Naming and nurturing reality from a heart renewed by grace

This contribution investigates the unbearable tension between the homiletical act of naming reality (with the promise of exposing, challenging and/or triggering creative forces in it) on the one hand, and neglecting this same reality on the other hand, thereby causing it to return to an ignored, unchallenged and degenerated state. The author focuses on tension fields that are generated when preachers embark on the activity of naming realities in their proximate contexts and how they position, withdraw or distance themselves in a certain way when problematic elements (for instance the glaring and seemingly unbridgeable inequality in the situation of Dalits) are opened up by the act of naming. By means of a theological reflection on the renewal of the heart by God’s act of grace in Christ, the author attempts to identify key markers for a homiletic theory that will be able to link the act of naming reality with the act of nurturing (rather than neglecting) this named reality.


Introduction
Speaking and acting out prophetic words of redemption in a world in which patterns of marginalisation deprivation are deeply entrenched and kept in place by dominant systems 1 proved to be no easy task.
Preachers, who meet with resistance against the far-reaching changes implied by their prophetic witnes with debilitating challenges like the following: a deep feeling of powerlessness and inadequacy in the face of mountain-like challenges a discouraging feeling that it is better to remain silent than to give false hope a history of being part of the problem (authoritarian, marginalising language in a postcolonial s reluctance to speak boldly fear in the face of a system-challenging message being met with opposition (cf.Tubbs Tisdale 20 At its heart, this tension field involves speaking truthful words, not later found to be lacking integrity.N reality 2 implies the boldness of attempting to voice the true nature of this particular manifestation and looking the consequences in the face.The prophetic rhetoric involved in an act of naming a situation o social injustice, for instance, is designed to break the bubble, to make contact with the facts on the grou the neighbour is here (Brueggemann 2014:23).Once something that has remained 'unspoken' become face the consequence of what you have said about it; otherwise your words become empty and untruth involves allowing the true nature of a situation to be hidden from disclosure and therefore creating the need of decisive action.Neglecting reality also involves the unbearable scenario when a named reality serious action, but is allowed to disintegrate into an irreparable state.
The dynamics of the aforementioned problem field can clearly be traced in the theme that was chosen 11th international conference: 'Preaching vulnerability: Naming and neglecting reality'. 3At its heart thi with the unbearable tension between naming (exposing, challenging and/or triggering creative forces i hand, and neglecting reality on the other hand, thereby causing it to return to an ignored, unchallenged In her introductorily reflection on the above-mentioned conference theme, Dawn Ottoni-Wilhelm (n.d homiletic challenges that have to be faced in the dynamics at play in this problem field as follows: ... it is the preacher's responsibility to name that of God among us as well as that which we have Whether we are worried about our own vulnerability or have ignored the vulnerability of others what has become 'unspeakable ' and recognize what we have neglected in our preaching so that speak the Spirit's free, redeeming words for the church and world.
Ottoni-Wilhem's statement reminds us that the act of naming does not have to end in a futile attempt a problematic element in reality, only to be restrained by our own vulnerability and the seemingly uncon others find themselves in. 4 The act of naming does not necessarily have to end in an act of negligence.possible because God's redeeming presence can be visualised and voiced even in the most distorted p a theological anthropological perspective this faith-visualisation of the redeeming presence of God wo presupposition that humanity can be regenerated by the grace of God right up till the core of our existe can proceed from a vulnerable heart that is in the process of being renewed by God's grace.In the act o be visualised in which wounded, dejected and hardened hearts can be healed and opened up to a hop regenerative grace.
The purpose of this contribution, then, is to focus on a particular aspect of our human vulnerability tha in the extent to which we are able to commit ourselves to certain actions with integrity and are able to e possibilities for our existence in change-resisting proximate contexts.The aspect that we have in mind usage of heart 5 in its vulnerability; in its tendency to become hardened, confining the expressions of exi centredness in the process; and in its tendency to become half-hearted and divided, clouding the clarit for uncompromising change in the process.
