The Role of Religion and Religious Leaders in Marital Conflict Resolution: A Perspective of Congolese Migrants’ Families Living in Durban, South Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 413-419
Author(s):  
Beatrice Umubyeyi ◽  
Oliver Mtapuri ◽  
Maheshvari Naidu
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
Marital Conflict ◽  
Extended Family ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Church Leaders ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
Family Structures ◽  
Role Of Religion

The central aim of this study is to explore and examine the role of religion and religious leaders in marital conflict resolution through perspective of Congolese migrants’ families living in Durban, South Africa. In order to achieve the objectives qualitative study, employing an interpretive approach was used in data collection. The finding from this study revealed that religion and religious leaders play a very critical role in marital conflict resolution among Congolese migrant families living in Durban. While marital conflict resolution is settled through extended family structures headed by the head of the family in the country of origin, church leadership has replaced this in the host country. It was apparent that when people are in a foreign country they try to find people whom they can rely on, trust, and seek advice during difficult times such as in times of economic difficulties and family conflicts. The findings shown that church leaders and church counselors were seen as most trusted persons who can give lasting solution to marital conflict. Not only are they able to provide advice, but according to these participants, they also offer counseling and follow-up on progress of marital and relationship. The study has also shown that mediation and communication was identified as the major approaches used by these church leaders and church counselors to resolve marital conflict.

Introduction: Religion and the Novel

2019 ◽  
pp. 3-33
Author(s):  
Christina Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Postcolonial Studies ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Postcolonial Literature ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Religion And Literature ◽  
Religious Other ◽  
Role Of Religion ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter introduces the topic of religion and literature, theorises the novel as a secular genre, and develops a concept of religion as the other in the Arabic novel. It begins with a discussion of the relationship between religion and literature, identifying imagination, metaphorical language and mythos as areas of overlap, before turning to the question of religion and the Arabic novel as a modern form which eschews faith and dogma but is nevertheless packed with religious themes, images, characters, language and intertextuality. This is accounted for by the form’s secularism, which is theorised in terms of Charles Taylor’s conditions of belief. Literary secularism is not static and stable however, thus religion emerges as the other in the Egyptian novel, with all the ambivalence which alterity characteristically entails. This religious other calls into question postcolonial studies’ over-valorisation of the East/West binary insofar as it has obscured the critical role of religion in Arab postcolonial literature and identity.

Public Opinion on the Role of Religion in Political Leadership: A Multi-level Analysis of Sixty-three Countries

2006 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 251-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
MATTHEW CARLSON ◽  
OLA LISTHAUG
Keyword(s):  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Political Leadership ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
Close Link ◽  
Political Roles ◽  
Mass Publics ◽  
European Values ◽  
Role Of Religion

Are there significant variations across major religious faiths about the proper political roles of religion? Using recent World Values/European Values data from 63 countries we study the attitudes of mass publics on two separate aspects of this question. First, should religious beliefs be used as a criterion for selecting political leaders (dimension I)? Second, should religious leaders use their position for political influence (dimension II)? For dimension I we find that Muslims are somewhat more likely than followers of other faiths and denominations to say that religious beliefs are important in selecting leaders. The remaining results of our investigation somewhat weaken or modify this result. On dimension II we find that Muslims do not stand out as comparatively favorable towards the view that religious leaders shall use their position for political influence. Finally, we find a negative, albeit weak and somewhat irregular effect of education on attitudes towards a close link between religion and political leadership (dimension I). However, this effect holds up equally well for Muslims as for other denominations, suggesting that Muslims are not immune to the effects of secularization.

Civil War and Religion: Turkey

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gülay Türkmen
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Interstate Conflicts ◽  
Kurdistan Workers Party ◽  
Kurdish Conflict ◽  
Role Of Religion ◽  
The Impact

Out of the 111 armed conflicts that took place worldwide between 1989 and 2000, only seven were interstate conflicts. The others were intrastate in nature. As a result, the last decade and a half witnessed a boom in the publication of works on civil wars. While the percentage of civil wars involving religion increased from 21% to 43% between the 1960s and 1990s, scholars have been rather slow to integrate the study of religion into the overall framework of conflict in general, and of civil wars in particular. Operating under the impact of the secularization thesis and treating religion as an aspect of ethnicity, the literature on civil wars has long embraced ethnonationalism as its subject matter. Yet, since the early 2000s there has been a rapid increase in the number of works focusing on religion and civil wars. While one branch treats religion as a trigger for and an exacerbating factor in conflict, another focuses on religion as a conflict resolution tool. Turkey is an apt case to ponder the latter as several governments have deployed religion (namely, Sunni Islam) as a tool to suppress ethnic divisions for years. During the Justice and Development Party (AKP) rule, religion has gained even more visibility as a conflict resolution tool in the 33-year-long armed ethnic conflict between the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK). Yet, the role of religion in Turkey’s Kurdish conflict still remains understudied. Increased attention to this topic could deliver important insights not only for those who conduct research on the Kurdish conflict in Turkey specifically, but also for those who explore the role of religion in civil wars more generally.

scholarly journals Violence in post-apartheid South Africa and the role of church and theology

2004 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
C.F.C. Coetzee
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Church Leaders ◽  
Revolutionary Violence ◽  
The World ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Church

South Africa is known as one of the most violent countries in the world. Since the seventeenth century, violence has been part of our history. Violence also played a significant role during the years of apartheid and the revolutionary struggle against apartheid. It was widely expected that violence would decrease in a post-apartheid democratic South Africa, but on the contrary, violence has increased in most cases. Even the TRC did not succeed in its goal to achieve reconciliation. In this paper it is argued that theology and the church have a great and significant role to play. Churches and church leaders who supported revolutionary violence against the apartheid system on Biblical “grounds”, should confess their unbiblical hermeneutical approach and reject the option of violence. The church also has a calling in the education of young people, the pastoral care of criminals and victims, in proclaiming the true Gospel to the government and in creating an ethos of human rights.

Approaches to Marital Conflict Resolution: A Perspective of Democratic Republic of Congo Migrants Living in Durban, South Africa

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (8) ◽  
pp. 1065-1085
Author(s):  
Beatrice Umubyeyi ◽  
Oliver Mtapuri
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
Marital Conflict ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Democratic Republic Of Congo ◽  
Church Leaders ◽  
Transformation Theory ◽  
Republic Of Congo ◽  
Marital Conflicts ◽  
Migrant Families ◽  
Depth Interviews

The aim of this article is to expound on existing approaches to marital conflicts resolution among Congolese migrant families, their functioning, and their effectiveness. The theoretical framework within which this study is constructed is conflict transformation theory. This is a qualitative study involving in-depth interviews with 16 migrants comprising 8 men and 8 women from Democratic Republic of Congo living in Durban as well as two church leaders and two church counselors from where the participants were selected. Participants were identified in two selected Congolese migrant churches. The study found out that there are several approaches to marital conflict resolution. Negotiation and mediation were considered the most significant approaches used in resolving marital conflict among Congolese migrant families living in Durban. Culture matters in marital conflict resolution. Because of patriarchy, negotiation becomes a less effective approach to marital conflict resolution because the men believe they have the upper hand in marriage. Power is embedded in relationships, and negotiation has connotations of power relations and how power is distributed and dispensed in a given society. In circumstances in which women are emancipated, equality between men and women can be eventuated.

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