Everyone counted, counts! The first homeless count in the City of Tshwane, October 2022 Research…
Every person counts. And everyone counted during the City of Tshwane’s first official homeless count, counts! This is a critical moral, political and theological assertion,…
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Mending the broken city of Pietermaritzburg through a transformative urban theological programme: A challenge to…
Rapid urbanisation, globalisation, and the advancement of information and technology come as a challenge for theological education in South Africa, generally, and, specifically, in an…
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Equipping Lay Leaders for Christian Ministry in the Anglican Church of Kenya through Theological Education…
The mission of ecclesia is to empower and equip its leaders for Christian ministry. This has been possible through theological education, particularly for the ordained…
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Decolonising theological education in urban spaces A reflection on the “Abantu Book Festival”
The article argues that “Abantu Book Festival” (Abantu) held in Soweto annually signifies a decolonising space for theological education in the urban areas surrounding Soweto.…
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“Just City-making” in Cape Town Liberating Theological Education
Aspirational terms such as world-class, resilient, climate-friendly and just City stand in contrast to adverse terms such as unequal, divided, colonial, violent, and segregated to…
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Cultivating the “good city” The theological engagement of the Institute for Urban Ministry within the…
The vision of the “good city” is worth striving for. Enacting the pastoral circle can be theologically generative towards cultivating the “good city.” The urban…
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Imagining Enugu as classroom for theological education in SIST: A trans-disciplinary approach.
Enugu, the coal city, offers hermeneutical and pedagogical resources for re-imagining the theological curriculum of Spiritan International School of Theology (SIST) in Enugu. Enugu is…
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The ‘good city’ or ‘post-colonial catch-basins of violent empire’? A contextual theological appraisal of South…
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…
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‘Between life and death’: On land, silence and Liberation in the captal city
This article reflects on the unfinished task of liberation – as expressed in issues of land – and drawing from the work of Franz Fanon…
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Doing theology with children: Exploring emancipatory methodologies
This article serves as an introduction to a collection of articles that explores emancipatorymethodologies for doing theology and research with children. We focus on both…
Read MoreChange-making in a (post)apartheid city: An auto-ethnographical essay
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…
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Andrew Murray Jr as entrepreneur
This article explores a novel perspective on Andrew Murray Jr, namely his entrepreneurial spirit and characteristics. Instead of building on the view that he was…
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Jesus in the Dumping Sites: Doing theology in the
Jesus’ option for the poor should be reclaimed in a clear theological and ecclesial option for the dumping sites of our cities and towns. That…
Read MoreHomelessness and Covid-19 in the Cityof Tshwane: Doing liberation theologyundercover – A conversation withIvan Petrella
Ivan Petrella argues that the goals of liberation theology can sometimes be better served by doing it undercover. This article reflects on responses to homelessness…
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The use of dirty fuels by low-income households onthe South African Highveld
Meaningful proportions of households on the South African Highveld regularly use energy carriers that result in the emission ofsignificant quantities of particulate and gaseous pollutants.…
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Recovering a Gospel of Love Through Children: Shattering Faith, Knowledge and Justice
This paper seeks to consider the themes of justice, faith and knowledge using the South African context as its backdrop. South Africa provides acontext fraught…
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Demythologising social cohesion: Towards a practical
This article considers the topical issue of social cohesion. It seeks to demythologise the issue bringing it into critical conversation with eight related categories. It…
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Urban Africa 2050: Imagining Theological Education/Formation for Flourishing African Cities
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…
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(Finding) Pathways out of homelessness: An engaged, trans-disciplinary collaborative in the City of Tshwane
Street homelessness in the City of Tshwane was brought to public attention in the winter of 2014. This led to a composite research project involving…
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ESR REVIEW: Economic & Social Rights Review in Africa
Welcome to the first issue of ESR Review of 2021, which is part of an ongoing special series on access to justice. At the time…
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Urban Africa 2050: Imagining Theological Education/Formation for Flourishing African Cities
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…
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Student Housing and Homelessness: A Paradox of Urban Gentrification in Pretoria’s Old East, South Africa
The urgency of providing affordable student housing influenced government and higher education institutions to consider urban renewal as a possible avenue to alleviate this demand,…
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Portrayal of Housing Issues of Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Two South African Newspapers
