Political theology in sub-Saharan Africa

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Political theology in sub-Saharan Africa deals with the relationship of theology and politics born from and/or specific to the circumstances of the region. Arising from the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa and nationalist campaigns of the mid to late twentieth century elsewhere, the increasing numbers of Christians in sub-Saharan Africa has led to an increased interest in Christian responses to the region's continuing issues of poverty, violence, and war. [1] According to the Cameroonian theologian and sociologist Jean-Marc Éla, African Christianity "has to be formulated from the struggles of our people, from their joys, from their pains, from their hopes and from their frustrations today." [2] African theology is heavily influenced by liberation theology, global black theology, and postcolonial theology.

Theology Study of the nature of deities and religious belief

Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the supernatural, but also especially with epistemology, and asks and seeks to answer the question of revelation. Revelation pertains to the acceptance of God, gods, or deities, as not only transcendent or above the natural world, but also willing and able to interact with the natural world and, in particular, to reveal themselves to humankind. While theology has turned into a secular field, religious adherents still consider theology to be a discipline that helps them live and understand concepts such as life and love and that helps them lead lives of obedience to the deities they follow or worship.

Politics refers to a set of activities associated with the governance of a country, or an area. It involves making decisions that apply to members of a group.

Internal resistance to apartheid

Internal resistance to apartheid in South Africa originated from several independent sectors of South African society and alternatively took the form of social movements, passive resistance, or guerrilla warfare. Mass action against the ruling National Party government, coupled with South Africa's growing international isolation and economic sanctions, were instrumental factors in ending racial segregation and discrimination. Both black and white South African activists such as Steve Biko, Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, Harry Schwarz, and Joe Slovo were involved with various anti-apartheid causes. By the 1980s, there was continuous interplay between violent and non-violent action, and this interplay was a notable feature of resistance against apartheid from 1983 until South Africa's first multiracial elections under a universal franchise in 1994.

Contents

Hermeneutics

Much of African political theology owes to distinctively African readings of the Bible. African theologians interpret the Bible through the lens the African experience, oppression and poverty being frequent themes.

Political theology investigates the ways in which theological concepts or ways of thinking relate to politics, society, and economics. It has often been affiliated with Christianity, but since the 21st century, it has more recently been discussed with relation to other religions.

Bible Collection of religious texts in Judaism and Christianity

The Bible is a collection of sacred texts or scriptures. Varying parts of the Bible are considered to be a product of divine inspiration and a record of the relationship between God and humans by Christians, Jews, Samaritans, and Rastafarians.

Biblical hermeneutics study of the principles of interpretation concerning the books of the Bible

Biblical hermeneutics is the study of the principles of interpretation concerning the books of the Bible. It is part of the broader field of hermeneutics which involves the study of principles of interpretation for all forms of communication, nonverbal and verbal.

Itumeleng Mosala argues that the Bible itself must be understood as having arisen from the ideology of its compilers and that an uncritical acceptance of the Bible as the word of God leads to a notion that it has no ideology itself. Mosala says that this idea is wrong and that the Bible's compilation makes it inherently ideological, reflecting that of its compilers, and that the ideology it presents is harmful to colonized peoples. [3] Mosala, like several others, also includes Marxist elements in his reading of the Bible. [4]

God in Christianity is the eternal being who created and preserves all things. Christians believe God to be both transcendent and immanent. Christian teachings of the immanence and involvement of God and his love for humanity exclude the belief that God is of the same substance as the created universe but accept that God's divine nature was hypostatically united to human nature in the person of Jesus Christ, in an event known as the Incarnation.

Colonization is a process by which a central system of power dominates the surrounding land and its components.

Marxist schools of thought

Marxism is a method of socioeconomic analysis that frames capitalism through a paradigm of exploitation, analyzes class relations and social conflict using a materialist interpretation of historical development and takes a dialectical view of social transformation. While it originates from the works of 19th century German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Marxism has had several different schools of thought.

