Intellectual Historical Life Narratives : A Pedagogy for Contextual Theology

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the intellectual historical agency of leaders in a specific socio-political context. The lived spiritual transformational experiences and decisions of leaders at the interface of historical hegemonic and contemporary socio-political conditions will be explored. The qualitative life narrative research methodology will be applied to address two questions: How decisions influenced and constructed liberational praxes; and: What post-apartheid leaders envision for a new kind of humanity. The layout of this chapter is as follows: Firstly, a historical and contemporary contextual description illuminates the background to the study. Secondly, the principles of life narrative research are applied. Thirdly, four examples of the intellectual agency of leaders are outlined. Fourthly, similar yet different applied liberation praxes are crafted to address post-apartheid challenges in search of a new kind of humanity in the 21st century; and finally, conclusions are drawn.