On the Significance of Religion for Social Justice

Christo Thesnaar is Professor of Practical Theology in the discipline group of practical theology and missiology in the Faculty of Theology at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. His focus discipline within practical theology is pastoral care and counselling, where he is responsible for two master’s courses on pastoral caregiving based on the Dialogical Intergenerational Pastoral Process. His main research areas are on themes related to reconciliation, such as memory, intergenerational trauma, justice, healing, and restitution. He was a founding member of the Institute for the Healing of Memories in 1998 and currently serves on the board of the Institute, which strives to be a leading agent of hope, transformation, and peace by empowering individuals, communities, and nations through the healing of memories.Sinethemba Makanya is an Inyanga (Indigenous South African Healer) specialising in psycho-spiritual diseases, mental health, and sexual reproductive health. She serves as a senior lecturer and head of the Art Therapy programme in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Johannesburg. Makanya holds a PhD in psychology and medical and health humanities from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. She holds a master’s in drama therapy from New York University. She has extensive experience lecturing in applied drama, drama therapy, drama in education, medical and health humanities, and health systems science. Her current research interests include embodied and creative approaches to healing and the potential of Indigenous Knowledge Systems to enrich and expand theoretical frameworks from the Global South.Mthokozisi Maseko is a traditionally trained Muslim scholar of nine years, a former Imām of five years, and an academic. He is currently a PhD candidate and a research associate at the SARChI Chair Center for African Diplomacy and Leadership at the University of Johannesburg. His research interests revolve around ideology, literature, society, politics, and religion in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, with the specialisation of the same themes on Islām.

• Introduction Part I: Religion Matters for Social Injustice 1. Orientation: Does religion contribute to Social Injustice? 2. A cry reverberates across several generations: The epistemic, reparative, and metaphysical dimensions of social injustice 3. Reflecting on the Christian Church’s response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission faith community hearing regarding Social Injustices 4. Textual Hermeneutics in the Politics of Socioeconomics - A Thematic Overview of South African Muslim Actors in the Arena of Social Injustice Part 2: Religion Matters for Social Justice 5. Orientation: What do they have that others don’t? The strengths and weaknesses of religious actors in dealing with Social Justice 6. Ubulungiswa: An African metaphysical orientation to social justice 7. A pastoral theological proposal to assist the church in its commitment towards Social Justice 8. Indigenous Muslim Hermeneutics and the Potential of an Islamic Charity Apparatus in Muslim Minority South Africa in Relation to Social Justice Part 3 9. Now what? Implications for Academics, Policy Makers, and Practitioners