CHURCH WITHIN THE CITY OR CITY WITHIN THE CHURCH? CITY AS METAPHOR WITHIN A PRACTICAL, THEOLOGICAL HERMENEUTICS
Abstract
It is argued that “city” is a qualitative term that should be dealt with hermeneutically. It refers to a new state of mind and being within the processes of globalisation and glocalisation. City is a structure of common life and creates a corporate identity. Its impact on urbanisation in South Africa is that due to the period of apartheid, its impacts on township life was that people were sandwiched in between the urban setting of the city and the rural setting of the village. It gave rise to a mentality of temporary, conditional commitment, a life style of commuting and an attitude of indifference. An ecclesiology for urban and township ministry is proposed. The latter implies an ecclesial movement from formal institution to a more informal space of grace: Small groups as a place of healing and a space of spiritual retraite in order to be engaged in issues such as violence, poverty and Aids.Authors retain copyright and grant the Journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this Journal.
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