3
DIS723S/101
DEPARTMENT OF CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY,
CHURCH HISTORY AND MISSIOLOGY
Discipline: Missiology
To students enrolled for the MTh programme
Tutorial letter 101/2011
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introducing ourselves 3
2. Entering Master’s studies – A qualitative change 3
3. Our approach: Contextualisation 4
4. Programmes and Collaborative Research Projects 5
5. Writing a research proposal 7
6. Library Information 8
TO ALL STUDENTS ENROLLED FOR THE MTH PROGRAMME
Dear Student
Welcome to the community of postgraduate students in the Discipline of Missiology at Unisa! We hope that this tutorial letter will be a helpful reference as you proceed through the Research MTh programme. If you have any unanswered questions or areas of uncertainty after reading this letter, please let us know so that we can answer your query but also improve this letter for future students.
1. Introducing ourselves
Right at the outset, we would like to introduce ourselves to you. There are seven of us (three permanent staff and four on contract appointment) who are responsible for the research MTh programme in missiology at Unisa. The permanent staff is Prof NA Botha (Chair of Department), Prof JNJ (Klippies) Kritzinger and Dr Annalet van Schalkwyk, whereas the contract staff are Prof (emeritus) Willem Saayman, Prof (extraordinarius) Johannes Reimer (Germany) , Prof Jesse Mugambi (Kenya) and Dr Christof Sauer as an associate. Prof Saayman was, until his early retirement, the head of our department. Prof Reimer, on the other hand, lives and works in Germany and is our department’s tutorial consultant for the growing number of German students doing our research MTh degree. Here are our telephone and fax numbers, as well as our e-mail addresses, if you need to contact us:
NAME / TEL. NO. / FAX NO. / E-MAILProf NA Botha / (012) 429-4533 / (012) 429 4619 /
Prof JNJ Kritzinger / (012) 429-4759 / do /
Prof A van Schalkwyk / (012) 429-4685 / do /
Prof WA Saayman (on contract) / (012) 429-4477 / do /
Prof J Reimer (on contract) / (0949)-2261-3024524 / - /
Dr C Sauer (on contract) / (021)-558-7744 / (021)-559-7745 /
Prof Jesse Mugambi (on contract) / (09254)-608 810 / (09254)-722-753-227 /
2. Entering Masters level studies – A qualitative change
You have made many transitions to get this far. You went from primary to secondary school, and from secondary school to college/seminary/university. Now you are making another very important transition: from undergraduate to postgraduate studies. Some of you may already have done an Honours degree, and will therefore have some perception of what postgraduate studies are about. But even for you this transition will be so different from the transitions you have made before, that we wish to discuss it a bit more fully.
Being admitted into our Master's programme does not signify simply another year in your career as student. It signifies primarily a qualitative change, a transition into a new way of being a student of Missiology. Actually, you are now beginning to do missiology in earnest. Previously we were interested in your mastery of the contents of a limited number of set books and recommended literature, your understanding of the points of view the authors presented, and your ability to reproduce those views in your own words. From now on we will be interested in the first place in your ability to enter into a debate with as large a number of authors as possible, your ability to present their views fairly and concisely, your ability to formulate your own arguments in agreement or disagreement with these authors, and – above all – your ability to become a missiological researcher who can generate and formulate new knowledge. From now on we will not be satisfied if you have simply reproduced the views of others; we will be expecting, first and foremost, an expression of your own evaluation of their views and creative new ways of formulating your own. In terms of the content of your study material, this is the qualitative transition we have referred to.
3. Our approach − contextualisation
Our fundamental missiological approach is that of contextualisation, as we explained in our Honours course (MSG422-E) on Mission praxis. This does not mean that we merely acknowledge the influence of context (upbringing, class, gender, etc.) on people’s views, but that we consciously integrate context analysis into theology. We do this by encouraging students to think in terms of the – “pastoral cycle” formulated by Holland & Henriot (1983) and developed by Cochrane et al. (1990), which sees a circular relationship between the four dimensions of insertion, analysis, reflection, and planning (see figure 1).
We can explain this further by saying that according to a contextual approach, there is no universally valid theology. An authentic theology arises from the particular context within which it is done. Contextual theologians emphasise that Jesus has many faces and needs to become uniquely incarnated in every human situation.
In a contextual approach to theology a constant interplay between text and context is suggested. For Protestants, the Bible is the textual source of knowledge about salvation history, whereas for Orthodox and Catholics the Bible is seen as the fountainhead of an ongoing Christian tradition that is entrusted to the church as the guardian of the truth. Over against this textual source, there is the context or real life situation. In a contextual approach, text and context have to be integrated and studied together. There should be a constant to and fro (= dialectical) movement between these two poles. Contextual theology exposes the fallacy that theology has to do with timeless truths that can be expounded objectively.
Contextual theology also emphasises the constant interaction between action and reflection. Theological insights should both arise from and culminate in deeds. Missiological reflection can never take the place of active participation in God’s mission, while missional action should in turn stimulate missiological reflection. The study and the practice of mission are vitally important to each other and should never be separated. The term praxis, as used in a contextual missiology, is not a synonym of practice, but refers to this totality of action and reflection, which are seen as having a dialectical (mutually dependent) relationship to each other. This use of the term praxis is derived from the philosophy of Karl Marx, as this was developed (among others) by the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire. The Marxian influence on this terminology should not, however, make us dismiss the contextual approach as a sinister Communist plot. The notion of the inseparable relationship between thinking (or believing) and acting is deeply rooted in the prophetic biblical tradition, as can be seen in verses like Isaiah 58:1-12; Jeremiah 22:16; Amos 5:21-24; Matthew 7:21-23; James 2:14-17 and many others.
