Anne Clifford (2001:55) suggests that “story is one of the most recognizable literary forms” of research and Phyllis Trible (1984:1) points out that stories “are the style and sustenance of life. They fashion and fill existence”. Stories are often the points of
84 connection and people eagerly enter into story-telling and they also enjoy reminiscing about their and others’ stories. Clifford (2001:55) goes on to say that “[i]magination applied with empathy for the persons in the story and the story’s writer is also important”.
An imaginative reconstruction is often necessary because the reader or hearer cannot fully appreciate the story-writer’s context. Clifford (2001:56) also reminds her readers that
[h]ermeneutics of suspicion is but one side of the feminist interpretive coin;
hermeneutics of remembrance is the other side. The two belong together.
Hermeneutics of suspicion is in service of a feminist hermeneutics of remembrance. Feminist hermeneutics is not satisfied with unmasking patriarchy because it causes human suffering. A hermeneutics of remembrance reclaims the past suffering of women and of all persons subjugated through enslavement, exile, and persecution, and treats it as a “dangerous memory,” one that invites us today to solidarity with all persons past and present who struggle for human dignity.
This kind of remembrance is encouraged through story-telling and, according to African women theologians,64 stories play an important role in African tradition, faith and folklore.
While these stories often tell of a sequence of events, it is the narrative that attempts to join them and make sense of the whole. This following online definition of ‘narrative’
contributes to how the term is used in the analysis of the stories in this research:
Narrative for cognitive potency
Advancements in the cognitive sciences over the past decade have revealed much about how we think. As David Herman, author of Narrative Theory and the Cognitive Sciences, says, “Research on human intelligence has postulated that studying the structure and use of stories can provide important insight into the roots of self and the nature of thinking,” (Herman). The ways we recognize patterns and integrate fragmented bits of information are implicit processes and drive cognition and decision-making. What we are led to expect affects how we think, make decisions, and behave; this cognitive chain is based on experiential patterns or mental models (schema) that filter most of the brain’s incoming information.65
A narrative is also a form of retelling a story and not the story itself. Whilst recognising that a story is made up of various events, strung together according to a plot, a narrative is usually selective, emphasising those events that belong together. The characteristics of
64 See the Introduction to Her-stories – Hidden Histories of Women of Faith in Africa, edited by Phiri, Govinden and Nadar (2002). The editors ask the question “What’s the Use of Telling Stories?”
(p3) and they answer their own question with the five-fold purpose of the publication:
“Complementing African Church History” (p4), “Telling our stories from women’s perspectives” (p6),
“Participating in history” (p7), “Narrative therapy” (p7) and “Transforming our world” (p9).
65 Medical Informatics Review online – Volume 3, No.1. April 2008.
<http://www.icsciences.com/images/MedIR_0408.pdf> [Accessed 20 October 2011].
85 narrative are investigated with this methodology. It is, therefore, essential to understand how we live our lives through stories. Amia, Tuval-Mashiach and Zilber (1998) assert that narrative research is becoming a more popular research method. African feminist theologians agree with these sentiments as Oduyoye (2002:xii) writes in the ‘Preface:
Naming Our Mothers’ to Her-stories – Hidden Histories of Women of Faith in Africa:
The Circle has begun this ministry of retrieval. There are many hidden stories, treasures we need to unearth so we can know where we are coming from and who got us where we are. We need to know the foundations so we can understand the edifice we have inherited. We owe this to our predecessors and our successors alike.
Two descriptions, which I shall borrow from narrative therapy,66 are ‘thin descriptions’ and ‘thick descriptions’. Early in their meetings with people, narrative therapists often hear stories about the ‘problems’ and their ‘meanings’. These ‘meanings’, reached in the face of adversity, often consist of what narrative therapy calls ‘thin description’. Thin description allows little space for the complexities and contradictions of life. It allows little space for people to articulate their own particular meaning of their actions and the context within which they occurred.
