Pub Date : 2017-01-01DOI: 10.17159/2413-3027/2017/V30N1A2
Kizito Kiyimba
Uganda’s recent history of violence has had an interesting characteristic: it has arguably been mainly within the Christian and more specifically Catholic religious space. I examine four cases of religious-related violence in order to cipher the epistemic roots of such violence. The four cases are: the Uganda Martyrs; Ms Alice Lakwena and the Holy Spirit Movement; Mr Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army; and Ms Ceredonia Mwerinde and the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God. I examine the literature critically in order to test the plausibility of various positions on the possible link between the Catholic religion and violence in Uganda. My analysis looks at the links both from the point of view of the perpetrators of violence and the adherent/victims of the violence. In the end, I find that the epistemic links are more justificatory/explanatory than they are causal.
{"title":"An analysis of the epistemic link between the Catholic religion and violence in Uganda's history","authors":"Kizito Kiyimba","doi":"10.17159/2413-3027/2017/V30N1A2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17159/2413-3027/2017/V30N1A2","url":null,"abstract":"Uganda’s recent history of violence has had an interesting characteristic: it has arguably been mainly within the Christian and more specifically Catholic religious space. I examine four cases of religious-related violence in order to cipher the epistemic roots of such violence. The four cases are: the Uganda Martyrs; Ms Alice Lakwena and the Holy Spirit Movement; Mr Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army; and Ms Ceredonia Mwerinde and the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God. I examine the literature critically in order to test the plausibility of various positions on the possible link between the Catholic religion and violence in Uganda. My analysis looks at the links both from the point of view of the perpetrators of violence and the adherent/victims of the violence. In the end, I find that the epistemic links are more justificatory/explanatory than they are causal.","PeriodicalId":42808,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of Religion","volume":"30 1","pages":"26-51"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67488796","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-01-01DOI: 10.17159/2413-3027/2017/V30N1A5
M. Manyonganise
Zimbabwe’s political history from 2000 to the present epoch has been characterized by violence. This violence reached its peak in 2008 when ZANU PF was defeated at the polls by the opposition party, MDC-T. The violence resulted in hundreds of people losing their lives while many more were maimed, displaced and/or sexually abused. In this context of political violence, various church groups emerged as the church in Zimbabwe broke its culture of silence and sought to condemn the deployment of divisive politics and the use of political violence as a means to political gain. One such group that emerged in 2000 is a forum of churches in the province of Manicaland called Churches in Manicaland (CiM). From the onset, CiM sought to bring healing to victims of political violence as well as reconciliation of communities in Manicaland through a number of activities. The 2008 political violence resulted in the signing of the Global Political Agreement in which the issue of national healing and reconciliation became officialised and critical national institutions (the church included) were implored to play their roles meaningfully. However, scholars on national healing and reconciliation have noted how gender is often not part of reconstruction processes in post-conflict nations. What this paper seeks to do is to evaluate CiM’s approach to gender in its participation in the national healing and reconciliation process in Zimbabwe, both at an unofficial level from 2000 and at the official level from 2008. Drawing on original empirical research (focus groups and interviews), the paper shows how CiM has adopted a general approach to the national healing and reconciliation Churches in Manicaland and Women’s Experiences of Political Violence 111 process, which has made women’s experiences of political violence invisible. It is envisaged that this is one way of informing the church to bring to the ‘centre’ women’s experiences of political violence.
