Research Articles (Centre for Contextual Ministry)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/2263/4132

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‘Housing’ as Christian social practice in African cities : centering the urban majority theologically
(MDPI, 2023-08-07) De Beer, Stephan F.; stephan.debeer@up.ac.za
Decent, affordable housing and secure housing tenure remain elusive for Africa’s urban majority. The urban majority is expected to live in self-help housing, reflected in the fact that 62% of African urban dwellers live in urban informal settlements. The inability to access safe, decent, and secure housing, and the reality that Africa’s urban majority is perpetually precarious, have a severe impact on Africa’s urban households and the well-being of individuals, families, and neighborhoods. This article articulates housing as a critical and urgent Christian social practice in African cities—an extension of the church’s pastoral and missional concern. It considers housing both as a product and a process: people need housing to live secure lives; yet, the process of housing is as critical as the outcome. It then proposes housing, as a Christian social practice, being engaged in (i) supporting precarious households; (ii) preventing homelessness; (iii) creating housing; (iv) supporting rightsbased land and housing movements; and (v) centering housing pastorally–liturgically. The article grounds itself in Jean-Marc Ela’s insistence on God’s presence ‘in the hut of a mother whose granary is empty’ and in Letty Russell’s ‘household of freedom’.
Urban Africa 2050 : imagining theological education/formation for flourishing African cities
(Sage, 2022-04) De Beer, Stephanus Francois; stephan.debeer@up.ac.za
Africa’s staggering rate of urbanization and the silence of religion or theology in response form the backdrop of this article. Africa’s urban futures, up through 2050, are considered through the lenses of fifteen African cities and theological institutions in these cities. I employ a set of research questions, seeking to contribute theologically to a body of knowledge known as African urbanism. The article imagines theological education/formation in response to Africa’s urban explosion through exploring flourishing cities as an organizing imaginary, but also through outlining concrete embodiments and prospects for reimagining theological education/formation in African cities.
African cities by 2063 : fostering theologies of urban citizenship
(AOSIS, 2022-12-21) De Beer, Stephanus Francois; stephan.debeer@up.ac.za
Grounded in a postcolonial, liberationist urban vision, this article lamented the theological and political paralysis of urban denialism that fails African cities and African urban populations. Considering different possible urban trajectories towards 2063 - ranging from floundering to flourishing, implosion to explosion, and apocalyptic disaster to complete rebirth - it then proposed theologies of African urban citizenship, as response. It sought to articulate a vision of citizen-driven African cities, remaking cities 'from below', through interconnected and intersectional urban movements. It considered urban citizenship not as the decent and orderly conduct of subjects of the nation-state but as the disruptive and transformative presence and participation of citizens of God's new city, breaking into cities across the African continent. While it bemoaned the absence of 'Africa's urban revolution' from mainstream theologies and politics practised in the African context, and the insufficient attention paid to it even by the Africa 2063 manifesto, it dared to evoke hope, in spite of evidence to the contrary. This should be viewed as a conceptual contribution, fusing literature study with deep urban immersion. CONTRIBUTION : Grounded in a postcolonial, liberationist urban vision, this article lamented the theological and political paralysis of urban denialism that fails African cities and African urban populations, contemplating theologies of African urban citizenship instead.
Change agency and urban vulnerability : theological-ecclesial paralysis or deep solidarity
(AOSIS, 2021-08-31) De Beer, Stephanus Francois; stephan.debeer@up.ac.za
Globally, cities respond differently to their most vulnerable urban populations, notably so during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In the City of Tshwane, there seems to be a general paralysis of the church and theological education in relation to urban vulnerability. If the church and theological education are to participate as change agents to help transform urban vulnerability, a deliberate theological praxis and deep urban diaconate – in solidarity with the city’s most vulnerable realities – are proposed. This is done with reference to Harvey Cox’s assertion that the task of the church in the city is that of Diakonos and the provocations of Philippino liberation theologian, Daniel Pilario. CONTRIBUTION : This article proposes that urban vulnerability and various responses to it need to be reflected upon as a priority, much more deliberately, considering how the entire urban household (oikos) is at risk.
