Salutary Communities: From Social Exclusion to Circulating Asymmetric Relations

Diaconal community development with people in disadvantaged life conditions leads to the inconvenient awareness that relationships often remain asymmetric. More than other approaches, the "exposure approach" to community development addresses this asymmetry, creating communities with a cha...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Waarde, Rob van (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2022
In: Diaconia
Year: 2022, Volume: 13, Issue: 1, Pages: 50-69
RelBib Classification:CH Christianity and Society
RK Charity work
ZA Social sciences
Further subjects:B asymmetric relations
B Diaconia
B Community Building
B Social exclusion
B Eschatology
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Summary:Diaconal community development with people in disadvantaged life conditions leads to the inconvenient awareness that relationships often remain asymmetric. More than other approaches, the "exposure approach" to community development addresses this asymmetry, creating communities with a character of reciprocity and an increased tolerance of confrontation and disruption. This article explores this transformation from a theological angle. Using the concept of "salutary," it examines to what extent the transformation contributes to the expectation of salvation evoked in the Judeo-Christian tradition. First, it appears that people in the emerging communities rediscover a Judeo-Christian insight into human relations: that people are being given to each other. Second, the transformation proves salutary because the relationships liberate from the excluding convictions. Finally, it appears to be salutary because excluded people gain a voice. Thus, the theological exploration has rendered insights that are helpful in bearing the inconvenient awareness of persisting asymmetry and continually contribute to salutary communities.
ISSN:2196-9027
Contains:Enthalten in: Diaconia
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.13109/diac.2022.13.1.50