Newspapers are important sources of information related to the issues of refugees and asylum seekers. Seeking asylum in South Africa is challenging because of a…
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Homelessness IS a Housing Issue: Responding to Different Faces of Homelessness. A City of Tshwane…
This article presents the case of one local housing organisation in the City of Tshwane and its mother organisation, responding to different faces of homelessness…
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Fostering Pathways Out of Homelessness: Choreographies of Change-Making in the City of Tshwane
Finding pathways out of street homelessness in the City of Tshwane, South Africa, brought together major academic and community-based institutions as well as local government.…
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Change agency and urban vulnerability: Theologicalecclesial paralysis or deep solidarity
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…
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Dignity, justice and community as a baselinefor re-interpreting being church in aCorona-defined world
This article is written as a reflection on the relevance of being church in a world defined by the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19). The reflections are…
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RESEARCH REPORT 2: RELIGION & THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
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Homelessness and Community Based Healthcare: A Narrative Experience in a Temporary Shelter Amidst the COVID-19…
ABSTRACT This article serves to describe health encounters and social dynamics of 52 homeless men residing in a temporary shelter in Tshwane during the COVID-19…
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Fostering Integrated, Collaborative Approaches to End Street Homelessness: A COVID-19 Perspective
ABSTRACT This article maps the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown in the City of Tshwane through the lens of street homelessness. This is done through a…
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“Hey, it is Rough Out Here”: A Resilience Lens on the Biopsychosocial Circumstances of Homeless…
ABSTRACT The biopsychosocial circumstances of homeless older persons (male and female, 55 years and older), specifically considered from a resilience lens, are inadequately described within…
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Social exclusion and marginalisation of homeless people: a clarion social work call for the spirit…
ABSTRACT Social work is committed to the advancement of human rights and social justice. One strategy for promoting social justice is to inculcate a human…
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Facing homelessness: Finding inclusionary, collaborative solutions
Synopsis In facing homelessness we face the other, and in facing the other, we face ourselves. This book contributes to an emerging body of knowledge on street…
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2021 VUYANI VELLEM MEMORIAL: Resisting the culture of silence and the conspiracy to silence
2021 VUYANI VELLEM MEMORIAL: Resisting the culture of silence and the conspiracy to silence by Rev Dr Collin Cowan: Rev Dr Collin Cowan: is the…
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LeadUP Alumni Thought Leadership: The role of the church in community support during public health…
https://youtu.be/pMasVkYLdeY
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Restorative justice can help us deal with the aftermath of the looting: Is an amnesty…
Photo: Residents and taxi drivers held a peaceful protest against looting and taxi violence on 19 July 2021 in Vrygond, Capricorn and Lavender Hill ,Cape…
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Pathways Operational Centre
During COVID-19, the collective response to street homelessness in the City of Tshwane – involving the City, the Tshwane Homelessness Forum, more than 20 NGOs…
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Research Report 2021 Homelessness And Covid 19 In The City Of Tshwane
During the Covid-19 lockdown in the City of Tshwane, homeless people and those caring for them experienced dramatic and large-scale change, taking place over the…
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Inside a Pandemic: Vulnerability, Imagination, Innovation in the city of Tshwane – Report 2020
At the end of 2020, the Centre for Faith and Community also published its annual report calledHealing urban Fractures: this year’s subtitle is: Inside a…
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Homelessness and Covid-19 in the City of Tshwane: Doing liberation theology undercover – A conversation…
Ivan Petrella argues that the goals of liberation theology can sometimes be better served by doing it undercover. This article reflects on responses to homelessness…
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A reflection on Vuyani Vellem’s longing for liberation: A spirituality of life and freedom
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…
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Urban Festival 2020 – Film: Facing Homelessness
On Friday 09 October 2020, The Unit for Street Homelessness in Centre for Faith and Community, UP and the Community Orientated Substance Use Programme, UP…
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A practical theology of liberation: Mimetic theory, liberation theology and practical theology
In this article, the authors bring two personal journeys together: one author’s liberationist journey, sparked by a search for justice and liberation in the slums…
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Migration, precariousness, and the linked lives of newcomers in Hong Kong
We develop the concept of linked lives to deepen understanding of the relationship between migration and precarity. Linked lives and precariousness are mutually constitutive as…
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City-making from below: A call for communities of resistance and reconstruction
