thegoodfellas/blogset-br huggingface dataset:
from him (Lk 22:42). Yet, he chose to obey his Father and died upon that cross. From this, we learn that Jesus' obedience did not come from his willingness to die on the cross; Jesus' obedience was an act of his will. Bonhoeffer (2003:35) expands of this notion: 'When he was challenged by Jesus to accept a life of voluntary poverty, the rich young man knew he was faced with the simple alternative of obedience or disobedience.' To obey or to disobey is a choice Christians makes daily, where obedience can only follow a command. Could this suggest that the praxis of practical theology will often manifest not from willingness, but from obedience of the caregiver? If Jesus did not call the rich young man to voluntary poverty, obedience would not have been possible as there was nothing to obey. Because of his choice of non-obedience, this young man was disqualified from entering into the Kingdom of Heaven (Mt 19:23). God called his people to care for their neighbours. This brings us to the point of making a choice: will we obey God's call, or will we ignore our neighbour in need of care? In this context, it seems that the Christian has no luxury of another choice; they can only obey or disobey.Yet, it is not as simple as pure obedience or not. So often we discover a community that cares, but one in which this care is confined to set parameters. This selective way of caring is not a modern occurrence. An expert in Jewish law tested Jesus with a similar question: 'And who is my neighbour?' (Lk 10:29). The Scripture states that he wanted to 'justify himself' and his actions through this question. Today, we may ask why he would want to do this? From this context, it seems this expert in Jewish law attempted to justify his lack of love towards people he did not recognise as his neighbour. It is not at all difficult to love the loveable people in our lives; however, it is tougher to express love towards those whom we do not want to love. In response to the expert's question, Jesus told a story that later became known as the parable of the Good Samaritan. This allegory is still popular in motivating our understanding of who qualifies to be our neighbour. Who is the one that will be on the receiving end of our Christian care? To this end, Wise (1989:4) shows great insight when he states: 'If our concern to help ends with those who require little cost on our part, then we will not help many.' Practical theology and its praxis in the context of povertyThere is a confidence amongst many theologians that God favours the poor. This theological conviction largely influences their motivation and the methodology in the praxis of care they offer to people in need. Indeed, it seems that these theologians find their motivation for care from within their sympathy towards the politically oppressed, who are also most often the financially deprived. Buffel (2007) states his convictions blatantly
as he writes: Just as God favours the poor, the church must do the same. Jesus Christ furthered this preferential option for the poor, the oppressed and the marginalized in his statements and his ministry. (Buffel 2007:52)We find that this notion seriously confronts our understanding of God's love, as it compartmentalises his unlimited love for all people (cf. Jn 3:16). How could one categorise God's love and favour in this manner? Could this imply that poor people find salvation in Christ more easily that their richer fellow humans? Does this mean that poor people have a greater share in the salvation only Christ can offer? This theological basis for God's favouritism is very dangerous, because if God favours the poor, it unavoidably means that God is 'dis-favourable' towards the rich.At this point we are very aware of Jesus' words about the rich young man (see Mt 19:23). It would prove to be very difficult for the rich to enter into God's Kingdom; however, does this really mean that God is more favourable towards the poor? The reason why we find this theological conviction so difficult to accept is rooted in Jesus' concern for all people. In this, we are saying that God does not make it more difficult for the rich to enter his Kingdom, nor does he lower the standards for the poor. We find confidence in this notion as Zacchaeus, a rich tax collector, found favour with Jesus, who said: 'Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham' (Lk 19:9). God does not favour of one human being above another and the Bible explicitly states this (see Ac 10:34; Rm 2:11). In John 3:16, Jesus expressed God's love for the world, rich and poor alike. Davids strengthens this notion when he writes: When we understand that God wills the salvation, development and progress of all His creation, it gives us the impetus to look at any context as a context in need of God's redemptive presence, not because we are scared or need security, but because God wills it. (ed. De Beer 2002:33)However, the reader should take note that we are deeply convinced that God is not favourable towards the injustices that cause people to be poor. I have confidence that God will oppose the acts of people who oppress others financially, politically, or any other way. Within this context, we urge the reader not to be caught in the trap of an, 'us' and 'them' situation, where the 'us' are the oppressed and 'them' the oppressor, or where 'us' are the poor and righteous and 'them' the rich and wicked. We wish to sound a warning in saying that this is a very dangerous game to play. Rich and poor, good and bad, high and low, fat and thin: these are all very relative concepts and extremely difficult to qualify, unless one can measure it against a set standard. In this instance of human standards for righteousness and evil, it becomes an even greater problem, because believers are not measured against