The core questions that we ask in this contribution amount to the following: To what extent will a theol renewal of the heart be able to identify key markers for a homiletic theory that attempts to link the act o act of nurturing (rather than neglecting) this named reality?What will be the effect of a heart, that is in t renewed, on the prophetic vision with which a preacher and the prophetic communities that flow from reality?
In order to address these questions the following aspects will be considered: What it entails to name reality.Naming and neglecting reality from a compromised heart.Perspectives on renewal of heart from canonical Holy Scripture.Naming and nurturing reality from a heart in the process of being renewed by God's grace.

What it entails to name reality
In this section we shortly reflect on the essence of the act of naming reality.
Insights from language theory help us to understand how we use language to name, order and codify o creating and altering perceptions. 6 Armstrong and Fontaine (1989:8, 9) reflect on the power involved in naming something, a place is actively carved out for it to occupy in the perceptions of the one who nam and the power involved in this act, however, also have a social dimension.A group of like-minded peo who represents them) can take on the ability to exclude or include, burden or empower other individua them.
The power of naming (in the process of taking advantage of the inscriptive, classificatory nature of lang of 'arche-violence' that divides people into different categories, thereby separating them from each oth potential for conflict and violence.In this sense language can be seen to lend itself to violence, with cri potential to become the most violent of all (Armstrong & Fontaine 1989:9;Siebers 1988:9, 83).
Our interest, as practical theologians especially lies in the action field that is generated where the act of its consequences play out.We will, thus, focus on action fields (and tension fields) that are generated w critical discourse with each other, naming realities in the process and positioning themselves in the ten generated when problematic elements (for instance glaring inequality) are opened up by the act of nam In this regard, Paulo Freire, (Brazilian educator, philosopher and leading advocate of critical pedagogy contribution in describing the essence of what is triggered in the interhuman action field when the act o during discourse. In his influential work, Pedagogy of the oppressed, Freire (2007:87) identifies two dimensions in authent of reflection and that of action; the process of naming reality and the process of changing reality.There i at the same time a praxis.Thus, to speak a true word, is to transform the world.Reflection alone is insuf mere verbalism.Action alone is similarly inadequate, mere activism, where the energy for choosing exi awareness and direction.Naming always entails transformation because the process of naming render a choice from among possible choices and therefore a limitation to be challenged.At the same time, ac transforming, always entails a new naming, because the emergence of reality is only possible through Freire (2007:88, 89) sees dialogue as the: encounter in which the united reflection and action of the dialoguers are addressed to the world transformed and humanized, this dialogue cannot be reduced to the act of one person's 'deposi another; nor can it become a simple exchange of ideas to be 'consumed' by the discussants.Bec an encounter among women and men who name the world, it must not be a situation where som behalf of others [and dominate them in the process].(pp. 88, 89) Since naming and transforming the world is an act of creation, this dialogue cannot be authentically en merely impose the own (unchanged and unchallenged) view of truth on the other party, without being search for truth.The only kind of domination implicit in authentic dialogue is that of the world by the d conquest of the world for the liberation of humankind.
What are the implications of these ideas for a theological reflection on naming and neglecting reality?language philosophy and Freire's critical pedagogy provide thought-provoking perspectives for qualif element and weighing the character of authenticity in communicative acts like preaching.When a preac problematic element in the world shared by the listeners (for instance the unbearable praxis of being m despised by the prevailing dominant system that drives that particular society), without committing to authentic discourse can take place.When preachers, in the process of naming a problematic element, im the others (a view possibly qualified by rigid fear, doubt and despondency), the problem can be coded unsolvable and no transformative creativity can be unleashed by the homiletic event.An element of vio naming process when the preachers impose a problematic element on their listeners.Listeners (both o privileged and unprivileged sides of the spectrum) can feel that they are categorised in such a way that t part of the problem and are violently estranged from their fellow members of the human race.This, for privileged feel that they are irredeemably guilty of exploiting the marginalised, or can make the unpriv marks of their despised position and marginalisation cannot be dissolved and that their only option is In the next section the act of naming and neglecting reality in preaching is discussed, with thoughts and homiletic reflection that illustrate how difficult it is to speak a liberating word in a context where margin and inequality are deeply entrenched in a particular human society.This discussion is done from a van with particular interest on how the motives that flow from the core of humanity (the human heart) are i field of naming and neglecting reality.