This article laments the exclusion of small, local communities, voices and visions, from participating in making the city. It makes a case for ‘small communities’…
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2019 Report – Urban Studio: Healing Urban Fractures
This report describes the work of the Urban Studio, a collaborative project initiated between the Centre for Faith and Community at the University of Pretoria,…
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[VIRTUAL COLLOQUIUM] “BREATHE! DOING THEOLOGY AMIDST AND BEYOND COVID-19: FAULT LINES, INTERSECTIONS, OPPORTUNITIES” CONVERSATION 3:…
CONVERSATION 3: Doing Theology, Now! How? What? With Whom? In a 3-part Webinar Series, hosted by the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University…
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Multidisciplinary meetings: Listening to the experiences of children in a child and youth care centre
Adults for good reason agree that children should be protected at all times. However, in their attempts to help children who are vulnerable, adults should…
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Adolescent girls’ voices on their need for sexuality education: A cry for mutual sexual emancipation
‘Teachers expect parents to teach you. Parents expect teachers to teach you. So actually you learn nothing and nobody wants to talk about it’. This…
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An integrated African pastoral care approach to unaccompanied refugee minors based on Verryn’s Child interventions
The African proverb ‘it takes a village to raise a child’ has been compromised and exposed by the migration of Unaccompanied Refugee Minors (URMs) from…
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Engaging children as ‘agents of change’: The Grahamstown Scout Group
This article, as a narrative, offers a ‘learning journey’ of the Grahamstown Scout Group, and reveals how ‘the child’s right to participation’ (United Nations Convention…
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Doing theology with children through multimodal narrativity
Doing theology with children, in a systematic and focused way, is a new practice. This article contributes to this theological practice by examining its emergence,…
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Doing theology with children: Some challenges for adult theologians
Doing theology with children, which includes children as equal participants in the process, is no easy task. Adult theologians face many challenges in becoming involved…
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Research with children as theologians: Ethical and methodological issues
In this article, I explain why it is important for theologians to involve children in empirical research, and why children themselves can and should be…
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Towards emancipatory research methodologies with children in the African context: Practical possibilities and overcoming challenges
Despite having international and national legislative frameworks and policies that guarantee children’s rights and encourage their participation in matters affecting them, consulting children has received…
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Doing theology with children: Exploring emancipatory methodologies
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…
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[Virtual Colloquium] “Breathe! Doing theology amidst and beyond Covid-19: fault lines, intersections, opportunities” CONVERSATION 2:…
CONVERSATION 2: Covid-19, Economy and Environment hosted on 24 July 2020 In a 3-part Webinar Series, hosted by the Faculty of Theology and Religion at…
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[Virtual Colloquium] “Breathe! Doing theology amidst and beyond Covid-19: fault lines, intersections, opportunities” CONVERSATION 1:…
Conversation I: Covid-19, race and gender hosted on 10 July 2020 In a 3-part Webinar Series, hosted by the Faculty of Theology and Religion at…
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Housing challenge and urban regeneration: A contribution of faith-based action with special reference to a…
The main objective of this article is to describe a problem portrayed into critical human conditions in urban margins characterised by the deprivation of most…
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A praxis-based approach to theological training in Cape Town
A training programme that employs the use of the pastoral cycle, leading practitioners into a praxis-based approach towards urban transformation, may be shifting the focus…
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Faith-based action and urban regeneration
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…
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Born from below: Urban regeneration through incarnational theological formation in Guatemala City and beyond
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…
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Un-thinking the West: The spirit of doing Black Theology of Liberation in decolonial times
It is indisputable that Black Theology of Liberation (BTL) intentionally un-thinks the West. BTL has its own independent conceptual and theoretical foundations and can hold…
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Back from the Crocodile’s Belly: Christian formation meets indigenous resurrection
Undoing all forms of domination – including, in particular, religious domination – remains a crucial imperative of our time, given that domination constitutes a spirit-killing…
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Deep solidarity: Broadening the basis of transformation
Across the globe, conditions of labour are worsening, providing both challenges and opportunities. As labour is one of the places where the intersectionality of race,…
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Jesters, tricksters, taggers and haints: Hipping the church to the Afro-hop, pop-‘n-lock mock-up currently rocking…
