's theory of doctrine in evaluating healthy and unhealthy dynamics within the NGK. The inquiry is broken into four chapters:1) Lindbeck and the NGK; 2) Ecumenicity and the NGK; 3) Confessional Foundations; and 4) Race Relations and the NGK.

This thesis seeks to take Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s prison experience seriously as a spiritually and theologically formative journey through liminal displacement. Using the anthropological theory of liminality as a lens for analysis, it offers a close reading of Bonhoeffer’s prison writings, examining the porous nature of the sociocultural and metaphorical boundaries of the prison space as expressed in notes, letters, essays, prayers, poetry, and theological letters. In doing so, the thesis suggests that Bonhoeffer’s dramatic transition into the prison space results in an “inbetween- ness” (Palmer et al. 2009) that suspends the prisoner “betwixt and between” (Turner 1967) light and dark, inside and outside, above and below, sacred and profane space, dislocation and located-ness, suffering and hope, life and death. Chronologically examining distinct phases of liminality – separation, transition, anticipation – the study shows a cumulatively transformative movement in which the prisoner is drawn ever more deeply into the reality of his own life, and an ever increasing relationality with others, with God, and with the suffering of those who inhabit the view from below. It is observed that by taking an active role in navigating liminality, Bonhoeffer encounters multiple turning points at the heart of betwixt space, which break up “default modes of perception,” (Wannenwetsch 2012) transforming the prison cell into a privileged place of insight that ultimately catalyses a transformative new vision of reality and the Christian life. Within liminality the borderlines and boundaries of the prison space remain just porous enough to create the possibility for alternative ways of viewing reality. Through theological, poetic, and polyphonic anticipation, Bonhoeffer risks imaginative resolve by reframing liminality as a Gethsemane-like displacement, stations on the way to freedom, and participation in the polyphonic nature of life. In it is concluded that Bonhoeffer’s prison experience represents a uniquely formative space in which he was drawn into participation in the life, sufferings, and death of Jesus Christ.

Includes bibliographical references. / Sunnah has become synonymous with hadith as it is found primarily in the six canonical works of hadith. This change, Rahman argues, came about after Mohammad b. Idris al-Shafi'i articulated his bayan scheme, which in a nutshell means that the entirety of law resides in two texts the Qur'an and the Sunnah and that Sunnah is only the Sunnah of Muhammad (concept and content). In search for uniformity and stability, Rahman claims, that Shafi'i destroyed the living Sunnah or more precisely the organic relationship between Sunnah, ijtihad (progressive interpretation) and ijma. But was this living Sunnah conceptually linked to the """"Ideal Sunnah"""" of the Prophet? Why did Shafi'i decimate an entire tradition and what were his reasons and how did he do it? This thesis seeks to answer these questions by critically analyzing Rahman's living Sunnah notion. On the other hand whilst it appreciates Shafi'i's argument for the Sunnah, of the Prophet only, as the exclusive legislative supplement to the Qur'an it problematizes how Shafi'i dealt with the materials from which he reconstructed (the content) the Prophetic Sunnah (as a concept).

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 70-80). / The study reflects on the rise and spread of the African Independent Churches in postcolonial Africa. It moves from the perspective that African Independent Churches are both African and Christian (Masondo, 2005:101) "engaged in detailed appropriations of religious resources that can be mobilized in working out the meaningful contours of the world" (Chidester, 1997:11). The major part of the study focuses on the Lumpa Church of Alice Lenshina in Zambia. It traces the founding of the church based on a series of vision by Lenshina.

