Theses and Dissertations (Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology)
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Item Exploring the resilience of religious belief : cognitive, cultural and historical perspectives(2024-10) Faull, Hester Margaretha; Lombaard, ChristoThis thesis investigates the foundations of religious beliefs and their persistence in contemporary society through a systematic literature review. It examines how cognitive predispositions (mentalising, anthropomorphism, teleological thinking) and biological factors (genetics, brain structure, neurochemistry) shape the formation of religious beliefs, which are then influenced by cultural forces. The Cognitive Science of Religion provides insights into how cognitive biases reinforce misleading beliefs. This thesis proposes promoting logic education to foster rational thought and critical engagement as a countermeasure. Although rational inquiry is crucial in a world saturated with information, for some, scientific discoveries may not offer the same sense of wonder, meaning, or purpose that religious beliefs have historically provided. This explains the continued endurance of such belief systems alongside scientific progress. As scientific advancements challenge traditional sources of meaning, individuals struggle with the existential question of purpose. In such a context, this thesis argues for prioritising individual freedom in seeking meaning. Finally, the thesis contends that although some aspects of metaphysics may transcend empirical methods, this does not preclude evidence-based research from engaging with supernatural claims. Society must strive to balance the pursuit of objective knowledge with preserving cultural richness and existential fulfilment.Item A postcolonial missiological understanding of the role of the church towards sex workers : a proposed liberative praxis for URCSA(2023-12-23) Mangoedi, Leomile; Masenya, M. J. (Madipoane Joyce); Mashau, Thinandavha Derrick, 1970-This study probes the issue of the marginalisation of women in sex work by the church with the aim of developing a liberative praxis for the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (URCSA) based on the research question: How can a postcolonial reading of the Bible shape the church’s missionary praxis towards the liberation of sex workers? Sex workers are judged morally while sex work is identified as sin by the church. Apart from a re-reading of the text of Luke 7:36-40, the researcher also critically analyses the current missional praxis of the URCSA, engaging texts such as the Bible, the Church Order and the Confessions, especially the Confession of Belhar. The aim is to uncover how the URCSA reads and interprets these texts especially in the context of the marginalised. As a missiologist coming from a certain ecclesiological, theological, and cultural backround, I unpacked the discussion by employing the missiological framework using the praxis matrix model to carry out a postcolonial reading of the Bible. The aim is to address the primary rationale of this thesis namely, to create a respectful, hopeful, liberative encounter between Black women in sex work and the church that is silent in the face of their marginalisation. In addressing the rationale and ultimately responding to the research question, an attempt is made to unmask the influence of the colonial reading of the Bible on the black church, because such a reading disempowered and oppressed the people. The employ of the Contextual Bible Study method enabled the creation of a platform for engagement between women in sex work and the Bible. The study is not only engaging the Bible, but it also, formed a creative dialogue between other scholarships such as womanist theologies, feminist theologies and bosadi/womanhood redefined biblical hermeutics and these women. This study thus proposes a Belharic missiological postcolonial reading of the Bible that aims at liberating, restoring, and transforming the lives of women in sex work. It presupposes that the Bible should be read and interpreted from the experiences of poverty, abuse, inequality – from the perspective of marginalised black women.Item Integration in intercultural church development : Luhmann´s systems theory for the leadership of Evangelical free churches in Germany(2024-02) Littau, Manuel; Kessler, V.; Dreyer, J. S.This research is based on the leaders of intercultural congregations who regularly interact with the ideas, needs and interests of different cultures. To this end, Luhmann's systems theory is being examined with regard to the intercultural congregation, the integration of different cultures and leadership in intercultural congregations. The result of the interdisciplinary research work can serve to remind us that leadership is an interactive relationship process. Leaders influence congregations while they are