one another. Our holiness, wickedness, righteousness, riches or poverty is not measured against our fellow human standards, because there is a much higher standard for measurement. God called believers to be holy, righteous and rich according to his standard (Lv 11:44) and all human beings have fallen short of this glory of God (Rm 3:23). In fact, we all are human and in desperate need of God's grace, whether we are rich or poor, Christian or pagan. No one who is human can say that God favours me, us, him or her above another human being. All people are in desperate need of God's grace. This theological conviction has become the sustained energy in our personal journeys, searching for meaning to life through theological studies. Our deeply rooted convictions that God is intensely concerned about our individual existence have enabled each of us to be concerned about the existence of the people around us. We can love, because God first loved us as individuals (see 1 Jn 4:19). Heschel (1975) agrees with this notion as he writes: Neither prediction nor speaking in the name of God is the most important feature of biblical prophecy. The prophet is not sent to the people in order to demand that some particular act be done; he is sent because of a divine concern for the total existence of the people. (Heschel 1975:251) ConclusionThis article urges the practical theologian to wrestle with theology, in order to motivate the praxis of practical theology. We motivated this notion from our conviction that the praxis of theology can only be sustained over prolonged timeframes once the caregiver is theologically convinced of the need to care for those in need. Hence, unless the caregiver has the conviction to care through his or her theology of care, this praxis of care will not be sustained.Being practical in nature, practical theology cannot be freed from its praxis. In this we are saying that practical theology, although motivated through theological convictions, cannot be separated from its practical outworking of the faith it professes. The practical theologian cannot separate themselves from those in need, as Gerkin (1986) agrees: Practical theology always takes place in the midst of praxis and is prompted by the situation of 'being in the midst' ... In that sense practical theology is always, or virtually always, done 'on the run', so to speak, or in the midst of the necessity of action. (Gerkin 1986:60)In this same context, Campbell (1981:82) understands that people become companions on the same journey as they pastorally care for one another. Our neighbour is the one who makes this journey with us. As travelling companions, the caregiver and care-receiver will gain authority to become friends and comrades on this journey of pastoral care as they engage in the practice of practical theology. AcknowledgementsCompeting interestsThe authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article.'Authors' contributionsThis article is an adaptation of T.H.S.'s doctoral thesis within the Department of Practical Theology at the University of Pretoria, as supervised
'The future of pastoral work in South Africa', In Praktiese Teologie in Suid Afrika 8(2), 73-82. [ Links ]Oglesby, W.B., 1986, 'Lay pastoral care revisited', Journal of Pastoral Care 27, 307-326. [ Links ]Pannenburg, W., 1975, Faith and reality, Search Press, London. [ Links ]Parrat, J., 2004, An introduction to Third World theologies today, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. [ Links ]Patton, J., 1993, Pastoral care in context, Westminster/John Knox Press, Louisville, KY. [ Links ]Pieterse, H., 2001, Preaching in a context of poverty, Unisa, Pretoria. [ Links ]Pope, R., 2006, The intentional church, Moody Publishers, Chicago, IL. [ Links ]Poser, K., 1987, Called to be neighbours, WCC Publishers, Geneva. [ Links ]Schaeffler, R., 1994, Therefore, we remember, Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN. [ Links ]Solomon, C., 1992, Handbook to acceptance, Tyndale House Publishers, Wheaton, IL. [ Links ]Stokes, P.J., 1990, Grace under pressure, Navpress, Colorado Springs, CO. [ Links ]Tillich, P., 2000, The courage to be, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT. [ Links ]Tracy, D., 1983, 'The foundations of practical theology', in D.S. Browning (ed.), Practical theology: The emerging field in theology, church, and world, p. 76, Harper and Brothers, New York, NY. [ Links ]Watson, D., 1981, Discipleship, Hodder and Stoughton, London. [ Links ]White, E.G., 1940, The desire of ages, Pacific Press Publishing Association, Mountain View, CA. [ Links ]Wise, C.A., 1989, The meaning of pastoral car, Meyer-Stone, Bloomington, IN. [ Links ] Correspondence to:Maake MasangoPostal address: PO Box 84173Greenside 2034, South AfricaEmail: maake.masango@up.ac.zaReceived: 09 Sept. 2010Accepted: 14 Aug. 2011Published: 15 Nov. 2011 2011. The Authors. Licensee: AOSIS OpenJournals. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License.All the contents of this journal, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License Reformed Theological CollegeFaculty of TheologyUniversity of PretoriaPretoria, 0002South Africa+27 (0)12 420 2669+27 (0)12 420 4016editor@hts.org.za