The following essay investigates the animating force of jester-humour and trickster-critique as necessary components of prophetic consciousness and social movement. Climate change devastation coupled with…
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#FeesMustFall as social movement and emancipatory politics? Moving towards an apocalyptic theological praxis outside the…
This article proposes three reflexive movements. The first one offers an introduction to Fees Must Fall, pointing to some aspects that allow us to understand…
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Responses to migration: Tensions and ambiguities of churches in Pretoria Central and Mamelodi East
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…
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Precarious housing in the Salvokop neighbourhood: A challenge to churches in the inner City of…
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,…
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Churches claiming a right to the city? Lived urbanisms in the City of Tshwane
This article sets out to describe how churches have responded and continue to respond to fast-changing urban environments in Pretoria Central and Mamelodi East, animating…
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Conceptual considerations for studying churches’ engagement with urban fractures and vulnerabilities
This article provides an overview of conceptual considerations underpinning the design of a research project on religious innovation and competition amidst urban social change. The…
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Exploring possibilities of social entrepreneurial activities as a tool to reduce unemployment amongst churches in…
Unemployment is one of the major problems in South Africa. It is the concern of the government and the people at large to engage in…
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Politics of faith: Transforming religious communities and spiritual subjectivities in post-apartheid South Africa
The enforcement of racial segregation during apartheid was aimed not only at regulating public spaces, residential areas and the workforce, but also at shaping the…
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An ethnographic study on managing diversity in two Protestant theological colleges
For many reasons Christian higher education institutions struggle to embrace diversity. Diversity is a relationship of mutuality, where differences are engaged and respected. This study…
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Race, whiteness and transformation in the Promise Keepers America and the Mighty Men Conference: A…
This article takes cue from Sarojini Nadar’s article analysing the Mighty Men Conference (MMC) in South Africa as a case study of masculinism, where the…
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When faith does violence: Reimagining engagement between churches and LGBTI groups on homophobia in Africa
‘Homophobia’ is shorthand for stigmatising attitudes and practices towards people who demonstrate sexual diversity. In this article, we reflect on how African Christian faith may…
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Towards liberationist engagement with ethnicity: A case study of the politics of ethnicity in a…
The article calls for critical theological examination of the politics of ethnicity in the context of mainline churches in South Africa. The category of ethnicity…
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‘Not in our name without us’ – The intervention of Catholic Women Speak at the…
This article will illustrate through a case study of the intervention of the Catholic Women Speak Network (CWSN) at the Synod of Bishops on the…
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Practising chaordic beauty: On embracing strangers in one inner city faith community
In this article I read one inner city faith community – the Tshwane Leadership Foundation (TLF) – through the lenses of literature that reflects on…
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‘Love the sinner, not the sin?’ Sexual and gender diversity in faith communities
While queer theology has foregrounded sexual and gender diversity in faith communities internationally, in South Africa, the emergence of a queer, African theology is necessary…
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Editorial: Pathways out of Homelessness
People do not become homeless out of choice. There is sufficient historical evidence to demonstrate that the social and political vulnerability of street homeless people…
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(Finding) Pathways out of homelessness: An engaged, trans-disciplinary collaborative in the City of Tshwane
Street homelessness in the City of Tshwane was brought to public attention in the winter of 2014. This led to a composite research project involving different constituencies,…
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International responses to homelessness: Lessons for the City of Tshwane
Reports of increases in the numbers of homeless people are pouring in from all over the world yet many governments still do not consider homelessness…
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Unshackling the chains of homelessness in the City of Tshwane: A critical appraisal of the…
This article provides a critical appraisal of the current Homelessness Policy for the City of Tshwane in the light of national and local policies and…
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Homelessness in Pretoria: Exploring the survival challenges of the homeless and their right to the…
This article documents the biographies of 60 homeless people from a range of different backgrounds in South Africa’s capital city of Pretoria. The article focuses…
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‘A shelter is not a home’: Voices of homeless women in the City of Tshwane
In response to a request from the City of Tshwane that homelessness in the city be explored, a research team was established in 2014. The…
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‘Not just numbers!’ Homeless people as potential economic contributors in Tshwane