Theological education and African cities : an imperative for action
(Southern African Missiological Society, 2020) De Beer, Stephanus Francois
Africa’s urban explosion presents a clear challenge to the way theological education in Africa is done today. The backdrop of this article is a collaborative research project that involved 15 theological institutions across the African continent, contemplating what theological education and formation should look like, considering Africa’s current and future urban realities. It proposes paradigmatic shifts in theological education, grounded in thorough conceptual and hermeneutical self-critique. It explores various approaches to urbanising theological curricula and concludes with a call for a new kind of African urban apostolate
A reflection on Vuyani Vellem's longing for liberation : a spirituality of life and freedom
(AOSIS, 2020-11) De Beer, Stephanus Francois; stephan.debeer@up.ac.za
Vuyani Vellem was insistent on fostering a spirituality that could ground and sustain resistance of death as expressed in multiple unfreedoms, and the quest for life and freedom in abundance. After naming a number of themes evident in the life of Vuyani – ranging from racism and pigmentocracy to the managerialist university and the shackled church – this article traces his reflections on a spirituality that embraces the cross, resurrection as rebellion and imvuselelo [revival] as the iziko [fire] that births a new political community. It considers the imvuselelo as both an exorcism and a reconstruction. In conclusion, the intersectionality of violences and oppressions, increasingly addressed in his work, is touched upon. And the charge he left us with, to connect spirituality and liberation – as moral imperative and integrative force – is considered for embrace. CONTRIBUTION: This article contributes an appreciative reflection on the spirituality of Vuyani Vellem that undergirded his Black Theology of Liberation. In contemporary contestations and discourses on race and racial justice, whiteness and oppression, and decoloniality, what is often absent is a clearly articulated spirituality of black liberation. Vellem helps us with that.
Young people at the margins in Pretoria central : are the faith-based organisations making a difference?
(AOSIS Open Journals, 2019-12-13) Swart, Ignatius; Rabe, Marlize; De Beer, Stephanus Francois
The authors’ recent case study work in Pretoria Central as part of the international research project ‘Youth at the margins’ (YOMA) constitutes the focus of this article. From this vantage point, the authors offer a presentation of their research findings in order to ultimately answer the question ‘to what extent the faith-based organisations (FBOs) are making a difference in the lives of young people at the margins in this particular case study locality (Pretoria Central)’. The article begins by contextualising the lives of young people in Pretoria Central against the backdrop of far-reaching socio-economic, demographic and religious change in the area since the end of the apartheid era. After explaining the case study methodology and offering a brief profile of the research participants, the discussion then proceeds with a more detailed discussion of distinctive aspects of the case study findings. In the conclusion, the authors argue that the answer to the article’s guiding question seems to be a negative one when the reality of young people’s seemingly permanent structural exclusion is considered. At the same time, this verdict does not withhold them to also conclude with appreciative remarks about the role that churches and FBOs of the non-governmental organisation (NGO) type are playing with respect to marginalised young people in Pretoria Central.
Doing theology with children : exploring emancipatory methodologies
(AOSIS Open Journals, 2019-12-12) De Beer, Stephanus Francois; Yates, Hannelie
This article serves as an introduction to a collection of articles that explores emancipatory methodologies for doing theology and research with children. We focus on both the agency and the participation of children as an ethics and children’s rights imperative as well as the potential impact and outcomes of theology and research that focus on children. The article emphasises that such research should be preceded by an epistemological shift that recognises the validity of local, experiential and different knowledges while insisting on participatory approaches in generating and constructing knowledge. It emphasises a rights-based approach and provides guidelines for ethical and collaborative research with children, moving beyond the paralysis of an ethics conundrum. The life and work of Janet Prest Talbot, who embodies commitment to children’s rights, children’s participation, child justice and God’s joy over children forms a backdrop of and inspiration for this article.