seldom present intended practical results of betterment of poor circumstances.Dissertations written by Bible scholars across the continent who intend to "mean something (to society)" give an indication of this. In such studies, the analysis of a selection from the Bible text is brought to bear on an identified problem on the (South) African socio-political scene. However, the analysis of a Bible text and the finding of (at times hardly applicable) parallels between it and the identified pressing African issue - such as post-apartheid reconstruction of South African society or the political situation in Mugabean Zimbabwe - often lead to little more than extended sermonising or legitimations of a chosen programme of action. We may be told about a good way forward, but this is done by someone who does not have the required grounding in political, economic or social theory to do so with great validity. The exegesis of the ancient text is frequently not of the best, because that is not the issue the Bible scholar wants to get to: the Bible has a kind of instrumentalist role to play in a greater, current concern. Equally, the analysis of the modern socio-political issue is too often superficial, because the primary training had, after all, mainly or exclusively been in theology. The Bible is commonly regarded one-sidedly under the banner of: "God's preferential option for the poor". The crucial hermeneutical issue is, however, usually left unconsidered: how can it be that the book of Amos or the gospel of Luke should in any way alleviate the plight of the poor in, say, a poor Cape Town or Tshwane township? To indicate the theological sensitivity toward the disempowered of society in 8th century BCE Israel or in the 8th decade of Christianity, is one matter. However, those sensitivities have no, and can never have, any direct impact on a hungry child in Gugulethu or Eersterust. To insist that it does have direct impact, as is at times emotively done, is intellectually dishonest. Moreover, the fact that the text was not created by authors who were themselves poor, or women, or disempowered in other ways, is most often overlooked. So is the fact that in such texts the poor may simply be used rhetorically by the powerful in order to plead for God's favour on themselves (cf. Scheffler 2011:192-207). Lastly, the dynamic is never considered in such theologising that an exegete who claims in his/her study to speak for or on behalf of the downtrodden or marginalised, does so dishonestly, since exegetes are as scholars themselves part of the highest elite of privilege (cf., influentially, Spivak [1988] 2006:28-37).From the perspective of the seven reasons given in the paragraph above, it is the unreflected acceptance of, and even a naive commitment to directly practicing contextual or (a form of) liberation theology, which is in its futility the second characteristic of South African theology in our time. Whereas some theological work such as that done within urban ministry or in pastoral counselling may be better at dealing concretely with negative life circumstances, for the most part,
of religion in nation-building: from Thabo Mbeki, to 'The RDP of the Soul', to Jacob Zuma, in Du Toit, C. (ed.), Power sharing and African democracy: interdisciplinary perspectives. Pretoria: Research Institute for Theology and Religion, Unisa, 89-120. [ Links ]West, G. 2010. Jesus, Jacob Zuma, and the New Jerusalem: religion in the public realm between Polokwane and the Presidency. Journal for the Study of Religion 23(1&2), 43-70. [ Links ]West, G. 2011. From a Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) of the economy to the RDP of the soul: public realm biblical appropriation in postcolonial South Africa, in Coomber, MJM. (ed.), Bible andjustice: ancient texts, modern challenges. London: Equinox, 122-144. [ Links ] 1 This paper is a further development of basic versions presented at the Protestant Theological Faculty, Charles University of Prague, Czech Republic in May 2012, and at Abo Akademi, Turku, Finland in November 2012.2 A methodological note on the section that follows here: the paragraphs below are not as thickly referenced as those above, for the reason that the intention here is not to single out specific scholars for debate. Rather, a Weberian ideal type is presented: a broad scenario into which no single work will fit perfectly, but when one takes a step aside in order to review the larger group, these are the frequently recurring characteristics that present themselves phenomenologically. Moreover, whereas in one way the older generation of scholars who created this trend may be regarded as the primary agents of the tendency, or its agenda setters, those scholars who grew up in it have only this one intellectual world into which they have been schooled. They know no other form of theologising; theology is rather narrow, with the language derived from the older generation, rather than with a new theological vocabulary invented. They are thus very strongly children of their time; even victims of their circumstances: the pressing socio-political issues of only very specific kinds form the singular backdrop against which they have (been) developed intellectually. Their relevance has therefore been limited to that backdrop. Even when the younger generation of scholars within this frame of theology criticise their foregoing generation, it is usually in order to intensify the existing frame, rather than to explore additional or alternate frames of theology. To single out some scholars within this frame would appear judgmental, whereas the purpose here is first to describe the developed trend.All the contents of this journal, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License The Church History Society of Southern AfricaResearch Institute for Theology and ReligionUniversity of South AfricaP O Box 392PRETORIA 0003Tel: +27 (0)12 429 4309landmc@unisa.ac.za
