SUNScholar - Browsing by Author "Thesnaar, C. H."

Browsing by Author "Thesnaar, C. H."

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Decolonisation and renewed racism : a challenge and opportunity for reconciliation?
(AOSIS Publishing, 2017) Thesnaar, C. H.
the university campuses across South Africa have recently been challenged by significantstudent protests concerning issues such as the abolishment of study fees, aspects ofdecolonisation and language policies, to name but a few. This contribution will briefly reflecton these challenges by engaging with the narrative of decolonisation. An area of particularfocus is whether reconciliation is still relevant within the current South African context, giventhe nature of the issues driving the university protests. This contribution will attempt toprovide some recommendation for public theologians to engage with these challenges in aresponsible way in their endeavour to be advocates for sustainable peace and reconciliation.
Embodying collective memory : towards responsible engagement with the "other"
(Stellenbosch University, Faculty of Theology, 2013) Thesnaar, C. H.
In view of the current challenges to reconciliation and unity between the DRC and the URCSA this article attempts to join in the transdisciplinary discourse on cultural trauma and collective memory in order to find a way of dealing collectively with past traumas in a constructive way. It argues that the concepts of cultural trauma and collective memory are significant in dealing with distresses of the past, in order to create a collective memory, which implies taking responsibility for the present and the future. It further introduces a collective pastoral hermeneutics to assist both churches to take responsibility for the past by embodying collective memory shared with the ‘other’ in order to transform the past in the present for the future.
Healing the scars : a theological-hermeneutical analysis of violence from the perspectives of both perpetrators and victims
(Stellenbosch University, Faculty of Theology, 2011) Thesnaar, C. H.
Violence is a reality within the South African society and it has a devastating effect on the victims, the perpetrators and the society at large. The recent outbreak of xenophobic violence in De Doorns in the Western Cape, and the violence that accompanied the service delivery protests indicates that many people have reached the point where they believe that violence is the only way to deal with the past, as well as with the current situation in South Africa. Perpetrators use violence to get what they want. In return, victims of this violent behaviour employ violence to retaliate, and in so doing the violence takes on a cycle character that soon spins out of control. This article will try to illustrate the importance of a responsible theological pastoral hermeneutic in dealing with violence from the perspectives of both the victim and the perpetrator. It will firstly indicate the importance of using a theological pastoral hermeneutic paradigm in dealing with the issue of violence; secondly it will focus on understanding the context of the violence within our country; and finally, it will indicate some ideas on how we can use this analysis to assist both the victim and the perpetrator on their journey towards healing and wholeness.
Holistiese Christelike Afrika-spiritualiteit tydens siekte en krisis : 'n Pastoraalhermeneutiese perspektief
(LitNet, 2019) Khoaseb, Martin; Thesnaar, C. H.
In hierdie artikel word die rol van Afrika-spiritualiteit ondersoek, spesifiek ten tye van siekte en krisis. Die doel is om deur middel van ’n pastoraal-hermeneutiese interpretasie ’n moontlikheid van inklusiewe spiritualiteit (beide Afrikaïese en Christelike spiritualiteite) voor te stel. Dit word voorgestel as ’n wesenlike alternatiewe reaksie vir Afrika-mense in hul stryd met siekte en krisis. Die veronderstelling is dat holistiese Christelike spiritualiteit ’n sterk basis van hoop aan Afrika-mense tydens siekte en krisis bied. Spiritualiteit is ’n wye begrip wat verskillende konsepte bevat en kan dus nie tot slegs ’n religieuse ervaring beperk word nie. Die navorsing het grotendeels van beskikbare literatuur rakende Afrikaïese wêreldbeskouings en Afrika-spiritualiteit gebruik gemaak, om sodoende nuwe insigte te ontwikkel. Daar is bevind dat spiritualiteit in Afrika deel is van alle mense se ervaringe en bewustheid wat spruit uit omgang met hul medemens, natuur en die bonatuurlike. Dit blyk dat spiritualiteit diepe betekenis vind tydens tye van krisisse en siektes. Hierdie krisistoestande wek vrees en onsekerheid omdat dit fisieke, geestelike, emosionele, sosiale en ekonomiese produktiwiteit teenwerk. Afrika-spiritualiteit is gegrond in Afrika-kulture en -tradisies, wat ’n basis van ondersteuning tydens siektes en krisisse bied. Binne die konteks van siekte kan Afrikaspiritualiteit werklik tot sy reg kom wanneer dit sy regmatige plek inneem en deel word van reaksiemeganismes in die stryd teen en uitdagings van siekte en krisis. Dus poog die artikel om ’n teoretiese raamwerk daar te stel wat Afrika-spiritualiteit binne die kulturele en tradisionele konteks bespreek. Dit poog verder om die fondament van Afrika-spiritualiteit as bousteen te gebruik om die aanslag van siekte en krisis te interpreteer en om sin daarvan te maak. Die oorkoepelende betoog van die artikel is om die rol wat holistiese Christelike Afrikaspiritualiteit vervul, te ondersoek en te poog om ’n inklusiewe spirituele raamwerk vir die hantering van siektes en krisisse voor te stel.
