Predestination, good and evil, human responsibility, and mission. The background of this article is the challenge that Paul deals with in Romans, namely predestination and the reference to good and evil in theology. It seems as if God ordained good and evil. God is, however, holy and totally good. Sources by Augustine, Calvin, Weaver, Van de Beek and others highlight the questions in this regard. The central implications of the cross of Jesus, as well as the issue of human responsibility are extremely relevant in this regard. The objectives are to give a sound theological evaluation of the question of good and evil from the perspective of reformed theology in interaction with Scripture. Interaction with Scripture and theologians leads to a literature study and thereafter exegetical, hermeneutical and systematic theology issues are addressed. The results established that different positions are taken, but God is just and not the author of sin. This implicates a clear view on mission: reject sin and turn to God. The conclusions are: God is holy, but all mankind should reject evil and accept that God is the fountian of good. Mission is the act of the Triune God (missio Dei) in Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit, to lead sinners from darkness to God. The good in Jesus Christ, by his death on the cross and in his resurrection, overcame evil.Contribution: The article illuminates the issue of good and evil in a new way and offers insight into its significance for the mission. This has significance for the current missiological engagement.
{"title":"Voorbeskikking, goed en kwaad, menslike verantwoordelikheid, en die sending","authors":"Pieter Verster","doi":"10.4102/ids.v57i1.2986","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4102/ids.v57i1.2986","url":null,"abstract":"Predestination, good and evil, human responsibility, and mission. The background of this article is the challenge that Paul deals with in Romans, namely predestination and the reference to good and evil in theology. It seems as if God ordained good and evil. God is, however, holy and totally good. Sources by Augustine, Calvin, Weaver, Van de Beek and others highlight the questions in this regard. The central implications of the cross of Jesus, as well as the issue of human responsibility are extremely relevant in this regard. The objectives are to give a sound theological evaluation of the question of good and evil from the perspective of reformed theology in interaction with Scripture. Interaction with Scripture and theologians leads to a literature study and thereafter exegetical, hermeneutical and systematic theology issues are addressed. The results established that different positions are taken, but God is just and not the author of sin. This implicates a clear view on mission: reject sin and turn to God. The conclusions are: God is holy, but all mankind should reject evil and accept that God is the fountian of good. Mission is the act of the Triune God (missio Dei) in Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit, to lead sinners from darkness to God. The good in Jesus Christ, by his death on the cross and in his resurrection, overcame evil.Contribution: The article illuminates the issue of good and evil in a new way and offers insight into its significance for the mission. This has significance for the current missiological engagement.","PeriodicalId":44312,"journal":{"name":"In die Skriflig-In Luce Verbi","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136348526","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}
{"title":"Reviewing GKSA worldview from mission-diverted to mission-oriented history biblically","authors":"Takalani A. Muswubi","doi":"10.4102/ids.v57i1.2963","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4102/ids.v57i1.2963","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44312,"journal":{"name":"In die Skriflig-In Luce Verbi","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135776405","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}
{"title":"Lament: An integral element of Pentecostal worship","authors":"Marius Nel","doi":"10.4102/ids.v57i1.2991","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4102/ids.v57i1.2991","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44312,"journal":{"name":"In die Skriflig-In Luce Verbi","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135776156","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}
The meaning or derivation of the lexeme Šaddāy remains a topic with little to no consensus in modern scholarship. Most studies done on Šaddāy lean strongly on etymological arguments to support whatever derivative is argued for. The result is that the pragmatic role of Šaddāy , in whichever biblical book, is often neglected. In particular, the pragmatic role of Šaddāy in the book of Job has not been adequately examined. With a pragmatic analysis in mind, this article hopes to achieve the following: Firstly, for a review of gaps in the relevant literature, a short overview of studies related to the lexeme Šaddāy will be given, which includes etymological studies, philological studies, religious-historical studies, as well as contextual, and comparative studies. Secondly, a description of substratum text studies will be given, and an analysis of the pragmatic role of Šaddāy in the book of Job. The methods involved for this analysis include linguistic and literary-critical. Lastly, this study will look at how this approach can change our understanding of the possible conceptualisations of Šaddāy . Contribution: Firstly, this article contributes to the discussion of the pragmatic roles of Šaddāy and other deities that appear in the book of Job. Secondly, this article is also particularly applicable to the interpretation of the nature of the godhead or early pantheon in the substratum text of Job.