In order to clarify the relationship between the four terms (text-context, action-reflection), it may be helpful to adapt the diagram of the pastoral cycle (which we could also call the cycle of missionary praxis) as follows (figure 2):
According to a contextual approach to theology, the first step in doing theology is that of insertion. In other words, practical involvement in Christian praxis for the sake of the kingdom of God. The second step is that of context analysis, which involves the conscious use of analytical tools to unlock the underlying dynamics (often hidden from view in a naive approach to reality) that are at work in a particular situation or context. The third step is that of theological reflection on the situation (which includes the church), which consists of a re-reading of the Bible and the Christian tradition in response to the questions raised by insertion and social analysis. This dimension of doing theology is sometimes regarded as the only “real” theology, but a contextual approach argues that it is only one dimension of a fourfold process of theologising, which can easily become distorted if it is not studied in relation to the other three dimensions of this circular process. The fourth step is that of planning for action, which completes the circle since it leads back to insertion. This final element underlines the view of contextual theology that theology should not be abstract theories that are of no earthly use to the people of God, but instead give them direction and courage as they worship and struggle to be faithful to the gospel in daily life.
The clockwise movement around the circle (as indicated by the curved arrows), which reveals the “inner logic” of this approach to theology, does not imply a chronological sequence between these elements. There isn’t a one-way movement from insertion to analysis to reflection to planning, in a “mechanical” fashion. There is a constant interaction between all four the elements, as indicated by the straight arrows. The four dimensions cannot only be seen as four stages of a process but also as four aspects of a system.
Please note the words in bold. In the action-reflection dialectic, the two “blocks” at the bottom of the diagram represent action and the two “blocks” at the top represent reflection. Likewise, the two “blocks” on the right represent text and the two on the left represent context in the text-context dialectic.
3
DIS723S/101
This adaptation of the pastoral cycle expands it to become a cycle of mission praxis, which enables one to study mission activities in a critical way, in other words, to do missiology. The notion of praxis, understood as Christian action aimed at transformation, either of individuals or of whole societies, is most appropriate for understanding mission and missiology. We therefore want to encourage you to use it in your missiological reflections and in your research design.
4. Programmes and collaborative research projects
There are three Research MTh programmes presently available in the Discipline of Missiology: a) The general Missiology programme, b) the Women, Gender and Religion (focus: missiology) programme, and c) A specialisation in Urban Ministry. The structural features of the three programmes are identical.
4.1 MTh programmes
4.1.1 General MTh in missiology
This is the basic programme, in which you can focus on any missiological field of specialisation, as indicated below in section 4.2
4.1.2 Women, Gender and Religion (WGR) MTh programme
The Women, Gender and Religion (WGR) MTh programme is an interdisciplinary MTh course presented by a group (“cluster”) of lecturers from different departments in the School of Religion and Theology. Full details of the programme are available from Prof Annalet van Schalkwyk. It is very important to state that the WGR programme is not reserved for women. It is open to anyone who wishes to study the position of women in mission or (more broadly) the role of gender in mission, primarily in the African context. It may interest you to know that a number of men are enrolled for this programme. For those who are not aware of the terminology used here, gender refers to more than sexual (biological) differences between men and women. It refers to the social roles and statuses assigned to women and men in society, in accordance with the values of particular cultures, religions and classes. In other words, this course does not look at the relationships between men and women in a static way, as based on fixed “natural” or “God-given” laws, but as social constructs that are learnt from one’s culture and that are therefore changeable in the light of Christian faith and Christian mission.
4.1.3 MTh with specialisation in Urban Ministry
This programme is offered in collaboration with the Institute for Urban Ministry (IUM), which is based in Pretoria. To enrol for this programme, you need to contact IUM, since the programme requires of you to attend their annual Summer School in January and their annual Winter School in July. These events will put you in contact with the wide network of urban mission practitioners and researchers that IUM has built up over the past 12 years, thereby enhancing the relevance and quality of your urban ministry research. If you enrol for this programme, you will be allocated a supervisor form Unisa and a joint supervisor from IUM.
4.2 Collaborative Research Projects
Due to the width of the field of missiology, our discipline has decided to focus on our fields of expertise in four Collaborative Research Projects. Research MTh students are expected to choose the subjects of their dissertations within one of those projects and to include this information in their application.
The objective is to have whole groups of researchers, including research fellows, associates and partners collaborate more intensively in their research on different facets of the same subjects. The benefit for the individual researcher will be to enter a larger project, which offers impetus and synergy through peer review and group interaction beyond the solitary research. The benefit for the Department will be to build up clusters of expertise with ongoing research output through publications and a growing potential of peer review, particularly through workshops and conferences.
Project / Co-ordinator1 / Studying Mission as holistic, contextual action in Africa / The South / Prof JNJ Kritzinger
2
/Doing Urban Public Theology in Africa
/Prof A v Schalkwyk and
Dr Stephan de Beer (Institute for Urban Ministry)
3 / Christian-Muslim Encounter / Dr C Sauer4 / Contextual Evangelical Missiology in Europe / Prof J Reimer (GBFE)
4.2.1 Studying Mission as holistic, contextual action in Africa / The South
4.2.1.1. Historical studies (early first reception of Christianity in African/Southern communities, with the focus on the incorporation of Christian impulses into local communities).
4.2.1.2. African/Southern Christian initiatives for social justice (i.a. attempts to address the challenges of racism, sexism, poverty and HIV/AIDS).
4.2.1.3. Contextualised forms of theology, evangelism and service initiated by African/Southern Christians.
4.2.1.4. The translation and interpretation of the Bible by African/Southern Christians (i.a. in theologies, songs, sermons, testimonies).