In search of a theoretical framework towards intercultural awareness and tolerance
(Stellenbosch University, Faculty of Theology, 2015) Van der Westhuizen, M. A.; Greuel, T.; Thesnaar, C. H.
Even if legalised segregation (i.e. Apartheid) has ceased, individuals, groups and communities remain sensitive owing to past experiences. Furthermore communication obstacles lead to on-going misunderstandings that result in mistrust (Williams, 2002:51-67). Without a process to stimulate intercultural awareness and tolerance, the legacy of the past cannot be undone. The question therefore is: How can we approach intercultural misunderstanding and mistrust so as to find a way to work towards intercultural awareness and tolerance? The aim of this contribution has been to identify a theoretical framework that could pave the way to finding practical ways of addressing the remaining misunderstandings and mistrust in present-day South Africa. The authors, working from a trans-disciplinary framework, first did a review of the literature in search of a theoretical framework. The contribution concludes with a proposed theoretical framework and some recommendations for further exploration of this topic.
Living with divine discomfort : the beauty of a life of folly
(Pieter de Waal Neethling Trust, 2019) Thesnaar, C. H.
It is clear that within the modern age we live, that our tendency is more to live for ourselves than for the others we encounter in our families, communities or societies. In this regard it is timely to explore whether it is a folly that I can only experience the beauty of life when I live in comfort with myself and with those whom I choose to live with. Alternatively, if we embody relationship in our meetings with others, we will always experience discomfort as responsibility, accountability and justice are central within relationships. In this regard, we are interconnected and interdependent to one another and therefore we need to be hospitable to one another. As liturgy is relational in its being it should be a service to justice. In this regard we will experience the beauty of a life of folly.
Memories liberate the past
(Pieter de Waal Neethling Trust, 2011) Thesnaar, C. H.
Memory is central in dealing with and being liberated from the trauma of the past. Individuals, families, communities and nations have struggled through the centuries to face and deal with their memories in a constructive way. Memory is thus indispensable for living in the present and hoping for a reconciled future if people to reconcile with God, with those closest to them, with others and with themselves. This article argues that memory is a key element within the healing and reconciliation process for victims and perpetrators. To reach this goal the significance and content of memory need to be ascertained and understood.
The pastoral church as a space for healing and reconciliation
(Pieter de Waal Neethling Trust, 2010) Thesnaar, C. H.
People experience healing and reconciliation in spaces outside of their congregations. This causes them to grapple with the question: Why they do not experience healing and reconciliation within their own local congregations? Another important question people raise is: What is pastoral about pastoral counselling? Both these questions indicate that congregational leaders and the congregations itself are struggling to create spaces within their ministry to assist people in need of healing and reconciliation. This contribution will therefore try to indicate whether pastoral care and counselling are experiencing an identity crisis in terms of its calling. I will further argue that it is essential for a pastoral theology to be rooted in theology. Link to this I will share some thoughts on the congregation as a space for healing and reconciliation.