{"title":"Preliminary ideas on a substratum text of Job and the depiction of Šaddāy","authors":"Margaretha J. Kruger","doi":"10.4102/ids.v57i1.2967","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4102/ids.v57i1.2967","url":null,"abstract":"The meaning or derivation of the lexeme Šaddāy remains a topic with little to no consensus in modern scholarship. Most studies done on Šaddāy lean strongly on etymological arguments to support whatever derivative is argued for. The result is that the pragmatic role of Šaddāy , in whichever biblical book, is often neglected. In particular, the pragmatic role of Šaddāy in the book of Job has not been adequately examined. With a pragmatic analysis in mind, this article hopes to achieve the following: Firstly, for a review of gaps in the relevant literature, a short overview of studies related to the lexeme Šaddāy will be given, which includes etymological studies, philological studies, religious-historical studies, as well as contextual, and comparative studies. Secondly, a description of substratum text studies will be given, and an analysis of the pragmatic role of Šaddāy in the book of Job. The methods involved for this analysis include linguistic and literary-critical. Lastly, this study will look at how this approach can change our understanding of the possible conceptualisations of Šaddāy . Contribution: Firstly, this article contributes to the discussion of the pragmatic roles of Šaddāy and other deities that appear in the book of Job. Secondly, this article is also particularly applicable to the interpretation of the nature of the godhead or early pantheon in the substratum text of Job.","PeriodicalId":44312,"journal":{"name":"In die Skriflig-In Luce Verbi","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135973533","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}
This research focuses, firstly, on a farewell from a certain manifestation of traditional, reformed ‘tamed’ theism (that is in this case, theism which neglects or represses the authentic biblical insight into the triune God, who reveals himself in unfathomable hiddenness or ‘masking’). The latter dimension of genuine theism was a central rediscovery of the 16th century Reformation which, however, was widely neglected and even ‘nearly totally forgotten’, according to H. Bavinck, in post-Reformation scholasticism. Reformed theism thus participated to a large measure, in the general rationalistic climate of the modern paradigm and its dogmatic domestication of the living God, into a cerebrally manageable idea of a God who forms the apex of a world system, constructed by sovereign Western man. The research also focuses, in the second place, on a farewell towards recovering the ‘always greater God’, who hides himself, as it were behind a mask, in dazzling, impenetrable light. He reveals himself obliquely from the backside, as to Moses, only after he had passed. In the fullness of time, he revealed himself in the hiddenness of Jesus Christ, culminating in the deformed humanity of a wretched criminal dying on a cross. This resurrected and exalted Crucified is now hidden in God. On the way to the final eschaton, he reveals himself in ‘the garb’ of his Spirit-energised Word and sacraments. Two examples of a tamed theism, possibly neglecting Divine hiddenness, are taken from our Afrikaans-reformed ambience: Afrikaner nationalism, and the sporadic encouragement to erect signs of the kingdom of God in our world. Contribution: This research, firstly, contributes to the diagnosis and discarding of a kind of distorted reformed theism that has ‘domesticated’ the inscrutable hiddenness of the living triune God (still so vital to the magisterial Reformers) through a post-Reformation process of recovered scholasticism. In some ways, this frequently blended into rationalism in such a way that it did not escape accommodation to post-Enlightenment bourgeois or civil theism. Bourgeois theism is currently collapsing rapidly in many Christian theologies and churches of the West. Secondly, it contributes to the quest of many – also reformed – Christians to arrive at a renewed confession and experience in the faith of truly biblical theism. This is theism of the Deus semper major , which gives due honour to the ineffable triune God as absconditus et revelatus . Lastly, it contributes to the self-searching of Afrikaans-reformed believers as to the presence, –only traces – of tamed theism in our nationalistic heritage, and in our rightly valued theology of the kingdom of God.
