The meeting of worlds and the principle of sola Scriptura. Rather than function as a catalyst for unity, the Bible can be the cause of conflict among Christian believers. The Bible is also often the reason for strife, specifically in the Reformed tradition, even though Protestants uphold the creedal truism of sola Scriptura and though the authority of the Bible is seen as selfmandatory, transcending the normative power of ecclesiastical or confessional traditions. This article focuses on biblical interpretation as both (...) a cause of disunity and a possible means to achieve greater unity. The point of departure is that biblical interpretation consists of a fusion of horizons; it is primarily about the fusion of two horizons, namely that of the Bible and that of the reader. However, both these horizons represent a great diversity of perspectives. A variety of readers interpret the Bible from diverse contexts. The Bible itself also communicates a diversity of ideas. Even the notion ‘Jesus Christ’ does not function as a unified or unifying concept. The article proposes that the idea of ‘Jesus’ cause’ could provide continuity between the world of the reader and the world of a biblical passage. (shrink)

In Mozambique, poverty is pervasive because of factors such as the civil war and its aftermath, political instability, food scarcity and natural disasters. This article elucidates the situation of post-civil war Mozambique from a socio-political perspective with a specific focus on children and the youth as a particularly vulnerable group. Many children and young people have been displaced and are subject to work exploitation and sexual abuse. Female children also fall victim to the cultural practice of child marriage. The absence (...) of comprehensive social measures for the protection of vulnerable young persons has a detrimental effect on their welfare and future prospects. The aim of the article is to explore the role that faith communities and church institutions can play in this context. From an inclusive congregational perspective, the inclusion of youth in all aspects of faith communities as a strategy for development is discussed. From a human rights and theological perspective, participatory action is required for faith communities and church institutions to contribute to making a life of human dignity possible for children and young people. (shrink)

South Africa suffers a scourge of domestic violence. Colonial oppression upset the delicate balance between 'discipline' and 'protection' in traditional cultures. The full consequence of a patriarchal mindset of male control is unleashed on girls and women. The aim of this article is to investigate how the cycle of domestic violence can be broken and what role pastoral counsellors can play with regard to both victims and offenders in order to prevent history from repeating itself. The article also investigates the (...) extent to which legislation has succeeded in protecting individuals. Pastoral care and counselling comprise both spiritual and emotional support. The combination of two counselling methods compatible with religious themes such as 'hope' and 'new life', namely logotherapy and narrative pastoral counselling, is presented as an effective response to domestic violence. (shrink)

This article focusses on women and the organisational leadership structures of the Apostolic Faith Mission in Zimbabwe. The aim is to identify the roles, practices and contributions of women to the developmental agenda in the church. The AFM in Zimbabwe identifies leadership positions in their various assemblies as pastor, elder, deacon and lay worker. From these ranks, the provincial and national leadership is chosen. The access to and participation of women in these offices and leadership positions will be investigated to (...) ascertain their input to the development of the church and perception of women in the society. The article discusses the mechanisms for the election of leadership in the AFM in Zimbabwe. It analyses leadership succession and leadership roles within the AFM in Zimbabwe from the perspective of gender equity and the involvement of women in policy-making, decision-making and the management of the church. Four aspects of the Exploratory Descriptive Normative Action research model were utilised from a practical theology perspective. The article shows that women do not have access to top leadership positions in the AFM in Zimbabwe even though there are no explicit policies that regulate their exclusion. It highlights their contribution to the development of the church despite this exclusion and engages critically with the unspoken assumption that women are not fit to take up the presidium offices and develop the AFM. The article finds that unquestioned patriarchal discourse contributes to women’s invisibility, which results in their not being taken into consideration when choices are made to elect people for higher leadership positions in the church. (shrink)

There is a shortage of clergy, at least in the Roman Catholic Church. Protestant churches in general are experiencing more of a distribution or placement challenge than a shortage. The two greatest hindrances to addressing the Protestant clergy distribution challenge are a lack of adequate compensation for clergy and the undesirable geographical location of a number of churches, as perceived by clergy. Influences such as secularisation, duality of vocation, time management, change in type of ministry, family issues, congregational and denominational (...) conflict, burnout, sexual misconduct, divorce or marital problems, and suicide, affect clergy. Studies on the shortage of clergy have been conducted mostly in the USA and Europe and not in South Africa. This article focuses on the research gap by means of a practical theological grounded theory exploration of the exodus of clergy. Grounded theory methodology is used to identify the reasons why clergy trained at a Bible college of a Protestant charismatic mega church leave full-time pastoral ministry. Findings correspond to previous studies with two reasons appearing more frequently than others: responding to a call and leadership related issues. Firstly, respondents differed in their replies with respect to reconciling their exit from full-time pastoral ministry with their call. The replies included not being called, a dual call, or called but left anyway. Secondly, respondents indicated that leadership influence was mostly negative with regard to affirming their call. (shrink)