The Tswana theologian Musa Dube employs a "decolonizing feminist biblical practice" she calls "Rahab's reading prism." [4] Named for the prostitute who protected Israelite spies who came to investigate Jericho before it was besieged by the Israelite army. Dube says her prism highlights "the historical fact of colonizing and decolonizing communities inhabiting the feminist space of liberation practice." She argues for a new reading of the Bible by colonized peoples in order to create new narratives that speak of equity and freedom. For her, the interests of the decolonizing project are a part of the feminist agenda. [5]

Musa W. Dube, also known as Musa Wenkosi Dube Shomanah, is a Botswana feminist theologian, known for her work in postcolonial biblical scholarship.

Decolonization or Decolonisation is the undoing of colonialism, the latter being the process whereby a nation establishes and maintains its domination on overseas territories. The concept particularly applies to the dismantlement, during the second half of the 20th century, of the colonial empires established prior to World War I throughout the world. Scholars focus especially on the movements in the colonies demanding independence, such as Creole nationalism.

Rahab biblical figure

Rahab was, according to the Book of Joshua, a woman who lived in Jericho in the Promised Land and assisted the Israelites in capturing the city by betraying her people. In the New Testament, she is lauded both as an example of a saint who lived by faith, and as someone "considered righteous" for her works.

For some, the biblical text may be disregarded in favour of perceived direction from the Holy Spirit. [6]

Holy Spirit in Christianity in trinitarian Christianity, the third person of the Trinity, that proceeds from the Father (and the Son, depending on the branch of Christianity); often depicted as a dove in iconography

For the majority of Christian denominations, the Holy Spirit, or Holy Ghost, is the third person of the Trinity: the Triune God manifested as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit; each entity itself being God. Nontrinitarian Christians, who reject the doctrine of the Trinity, differ significantly from mainstream Christianity in their beliefs about the Holy Spirit. In Christian theology, pneumatology refers to the study of the Holy Spirit. Due to Christianity's historical relationship with Judaism, theologians often identify the Holy Spirit with the concept of the Ruach Hakodesh in Jewish scripture, in the belief Jesus was expanding upon these Jewish concepts. Similar names, and ideas, include the Ruach Elohim, Ruach YHWH, and the Ruach Hakmah. In the New Testament it is identified with the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Truth, the Paraclete and the Holy Spirit.

Themes

Arising out of the distinctive African hermeneutic, several themes are common among African theologians as concerns for a Christian response in the public sphere.

Hermeneutics is the theory and methodology of interpretation, especially the interpretation of biblical texts, wisdom literature, and philosophical texts.

Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. Its adherents, known as Christians, believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and savior of all people, whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied in the Old Testament and chronicled in the New Testament. It is the world's largest religion with over 2.4 billion followers.

Public sphere area in social life

The public sphere is an area in social life where individuals can come together to freely discuss and identify societal problems, and through that discussion influence political action. Such a discussion is called public debate and is defined as the expression of views on matters that are of concern to the public—often, but not always, with opposing or diverging views being expressed by participants in the discussion. Public debate takes place mostly through the mass media, but also at meetings or through social media, academic publications and government policy documents. The term was originally coined by German philosopher Jürgen Habermas who defined "the public sphere as a virtual or imaginary community which does not necessarily exist in any identifiable space". Communication scholar Gerard A. Hauser defines it as "a discursive space in which individuals and groups associate to discuss matters of mutual interest and, where possible, to reach a common judgment about them". The public sphere can be seen as "a theater in modern societies in which political participation is enacted through the medium of talk" and "a realm of social life in which public opinion can be formed".

