Faith and Secularism in the context of developing countries

Missionalia 40:1/2 (April/Aug 2012) 77–104 77

Faith and secularism in the context of developing countries: A pastoral response

Stuart C. Bate, OMI1

AbstractIt is said that rapid economic growth promotes secularisation. South Africa recently joined the BRIC group of developing countries and signs are emerging of rapid economic growth in Africa. The article examines this new context to propose pastoral responses in theology and ministries. An examination of the Christian response to industrialisation leads to key themes of Catholic social teaching, Catholic Action movements and Christian schools. Based on these, examples of possible faith responses to secularism within new emerging economies are proposed. They include building on the Christian development history in Africa, promoting ethical leadership using the example of our religious formation programmes and utilising Christian tertiary education institutions in Africa in promoting faith-based development solutions.

Keywords: Pastoral theology, development theology, inculturation; transcendent moral norms, religious authority, Catholic social teaching, Catholic Action, Christian education.

South Africa and the BRIC countriesOn 24 December 2010, South Africa was invited to join the BRIC group of developing countries. This group comprises Brazil, Russia, India and China. They are four of the world’s largest emerging economies, representing 40 per cent of the world’s population, 25 per cent of the global land mass and 15 per cent of global GDP.2 The BRIC countries have shown outstanding economic growth since 2000. They “contributed about half of global growth between 2000 and 2008”.3 It is anticipated that between 2008 and 2014 they will contribute more than 60 per cent of world growth. First World countries will only contribute 12 per cent during the same period (Beattie 2010). The participation of South Africa in this grouping will clearly empower its economy.

Why is South Africa being asked to join the BRIC group? It is tiny in comparison to each of them. China has 1.3 billion people, India 1 billion,

1 Dr Stuart C. Bate is an Oblate of Mary Immaculate priest. He is currently Grand Chancellor of St Joseph’s Theological Institute, Cedara, and honorary lecturer in the School of Religion and Theology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. He can be contacted at [email protected].

2 President Jacob Zuma told reporters during a state visit to China that South Africa has discussed its interest in joining the informal grouping of the four major developing nations, known as BRIC, with each member government. Zuma said, “We think that the BRIC expresses a very important grouping in a changing world today” (Wong 2010).

3 It is reported that “[c]ollectively, the Bric economies could well surpass output in the Group of Seven wealthy nations — which have dominated the management of the global economy — by 2032” (Beattie 2010).

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Brazil 200 million and Russia 150 million. South Africa has 45 million people, one third of the population of the smallest BRIC country and only 3 per cent of the largest. Its GDP is one quarter the size of Russia’s — the smallest BRIC country.

The reason is that South Africa is seen as a portal into the rest of the continent.4 The World Bank already noted in 2007 that “After years of stop-and-start results, many African economies appear to be growing at the fast and steady rates needed to put a dent in the region’s high poverty rate and attract global investment”.

There were six African countries in the world’s top ten fastest growing economies between 2001 and 2010. Angola was first with 11.1 per cent annual growth, Nigeria was fourth with 8.9 per cent, Ethiopia was fifth with 8.4 per cent, Chad was seventh with 7.9 per cent, Mozambique was eighth with 7.9 per cent and Rwanda was tenth with 7.6 per cent (Economist online 2011).5 This, combined with South Africa’s successful hosting of the football world cup, has focused worldwide interest on the possibilities for this continent. South African membership of BRICS is likely to empower growth and development on the African continent further, which could have a profound impact on the social and cultural context.

The BRICS countries see themselves as a model for poor countries who wish to pursue a vision of and strategy for human development. They collaborate in economic development and lobby for fairer international trade relations, which are currently biased in favour of first world countries. They recognise “the importance of the UN Millennium Declaration6 and the need to achieve the Millennium Development Goals7 [own emphasis]” (BRIC 2010).

It has been said that rapid economic development promotes the growth of secularism according to the secularisation hypothesis of Max Weber (1988 [1920]) and others. Such was the claim within Western countries during the modern period. This article seeks to examine faith and secularism within the context of today’s emerging developing countries, in particular, South Africa. It examines the role of social and economic development in secularisation, and the response of the church to the industrial revolution and social development during the modern period. An analysis of these two matters provides us with some foundations for a pastoral response to 4 “After South Africa’s successful hosting of the football World Cup more and more people

are focusing on the opportunities of Africa. The continent’s combined current gross domestic product is reasonably similar to that of Brazil and Russia, and slightly above that of India” (O’Neill 2010).

5 The article also comments: “an analysis by The Economist finds that over the ten years to 2010, six of the world’s ten fastest-growing economies were in sub-Saharan Africa. On IMF forecasts Africa will grab seven of the top ten places over the next five years”.

6 See UN (2000).7 The Millennium Development Goals are a series of eight targets for development that all

the UN nations committed to achieving by 2015. A number of other international organisations have also committed themselves to these goals (UNDP 2012).

Faith and secularism in the context of developing countries: 79

development in emerging economies today. The context of this response will be South Africa, but the conclusions should provide resources for Christians in emerging economies elsewhere.

The role of social and economic development in secularisationThe seminal social thinkers of the nineteenth century — Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, Émile Durkheim, Max Weber, Karl Marx, and Sigmund Freud — all believed that religion would gradually fade in importance and cease to be significant with the advent of industrial society (Norris and Inglehart 2004:3).

History of a hypothesis

The secularisation hypothesis first articulated by Weber states that the influence of the age of reason (Rationalität) and the processes of modernity through capitalism and modern business practices led to a separation between the world-view, beliefs, and activities of established churches and that of modern society. In addition, the process of disenchantment (Entzauberung) with the spiritual in favour of scientific explanations of the cosmos led to an inevitable decline in the importance of religion in society (Swatos and Christiano 1999:209).

The hypothesis developed a number of characteristics throughout the twentieth century. These include the two original foundations: the separation of church and state, and the growing influence of the scientific world-view on popular consciousness. Other characteristics, which resulted from these, include the decline in religiosity of modern societies, the decline in the social significance of religion, the privatisation of religion, and the negative impact of wealth on the need for religion.

