Christian Social Practice Research Articles

Zachovávat právo a milovat milosrdenství: Ke vztahu lásky a spravedlnosti v kontextu křesťanského sociálního jednání

Zachovávat právo a milovat milosrdenství: Ke vztahu lásky a spravedlnosti v kontextu křesťanského sociálního jednání

Diaconia and Development: The Study of Religious Social Practice as Lead Discipline in the Religion and Development Debate

In this article, I argue that the research field of religion and development and diaconal studies, the study of Christian social practice, share a common subject of inquiry: the social impact of religion. The field of religion and development investigates this mainly with a focus on the Global South and within the discursive framework of the concept of development, while diaconal studies has thus far taken a Christian perspective and a historic focus on the Global North. Recent paradigm shifts in the development discourse (post-development critique, 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as a global framework, critique of the secularist approach) put the field of religion and development under pressure to broaden its scope. Moreover, there is no clear lead discipline in the religion and development debate yet, raising questions about its disciplinary location in academic institutions and curricula. The field of diaconal studies is challenged by increasing religious pluralism and under pressure to consider perspectives from the Global South. Impulses from the recent advances in the conceptualisation of ecumenical diaconia as a new paradigm of Christian social service push the field to move beyond its historic focus on assistance and care. The aim of this article is to juxtapose these two fields of academic study and to bring them into mutual dialogue. The article reflects on both fields and their respective advantages and disadvantages and highlights areas of overlap. It goes on to propose a broadened discipline of diaconal studies, reshaped as the Study of Religious Social Practice, as a new academic field. The focus of this field would be the impact of religion on society in global perspective, across religious traditions and geographic contexts.

‘Housing’ as Christian Social Practice in African Cities: Centering the Urban Majority Theologically

Decent, affordable housing and secure housing tenure remain elusive for Africa’s urban majority. The urban majority is expected to live in self-help housing, reflected in the fact that 62% of African urban dwellers live in urban informal settlements. The inability to access safe, decent, and secure housing, and the reality that Africa’s urban majority is perpetually precarious, have a severe impact on Africa’s urban households and the well-being of individuals, families, and neighborhoods. This article articulates housing as a critical and urgent Christian social practice in African cities—an extension of the church’s pastoral and missional concern. It considers housing both as a product and a process: people need housing to live secure lives; yet, the process of housing is as critical as the outcome. It then proposes housing, as a Christian social practice, being engaged in (i) supporting precarious households; (ii) preventing homelessness; (iii) creating housing; (iv) supporting rights-based land and housing movements; and (v) centering housing pastorally–liturgically. The article grounds itself in Jean-Marc Ela’s insistence on God’s presence ‘in the hut of a mother whose granary is empty’ and in Letty Russell’s ‘household of freedom’.

Transformative Diaconia in China: The Amity Foundation as a Case Study

The last decade has seen keen interest among governments, businesses, academe, and the nonprofit sector in the role religions can play in the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030. In China, until the outbreak of COVID-19 in early 2020, there were conferences and debates about this that increasingly involved the religious sector. This study looks at Christian social practice among faith-based organizations in China, especially its transformative potential, in contributing to sustainable development. It will highlight some of the best practices of the Amity Foundation, a Chinese FBO headquartered in Nanjing, to illustrate how, through a combination of service delivery and advocacy (Chinese style), FBOs in China can help shift official and religious perspectives and attitudes toward a more participatory and sustainable approach to development. Although the term “transformative diaconia” has not been explicitly used by Amity to describe its work, the values embedded in its practice and the impact it has made on stakeholders and policies can be considered transformative. The UN SDGs 2030, which have been strongly supported by Amity’s ecumenical partners and the Chinese government, provide an important frame of reference for Amity’s advocacy work as well as help to identify some of the content for diaconal capacity building for churches in China. Some of the opportunities and challenges confronting FBOs as they transition from service delivery to advocacy will be explored.