{"title":"Invisibilising the victimised: churches in Manicaland and women's experiences of political violence in national healing and reconciliation in Zimbabwe","authors":"M. Manyonganise","doi":"10.17159/2413-3027/2017/V30N1A5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17159/2413-3027/2017/V30N1A5","url":null,"abstract":"Zimbabwe’s political history from 2000 to the present epoch has been characterized by violence. This violence reached its peak in 2008 when ZANU PF was defeated at the polls by the opposition party, MDC-T. The violence resulted in hundreds of people losing their lives while many more were maimed, displaced and/or sexually abused. In this context of political violence, various church groups emerged as the church in Zimbabwe broke its culture of silence and sought to condemn the deployment of divisive politics and the use of political violence as a means to political gain. One such group that emerged in 2000 is a forum of churches in the province of Manicaland called Churches in Manicaland (CiM). From the onset, CiM sought to bring healing to victims of political violence as well as reconciliation of communities in Manicaland through a number of activities. The 2008 political violence resulted in the signing of the Global Political Agreement in which the issue of national healing and reconciliation became officialised and critical national institutions (the church included) were implored to play their roles meaningfully. However, scholars on national healing and reconciliation have noted how gender is often not part of reconstruction processes in post-conflict nations. What this paper seeks to do is to evaluate CiM’s approach to gender in its participation in the national healing and reconciliation process in Zimbabwe, both at an unofficial level from 2000 and at the official level from 2008. Drawing on original empirical research (focus groups and interviews), the paper shows how CiM has adopted a general approach to the national healing and reconciliation Churches in Manicaland and Women’s Experiences of Political Violence 111 process, which has made women’s experiences of political violence invisible. It is envisaged that this is one way of informing the church to bring to the ‘centre’ women’s experiences of political violence.","PeriodicalId":42808,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of Religion","volume":"30 1","pages":"110-136"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67488864","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-01-01DOI: 10.17159/2413-3027/2017/V30N2A12
F. Hale
Although the eminent Spanish novelist and anticlericalist Vicente Blasco Ibáñez (1867-1928) received little scholarly attention outside his homeland for several decades, he gained significantly greater international notice in the latter half of the twentieth century. His novel of 1903, La Catedral, published in both the United Kingdom and the United States of America six years later as The Shadow of the Cathedral, is a scathing indictment of the conservative Roman Catholic religious establishment in Spain. Blasco Ibáñez faulted its intolerant monopoly on national spiritual life for much of the country’s cultural, political, and economic backwardness. Relying heavily on the subsequently discredited nineteenth-century belief that Andalusian Spain had been a model of religious toleration under Islamic hegemony for many generations following the Moorish invasion in the eight century and that this had fostered a golden era of cultural flourishing, he argued for the dismantling of Catholic privilege in favour of secularism, toleration, and pluralistic religious freedom to spur the country out of its stagnancy. This article explores both the construction and recent dismantling of the myth of religious harmony in Moorish Spain and how that perception of the Middle Ages is used rhetorically in The Shadow of the Cathedral.
虽然著名的西班牙小说家和反教权主义者维森特·布拉斯科Ibáñez(1867-1928)几十年来在国外很少受到学术关注，但他在20世纪下半叶获得了更大的国际关注。他1903年的小说《大教堂》(La Catedral)，六年后以《大教堂的阴影》(the Shadow of the Cathedral)的名字在英国和美国同时出版，是对西班牙保守的罗马天主教宗教机构的严厉控诉。布拉斯科Ibáñez将国家文化、政治和经济的落后归咎于它对国民精神生活的偏执垄断。19世纪，人们认为安达卢西亚的西班牙在8世纪摩尔人入侵后，是伊斯兰教统治下几代人宗教宽容的典范，这造就了一个文化繁荣的黄金时代。他主张废除天主教特权，支持世俗主义、宽容和多元化的宗教自由，以刺激这个国家走出停滞。本文探讨了摩尔人西班牙宗教和谐神话的构建和最近的瓦解，以及中世纪的看法如何在大教堂的阴影中被修辞地使用。
