Communities Facing Disruption: The Need to Shift from Individual to Community Paradigms in Pastoral Care

Dp Mouton

doi:10.4314/actat.v34i1.6

Abstract

In a country regarded as one of the most violent and unequal in the world, no community in South Africa is spared the intrusive, disruptive and traumatizing effects of a seemingly well-established culture of violence. Although people are affected by these in an individual capacity, the well-being of entire communities is at risk. This presents us with the question of whether our pastoral care orientations are adequately aligned with the needs of the communities affected by disruptive phenomena. In response to this question the article sets out to present a pleading case for pastoral theologians and care givers to become aware of the traumatizing contexts within which our communities exist. It further provides Biblical and theological motivation for a (w)holistic understanding of health, well-being, healing and restoration that is only fully understood when such understanding is undergirded by an acute awareness of the relational and communal dimension of each of these.

Highlights

The on-going spate of traumatizing and disruptive events and processes South African communities face everyday begs the question whether our current pastoral care paradigms are adequately aligned with the collective pastoral care needs of our communities
2014: 1 argument for the need to approach pastoral care giving with an under standing of humanity that is embedded in a network of interrelated aspects of human existence, including that which is personal as well as the communal or collective aspects of human existence
It showed that well-being and restoration cannot be conceptualized outside an under standing of community and relationality, in reference to our African context, the African concept of Ubuntu, and the biblical and theological undergirding of pastoral care

Summary

INTRODUCTION

The on-going spate of traumatizing and disruptive events and processes South African communities face everyday begs the question whether our current pastoral care paradigms are adequately aligned with the collective pastoral care needs of our communities. The president of the country in 2012 highlighted unemployment, poverty and inequality as the prominent issues faced by South Africans (Janzen 2012:15) While this seems to continue unabatedly, it leaves behind countless corpses, wounded people, traumatized individuals and communities, and perhaps even an aura of hopelessness in broader society. In this article I would like to argue that current disruptive phenomena and psycho-social challenges communities are faced with necessitate a more concerted effort in the pastoral care and counselling domain to shift towards a systemic and community-directed approach. This is necessary as both individual and community well-being seems to be under pressure. In this review I will show that a holistic view on these concepts should influence the choice for a stronger emphasis in the paradigmatic shift from individual to community pastoral care in the South African context

SOUTH AFRICA: A DISRUPTED AND TRAUMATIZED NATION?

Findings

CONCLUSION