Naming and neglecting reality from a compromised heart
In this section the idea is to give descriptive accounts of what happens when preaching attempts to nam taking the active role of the heart into account.When an act of naming proceeds from a heart that is not God's vision for this world and not committed to the far-reaching change (transformation) that is impli gospel, negligence will be the inevitable result; negligence that does double damage in the sense that presented itself as a disclosure of the true state of our reality and even created expectations for transfor let disclosure end in the violence of condemnation; and only to let the construction site of hope fall int Childs (2003) sketches the all too familiar homiletic impasse that is created when the sermonic act of n element in our reality renders the listeners (in this case the privileged) to be captives of the problem wi with a vision for a way out of the problem: The preacher went on and on.He battered us with statistics.We now know the exorbitant amoun variety of petty luxuries as compared with the relative pittance much of the World's population h disposal for the very essentials of life.The sharp-edged numbers revealing our tiny affluent min inordinately outsized share of global consumption cut deeply into the flesh of our consciences.these statistics was calculated to convert us to the cause of justice.In the preacher's mind it seem sermon in the best prophetic tradition.However, for most of us his diatribe produced only feelin guilt.We were condemned, albeit justly, but not empowered.It was clear that we were part of the how could we possibly be a part of the solution?And when that question goes unanswered, feeli quickly turn to feelings of anger and resentment.(p.35) By naming the problem in such a way that the listeners get the message that they are categorised as par exploitive system (without imagining a viable alternative to this system together with the listeners), the into an extreme form of disempowering and denigrating violence, as Childs (2003) states: When we instill either guilt or fear, we are simply pointing out moral frailty.Guilt is engendered failings are exposed to the critique of the moral law.Fear is engendered when punishments are violation of that law.The existence of a threat of penalty to strike fear in our hearts is simply a wa we don't threaten penalties, people will not do the right thing.This can be a self-fulfilling proph may stay within the bounds of compliance, we can easily come to accept conflict and selfishness are denigrated.We are not empowered.(pp. 36, 37) Words that are exclusively shaped to instil fear and guilt and to keep selfishness in its comfortable (hid cannot be authentic words.Words like these create death rather than life.Words like these bear witness from which they flow: a heart clouded and divided by fear and doubt; a heart that knows quite well wha but does not take care to open up the resources of life in order for it to flow freely into the unknown ter humanity that God intends us to become.Words that name reality, but flow from a heart that is so com create an illusion of having disclosed reality prophetically, will not be able to be instrumental in libera reality.Words flowing from a heart like this, can only fail regarding the essence of what true prophecy e becoming fulfilled words in the sense of bearing a kind of fruit that provides lasting health to the nation accelerate disintegration and ultimately end in self-destruction. The other side of the spectrum in the dynamic field of naming reality involves the dialogue with the un Indian Christian communities for example face the challenge of having to address the 'Dalit' 7 -situation deeply entrenched patterns of estrangement are being bridged in the process.Speaking about the injus to suffer due to their abused, exploited and marginalised position in society, can become empty rhetor is made to reimagine a truly integrated society, and reality is consequently neglected.Gnanavaram (19 Dalit perspective, made the following observation at the 4th biennial conference of Societas Homiletica February -04 March 1999 at Virginia Theological Seminary, Washington, DC): The worst crime the caste-people has committed against us has been to teach us to hate and pity non-Dalits have succeeded in planting within us self-pity and hatred because they have power a powerless.Their success is further enhanced by the institution of caste and the ideology of unto Dalit Christian reality is not very different from the general Dalit situation.We Christian Dalits ar Christian churches.(p.50) A case of hidden violence can occur when the problems involved in the Dalit situation are named in su made to believe that they are mere passive objects of pity who cannot else than be kept in their allotted engender this hidden form of violence, causes double hurt, as it is supposed to come from the mouths themselves as bearers of the Word of the One, who promised to makes all things new.The double hurt violently open up and their failure to deal with the present reality are reflected in Alfred Stephen's (n.d Dalit situation.This was expressed in his presidential welcoming message prior to the 11th Internation Homiletica that took place in Madurai (India) from 25 to 30 July 2014: The Christian Dalits undergo more sufferings and discriminations, both from within the church thus they suffer multi-faceted alienation.Their stigma continues and discriminations intensified The irony is that their socio-cultural reality does not seem to be a matter of concern both in doin preaching.The main contention is that preaching comfortably has eluded taking the socio-cultu Dalits into consideration in the hermeneutical process, thus making preaching of the gospel diff message irrelevant to the Dalits as it has failed to reflect their social and cultural reality.
