The hermeneutics of intercultural pastoral care : from 'psyche' to 'position' (Habitus) within the healing dynamics of life (Cura vitae)

CITATION: Louw, D. J. 2010. The hermeneutics of intercultural pastoral care : from 'psyche' to 'position' (Habitus) within the healing dynamics of life (Cura vitae). Scriptura, 103:175-188, doi:10.7833/103-0-597.The original publication is available at http://scriptura.journals.ac.zan a systemic approach to life care (cura vitae), position and habitus becomes more predominant as guiding constructs in theory formation for a pastoral anthropology than personality and behaviour and their relatedness to psychoanalyses. It is argued that habitus is directly connected to the Biblical principle of wisdom (sapientia), as well as to the spiritual dimension of meaning. In a praxis approach habitus should play a decisive role in intercultural care. In this regard paradigms and the analyses of the appropriateness of constructs containing dominant life views and belief systems become extremely important in the making of a pastoral diagnosis. In this regard an existential approach for an intercultural pastoral hermeneutics is proposed.http://scriptura.journals.ac.za/pub/article/view/597Publisher's versio