Corporate citizenship is a prominent international issue as contemporary corporations are no longer expected to perform financially, but are also expected to have an ethical relationship of responsibility between the corporate itself and the society in which it operates and performs it business activities. Provides an up-to-date theoretical content pertaining to corporate citizenship, providing local and global examples and case studies.

Considered together, Butler and Whitehead draw from a wide palette of disciplines to develop distinctive theories of becoming, of syntactical violence, and creative opportunities of limitation. The contributors of this volume offer a unique contribution to and for the humanities in the struggles of politics, economy, ecology, and the arts.

SMEs are the driving force of economies. However, they face challenges that affect their long-term survival, such as developing ethical business environments. Business ethicsrelated research is underdeveloped in SMEs, thus limiting our understanding of business ethics in SMEs. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate how business ethics is conceptualised in SMEs, using the Delphi Technique. In SMEs, business ethics is viewed as doing the right thing, having integrity, being transparent, trustworthy, and behaving responsibly towards internal and external (...) parties. The contribution of this article is that business ethics is perceived as upholding quality, being transparent and trustworthy. (shrink)

The sentence 'to rule with him in the heavenly world' as example of an eschatological highlight in the letter to the Ephesians: The viewpoint in this article is that the above-mentioned statement in the letter to the Ephesians can be seen as an eschatological sentence of extraordinary value. In view of different eschatological viewpoints from the past, it can be stated that this sentence is an example of eschatology not only for the future, but also for the present. It is (...) understandable that there is a close link between eschatology and mission. The meaning of theosis, a concept from the Eastern churches' theological debate, underlines the need for a present eschatological consciousness that has significance for the future of church and faith. Believers can in this way escape from the destructive lust that is in the world, and may become partakers of the divine nature. (shrink)

Vryheid is naas regverdiging een van die belangrikste temas van die Reformatoriese teologie. Luther se geskrif 'Oor die vryheid van 'n Christenmens' is een van sy hoofgeskrifte. In hierdie geskrif beskryf hy die vryheid van die innerlike en die uiterlike mens. Die innerlike mens is vry en niemand se onderdaan nie. Die uiterlike mens is weer elke ander mens se onderdaan en dienskneg. Die Christen dien sy medemens deur die liefde. Luther se verstaan van naasteliefde word vanuit ander geskrifte toegelig. (...) Johannes Calvyn se verstaan van vryheid volgens sy 'Institusie' van 1559 word ook bespreek. Daar word op die groot ooreenstemming tussen Luther en Calvyn gewys. Die verskille tussen die twee Reformatore is minimaal. Calvyn het egter wel groter aandag aan die adiafora-vraagstuk gegee. Daar word ook deurgaans na Philipp Melanchthon se invloed op Calvyn gewys. Die relevansie van die vryheidsvraagstuk lê nie in die instrumentalisering van die Christelike vryheid nie, maar in die hernude bestudering van die klassieke tekste met die bedoeling om die belangrike reformatoriese motiewe te herontdek. Hierdie motiewe is relevant - ook in ons samelewing. (shrink)

This article can serve as an overview of the work of Yolanda Dreyer, or as an introduction to her work, by conversing with her as a public theologian in the tradition of Schleiermacher. The article highlights her passion to listen to the voices that are normally ignored or to hear what needs to be heard to transform discourses. It investigates the contribution of Yolanda Dreyer to public theology with regard to the newspaper columns she has been writing for more than (...) 17 years. It compares aspects of her public theology with the theology of Friedrich Schleiermacher, which can be characterised by an internalised spirituality and a critical hermeneutic of suspicion towards the abuse of power. Gender injustice and cultural criticism are prominent themes within Dreyer's public theology. She emphasises the vocation to speak out, but also the necessity to listen. These contributions also characterise Dreyer as a pastor-theologian. (shrink)

International political, social, economic and religious developments influence how local communities operate. The South African church society is influenced by such developments taking place globally and which clearly influence how local churches function. This article explores the role of the contemporary church as a ‘reformation agency’ in enhancing a socially transformative agenda in South Africa. A qualitative research approach – an interpretative phenomenology design – was employed to negotiate a shared understanding through conversation and intersubjective meaning-making with church ministers, with (...) the primary focus being their subjective experience of the changing role of the church in enhancing a transformative agenda in a South African context. A purposive sampling consisted of local church leaders who participated in the face-to-face and telephonic semi-structured interviews to achieve the purpose of the study. The findings clearly show that deliberate and intentional actions by churches allow them to become a voice for the marginalised, to create spaces for searching for excellence and to increase the quality of servant leadership, all as vehicles for transforming church society. Furthermore, servant leadership is a social phenomenon, a philosophy-in-practice aimed at leading by example to achieve a common goal. To accomplish this, church ministers are required to spearhead the challenge as a prerequisite to creating ‘lived experienced’ opportunities for members as an inward-outward spiritual journey. Finally, church leaders believed that transformation is a secular dimension, but that it can also be aligned towards God’s redemption plan and enhancing a socially just transformation agenda. Ultimately, this study proposed several recommendations to allow the local church to be relevant in practicing and promoting stronger unity and reconciliation amongst all churches nationally and globally. (shrink)