{"title":"Holy Toledo: Muslim-Christian Relations and Catholic Nationalism in Vicente Blasco Ibánez's The Shadow of the Cathedral","authors":"F. Hale","doi":"10.17159/2413-3027/2017/V30N2A12","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17159/2413-3027/2017/V30N2A12","url":null,"abstract":"Although the eminent Spanish novelist and anticlericalist Vicente Blasco Ibáñez (1867-1928) received little scholarly attention outside his homeland for several decades, he gained significantly greater international notice in the latter half of the twentieth century. His novel of 1903, La Catedral, published in both the United Kingdom and the United States of America six years later as The Shadow of the Cathedral, is a scathing indictment of the conservative Roman Catholic religious establishment in Spain. Blasco Ibáñez faulted its intolerant monopoly on national spiritual life for much of the country’s cultural, political, and economic backwardness. Relying heavily on the subsequently discredited nineteenth-century belief that Andalusian Spain had been a model of religious toleration under Islamic hegemony for many generations following the Moorish invasion in the eight century and that this had fostered a golden era of cultural flourishing, he argued for the dismantling of Catholic privilege in favour of secularism, toleration, and pluralistic religious freedom to spur the country out of its stagnancy. This article explores both the construction and recent dismantling of the myth of religious harmony in Moorish Spain and how that perception of the Middle Ages is used rhetorically in The Shadow of the Cathedral.","PeriodicalId":42808,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of Religion","volume":"30 1","pages":"281-296"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67488963","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-01-01DOI: 10.17159/2413-3027/2017/V30N2A13
F. Frescura
{"title":"Symbolic Dimensions of 19th Century Dutch Colonial Settlement at the Cape of Good Hope","authors":"F. Frescura","doi":"10.17159/2413-3027/2017/V30N2A13","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17159/2413-3027/2017/V30N2A13","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42808,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of Religion","volume":"30 1","pages":"297-329"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67488999","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-01-01DOI: 10.17159/2413-3027/2017/V30N2A2
S. Vawda
This paper is about foreign African Muslims, particularly Malawian and Senegalese Muslim migrants in Durban, South Africa. Modern 21 century migration processes are a global phenomenon deeply embedded in a complex interaction of social, economic and political patterns and processes, often leading to concentrations and enclaves people in large urban centres, such as Durban, along lines of religious, ethnic or national origins. Durban itself is also a major urban area in Southern Africa with a significant Muslim population and a centre of Islamic influence reaching out across the sub-continent, and may serve as a point of attraction for African Muslim migrants. Religious identity is an important factor that is imbricated in Malawian and Senegalese Muslims attempts to search for new solutions to their problems of adaptation, integration and assimilation into a new place. A key issue addressed in this paper is whether their identities, particularly religious, ethnic and national identities, rather than the normative values, provide a set of resources to accommodate themselves and pursue their aims of being gainfully employed as entrepreneurs and workers in a different country. De Certeau’s conceptual distinction between strategy and tactics is used as a framework to evaluate the way in which Malawian and Senegalese migrants use religion and associated values towards making a life for themselves in Durban.