Pastorale sorg aan die tradisionele Xhosa : 'n moontlike praktykteorie
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 1993-12) Thesnaar, C. H.; Louw, D. J. (Daniel Johannes), 1944-; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. of Practical Theology and Missiology.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING:
Die proses van heling en versoening : 'n pastoraal-hermeneutiese ondersoek van die dinamika tussen slagoffer en oortreder binne 'n post-wvk periode
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2001-12) Thesnaar, C. H.; Louw, D. J. (Daniel Johannes), 1944-; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. of Practical Theology & Missiology.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In this study the process of healing and reconciliation between the victim and the offender in a post-TRC period in South Africa is being investigated with a view to the challenge it poses to pastoral care. The focus is specifically on the post-TRC period rather than the period during which the TRC operated. The post-TRC period is a period where the truth about the apartheid past is partially known, where guilt and mourning are part of the offender's struggle, where suffering, in all areas of life, is part of the victims survival, where there is an understanding of the emotions victims and offenders experience, where restitution and reconstruction create a new vision and orientation for victims and offenders and where the church is able to interpret the past, present and future in order make healing and reconciliation a reality. To accomplish healing and reconciliation between victims and offenders in the post-TRC period is regarded as crucially important in order to ensure that the atrocities of the past, in some form or another, will not be repeated. To ensure that healing and reconciliation between the victim and the offender is accomplished on a personal and a public level, it is necessary to gain a clear understanding of the practical situation of the victim and the offender. It was found that the terms "victim" and "offender" have to be conceived in a comprehensive way in view of the socio-political context of South Africa, and that guilt forms a core element, which calls for great sensitivity and empathy on the part of pastoral care. Within this comprehensive understanding it was also found that guilt is not to be conceived and explained merely psychologically and socially, but also theologically. For this reason it is crucial to conceive of victims and offenders within their context and to comprehend the real impact of guilt, suffering and mourning. Although these experiences take place on different levels, they form an indispensable indicator for achieving healing and reconciliation in South Africa (chapter 2). For reconciliation and healing to be realized between victim and offender it is essential, furthermore, that both should face the truth of what occurred in the past. In this regard it is necessary that truth should not be considered as mere verifiable facts. Rather, truth should be conceived as a process of interpretation aimed at the revealing of meaning within certain relations, contexts and experiences. Apart from having a liberating effect, truth is also a prerequisite for reconciliation (chapter 3). Subsequently, the influence of pastoral theologies on healing and reconciliation between victim and offender is discussed. It was found that pastoral care, to render a significant contribution to healing and reconciliation in South Africa, should make the paradigmatic shift from an individual client-centred pastoral approach to a hermeneutic cultural approach. It is essential for healing and reconciliation to be broadened from a mere subjective/individual understanding thereof, to healing and reconciliation as a systemic process of understanding and interpretation (hermeneutical) that is connected to social relations and inculturation. To ensure that this hermeneutic of reconciliation will have an impact on the practical post-TRC situation, it should be supplemented by a doing theology, functioning within a wisdom perspective; id est, a creative programme to bring together victims and offenders, as well as those who have been existentially effected by (the wounds caused by) apartheid (chapter 4). Finally, for remembering and storytelling to take place, and be significant for the process of healing and reconciliation between victim and offender, it is essential that it must be embedded in a practical-theological ecclesiology within which the church can serve as a forum for healing and reconciliation. To achieve healing and reconciliation, a liturgy of healing is proposed. It is important that the content and form of a liturgy of healing be determined by the following core elements: remembering, forgiveness, and the use of metaphors, symbols and rituals.
Reformed churches struggle for justice : lessons learnt from their submissions before the TRC
(Pieter de Waal Neetlhling Trust, 2013) Thesnaar, C. H.
The truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) arranged a special hearing for all faith communities in relation to their contribution to human rights violations under apartheid. This forced different faith groupings and Christian denominations to recollect their role in the struggle for justice in South Africa. two prominent Reformed Churches made submissions to the TRC on how they have dealt with the history of apartheid in relation to the struggle for justice. Their submissions were made up of different themes as they reﬂected on their role in the struggle for justice within South Africa’s apartheid’s past (within the time frame 1960 to 1990). This contribution aims to highlight and discuss some of the most prominent themes in the struggle for justice from the two Reformed Churches as they reﬂected on the apartheid past and to identify some lessons from among these themes that the church community can use in order to empower the church to redeem the past and contribute to healing and reconciliation in the present and future.
Rural education : reimagining the role of the church in transforming poverty in South Africa
(AOSIS OpenJournals, 2014-10) Thesnaar, C. H.
The desire to remember the plight of the poor in South Africa has reduced in the last 20 years after the transition from apartheid to freedom. To a large extent, Faith Based Organizations (FBOs) and the religious society at large have lost their ‘dangerous memory’ which keeps us mindful of those who suffered and whose plight is usually forgotten or suppressed. In this contribution the conditions of poor farm school children in multigrade rural education will be scrutinised by unpacking the contextual factors that cause us to forget their plight. This article will seek to reimagine the role of the church in poverty-stricken South Africa by engaging with the work of Talcott Parsons, the practical theologian Johannes A. Van der Ven, as well as the work of the political theologian Johann Baptist Metz in order to affirm the focus of Practical Theology to transform society and to contribute to the quest for justice and liberation for the poor in rural education. This reimagining discourse has a fundamental responsibility to challenge the social, political and economic realities that shape the lives of human beings within rural education, remembering the plight of the poor, and participating on their journey towards liberation and healing. It is proposed that if the church can activate its ‘dangerous memory’ it will be able to reimagine its role by transforming our povertystricken South African society, open new avenues for breaking the cycle of poverty and contribute to rural education.
Seeking feasible reconciliation : a transdisciplinary contextual approach to reconciliation
(AOSIS Publishing, 2014-03) Thesnaar, C. H.
