Thesnaar, Christoffel Hendrik,1966- (2001-12)
Thesis (DTh)--Stellenbosch University, 2001
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.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie ondersoek die proses van heling en versoening tussen slagoffer en oortreder in 'n post-WVK periode in Suid-Afrika met die oog op die uitdaging wat dit vir die pastoraat inhou. Die studie fokus doelbewus op die post-WVK periode en nie op die termyn waartydens die WVK geopereer het nie. Die post-WVK periode is 'n periode waar die waarheid aangaande die apartheidverlede deels bekend is, waar skuld en rou deel van die oortreder se worsteling is, waar lyding, op alle gebiede van die lewe, steeds deel van die slagoffer se oorlewing is, waar daar meer begrip moet wees vir die emosies wat slagoffers en oortreders beleef, waar restitusie en rekonstruksie 'n nuwe visie en orientasie skep vir slagoffers en oortreders en waar die kerk die verlede, hede en toekoms moet interpreteer sodat heling en versoening 'n realiteit kan word. Om heling en versoening tussen slagoffers en oortreders in die post-WVK periode te bewerkstellig is naamlik van kardinale belang ten einde te verseker dat die wandade van die verlede nie in een of ander vorm herhaal sal word nie. Om te verseker dat heling en versoening tussen slagoffer en oortreder op persoonlike en publieke vlak bewerkstellig kan word, is dit noodsaaklik om duidelikheid te verkry oor die praktiese situasie van slagoffer en oortreder. Daar is bevind dat die terme 'slagoffer' en 'oortreder' omvattend verstaan moet word in die lig van die sosio-politieke konteks van Suid-Afrika en dat skuld 'n kernelement vorm wat die pastoraat met sensitiwiteit en begrip sal moet hanteer. Binne hierdie omvattende verstaan is bevind dat skuld nie net psigologies en sosiaal verklaar en verstaan moet word nie maar ook teologies. Om hierdie rede is dit deurslaggewend om slagoffers en oortreders binne konteks te verstaan en die impak wat skuld, lyding en rou gelaat het te begryp. Hoewel hierdie belewenisse -'" op verskillende vlakke gelee is, is die verstaan van beide slagoffers en oortreders 'n onontbeerlike indikator vir die bereiking van heling en versoening in Suid-Afrika (hoofstuk 2). Vir versoening en heling om tussen slagoffer en oortreder plaas te vind is dit verder wesenlik dat albei die waarheid aangaande dit wat in die verlede gebeur het in die oe moet kyk. In die verband is dit bepalend om waarheid nie te beskou as 'n verifieerbare feit me, maar as In proses van interpretasie wat geng IS op SIll ontsluiting binne bepaalde relasies, kontekste en belewenisse. Behalwe dat waarheid bevryding bring, is waarbeid ook In primere vereiste vir versoening (hoofstuk 3). Die invloed van pastorale teologiee op heling en versoening tussen oortreder en slagoffer is vervolgens bespreek. Daar is bevind dat die pastoraat, indien dit In wesenlike bydrae wil maak tot heling en versoening in Suid-Afrika, In paradigmatiese verskuiwing sal moet maak vanaf In individuele klient-gesentreerde pastorale benadering na In hermeneutieskulturele benadering. Dit is essensieel dat he ling en versoening verb reed behoort te word vanaf In bloot subjektiewe/individuele verstaan daarvan, na heling en versoening as In sistemiese proses van verstaan en interpretasie (hermeneuties) wat aan sosiale verhoudinge en inkulturasie gekoppel is. Om te verseker dat bierdie hermeneutiek van versoening In impak sal he op die post-WVK praktyk, sal dit aangevul moet word met In daadteologie wat binne In wysheidsperspektief funksioneer, dit wil se In kreatiewe program om oortreders en slagoffers asook mense wat eksistensieel geraak is deur die wonde van apartheid bymekaar te bring (boofstuk 4). Vir herinnering en storievertelling om plaas te vind en betekenis te he vir die helingsen versoeningsproses tussen oortreder en slagoffer, is dit ten slotte wesenlik dat dit ingebed moet wees in In prakties-teologiese ekklesiologie waarbinne die kerk kan dien as In forum vir be ling en versoening. Om heling en versoening te kan vermag, stel die navorsing In liturgie van heling voor. Dit is van belang dat die inhoud en vorm van In liturgie van beling deur die volgende kemelemente bepaal behoort te word: herinnering, vergifnis, en die gebruik van metafore, simbole en rituele (hoofstuk 5).
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