- Title
- The role of confession in achieving reconciliation among people living in conflict: guidelines for pastoral care
- Creator
- Sulo, Mmeli Othniel https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1448-9452
- Subject
- Pastoral counseling
- Subject
- Pastoral care
- Subject
- Confession--Biblical teaching
- Date
- 2012-01
- Type
- Doctoral theses
- Type
- text
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10353/24993
- Identifier
- vital:63775
- Description
- Introduction: To confess is to acknowledge guilt before God and fellow human beings. The act of confession emanates from awareness of guilt and serves to restore damaged relationships. It is naturally difficult to confess one‟s wrongs, and, in doing so, to render oneself vulnerable to censure. For Christians, however, within an environment, of pastoral concern, confession is essential for the enhancement of fellowship and for the ongoing reconstruction of a believer‟s integrity and a better society. Anyone seeking to resolve conflict through the pastoral function of confession should be properly motivated. Confession does not come cheap. Ecclesiastical conflict among Christians in South Africa has caused hurt. Christians of different colour, language and culture have hurt each other despite sharing the same Christian background and ecclesiastical traditions. It is suggested in this study that the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) has hurt the other member churches of the DRC family. The DRC, accordingly should become the confessant and the other churches in the DRC family, should be open and receptive to hear the confessant‟s confession. As Boesak puts it, “within the [Dutch] Reformed family racism has made it virtually impossible to share in…that most significant act within the community of the faithful,…of the unity of the Body of Christ, the Lord‟s Supper. And so white and 11 black [Dutch] Reformed Christians miss the meaning of the sacrament which Calvin so much wanted to impress upon our minds” (Boesak, 1987:7). Boesak‟s observation concerns the DRC‟s decision1 to segregate believers from each other. This not only affected the DRC family negatively but also the ecumenical church and the wider society of South Africa.
- Description
- Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2012
- Format
- computer
- Format
- online resource
- Format
- application/pdf
- Format
- 1 online resource (xxx, 297 pages)
- Format
- Publisher
- University of Fort Hare
- Publisher
- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities
- Language
- English
- Rights
- rights holder
- Rights
- All Rights Reserved
- Rights
- Open Access
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Collections
UFH Centre for Theology and Religion
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details | SOURCE1 | SSH Mmeli Othniel Sulo.pdf | 1 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details |