Diaconia as the Art of the Possible: Diaconal Engagement for Roma Migrants in Oslo, Norway

Itinerant Roma migrants travelling from Eastern European countries have featured across the European Economic Area (EEA) since the European Union’s eastward expansions in 2004 and 2007. Being unskilled, many Roma migrants engage in casual work and street work such as playing music, selling magazines, collecting and recycling bottles and cans, and begging, making them conspicuously visible in countries with public welfare services and low poverty levels. Citizens of EEA countries can enter and stay legally in other countries in the EEA for up to three months, after which they must register as workers or jobseekers, and generally leave. It is well documented how the countries Roma citizens of EEA countries travel to have enacted migration control measures, often in the form of complex and fine-grained regulations, that exclude them from public welfare services. This is also true of the Nordic countries, such as Norway, where they coincide with universalistic welfare states aiming to cover everyone living in their territories with the same benefits and services. In the Nordic countries, as in other countries, service provision for Roma migrants is largely in the hands of non-governmental organisations, many of them diaconal organisations running emergency shelters, soup kitchens, and other humanitarian services to alleviate suffering for people at the margins of the welfare state. The diaconal organisations also engage in case work and advocacy work to ensure the realisation of the Roma migrants’ rights. Many of the organisations depend on public grants, making their relationship to the welfare state ambiguous. This article investigates Christian social practice in the form of diaconal engagement for Roma migrants in Oslo, Norway at the intersection of migration control, the universalistic welfare state, and the theological underpinnings of the organisations.

The Diaconate of All Believers: Theology, Formation, Practice

This article proposes an innovative direction for Christian social practice by reclaiming and revitalizing the diaconate of all believers. While the ministry of the laity received attention in ecumenical circles in past decades, the diaconate of all believers now needs elaboration and reception. A focus on the diaconate of all believers can provide a vital theological and practical paradigm for expanding Christian social practice. In this paradigm, diaconia engages the world through the involvements of Christian people in all their roles and relationships in life, including family, work, civic engagement, and church. Christian communities need to undertake focused education and intentional formation of the diaconate of all believers through their worship and educational practices. The liturgy provides substance for this formation process. Reclaiming the diaconate of all believers as a primary expression of the church’s diaconal practice means reorienting the ministry of deacons, pastors, and bishops in relation to the universal diaconate. The recovery of the diaconate of all believers has significance for a revised ecclesiology and theology of ministry that places ministry in daily life at the forefront of Christian social practice.

Liberative Notions of Diaconia and Christian Social Practice from the Perspective of the Global South

Liberative Notions of Diaconia and Christian Social Practice from the Perspective of the Global South

AfricanUbuntu,the See-Reflect-Act Model, and Christian Social Practice: Reading Luke 10:38–42 in Light of African Hospitality

African<i>Ubuntu,</i>the See-Reflect-Act Model, and Christian Social Practice: Reading Luke 10:38–42 in Light of African Hospitality

Community vs. Individual Development in Christian Social Practice in Ghana

Community vs. Individual Development in Christian Social Practice in Ghana

Diakoni som teologisk fagområde, videnskab og nyt universitetsfag i Danmark

Since 2014, the Department of Theology at Aarhus University has offered a 2-year, interdisciplinary MA-program in Diaconia (Christian Social Practice). Thereby, diaconia has officially become an academic subject in a Danish university. The author uses this occasion to provide a general introduction to diaconia and its role in church and theology, to the science of diaconia, and to the character of the new MA-program. The article centers on the apparent paradox that while diaconia is becoming an increasingly important theological concept, especially in ecclesiology, the diaconal field of practice is characterized by interdisciplinarity and secularization. The author argues that the science of diaconia should reflect that situation and make it the starting point for a continuing constructive analysis of the role and identity of diaconia in an increasingly pluralist context.