Statistics on homelessness in the City of Tshwane fail to give us ideas about the capacities homeless people have that could be used as a…
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Engaging with homelessness in the City of Tshwane: Ethical and practical considerations
Policies and practices aimed at developing more engaged universities that are responsive to the needs of society have become key features of the higher education…
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The Tshwane Homeless Summit as dramaturgy: A contextual, trans-disciplinary epistemology from below
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…
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Just faith: Glocal Responses to Planetary Urbanization
The purpose of this scholarly book is to expand the body of knowledge available on urban theology. It introduces readers to the concept of planetary…
Read MoreDiscerning a theological agenda for spatial justice in South Africa: An imperative for sustained reconciliation…
A spatial turn has occurred in various disciplines over the past decades. This article holds that it has not occurred in a similar decisive manner in…
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Leibniz, Lefebvre and the spatial turn in law – Isolde de Villiers
This contribution takes as its point of departure the spatial turn in law and the notion of spatial justice. It traces the term ‘spatial justice’…
Read MoreSpaces of alienation: Dispossession and justice in South Africa – Petrus T. Delport; Tshepo Lephakga
Theories and philosophies of space and place have seen a rise in prominence in recent times, specifically in the disciplines of theology, law and philosophy. This…
Read MoreInterrupting separateness, disrupting comfort: An autoethnographic account of lived religion, ubuntu and spatial justice –…
This article uses a fictionalised encounter as the basis for an autoethnographic exploration of the intersections between the South African social value of ubuntu and the…
Read MoreThe transformation of the city of Zion: From decadence to justice and prophetic hope (Is.…
This article focuses on the story of the transformation of the city called Zion. Isaiah 1:1–2:5 is the key to the book. This chapter describes the…
Read MoreHow does justice smell? Reflections on space and place, justice and the body – Jacob…
Flowing from a joint consultation on Spatial Justice and Reconciliation on 21–22 September 2015, hosted by the Centre for Contextual Ministry and the Ubuntu Research…
Read MoreFacing our whiteness in doing Ubuntu research. Finding spatial justice for the researcher – Julian…
In this article, the two authors, academics from different contexts and both aware of their whiteness, focus on their own vulnerable selves. The aim is…
Read MoreThe parable of the Feast (Lk 14:16b–23): Breaking down boundaries and discerning a theological–spatial justice…
The parable of the Feast (Lk 14:16b–23) is perhaps the example par excellence in the New Testament that addresses spatial justice and reconciliation. In the…
Read MoreTiyo Soga: Violence, disruption and dislocation in the white polis – Vuyani Vellem
Tiyo Soga must be celebrated as he is the personification of a body of knowledge pertinent to the development of foundational knowledge in examining the violence,…
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Doing theology with children in a South African context: Children as collaborators in intergenerational ministry
The vision of Child Theology Africa is to advance a child-friendly continent by doing theology with, for, about and through African children. In this article…
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Children as theological hermeneutic: Is there a new epistemological break emerging? – Nico Botha
Children are the great omission in theology. The objective of the article is to show that there is a growing realisation of this reality. More…
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Theology disrupted: Doing theology with children in African contexts
The thrust of this article is an attempt to respond to the question whether we can read and interpret the bible in Africa from the…
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‘Children must be seen and heard’ – Doing postcolonial theology with children in a (southern)…
Taking theology to the African children needs to start with a serious engagement of the colonial experience that African Christianity, communities and families were subjected…
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Theology disrupted by the challenge of refugee children
This article focuses on the plight of refugee children and families and takes the form of a dialogue between an academic theologian and a community…
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Rethinking sin and evil through the life of a child sex slave
This article rethinks (original) sin and evil through the life of a child called Engela who has been ‘sold’ into sex slavery. Focus is placed…
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Providing mentoring for orphans and vulnerable children in internally displaced person camps: The case of…
The challenge of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) has become central to the response of many organisations (UN, UNHCR, AONN, UNAIDS, UNFPA, UNICEF, etc.) today.…
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Unsettling Theology: Sunday school children reading the text of the Bible in the age of…
During Women’s month in South Africa (August), a group of Sunday school children from the rural congregation of the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa…
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The task of urban black public theology
Twenty years after the demise of apartheid, a typical South African city remains bifurcated. The mushrooming of squatter camps, mekhukhu, in our big cities, symptomises a…
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Structural transformation and democratic public spaces: Reflections on Habermas and the 2014 Tshwane State of…
Judging by the immense global academic interaction with his work, Jürgen Habermas’s social theory, with particular reference to structural transformation of the public sphere and…