Stephen's initial thoughts point out the important place of the current social-cultural situation people f naming reality.The gospel's impact on naming reality cannot be reduced to imagining a futuristic, spir isolated from human life and human community in its present state.But even attempts at contextualisi including the element of liberation in the here-and-now situation does not necessarily introduce eleme transformative integrity to the act of naming.Rajkumar (2010) queries the 'practical efficacy' of contem theology 8 in the following way: Christianity in India in the twenty-first century is confronted with a paradoxical situation.On the have the growing academic influence of Christian Dalit theology as a form of contextual theolog other we have the glaring discrimination of Dalits within Christianity as well as the continued pa Church to engage in the issues of Dalit liberation.(p. 1) Rajkumar (2010:2) quotes the following lines from Shroud, a poem by Dalit Marathi poet Baban Londh inefficacy and hidden violence of words that merely talk about socio-cultural change: On a plain so vast our eyes could not reach They would make speeches to their hearts content and shout out novel slogans, blow a breath of hope on our over tired limbs.
At times, to our shanty towns they would come, Careful not to rumple their ironed clothes crossing over lands and alleys, jumping across streaming gutters.
When they stopped beside our doors we felt inexplicably moved.
Viewing our pitiable state they would say 'Truly this needs a socio economic cultural change, the whole picture needs to be changed'.
Then we would sing their songs in sonorous full-throated tones.
Acting innocuous, they would eat the marrow of our bones.

Days passed by.
Darkness pressed from all sides.
We battled against sunshine and rain and like fools awaiting salvation we have stood our ground and are sunk to the neck in mire.The act of naming reality cannot fulfil the full spectrum of its task by merely mapping out contextual ra surface of our existence, expressing the need for change at this level alone and working with people as manipulatable objects in the process.
A theological theory that concerns itself with naming reality, with the aim on nurturing (and not neglec have to take the depth level of our existence into account.It will have to deal with the way our vision fo of committing ourselves to a certain course of action are channelled from the core of our existence, our It will ultimately concern itself with the renewal of our hearts by the grace of God.

Perspectives on renewal of the heart from canonical Holy Scripture
In this section the concept of heart as a descriptor for the innermost core of human life, in its renewal b on how we view life and interact with life, is explored from the canonical Holy Scripture. 9 The role of the heart as the innermost core of human life and its expressions In discussing the psychology of Paul, Ladd (1993:517-518) illustrates how the Pauline usage of kardia c with the biblical usage of the Hebrew word leb as a designator of the inner life of a person and the vario human activities (expressions of life) that spring from this innermost core of life: The heart is the seat o both good and bad (Rm 1:24; 2 Cor 2:4).Kardia is described as the source from which humanity's intell judgement can be influenced to such an extent that it becomes lacking in understanding and incapable (Rm 1:21).Without enlightenment of the 'eyes of the heart' (Eph 1:18), the Christians' hope cannot be u way kardia is used to describe the seat of the will, leading a person to impenitence on the one hand, or hand (Rm 2:5; 6:17).In order to get a hold on why a human being thinks in a certain way and decides to certain way, the active role of the heart of that person should be considered (cf. Witherington 1994:291) what is on the surface level of human action and behaviour, that which lies beneath the surface and can site must be taken into account.