Christology

Jesse N. K. Mugambi and Laurenti Magesa have written that "theology is not Christian at all when it does not offer Jesus Christ of Nazareth as the answer to the human quest", including politics. [7] For many African theologians, Jesus is seen as a liberating figure, including liberation from inequality, oppression, and poverty in opposition to what Jean-Marc Éla identifies as a "Babylonian captivity" of Christianity to Greco-Latin philosophies and Christologies that do not relate to the African experience. Among these are the image of an "imperial" Christ used to justify oppression and a "slave-trader" Christ used to promote faith in a distant salvation rather than earthly liberation. Éla's use of the terms "imperial" and "slave-holder" in reference to Jesus are not literal but serve to show the effects of traditional readings which serve to keep subjugated peoples from attempting to free themselves out of a belief that a distant salvation will come. [8]

Equality

Having been subjected and treated as less than human, African theologians seek to validate their humanity on par with that of others. For example, Ananias Mpunzi writes that "we have the task both of affirming the humanity of others and helping them to affirm it for themselves." [9]

Church and state

Though religious leaders like South Africa's Desmond Tutu play important roles in several African states as public commentators on moral issues, only Zambia has declared itself to be officially a Christian nation. The Ugandan Catholic priest Emmanuel Katongole has written that the Christian gospel is deeply political and that the most urgent task for Christianity is to make politics work better, become more democratic and transparent, thus promoting stability and encouraging development. [1] Éla calls on the church to be the link between revelation and history, or to push for political change, shaping the world of today rather than waiting for an otherworldly salvation. [10]

Reconciliation

After decades of colonial rule and mismanagement by postcolonial governments, many Africans became embittered. According to Emmanuel Katongole, Christianity must engage with that past in order to move forward. Opinions on how that is to be done vary. Katongole sees the way forward in overcoming tribal divisions, forgiveness, and working together, something he sees Christianity uniquely capable of doing. [1] Willa Boesek, on the other hand, writing shortly after the end of South African apartheid encouraged a righteous anger that could lead to change but differentiated it from hate-filled rage. He admonished victims to control their anger, urging them to not indict all white people for the oppression. At the same time, he urged white South African churches to help their members overcome their fear of blacks and to not expect immediate reconciliation. Bitterness, anger, and aggression were natural consequences of the situation in South Africa, he believed, "a kind of unnatural 'Christian' patience and reasonableness vis-à-vis this history is not Christian at all, but a distorted ethos of submissiveness forced upon oppressed people". [11] Others, like Desmond Tutu in his Ubuntu theology, press for a peaceful reconciliation. [12]

Land, resources, and poverty

Under colonialism, Africa's land and resources were expropriated by white settlers and colonial agents, leaving the indigenous inhabitants with little of the continent's wealth. The issue of land restoration and redistribution are common topics for African theologians in the postcolonial era. An oft-repeated refrain from the missionary enterprise is that white people came to Africa with the Bible and the people had the land. The white missionaries taught the people to pray and when they opened their eyes, the Africans had the Bible and the whites had the land. [4] Boesak encouraged white churches in South Africa to examine their role in the historical appropriation of black land. [11] Itumeleng Mosala addresses land and poverty in his reading of the Book of Micah, emphasizing the sin of Israel in neglecting the poor. [4]

Criticisms

As a contextual theology, African political theology lacks universality. It has been criticized it for being provisional, tentative, halting, and imprecise. M. Shawn Copeland points out an insufficiently rigorous analysis of imperialism, capitalism, and democracy. She identifies gaps in the discussions within African theology, specifically noting that a lack of theological critique in Zimbabwe and Nigeria "mock the rhetoric of black theology as public theology and further distort the church's ministerial praxis." [4]

Related Research Articles

Liberation theology is a synthesis of Christian theology and Marxist socio-economic analyses that emphasizes social concern for the poor and the political liberation for oppressed peoples. In the 1950s and the 1960s, liberation theology was the political praxis of Latin American theologians, such as Gustavo Gutiérrez of Peru, Leonardo Boff of Brazil, Juan Luis Segundo of Uruguay, and Jon Sobrino of Spain, who popularized the phrase "Preferential option for the poor".

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Christian theology:

Liberal Christianity A method of biblical hermeneutics

Liberal Christianity, also known as liberal theology, covers diverse philosophically and biblically informed religious movements and ideas within Christianity from the late 18th century onward. Liberal does not refer to progressive Christianity or to political liberalism but to the philosophical and religious thought that developed and grew as a consequence of the Enlightenment.

