Abstract
This dissertation argues for the church to be taken seriously as classroom - a site of education and formation with a scope extending beyond the spiritual into the political and ideological. To this end, the thesis examines the curriculum (both overt and hidden) of a Cape Town evangelical church in terms of how it upholds or resists hegemonic and colonial ideologies and power relations pertaining to race, gender, and class. The study also explores and makes visible the mechanisms of power that function within the church to facilitate congregant acceptance and internalisation of church teachings. Finally, the dissertation examines congregant agency and the various ways in which congregants resist, negotiate, position themselves within, and seek to shape or influence church curriculum.
Through examining the ways in which the church reproduces or resists hegemonic or colonial relations of power and ideologies, the mechanisms through which this happens, and how and where internal struggles are found and given expression, the dissertation explores where this church is positioned within the historical conversation regarding the church as a site of struggle.
In order to analyse the dynamics outlined above, this dissertation makes use of an ethnographic approach, specifically the extended case method. This allowed for the collection of various kinds of data, church service and life group observations, semi-structured interviews, and various texts including sermons as well as other church documentation and messaging. Unlike many other types of ethnographic research, this method necessitates extension from the specific research site or sites into wider societal realities, bringing the micro into conversation with the macro.
The theoretical framework forming the backbone of this research draws on and brings together the work of several scholars. Central is Foucault’s work on discourse and how it functions to reproduce particular ideas and truths, as well as his work on the disciplinary society, in which various technologies of power operate to produce certain subjectivities. This is complemented by Gramsci’s conception of hegemony which theorises the reproduction and perpetuation of the norms, ideas, and values of dominant groups in society. A decolonial framework provides necessary grounding for the dialogue between the micro and the macro, namely the church and the wider societal context in which it operates. This depicts the current societal order as one characterised by asymmetrical power relations relating to, among other things, race, gender, and class. Finally, in theorising congregant negotiation of and response to church teachings (particularly in moments of contestation), I draw on Foucault’s broad conception of power as diffuse and net-like, as well as
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Hirschman’s framework of exit, voice, and loyalty, and Scott’s theorisation of the hidden transcript.
The major findings of the dissertation show that, while there are certain nuances to this, the church’s curriculum, both overt and hidden, largely upholds, perpetuates, and legitimises a colonial status quo, as it pertains to norms, ideologies, and power relations relating to race, class, and gender. This tendency is not homogenous. In various ways and at various levels, these realities are contested. Notably however, despite these contestations, the hegemonic status quo largely remains. This happens through the various modes of discursive and institutional disciplinary power operating through, inter alia, the church’s discourse, structures, and pedagogies.
Congregants’ disagreements with aspects of church teachings are expressed in different ways. At times such sentiments remain within the hidden transcript, while in other instances, sentiments are voiced. Congregant loyalty to the church appears to be an important factor in determining congregants’ choices to voice their disagreements rather than leave. However, for the large part, such action did not bring about the desired change. This often resulted in these congregants eventually deciding to exit the church.
For these and other reasons, the colonial norms, values, and relations of power to which the church is subscribed, particularly as these relate to race, class, and gender, are upheld and perpetuated. As an education site dealing not only with spiritual formation, but also that which is political and ideological, this has significant implications.
This dissertation makes an important contribution to existing scholarship in terms of its unique development of the concept of the church as classroom, its use of theory to explore the church’s overt and hidden curriculum and congregant agency within this, and its analysis of the mechanisms through which colonial ideologies and power relations pertaining to race, gender, and class are reproduced within a church context.
Keywords: Education; Church; Ideology; Discourse; Power; Resistance