{"title":"Migration and Muslim Identities: Malawians and Senegalese Muslims in Durban, South Africa","authors":"S. Vawda","doi":"10.17159/2413-3027/2017/V30N2A2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17159/2413-3027/2017/V30N2A2","url":null,"abstract":"This paper is about foreign African Muslims, particularly Malawian and Senegalese Muslim migrants in Durban, South Africa. Modern 21 century migration processes are a global phenomenon deeply embedded in a complex interaction of social, economic and political patterns and processes, often leading to concentrations and enclaves people in large urban centres, such as Durban, along lines of religious, ethnic or national origins. Durban itself is also a major urban area in Southern Africa with a significant Muslim population and a centre of Islamic influence reaching out across the sub-continent, and may serve as a point of attraction for African Muslim migrants. Religious identity is an important factor that is imbricated in Malawian and Senegalese Muslims attempts to search for new solutions to their problems of adaptation, integration and assimilation into a new place. A key issue addressed in this paper is whether their identities, particularly religious, ethnic and national identities, rather than the normative values, provide a set of resources to accommodate themselves and pursue their aims of being gainfully employed as entrepreneurs and workers in a different country. De Certeau’s conceptual distinction between strategy and tactics is used as a framework to evaluate the way in which Malawian and Senegalese migrants use religion and associated values towards making a life for themselves in Durban.","PeriodicalId":42808,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of Religion","volume":"30 1","pages":"32-74"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67489055","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-01-01DOI: 10.17159/2413-3027/2017/V30N2A11
Lee-Shae S. Scharnick-Udemans
Given the eruption of religion and media studies in the last two decades and following the predictions of leading scholars that the study of religion and media would come to represent a pivotal moment in the study of religion, the current dearth of studies about religion and media, from the Southern African region in general and South Africa in particular, suggest that this area of inquiry is in need of serious critical attention. This article investigates the role of religion in the history and development of the South African mediascape by analysing the role of religion in the banning and introduction of television under apartheid and the place of religion in the formulation of new media policy in the democratic era. This article argues that throughout the history of broadcasting in South Africa, religion has been mobilised in strategies and resources for nation building, and that there exists an unexpected continuity based on regulatory measures between the apartheid and post-apartheid contexts.
{"title":"A Historical and Critical Overview of Religion and Public Broadcasting in South Africa","authors":"Lee-Shae S. Scharnick-Udemans","doi":"10.17159/2413-3027/2017/V30N2A11","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17159/2413-3027/2017/V30N2A11","url":null,"abstract":"Given the eruption of religion and media studies in the last two decades and following the predictions of leading scholars that the study of religion and media would come to represent a pivotal moment in the study of religion, the current dearth of studies about religion and media, from the Southern African region in general and South Africa in particular, suggest that this area of inquiry is in need of serious critical attention. This article investigates the role of religion in the history and development of the South African mediascape by analysing the role of religion in the banning and introduction of television under apartheid and the place of religion in the formulation of new media policy in the democratic era. This article argues that throughout the history of broadcasting in South Africa, religion has been mobilised in strategies and resources for nation building, and that there exists an unexpected continuity based on regulatory measures between the apartheid and post-apartheid contexts.","PeriodicalId":42808,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of Religion","volume":"30 1","pages":"257-280"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67488947","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-01-01DOI: 10.17159/2413-3027/2017/V30N2A4
Margaret Ssebunya, B. Okyere-Manu
The consequences of the mining industry in Karamoja region have resulted into a serious environmental hazard to all forms of life in the area. For some reasons, efforts by the Ugandan government to respond to the environmental crisis seem inadequate. Investors in the mining sector and other stakeholders, particularly those who are directly affected, also seem not to be concerned with the dangers associated with the crisis. This situation raises a number of critical moral questions, for example, who is responsible for the degradation of the area? Why are the efforts of the government not yielding any results? Why are the locals who are bearing the brunt of the environmental crisis not showing any concerns? These and many more are the questions the article seeks to answer. Through the lens of the ethical theory of stewardship, the article challenges faith communities – particularly the two major religious groups in the area – Karamajong indigenous religion and Christianity – of the need to respond not only to humanity but also to the natural environment on which their existence depends. The article argues that responding to the environmental crisis should not be solely left to the government but rather is part of the moral and social responsibility of every individual including religious groups, in the area.