themselves influenced by the Holy Spirit, other cultures, and by their own perceptions. This understanding reveals the role of leaders to be a flexible, culturally sensitive one with leaders being individuals who are also willing to learn. This research, which is a first, analysed the application of Luhmann's systems theory on the leadership of intercultural congregations in Germany. It is primary research within the context of the Evangelical free churches. In practical terms, the research results may contribute to the analysis of the intercultural congregation, to the self-reflection of the leaders and to intercultural dialogue.Item Joy as an aspect of the spirituality of patient care volunteers at the Cancer Association of South Africa: a multi-dimensional approach(2023-12-06) Steenkamp-Nel, Annalie Erika; Lombaard, ChristoffelThe purpose of this study was to address the tension between CANSA’s two governance core pillars, namely service delivery and sustainability, by introducing spiritual transformation understood as restoration of the Divine-human relationship towards new opportunities, possibilities, and initiatives. The focus of this study was on the link between spiritual transformation and the service of volunteers in cancer patient care. A holistic view on health care was proposed in order to promote ‘spiritual wholeness’ in healthcare transformation. A quadrangular multidimensional approach examined the origins and scope of joy as an aspect of spiritual transformation in the societal (CANSA), Theological (Qohelet), healthcare1 sciences as well as African2 spiritual epistemology. It was argued that CANSA’s holistic vision should be viewed as a process of joymotion. Lessons learned can be utilised to shape and sharpen CANSA’s Patient care volunteers if adapted towards being human in healthcare.Item The Bartimaeus Pericope: a paradigm for Christian spirituality(2023-01) Hattingh, Gerhardus Stephanus; Van der Merwe, DirkThis thesis examines the Bartimaeus pericope through its transitional status in Mark’s narrative. Mark provides a triptych structure for his gospel, namely 1:1-8:21; 8:22-10:52; 11:1-16:8. His first section concentrates on establishing Jesus for who he is as the Father’s emissary, anointed (1:10-11; 9:7) to inaugurate the arriving of the kingdom of God (1:14-15). The prime focus appears to be on Jesus’ healing miracles, exorcisms and teachings in a personal rhetoric towards freeing his followers to participate in that arriving. Bartimaeus encapsulates the first section’s emerging theology and titular Christology in his personal Jesus-encounter. Mark achieves this through a linguistic competence, which includes visualized details (facilitating a reader’s participation in the text), verbs in the historic present tense (providing an immediacy for Mark’s rhetoric), and a matrix of deliberately linked (“καί”, “and”) lived experiences, so that Bartimaeus pivotally transcends theology and Christology into a spirituality for rescue. Mark allocates his second section, 8:22-10:52, to Jesus’ teaching on discipleship. It opens with the miracle of the gradual healing of a blind man from Bethsaida (not a follower of Jesus). His slow healing could have been the paradigm of all of Jesus’ followers, including the Twelve, and Mark’s readers. Mark’s evidence, however, projects these pre-taught disciples never to arrive at full sight. In fact, their progression culminates in total failure. Only Bartimaeus is the paradigm. Blind, and without being taught (pre-10:46), he sees. Mark thus concludes this central section in a pivotal rescue of discipleship, through (i) Bartimaeus’ exemplary faith, personalized into a lived experience of pursuing the divine in Jesus. (“God’s mercy” constitutes the “divine” in Jesus for Bartimaeus), and (ii) Bartimaeus inaugurating Mark’s new discipleship for his readers3. Bartimaeus as paradigm resonates in Mark’s third section, the Jerusalem experience. This is explained in terms of Mark providing Bartimaeus as the pivotal transition, not only for Mark’s narrative (in terms of a hinge passage), but also within Mark’s narrative (in terms of a spirituality for rescue). Components of that spirituality pivot through Bartimaeus’ Jesus-encounter and are based on the seven semantic networks in the discourse analysis for the pericope’s inner texture. These are ideated into seven metaphorical bridges for a rhetoric towards transition from failure to rescue. Robbins’ five “textures” in his socio-historical analysis, are applied to 10:46-52. These provide evidence for the pivotal role of Bartimaeus in Mark’s embedded discipleship rescue-package. The application of Iser (1978), Waaijman (2002) and Van Der Merwe (2000-2022), (et al), further validate the metaphorical bridges as components for a Christian spirituality of rescue. The “bridges” as “components” thereby constitute the “paradigm” for this thesis.