Die proses van heling en versoening : 'n pastoraal-hermeneutiese ondersoek van die dinamika tussen slagoffer en oortreder binne 'n post-wvk periode

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:In this study the process of healing and reconciliation between the victim and theoffender in a post-TRC period in South Africa is being investigated with a view to thechallenge it poses to pastoral care. The focus is specifically on the post-TRC periodrather than the period during which the TRC operated. The post-TRC period is aperiod where the truth about the apartheid past is partially known, where guilt andmourning are part of the offender's struggle, where suffering, in all areas of life, is partof the victims survival, where there is an understanding of the emotions victims andoffenders experience, where restitution and reconstruction create a new vision andorientation for victims and offenders and where the church is able to interpret the past,present and future in order make healing and reconciliation a reality. To accomplishhealing and reconciliation between victims and offenders in the post-TRC period isregarded as crucially important in order to ensure that the atrocities of the past, in someform or another, will not be repeated.To ensure that healing and reconciliation between the victim and the offender isaccomplished on a personal and a public level, it is necessary to gain a clearunderstanding of the practical situation of the victim and the offender. It was found thatthe terms victim and offender have to be conceived in a comprehensive way in viewof the socio-political context of South Africa, and that guilt forms a core element, whichcalls for great sensitivity and empathy on the part of pastoral care. Within thiscomprehensive understanding it was also found that guilt is not to be conceived andexplained merely psychologically and socially, but also theologically. For this reason itis crucial to conceive of victims and offenders within their context and to comprehendthe real impact of guilt, suffering and mourning. Although these experiences take placeon different levels, they form an indispensable indicator for achieving healing andreconciliation in South Africa (chapter 2).For reconciliation and healing to be realized between victim and offender it is essential,furthermore, that both should face the truth of what occurred in the past. In this regardit is necessary that truth should not be considered as mere verifiable facts. Rather, truthshould be conceived as a process of interpretation aimed at the revealing of meaning within certain relations, contexts and experiences. Apart from having a liberating effect,truth is also a prerequisite for reconciliation (chapter 3).Subsequently, the influence of pastoral theologies on healing and reconciliation betweenvictim and offender is discussed. It was found that pastoral care, to render a significantcontribution to healing and reconciliation in South Africa, should make the paradigmaticshift from an individual client-centred pastoral approach to a hermeneutic culturalapproach. It is essential for healing and reconciliation to be broadened from a meresubjective/individual understanding thereof, to healing and reconciliation as a systemicprocess of understanding and interpretation (hermeneutical) that is connected to socialrelations and inculturation. To ensure that this hermeneutic of reconciliation will havean impact on the practical post-TRC situation, it should be supplemented by a doingtheology, functioning within a wisdom perspective; id est, a creative programme to bringtogether victims and offenders, as well as those who have been existentially effected by(the wounds caused by) apartheid (chapter 4).Finally, for remembering and storytelling to take place, and be significant for the processof healing and reconciliation between victim and offender, it is essential that it must beembedded in a practical-theological ecclesiology within which the church can serve as aforum for healing and reconciliation. To achieve healing and reconciliation, a liturgy ofhealing is proposed. It is important that the content and form of a liturgy of healing bedetermined by the following core elements: remembering, forgiveness, and the use ofmetaphors, symbols and rituals.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University