Browsing by Author "Swart, Ignatius"

Now showing 1 - 9 of 9
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    African Pentecostal churches and racialized xenophobia: International migrants as agents of transformational development?
    (SAGE, 2022) Hankela, Elina; Swart, Ignatius; Nishimwe, Clementine
    Scholarship on Pentecostal potential and practice forms a significant part of the debate on religion and development, not least when the focus is on sub-Saharan Africa. Yet in this debate African Pentecostal migrant communities have scarcely been represented. The article focuses on two such communities in South Africa, arguing that they may be regarded as developmental agents in the context of racialized xenophobia, even if they do not portray themselves as such. The argument is based on ethnographic fieldwork and shaped through employing the concept of transformational development that centers on restoring relationships. The article concludes that the two communities � living in a context affected by racialized xenophobia � contribute meaningfully towards restoring relationships between people and God, one�s relationship with oneself, relationships within the church community as well as relationships between the church community and the neighborhood.
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    The healing factor in religious tourism with regard to health and wellbeing in Africa: A case study of synagogue church of all nations in Lagos, Nigeria
    (University of Western Cape, 2021) Balogun, Idowu Olatunji; Swart, Ignatius
    The journey of self-discovery is unique to human beings, and quests to resolve any existing problem entails taking steps leading to solutions, even if one may not have a guarantee that the steps would automatically bring a solution, acting instead based on hope. The perceived incompleteness of the hand-down of Christianity to Africa from the West when it comes to the daily realities led some early African converts to discover that the Bible presented a holistic worldview that addressed their challenges better. The emergence of African indigenous/ initiated/ independent churches (AICs) to fill the gap in preaching the gospel with cultural sensitivity and integration was the consequence of the lapses of the mainline churches.
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    Legacies of transformational leadership: A critical analysis of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa�s social agency role in a time of new Kairos challenges
    (University of the Western Cape, 2022) Walters, Grant Bradley; Swart, Ignatius
    In 1985/6, the Kairos Documents emerged from the anti-apartheid struggle as a devastating critique of an evil political ideology called �apartheid� and the serious challenges it presented to the church and society. Although the Kairos Documents and subsequent formulation of other kairos documents were not the specific focus of this study, these were used as a backdrop to show the impact a strong prophetic witness of word and deed can have on a country in crisis and in desperate need for change.
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    Pilgrimage walking and spiritual well-being: A case study of a personalised covid trail in Cape Town and surrounding areas
    (University of the Western Cape, 2023) Hannibal, Janine; Swart, Ignatius
    Pilgrimage, walking, as well as pilgrimage walking are not new concepts. The art of walking, putting one foot before the other, creates many opportunities, including ones for hope, healing, and finding solutions to problems and challenges. Despite the global scope of extant research on pilgrimage, the scholarly focus on pilgrimage walking within the South African context is scanty. Much has been written about urban and rural walking as well as pilgrimage in general, though. Pilgrimage within the South African context took on various forms but my research introduced the concept of a steps challenge and mapping out a personalised COVID trail. The aim of my study was to explore pilgrimage walking as an intervention for spiritual well-being by focusing on a personalised COVID-19 pilgrimage in Cape Town and its surrounding areas. My study steered towards determining the correlation between spiritual well-being and pilgrimage walking.
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    The Seventh-Day Adventist church and the quest for transformational development in contemporary Nigeria perspectives from an empirical study
    (Southern African Missiological Society, 2022) Efuntade, Olugbenga Adetokunbo; Swart, Ignatius
    This article discusses the findings of an empirical study that investigated the attitudes of different sections of the membership of the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church to the socio-economic and political struggles in Nigeria. The study sought to explore how this denomination�s theology and missional orientation have limited its role in the holistic development of Nigerians. The article argues that the proclamation of the SDA Church�s unique message and its involvement in transformational development should not be mutually exclusive.