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Your sister in Babylon sends her love: Towards prophetic solidarity in post-apartheid South Africa
How does a self-respecting Christian from Galilee who now finds himself based near the seat of empire relate to power in light of his faith? How…
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Living in the townships: An appraisal of Pentecostal social ministry in Tshwane
This article offers an appraisal of the social ministry of Pentecostal churches through fellowship, healing and livelihood creation in the township communities of the city…
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Informal community-based early childhood development as a focus for urban public theology in South Africa
This article highlights important dimensions of public theology and shows how the identifieddimensions are relevant to the specific situation of informal early childhood development (ECD)…
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Faith community as a centre of liberationist praxis in the city
Theologians speak of the silence of churches’ prophetic voice in the ‘new’ South Africa, whilst the country features amongst the socio-economically most unequal countries in…
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Concrete spirituality
This article reflects on a number of liturgical innovations in the worship of Melodi ya Tshwane, an inner-city congregation of the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern…
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Discerning the role of faith communities in responding to urban youth marginalisation
Urban youth marginalisation became a key consideration in scholarly and policy literature in the 1990s. This entailed a shift from an emphasis on youth in relation…
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Gangsterism on the Cape Flats: A challenge to ‘engage the powers’
One of the most pressing issues in the urban ghettos of the Cape Flats is that of gangsterism and the discourse of power and powerlessness…
Read MoreUnshackling the Church – Vuyani Vellem
In whose ‘order’, ‘newness’ and ‘foundation’ is ecclesiology based in South Africa? The colonial legacy of pigmentocracy, the cultural domination and annihilation of the indigenous…
Read More(Un-)shackling the University in the City – Ulrike Kistner
This article examines the relation between the University of Pretoria and the City of Tshwane, outlining seven different kinds of relation as they have taken…
Read MoreUrban marginality, religious liminality, and the black poor – R. Drew Smith
While many persons within westernised or westernising nations such as the United States of America and South Africa continue to place importance on matters of…
Read MoreCommunity engagement as the organic link with the street: Creating a learning community between the…
Does the current community engagement project, of the Department of Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology at the University of South Africa (UNISA), respond to…
Read MoreResponsibility: A case for the homeless in the City of Tshwane – Eugene Baron
It is without doubt that the marginalised and destitute, such as homeless people, need all the help they can get to un-shackle them from poverty-stricken circumstances.…
Read MoreFaith communities, social exclusion, homelessness and disability: Transforming the margins in the City of Tshwane…
Social exclusion is a reality in South Africa today. Its faces are diverse and varied; social exclusion can be defined in terms of social, economic,…
Read MoreA vision for peace in the City of Tshwane: Insights from the homeless community –…
Communities living on the margins of society, such as the homeless, are overlooked in the process of building a vision for peace in the City…
Read MoreThe role of urban religion in seeking peace beyond the mere absence of community conflict:…
Urban religion, often visible in the work of faith-based organisations which consciously aim at unshackling the debilitating realities of urban marginalised communities, needs to be…
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[Virtual Colloquium] Solidarity with the homeless poor during Covid-19: we cannot be free unless you…
The Centre for Faith and Community at the University of Pretoria, in conjunction with its research associates in its Social Justice and Reconciliation Research Group, is…
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[Virtual Colloquium] Homelessness & Covid-19 in the City of Tshwane
A virtual Colloquium was hosted on Zoom on Thursday the 28th of May 2020, from 16h00-18h00 The purpose of this Colloquium was: to register what was created collaboratively…
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Spatial Justice and Reconciliation Conference – Report 2017
On 31 May 2017, the research groups Spatial Justice and Reconciliation and Ubuntu research project collaborated and hosted a one day conference: Spatial Justice and Reconciliation. It was held…
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“Rainbow: premise or promise?” Consultation on Social Cohesion and Reconciliation – Report 2013
From 22-23 August 2013, 59 people gathered in Cafe Burgundy’s at the University of Pretoria to consider the status of reconciliation and social cohesion in South…
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Faith in the City – Report 2017
The Centre for Contextual Ministry is hosted in the Faculty of Theology at the University of Pretoria. Since 2012 the Centre has a specific research project…
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Pathways out of Homelessness Report – 2015
The Pathways out of Homelessness research report is a result of a transdisciplinary research project with more than 40 researchers from various faculties such as Theology, Social…
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Theological education and African cities: An imperative for action
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…
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Faith-based agency and theological education: A failed opportunity?