{"title":"Hidden healer: Farewell to reformed ‘tamed’ theism","authors":"Petrus P. Kruger","doi":"10.4102/ids.v57i1.2935","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4102/ids.v57i1.2935","url":null,"abstract":"This research focuses, firstly, on a farewell from a certain manifestation of traditional, reformed ‘tamed’ theism (that is in this case, theism which neglects or represses the authentic biblical insight into the triune God, who reveals himself in unfathomable hiddenness or ‘masking’). The latter dimension of genuine theism was a central rediscovery of the 16th century Reformation which, however, was widely neglected and even ‘nearly totally forgotten’, according to H. Bavinck, in post-Reformation scholasticism. Reformed theism thus participated to a large measure, in the general rationalistic climate of the modern paradigm and its dogmatic domestication of the living God, into a cerebrally manageable idea of a God who forms the apex of a world system, constructed by sovereign Western man. The research also focuses, in the second place, on a farewell towards recovering the ‘always greater God’, who hides himself, as it were behind a mask, in dazzling, impenetrable light. He reveals himself obliquely from the backside, as to Moses, only after he had passed. In the fullness of time, he revealed himself in the hiddenness of Jesus Christ, culminating in the deformed humanity of a wretched criminal dying on a cross. This resurrected and exalted Crucified is now hidden in God. On the way to the final eschaton, he reveals himself in ‘the garb’ of his Spirit-energised Word and sacraments. Two examples of a tamed theism, possibly neglecting Divine hiddenness, are taken from our Afrikaans-reformed ambience: Afrikaner nationalism, and the sporadic encouragement to erect signs of the kingdom of God in our world. Contribution: This research, firstly, contributes to the diagnosis and discarding of a kind of distorted reformed theism that has ‘domesticated’ the inscrutable hiddenness of the living triune God (still so vital to the magisterial Reformers) through a post-Reformation process of recovered scholasticism. In some ways, this frequently blended into rationalism in such a way that it did not escape accommodation to post-Enlightenment bourgeois or civil theism. Bourgeois theism is currently collapsing rapidly in many Christian theologies and churches of the West. Secondly, it contributes to the quest of many – also reformed – Christians to arrive at a renewed confession and experience in the faith of truly biblical theism. This is theism of the Deus semper major , which gives due honour to the ineffable triune God as absconditus et revelatus . Lastly, it contributes to the self-searching of Afrikaans-reformed believers as to the presence, –only traces – of tamed theism in our nationalistic heritage, and in our rightly valued theology of the kingdom of God.","PeriodicalId":44312,"journal":{"name":"In die Skriflig-In Luce Verbi","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135372269","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}
Sexual intercourse without marriage; reflections from natural revelation. The Western Church, following in the footsteps of Tertullian, Augustine, and Thomas Aquinas, teaches that God’s will can be derived from creation and the way God rules the world. In the Protestant tradition this is reflected in the Dutch Creed ( Confessio Belgica , art. 2) and in the first part of Calvin’s Institute. This article applies this paradigm to the field of traditional Christian ethics in the context of the 21st century, post sexual revolution and the technological developments that hastened it. It specifically addresses the appropriateness of sexual intercourse without marriage and explores whether the paradigm of natural revelation may still apply post sexual revolution. This article argues that social and psychological research confirms traditional Christian teachings and, from the notion of natural revelation, makes a meaningful contribution to the ethical reflection on this subject. Contribution: This article contributes to the theological reflection on the appropriateness of sexual intercourse before marriage when ultimately a lifelong marriage commitment (with each other or a different partner) is regarded as a long-term goal in life. This contribution derives its conclusions not from the Bible, but uniquely restricts its arguments from the perspective of natural theology on the basis of the data that recent sociological research provides.