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    Social capital, religious social capital and the missing element of religious ritual
    (Brill Academic Publishers, 2017) Swart, Ignatius
    This article was written to contribute towards developing a suitable conceptual framework for meeting the overarching research aim of developing a more profound empirically informed interpretation of the manner and extent to which religious ritual could be valued as a source of social capital formation in the South African context. With this in mind, the article first explores the concept of social capital in the light of the threefold distinction between bonding, bridging and linking forms of social capital. Secondly, from the vantage point of such exploration the connection with religion is made more pointedly. By tapping into the more recently invented notion of religious social capital, the article shows how this concept is today used meaningfully to advance a twofold perspective: on religion as a special repository of social capital, but also on the limitations of religion and its institutions in meeting the social capital needs of communities and the wider society. Finally, from the viewpoint of eliciting important conceptual value from the notion of religious social capital, the case of religious ritual as a very necessary yet untapped element in the contemporary research focus on religion and social capital formation is presented. In particular, an argument about religious ritual as the consistently missing element in this research focus is put forward and given greater substance through the identification of two pointers from the literature that can be deemed useful in starting to address this lacuna.
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    Young people at the margins in Pretoria Central: Are the faith-based organisations making a difference?
    (AOSIS, 2019) Swart, Ignatius; Rabe, Marlize; de Beer, Stephan
    The authors� recent case study work in Pretoria Central as part of the international research project �Youth at the margins� (YOMA) constitutes the focus of this article. From this vantage point, the authors offer a presentation of their research findings in order to ultimately answer the question �to what extent the faith-based organisations (FBOs) are making a difference in the lives of young people at the margins in this particular case study locality (Pretoria Central)�. The article begins by contextualising the lives of young people in Pretoria Central against the backdrop of far-reaching socio-economic, demographic and religious change in the area since the end of the apartheid era. After explaining the case study methodology and offering a brief profile of the research participants, the discussion then proceeds with a more detailed discussion of distinctive aspects of the case study findings. In the conclusion, the authors argue that the answer to the article�s guiding question seems to be a negative one when the reality of young people�s seemingly permanent structural exclusion is considered. At the same time, this verdict does not withhold them to also conclude with appreciative remarks about the role that churches and FBOs of the non-governmental organisation (NGO) type are playing with respect to marginalised young people in Pretoria Central.
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    Youth marginalisation as a faith-based concern in contemporary South African society: Introducing a research contribution
    (AOSIS, 2018) Swart, Ignatius
    The aim of this article is to introduce a special collection of articles focused on the topic �Youth marginalisation as a faith-based concern in contemporary South African society�. In meeting this aim the discussion begins by alluding to an international research project known under the acronym YOMA (Youth at the Margins: A Comparative Study of the Contribution of Faith- Based Organisations to Social Cohesion in South Africa and Nordic Europe) as the source that inspired the undertaking of the collection. This recognition thereupon leads the article in subsequent sections to give some more detailed recognition to the YOMA project but also to a larger corpus of recent scholarly contributions as the most evident manifestations to date of an emerging South African research engagement with the topical focus under discussion. From this vantage point the article then proceeds to present the current special collection as a concerted attempt to give further momentum to the emerging focus. Importantly, however, this is done by presenting a more elaborate argument about the imperative of interdisciplinary engagement within the topical focus and how such engagement defines the nature and scope of the present collection. This finally leads the discussion to conclude with a summary of the contributing articles.
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    Youth, faith, climate change and environmental consciousness: A case for sustainable development
    (AOSIS, 2021) Beukes, Jacques W; Swart, Ignatius; Stork, Julian
    Climate change and environmental destruction are amongst the most threatening challenges to humanity and sustainable development globally. Young people find themselves right in the centre of debates about ecological (in)justice, environmental awareness, and climate change discourses and practices. Youth movements worldwide, such as �Extinction Rebellion� and �Fridays for Future,� demonstrate that youths are concerned about environmental problems and ready to become active in climate movements. Their willingness to act on their own behalf makes them one of the most important and interesting groups to learn more about in relation to the challenge of building a deeper awareness of environmental issues. Exploring and learning how youths are engaged with these discourses, how they contribute to a wider social consciousness of environmental issues and how such awareness is affected by different factors, such as the role and the contribution of young people�s own religious beliefs, are, therefore, of paramount importance.