Womanist theology is a religious conceptual framework which reconsiders and revises the traditions, practices, scriptures, and biblical interpretation with a special lens to empower and liberate African-American women in America. Womanist theology associates with and departs from Feminist theology and Black theology specifically because it integrates the perspectives and experiences of African American and other women of color. The former's lack of attention to the everyday realities of women of color and the latter's lack of understanding of the full dimension of liberation from the unique oppressions of black women require bringing them together in Womanist Theology. The goals of womanist theology include interrogating the social construction of black womanhood in relation to the black community and to assume a liberatory perspective so African American women can live emboldened lives within the African American community and within the larger society. Some of its tasks are excavating the life stories of poor women of African descent in the church and to understanding the "languages" of black women.

James H. Cone American theologian

James Hal Cone (1938–2018) was an American theologian, best known for his advocacy of black theology and black liberation theology. His 1969 book Black Theology and Black Power provided a new way to comprehensively define the distinctiveness of theology in the black church. His message was that Black Power, defined as black people asserting the humanity that white supremacy denied, was the gospel in America. Jesus came to liberate the oppressed, advocating the same thing as Black Power. He argued that white American churches preached a gospel based on white supremacy, antithetical to the gospel of Jesus. Cone's work was influential from the time of the book's publication, and his work remains influential today. His work has been both used and critiqued inside and outside the African-American theological community. He was the Charles Augustus Briggs Distinguished Professor of Systematic Theology at Union Theological Seminary until his death.

Black theology, or black liberation theology, refers to a theological perspective which originated among African-American seminarians and scholars, and in some black churches in the United States and later in other parts of the world. It contextualizes Christianity in an attempt to help those of African descent overcome oppression. It especially focuses on the injustices committed against African Americans and black South Africans during American segregation and apartheid, respectively.

The Kairos Document (KD) is a theological statement issued in 1985 by a group of mainly black South African theologians based predominantly in the townships of Soweto, South Africa. The document challenged the churches' response to what the authors saw as the vicious policies of the apartheid regime under the state of emergency declared on 21 July 1985. The KD evoked strong reactions and furious debates not only in South Africa, but world-wide.

Richard Bauckham British theologian

Richard J. Bauckham is an English Anglican scholar in theology, historical theology and New Testament studies, specialising in New Testament Christology and the Gospel of John. He is a senior scholar at Ridley Hall, Cambridge.

Christian feminism is a school of Christian theology which seeks to advance and understand the equality of men and women morally, socially, spiritually, and in leadership from a Christian perspective. Christian feminists argue that contributions by women, and an acknowledgment of women's value, are necessary for a complete understanding of Christianity. Christian feminists believe that God does not discriminate on the basis of biologically-determined characteristics such as sex and race, but created all humans to exist in harmony and equality, reguardless of race or gender. Christian feminists generally advocate for anti-essentialism as a part of their belief system, acknowledging that gender identities do not mandate a certain set of personality traits. Their major issues include the ordination of women, biblical equality in marriage, recognition of equal spiritual and moral abilities, reproductive rights, integration of gender neutral pronouns within readings of the Bible, and the search for a feminine or gender-transcendent divine. Christian feminists often draw on the teachings of other religions and ideologies in addition to biblical evidence, and other Christian based texts throughout history that advocate for women's rights.

African theology is Christian theology or black theology from the perspective of the African cultural context. Although there are very old Christian traditions on the continent, in the last centuries Christianity in Africa has been determined to a large extent by western forms of Christianity, brought by colonization and mission, until the mid-20th century.

Jean-Marc Ela Cameroonian sociologist and theologian

Jean-Marc Ela was a Cameroonian sociologist and theologian. Working variously as a diocesan priest and a professor, Ela was the author of many books on theology, philosophy, and social sciences in Africa. His most famous work, African Cry has been called the "soundest illustration" of the spirit of liberation theology in sub-Saharan Africa. His works are widely cited as exemplary of sub-Saharan African Christian theology for their focus on contextualisation and their emphasis on community-centered approaches to theology.