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…
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James Cone, the Urban Church in South Africa, and Theological (Re)Education: A Personal Reflection
This essay uses as backdrop the work of James Cone, and is foregrounded by a personal reflection of epistemological and theological rupture. Through the lenses…
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Change-making in a (post)apartheid city: An auto-ethnographical essay
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…
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Urban social movements in South Africa today: Its meaning for theological education and the church
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…
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Trans-disciplinary research on religious formations in urban Africa: Towards liberative methodological approaches
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…
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Transforming curricula into the next century: Doing theology collaboratively with local communities
The FT at the UP celebrates its centenary in 2017. This coincides with a renewed urgency for free, decolonised education, fuelled by student protests on…
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Diversity: Negotiating difference in Christian communities
This article seeks to present challenges of negotiating difference and diversity in Christian communities in South Africa today. It reflects the intersectional nature of racial,…
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The ‘good city’ or ‘post-colonial catch-basins of violent empire’? A contextual theological appraisal of South…
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…
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Reading Psalms, and other urban poems, in a fractured city
This article was an attempt to (re-)read Psalms in the context of fractured cities, marked by socio-economic inequalities, woundedness, migration and exclusion. It explored urban…
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Ubuntu is homeless: An urban theological reflection
This article is reading ubuntu in the light of homelessness in the cities and towns of South Africa. It suggests that ubuntu itself is homeless…
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The university, the city and the clown: A theological essay on solidarity, mutuality and prophecy…
This essay is informed by five different but interrelated conversations all focusing on the relationship between the city and the university. Suggesting the clown as…
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Towards a fusion of horizons: Thematic contours for an urban public theological praxis-agenda in South…
This article proposes a ‘fusion of horizons’ in constructing urban public theologies in South Africa. This is done through the introduction of five interrelated themes…
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Doing urban public theology in South Africa: Introducing a new agenda
This article serves as the introductory, first contribution to a special collection of articles on the theme, ‘Doing urban public theology in South Africa: Visions,…
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Jesus in the Dumping Sites: Doing theology in the overlaps of human and material waste
Jesus’ option for the poor should be reclaimed in a clear theological and ecclesial option for the dumping sites of our cities and towns. That…
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Demythologising social cohesion: Towards a practical theological vision
This article considers the topical issue of social cohesion. It seeks to demythologise the issue bringing it into critical conversation with eight related categories. It…
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‘Between life and death’: On land, silence and liberation in the capital city
This article reflects on the unfinished task of liberation – as expressed in issues of land – and drawing from the work of Franz Fanon…
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Whose knowledges shape our city? Advancing a community-based urban praxis
Wie se Kennis(se) Vorm ons Stad? Op Soek na ’n Gemeenskapsgedrewe Stedelike PraxisIn die artikel word verskillende plekke van kontestasie en hoop in die middestad…
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Absence, presence, remembrance: A theological essay on frailty, the university and the city
This essay is reflecting on frailty, the university and the city, in relation to each other. It seeks to transcend the binary concepts of presence…
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Urban South Africa: An opportunity for liberating theological education
This article proposes the city as an opportunity and resource for liberating theological education. It explores going beyond adding “urban” to theological education as an…
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Contesting inner-city space: Global trends, local exclusion/s and an alternative Christian spatial praxis
This article explores global patterns in the spatial formation of inner cities. It indicates how such patterns often perpetuate multiple local exclusions contributing to dehumanising…
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