Marilyn Naidoo

University of South Africa | unisa · Department of Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology

Post-apartheid South Africa, almost three decades into the democracy, is a society in crisis, facing burgeoning economic and social challenges. Religion is seen as a potential force in supporting social cohesion and nation building. Theological education in its handling of diversity and decoloniality reveals complicity and avoidance. A significant...

Relevant theological education for our context is key, and the sharing of best pedagogical practice can make theological education more sustainable in Africa. Many in theological education use the word "holistic" to describe integration in their curricula, yet with no clear consensus about what it exactly involves. This article reports on an action...

Theological colleges aim at training well-formed, well-resourced Christian leaders who possess a compelling personality and moral authority for impactful and transformational leadership. This is achievable largely through an integrated approach to the curriculum that places equal value on the development of the "head, heart, and hands", the institu...

Cambridge Core - Theology - Between the Real and the Ideal - edited by Marilyn Naidoo

South African churches are struggling to form cohesive communities and strategies are needed to bring people together. Because of a deficiency in trust, people are reluctant to get to know each other, impacting on the quality of relationships and a positive sense of belonging and community. Congregations need to find ways to nurture an inclusive id...

As theological education increasingly uses more flexible approaches to teaching and the number of distance education students increases, more attention needs to be placed on how formational education takes places in this environment. It is assumed that we cannot successfully address student formation in online learning contexts. However, with the a...

Institutional culture is one of the most salient forces operating in higher education because it is a vehicle for implementing organizational and institutional change. This article reports on an ethnographic study that focused on the role of a theological institution's culture and how the culture shaped diversity management, and ultimately student...

Race, ethnicity and national identity are important discussions that are unfinished ecclesial business for churches in South Africa. Churches remain mono-cultural to a large extent; a significant challenge is the fact that churches still largely reflect the social divisions of a society. Although not common in South Africa, there are, at the same t...

The reality of globalisation is that it has knitted the world into a single time and place and has introduced the dominant force of consumerism. In adopting this framework, it has frayed the moral fabric of theological education and has short changed students who are configured as consumers to please rather than characters to build. While the demog...

This article seeks to present challenges of negotiating difference and diversity in Christiancommunities in South Africa today. It reflects the intersectional nature of racial, gender, ethnicand economic difference, and ways in which land, capital and other power constructs continueto underpin and deepen exclusion. It then considers the status of d...

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 aimed to understand diversity management via the institutional culture to understand how these interactions of dealing with diversity form and prepare future religi...

Africanisation refers to a renewed focus on Africa, a reclaiming of what has been taken from Africa, and forms part of a post-colonialist and an anti-racist discourse. Africanising the curriculum involves developing scholarship and research established in African intellectual traditions. The idea is that this education will produce people who are n...

Our history in South Africa has shown that we are largely segregated and unequal, as race continues to define the opportunities of many. Post-apartheid interactions continue to be troubling in racial terms. The new interracial relationships that are created in religious organisations can become a model of social cohesion for South African society....

The purpose of this book is to engage challenging issues that are called into question during ministerial training. This is a volume presenting eleven contested issues that attend to concerns related to structures, processes, knowledge and practices within theological education. Contributors offer keen insights about how to think differently and mo...

South Africa is a complex society filled with diversity of many kinds. Because of the enormous and profound changes of the last 20 years of democracy, this can be perceived as a society in social identity crisis which is increasingly spilling over into many areas of life. Churches have also gone through a process of reformulating their identity and...

The time of theological training is crucial for ministers to encourage a mature development of occupational and personal identity and foster a coherent understanding of their role and function in ministry. Ministerial formation must involve training and equipping of pastoral leaders to do theology by involvement on a grassroots level and developing...

Societies are changing rapidly, and in many countries there is an ongoing debate on the role of multiculturalism and religious diversity. REDCo, an international comparative research project set out to investigate whether developing ideas on multiculturalism and religious diversity influenced school pupils' views on these issues. A South Africa pro...

We live in the transition period between the old definition of work as survival and the new definition of work as livelihood. A new awareness of the value of spirituality can add to the innovation and creative capacity of 'human capital', increased authenticity in communication and has the potential for increased ethical and moral behaviour. For or...

Ministerial formation is a multifaceted activity involving critical thinking, the acquisition of knowledge, skills development, religious identity formation and the development of ministerial and spiritual maturity expected of church ministers. Education is not merely the accumulation of a prescribed set of academic credits but includes the holisti...

Spiritual formation is a significant component of the educational work of a theological institution that prepares students for church leadership. Theological institutions have a responsibility to engage students in reflecting on spiritual life, to provide opportunities for students to deepen their spiritual journeys and to develop in students a spi...

Spiritual formation is a significant component of the educational work of a theological institution that prepares students for church leadership. Theological institutions have a responsibility to engage students in reflecting on the spiritual life, to provide opportunities for students, to deepen their spiritual journeys and to develop in students...