The first step for every theologian, and especially for the practical theologian, is to acquire a sensitivity for the socio-cultural context. In order to understand the church’s pastoral task in Africa, we should first try to understand something of the African context. The kind of pastoral care which tries to accommodate the context fully is described as eco-hermeneutical pastoral care. Eco-hermeneutical pastorate is a unification of two terms: ecosystemic and hermeneutical. These two terms are integrated into one term, eco-hermeneutical, in order to capture the significance of both. Firstly ‘hermeneutical’, puts emphasis on the element of understanding; secondly ‘ecosystemic’ refers to the widest possible system or network of systems.

African; Contextual; Pastoral; Theology; Practical Theology; Socio-Cultural Context;