The separation between church and state refers to structures and institutions of society that become separated from the influence of religion. This is certainly the case in an increasing number of societies today. The second claim is that reason is taking over from religion in determining peoples’ activities, both individual and social. “This is because [of] the growing influence of scientific rationality on changing the belief system of people regarding the origins and functions of creation” (Swatos and Christiano 1999:214). These two foundations of the secularisation hypothesis predicted a “decline in the religiosity of people and religious practice” (:216). This, because it is claimed that religion does not have the capacity to respond to the challenges of modernity and that, consequently, increasing social change through development and modernity will lead all countries through a similar process as they modernise. Clearly, the secularisation hypothesis, if verified, presents an important challenge to a

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developing country like South Africa, which by consensus is seen as a very religious country.8

Rebuttals of the secularisation hypothesis

In the last quarter of the twentieth century, it became increasingly clear that many of the predictions of the secularisation hypothesis were not being fulfilled. Religious affiliation and practice were not declining in the way expected (Swatos and Christiano 1999:215–216). In fact, there had been a revival of religions in many parts of the world, often through fundamentalism. In addition, authors such as Rodney Stark have questioned the assumption of general religious practice in earlier ages (:216). Peter Berger, one of the major proponents of the secularisation hypothesis in the 1960s, later recanted his claims noting:

The world today, with some exceptions... is as furiously religious as it ever was, and in some places more so than ever. This means that a whole body of literature by historians and social scientists loosely labelled “secularization theory” is essentially mistaken (Berger 1999:2).

Rodney Stark and Roger Finke (2000:79) proposed the burial of the secularisation thesis in these words: “After nearly three centuries of utterly failed prophesies and misrepresentations of both present and past, it seems time to carry the secularization doctrine to the graveyard of failed theories, and there to whisper ‘requiescat in pace’ ” .

Secularisation, social change and religious authority

The process of secularisation was originally linked to the process of social change when “religion is more substantively conceptualized as bodies of beliefs and practices concerning salvation” (Chaves 1994:750). Secularisation in this model was seen “in social change that renders these religious meanings less and less plausible” (:750). Wilson’s famous definition (1982:149) articulates the essence of the secularisation hypothesis as the “process by which religious institutions, actions and consciousness lose their significance”. Secularisation is thus a process by which religion “ceases to be significant in the working of the social system” (:150).

Chaves (1994:754) proposes a revision of the hypothesis that links the object of secularisation to religious authority rather than religion as such. 9 “Secularization as declining religious authority, then, will refer to the

8 “According to the 2001 census the overwhelming majority of South Africans, or 79.8%, are Christian. The independent African Zion Christian churches predominate, being the faith of 15.3% of the total population, and 19.2% of all Christians. Roughly 15% of the population have no religion, and 1.4% are undetermined about their faith. Islam is the religion of 1.5% of South Africans, Hinduism that of 1.2%, African traditional belief 0.3%, Judaism 0.2% and other beliefs 0.6%.” (MediaClubSouthAfrica.com 2012).

9 “I advocate nothing less than abandoning religion as secularization’s object, replacing it with religious authority” (Chaves 1994:754).


declining influence of social structures whose legitimation rests on reference to the supernatural” (:756). Clearly, this requires the emergence of a new secular anthropology that informs structures of authority in the world. And indeed, Di Noia (2007:16) has noted that “an entirely secular anthropology — in the sense of an alternative account of the meaning of human existence — has, especially since the ’90s, come to shape the programs and policies of many international organizations, including the United Nations”. One important example of this that is relevant to our study is found in the UN Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals, a project of the United Nations, linking a broad umbrella of NGOs and modern states in presenting a vision and statement of authority for world development.10

Secularisation, security and culture

The recent work of Norris and Inglehart is a further attempt to modify the secularisation hypothesis. They recognise the need to “update” the theory “but to simply reject it entirely would be a major mistake, for it is correct in some major respects” (Norris and Inglehart 2004:13).

They suggest that a theory of secularisation “based on existential security rests on two simple axioms or premises that prove extremely powerful in accounting for most of the variations in religious practices found around the world” (:13). The first axiom, the security axiom, relates human security and religiosity: “the core idea of human security, irrespective of the specific nature of the risks, is one that is widely recognized as important to well-being, and we regard the absence of human security as critical for religiosity” (:14). The second axiom, the cultural traditions axiom, relates the religious history of human cultures to their present expression. It “assumes that the distinctive worldviews that were originally linked with religious traditions have shaped the cultures of each nation in an enduring fashion; today, these distinctive values are transmitted to the citizens even if they never set foot in a church, temple, or mosque” (:17).

Using these two axioms, they propose a number of hypotheses relating to religious values, religious culture, religious participation, civic engagement, demographics and religious markets. After examining the evidence for these propositions they make three conclusions: “First, we conclude that due to rising levels of human security, the publics of virtually all advanced industrial societies have been moving toward more secular orientations” (:24–25). “Our 10 The UN Millennium Declaration was formulated by organisations and institutions,

including the UN, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Millennium Forum, a meeting of many non-governmental and civil society organisations from a large number of countries. “In seeking to contribute to the Millennium Assembly and the Millennium Summit of the United Nations, civil society organizations have organized and held the Millennium Forum on 22–26 May 2000 at United Nations Headquarters in New York.” (UN 2000).

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second conclusion is that due to demographic trends in poorer societies, the world as a whole now has more people with traditional religious views than ever before” (:25). “Lastly we predict, although we cannot yet demonstrate, that the expanding gap between the sacred and the secular societies around the globe will have important consequences for world politics, raising the role of religion on the international agenda” (:26).

If Norris and Inglehart are correct, then the process of social development in the BRICS countries, South Africa in particular, should raise important challenges for the church. Their model, however, also provides us with some interesting groundwork for proposals on the church’s pastoral activity as a response to matters of culture and social deprivation. Before examining this, it would be useful to investigate the response of the church to modernisation and social development briefly.

