Faith and the City

This research theme explores the (dis)engagement of church and theology from healing urban fractures, with specific reference to the City of Tshwane. Much of the activity is taking place in the Urban Studio, a trans-disciplinary space for action, reflection, dialogue and research, done in partnership with the Tshwane Leadership Foundation.

It has developed four sub-themes:

Pathways out of Homelessness
Trans-National Migration, Precarious Housing and Faith-Based Responses
Religius innovation and Competition amidst Social Change
Urban Studio

The Centre’s research approach is to follow a praxis-methodology, assuming deep local immersion in communities, from where analytical, reflective, visioning and strategic tools are employed to read society, to foster a critical consciousness, and to make urban change.

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Our research is engaged and trans-disciplinary, bringing together academics, activists, practitioners and community members, to share diverse experiences and knowledges, to collaborate as equals, to facilitate new partnerships, and to foster ownership for change-making and policy formation from below

Centre for Faith and Community

Centre for Faith and Community3 months ago

Dear Friends
Applications for our leadership in urban transformation course is still open. Should you feel called to join this year's cohort please contact Lance at Lance.Thomas@up.ac.za as soon as possible

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Centre for Faith and Community3 months ago

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Centre for Faith and Community3 months ago

In City-making from below, Stephan De Beer and Mark Oranje make a case for communities to resist and reconstruct in multiple ways and places as an alternative to 'top-down' urban processes.

"A different political imagination is required, with small communities at the bottom of the urban ladder, if they are to be truly included as participants in urban processes, beneficiaries of urban resources, and contributors to urban well-being. In this instance, 'different' is meant in the sense of shifting from expecting external intervention through planners or politicians ―to an embrace of the urgency to take action as local communities themselves."
Excerpt from City-making from below: A call for communities of resistance and reconstruction.
The full article can be found here: https://www.research.centreforfaithandcommunity.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/TPR-74de-Beer-Oranje.pdf

video via Leadership Foundations

City-making from below - A hopeful imagination

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Centre for Faith and Community3 months ago

No one chooses perpetual struggle and hostility over the place they call home, unless eking out a living in a hostile place is better than the place they call home.

In "How does justice smell? Reflections on space and place, justice and the body" Jacob Meiring reflects on the notions of space and justice from a contemporary theological anthropology perspective.

The full article can be found here: https://www.research.centreforfaithandcommunity.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Meiring-How-does-Justice-smell.pdf

#Reflection #refugees #theology

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Centre for Faith and Community3 months ago

Homelessness and Covid-19 in the City of Tshwane: Doing liberation theology undercover – A conversation with Ivan Petrella by Stephan de Beer looks at the city of Tshwane's response to the homelessness crisis that arose due to the lockdown.

The full article is available on the HTS Theological Studies journal website here:
https://lnkd.in/eWmdqhZ

Homelessness and Covid-19 in the City of Tshwane: Doing liberation theology undercover – A conversation with Ivan Petrella | de Beer | HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies

hts.org.za

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Centre for Faith and Community3 months ago

When see the current disconnect between the church and it's people, we are reminded that Black Theology is meant to be an intrinsic part of the liberation story, that it should be and could still be a theology that speaks to core of the African experience.

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