Our Lady of the heterotopia: An empirical theological investigation of heterotopic aspects of the Church of Our Lady, Trondheim

Interpreting the Lutheran church of Our Lady of Trondheim Norway in the light of Michael Foucault‘s spatial of heterotopia, the article explores the capacity of a church space to become a site of ritual and spatial justice for people living in with different kinds of marginality. The article contributes to the development of the relationship between spatial theory and Christian social practice and the contextual theology arising from this relationship. While the majority of scholars of diaconia draw on Norwegian systematic theologian Trygve Wyller‘s appropriation of Foucault‘s theory, this article builds on the British sociologist Kevin Heatherington‘s elaboration of the theory. Instead of understanding heterotopic spaces as overtly ethical spaces, the article follows Hetherington in exploring how Foucault‘s heterotopic spaces are sites of unsettled and unresolved agonism. This theoretical move opens up for seeing the displacements of space, bodies and practices in the church of Our Lady as sites of ambivalence and negotiation.

Editor’s Comment

Free AccessEditor’s CommentTrygve WyllerTrygve WyllerSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:Oct 2016https://doi.org/10.13109/diac.2016.7.2.124SectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail AboutEditor’s CommentThis issue presents four articles connected to current research in the field of social innovation, both of a general nature and also with a specific view on Christian social practices. Professor Johannes Eurich (Heidelberg), who chaired one important EU-funded project on innovation, coedited the issue. Our thanks for interesting contributions and cooperation.Innovation is important for developing greater flexibility on a structural and systemic level. At the same time, it is necessary to see new ways of constructing a Christian social practice that is oriented toward the other. Therefore, the competence of innovation needs to become part of a diaconia competence, both on a general and on a specific level. And social innovation needs to be researched and interpreted in the field of diaconia and Christian social practice. Innovation is important not only for discovering new methods of production and goods to be sold on the market; innovation is obviously also necessary for increasing the quality of existing institutions. And, not at least, for developing new kinds of practices and project, which provide new strength and creativity in diaconia.Speaking of innovation, this issue may be the last traditionally printed issue of the journal, which does not mean, however, that the journal will cease publication. There are concrete plans to publish it electronically as an open access journal from issue 1/2017 onwards. The board of the journal and the editor need to sort out a number of economic and practical topics related to such a big change. But we do hope to manage it in time. Open access would mean that the journal would be available electronically to everyone. The changeover from printed to electronically open access is part of a general trend in international publishing, the intention being to let all research be democratically open and transparent. These are good values, and the journal is proud to move in this direction. We hope the readers agree. Next article FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Download book coverVolume 7Issue 2October 2016 ISSN: 1869-3261eISSN: 2196-9027HistoryPublished online:October 2016 PDF download

Relating to the Poor: Conceptualizations of Christian Diaconal Practice Considered Through the Lens of Human Dignity

Abstract This article, although not evolving from any original case study work, represents the concerted effort to critically reflect on ‘diaconia in action’ (diaconia as actual social practice) and, in that sense, take its focus on ‘practice’ as the point of departure for theoretical reflection. This is achieved, first, by exploring as a hermeneutical lens an understanding that could be directly related to a so-called ‘negative approach,’ which strives to attend to how the human dignity of people living in poverty is violated. Second, the article presents separate cases for two conceptualizations of diaconal practice that each in their own right reflect a more profound or developed concern with diaconia as actual Christian social practice: that of Hendrik Pieterse from South Africa and of Susanne Johnson from the United States. Finally, the article utilizes the adopted hermeneutical lens to consider the ‘relational element’ in the two conceptualizations, the modes of relating to people living in contexts...

Recent Policy and Politics of the European Union and the Effect on Welfare - Implications for Research

Abstract In this article, which was originally presented as a speech at the 4th International Conference for Research in Diaconia and Christian Social Practice, held in Stockholm in September 2013, an examination is made of the current political and social context of Europe today and the implications for diaconia in general and more specifically the possibilities for greater research as a result. Starting with the impact of the financial and economic crisis and the resulting social crisis in Europe a reflection is made on the changes that have been seen with regards to the valuing of social protection schemes, the valuing of the person who has recourse to such schemes and the prevailing rhetoric of burden. The impact is widened out to a social impact and the various trends currently seen in Europe such as migration and individualisation. Social engagement is also changing and bringing with it a search for new ways of 'being social' and connectedness between people - summarised as a search for new singers ...