A tolerant treatment of church order and the law of usance: This article discusses the recent decline of church polity in the Netherdutch Reformed Church which is obvious in different areas of the Church with special reference to the liturgy practised in sermons of some congregations. This decline is also observed in other churches in South Africa and abroad. The article is a reaction to the reason for this situation and indicates that it should not be found in a collegialistic (...) concept of church, but rather due to congregationalism or independentism in modern form. The article’s viewpoint is that the above-mentioned church polity decline is a result of the fact that church order is not valued as an order with a Scriptural and therefore an ecclesiological basis. (shrink)

In this review article, the book by J.H. van Wyk, Augustine: A study on the ethics of the church father from Africa is presented and discussed. Short overviews of the content of the six chapters are given. They are: Introduction – the necessity for a book on Augustine’s ethics in Afrikaans, Orientation – an overview of his life and works, Grounding – the relationship between dogmatics and ethics, Typology – the character of his ethics, Themes – marriage and sexual ethics, (...) political ethics and animal ethics, Findings – evaluation of Augustine’s ethics. Support is given to the argument that Augustine is an important forerunner to the Reformation. Information is provided on Augustine and the early years of the Reformation in Wittenberg. Critical remarks are made about the author’s understanding of the relationship between faith and works, dogmatics and ethics. The Lutheran understanding of this topic is presented as an important alternative to the Reformed version that is defended in this book. Finally, attention is given to Augustine’s ‘theory of the two cities’. Also in this regard advice is given from one of Luther’s publication. His exposition of Mary’s Song in Luke 1:46–55 is used as an example of how a witness to the government could look like. (shrink)

Martin Luther and doing theology in the future. The Netherdutch Reformed Church of Africa prides itself for the fact that she has always appreciated the German-Lutheran tradition. The Reformed Theological College has for 15 years contributed to the appreciation of this tradition. This article wants to encourage the new leadership to keep this legacy alive. The main aspects of Luther’s theology are explained. These aspects are: prayer, meditation, constitation, grace of the Spirit, exegesis, and the use of other sciences in (...) understanding the Bible. Attention is also given to the subject-matter of Theology as well as the notion of humbleness. (shrink)

Disputations were a fixture of Martin Luther’s academic career. Luther participated regularly in disputations. It was an important communicative vehicle through which he developed and expressed his theology. The well-known 95 theses are a case in point. Luther’s career as a disputator was impressive. Several of his most influential disputations were explicitly intended for consideration by his academic and ecclesiastical colleagues, but the majority of his disputations took place as a curricular exercise at the University of Wittenberg. The purpose of (...) these disputations was pedagogical and polemical. Luther deployed the same tools for his defence of proper doctrine that were at the centre of the Protestant reformation in the face of objections. The disputatio de homine is a systematic summary of Luther’s anthropology. It incorporates the doctrine of justification as the theological definition of man. It treats the subject within the context of the relationship between theology and philosophy, and reflects upon the new language of theology. The disputatio de homine provides an essential resource for the study of Luther’s anthropology and the doctrine of justification. (shrink)

The ecclesiastical debate at the 73 General Church Assembly of the Dutch Reformed Church of Africa. Reformed churches emerged from the Reformation which commenced in the 16th century because of the input of well-known reformers such as Martin Luther (1483–1546) and John Calvin (1509–1564). Reformed churches are founded on a certain system of church polity known as presbyterial-synodal. This church orderly viewpoint amounts to the fact that it is a church where Jesus Christ is the sole ruler of the church, (...) transforming all meetings of offices of the church to operate on the same horizontal level with Jesus Christ as the only and sufficient authority in the church. This means that such a church is trying to be church of the Word and should take good care to maintain this critical principal position during meetings, as will eventually be reflected in synodal decisions taken. Contribution: This article takes a critical look at points of discussion submitted to the meeting, especially those with church orderly implications. Critically spoken, it means that decisions tabled at such meetings should be in the prolongment of the churches’ decision to be church of the Word, and therefore presbyterial-synodal. It is therefore also a contribution to church polity as such. (shrink)