These thin descriptions of people’s actions and/or identities are often created by others – those with the power of definition in particular circumstances (e.g. parents, teachers, ministers, health professionals, researchers, etc.). However, sometimes people come to understand their own actions through thin descriptions. In whatever context thin descriptions are created, they often have significant consequences. Thin descriptions, therefore, often lead to thin conclusions about people’s identities, and these have many negative effects.
Thin conclusions are often expressed as a truth about the person who is struggling with the problem and their identity. Thin conclusions, however, disempower people as they are regularly based in terms of weaknesses, disabilities, dysfunctions or inadequacies.
Often, these thin conclusions also obscure broader relations of power. For example, if a woman has come to see herself as ‘worthless’ and ‘deserving of punishment’ after years of being subject to abuse, these thin conclusions make invisible the injustice she has experienced. They hide the tactics of power and control to which she has been subjected,
66 See Alice Morgan’s (2000) book What is Narrative Therapy?
86 as well as her significant acts of resistance. Once thin conclusions take hold, it becomes easy for people to engage in gathering evidence to support these dominant problem- saturated stories. Thin conclusions, therefore, often lead to more thin conclusions as people’s skills, knowledge, abilities and competencies become hidden by the problem- story. This is what has happened for many women in the church. Women have been indoctrinated, for centuries, into believing that they are to remain subordinate to men.
In contrast to ‘thin descriptions’ of people’s experiences, the term ‘thick description’
is used to indicate the richness in a person’s story. It is an affirmation of how various events, woven together into a plot, become the celebration of who a person is.
Epston and White (1990) developed a way of working in which narrative conversations are guided and directed by the interests of the individual. It therefore seems appropriate to begin any exploration of narrative research with a consideration of what is meant by the ‘narratives’ or ‘stories’ of people’s lives. When exploring narrative research we engage in what is also known as “re-authoring” or “re-storying” conversations.67 As these descriptions suggest, stories are central to an understanding of narrative ways of working. The word ‘story’ has different connotations for different people. When using narrative discourse in research we recognise that stories consist of events, linked in sequence, across time and according to a plot.
Human beings are interpreting beings, who all have daily experiences of events through which they seek to make life meaningful. The stories about people’s lives are created through linking certain events together in a particular sequence across a period of time, and finding a way of explaining or making sense of them. These meanings form the plot of the story. People constantly give meanings to their experiences – and continue to do so throughout their lives. A narrative is like the thread that weaves the events together, forming a story.
The significance of this kind of story-telling for this research project is that the participants were asked to tell their stories (or weave the plot) with particular reference to their relationship with the MCSA and their faith experiences.68
67 Phrases used by Michael White (1995) in Re-Authoring Lives: Interviews & Essays.
68 Refer to Appendix 2 for the Story-Guideline.
87 People have many stories about their lives and relationships, occurring simultaneously. For example, they have stories about themselves, their abilities, struggles, competencies, actions, desires, relationships, work, interests, victories, achievements and their failures. The way they developed these stories is determined by how certain events are linked together in a sequence and by the meaning attributed to them.
In feminist research69 the researcher plays an important role. Next I position myself as part of the research and not as a mere bystander.
3.2.1. The Role of the Researcher
My own story, as a Methodist, as a woman of faith and as a feminist researcher, adds value to this thesis. I assert this because I have, for the past eleven years, passionately engaged with many Methodist people and studied the source documents of the MCSA. My own feminist awakening began approximately fourteen years ago, in 1997, when I was experiencing a personal crisis. A narrative therapist suggested that I join their feminist spirituality group. I am still a member of this group and I deeply value the spiritual and emotional connections with these women. We study feminist theology together and we support one another in various ways. As a feminist researcher I have valued their opinions, their insights have often inspired me and at times their suggestions have been helpful.
These women have journeyed with me through my call to the ministry, they have listened to my deep struggle with clericalism and nevertheless supported me in my quest towards ordination.
