Masters Degrees (Practical Theology and Missiology)

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Browsing Masters Degrees (Practical Theology and Missiology) by browse.metadata.advisor "Claassens, L. Juliana M."

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    Facing a masculine God : towards a pastoral care response in the context of gender-based violence
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2023-03 ) Msibi, Msizi Cyprian; Mouton, Dawid P.; Claassens, L. Juliana M.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. of Practical Theology and Missiology.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study aimed to provide a critical theological reflection on the possible links between masculine images of God and gender-based violence. The objectives of the study included exploring possible alternative images of God that could be helpful in providing pastoral care to victims of gender-based violence (GBV). As such the study further set out to explore and reframe appropriate pastoral care approaches in response to the plight of victims of GBV. Osmer’s four tasks of practical theology provided a broad framework for the research methodology and theological reflection. This study made use of desktop research to conduct an extensive literature survey as input for the conceptualisation presented in the thesis. In addition to engaging with pastoral care, as an academic field and its associated concepts, the thesis also unpacks and engages the concepts of gender, gender-based violence and various nuances in the discourse on masculinity and its relation to GBV. It includes reflections on Biblical texts containing potentially problematic notions of masculinity with regard to characters in these texts and which are also applied to God. In engaging with some of the violent and abusive male metaphors of God in Scripture, the study highlighted the potential for these depictions to be abused in perpetuating the phenomenon of GBV. However, the study also succeeds in presenting life-giving and feminine images of God which might offer tools for pastoral care and hope for those living with the effects of GBV. These alternative female images of God have been employed as a pastoral care response to the scourge of GBV. Feminist pastoral care, womanist pastoral care and narrative pastoral care together may offer a framework for even more practical responses in this regard.
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    Infertility a female problem? : engaging with narrative theory and biblical narratives
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2019-12) Strydom, Natalia; Penxa-Matholeni, Nobuntu; Claassens, L. Juliana M.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. of Practical Theology and Missiology.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The aim of this study to present the problem that there is a large faith community, especially ministers and counsellors, who are not sensitive to the matter of infertility. By employing a feminist and gender lens, I also wish to point out that male infertility is an often taboo topic. Nevertheless, couples come to ministers and counsellors for counselling. By conducting this research, I want to to explore possible ways that ministers and pastoral counsellors can help to deconstruct the dominant stories regarding infertility, which are loaded with stigma. By employing the narrative approach, the counsellor and the counselees can construct a new preferred reality and make new meanings out of the crisis of infertility. Secondly, I argue that by being informed about the crisis of infertility, the counsellor will be better equipped to engage with empathy in a pastoral counselling journey with the couple. It is important that couples discover safe spaces to share their infertility story. The pastoral counsellor or minister should be one of those safe spaces and not contribute to the dominant problem story. By following the narrative approach and by sharing a self-narrative of infertility, I wish to paint the background of why a study such as this is important. The study offers an in-depth investigation to find biblical narratives that could be used by pastoral counsellors. The Bible stories that were chosen for this aim are mainly the stories of Ruth, Judah and Tamar. Other biblical and extra-biblical stories are also investigated as sub-narratives. However, this endeavour points to the fact that these are narratives that only illustrate implied male infertility. There are no biblical narratives regarding male infertility due to the stigma that has enveloped infertility from the earliest times. The researcher also unpacks male infertility and how it affects male identity, in other words, masculinity. The link between virility and fertility is explored in an attempt to better understand to what extent infertility causes a crisis for males and for the couple. By understanding this link, we are better equipped to understand that two individuals are affected by this crisis, but they are also affected as partners in the marital unit. The narrative counselling process allows the couple to create new meaning around the crisis and allows them to build preferred realities of what other goals they have for their marriage. It is also critically important that ministers, pastors and members of congregations begin to realise that they have the responsibility and privilege to form a support structure around this couple.
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    The role of the church with regards to maternal health : a case study of the church of Central Africa Presbyterian, Synod of Livingstonia
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-03) Chilongozi, Mwawi Nyirenda; Bowers-Du Toit, Nadine; Claassens, L. Juliana M.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. of Practical Theology and Missiology.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Many women in Sub-Saharan Africa, and Malawi, in particular, die during childbirth due to preventable and treatable complications that develop during pregnancy and childbirth. This study is motivated by the need to reduce the maternal mortality ratio in Malawi, which higher in comparison to other countries in Southern Africa. Therefore, the study aims to interrogate the role the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP), Synod of Livingstonia plays or can play to reduce maternal mortality. The study is undertaken within the field of Theology and Development with a focus on the intersection between gender, health and theology. The study discusses development approaches and discourses; the historical perspectives of issues of women in development and how it has shifted from Women In Development (WID); Women And Development (WAD) to Gender and Development (GAD). It placed maternal health within the Gender and Development approach. It further explains how the global initiatives on maternal health and the Millennium Development Goals and the Sustainable Development Goals have brought awareness of maternal health as a developmental issue. The initiatives have assisted governments and non-governmental organisations to put strategies that would assist in reducing maternal mortality and it has been noted that Faith-Based Organisations play a crucial role in the health sector in most countries in Africa, including Malawi. The findings indicate that maternal health mirrors the disparities between developed countries and developing countries, between the rich and the poor, between the educated and the uneducated, between the urban and the rural women. Maternal deaths are caused by preventable and treatable complications that develop during pregnancy and childbirth, however, these complications result from socio-cultural, religious, economic and political factors. Above all, maternal mortality is perpetuated by gender inequality in societies. Further the study analysed the role of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian, Synod of Livingstonia with regards to maternal health using Mercy Oduyoye’s four theological themes as the theological lens. It has been noted that the Synod of Livingstonia is playing a crucial role in the education and health sectors in Malawi. However, the Synod of Livingstonia regard maternal health as a health issue and women’s issue and therefore does not tackle maternal health at different forums. This study concludes that maternal health is a socio-cultural issue, a developmental issue, a gender issue, an economic and political issue that needs to be tackled through the collaboration of the government and churches and the communities in general. Denominations such as the CCAP, therefore, has a crucial role to play in addressing this challenge and the study concludes with recommendations to the Synod of Livingstonia as to how it could assist in issues of maternal health.