ObjectiveMental health is critical to the healthy development of adolescents. However, mental health encompasses more than the absence of mental illness; and should include indicators of mental wellness. A critical review of available mental wellness instruments for adolescents were conducted to identify operational definitions of mental wellness concepts for this population group.MethodA systematic review of literature published between 2000 and 2020 was done to identify mental wellness instruments for adolescent populations. The review followed the PRISMA operational steps.ResultsWe identified 2,543 articles (...) from the search strategy and screened titles and abstracts for eligibility. After appraisal, 97 studies were included in the qualitative synthesis; of which, 79 mental wellness instruments were identified. Most studies did not provide a definition for mental wellness. We identified thirteen mental wellness concepts from 97 studies, namely: life satisfaction, mental wellbeing [general], resilience, self-efficacy, self- esteem, connectedness, coping, self-control, mindfulness/spiritual, hope, sense of coherence, happiness, and life purpose.ConclusionThe review reflected previous research identifying a lack of consensus around the definitions of mental health, mental wellness, and mental wellbeing. This has implications for developing instruments for adolescents that adequately measure these constructs. Most of the instruments identified in the review were predominantly English and from developed countries. This indicates a need for instrument that are explicitly conceptualised and operationalised for adolescents in all their varied contexts. (shrink)

God, trust and doubt: The women in the concentration camps of the Anglo-Boer or South African War.Many books and articles have been written on the religious concept of the Afrikaner women who suffered in and survived the concentration camps during the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902) in South Africa. It seems as if nothing has been written, though, on their image and understanding of God. This article is an attempt to close the gap in the research. These women’s understanding of God (...) was mainly shaped by the Old Testament. They saw the two Boer republics as the new people of God, elected to exist in freedom, as independent states. To them, God was the God of justice and righteousness, who will defend his chosen people from oppression. The defeat on the battlefield caused a crisis of faith among many women. The war diary of Johanna Brandt (née Van Warmelo) offers useful information about the women’s faith and the shattering of their faith. In the second part of this article, Lutheran perspectives on the God of the Bible and man-made idols are provided as a Christian alternative to the faith of our forefathers. The Psalms and the prophets are also revisited to point out the presence of God, as well as the ethical consequences of the Jewish-Christian religion. Contribution: This is probably one of the first articles written on women’s understanding of God, women who were confined to the concentration camps during the Anglo-Boer War of 1899–1902. The main emphasis falls on Johanna Brandt (née Van Warmelo), who was an assistant nurse in the Irene camp, on the outskirts of Pretoria. She formulated her and the other women’s belief in the God of justice. Their understanding of God motivated them to endure the hardships and thousands of deaths in the camps. (shrink)

The pervasiveness of domestic employment in the South African context gives rise to the question as to why women not only enter into, but remain in, such an undervalued work situation, and whether they are ultimately able to exit this sector. Contextualising the sectoral engagement of domestic workers as a transitional work-life cycle characterised by impoverishment, limited alternatives, acceptance of the work context, and future directedness, with individual transition through these phases determined by a unique set of circumstances, female domestic (...) workers’ lived experience of their work-life cycle was explored within the framework of an interpretivist research design. Non-probability respondent-driven self-sampling was employed to select 20 participants, most of whom were representative of families with a long history of sectoral involvement, particularly along the female line. Dense, non-numerical data was generated through in-depth interviewing. Inductive data explication was conducted with the aid of MAXQDA. The findings confirmed the existence of an institutionalised culture of engagement within the sector perpetuated from one generation to the next. Hardship and an urgent need for survival leave many with little option but to enter and remain within the sector. Despite negative societal perceptions of the sector, those within it take pride in their work and view their engagement as an enabling tool to better their future prospects and those of their families. Attempts to exit the sector are unsuccessful due, in part, to a limited formal education and skills repertoire. Domestic workers are thus entrapped within a never-ending cycle of sectoral engagement, with the possibility of exiting the sector remaining merely a dream for many. (shrink)

This article discusses the meaning of ecclesiology and church polity as such, in relation to each other, but also in connection to church order which lies in the elongation of both. From a reformed perspective, it is indicated that the ecclesiology of the Netherdutch Reformed Church over the last fifty to hundred years, centred round the viewpoint of the Church as a volkskerk, in conjunction with the church orderly, of the Kerkwet till 1997. The author is of the opinion that (...) the above-mentioned viewpoint limited the church to be a true church of the Word. (shrink)