This study is motivated by my own experience as a Motswana Pentecostal woman who inhabits
patriarchal spaces of both the Setswana cultures and the Pentecostal church. It highlights the
status of women in Botswana society and the Pentecostal church. The study seeks to construct a
Pentecostal feminist hermeneutic through a contextual reading of selected texts from Luke-Acts
with Pentecostal women in Botswana. The Pentecostal movement is growing exponentially
throughout the world, especially in Africa. Botswana is not an exception. Studies on
Pentecostalism indicate that the overwhelming membership of the Pentecostal churches is
female, yet the teaching and leadership are largely male dominated. Further, women are
marginalised within the Pentecostal spaces through Pentecostal hermeneutics. This is ironic
because the contemporary Pentecostal church traces its origins to the Pentecost narrative in Acts
2 and their theologies emerge from Luke-Acts. On the face of it, Acts 2 and Luke-Acts
encourages egalitarian existence between men and women. This means that Pentecostal beliefs
and doctrines are supposed to be inherently inclusive and yet accusations of gender exclusion are
often levelled against Pentecostalism. Therefore, one of the other aims of this study is to explore
how Pentecostal hermeneutics advances gender exclusion, and how that is contrary to the
theologies that Acts 2:1-47 embody. Using narrative and feminist hermeneutical principles, the study engages with Acts 1-2 in order to establish the importance of using this text to construct a liberating Pentecostal hermeneutic.
Further, Acts 1-2 are situated within the larger context of Luke-Acts and women.
In order to gain insights from Pentecostal men and women about the status of women in the
church and home, Pentecostal hermeneutics, and Luke-Acts, qualitative data collection methods
were employed. These are focus groups, in depth interviews, participant observation and the
Contextual Bible study (CBS). The data from the different research contexts is used throughout
the chapters so that there is no specific chapter on data analysis. The data is filtered through
feminist theoretical framework of analysis.
The research sample consists of 51 Pentecostal women and 3 pastors from two different churches
located in Molepolole, Gaborone and Mogobane. The ages of the women range from 17-73. The
literacy levels also differ; some have never attended formal schools while some had diplomas
and degrees in different disciplines. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2012.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ukzn/oai:http://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za:10413/8849 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Gabaitse, Rosinah Mmannana. |
| Contributors | Draper, Jonathan Alfred., Nadar, Sarojini. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en_ZA |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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