{"title":"Moral Responsibility and Environmental Conservation in Karamoja Mining Area: Towards a Religious Engagement","authors":"Margaret Ssebunya, B. Okyere-Manu","doi":"10.17159/2413-3027/2017/V30N2A4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17159/2413-3027/2017/V30N2A4","url":null,"abstract":"The consequences of the mining industry in Karamoja region have resulted into a serious environmental hazard to all forms of life in the area. For some reasons, efforts by the Ugandan government to respond to the environmental crisis seem inadequate. Investors in the mining sector and other stakeholders, particularly those who are directly affected, also seem not to be concerned with the dangers associated with the crisis. This situation raises a number of critical moral questions, for example, who is responsible for the degradation of the area? Why are the efforts of the government not yielding any results? Why are the locals who are bearing the brunt of the environmental crisis not showing any concerns? These and many more are the questions the article seeks to answer. Through the lens of the ethical theory of stewardship, the article challenges faith communities – particularly the two major religious groups in the area – Karamajong indigenous religion and Christianity – of the need to respond not only to humanity but also to the natural environment on which their existence depends. The article argues that responding to the environmental crisis should not be solely left to the government but rather is part of the moral and social responsibility of every individual including religious groups, in the area.","PeriodicalId":42808,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of Religion","volume":"30 1","pages":"90-104"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67488612","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-01-01DOI: 10.17159/2413-3027/2017/V30N1A4
V. Counted
CITATION: Counted, V. 2017. Attachment theory and religious violence : theorizing adult religious psychopathology. Journal for the study of religion, 30(1):78-109, doi:10.17159/2413-3027/2017/v30n1a4.
引文来源:count, V. 2017。依恋理论与宗教暴力:成人宗教精神病理学的理论化。宗教研究，30(1):78-109,doi:10.17159/2413-3027/2017/v30n1a4。
{"title":"Attachment theory and religious violence: theorizing adult religious psychopathology","authors":"V. Counted","doi":"10.17159/2413-3027/2017/V30N1A4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17159/2413-3027/2017/V30N1A4","url":null,"abstract":"CITATION: Counted, V. 2017. Attachment theory and religious violence : theorizing adult religious psychopathology. Journal for the study of religion, 30(1):78-109, doi:10.17159/2413-3027/2017/v30n1a4.","PeriodicalId":42808,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of Religion","volume":"30 1","pages":"78-109"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67488850","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-01-01DOI: 10.17159/2413-3027/2017/V30N2A8
Julius Musevenzi
This article analyses the changing and declining influence of the Johanne Marange Apostolic Church’s doctrine and belief system over its members’ behaviour and conduct. It appears, that this is as a result of the impact of the systematic roll-out of the broad-based biomedical health system, and sexual and reproductive health and rights conscientisation and interventions, by both civil society faith-based organisations and government agencies. Despite the dominance of the more than 70 year old church doctrine (since 1912), its hegemony over its church members has been increasingly challenged over the last two to three decades. Furthermore, this social pressure on the church’s beliefs and doctrines, has resulted in what, for the purposes of this article, I call, the emergence of a ‘dual doctrine system’. The church beliefs and doctrine were once regarded as impenetrable by outside beliefs, and highly fortified against rival doctrines and their related practices. Yet, it now appears that broad-based health conscientisation and health awareness programmes are systematically eroding the church’s doctrine and belief system. They also impact individual members, in so far as some have even been leaving the church. However, the challenge of the hegemony of the church’s doctrine and belief system has also seen some, who defend, uphold, and hold fast to their church traditions.
