Olehile Buffel

Olehile Buffel

Associate Professor, Trinity Lutheran Seminary

Department

  • Trinity Lutheran Seminary

Contact Information

Biography

Olehile Buffel is an associate professor at Trinity Lutheran Seminary at Capital University, teaching pastoral care and homiletics. He is also a Meuser Endowed Professor of Homiletics. He studied at Marang Lutheran Theological Seminary in Rustenburg, South Africa. Furthermore, he completed undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the University of South Africa and the University of Pretoria. 

He previously taught at Kgolagano Theological Education by Extension College in Botswana, which he also served as Secretary of the Governing Board. He taught at the Lutheran Theological Institute (LTI) and the University of Kwazulu-Natal (UKZN) in Pietermaritzburg, Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa. He was promoted from associate professor to full professor in 2021 at the University of South Africa. During his tenure at Unisa, he supervised to completion Masters and Doctoral degrees students. He also served as Acting Chair of the Department of Philosophy, Practical Theology and Systematic Theology. He was appointed Research Fellow in the Department of Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology in 2024. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the journal, Theologia Viatorum for which he regularly serves a reviewer of articles. He has also served as a reviewer for the journal HTS Theological Journal (HTS), Missionalia, Studia Historiae Ecclesiaticae (SHE), and the Journal of Theology in Southern Africa (JTSA). He is a member of different academic societies/associations such as the Practical Theology in South Africa (PTSA), South African Missiological Society (SAMS), Member of Theological Society in South Africa (TSSA), Society for Pastoral Theology (SPT), and the International Association of Practical Theology (IAPT). He has served various universities in South Africa as an external examiner (moderator). 

He is an ordained minister of the Lutheran Church and served the church in many pastoral and administrative capacities since 1986 in different Dioceses and parishes. He has conducted workshop on pastoral care and counselling, homiletics, church administration and leadership for various churches including the Lutheran churches, the Assemblies of God, the Dutch Reformed Church, and others. He has also received invitations to preach and make presentations at various churches across various denominations. His research interests include inter alia the following areas: pastoral care and counselling in a context of poverty, preaching in the context of poverty, theology and development, Clinical Pastoral Education, church leadership, administration and management, pastoral care and HIV and Aids, and theology of land and political theology and black liberation theology and theology of vocation.

Degrees
  • Bachelor of Theology (University of South Africa)
  • Bachelor of Theology Honours in Practical Theology (University of South Africa)
  • Master of Theology in Practical Theology (University of South Africa)
  • PHD in Practical Theology (University of Pretoria)
Teaches
  • Holistic Pastoral Care
  • Ministry of Preaching
  • Theological Leadership
  • Pastoral Care and the Bible
  • Person in Ministry
  • Disability Ministry
  • Preaching in a Living Context
  • Death, Dying, Grief and Bereavement 
Publications

Chapters Books:

  1. Title of chapter: The South African land question: A case Study, in (book): Region and Religion: Land from a Theological Perspective edited by Dr V. Mortenson. Published by Department of Theology and Studies, Lutheran World Federation, Geneva (1994).
  2. Title of Chapter: The church as a caring and humanising community of faith in the context of Xenophobic/Afrophobic attacks against migrants, in (book) Standing where God Stands edited by Prof. D. Mashau. Published by Unisa Press, Pretoria (2018).
  3. Title of Chapter (forthcoming): The funeral rituals of Batswana: A Practical Theological reflection on the therapeutic value of the funeral rites of Batswana in the face of death and bereavement, an anthology edited by Dr H. Taruona and Prof. H. Moyo (Palgrave Macmillan).

 

B.     Publications in peer reviewed journals

Buffel, O.A. 2005. Deliver us from individualism and clericalism: Liberating pastoral care from Western individualism and clericalism, in Practical Theology in South Africa, 19(2), 37-51.

Buffel, O.A. 2006. Pastoral care to people living with HIV and Aids: A pastoral response that is contextual and liberating, in Practical Theology in South Africa, 1-16

Buffel, O. A. 2010. Journeying with the poor in their struggle for survival and liberation, in Theologia Viatorum. Vol 34(1).

Buffel, O. A. 2010. Preferential Option for the Poor: Doing theology in the footsteps of Prof. Simon Maimela, in Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae Vol 36, Special edition.

Buffel, O. A. 2010. Black Theology and the Masses: The need of an organic relationship between theologians and the masses, in Scriptura, June 2013.

Buffel, O.A. 2011. A Pastoral Journey Wrapped up in Grace: Pastoral Counselling with Sexual Addicts in African Context. Testamentum Imperium: An International Theological Journal. Vol 3 (2011). 

Buffel, O.A. 2012. Self-supporting ministry from a Lutheran historical perspective, in Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae, Vol 38 (2).                   

Chisale S. S. and Buffel, O.A. 2014. The culturally engendered pastoral care model of women caring for refugee girls in a context of HIV and Aids, in Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae* (co-authored with student), Vol 40 Supplement.

Buffel, O.A. 2014. Mission as liberation in socio-economic and political contexts: Towards contextual and liberating theology of mission in the context of human dislocation, in Missionalia. Vol 41(3).

Buffel, O.A. 2015 A journey of the people of Bethany marked by disposession, struggle for return and continued impoverishment: A case study of land reform that has not yet reduced poverty, in Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae, (SHE). Vol 41(2).

Buffel, O. A. 2015. Bringing the crucified down from the cross: Preferential option for the poor in the South African context of poverty, in Missionalia, Vol 43.

Buffel, O.A. 2017. Black Theology and the Black Experience in the midst of poverty, in. In Scriptura 116(2017 (1). pp.1-14.

Baloyi G.T. and Buffel O.A. 2021. African Pastoral Therapy in an African context, in Stellenbosh Theological Journal , Vol 7(2). 

Buffel, O. A. 2021. Black Theology versus Black Spirituality and Black Faith,  in HTS Theological Studies, Vol 77(3).

Buffel, O. A. 2021. The Bible of the poor in the context of poverty, Covid-19 and vaccine nationalism: Hermeneutics of liberation from the perspectives of the poor, in HTS Theological Studies, Vol 77(1). Special collection.

Buffel, O. A. 2021. A critical appraisal of the silence and apathy of the church regarding land reform with special reference to the Lutheran church as a case study: Towards making the church a caring and humanising institution, in Alternation, December, Vol 38 a (2021).

Buffel, O.A. 2022. Missio Dei  in the Context of Covid-19 and poverty: Towards a missional-pastoral approach using Zandspruit as a case study, in Missionalia, Vol 49 (1).

Buffel, O. A. 2022. Death in abundance versus life in abundance in the context of Covid-19 and poverty, in Theologia Viatorum, Vol 46(1).

Bufel, O. A. 2022. The Potential of Clinical Pastoral Education in Facilitating Contextual, Effective and Affordable Pastoral Ministry for Impoverished Black Communities in South Africa, in Black Theology: An International Journal. Vol 20(1).