The church’s response to modernity and social changeDuring the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the countries that we now refer to as First World countries went through the industrial revolution and the process of economic and social development referred to as modernity. This led to the growth of cities and the emergence of new social groupings like the bourgeoisie, the working class and the unemployed. In addition, development growth led to massive economic changes and new socio-economic theories emerged during this period. These included capitalism, socialism, communism, Keynesianism and monetarism.

The response of the church to these forces was multifaceted, but I wish to focus on three of these responses in particular. The first was the emergence of the church’s social teaching beginning with the encyclical Rerum novarum of Pope Leo XIII (1891) and continuing to the present time. The second was the emergence of the Catholic Action movements and the third was a renewed emphasis on the importance of Christian education in schools.

Catholic social teaching

Catholic social teaching has often been called the church’s best kept secret. It has also been criticised as “Clergymen exceeding their competence”.11 Whatever the debate about the practicality of some of the suggestions made, there can be no doubt that Catholic social teaching is a coherent anthropological, philosophical and theological system that provides a vision, an ethic and a set of strategies for human development in society today.12

11 “In 2004’s The Church and the Market, Thomas Woods charged that papal social teaching sometimes ignores economic reality, with “calamitous” impact on the very people it’s trying to help” (Allen 2009).

12 “Catholic Social Teaching promotes a just society grounded in biblical revelation, the teachings of the leaders of the early church, and in the wisdom gathered from experience by the Christian community as it has tried to respond to social justice issues through history” (Catholic Social Services 2010).


Rerum novarum sets out the principles of Catholic social teaching in terms of the rights and duties of employers, workers and the state in ensuring good public order. It was a response to “the utter poverty of the masses” (§ 1) by focusing on “the condition of the working classes” (§ 2). This teaching has been developed and expanded by subsequent popes and other church leaders into a comprehensive body of teaching on the conditions necessary for fully human communities. It is founded on a number of basic values and principles. The values of life and human dignity in family, community and society imply that all people have a right to full participation in the social groupings of which they are part. The principle of human solidarity says that we are all interconnected, such that the suffering of the poor and marginalised dehumanises not only them, but also the well-being of the wealthy and dominant. The priority of the common good and the fundamental duty to care for God’s creation and promote sustainability create an ethic for right action in society. The dignity of work and the rights of workers create a foundation for the human development of the workplace and the economic environment.

Catholic Action

A second response of the church to the emerging culture of modernity was in its pastoral activity. Pope Leo XIII noted as early as 1901 that:

In the order of action, much has been done in favour of the proletariat, especially in those places where poverty was at its worst. Many new institutions were set on foot, those which were already established were increased, and all reaped the benefit of a greater stability. Such are, for instance, the popular bureaus which supply information to the uneducated; the rural banks which make loans to small farmers; the societies for mutual help or relief; the unions of working men and other associations or institutions of the same kind. Thus, under the auspices of the Church, a measure of united action among Catholics was secured, as well as some planning in the setting up of agencies for the protection of the masses which, in fact, are as often oppressed by guile and exploitation of their necessities as by their own indigence and toil (§ 3).

Groups and associations emerged during this period under many names including “Popular Catholic Action” (St Pius X 1903), “Christian democracy” (Kalyvas 1996) and “Catholic Action” (Fitzsimons 1938). These activities brought together groups of Christians to examine their social context and the needs emerging from it. Then, based on a faith reflection they planned actions to respond to these needs. This “See-Judge-Act” method of Catholic Action gradually led to the emergence of movements focused on the concerns of different sectors of society (Bate 1998:160). Movements for workers included the famous Young Christian Workers (YCW)13 founded by Joseph Cardijn and the Catholic Worker 13 For more on the international coordination of the YCW, see ICYCW (n.d.).

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Movement founded by Dorothy Day in the United States.14 Today in France, the umbrella organisation for workers, Mouvements français d’Église concernés par le travail, lists twenty separate Catholic Action organisations concerned with the world of labour.15 For students, movements such as Young Christian Students16 emerged and continue today. For those in professional work and those of independent means, organisations such as Action Catholique des Milieux Indépendants17 and others began to grow. MIAMSI is an international organisation that brings together groups working among the middle class. It is a “community of Church movements that brings together people with professional, economic, social, political and cultural responsibilities in the world. This way, they commit themselves to the transformation of their own minds and the social structures in accordance with the Gospel, to which they refer”.18 All of these organisations continue to exist today, a sign of their important contribution to the mission of the church and the continued validity of the approach of Catholic Action.

Catholic schools and Christian education

The nineteenth and twentieth centuries were a time of considerable growth in the provision of Catholic schools, often linked to the growth of Catholic missionary and teaching orders during the same period. In North America, Australasia, Latin America and Africa, they grew as a result of the church’s missionary activity in these areas especially during that period.19 This growth was predicated on the missionary activity of religious institutes of teaching congregations, many of which were established in the nineteenth century.

Richard M. Jacobs, OSA, in three significant articles has given a detailed overview of the contribution of Catholic schools to education in North America and the role of the religious in them from the eighteenth century to the current day (Jacobs 1998a; 1998b; 1998c). In these articles, he points out that

14 For more on this organisation, see www.catholicworker.org/index.cfm.15 To view this list, see Mouvements français d’Église (n.d.).16 For more on international Young Christian Students, see www.iycs-jeci.org.17 For a description at a national level, see www.acifrance.com. For a current description of

their mission at local level (in the Diocese of Amiens, France), see Église Catholique de la Somme diocèse d’Amiens (n.d.).

18 For more on MIAMSI, see http://www.miamsi-rome.org/en/.19 “In 1900, an estimated 3,500 parochial schools existed in the United States. Within 20

years, the number of elementary schools had reached 6,551, enrolling 1,759,673 pupils taught by 41,581 teachers. Secondary education likewise boomed. In 1900, Catholics could boast of approximately 100 Catholic high schools, but by 1920 more than 1,500 existed. For more than two generations, enrollment continued to climb. By the mid-1960’s, it had reached an all-time high of 4.5 million elementary school pupils, with about 1 million students in Catholic high schools. Five decades later, total elementary and secondary enrollment is 2.1 million.” (NCEA n.d.).