Jesse Ndwiga Kanyua Mugambi is a professor of philosophy and religious studies at the University of Nairobi with professional training in education and philosophy of religion. H

Christofascism is a combination of Christian and fascism coined by Dorothee Sölle in 1970. Sölle, a liberation theology proponent, used the term to describe the Christian church which she characterized as totalitarian and imperialistic.

Wonhee Anne Joh South Korean author

Wonhee Anne Joh is an author, theologian, professor and lecturer whose influence in the disciplines of religion, women's equality, and the Asian American experience has created a great deal of thought and positive discourse.

Asian feminist theology is a Christian feminist theology developed to be especially relevant to women in Asia. Inspired by both liberation theology and feminist theology, it aims to contextualize them to the conditions and experiences of Asian women.

Kwok Pui-lan Hong Konger Christian feminist theologian who formulated Asian feminist theology

Kwok Pui-lan is a Hong Kong-born feminist theologian known for her work on Asian feminist theology and postcolonial theology.

Postcolonial theology is the application of postcolonial criticism to Christian theology. As is in postcolonial discourse, the term postcolonial is used without a hyphen, denoting an intellectual reaction against the colonial, instead of being merely sequential to it.

Emmanuel Katongole is a Ugandan Catholic priest and theologian known for his work on violence and politics in Africa and theology of reconciliation.

Muriel Orevillo-Montenegro is a Filipina theologian known for her writings in Asian feminist theology.

References

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Katongole 2010, pp. 1–4, 22–23.
  2. ↑ Stinton 2004, p. 25.
  3. ↑ Farisani 2010, p. 510.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Copeland 2004, pp. 280–283.
  5. ↑ Kwok 2005, p. 82.
  6. ↑ Abraham 2015, p. 145.
  7. ↑ Mugambi & Magesa 1989, p. x.
  8. ↑ Stinton 2004, pp. 192–205.
  9. ↑ Mpunzi 1974, p. 131.
  10. ↑ Katongole 2010, pp. 22–23.
  11. 1 2 Copeland 2004, p. 277.
  12. ↑ Battle 2009.

Bibliography

Abraham, Susan (2015). "Postcolonial Theology". In Hovey, Craig; Phillips, Elizabeth (eds.). The Cambridge Companion to Christian Political Theology. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-1-107-63380-3.
Battle, Michael (2009). Reconciliation: The Ubuntu Theology of Desmond Tutu (rev. ed.). Cleveland, Ohio: Pilgrim Press. ISBN   978-0-8298-1833-8.
Copeland, M. Shawn (2004). "Black Political Theologies". In Scott, Peter; Cavanaugh, William T. (eds.). The Blackwell Companion to Political Theology. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell.
Farisani, E. B. (2010). "Black Biblical Hermeneutics and Ideologically Aware Reading of Texts". Scriptura. 105: 507–518. doi: 10.7833/105-0-169 . ISSN   2305-445X.
Katongole, Emmanuel (2010). The Sacrifice of Africa: A Political Theology for Africa. Eerdmans Ekklesia Series. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. ISBN   978-0-8028-6268-6.
Kwok Pui-lan (2005). Postcolonial Imagination and Feminist Theology. Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN   978-0-664-22883-5.
Mpunzi, Ananias (1974). "Black Theology as Liberation Theology". In Kee, Alistair (ed.). A Reader in Political Theology. London: SCM Press.
Mugambi, J. N. K.; Magesa, Laurenti (1989). "Introduction". In Mugambi, J. N. K.; Magesa, Laurenti (eds.). Jesus in African Christianity: Experimentation and Diversity in African Christology. Nairobi: Initiatives.
Stinton, Diane (2004). Jesus of Africa: Voices of Contemporary African Christologies. Faith and Cultures Series. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books. ISBN   978-1-57075-537-8.

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