Faith-based agency and theological education : a failed opportunity?
(AOSIS Open Journals, 2019-12-13) De Beer, Stephanus Francois; stephan.debeer@up.ac.za
After attending to shifts in the landscape of theological education at a public university in South Africa, this article explores the re-imagination of theological education as fostering faithbased agency. With reference to the (potential) role faith-based organisations play in response to developmental challenges in local communities, it then suggests a deliberate retrieval of faith-based sources – locatedness, voices, assets, agency and formation – in liberating theological education. It concludes with concrete curriculum recommendations for consideration.
Faith-based action and urban regeneration
(AOSIS Open Journals, 2018-11-19) De Beer, Stephanus Francois; stephan.debeer@up.ac.za
After describing the challenges, myths, exclusions and opportunities of urban regeneration, this article explores the potential interface between faith-based action and different forms of urban regeneration. Focusing on different South African cities, it considers how faith-based action could participate in regenerative urban work. Faith-based action will refer to the varied responses of churches and faith-based organisations to urban challenges and transitions. It interrogates whether faith-based action only represents many similar approaches that address urban problems superficially without mediating long-term, systemic change, or whether it indeed contributes to urban transformation in the sense of radical inclusivity and sociostructural spatial justice. Finally, it considers socio-theological sources that could potentially ground urban faith-based action theologically – such as an urban spirituality, an understanding of regeneration as integral liberation and mobilising socio-spiritual capital – whilst making a distinctive contribution to the processes of socially inclusive urban regeneration.
Change-making in a (post)apartheid city : an auto-ethnographical essay
(AOSIS Open Journals, 2018-11) De Beer, Stephanus Francois; De Beer, Wilna; stephan.debeer@up.ac.za
We reflect on living and doing ministry in a (post)apartheid South African city, negotiating ongoing demographic and sociopolitical transitions and discerning appropriate faith responses. We speak about the inevitability of these transitions, but then suggest that a view of theology and ministry as change-making is not inevitable but a vocation and art to be acknowledged, embraced and fostered. We argue for an epistemology from below or within, drawing from Parker Palmer’s notion of knowing as loving – in community – and reflecting on his idea that ‘to know’ is ‘to be known’. In stressing the importance of reading the city, we show how reading the city means to be read by the city too. It is in the journeys of ongoing self-awareness, and personal confrontation, change and conversion – in relation to issues of gender, race, location and class – that transformational urban imaginaries can be birthed. Finally, we reflect on urban change-making as a process of personal, communal, institutional and systemic transformation, happening on many different levels at the same time, through creating conditions and spaces for change to occur. It is an ongoing call for deepening our journeys in response to the overwhelming groans, of humanity and creation alike, for Gods’ urban shalom.
