Wholeness and Healing
WHOLENESS AND HEALING IN COMMUNITY:
TOWARD UNDERSTANDING EFFECTIVE AFRICAN CHURCH
INTERVENTIONS FOLLOWING COMMUNITY VIOLENCE
by
Karl Dortzbach
June 2002
Wholeness and Healing is a PhD research project analyzing
effective community interventions following violent conflict. Complete
text at Wholeness
and Healing(1.5m pdf))
ABSTRACT
Wholeness and Healing In Community is a study that seeks to understand
what are the effective interventions, which the African church has
made and is able to make in bringing healing to a community gripped
by violent conflict. In this study it is assumed that the church
is an existent and potentially effective institution with infrastructure
that stretches from the smallest community to an international web.
In the midst of Africas social, political, and economic turmoil
there lie both causes and consequences, which are the brokenness
of body and mind, emotions and choices. This woundedness, which
is both individual and collective, needs to be made whole or the
next generations are likely to continue a cycle of violence, hate
and mistrust. The biblical concept of shalom is developed and used
as the vision toward which interventions must attempt to move. The
qualitative methodology and process of this work sought to not only
study church interventions but to assist in the transformation of
church leader thinking about their role.
This study has three primary strands: 1) the individual background
and experiences of the researcher who has spent nearly thirty years
in the midst of conflict on the African continent, 2) a literature
review that surveys literature from several disciplines and, 3)
a field research. The field research consisted in the filming (or
securing already made films) of nine situations in which there was
a claim made that community healing had either occurred or had been
assisted through a specific set of interventions. The film from
these nine situations in five countries (eight in Africa) were then
edited into nine 15-30 minute film documentaries which were screened
in their entirety to four different focus groups of African church
leaders for their evaluation and reflection. Their evaluations are
reported and evaluated in this study. In order to comprehend the
study and its findings, it is strongly recommended that the films
be viewed even though they are summarized here in written form.
A list of effective interventions is the outcome of this study.
This is perhaps the most comprehensive listing of holistic healing
interventions. A potential use for this catalogue is suggested.
It is recommended for church leaders as well as Non Governmental
Organizations, which seek to work in situations of violence on the
African continent.
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