[t]hrough this period, not only did the religious provide the personnel needed to support the tremendous expansion of Catholic schooling, they also stepped forward to provide diocesan and national Catholic educational leadership, pushed Catholic pedagogical theory beyond its traditional European roots, designed new religion curricula, advanced women’s equality, and upheld parental rights in educating their children. These contributions made it possible for Catholic schools to provide Catholic youth the moral and intellectual formation to lead the American Catholic community during the post- Vatican II decades (Jacobs 1998b:15).

It is true that Catholic schools are not a new phenomenon in the modern period. Catholic schools had a significant presence in many countries of Europe from before this time (Ryan et al. 1912). Nevertheless, the increased focus on education during this period provided a clear response to the needs of people, especially the poor, by providing the training and skills needed to participate in the development of Western countries in this period. J.E. Kent (1988:72) in a study on Edmund Rice, founder of the Christian Brothers, says, “Rice aimed to educate the poor and give them social mobility... to give the children of the poor vocational skills that would enable them to break out of the cycle of poverty”. He further notes, “The early Brothers never set out in systematic form any philosophy of education. The faith in education as a means of inculcating moral conduct sprang from an optimistic view of the effects of education that characterised the times” (:77).

These three examples of the church’s pastoral response to modernity and the industrial revolution serve as pointers to a possible pastoral response in developing countries like South Africa. They also, as we shall see, offer a significant response to the challenges presented by the modified versions of the secularisation hypothesis presented above. I now go on to draw from this history to propose elements of a response of the church to emerging developing countries using South Africa as the focus.

The church confronts secularism in developing economies: Elements of a responseI have noted that the secularisation hypothesis has been rebutted and then modified to advocate three particular aspects of its continued validity. The first concerns religious authority in modern societies. The second concerns the link between religion and human security. The third concerns the perseverance of the cultural legacy of religions in secularised societies. In addition, we have seen the emergence of the Millennium Development Goals as a secular agenda for emerging developing economies. These provide four areas for a pastoral response in emerging developing countries. It is the task of pastoral theology to examine ways in which the ministry of the church responds to its social and cultural context (Bate 2001a:67). Our context is South Africa. Our pastoral response to secularisation in the

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context of emerging developing economies should deal with the following socio-cultural issues:

1. religious authority in modern and developing societies; 2. human security in modern and developing societies;3. the Millennium Development Goals; and4. the cultural legacy of religion in modern and developing societies.

This response seeks to reveal the presence of the living God within these contexts and to empower Christians to become involved in appropriate ministries that reflect culturally mediated pastoral responses to culturally mediated human needs (Bate 2001a:72).

Religious authority in modern and developing societies

One modification of the secularisation hypothesis changes the object of secularisation to religious authority rather than religion as such (cf. Under the heading: Secularisation, social change and religious authority). The effect of secularisation here is “the declining influence of social structures whose legitimation rests on reference to the supernatural” (Chaves 1994:756). In examining this statement, I will propose a theological response to the question of religious authority in developing economies. First, I will examine the notion of authority itself, then the role of the church in providing a metaphysics for ethical values and finally the role of the church in promoting ethical leadership in modern societies.

The notion of authorityAccording to Chaves (1994:755–756), religious authority is a “social structure that attempts to enforce its order and reach its ends by controlling the access of individuals to some desired goods where the legitimation of that control includes some supernatural component however weak”. There is no doubt that in theocracies, religions can coerce social change by law. In addition, in societies of high mono-religious belief, religious authorities often have a strong coercive power to legitimise or delegitimise social structures by reference to the religious beliefs of people.

However, in modern societies that are often increasingly multicultural and multireligious, the authority of religion is most often exercised through persuasion and conviction rather than coercion. It would be superficial to think that such authority is in decline. Indeed, when religion presents a message that is recognised as being good for people, people will be convinced by the message. Secularist presumptions of the dismissal of religious messages are arbitrary and ideological.

The authority of persuasion and conviction is the kind of authority found in the gospel. People are convinced and converted because they believe the good news. It is only through the persuasive power of the message of the gospel that the church can continue to exercise authority in


modern societies. Indeed, it continues to do so by persuading people in modern societies to live according to an acceptable set of values that promote life, well-being and social order. It does this in a pre-eminent way by advocating a set of transcendental moral norms for an acceptable ethic in society that can call people to commitment.20 This was the case in apartheid South Africa, where religions played a not unimportant role in liberation (Bate 1999:151–186). At that time, the authority of the state was destroyed by its coercive power, which became oppression. “Authority lies within the realm of power. If the powerful will works through the freely consenting will of others in a common domain of reality, power assumes the force of authority. So long as authority serves the common good it is properly or ethically exercised. But if it is unfairly exercised for one person’s or a group’s advantage, then it is abused” (TAC 1985:15).

Social authority and the need for transcendental norms In a globalised and secularised world, the dismissal of religious models by some in favour of secular anthropologies as indicated by Di Noia (2007:16) has created a new problem regarding authority in such societies. This is because the search for shared transcendent norms that can underpin global societal values and contribute to social cohesion has become a highly contested area of ethics. Faced with this situation, even unlikely advocates for religion like Jürgen Habermas (2002:150–151) have conceded that

the ideals of freedom and a collective life in solidarity, the autonomous conduct of life and emancipation, the individual morality of conscience, human rights and democracy, is the direct legacy of the Judaic ethic of justice and the Christian ethic of love. This legacy, substantially unchanged, has been the object of a continual critical re-appropriation and reinterpretation. Up to this very day there is no alternative to it. And in light of the current challenges of a post-national constellation, we must draw sustenance now, as in the past, from this substance. Everything else is idle postmodern talk.