Renewal of the heart
From a canonical perspective, the heart is in need of being renewed and sanctified as a space from whi graceful presence of the living God can flow into our lives.By the covenant presence and actions of Go being, a hardened heart and the rigid, divided, unrighteous expressions of life that flow from it can be o renewal -becoming a source from which a fountain of undivided and unpolluted love for God and fell begin to flow.This need for renewal at the core of our humanity is expressed in the way a case is made biblical literature.Despite physical circumcision, the hearts of Israelites remained uncircumcised (Lv 26 According to Deuteronomy 30:6, God will circumcise the hearts of a future generation of Israel.Throug God promises that He will make a 'new covenant' with Israel in which He will purify the Israelites and their hearts .According to Ezekiel 36:26-27 it could even be expected that God w the heart and spirit of the Israelites with a new heart and new spirit (Stettler 2004:491).
Jesus pointed out the wickedness and violent, relationship-destroying forces that flow from a 'hardene 10:5).With him the kingdom of God is inaugurated: sins are forgiven, hearts circumcised, and the Torah hearts so that they can begin to carry out God's will with a cleansed conscience (Rm 2:29; Col 2:11-23; H 2004:492).

The effect of renewal of the heart on the way we view life and interact with life
What will be the effect of the renewal of the heart -in the context of the new covenant and in a time fram God is in the process of being inaugurated -on the way we view life and interact with life?
In his theological reflection on the purity of heart in Jesus' teaching as described in Mark 7:14-23, Stettl how Jesus works with the contrast between purity that comes from outside (consumption of food accor the Old Testament with the idea that this act reminds us not to interact with anything that can defile us of heart (pure motives, words and deeds that flow from the inner life and can have a purifying effect on living environment).For Jesus, the purity which the Torah demands and guards points symbolically fo embracing purity of the kingdom of God; a purity that cannot be effected by outward and superficial ob (without the core of our existence and the motives and actions that flow from this core being involved) achieved by cleansing of the heart.
Jesus challenges his disciples to comply fully with his ethics now that the kingdom of God is daw way that they will at its final revelation.He calls them already to live in the purity of the coming w which is essentially one of the heart, out of which all words and deeds go forth pure, and which i 'offensive' and 'contagious' sense [with a cleansing and clarifying effect on its life environment].(c 2004:494) It is clear from this kingdom vision that Christians should be mindful of their heart.When a role is visu be a blessing to this world, this blessing cannot be enacted from a life that is merely superficially devot existence.When the heart is not minded and actively submitted to the cleansing work of the Spirit of Ch an unclouded, uncompromised account of the true life that God has in store for this world.
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus visualises a new life for those who are drawn into the inauguration By starting his sermon with the Beatitudes, Jesus expresses a surprising blessedness of life for people w violently suppressed and impeded by a discriminating religious system into thinking that nothing truly from their lives.In the sixth Beatitude, Jesus states: 'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God The 'pure in heart' blessed in the sixth Beatitude, according to Kelsey's (2009b:803) interpretation, are t towards God is undivided.This Beatitude demands not a certain quality in the privacy of subjective int existential how, an orientation in action in and towards one's public proximate contexts that decisively thinking, and feeling in such fashion that one is active for fellow creatures according to the law's comm seems to open a level of unified connectedness with our proximate contexts that clearly supersedes an objectifies our environment and isolates us from living contact with it.Reflecting on Jesus' teachings in Bourgeault (2008) concludes: His whole mission can fundamentally be seen as trying to push, tease, shock, and wheedle peop 'limited analytic intellect' of the egoic operating system 10 into the 'vast realm of mind' where th the resources they need to live in fearlessness, coherence, and compassion or in other words, as beings.(p.37) In the sixth Beatitude a life is visualised that culminates in 'seeing God'.Purity of heart is portrayed to b opening up an unclouded vision of God.A cleaner heart leads to a cleaner vision of God.In his reflecti [pure heart], Augustine suggests that humans are to be seen as beings that have corporeal senses by wh the physical world, as well as senses of the heart or the homo interior by which God, justice and beauty Throughout this life this perception of God grows, but only in the resurrection will it be complete enou face'.In this life the perception of God is increasingly clarified by means of an ever-growing likeness to to God and more and more like God as the purification process of the heart progresses and the express from the heart increasingly resonate with God-likeness (Lootens 2012:63-65).
