TRANSFORMATIONS AND THINKING HOLISTICALLY

According to Lerise et al (2001) thinking holistically is extremely powerful compared to ordinary thinking. The word holistic relates to holism, which means all, whole, entire, and total. It is the idea that all properties of a given system – physical, biological, chemical, social, economic, mental, and linguistic – cannot be determined or explained by its component parts alone. They explain thinking holistically in transformation as:

A group is not simply a collection of individuals-in-need but an entity in its own right. The „wholeness‟ of the group is viewed not by adding up the number of individuals, but by being open to the constant play of interactions between group

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members, the posing and counter-posing of themes, and by the way the group is as whole seems to incline first way, then another (Lerise et al 2001:2).

In taking on the challenge of working toward human transformation, Myers (1999:128) says we will need to learn to think and act holistically in a variety of ways, including our understanding of the whole story that is the biblical narrative of a seamlessly related world of material and spiritual, of persons and social systems.

In learning our way towards transformation we have to stop and ask what kind of planning is best suited for transformational development. According to Myers (1999:147) in development planning we need to do two things: First, we should shift our planning framework from the traditional management – by – objective approach (that involves a specific duration of time, e.g. five – to ten – year plans) to a vision – and – valued approach (that focuses on the attainment of the goals). Second, we need to make evaluation of our plans more frequent. We need to evaluate often enough to

“learn our way” into the future, which normally is unpredictable. It is the vision of the better future where we want to be, and having identified the values by which we do our work, we set a maker on the horizon.

Effectiveness of transformational development comes down to people, not to ideas, principles, or tools. Myers (1999:150) states that “transformation is about transforming relationships, and relationships are transformed by people.” Techniques and programs only fulfill their promise when practitioners use them with the right attitude, the right mindset, and professionalism. The characteristics of a holistic practitioner are drawn from transformational development. Myers (1999:153-162) says the practitioner should:

have Christian character, be professional, be learning, know who we are, be holistic disciple, and do theology.

In addition, Myers (1999:168-169) says in transformation development tools should be employed in order to help people do their social analysis. It should be done in such

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away that it empowers the community. He explains that “members are the ones who need to develop the skills of social analysis if they are to become active participants in the transformational process” (Myers 1999:169). It is the poor people‟s history that they need to tell, as well as their social structure and their context. Finally, it is the duty of the development agent or practitioner to help the poor people analyze and interpret their situation in understandable manner. Poor people can learn to figure out how it works, who benefits, who is left out, who has the power and all other things they need to understand in order to be able to work for sustainable development. The researcher agrees with Myers views that insist to have faith and confidence in the poor people to develop their own tool kit to test their development in the empowerment process, instead of the conventional development trend of helping the poor people see our view of their situation.

The whole gospel message is a message of an inseparable mix of life, deed, word and sign. A holistic view of people is one which insists on the fact that individuals are inseparable from the social systems in which they live. A holistic view of time is the view in which we need to understand time holistically and not separate the past, present, future and eternity. Therefore, the above components – which emphasize the importance of the whole and the interdependence of its parts – form a framework for transformational development that is Christian (Myers 1999:134-135; Myers 2000:67).

The researcher believes that there exists a relationship between the biblical command of Diakonia; Catholic Social Teaching; and Transformation Development as suggested by Myers. They all abide to the Scriptures that give the Christian meaning to the suggested approaches to the alleviation of poverty. Again, the Catholic Social Teaching and Myers‟ Transformation Development have similar views as they have described their principles as framework⁸. According to Curran (2002:36-37) Catholic social

8 This researcher uses the term frameworks for the Catholic Social Teaching and Myers’ Transformational Development in accordance to the authors. Zalot and Guevin (2008:53) explain the principles of Catholic Social Teaching as framework and Myers (1999:111) uses framework to explain the elements of Transformation Development.

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teaching explains that the church has an evangelical duty to take her stand beside the poor people, helping them satisfy their basic rights without losing sight of other groups and the common good. In helping the poor, the light of Christian faith provides a new model of solidarity and unity that should be in our world – the model of the unity and solidarity of three persons in one God. After creating a framework for transformational development done by Christians, Myers (1999:135) states that putting all ideas together, “we have a framework for transformation that points us toward the best human future – the kingdom of God.”

The researcher believes from its biblical commitment to the poor, the Church in its capacity in terms of material and resourceful human capital, can assist its people to grow and develop, not only spiritually but also physically. The word of God is highly regarded in the work of transformational development, thus a genuine understanding of the Word will move the church to go out and engage in the community development.

However, we cannot deny the fact that there is still poverty that prevails among people in so many places in the world, even after two thousand years of Christianity. Yet, poverty still exists in rural areas of the Diocese of Lindi, unperceived by the local church, which needs to be changed.

Finally, there exists ambiguity between the reality in the involvement of the Roman Catholic Church in the social service it provides in the Diocese of Lindi, from the Scriptures and the Catholic social teaching of the Roman Catholic Church as a Magisterium (McBrien 1995:280). When looking at the biblical command, the framework for Myers‟ Transformational development and Catholic social teaching of the Roman Catholic Church on the development of peoples as it has been reviewed by the Second Vatican Council and according to the Papal Encyclicals like that of Pope Paul VI (1967) – Populorum Progressio, one will find there is an ambiguity in the role of the Roman Catholic Church in empowering the rural poor in the Diocese of Lindi.

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Among those who express their concern in the relative understanding of the biblical command of the service of the Church and the reality of what is practiced is Tokunboh Adeyemo, General Secretary of the Association of Evangelicals in Africa, cited in Van der Walt (1999). He had the following to say when thinking of Africa, “For decades in Africa, evangelism and missionary activities have been directed at getting people saved (i.e. spiritually). Consequently, we have a continent south of the Sahara that boasts of an over 50% Christian population on the average, but with little or no impact in society”

(Van der Walt 1999:25). It is therefore, the researcher‟s opinion that the framework for Transformational development and Catholic social teaching, and the biblical commands, are the ones, which the Church must commit to, in its diaconal role.

2.9 CONLUSION

In this chapter, the researcher has presented the concept of Diakonia, Catholic social teaching and Transformational development, their theology and application in and by the Roman Catholic Church. In the light of these facts, one can conclude that through the work of diakonia, all Bible-believing churches around the world should promote and apply diakonia as prescribed by the Roman Catholic Church, the World Council of Churches and their related agencies in order to address poverty. The third chapter will deal with the importance of the context and outlining the main features of the Tanzanian context.

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