These words, which are echoed by many secular philosophers today, reflect concerns about authority in society and in particular the detachment of authority from transcendent norms. These concerns reinforce the urgent need for faith-based tertiary education institutions to participate in the debate about transcendent moral norms in all societies. This is particularly true in developing societies that undergo rapid social transformation,

20 “If there is no transcendent truth, in obedience to which man achieves his full identity, then there is no sure principle for guaranteeing just relations between people. Their self-interest as a class, group or nation would inevitably set them in opposition to one another. If one does not acknowledge transcendent truth, then the force of power takes over, and each person tends to make full use of the means at his disposal in order to impose his own interests or his own opinion, with no regard for the rights of others” (John Paul II 1993:99).

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leading to social, moral and environmental turmoil. We are seeing many signs of this in South Africa today.

However, theology in contexts influenced by these secular anthropologies also faces a danger. This is that theological studies and research can be so dominated by cultural and philosophical systems of text criticism that the theology is reduced to the anthropological analysis of religious discourse about God. This runs the risk that the essential component of theology, faith in God, is lost. Theology is essentially about the articulation of the faith of the Christian community, or in the words of St Anselm’s famous definition of “theology” as “Fides quaerens intellectum [faith seeking understanding]”. In the context of secularisation, we should remind ourselves that Anselm’s goal was to convince “the fool”, that is, the person who “has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’ ” (Ps. 14:1; 53:1). There are many such people in today’s secular world (Anselm of Canterbury 1077–1078:Chapter II).

Many secular humanists after initially dismissing religion as irrelevant in the modern age have come to a more nuanced position that recognises that religion is not going away and that modern societies need the “the essential contents of their religious traditions which point beyond the merely human realm” (Reder and Schmidt 2010:5). Clearly, faith-based universities and higher institutes must play a greater role in these debates.

Promoting ethical leadership: The example of religious formation programmes

The question of authority in society also raises the matter of ethical leadership and its promotion. There is no doubt that there is a crisis in leadership in modern societies. In 2007, a worldwide study on leadership was commissioned to respond to this crisis. “Gallup International interviewed 61,600 people in 60 countries for the ‘Voice of the People’ survey” (Gallup International Association 2007). When asked which groups of people they trust, politicians were the least likely group, with only 8 per cent globally saying that they trust them. Teachers were trusted by a third (34 per cent) of the global population. This was so in every region but Africa, where the vast majority, 70 per cent, declared they trusted religious leaders.21 Clearly, the high level of trust given to religious leaders means religions need to examine what they can offer from their leadership training programmes to promote better social leadership.

I suggest that the church’s experience in religious formation programmes could be a significant resource. Those called to ministry and leadership in the Catholic Church as priests and religious undergo a programme of religious formation. Catholic religious formation programmes are values based. In South Africa, they often incorporate

21 See Fakir (2009).


African traditional values that are compatible with the gospel.22 They make use of psychology23 and spiritual direction, and they are always community based, which is an essential part of African and Catholic culture.24 Louise Kretzschmar (2006:338) insisted on the “importance of spiritual formation for the development of leaders who are able to make an insightful, prophetic and constructive contribution to both church and society”. Clearly, the practical experience of values promotion in religious formation programmes would be a good resource for leadership training in human development.

Human security in modern and developing societies

A second modification of the secularisation hypothesis changes the object of secularisation to human security needs. Norris and Inglehart (2004:14) “regard the absence of human security as critical for religiosity”. They conclude firstly “that due to rising levels of human security, the publics of virtually all advanced industrial societies have been moving toward more secular orientations” (:24–25) and secondly “that due to demographic trends in poorer societies, the world as a whole now has more people with traditional religious views than ever before [italics in original]” (:25).

I find their choice of the term “security needs” to be problematic. It is only one level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (1954), the absence of which cause the quality of human life to be compromised. However, later in this quotation, they relate the absence of human security to poverty and that is a better term. Poverty can exist at any level of human life and not just that of human security. It is an absence of full participation in human life whether at the economic, social, physical, psychological, relational, cultural, political, or indeed spiritual level. The absence of any or all of these forms of participation creates human situations of yearning and need fulfilment, which causes people either to sink into lassitude and hopelessness, or to search beyond themselves for help. This is the essence of poverty. The “searching beyond” always has a transcendent, or spiritual or religious dimension to it. One example of this is found in the many organisations that help people in

22 Musa Mchunu (2001:43–44) recognises the importance of a values-based programme where “a continuity of values with my traditional upbringing... has been constantly re-emphasised and instilled in formation”.

23 Graham Lindegger (2001:33) recognises the value of psychological factors in the assessment of the suitability of future leaders. Such psychological assessment allows pathology to be identified. But more importantly, it provides a basis for a developmental approach to formation that should “ask how the person is progressing in the course of development, how they are dealing with developmental tasks, what might be impeding future development and what is needed to foster development in the person”.

24 Religious formation is lived in community where people have to learn to interact together based on a shared value system coming from the Christian tradition. Linus Ngenomesho notes that this community dimension is also an essential aspect of African culture. He suggests that “violence is increasing so much in the world today because people seem to have lost a sense of belonging together as human beings” (Ngenomesho 2001:49).

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recovery from addictions and other dysfunctional behaviours. These organisations tend to include a relationship to “God”, “your higher power” or another similar term as an essential component of their programmes.25

Indeed the statements of Norris and Inglehart relating religious needs to human needs in this way are in fact an illustration of the mission of Jesus expressed in gospel texts such as: “He sent me to bring good news to the poor” (Luke 4:18), “the poor are with you always” (Mark 14:7) and “I came that they may have life to the full” (John 10:10). At the level of pastoral theology and missiology, these are matters of evangelisation and ministry expressed as “the development of peoples”:

The contribution of the church and of evangelization to the development of people concern not only the struggle against material poverty and underdevelopment in the South of the world, but also concern the North, which is prone to a moral and spiritual poverty caused by “overdevelopment” (John Paul II 1990:59).

It is thus unsurprising that people in these circumstances would have a greater openness to the transcendent. Developing countries like the BRICS countries have all these human needs. It is essential that the church articulate a response to them in local theology and ministries.

The Millennium Development Goals and the prophetic role of Populorum progressio

We have already noted that the BRICS countries recognise the importance of the UN Millennium Declaration and the need to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). We also noted that these were articulated by modern secular society to propose clear strategies for the promotion of human development. This leads me to examine the eight MDGs in the light of Catholic social teaching to help us develop theologies that can inform our response as church.

