Towards a narrative theological orientation in a global village from a postmodern urban South African perspective

Abstract

As the theme of the study indicates the study is a narrative study seeking to respond to two of the major challenges which congregations are facing within the context of ministry, namely postmodernity and globalization. After seeking a fuller description of these two challenges I sought a theological orientation within such a context (postmodern global village) as well as an ecclesiological praxis that could be transformative and redemptive within such a context. I believe to have found in the narrative orientation an appropriate way for doing theology in the postmodern context. The narrative orientation will guide the story of this study within four movements, namely descriptive theology (stories of need), historical theology (texts and tradition), systematic theology (re-authored story of the past) and lastly strategic practical theology (imagined story of the future). The climax of this journey (story) is in the fusion of horizons between the theory-laden questions of descriptive theology and the historical texts of the Christian faith within the narrative orientation of the study. I discovered that truly transformative and redemptive praxis is only possible within language communities (narrative communities). These narrative communities cannot exist in isolation, but are continuously confronted and relativised by the stories of other communities in the global village and therefore these language communities need to be open to the fragmentation and pluralism of the global village, otherwise they will not be able to respond to the reality of the globalization and postmodernity. The narrative communities needed a story (sacred story) that did not deny the reality of fragmentation and pluralism, but could incorporate this reality into its story. I found this story in the story of the cross and therefore refer to the narrative communities as communities of and under the cross of Christ. These ideas formed the basis for a transformative praxis within a specific congregation, namely Pastoral Redemptive Communities. The journey within these four movements was a critical journey in dialogue with other disciplines (economics, philosophy, psychology and sociology) and I tried to defend and describe my journey within the parameters of validity claims thereby opening the study for further dialogue.