Search

Due to the increasing challenges created by an evolving digital world, traditional expressions of the Christian faith could become irrelevant for a fast-paced world. Through an autobiographical orientation, a search for meaningful personal expressions of the Christian faith on Twitter is traced and mapped down. Facilitated through a practical-theological inquiry and employing a qualitative empirical research methodology, personal aphorisms of the Christian faith on Twitter are traced down and presented as possible examples of a relevant digital autobiographical theology. Through the contribution of these empirical realities, new hermeneutical outcomes and a strategic involvement are facilitated. The creation, development and meaning of new theological formulations and articulations are explored and described through these expressions. In the tracing of and in the mapping down of these new expressions of faith, demarcations of a possible lived spirituality in the digital sphere are sounded out and verbalised. Through the documentation of these new and relevant articulations of the language of faith, a contribution is made to a meaningful digital autobiographical theology.

The phenomenon of sexual abuse is a complicated matter that includes therapeutic as well as legal aspects and which is the result of the complex interaction between individual, social and environmental influences. The purpose of this research is to map the importance of hope therapy from an eschatological perspective in the healing process of adolescent girls who have experienced sexual abuse. This article focuses, in the first instance, on the understanding of the identity of a teenage girl from a theological anthropological perspective. Secondly, the focus shifts to what the phenomenon of sexual abuse entails, the impact of this form of abuse on how an individual understands her identity in Christ, as well as a narrative pastoral involvement with female adolescents who have experienced sexual abuse. Thirdly, the importance of a perspective of Christian hope, born from faith in God, as space and place for the praxis of God's committed involvement in the life-story and suffering of adolescent girls who have experienced sexual abuse, is highlighted. This research is portrayed by the metaphor of cartography and the mapping of the research journey occurs according to the five directives of the ABDCE approach to narrative research as developed and used by Julian Müller and others.

This study bases itself in the epistemological and methodological development of a broad and interdisciplinary dialogue where various voices in the form of different domains converse in order to establish an integrated whole. The research contributes to the actual corporative question regarding spirituality in the workplace, specifically aimed at the individual in the middle-career phase. This phase is characterised as a re-evaluation period aimed at personal and professional growth. A shift in emphasis to the meaning and sense of work is linked to spiritual intelligence as spirituality can be described and understood as a type of intelligence. The study shows that the middle-career experience provides opportunity for an altered future view. Lifestyle coaching serves as facilitating process and offers guidance in answering existential questions which are included in the spiritual. The probable outcome promises to add meaning as a manifesting component in a dynamic and transforming life strategy.

In hierdie bydrae word die fenomeen van eensaamheid wat deur vroue ervaar word na die verlies van 'n lewensmaat ondersoek. Die doel van hierdie studie is om die ervaring van eensaamheid sowel as die voorkoms en betekenis daarvan te verhelder en te interpreteer. Implikasies word ondersoek volgens die wyse waarop dit ervaar word. Die navorsing is gefundeer in praktiese teologie en nagevors vanuit postmoderniteit as paradigma met 'n sosiaal konstruksionistiese diskoers as epistemologiese vertrekpunt. Deur gebruik te maak van die kwalitatiewe navorsingsbenadering word verskeie aksies vir die insameling van data benut. Die navorsing word verder gerig deur die gebruik van meganismes van die narratiewe benadering, wat goed resoneer met die beginsels onderliggend aan deelnemende aksie-navorsing. Vanuit die gespreksbenadering word betekenisvolle alternatiewe, wat 'n bydrae kan lewer in die hantering van eensaamheid, verken en beskryf. Die vernaamste bevindings van die studie is dat vroue wel eensaamheid kan ondervind na die verlies van 'n eggenoot en dat hulle 'n behoefte het aan 'n verbintenisfiguur om hulle te help om hul eensaamheid te hanteer. In this contribution the phenomenon of loneliness experienced by women after the loss of a spouse is explored. The purpose of this research is to clarify and interpret the experience of loneliness as well as its occurrence and meaning. Implications are examined according to the way in which it is experienced. The research is founded in practical theology and researched from within a postmodernity paradigm, with a social constructionist discourse as epistemological point of departure. By employing the qualitative research approach, different courses of action are used for collecting data for the research. Principles underpinning participatory action research are employed as part of a qualitative research method. The research is further informed by using mechanisms of the narrative approach which correlate well with the principles of participatory action research. This conversational approach is used to explore and describe meaningful alternatives to cope with loneliness. The main findings of the research are that women do experience loneliness after the loss of a spouse and that they have a need for an attachment figure to help them to cope with the loneliness.