The first thing my examination reveals is that much of what is found in these eight goals adopted by world leaders in 2000 was prophetically articulated by Pope Paul VI in his 1967 encyclical Populorum progressio. Here are some examples from the 1967 text prefiguring the MDGs.

The MDG to “eradicate extreme poverty and hunger” is found in these words: “Today we see men trying to secure a sure food supply... and steady employment... And yet, at the same time, a large number of them live amid conditions which frustrate these legitimate desires” (§ 6) as well as in this text: “What are less than human conditions? The material poverty of those who lack the bare necessities of life... What are truly human conditions? The rise from poverty to the acquisition of life’s necessities” (§ 21).

25 These include Alcoholics Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous and similar groups, as well as “twelve-step programmes”. For more on twelve-step programmes see http://www.12step.org/. For the necessity of a spiritual and religious dimension to these programmes, see George et al. (2009:102–116).


The MDG to “achieve universal primary education” is anticipated in these words: “Lack of education is as serious as lack of food; the illiterate is a starved spirit” (§ 35). The text also affirms “that economic growth is dependent on social progress, the goal to which it aspires; and that basic education is the first objective for any nation seeking to develop itself” (§ 35).

Predicting the MDG to “reduce child mortality”, Populorum progressio says: “Today no one can be unaware of the fact that on some continents countless men and women are ravished by hunger and countless children are undernourished. Many children die at an early age; many more of them find their physical and mental growth retarded. Thus whole populations are immersed in pitiable circumstances and lose heart” (§ 45).

Pope Paul VI prefigured the MDG to “improve maternal health and combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases” in these words: “The progressive development of peoples is an object of deep interest and concern to the church. This is particularly true in the case of those peoples who are trying to escape the ravages of... endemic disease and ignorance” (§ 1).

On the MDG to “develop a global partnership for development”, Pope Paul VI (1967:§ 8) insisted almost forty years earlier that: “Unless the existing machinery is modified, the disparity between rich and poor nations will increase rather than diminish; the rich nations are progressing with rapid strides while the poor nations move forward at a slow pace”. He recognised the need for a global partnership in these words: “Development of the individual necessarily entails a joint effort for the development of the human race as a whole” (§ 43). And he emphasised this point: “The world situation requires the concerted effort of everyone, a thorough examination of every facet of the problem — social, economic, cultural and spiritual” (§ 13).

These few examples illustrate how Catholic teaching has long supported a vision of human development that prefigures the MDGs. In fact they are an expression of a “preferential option for the poor” and therefore a “permanent task and commitment” of the church (Migliore 2003).

Populorum progressio also provided a simple measure for human development in these words: “for each and all the transition from less human conditions to those which are more human” (§ 20). This “pre-dated the ‘human development index’ of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) 3,... [which] is today the standard measurement of what is really happening to people, in contrast to what is happening to the economy” (Henriot 2006).

This correlation provides us with an example of the way the persuasive authority of the church, in statements of its leadership, can have an impact on modern society by formulating and articulating imperatives for human vision and strategy on development.

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Development theology in Catholic Action and Catholic development history

The search for human security and well-being is a mission of the church through both its teaching and its activity. The history of Catholic pastoral activity in Catholic Action movements and mission development in South Africa provides a grounding for pastoral responses to the context of emerging developing economies today. It also provides resources for future activities. Catholic Action history in movements of workers and students that apply the See-Judge-Act method provides seeds for the future engagement of the church in the context of emerging developing nations. Linked to these are Catholic Action responses through activities of the Pastoral Plan of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC), which supported small Christian communities and faith-sharing groups such as Renew (Bate 1991:71–80). The church’s pastoral activity in the areas of basic education, health care and mission development programmes are also resources for future endeavours in these areas as we respond to the context of development.

Catholic Action in South Africa: The example of Young Christian Workers

The YCW movement was particularly active during the dark days of apartheid when it played an often forgotten, yet important role in the struggle against apartheid. From the 1960s to the 1990s, it was involved in the establishment of worker organisations and movements at a time when many of today’s well-known leaders were either in exile or in jail. During the 1970s in particular, the YCW did much “to inform young workers about their basic rights at work and about the support of the church for the right of workers to organise themselves into trade unions to protect their interests” (Nunes 2000:39). It operated in small groups, bringing together young workers “such as shop workers, apprentices and factory workers and was represented across the country. By the mid- to late-1970s it was particularly active in Johannesburg on the East Rand, in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Durban and the former Orange Free State” (:39). This did not escape the notice of the apartheid government and the “security police swooped on the YCW in 1978 and arrested 78 of its leaders who were detained in terms of the Terrorism Act and the Internal Security Act” (:39). In 1995, then President Nelson Mandela addressed the World Council of the YCW in South Africa, where he said:

It is common knowledge that the YCW has made a significant contribution to building the organs of civil society in South Africa... The YCW’s approach has always been to acknowledge and challenge injustice, and then to build the capacity of the oppressed to act in a constructive way that will bring an end to injustice and create a better world for all of us.


Movements such as the YCW are of great importance during a period of economic and social development because they bring people who are quite disempowered together to look for ways to respond to their needs within the context of faith reflection. These Christian responses to their situations are the essence of lay ministry.26 Similar to these were Catholic Action groups using “Small Christian Community” methods pioneered by Lumko (Bate 1991:71–80) and empowered by the SACBC pastoral plan.27 The church needs to develop a more focused approach to involvement with the working class at this level, providing ways to empower skills training and developing responses to unemployment and development training.

Building on Catholic development history in Africa

A particular strength in our response to development comes from the experience and knowledge of human development found in the church’s development history. In the last century, the African Catholic mission for human development was focused on schools, the medical mission in hospitals and clinics, and development programmes in agriculture and skills training. These programmes were mainly initiated by religious institutes of men and women, often inspired by the way their own ancestors had been evangelised in medieval Europe.28

More recently, Catholic development projects in Africa have been coordinated in various ways. Many are programmes of bishops’ conferences, such as the Justice and Peace Commission,29 the SACBC AIDS Office and the SACBC human trafficking desk. These coordinate development activities throughout the territory of the episcopal conference 26 “The laity must take up the renewal of the temporal order as their own special obligation.

