Project topics and materials
Get Complete Project Material File(s) Now! »
African pastoral care and counselling is holistic
African theology comprises the whole of life. “Life is not perceived as compartmentalised in body-mind or religious-secular dichotomy. Life is holistic. The person is a unit.”75
Pastoral care and counselling can be enriched by looking at how communities care for themselves
Pastoral care and counselling among the Zulus is something one cannot separate from religion. Religion is like a thread that goes through all spheres of life knitting or binding them to one whole. Msomi’s work reveals that this is the case among the Zulu people. Hence, healing in pastoral care and counselling among the Zulu people, plays a central role. Healing simply means to undo what evil has done.
Evil brings disorder in people’s relationships and environment. Disease means things are put in disorder. Healing is the restoration of order in all things. Disorder in one aspect affects other aspects. Life is like a chain. Once one piece of a chain is broken, the whole chain is infected or affected. The example is that disorder in a person’s hand affects the whole body and the soul.
The cry for holistic care and counselling is clearly seen in pastoral care and counselling as illustrated in the lives of the Zulu people. It does not work to put an indigenous Zulu person in a narrow worldview. He or she will not feel his or her concerns covered. A traditional doctor covers many spheres of life. “In traditional Zulu society, the inyanga fulfils a multi-dimensional role as priest, psychologist, philosopher and general practitioner; he (sic) practises the art of healing and has allencompassing function as an adviser. The Zulu doctor operates in an atmosphere of active involvement with others. The patient is approached within his (sic) own cultural milieu.”76
The other bridge for pastoral care and counselling in an inter-cultural setting is community and extended family emphasis. Life, for the Africans, is in community. “African nature cannot take being alive and isolated.”77 Isolation is equal to death. Belonging to a community is therapeutic for the Africans. “This is essential because these patterns of existence are ‘stamped’ in African psyche.”78
Another bridge for pastoral care and counselling is “the Zulu world-view”. “The Zulu, for example, have a certain way of interpreting reality and making sense of their being in the world. This will naturally include their values, ideas and beliefs.”79 Msomi says that among the Zulu therapy there is an emphasis on group therapy. In this therapy community plays an important role. For example, “sickness is not only personal, it can be communal and societal as well.”80 This goes with the concept of “Ubuntu” because “alienation destroys Ubuntu…” 81 The Zulu traditionally emphasised relationships in the community, which is an extended family. Thus these emphases are of great use in maintaining a wholesome life.82
Pastoral Healing, African Community and Christian Faith Community
Magezi argues that healing goes back to Jesus ministry and cannot be separated from the theological understanding of salvation. Pastoral healing is about salvation and refers to being transformed from a condition of death to life. Soul healing for Magezi is essential to pastoral healing.88 The context of pastoral healing is the “koinonia” hich he describes as the community of faith believers. The goal of healing is to acquire mature faith.89 The healing process for him is through the “koinonia” to free people to better worship and serve God and become more like the Lord.90 Magezi asks how his view of Christian healing differs from that of the African community? Like the current researcher he stresses how life in traditional situations was communal and stresses the possibility of generating solutions as found in community.91 Magezi then attempts to compare African communal healing versus pastoral faith communal healing. He clearly sees them as competitive rather than easy to integrate. He argues that in fact the extended family and community pressure to conform can work against pastoral or Christian practices of healing.92
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 ORIENTATION
1.1.1 Africans are people in real pain
1.1.2 Communal actions can heal pain
1.1.3 God’s care is omnipresent in communal care
1.2 THE RESEARCH PROBLEM
1.3 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY, MUTUAL / COMMUNAL CARE AND EMPIRICAL METHOD
1.3.1 Practical Theology
1.3.2 Theory and praxis complements each other
1.3.3 The correlation model
1.4 COMMUNAL CARE AS MUTUAL CARE, PASTORAL CARE AND, COUSELLING AND PASTORAL THERAPY
1.5 CULTURAL MATERIALS AS EXTRA-BIBLICAL MATERIALS IN COMMUNAL PASTORAL CARE
1.5.1 Culture as an extra-biblical material in pastoral care
1.5.2 The Reformed tradition and culture
1.6 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO EMPIRICAL METHOD
1.7 COMMENTS OF THE SAMPLE POPULATION TO BE INTERVIEWED
1.8 THE DEFINITION OF KEY CONCEPTS
1.9 CHAPTER HEADINGS FOR THE FUTURE CHAPTERS
CHAPTER 2 COMMUNAL PASTORAL CARE LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 INTRODUCTION
2.2 WESTERN LITERATURE
2.2.1 “A Caring Church: A Guide for Lay Pastoral Care”
2.2.1.1 Lay pastoral care and counselling is imperative
2.2.1.2 Community involvement in care is pastoral care
2.2.1.3 Training of lay pastoral care-givers
2.2.1.4 Conclusion
2.2.2 “The Pastoral Care in Context: An Introduction to Pastoral Care”
2.2.2.1 The times and things are changing
2.2.2.2 Three supplementing paradigms in pastoral care
2.2.2.3 The communal contextual paradigm in pastoral theology
2.2.2.4 Conclusio
2.3 AFRICAN LITERATURE
2.4 EVALUATION OF THE LITERATURE REVIEW .
2.5 CONCLUSION
CHAPTER 3 PAIN: A PHYSICAL, PYSCHOLOGICAL, SOCIAL AND THEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS
3.1 INTRODUCTION
3.2 DEFINITIONS OF PAIN
3.3 AN EXPLORATION OF PAIN
3.5 HEALING OF PAIN
3.6 THE MEANING OF PAIN AND SUFFERING
3.7 CONCLUSION
CHAPTER 4 VHAVENDA COSMOLOGY AND COMMUNAL CARE
4.1 INTRODUCTION
4.2 A VHAVENDA COSMOLOGY AND PAIN
4.2.1 Worldview and cosmology: Beliefs have consequences
4.2.2 Some important features and functions of the worldview
4.2.3 Cosmology is life among the Vhavenda
4.3 GOD IN VHAVENDA COSMOLOGY
4.4 THE VHAVENDA COMMUNALISM
4.5 THE VHAVENDA FAMILY
4.6 THE COMMUNAL CONCEPT OF A PERSON
4.7 RECONSIDERING RELIGION AND SECURITY OF COMMUNAL-FAMILY LIFE
4.8 CONCLUDING REMARKS
CHAPTER 5 TOWRDS A TRADITIONAL VHAVENDA UNDERSTANDING OF PAIN AND CARE
CHAPTER 6 QUALITATIVE EMPERICAL RESEARCH ON PAIN IN VHAVENDA COMMUNITY
CHAPTER 7 . VHAVENDA CHRISTIAN CULTURALLY GIFTED COMMUNAL AND FAMILY CARE MODELS
CHAPTER 8 . RECOMMENDATIONS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
GET THE COMPLETE PROJECT
COMMUNAL PASTORAL COUNSELLING: CULTURALLY GIFTED CARE-GIVING IN TIMES OF FAMILY PAIN—A VHAVENDA PERSPECTIVE