In South Africa scholars in the broad field of practical theology are currently faced with a daunting challenge: to rethink the reconciling role of the institutional church in the light of continued challenges facing reconciliation within post-apartheid and post-Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) South Africa. This contribution investigates whether the transdisciplinary, region-centred scientific research approach with a focus on the Hölderlin perspective on reconciliation could assist scholars in practical theology to address reconciliation in a post-apartheid and post-TRC society. The article proposes a contextual and constructive approach to reconciliation in order to assist South African scholars in the field of practical theology and the institutional church to address the challenges of reconciliation in a postapartheid and post-TRC society. The contribution confirms that this approach does indeed assist the field of practical theology to contribute to reconciliation without the risk of speaking a language that nobody beyond theology can understand.
Die skending van die menswaardigheid van ouer bruin staatspensioenarisse
(LitNet, 2017) Carnow, Jacobus Johannes; Thesnaar, C. H.
In hierdie bydrae word die sosio-ekonomiese situasie van bruin ouer persone teologies-pastoraal vertolk om te probeer vasstel of hierdie situasie hul menswaardigheid skend. Vir hierdie doel is ’n teologiese teorie van menswaardigheid benut. Die konsep van menseregte wat in diens staan van die beskerming van menswaardigheid word aangewend om die skending van menswaardigheid te bepaal. Die navorsing vir hierdie bydrae is deur middel van die fokusgroepmetodologie gedoen. In ’n bespreking van kern sosio-ekonomiese temas is bevind dat die menswaardigheid van hierdie groep ouer persone oor hulle hele lewensduur geskend is en steeds word. ’n Teologies-pastorale sorgstrategie word voorgestel om hierdie ouer persone in die bevestiging van hul menswaardigheid te bedien. Die teoretiese raamwerk waarbinne hierdie navorsing geskied, is die unieke teologiese konsep van eskatologie, wat nie net dui op die eindtyd nie, maar ook ’n aanduiding is van die essensie van die nuwe wese van mense in Christus.
Substance abuse and domestic violence within families : a pastoral hermeneutical response
(Pieter de Waal Neethling Trust, 2011) Thesnaar, C. H.
Substance abuse among young people is an ever increasing reality and one of the most significant contributing factors to domestic violence within families. The essential question is how practical theology and, to be more exact, pastoral interpretive guides (within the local church) can contribute to assist individuals, families and communities in dealing with this traumatic reality in a responsible way. This article argues for a theologically responsible pastoral hermeneutic as it engages with the challenges of the presented case study, within a transdisciplinary approach.
’n Teologies-pastorale ondersoek na die sosio-ekonomiese situasie van die bruin welsynpensioenarisse in die Redeemed African Metodiste Kerk
(Pieter de Waal Neethling Trust, 2018) Carnow, Jacobus Johannes; Thesnaar, C. H.
A theologically-pastoral examination of the socio-economic situation of the brown welfare pensioners in the Redeemed African Methodist ChurchThe South African society is characterised by socio-economic inequality between various social components which is also reflected in the older persons’ population (Beukes 2014:32). The objective of this article is a theological-pastoral investigation of how apartheid and neoliberal market economy could be structurally responsible for the socio-economic situation of brown welfare pensioners which is then interpreted in the light of God’s justice. The insight gained could then be used by the Redeemed African Methodist Church to devise an appropriate theological-pastoral strategy to assist these older persons. This article is based on empirical data that was gathered by means of focus group methodology. The findings are that these older persons are victims of external factors determining their socio-economic situation. The theoretical framework of this article is that theological-pastoral care to these older persons cannot be separated from theological-pastoral care of the public life.
Transferring frozen conflict to future generations : in search of a contextual pastoral approach
(African Sun Media, 2020) Thesnaar, C. H.
In general, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was a salient process with a firm mandate to set a process in place to face and deal with the apartheid past of South Africa. However, the lack of implementing the TRCs recommendations3 as well as the reluctance of government, civil society and the religious4 groupings to lobby, network and facilitate this commitment is evident. As time elapsed since the onset of transition in South Africa to the current situation new insight has come to the fore regarding how the transition was managed and the impact of the TRC on current and future generations. Subsequently, there has been an escalation of resistance to transformation and justice on many levels of our society. What is also evident is that the intensity of the resistance, more often violent than not, has increased. In addition, the language has shifted from a focus on reconciliation to having a strong emphasis on justice, reparation and restitution. Meanwhile, in South Africa, the majority of people are disillusioned, as the promises made to them during the transitional process as well as subsequent election campaigns by the government has not materialised. Political freedom is largely in place but economic justice is still an ever-increasing challenge. The resultant disillusionment and desperation is causing more and more people from different sectors of society to turn to violence in their search for justice, as they literally have nothing to lose.

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