Led by the light of the Gospel and the mind of the Church and motivated by Christian charity, they must act directly and in a definite way in the temporal sphere. As citizens they must cooperate with other citizens with their own particular skill and on their own responsibility. Everywhere and in all things they must seek the justice of God's kingdom. The temporal order must be renewed in such a way that, without detriment to its own proper laws, it may be brought into conformity with the higher principles of the Christian life and adapted to the shifting circumstances of time, place, and peoples. Preeminent among the works of this type of apostolate is that of Christian social action which the sacred synod desires to see extended to the whole temporal sphere, including culture” (Vatican Council II 1965).

27 For examples of these, see Bate (1996). 28 For a report on the contribution of one religious institute during this period, see Schimlek

(1949). 29 “The Justice and Peace Commission functions as the official social, economic, and

environmental justice advocacy and peace-building agency of the SACBC with dedicated programmes across a wide range of key thematic areas such as gender, economic justice, environmental justice, participatory democracy, race relations, land reform, social renewal, international solidarity, trade justice, peace-building, and training for organisational and skills development of the justice and peace network throughout the SACBC region” (SACBC n.d.).

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and employ staff to provide resources for these programmes. In addition, there are a number of other Catholic development agencies and NGOs, such as the Catholic Institute of Education,30 Catholic Welfare Services, the Right to Live Campaign, the Jesuit Refugee Service and Oblate Development Programmes. A similar situation applies throughout the continent.

Pastoral activity in response to development should also focus on our schools in poorer areas and on collaboration between these church institutions and development organisations and Catholic universities and higher institutes in Africa (see also Section 4.3.2). Such collaboration could promote better research and programmes for development.31

The cultural legacy of religion in modern and developing societies

A third modification of the secularisation hypothesis changes the object of secularisation to the cultural perdurance of religious world-views emptied of their faith component. According to Norris and Inglehart (2004:17), “the distinctive worldviews that were originally linked with religious traditions have shaped the cultures of each nation in an enduring fashion; today, these distinctive values are transmitted to the citizens even if they never set foot in a church, temple, or mosque”. Whilst there is a certain truth in this statement, it leaves many things out and is thus rather simplistic. The focus is on values, but we have already noted that these values have to be rooted in a metaphysics of some nature, a reality affirmed by Habermas (cf. Social authority and the need for transcendental norms). In addition, values that are not rooted in a belief system are often applied only selectively — usually to others rather than to oneself. This is a commonly observed phenomenon in the modern world, particularly in the media, where stories of the non-adherence to such values by prominent individuals serve as entertainment for those who often do not adhere to these themselves.

Inculturation and the perdurance of cultural values originally linked to religion

The theological response to the question of culture is found in the theology of inculturation, which states that faith must become a culture and that such inculturation must be compatible with the gospel message and in union with the universal church (John Paul II 1990:54). In modern secular societies, which can become dysfunctional on issues of cultural values, inculturation is a challenge at the level of evangelisation. The Good News for the people of secular culture is found in revealing the unknown God in whom these 30 “The Catholic Institute of Education is an NGO that delivers programmes to Catholic

schools. The CIE is an associate body of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) and has provided services to the network of Catholic schools since 1985 serving 352 schools, located throughout South Africa” (CIE n.d. a).

31 A good example of this was the collaboration between St Augustine College of South Africa and the Catholic Institute of Education in the development of degrees and certificates in religious education for teachers at Catholic schools.


values are based to the areopagus of the secular world. This is a major challenge for the church in its ministry to secular society. This ministry implies spreading the gospel in ways that are culturally intelligible and become “good news” to people within their own context.32 “Is it good?” and “Is it new?” are litmus tests for the hearers of this pastoral response.

It is important to recall that the church’s activity33 is always culturally mediated, although we are often insufficiently aware of the fact. Pastoral activity must begin by a deeper reflection on the cultural dimensions of human needs in a particular context in order to develop effective culturally significant pastoral responses (Bate 2001a:72). Sometimes the church in modern societies is no longer incarnate within these cultures but often linked to the past as exemplified by the metaphor of the Ancien Régime.34 But signs of new Christian life are emerging.35

Inculturation and Catholic education: Promoting faith-based responses to culture and development

Central to the question of culture is education. People learn their own culture by being educated into it. Education is also central to our response to the needs of a developing society as has been noted. Education has been an important aspect of the church’s pastoral activity in South Africa from the beginning. Today this work is even more important, particularly as it relates to helping young people to see how and why their culture is linked to a religious foundation, and why adherence to the religious foundation is essential for a more coherent and holistic lifestyle in a fragmented world.

Schools

The marginalisation of Africa and the depletion of its resources require a remedy rooted in the development of the continent’s human resources. It should be clear that the provision of effective education and training, which will produce people with skills and a value-based commitment to society, is a critical necessity now. The renaissance and reconstruction of the continent demand that education occur within an ethos that promotes a society based on values of respect, cooperation and the common good. The church can play an important role in the reconstruction of society by producing leaders and skilled people who are also imbued with a workable, coherent value 32 Bert Hoedemaker points out that missiology has always “had more affinity to cultural

studies than to philosophy” (cited in Kirk and Vanhoozer 1999:218).33 Including magisterial teaching and, indeed, the Scriptures.34 “A sociopolitical or other system that no longer exists” (American heritage dictionary).

Throughout history the church has developed ‘its social structures in interaction with the societies in which it lives, adapting itself to the concepts and assumptions present in any given society... [but] the church has not done the same in the case of modernization of the past two hundred years as it has in other periods in its history” (Hunermann 2001:83).

35 These include youth centres, retreat centres, pilgrimages, the adult Catechumenate and other areas (see Hunermann 2001 passim).

