Abstract:
‘Social cohesion’ is a concept that many researchers agree is not easily defined. However, all
definitions do agree that it is about a combination of processes. In this article I have adopted the
Jenson definition (1998:4), as ‘a process of developing a community of shared values, shared
challenges and equal opportunities within South Africa, based on trust, hope, and reciprocity
among all South Africans’. Through this process the restoration of human identity will emerge
out of the fragmentation caused by the apartheid government before the new democratic order
of 1994. It is the aim of the new government to engage in this process (Cloete & Kotze 2009:43),
with the result that many of those with broken human identities are beginning to participate in
the developing new order. I have also chosen to explore transversal discourses in this article.
These discourses favour an interdisciplinary approach. They allow different disciplines to
have conversations without assimilation, and, while rooted in their own belief systems, they
are still capable of sharing with others. In South Africa, we come from different backgrounds,
but our backgrounds should have no power to keep us apart or locked in our own prisons.
The article follows the tenets of postfoundationalist practical theology, and is based in the
interdisciplinary paradigm. It promotes reflection on the ‘presence of God’ without using
force, or judging those who do not share my faith. In this approach all voices receive equal
treatment: participants are free to say what they believe and to express themselves openly; it
also means theologians can participate freely in the debate on social cohesion. This is a neverending
journey; each one of us must play our role and never give up.
Description:
This article was initially a
presentation to the Poverty
Symposium 2013, directed
by Prof. Dr Johann-Albrecht
Meylahn, Department of
Practical Theology, Faculty
of Theology, University of
Pretoria, Pretoria, South
Africa.