{"title":"The African Independent Apostolic Church's Doctrine under Threat: The Emerging Power of Faith-based Organisations' Interventions and the Johanne Marange Apostolic Church in Zimbabwe","authors":"Julius Musevenzi","doi":"10.17159/2413-3027/2017/V30N2A8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17159/2413-3027/2017/V30N2A8","url":null,"abstract":"This article analyses the changing and declining influence of the Johanne Marange Apostolic Church’s doctrine and belief system over its members’ behaviour and conduct. It appears, that this is as a result of the impact of the systematic roll-out of the broad-based biomedical health system, and sexual and reproductive health and rights conscientisation and interventions, by both civil society faith-based organisations and government agencies. Despite the dominance of the more than 70 year old church doctrine (since 1912), its hegemony over its church members has been increasingly challenged over the last two to three decades. Furthermore, this social pressure on the church’s beliefs and doctrines, has resulted in what, for the purposes of this article, I call, the emergence of a ‘dual doctrine system’. The church beliefs and doctrine were once regarded as impenetrable by outside beliefs, and highly fortified against rival doctrines and their related practices. Yet, it now appears that broad-based health conscientisation and health awareness programmes are systematically eroding the church’s doctrine and belief system. They also impact individual members, in so far as some have even been leaving the church. However, the challenge of the hegemony of the church’s doctrine and belief system has also seen some, who defend, uphold, and hold fast to their church traditions.","PeriodicalId":42808,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of Religion","volume":"108 1","pages":"178-206"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67488884","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-01-01DOI: 10.17159/2413-3027/2017/V30N2A9
Johnathan Jodamus
The role and place of South African Black theology in post-apartheid South Africa has been questioned since the advent of democracy in 1994. Recognising that South African Black theology was essentially ‘protest theology’ against an unjust White government, its utility in a post-apartheid context with a Black government in place, has been questioned. Predominant within this questioning is the political usefulness of Black Theology. What has remained largely un-examined in the literature is a focus on the prefix ‘Black’ in ‘black theology’. It is this that forms the focus of this article. Scrutiny of the prefix ‘black’ requires a scrutiny of the complexity of racial identity in South Africa. Notwithstanding the ways in which scholars reach for the ‘inclusive Biko notion of Black’ as a means to almost ‘get on’ with the political task of black theology, as opposed to debating identity, in this article I argue that critical race and identity theory are central to discussions on resurrecting Black Theologies. I offer a disclaimer that I will not be focusing so much on the matter of theology in this paper, but my focus will be on how identity is racially constructed and I offer suggestions as to how we may begin to think more critically regarding this category within a subject such as black theology. I bring my experiences of being ‘Coloured’ in South Africa into dialogue with critical identity theorists and argue that we need to ‘make the circle bigger,’ to include diverse perspectives on identity and that while Spivak’s notion of 1 Mofokeng (May 1988: 34 42); Molthabi November 1994: 113 141); Maluleke (November 1996: 3 19); Tutu 1986: 256 64); Maimela (1991: 141 59); Mosala (1986); Mosala (1989).
{"title":"'Make the Circle Bigger': Alternate Discourses of Identity Construction in Black Theologies","authors":"Johnathan Jodamus","doi":"10.17159/2413-3027/2017/V30N2A9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17159/2413-3027/2017/V30N2A9","url":null,"abstract":"The role and place of South African Black theology in post-apartheid South Africa has been questioned since the advent of democracy in 1994. Recognising that South African Black theology was essentially ‘protest theology’ against an unjust White government, its utility in a post-apartheid context with a Black government in place, has been questioned. Predominant within this questioning is the political usefulness of Black Theology. What has remained largely un-examined in the literature is a focus on the prefix ‘Black’ in ‘black theology’. It is this that forms the focus of this article. Scrutiny of the prefix ‘black’ requires a scrutiny of the complexity of racial identity in South Africa. Notwithstanding the ways in which scholars reach for the ‘inclusive Biko notion of Black’ as a means to almost ‘get on’ with the political task of black theology, as opposed to debating identity, in this article I argue that critical race and identity theory are central to discussions on resurrecting Black Theologies. I offer a disclaimer that I will not be focusing so much on the matter of theology in this paper, but my focus will be on how identity is racially constructed and I offer suggestions as to how we may begin to think more critically regarding this category within a subject such as black theology. I bring my experiences of being ‘Coloured’ in South Africa into dialogue with critical identity theorists and argue that we need to ‘make the circle bigger,’ to include diverse perspectives on identity and that while Spivak’s notion of 1 Mofokeng (May 1988: 34 42); Molthabi November 1994: 113 141); Maluleke (November 1996: 3 19); Tutu 1986: 256 64); Maimela (1991: 141 59); Mosala (1986); Mosala (1989).","PeriodicalId":42808,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of Religion","volume":"1 1","pages":"207-227"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67488895","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：