Preaching is an important part of congregational worship in various church traditions globally. Through the years, there has been vast literature on preaching but not much about the phenomenon as it happens specifically in the Assemblies of God (Back to God). This article sought to explore factors affecting preaching, and its Christological aspects, in Pentecostal churches of the Western Reef Region of the Assemblies of God (Back to God), South Africa. The article aimed at contributing to research in this area (...) and suggesting improvements where necessary. This article presented a qualitative study conducted in the churches of the aforementioned region by applying the analysis of sermons and semistructured interviews with some preachers in the region. The study revealed some extent of Christ-centred preaching and a fair understanding of concepts of Pentecostalism, preaching and Christology by participants. Also, the study showed that there are various factors affecting preaching in the region, resulting in a generally unsatisfactory level of preaching and Christology not being sufficiently expressed in the preaching. Contribution: This article aimed to contribute to research in the practice of preaching in Pentecostal churches. It is hoped that this article will also contribute to improvement in preaching in the Assemblies of God (Back to God) churches. (shrink)

Three Dreyers, two ecclesial issues – a brief chronicle. The three Dreyers to whom this article refers are firstly, Willem Akkerhuys (Wim) Dreyer, church history scholar, to whom this volume of the HTS Theological Studies is dedicated; secondly, his father, Petrus Secundus Dreyer, in his lifetime theologian and professor in philosophy at the University of Pretoria, and myself, Yolanda Dreyer, the first woman to be licensed and ordained in the Netherdutch Reformed Church of Africa (NHKA), and the first female professor (...) in theology at the University of Pretoria. Our histories converged at two theological and ecclesial issues, namely, the ordination of women and the gay issue. In this article these histories are explored from the autobiographical perspective of a participant, with the further aim to document history ( herstory ) from a female experience. The NHKA passed the resolution to ordain female persons in 1979, and the resolution with regard to the unconditional acceptance of gay persons in all walks of ecclesial life in 2016. Contribution: This article presents original research in an autobiographical format. The research contributes to the theological discourse on gender justice in the South- African frame work of ecclesial history. It describes the inception of the ordination of women in the Afrikaans-speaking churches and persons belonging to sexual minorities. (shrink)

In this article the focus is on ritual theory and its relevance for pastoral care during the grief process. For these purposes the first task at hand is finding an appropriate description of what ritual implies, especially in the context of pastoral care. It includes studying different descriptions from different study fields to provide a broad theoretical view of ritual and to identify relevant perspectives. This view is narrowed to ritual as performance as well as legitimisation of experience. Concerning the (...) pastoral aspect of grief care the research mainly focuses on the work of the Dutch practical theologian, Corja Menken-Bekius and the American practical theologian David Hogue. Menken-Bekius' works on ritual from a clinical pastoral perspective while Hogue gives a neuropsychological perspective. Included in the processing of these two views are the works of anthropologist, Roy Rappaport and psychologist, Onno Van der Hart. Finding a description of ritual is not an easy task. The one offered is created with careful consideration of the inclusions and exclusions within the 'idea' of ritual. Meaning is subjective when it comes to ritual. A general meaning might be ascribed to a specific ritual, yet each individual might have a different experience and might attach different meanings. This happens unwittingly and unwillingly. What is found to be important in the rituals proposed in this article, is the ability of rituals to provide a framework of order within a situation of chaos and that it also creates a moment of remembrance. (shrink)

The aim of the article is to critically question whether the church is still able to guide people to make meaningful choices with regard to marriage and sexuality when values keep shifting. This question is especially relevant where the church still tends to uphold premodern values (heteronormative, patriarchal, monogamous) with regard to sexuality and marriage as the only (prescriptive) model for marriage in a postmodern world. The article consists of the following sections: changing values versus traditional values; marriage and sexuality (...) from biblical times to the present; church in crisis; and eco-feminist family ethics. (shrink)

In today’s ‘age of protest’, people have the right to publically resist what they perceive to be unjust and abusive. Sometimes, public protest is non-violent, but often it becomes destructive. People get hurt and property is damaged. Those who have the least are often affected most. This article explores the potential of the centuries old ethics of the Jesus tradition coupled with recent insights from psychology on empathy, for effective and necessary resistance against injustice and power abuse, but without the (...) futility of the violence and destruction. This way of love resists all evil, oppression and injustice, and has the power to break the spiral of violence. (shrink)