The development of perception that is opened up by means of seeing God with increasing clarity does a gradual purification from background impressions that restricted, objectified and polluted our cognit merely a matter of purification from cognitive elements that restricted our field of view to such an exten imagine a way forward over what seemed to be unbridgeable chasms.It is neither merely a matter of p elements that impeded our scope to such an extent that we were only able to imagine a small circle of t God has in mind for us -restricted to a vague future, isolated from our current existence.It is also a ma (experiencing) the heart of God in its undivided commitment towards opening up this fountain of life w abundance through the redemptive work of his Son, Jesus Christ.This experiential seeing increasingly existence to integral, unified connectedness with our living environment, heartfelt compassion for othe action in ministering the fullness of God's love to them (cf. Pearmain 2001:76).

Naming and nurturing reality from a heart in the process of being renewed by the gr
What, then, will be the implications of these perspectives on renewal of the heart, for our quest to name that the act of this naming will not lead to despondent self-isolation from reality, disillusionment with negligence of reality that inevitably flows from these dispositions?What will need to change in the homiletic praxis that we visualise for our sermons and the prophetic ac these sermons?These changes must be made in order to reflect a kind of attunement with reality that is into a rhythm that is starting to beat in sync with the heart of God.How can our acts of naming reality b nurturing disposition towards reality that is bent on cherishing our proximate contexts with the eye on destined for?When we prayerfully place ourselves under the sanctifying work of the Spirit of Christ -asking for hidd of self-centredness and fears, regarding being overburdened by proximate contact with the 'untouchab cleansed from our hearts -a new vision for our place in this world will begin to emerge.Rigid concepts unachievability of trying to transform deeply entrenched patterns in society, like those that caused unb between the privileged (people who see themselves as having barely enough for themselves) and unp are made to believe that they have nothing and are nothing), will begin to fade as we progressively beg for this reality in its clarity and magnificence.
In a sermon with the title, 'A-cross-shattered church ', 11 Stanley Hauerwas (2009:73) refers to John How cross is neither foolish, nor weak, but natural'.This claim challenges the notion that nonviolence must unnatural and irrational, which is why we have to work so hard to secure peace in a violent world.Yode Hauerwas, suggests that Jesus' cross challenges questions that ask how to get from here to there.The a transformation of the world named by the cross means that the challenge is how the present world can reality that it should be: Thus we are not asked to love our enemies in order to make them our friends, but we are called for them because at the cross it has been effectively proclaimed that from all eternity they were o sisters.We are not called to make the bread of the world available to the hungry, we are called to awareness that it was always theirs.(Hauerwas 2009:75) The implications of Hauerwas's sermonic wisdom are clear: Our naming of reality does not have to tak from the presupposition that we still have to try and bridge unbridgeable situations.This disposition w where the heart from which we speak can easily become contaminated by doubts regarding the achiev for the despised and marginalised.Becoming progressively aware of God's vision for this world from process of being purified by God's grace, we can begin to name reality with a prophetic vision for a wo enough flows for all from the unrestrained heart of God as it is revealed through his redemptive grace i in which reality is named in this way will become like fountains flowing from uncompromised hearts, b and clarifying waters for those who need to be liberated from their rigid and limited perceptions.It is a been led to believe that they have no place in this world and that they have nothing of significance to s human beings.
Sermons like these will likely pave the way for the formation of the kind of dialogical prophetic commu Christian ethicist Stanley Hauerwas (1981Hauerwas ( , 1983)), and missiologist David J. Bosch (1991).In these proph gospel can be proclaimed from a position of shared vulnerability, bearing witness to the way the fount shattered our rigid patterns of self-concern and rationalistic doubt.It is purifying our hearts from the b and is opening up our existence into nurturing our reality with the fullness of heavenly life being entru 2010:36).
