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The Role of Pastoral Care within Post-COVID (21st Century) African...
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The Role of Pastoral Care within Post-COVID (21st Century) African Challenges

A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444). This special issue belongs to the section "Religions and Health/Psychology/Social Sciences".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (5 May 2023) | Viewed by 4848

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Magezi Elijah Baloyi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Human Sciences, Research Institute for Theology and Religion, University of South Africa, PO Box 392 Pretoria, South Africa
Interests: pastoral care and counselling in the context of African challenges; Africanisation of the reformed theology; marital and premarital counselling in African context; gender imbalances in African context

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Postcolonial and post-COVID Africa have remained a battleground due to various reasons and challenges. The impact of inequalities and postcolonial political instabilities has ensured the escalation of poverty, unemployment, global illness and many other social ills that are continuing to put an immense pressure on the lives of people.

Thus, we are pleased to invite you to contribute to our Special Issue of Religions. Pastoral care and counselling have been criticized amongst other disciplines for not taking into consideration the calamities and challenges that are affecting and engulfing people from different walks of life. It is for this reason that people are questioning the relevance of theology in their immediate situation, a question made famous by one of the fathers of liberation theology, the late James Cone. Pastoral caregivers and pastoral researchers could propose suggestions and guidelines that generate potential responses to ensure that the lives of God’s people in the world have stewards who are capable of formulating some way forward. Those who are affected by all of these challenges expect someone to bring hope into their hopeless situations. We need research papers that will become a pastoral voice for the 21st century realities that we are faced with.

This Special Issue aims to unmask and address the 21st century realities that are engulfing the lives of God’s people within the continent. The continent has turned into a playground for socioeconomic and political reasons, which negatively impacts the work of pastoral caregivers and pastoral researchers. It is important to listen to the voices of these groups as they address the situation, trying to minimize the challenges posed to them as much as they can.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • The impact of the fourth industrial revolution on pastoral work;
  • Post-COVID-19 experiences and challenges to pastoral work;
  • Perennial escalation of gender-based violence;
  • Poverty and unemployment;
  • Contextual theologies and pastors;
  • Political instability in the church;
  • Africa and its inequalities;
  • The impact of the war in Ukraine on pastoral caregiving.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200 words maximum summarizing their intended contribution. Please send the abstract and the full manuscript to the Guest Editor () or to the Religions Editorial Office (). Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editor for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer-review.

Tentative completion schedule:

  • Abstract submission deadline: 20 November 2022
  • Notification of abstract acceptance: 01 December 2022
  • Full manuscript submission deadline: 02 March 2023

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Magezi Elijah Baloyi
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • calamities
  • COVID-19
  • gender-based violence
  • political instability
  • migration
  • marriage and premarital counselling
  • pastoral caregivers
  • researchers

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

10 pages, 269 KiB  
Article
Pastoral Care and Mental Health in Post-Pandemic South Africa: A Narrative Review Exploring New Ways to Serve Those in Our Care
by Janice K. Moodley and Rabson Hove
Religions 2023, 14(4), 477; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14040477 - 03 Apr 2023
Viewed by 2792
Abstract
COVID-19 has had severe consequences for congregants worldwide. During the period of lockdown regulations, congregants were isolated from pastoral care when such care was most needed. Social distancing, wearing masks, and other regulations changed how we worshiped, fellowshipped, discipled, counselled, comforted, and loved [...] Read more.
COVID-19 has had severe consequences for congregants worldwide. During the period of lockdown regulations, congregants were isolated from pastoral care when such care was most needed. Social distancing, wearing masks, and other regulations changed how we worshiped, fellowshipped, discipled, counselled, comforted, and loved those in our care. The role of pastoral care as a pillar of mental well-being became overwhelmingly evident as the dying, the grieving, the physically and mentally ill, the abused, the starving, the destitute, and the vulnerable were isolated and alienated. The pandemic has had untold consequences on congregant mental health, especially in resource-poor contexts in South Africa, where adequate psychological services cannot cope with needs. This article uses the narrative approach to explore the possible role pastoral care can play in addressing the exacerbation of mental health issues post-pandemic in South Africa. The state of psychological services in South Africa is explored in order to contextualise the need for innovative ideas to address the complexity of mental health issues in South Africa. Recommendations are made for how pastoral care may be utilised to alleviate the mental health crisis that has emerged following the pandemic at an individual and community level. Hopefully, this article will foster critical dialogue between theological and psychological scholarship for the purposes of alleviating the complex mental health issues that persist in South Africa and have been exacerbated by the pandemic. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of Pastoral Care within Post-COVID (21st Century) African Challenges)
11 pages, 244 KiB  
Article
The Wounded Body of Christ, the Church and Perennial Escalation of Gender-Based Violence and Its Implications for Pastoral Care
by Sylvia Mukuka
Religions 2023, 14(3), 427; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14030427 - 22 Mar 2023
Viewed by 1316
Abstract
It is a known fact that gender-based violence is an infringement on human rights. Gender-based violence takes place all over the world in almost every place. It is experienced in homes, workplaces, communities, and in the Church as well. Today, church members, as [...] Read more.
It is a known fact that gender-based violence is an infringement on human rights. Gender-based violence takes place all over the world in almost every place. It is experienced in homes, workplaces, communities, and in the Church as well. Today, church members, as well as pastors are wounded, fragmented, and hurting as they suffer serious abuses in silence. Christian children have fallen victim to sexual abuse that is perpetrated by their parents. Parents too, have become victims of violence; sometimes maimed by children who have become violent enough to kill their Christian parents in their homes. Furthermore, many Christian couples have continued to experience intra gender violence in their families that is often attributed to marital infidelity. Beyond that, there is also a common secretive kind of abuse in the form of marital sexual violence which is a serious form of violence against women. This is a hidden type of abuse that has been perpetrated behind closed doors for too long by members of the body of Christ. Due to its prevalence sometimes the victims themselves, often pretend that the problem in not present by keeping a deafening silence. This article, therefore, makes an in-depth investigation into the causes of the pervasive forms of gender-based violence that occur in some Zambian Christian homes, with particular emphasis on the ways in which this multifaceted phenomenon is very much hidden. This article expounds on how Christian couples have continued to suffer silently as their voices are suppressed due to fear and shame. In the conclusion of the article, it is suggested that, unless the church, in its pastoral care role, awakens from its slumber and begins to address issues of gender-based violence in the church with sincerity, honesty, and openness by admitting that indeed, the body of Christ is yearning to be healed, gender-based violence shall remain a perennial occurrence. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of Pastoral Care within Post-COVID (21st Century) African Challenges)
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