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Namibia and South Africa as Examples of Religious and Moral Education in Changing Societies

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Values, Religions and Education in Changing Societies

Abstract

A report is given of ways in which Namibia and South Africa have dealt with “Religious and Moral Education” within the context of rapid and fundamental change. The paper is based on the conviction that successful dialogue rests on openly shared experiences and a common humanity, irrespective of vast differences. Even though the South is only now facing the challenges of modernity/post-modernity, social theorists, speaking of the “de-secularization of the world”, point out that also in the West religion is claiming renewed relevance. The current curricular processes, dealing with worldview issues and value education, illustrate how emerging constitutional democracies are finding ways to guarantee freedom of religion and pluralism, while avoiding its divisiveness. Dialogue partners from South and North face different changes and challenges, but share the task of overcoming one-sided aspects of “Enlightenment” (individualism, consumerism, ecological destruction, economic injustice). A culture of human rights should have human dignity at its core (as in Ubuntu philosophy) and not personal entitlement.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For details of this journey through the many changes of one generation in our subcontinent, in South Africa and Namibia, see Lombard (1990a, pp. 174–194, 1990b, pp. 78–89).

  2. 2.

    This process resulted in peaceful mass democratic action and the famous Belhar Confession of 1986, in which reconciliation and justice are seen as crucial to a future of unity and peace – see Lombard (2009, pp. 69–96). Cf. Loubser (1987) for the “Apartheid Bible”. See Smit and Cloete (1982).

  3. 3.

    Influential in our programmes was the concept of dialogue as developed educationally by Lohmann and Weisse (1994), and Weisse (1996). When the crisis of 9/11 struck, a diverse group of Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus and Baha’is had been meeting weekly at the Institute for quite some time.

  4. 4.

    See Valk, chapter “Worldviews of Today”.

  5. 5.

    See Hartman, chapter “Vital Issues, Worldviews and Religions”.

  6. 6.

    The dilemma in Southern Africa is that people who have not yet fully gone through the industrial revolution, are now faced with the double challenge of the Enlightenment: Rushing through the “gains” of Modernity (with its faith in reason and certainty) and ending up in the disillusionment of Post-modernity (with its faith in “nothing”). For a succinct survey of the three generations of rights, cf. Goetz (1990, pp. 658–660).

  7. 7.

    Protestant churches in Germany and South Africa are currently engaged in a joint project, The Challenge of Globalization to the Churches, in which the inter-related issues of “Empire”, economic injustice and ecological destruction worldwide are addressed. A series of publications by the Beyers Naude Center for Public Theology is forthcoming.

  8. 8.

    See Taylor (1991) (“an ethics of authenticity”); Brennan, 2003 (“the terrors of globalization”); MacIntyre, 1993 (“loss of traditions of virtue”); Berger, 1999 (“de-secularization”).

  9. 9.

    See Hartman, chapter “Vital Issues, Worldviews and Religions”. See also Jackson (1997, pp. 121–143) regarding his interpretive approach in religious education.

  10. 10.

    See Valk, chapter “Worldviews of Today”. This corresponds closely with Hartman’s chapter “Vital Issues, Worldviews and Religions”: “But research, too, through specializing, tends to become one-eyed… and with an imbalance of this kind the risk is great that the teaching content will whither in the bud, like a flower lacking nourishment.”

  11. 11.

    The extent of the problem became apparent at an international conference on Religion and Xenophobia, at the University of Cape Town, 17–19 November 2008.

  12. 12.

    One of the foci of the UWC project on moral formation deals with weekly clippings from the leading critical voice in the media, the Mail and Guardian, which has an active website: http://www.mg.co.za.

  13. 13.

    This issue was scrutinized at an ecumenical conference at Stellenbosch, organized by IAM (Inclusive and Affirming Ministries): The evil of Patriarchy in the Church, Society and Politics in South Africa, 5–6 March 2009.

  14. 14.

    See Bill Moyers’ interviews with Jospeh Campbell on the power of myth (Campbell, 1988).

  15. 15.

    At this point some caution should be sounded to over-ambitious “worldview” proponents: Apartheid was also a (very powerful) worldview, forced upon a whole generation educationally, socially, politically and economically!

  16. 16.

    For an assessment of some of these debates on Life Orientation, cf. Steyn (2000) and Roux (1998).

  17. 17.

    This sounds like a “Confucianist version”, where “authority” determines what will be taught, which outcomes are sought, and the process to be followed, versus a “Taoist version” with an accent on freedom of expression, experience and development of “nature” – an old Chinese version of the educational choices we face today!

  18. 18.

    Sue Heese et al. (2004–2006) and Coe, Haden, & Raubenheimer (2004–2006), seems to follow the intentions of the curricula imaginatively.

  19. 19.

    The website of the Western Cape Education Department is updated regularly and is a reliable source on the new National Curricula: http://www.wced.wcape.gov.za. The information used here was accessed on 2009/03/28 from http://curriculum.wcape.school.za/ncs/index/lareas/view/26

  20. 20.

    Is Hans Küng’s quest for a “global ethic” (Küng & Kuschel, 1993; Küng, 1997) not relevant at least in this respect: That the credos, cults, communities and cultures exert important influence on people’s thinking and behaviour, and that they are significantly different, but that they all eventually serve a common purpose, to motivate people to live according to basic moral rules (codes), which are also confirmed historically by common sense, law traditions and constitutions. They affirm the life-giving maxims of reciprocity: Not to kill, steal, lie, commit adultery, covet or disrespect authority.

  21. 21.

    The concerns which made Heim, Frankl, Tillich, Schleiermacher and Otto ikons of this discourse.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Religion and Theology, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa

    Christo Lombard

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  1. Christo Lombard
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Correspondence to Christo Lombard .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Umeå University, Umeå, 901 87, Sweden

    Karin Sporre

  2. Umeå University, Umeå, SE 901 87, Sweden

    Jan Mannberg

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Lombard, C. (2011). Namibia and South Africa as Examples of Religious and Moral Education in Changing Societies. In: Sporre, K., Mannberg, J. (eds) Values, Religions and Education in Changing Societies. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9628-9_12

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