In these communities those members who are reckoned to be privileged members of the dominant sys do not have to remain trapped behind guilt-ridden, self-preserving facades.They can become free to se of life that flows from the redeeming grace that God has opened up in their hearts.In these communitie Dalits of this world no longer has to be labelled problematic and their position in society no longer irre behind walls of isolation and disdain.From a heart purified by the grace of God, the violent impact of t uneducated, untouchable categories in which the Dalits of this world have been named and framed can accepting the new name and kingdom frame proclaimed to them by Jesus Christ.They can embrace the the blessed people for whom the riches of God's grace in Christ are destined.They can become free to previously been portrayed to be untouchable with the nurturing compassion of God flowing from their This article is published in the section Practical Theology of the Society for Practical Theology in South 1. Brueggemann (2014) describes the dominant ideology (as it manifested in Old Testament Israel's roy echoed in the ideology of exceptionalism in contemporary US society) as follows: 'The dominant ideol power and its wisdom, that you can compartmentalize and privatize; that you can declare unwelcome s and irrelevant; that you can separate economics from neighborliness; that you can enjoy chosenness a demands of the others' (p.23).2.One's presuppositions in viewing reality and the effects this will have on naming reality need to be co (2010:107) illustrates how modern western thinking significantly changed the way we -who find oursel particular culture -tend to view reality.In premodern times the primacy was with the spiritual world (th influence on the physical world.In modern thinking a 180-degree turn was made: the natural world an observations that can be made in this natural world, becomes the only verifiable norms for our thinkin 'spiritual word' came to be seen as a construct of human thinking or imagination, not having an object Colson & Pearcy 1999:ix).The author, however, works with a theological presupposition that relinks wi sense that the 'spiritual word' and 'physical world' are viewed to be different aspects of one relational in which the knowledge of our place in this world is intrinsically linked with how God makes Godself k 2004:317).The reality of the world we live in is then viewed as an objective environment that was broug particular purpose.From a Christian perspective this particular origin and purpose are then interpreted linked with the work of the triune God, the Creator, Redeemer and Consummator.3.The Societas Homiletica is an academic and international society for teachers and researchers of preac main activity is a biannual international conference and the publication of its proceedings.4.Theological anthropologist, David H. Kelsey's (2009a:537) description of human vulnerability reflects well as interpersonal elements in the following way: creaturely personal bodies that are finite centers o internally in respect to the range and energy and externally in respect to the way they are impinged on impinge on them in return, inherently vulnerable to damage, violation, disintegration, and death.'The creaturely personal bodies constitutes part of the multiple dimensions of our existence that God relate God draws human creatures into borrowed time by relating proleptically to them in eschatological ble of the crucified Jesus in the midst of their ambiguous and distorted proximate contexts.5.When referring to heart the author does not have the physical organ inside the human body in mind.metaphorical sense that is intended.When we refer to heart in our daily metaphoric use of this concept someone as having a black heart' or a 'heart of gold' or creative efforts as 'having a heart' or 'lacking a be conveyed are some particular dimensions of being and feeling that can be put into living in certain w When Paul refers to kardia (heart) in his anthropological terminology, he clearly has the metaphorical with the Old Testament usage, the heart is seen to be the deepest seat from which thought, will and acti instrument of one's ego and can either be bad (as the source of bad desires and lusts that proceed from polluting expressions of life with impurity as in Rom 1:24) or it can be the seat of good desires and beli in the confessing words and actions of a justified believer (Rom 10:1, 10; Witherington 1994:291).6.Cf.for example Umberto Eco (1976), Michel Foucault (1970) and Roland Barthes (1972) for various pe use language in the process of perception-creation or alteration.