context of his world and situation. At the end of this study we will be able to agree with Ray van Neste who emphasises that ' a close examination of Calvin's historical context, his writings, and his actions would prove John Calvin to be a man truly committed to the spread of the gospel' (Van Neste 2009:1). THE ESSENTIALLY MISSIONARY THEOLOGY OF JOHN CALVIN (10 JULY 150927 MAY 1564)A characteristic feature of the 16th century Reformation was that the Reformers never embarked on religious activities and ventures without establishing a definite background of profound theological thinking beforehand. In this regard Frank A. James III stresses the following: Calvin did not want to send uneducated missionaries back to the dangers of Catholic France. He believed that a good missionary had to be a good theologian first. And so he inspired and educated them. He trained them theologically, tested their preaching ability, and carefully scrutinized their moral character.(Coleman 2009:2)Errol Hulse elaborates on the moral conduct that was necessarily part of being a good minister and a good theologian in Calvin's book: There was an exacting code listing offences that were not to be tolerated in a minister. Offences in money, dishonesty or sexual misconduct meant instant dismissal.(Hulse 2009:3)Hulse also relates Calvin's own profound theological abilities at an early age (shortly after his arrival in Geneva at the age of 27): Not long after this the Roman Catholic priests of the nearby city of Lausanne were challenged to a public debate by the Reformers. Of 337 priests only 174 arrived and only 4 had the ability to defend their doctrine. Farel and Viret, a foremost Swiss Reformer of those times, were spokesmen for the Bible. They took Calvin with them as an observer as he had no experience of these debates. The debate went on for several days. One priest in defence of transubstantiation started to quote from the Early Church Fathers. Farel and Viret were unable to handle this and looked to Calvin for help. Standing up the latter proceeded to quote from memory passages from the Early Church Fathers, giving the exact source in each case. It was an amazing display of learning and had an electrifying effect on the assembly. The opposition was completely confounded. One priest was converted immediately. As a result of this astonishing performance not only did Lausanne turn Protestant but 200 priests renounced the Roman Catholic Church.(Hulse 2009:12)For the kind of approach that the Reformers had, the entire practical enterprise of reforming and rebuilding the Christian church had to be built on a sound theological foundation. It can be argued that the worldwide expansion and lasting successes of the Reformation were directly related to the impact which the theological thinking of the Reformers had on people's minds. That means that before we can even begin to try and understand the Reformers' and in particular John Calvin's thinking on mission, we need to search for and understand the basic theological thinking that necessarily underlies any approach to and involvement in important theological and church matters.Joel R. Beeke regarded it
as a time constraint, which temporarily delayed massive overseas foreign missionary work because Calvin and the Reformers first had to ascertain the truth of the Gospel in the infant Reformation church, thus establishing a necessary and sound theological foundation upon which church mission could be built (cf. Coleman 2009:2).According to David J. Bosch there could be little doubt that the Reformers gave us an 'essentially missionary theology' (Bosch 2004:245). This, of course, includes John Calvin, and the intention of this study is to focus mainly on Calvin. However, we also cannot entirely isolate Calvin's thinking from the rest of the Reformation, because his theology formed part of the Reformation debate of the 16th century. In addition, John Calvin was a prominent leader in the Reformation movement as a whole. To appreciate the unique contribution of John Calvin, this study discloses Calvin's theology with reference to David J. Bosch, who identified five crucial and basic theological insights into Reformation theology which 'help us to discern the contours of a "Protestant theology of mission"', namely: (1) The doctrine of justification; (2) the perspective of the essential sinfulness of man; (3) the subjective dimension of salvation; (4) the priesthood of all believers; and (5) the centrality of the Scriptures (Bosch 2004:241252). In reflecting and elaborating on these five theological contours, the following should be pointed out in order to demonstrate the profound theological basis which Calvin's theology provides for the mission of the Church (cf. Bosch 2004:241252).The doctrine of justificationThe Reformation's understanding of the doctrine of justification is already an understanding conducive to mission.It is Calvin's 'conviction' (Institutes, Book III, Chapter XI) that the 'doctrine of justification' is 'the principal ground on which religion must be supported'. This means that from the 'foundation' of the doctrine of justification man's 'position before God', his 'salvation' and 'piety towards God' need to be understood and explained (Calvin 1964:37). The predicament of man's position is that man is a sinner with no righteousness before God. 'To be justified in the sight of God', salvation is man's greatest need, and Calvin explains: A man is said to be justified in the sight of God when in the judgement of God he is deemed righteous, and is accepted on account of his righteousness; for as iniquity is abominable to God, so neither can the sinner find grace in his sight, so far as he is and so long as he is regarded as a sinner. Hence, wherever sin is, there also are the wrath and vengeance of God. He, on the other hand, is justified who is regarded not as a sinner, but as righteous, and as such stands acquitted at the judgement-seat of God, where all sinners are condemned. On the contrary, a man will be justified by faith when, excluded from the righteousness of works, he by faith lays hold of the righteousness of Christ, and clothed in it appears in the sight of God not as a sinner, but as righteous. Thus we simply interpret justification, as the acceptance with which God receives us into his favour