The elephant in the room: The need to re-discover the intersection between poverty, powerlessness and power in ‘Theology and Development’ praxis

HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies

 
 
Field Value
 
Title The elephant in the room: The need to re-discover the intersection between poverty, powerlessness and power in ‘Theology and Development’ praxis
 
Creator Bowers Du Toit, Nadine
 
Subject Theology, Pratical Theology, Theology and Development church; power; poverty; Theology and Development
Description South Africa remains a divided community on many levels: socially, racially and socioeconomically. This is no more evident than in the recent protests – most notably waged on university campuses and on the streets in the past year. This, the article argues, is closely related to the need to reclaim the notion of power by those who feel they remain relegated to the social and economic peripheries after over 20 years of democracy. While ‘theology and development’ praxis has been most closely associated in a post-apartheid era with welfare and charity approaches or pragmatic interaction with state and civil society (both of which have been critiqued), what has not been sufficiently addressed is the notion of power which once dominated ecclesiastical discourses. This is the proverbial ‘elephant in the room’, which the article argues must once again be revisited and re-engaged – both within scholarly reflection and within church practice – in order to address these divides.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor n/a
Date 2016-09-30
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — literature review
Format text/html application/octet-stream text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/hts.v72i4.3459
 
Source HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies; Vol 72, No 4 (2016); 9 pages 2072-8050 0259-9422
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/3459/8447 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/3459/8448 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/3459/8449 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/3459/8162
 
Coverage South Africa Post Apartheid South Africa n/a
Rights Copyright (c) 2016 Nadine Bowers Du Toit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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