7.The word Dalit comes from a Sanskrit root that is associated with things or people that are cut, split, c The present use of the word Dalit presumably goes back to the nineteenth century, when a Marathi soc revolutionary, Mahatma Jyotirao Phule (1826-1890), used it to describe the 'Outcastes' and 'Untouchab and broken victims of a caste-ridden Indian society.It should, however, be noted that Dalit does not ca or low-caste or impurity in itself (as does some of the other more derogatory terms used to describe th particular people in Indian society).It rather refers to the condition of brokenness to which this group reduced by social convention.For people who are subjected to abject poverty and experience that they human beings, the name Dalit can even become a name they choose to give themselves, constantly rem the age-old oppression that they still have to bear and serving as a communal expression of hope to re identity (Sandangi 2008:3).8.Christian Dalit theology professes to be an identity-specific theology of liberation and has as its prim for liberation of Dalit communities.It is seen to be not only a prophetic theology for identification with Dalits, but also as a political theology for social action towards the transformation of injustice and opp (Rajkumar 2010:1).' 9.The author's presumptions and methodological point of departure flow from a vision that the biblica Old and the New Testament) form an authoritative body of Spirit-inspired texts in which God reveals G relationship with his covenant community and this world.By naming this body of literature canonical H sees himself part of an interpretative community that acknowledge Scripture as a determinate set of co employment by the community, as Kelsey (2009a:147-148) states, 'is the medium in, through, and unde call the community into being; nurture and sustain it; and, when necessary, correct and reform the way common life to respond appropriately to God's way of relating with them.'Although the books of the O were written by different authors over a span of more than 1000 years, the reader of this body of literatu seeks the guidance of the Spirit to trace lines and contingent patterns that flow from the history of revel these books; patterns of promise and fulfilment; patterns of foreshadowing and realisation with the com Christ as culmination point for these redemptive historical lines (cf.Greidanus 1999:48).These pattern approach to studying Scripture utilised for the formation of normative theory.(Seeking guidance for ou according to a way that is perceived to represent the fullness of what God intends for our lives.)10.Bourgeault (2008:36) distinguishes between the 'egoic' system of perception (the cerebral way of thi the world up in different bits and pieces, in subject and object, in order to perceive it) on the one hand, of perception (as the wisdom tradition centres it in the heart) on the other hand: 'In wisdom, the heart i spiritual perception, a highly sensitive instrument for keeping us aligned, as we journey along the horiz time, with the vertical axis of timeless reality: the realm of meaning, value and conscience.The heart pi deeper and more integral way than our poor, Cartesian minds even begin to imagine.'In western tradi the difference between head and heart in a very clichéd and dualistic way; as if 'thinking with the head' objective thinking and 'thinking with the heart' has to do with a non-rational, emotional way of making job, according to Bourgeault (2009:19), is to look deeper than the surface of things, deeper than the jum of our ordinary awareness, and to beam in on the deeper, ensheltering spiritual world in which our bei calls it the 'kingdom of heaven'.11.Preached for the Duke Divinity School in the University Chapel on 02 February 2005 and is based on 6:1-8, Psalm 15, 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 and Matthew 5:1-12.12.Hauerwas's concern, according to Graham (1996:115, 116), was to establish theological ethics as the the development of authentic Christian character.He emphasised the idea that moral discourse has its stories and self-understanding of autonomous Christian communities, rather than universal rational p Constantinian relationship, whereby the church simply reflects the higher values of secular society, and without challenging or questioning the validity of them, is abhorred.Instead the church exists to witnes living in this world as a 'colony of heaven' (Hauerwas & Willimon 1989).Kritzinger and Saayman (2011 mission praxis, concludes that he consciously elected not to work with a dialectical or conflict model, w oppressed group to rally around the cause of their oppression in order to put pressure on their oppres reconciliary strategies, following the 'politics of Jesus' as expounded by John Yoder.This meant gather alternative (and unlikely) prophetic community consisting of people from all sides of the conflict who humanity and start living the life of the future in the present.In this, Bosch saw the way of the cross tha to follow.
But now they say plans are worked out for our salvation covering our wasted tombs in a new shroud with munificence!