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system that will promote human development in Africa. Our own experience should teach us that such people cannot emerge without a rooting in the experience of transcendence that faith in God brings. Without this, people remain self-centred and uncommitted. I find debates around priorities between a focus on religious or human development to be confusing.36 They are based on a dualism between body and soul that comes from Western culture. African cultures do not recognise such a dualism. The spiritual is part of what it means to be a human being and is a necessary part of becoming a full human being with “life to the full”. We cannot educate without a faith basis to what we do, for that is not human education but mere skills training for the market place.

It is critical to search for ways to promote faith-based education in areas of poverty and development today. The Anglican Church in South Africa has responded to this challenge through its Historic Schools Restoration Project. Its vision is “[t]o nurture future African leaders of calibre and integrity who are able to meet the critical needs of community and country, in a values-based, transformational environment”. Its mission is “[t]o revitalise the rich heritage of the historical schools and transform them into sustainable and aspirational African institutions of educational and cultural excellence” (Historic Schools Restoration Project n.d.). The Catholic Institute of Education supports poor Catholic schools in South Africa that have many desperate needs.37 An integrated common response to the context of development is essential. The coordination of leaders in Christian education is crucial to this endeavour.

Catholic tertiary education institutions promoting faith-based development solutions

Development in South Africa provides an opportunity and a challenge for all institutions of higher learning, affecting all areas of tertiary education — the humanities, law, economics and management, environmental science, the natural sciences, and engineering. What is needed is a clear vision of human development reflecting the dignity of all people — the basis of the

36 These debates have become very important of late within the domain of donor organisations for development. Many of these will not provide funding for organisations that promote development within a religious context. Often this is because of the requirements around funding they themselves receive for development programmes from secular organisations, especially governments.

37 “We strive to give every child in our schools the education they deserve. The CIE ensures that the rich legacy of Catholic education thrives through: creating schools where our children can thrive in a safe and caring environment; forming the values of young people and reducing the impact of AIDS by integrating religious, values and HIV/AIDS education into the curriculum; improving primary school levels of literacy and numeracy; effective lobbying of government to improve education legislation and conditions in schools; helping orphans and vulnerable children to receive an education” (CIE n.d. b).


MDGs. Education programmes should articulate this vision and provide leaders qualified to enact it.

However, faith-based higher education institutes face a particular challenge. This is because traditionally it is religion that has provided the transcendent moral norms that help societies articulate their foundational values. Groups in society have contending views in almost every situation about what is good for them. Conflict is usually based on disputes between these groups about what is good. Such conflicts often need to be arbitrated by shared transcendent norms of right and truth. Religions have traditionally provided a system of ethics based on such transcendent norms.

Pope John Paul II asked Catholic universities and higher institutes in Africa to provide trained personnel and study the important theological and social questions in developing African theologies.38 What resources can we bring to such a study and to the programmes Catholic higher institutes will offer? I believe there are many, but I would like to emphasise five of these. They are our formation programmes for leadership; the anthropology, philosophy and theologies of development found within the body of thought known as Catholic social teaching; the development history and experience of the church in Africa; the debate on transcendent and transcultural norms for human life; and finally the networks of Catholic higher institutes that exist both in Africa and internationally. The importance of these areas has been articulated in this article.

In this kairos moment for development in Africa, the African Union has stated that “Stronger and better education is a key objective for human resource development” (NEPAD n.d.).39 St Joseph’s Theological Institute at Cedara recently established its Department of Development Studies in order to respond to this need. It is well known that St Joseph’s was one of the first to develop contextual theological approaches to learning, beginning in the 1960s (see Rakoczy 1993 passim). In addition, St Augustine College of South Africa, recently established as a Catholic university,40 has a very successful programme in political leadership and a newly constituted school in commerce and humanities. The purpose of these programmes is to 38 “The Catholic Universities and Higher Institutes in Africa... serve the Church by

providing trained personnel, by studying important theological and social questions for the benefit of the Church, by developing an African theology, by promoting the work of inculturation especially in liturgical celebration, by publishing books and publicizing Catholic truth, by undertaking assignments given by the Bishops and by contributing to a scientific study of cultures” (John Paul II 1995:103).

39 “[T]he new programme for African development is working towards Education for All (EFA) in Africa, a programme designed to fit within the framework of the AU Second Decade of Education for Africa (2006–2015) and the Millennium Development Goals” (NEPAD n.d.).

40 St Augustine College was established as a Catholic university in terms of the Apostolic constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae and the Code of Canon Law (CIC 807–814) at a plenary assembly of the SACBC in August 2008.

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articulate its vision to be “a centre of research and higher education seeking to promote intellectual and ethical leadership by contributing the resources of the Catholic intellectual tradition and Catholic social teaching to the critical development and transformation of human culture” (St Augustine College of South Africa n.d.).

ConclusionAs in all times, a new socio-cultural context brings a challenge for the church. As ever, the challenge is a theological response to the vision and contending ideologies found in the new context, as well as a pastoral response to the new human needs emerging from the context. These needs, as always, are a symptom of human poverty brought by the new context — whether of body, soul, society, culture, deprivation or ignorance. This context is rooted in the emergence of a group of new developing countries. These new countries, of which the BRICS nations are a major part, are having an important impact on South Africa, and by extension the African continent.

Rapid development of this nature is a predictor of secularisation according to the secularisation hypothesis. However, the secularisation hypothesis has been rebutted by many authors and subsequently modified. Three areas of modification are particularly interesting. They are modifications regarding questions of authority, human security, and the perdurance of religious cultural symbols and values emptied of their faith content.

A pastoral response to the question of religious authority recognises its basis in persuasion and conviction rather than coercion. Human security should be seen as one aspect of poverty calling for a response based on Jesus’ mission to bring “good news for the poor” and “life to the full”. This implies a response to human development as found in Catholic social teaching, Catholic Action and Christian education. Finally, it must be pointed out that cultural values emptied of a transcendent component are removed of the transcultural value of truth so essential in a globalised world. This requires a response in evangelisation to reveal the God of the areopagus of secularised peoples.

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Faith and Secularism in the context of developing countries

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