I was ordained in 2007 after six years of study, formation and training for the Methodist ministry. At times, especially in the face of marginalisation, ridicule, humiliation and the sheer arrogance of male co-student ministers, lecturers and even mentors, the temptation to throw in the towel was strong. However, the members of my spirituality group encouraged me to persevere and reminded me of the value of being a feminist presence in a patriarchal environment. My theological training was of a very high standard and I was exposed to a wide range of contexts and provided with many
69 See Nadar’s (2011:10-11) unpublished paper (for presentation only) entitled ‘ “Stories are data with Soul” (quoted from Brene Brown’s video) – Lessons from Black Feminist Epistemology’:
“While positivistic research argues for the “invisible” researcher, feminist narrative research calls us to be reflexive about our positioning. Rather than bracketing our emotions and our ethics from the process, we embrace it as part of the process. Being reflexive means that one recognizes that the process of research is as important as the product. Emotion and intellect find a meeting space in narrative research.”
88 exceptional opportunities to do ministry, practice mission and apply theology. I discovered, though, that feminist theology is a component of systematic theology that many student ministers appear to view as ‘hoops they need to jump through’ in order to pass their exams. Whereas I was energised and inspired by the work of contextual and feminist theologians, some of my co-students for the ministry seemed to find them controversial and even irrelevant.
I acknowledge the privilege of facilitating the process of this research. As a narrative researcher, I accept responsibility to retell the stories of the participants in such a way that the reader hears their opinions and that, through the analysis, the reader is exposed to some of the underlying principles of gender injustice, as experienced by the women whose stories are retold. I acknowledge my Afrikaans background, my White privileged upbringing and schooling in an Apartheid South Africa and I wish to state my commitment to racial and inter-faith integration in South Africa, long before full democracy was achieved in this country in 1994.
I have been an activist for change since my teens and my present position as the Social Justice Coordinator at the Diakonia Council of Churches70 in Durban is no accident.
Soon after my ordination, on being offered this position at the Diakonia Council of Churches, I applied for secondment by the MCSA to serve in this faith-based organisation.
My key responsibilities are gender justice in the Church and facilitating the organisation’s biannual Social Justice Season. I also view the feminist researcher as someone who not only takes from the participants but who also gives back to the community. The contribution to existing scholarship, that this thesis will make, thickens the story of the MCSA and the Church in general.
I make no claim to objectivity because subjectivity is a value of feminist research, as asserted by Gayle Letherby (2003:70-72) in her book Feminist Research in Theory and Practice. Subjectivity does not mean that ‘anything goes’ or that there is no rigour in my analysis. It merely acknowledges that the process of research is as important as the
70 The Diakonia Council of Churches was established in 1976 by the late
Archbishop Denis Hurley. It is a faith-based ecumenical agency in the wider Durban area, serving its sixteen member churches as a Christian organisation, committed to justice, empowerment and social transformation. www.diakonia.org.za – [Accessed regularly as part of my work].
89 product. Drawing on Letherby, Phiri and Nadar (2010:13) claim that all researchers are subjective:
While Letherby’s assertion focuses on the product of research making a difference, we suggest that the process of research can also be a space for transformation to occur in the lives of the participants and the researchers. This kind of subjectivity includes the researcher’s opinions and experiences.
What I do claim, though, is the quest for and right to gender justice in the MCSA. I now turn to how the data will be analysed.
3.2.2. Analysis of Data
Once I had decided on an in-depth retelling of five Methodist women’s stories, the methodology fell into place. This means that the experiences of these women would be taken seriously and documented for future research. It also means that this research project was being steered in a constructive direction. African feminist theology embraces a narrative approach to theology and spirituality, as it is a way of relating how people live their lives. This is particularly evident in the publication, which was edited by Phiri, Govinden and Nadar (2002), entitled Her-stories – Hidden Histories of Women of Faith in Africa. These stories allow the experiences of women to come alive and the skilful storytellers draw the principles of feminist theology out of the stories. Various features, such as hospitality, women’s organisations, ministers’ wives and women’s ordination, which are identified by African feminist ecclesiology, are also used during the analysis of each of the stories.