Born from below : urban regeneration through incarnational theological formation in Guatemala City and beyond
(AOSIS Open Journals, 2018-09-06) Ribbens, Michael; Van Dyke, Joel
This article sets out to describe the development of and engagement with a global training collaborative around the formation of urban ministry leadership committed to the act of loving cities and working for peace. The collaborative is an initiative of Street Psalms called the Urban Training Collaborative and each urban training hub has agreed to be shaped and formed by an Incarnational Training Framework (ITF). The ITF was constructed over a 20-year period in the midst of a global missional community made up of leaders from cities all over the world. The ITF is infused by an incarnational theology as interpreted from below and focused on the message, method and manner as exemplified in the life and mission of Jesus Christ such that messengers are free of fear and unleashed to love their cities and seek their peace. The Incarnation of Jesus Christ animates faith-based engagement around the complex issues of poverty, injustice, social inequity and violence, and shifts paradigms from scarcity to abundance, theory to practice and rivalry to peacemaking. To shed light on the practical outworking of an incarnational theology from below, we will critically reflect on Guatemala City as a case study to illustrate how the formation of a city-wide missional community was developed through engagement around the aforementioned ITF which led to the corresponding paradigm shifts and then subsequently seeding a global training collaborative
Urban social movements in South Africa today : its meaning for theological education and the church
(AOSIS Open Journals, 2017-11-27) De Beer, Stephanus Francois; stephan.debeer@up.ac.za
In the past decade, significant social movements emerged in South Africa, in response to specific urban challenges of injustice or exclusion. This article will interrogate the meaning of such urban social movements for theological education and the church. Departing from a firm conviction that such movements are irruptions of the poor, in the way described by Gustavo Gutierrez and others, and that movements of liberation residing with, or in a commitment to, the poor, should be the locus of our theological reflection, this article suggests that there is much to be gained from the praxis of urban social movements, in disrupting, informing and shaping the praxis of both theological education and the church. I will give special consideration to Ndifuna Ukwazi and the Reclaim the City campaign in Cape Town, the Social Justice Coalition in Cape Town, and Abahlali baseMjondolo based in Durban, considering these as some of the most important and exciting examples of liberatory praxes in South Africa today. I argue that theological education and educators, and a church committed to the Jesus who came ‘to liberate the oppressed’, ignore these irruptions of the Spirit at our own peril.
Trans-disciplinary research on religious formations in urban Africa : towards liberative methodological approaches
(AOSIS Open Journals, 2017-11-27) De Beer, Stephanus Francois; Smith, R.D. (Drew); Manyaka, Semape Jacob; stephan.debeer@up.ac.za
In this article, we are exploring a methodological approach to research on faith and religious expressions in urban Africa. We are committed to trans-disciplinary work that pursues research methods mutually liberating for researchers, co-researchers and community participants and that results in long-term benefits and strengthened agency on the part of the host communities. Our reflections in this article are based on a collaborative research project1 in two regions of Pretoria, Tshwane2 – Pretoria Central and Mamelodi East – in which we explore how religious innovation and competition in and amongst churches contribute to the healing or perpetuation of urban fractures.
Precarious housing in the Salvokop neighbourhood : a challenge to churches in the inner City of Tshwane
(AOSIS Open Journals, 2017-11-23) Ntakirutimana, Ezekiel
This article describes the daunting challenge of precarious housing in Salvokop located in the southern part of inner City of Tshwane, Gauteng Province. Insecure tenure, unmaintained dwellings, overcrowding, mushrooming of backyard shacks and the rise of the informal settlement, all that led to deep levels of vulnerability and neighbourhood deterioration. Current conditions show that life in that neighbourhood is fraught as substandard housing degenerated into slum and squalor. This concern emerged among other salient pressing issues of poverty and vulnerability from the World Café and Focus Groups with the inner city churches including those from Salvokop. The article set out to describe precarious housing, unpleasant living conditions owing to the fact that human beings stay in unsuitable dwellings while the environment deteriorates. Taking into account their circumstances, the article’s aim was to recapture the extent to which the residents suffer as a result of living in dwellings unfit for human habitation, rethinking an alternative model to respond. A theological agenda for future ecclesiological engagement was discerned forthwith recommendations. The article makes a contribution towards the theology of the city in that it stimulates church practices and housing of poor people in Tshwane. It does so by engaging in a unique way grassroots knowledge from the different inner city congregations. This process used the platform of surveys, World Café style gatherings and Focus Groups. In conversation with the primary source, this article also contributed with original data generated with the Salvokop residents whose stories helped to expend on horizons of housing, which is acknowledged. All the inner city church contributors of the realisation of the study objectives are also recognised.