Rescue the Perishing (Trokosi Rescue): A Case of a Heterotopic Diaconia in Ghana

Indeed, much as Christianity was perceived, more or less, as the bedmate of colonialism in the perpetuation of the condemnation of African culture and religion, her social practices, aimed at enhancing the well-being of the people, cannot be underestimated. It is needless to say that some of practices of the indigenous religions of Africa have been very oppressive, and with the intervention of Christianity attempts are being made to rescue the oppressed from the oppressor. This article concerns a Christian social practice that aims at freeing people (especially, female children) who are considered as "slaves of the gods," Trokosi is a 'negative' religious space created for girls (ranging from as young as 5 to about 15 years) who are given out as slaves to the shrine as a ransom for some 'crime' committed by a member of the family. These children, apart from carrying out all forms of servitude, eventually become the wives of the priest of the shrine -who in most cases also abuse them sexually while young. The constitution of Ghana has abolished all forms of slavery but the practice is still being perpetuated. However, some Christian nongovernmental organizations have taken up the challenge to liberate these children and keep them in a created space or safe site since in most cases their families were not willing to accept them back for fear of the 'wrath of the gods.' There, the children are given vocational education skills to help them acquire a trade for an easier integration into the larger society. This article evaluates these social acts in light of Foucault theory of heterotopia, particularly what Wyller refers to as heterotopic diaconia . To what extent can such acts create authentic sites for the restoration of human dignity to the marginalized in a larger Ghanaian or African society in the light of Isin's theory about citizenship?

Youth at the margins: Introducing a new research initiative in an ongoing south-north collaboration in the context of international diaconia

Abstract This article holds up the development of an expanding South-North collaboration between researchers from South Africa and the Nordic European countries of Finland, Sweden and Norway as an example of what can also be recognised as a new-found intentional initiative by the International Society for the Research and Study of Diaconia and Christian Social Practice (ReDi) to develop the field of International Diaconia, and, more specifically, of the establishment of particular relationships (South-North and East-South) within this development. The discussion starts by pointing out how this collaboration found its initial expression in a research initiative that was known as the WRIGP project (an acronym for 'Welfare and Religion in a Global Perspective'). It proceeds by indicating how the collaboration will be continued and expanded upon in a newly conceptualised collaborative initiative referred to as the YOMA project (an acronym for 'Youth at the Margins'). Within this framework, the article specifi...

Die soziale Dimension der Religion: Mit der Diaconia gibt sich die internationale Diakoniewissenschaft ein neues Forum (Zeitschriftenbericht)

Abstract The Social Dimension of Religion: With the the International Diaconia Sciences Have Started a New Forum (Journal Report). The article describes the discussions in the articles of the first two volumes of the biennial first international Journal for the Study of Christian Social Practice. They exhibit four tasks that have been undertaken so far : discussing basic scientific concepts of social action and its presence in faith-based practices, empirical research on diaconia, theological interpretations, and combining social science insights and theology in a way fruitful for the practice of organized diaconia.

Religion between the private and the public - about diaconal studies as an academic field

The science of diaconia should focus on the religion as a source between individuals and society. Therefore the science of diaconia has to leave the more spiritual perspective on the individual and relate to what happens in the relation between the Christian social practice and society. Researchers have to understand that religion is more public than they thought it to be. The science of diaconia should therefore look for religion and practices with religious impact in the welfare conditions in pluralist modern societies

Compassion between the Own and the Strange

The voluntary work in the Christian Social Practice might contribute in a specific and fruitful way to the development of citizenship for the marginalized. Traditionally citizenship is a tradition and a discourse established to disturb and criticize the diaconia. Citizenship is supposed to be a word aiming at the inclusion of everyone, not only the ones belonging to some kind of confessional practice. Today the citizenship discussion takes up again words like belonging and participation. And therefore the question comes whether diaconia has a new contribution to citizenship. The article opens a discussion that phenomenology could open a new discussion of the contribution to citizenship from the Christian Social Practice. Compassion might be a word to articulate a common belonging to normativity.

Gender and the Study of Christian Social Practice

The study of Christian social practice is a field of academic study that is under development. The field needs to feed from several older fields of study. The aim of this article is to point out th ...