The subversion of patriarchy: exploring pastoral care with men in the Church of the Province of South Africa on the East Rand

Abstract

This dissertation is concerned with pastoral care with men in the Anglican Church. It is grounded in the rapidly changing post-apartheid years in the East Rand region of South Africa.

It seeks to explore through participatory action research the negative effects of patriarchy as a discourse of power and entitlement on the lives of men of differing cultures in South Africa as victims and perpetrators of abuse.

It also seeks to explore ways of pastorally caring with men through the creation of participative care groups that enable personal stories of men to be told, invitations to responsibility for abuse made, and the negative effects of patriarchal cultural and theological discourse deconstructed, and alternate understandings of masculinity constructed and performed.

The work is done from a contextual theology, pro-feminist perspective, and collaborating with postmodern philosophers Derrida and Foucault, the social anthropologist Bruner and the narrative therapists White, Epston and Jenkins.