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    Unmasking violations against human dignity in selected Afrikaans films in South Africa 1960-1976 : a practical theological investigation
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-12) Van Huyssteen, Elmarie; Cilliers, Johan; Claassens, L. Juliana M.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Three Afrikaans films were released in South Africa during the tumultuous apartheid years (1960-1976) with the focus on the Afrikaner identity, the policy of apartheid and the injustices suffered by its people as a result, specifically focussing on the so-called Coloured community. These films were received with enthusiasm by the mostly Afrikaans viewers, but a dissonance became clear between the “message” delivered by these films and the perception of the content of the films by the public. Human dignity, and its relation to human rights, is offered as a theoretical tool in understanding this discrepancy between message and audience. It seems as if the filmmakers understood that the social injustices they portrayed in the narratives touched on the very fibre of a person’s humanity. In uncovering these injustices, the violations that were done against the human dignity of persons and groups were clinically unmasked as the realities of the current social circumstances were offered as background. The assumption of this study is that human beings are created as imago Dei, in the image of God, to His glory. Violations done to the identity, relationships and the indwelling of God, to a person, violate not only the other, but also the own self as perpetrator, and most importantly, God (the Other) as the grantor and origin of the dignity of each person on earth. Four different “movements” are applied as framework for analysis in order to unmask the manifestation of violations as perpetrated against human dignity, namely observation, interpretation, anticipation and transformation. The material is analysed against the context of the historical background. The dissonance between message and perception by audiences was found to be a consequence of the difference in perceptions of humanity and intent because of the different lenses used. The filmmaker, as artist, portrayed persons as valuable because of their “being human beings”, whereas the audiences accepted the films through the various filters that were operative in society at the time, and which acted together in preserving the value of group interest. The divergence between the view offered by the films and the filters through which they were received was too deep to offer integration, and resulted in dissonance instead. Within any culture the artist may act as a prophet, and this role is investigated by analysing the message brought to the audiences by these artists. The impact of the artist on society may differ, depending on the lenses and filters present as a result of the openness or closeness of a society. Future studies may hopefully shed light on the way in which murky filters may become enlightening lenses in changing societies. It seems as if the dissonance may only disappear when the human glance at our reality, through the eyes of faith, becomes one with the vision of God for His Kingdom.
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    Yithi Uyindoda! (Say, you are a man!) : an ethnographic study on the religion and masculinities in initiation schools in Cape Town Townships
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2014-04) Ncaca, Mawethu; Simon, David Xolile; Claassens, L. Juliana M.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. of Practical Theology and Missiology.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis investigates the construction of masculinity in the Xhosa initiation school (ulwaluko) in the townships of Cape Town, South Africa from a religio-cultural perspective. This ethnographic study utilized interviews with participants, observations of the initiation school, and is also complemented with documents that are written by Xhosa authors Thando Mqolozana, Nelson Mandela, Peter Mtuze, and A.N.N. Ngxamngxa. The documentary by Mayenzeke Baza and a blog post by Xhosa journalist Luzuko Pongoma were also used. The data collection and analysis was done with the Grounded Theory Approach using Atlas.ti version 7. The ontological and epistemological premise is of the constructivist understanding. The conceptual framework is grounded within the African philosophy of Ubuntu and African religio-cultural underpinnings. A new term, ancestral masculinity, was given to depict the type of masculinity described by the findings. It is marked by participating in a ‘manhood’ rites of passage and adhering to its prescribed processes and procedures, according to the ‘living and dead’ ancestors, in order for one to be accepted and recognized as part of the community. The findings show that ancestral masculinity, in its micro context of ‘boyhood’, is a searching route to acceptance. The initiate longs and finds acceptance in the initiation school through enduring pain and fostering a relationship with his guardian and teacher (ikhankatha). Secondly, ancestral masculinity is seen as the yearning to be African in its macro-context. It was demonstrated by admonishing (ukuyala) that helps the initiated to live an exemplary life of honouring (inhlonipho) those who are living and dead. This honouring is portrayed by doing everything possible to be helpful and to accord respect and care to elders. Inhlonipho also challenges individualist accomplishment and materialist flaunting and any ills that negate relational harmony. The study reveals challenges in the ulwaluko institution and construction of masculinity, such as alcohol abuse; carelessness, neglect, and passivity by elders in the process; exclusivity that discriminates against others; and inflexibility toward other constructions of masculinity. However, opportunities are also present within this institution to encourage dialogue and reconciliation, to create flexibility, and to utilize existing values to promote social cohesion amidst the challenges of the contemporary South African context.