Churches claiming a right to the city? Lived urbanisms in the City of Tshwane
(AOSIS Open Journals, 2017-11-27) Ribbens, Michael; De Beer, Stephanus Francois
This article sets out to describe how churches have responded and continue to respond to fastchanging urban environments in Pretoria Central and Mamelodi East, animating Henri Lefebvre’s sociological perspective of citadins or urban inhabitants. We make tentative interpretations and offer critical appreciation. Churches, which were historically separated from the city centre, now directly participate in claiming a right to the city. With necessary fluidity, churches express lived African urbanisms through informality, place-making, spatial innovation and everyday rituals. Though not exhaustive, the article focuses on rituals shared among historic urban Christians and contemporary African urban Christians, namely prayer, listening to the Bible and worship. These rituals, when combined with the churches’ spatial innovation, to a certain degree contribute to place-making.
Transforming curricula into the next century : doing theology collaboratively with local communities
(AOSIS OpenJournals, 2017) De Beer, Stephanus Francois; Van Niekerk, Attie
The FT at the UP celebrates its first century of existence in 2017. This chapter is an attempt to draw from the emerging approach in both the CCM and the CSC, asking whether it perhaps offers clues for transforming curricula as we enter our second century. The chapter seeks to offer a vision for doing theology collaboratively with communities, in liminal spaces, opening up a transdisciplinary approach to theological engagement. In its engagement with local and struggling contexts, subverting the conventional suburban classroom spaces and hierarchies of knowledge alike, it opens itself up for the ongoing transformation of both theology and the theological curriculum as well as for the transformation of local communities. It presents the possibility of doing theology at a public university in a way that could have direct and hopefully liberating and life-giving impact in a deeply unequal society, mediating multiple households of freedom.
Responses to migration : tensions and ambiguities of churches in Pretoria Central and Mamelodi East
(AOSIS Open Journals, 2017-09-29) Renkin, Wayne
This article is a result of research being conducted to explore how churches in two regions of the City of Tshwane – Pretoria Central and Mamelodi East – respond to urban change and vulnerability. Both regions are deeply affected by urban migration patterns. Firstly, I will explore various forms of migration – transnational, rural-urban, urban–suburban and generational – and the causes of migration – social-economic and political – as experienced and described by the churches themselves. Secondly, I will seek to reflect on some of the tensions or ambiguities of how churches respond to migration, how the identity, self-understanding or locatedness of churches inform their responses to migration, and/or how churches and their identity are shaped by migration – commuter or local church, home or temporary church.
The Tshwane Homeless Summit as dramaturgy : a contextual, trans-disciplinary epistemology from below
(Routledge, 2017-06) Renkin, Wayne; De Beer, Stephanus Francois; wayne.renkin@up.ac.za
In this article we propose a contextual, trans-disciplinary epistemology from below, as explored through the lenses of the Tshwane Homeless Summit and the broader policy-making process of which it formed a part. The article considers the Tshwane Homeless Summit as dramaturgy, wondering whether the stage that was set was predetermined or allowed for dissensus, irruption and surprise. The reflection of this article departs from a contextual theological perspective, suggesting that a contextual, trans-disciplinary epistemology from below requires a contextual spirituality in which the homeless/God will take centre stage.
The ‘good city’ or ‘post-colonial catch-basins of violent empire’? A contextual theological appraisal of South Africa’s Integrated Urban Development Framework
(AOSIS Open Journals, 2016-11-22) De Beer, Stephanus Francois; stephan.debeer@up.ac.za
The Integrated Urban Development Framework (IUDF) was constructed as a ‘new deal’ for South African cities and towns. It outlines a vision with four overarching goals and eight priorities or policy levers meant to overcome the apartheid legacy through comprehensive spatial restructuring and strategic urban–rural linkages. This article is a contextual theological reflection ‘from below’, reading the IUDF through the lenses of five distinct contours. It asks whether the IUDF has the potential to mediate good cities in which the urban poor and disenfranchised can experience integral liberation as equal citizens, or whether it will perpetuate the city as post-colonial satellite of violent empire. It concludes by proposing five areas for theological and political action: consciousness from below, a new economics, a different kind of politics, socio-spatial transformation, and collaborative knowledge generation.

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