Spirituality, leadership and social transformation: the pedagogical role of multicultural leadership in post-apartheid South Africa

Abstract

Practical theology in the 21st century is faced with increasing diversity which requires a new pedagogy to address multicultural challenges. Multiculturalism serves as a subversive agency for monocultural and “silent minority” landscapes. It might also contribute to developing an identity pedagogue for the three public spaces of theology, specifically in South Africa, where this new democracy seeks a new culture of humanity and has to deal with the dichotomy of a multicultural society and a resistant monocultural “laager” mentality of minority races. Despite the promising start to its democracy, South Africa has many social challenges and practical theology has a role to play in reflecting how we understand and embody the relationship between faith, culture and public life. To this end, this paper seeks to reflect critically on spirituality, leadership and leadership praxis in search of meaning-forming multicultural communities.