The Renewal of Christian Humanism as a Foundation Philosophy in Social Work for Combating Global Poverty and Suffering.
Principal Supervisor: Dr Emma Rush
Co-Supervisor: Dr Monica Short
This PhD project sets the task of determining whether the ancient biblical story can provide renewed strength to professional social work in tackling global poverty and suffering. The philosophy of Christian humanism will be used to frame historical theology and the biblical narrative in a way that enables comprehension of global poverty and suffering. This PhD highlights the alarming threat of violence, and the worsening of poverty, across the globe today. To interrogate poverty, it is redefined as structural violence, opening the causation of human suffering to a broader understanding. To confront the problem of structural violence the methodological approach of transdisciplinarity is adopted, as it is argued, that diverse voices and disciplines are required to collectively tackle the enormity and complexity of poverty and suffering across the globe. Coupled with this methodology is the Christian model of Integral Human Development (IHD) which takes a holistic approach toward human advancement.
Charles Sturt University has an investment in the role of Christian theology in society through The Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture, which combined with the School of Social Work and Arts made it an ideal university to undertake doctoral research.