Includes bibliographical references. / The subjugation of women dates back to ancient times. Through the centuries the suppression of women has taken different forms. With a few exceptions most African societies are patriarchal in character. They relegate women to a minor position and subject them to the guardianship of male partners. Traditionally, men were regarded as senior to women irrespective of age. This tradition of men regarding themselves as superior to women has its roots in our socio-cultural norms in Lesotho. Culturally men are regarded by society as superior to women. This perception of men is transferred to the work situation. Consequently, even at work, men are perceived as 'strong' and 'powerful.' In the higher institutions of Lesotho, there is now awareness that the proportion of academic women in senior positions remains small by comparison to that of men. A large number of women are found at the lower end of the scale. Despite the fact that Basotho women are more educated than their male counterparts The study argues that women's slow progress in upward mobility in the employment sector is attributed to a combination of factors. This study therefore, seeks to: * Explore the factors which constrain women to occupy the senior positions of the academic hierarchy and senior administrative positions within the academy; * Investigates the framework of attitudes and beliefs that undermines the status and the role that women have and continue to have in Lesotho in general, the academic sphere in particular; * Suggest steps, which could be taken towards the amelioration of the present undesirable situation in the academic sphere. Feminist research was chosen as the theoretical/conceptual framework of the study. The importance of this framework is that it uses the concept of gender as an analytical category. Feminist construction methodology through the use of qualitative paradigm was used as an appropriate tool for the purposes of obtaining in-depth information of the situation in Lesotho. As qualitative method comprises different methods, case study method was used to provide an in-depth examination of women's experiences as well as to provide the meaning of their experiences in the academic sphere. For data collection the study used both the primary and secondary methods. The primary includes the method of interviewing techniques. The interviews were in a form of a semi-structured schedule using open-ended questions. The documentary sources include documents relating to the government, public records and reports. Secondary methods include the literature, internet, and journals. A total number of sixteen women were interviewed using an in-depth interview schedule. The analysis of data was informed by the grounded theory. The findings of this study are that discrimination against women is a norm and that women perceived themselves to be oppressed by the patriarchal relations. Women have been brought up in such a way that they feel they are socially inferior to their male counterparts and tend to have a low self-esteem. Basotho customs and religious practices all play a role in reinforcing the lower status of women. All these are transferred to the workplace. In the academic sphere there is that great disparity of sex segregation between men and women. It is indeed possible that the most effective way of influencing employment behaviour is so far as it relates females may be to concentrate on modifying the sex in family rather than by means of legislation directed to the operation of the labour market itself on which government have traditionally placed reliance and emphasis.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 135-145). / Proceeding from the typology derived from an analysis of Newman's seminal sermon on The Christian Ministry, the scriptural basis of which accords in all essential respects with the catechisms of both the Roman Catholic and the Anglican Churches, the following aims were formulated for the present study: (1) to explore and compare the perceptions of representative samples of Anglican and Roman Catholic priests in respect of (a) the meaning of priesthood and (b) the role and responsibilities of the priest in the contemporary South African context; (2) to assess the extent to which the perceptions of the respective samples of contemporary Anglican and Roman Catholic priests in respect of the meaning of their ministry accord with the constructs derived from Newman's model of The Christian Ministry; (3) to assess the possibilities for Anglo-Catholic unity in the contemporary South African context at the level of practising priests' perceptions of their role and responsibilities in both the ecclesiastical and the socio-political spheres. A qualitative methodology was selected as most appropriate for probing and interpreting the participants' perceptions. Data was collected by means of a structured, open-ended and self-administered questionnaire, which was distributed to a representative sample (N 20) of Anglican (N = 10) and Catholic (N = 10) priests respectively. The data was analysed by means of tabulation and quantification of fixed-choice responses and a rigorous system of content analysis of the open-ended responses. The findings are presented and discussed in terms of the descriptive categories that emerged. In respect of the aims of this study, the findings indicate that (1) while there is significant conformity between Roman Catholic and Anglican priests in respect of their perceptions of the meaning of priesthood, there are significant differences in respect of their perception of their role in the South African context, with the perceived role and responsibilities of the Roman Catholic priests emerging as less defined by national context and hence less socio-politically oriented than indicated by the Anglican sample; (2) while neither sample's perception of either the meaning of priesthood or the definition of their role conformed entirely with the constructs comprising Newman's model, or with the doctrinal emphases of their own Church, the Roman Catholic perceptions were more uniformly in accordance with both than were those of the Anglicans; (3) given the differences in their perceptions of the significance of their context in informing their role priorities and responsibilities, and the emphasis of the Roman Catholic sample on the universal rather than the national identity of the Roman Catholic Church, the prospects would appear to be limited for more than a nominal ecumenism of concern and collaboration at local level in respect of social issues such as poverty and HIV I AIDS and a combined Christian voice in the public arena. While these findings are to be regarded as tentative given the essentially exploratory nature of the study, they point to key areas for future research.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 103-107). / By the time that President Thabo Mbeki announced in his State of the Nation address to the South African Parliament on 02 February 2000, that Mitchell's Plain and Khayelitsha in the Western Cape would be the focus of the Presidential Urban Renewal Programme, Mitchell's Plain had been in existence for 25 years. By this time [2000], the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) had completed most of its work and 'reconciliation' had become probably the most talked-about concept in the country.