{"title":"Seksuele gemeenschap zonder huwelijk; reflecties vanuit natuurlijke openbaring","authors":"Benno A. Zuiddam","doi":"10.4102/ids.v57i1.2950","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4102/ids.v57i1.2950","url":null,"abstract":"Sexual intercourse without marriage; reflections from natural revelation. The Western Church, following in the footsteps of Tertullian, Augustine, and Thomas Aquinas, teaches that God’s will can be derived from creation and the way God rules the world. In the Protestant tradition this is reflected in the Dutch Creed ( Confessio Belgica , art. 2) and in the first part of Calvin’s Institute. This article applies this paradigm to the field of traditional Christian ethics in the context of the 21st century, post sexual revolution and the technological developments that hastened it. It specifically addresses the appropriateness of sexual intercourse without marriage and explores whether the paradigm of natural revelation may still apply post sexual revolution. This article argues that social and psychological research confirms traditional Christian teachings and, from the notion of natural revelation, makes a meaningful contribution to the ethical reflection on this subject. Contribution: This article contributes to the theological reflection on the appropriateness of sexual intercourse before marriage when ultimately a lifelong marriage commitment (with each other or a different partner) is regarded as a long-term goal in life. This contribution derives its conclusions not from the Bible, but uniquely restricts its arguments from the perspective of natural theology on the basis of the data that recent sociological research provides.","PeriodicalId":44312,"journal":{"name":"In die Skriflig-In Luce Verbi","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135371769","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}
{"title":"J.D. Vorster en die Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerkorde van 1962: Die Dordtse Kerkorde aangepas by die eise van ons dag?","authors":"Pieter J. Strauss","doi":"10.4102/ids.v57i1.2942","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4102/ids.v57i1.2942","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44312,"journal":{"name":"In die Skriflig-In Luce Verbi","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135823889","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}
This article addresses the problematic nature of the traditional approach to interpreting and translating Job 1:15–19 and the conventional artistic depictions of the four calamities experienced by Job. The traditional view is grounded in an objectivistic perspective on language, which assumes that meaning is founded on historical truth and can only be established through direct correspondence between a sentence and an objective state in the world. However, this approach is problematic when viewed through the lens of experientialist language theory, and its emphasis on representational formats. This article argues that the representational format in the narrative of Job 1:15–19 is characterised by a fixed conceptual element; specifically, the dichotomy between feminine and masculine, which operates as a contested point within the narrative. To establish the boundaries and refine the theoretical principles necessary for elucidating unconscious conceptual image schemas such as feminine-masculine, this article proposes a blended text-art approach as a means of representing the perceptual system that underlies this contested concept. Collaborating with a local artist, Hennie Kruger, the aim of this article is to identify meaningful patterns in the image schema and provide a redescription of experience, by means of a process of perceptual meaning analysis within the context of art, as an ‘essentially contested concept’. This article personifies Sheba as a metonymy for the voiceless sufferer – the widow and orphan – as well as fire from God out of heaven, mantic wisdom, and wind-all in the feminine gender. By rendering abstract concepts more immediate and accessible, the image schema of feminine-masculine is made more tangible. While the image schema of feminine-masculine is inherently schematic, and therefore, more abstract in nature, the combination and flow of the four paintings embody the concordant nature of an image schema, with individual mental images elucidating the details of the schema. Ultimately, the paradox evident in each scene serves to illustrate the disruption of the divine order within the feminine-masculine image schema. Contribution: This article contributes to the understanding and translation of the calamities described in Job 1 in the Hebrew Bible.
{"title":"Exploring the feminine-masculine dichotomy in Job 1:15-19: A text-art collaboration","authors":"Adriaan Lamprecht","doi":"10.4102/ids.v57i1.2972","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4102/ids.v57i1.2972","url":null,"abstract":"This article addresses the problematic nature of the traditional approach to interpreting and translating Job 1:15–19 and the conventional artistic depictions of the four calamities experienced by Job. The traditional view is grounded in an objectivistic perspective on language, which assumes that meaning is founded on historical truth and can only be established through direct correspondence between a sentence and an objective state in the world. However, this approach is problematic when viewed through the lens of experientialist language theory, and its emphasis on representational formats. This article argues that the representational format in the narrative of Job 1:15–19 is characterised by a fixed conceptual element; specifically, the dichotomy between feminine and masculine, which operates as a contested point within the narrative. To establish the boundaries and refine the theoretical principles necessary for elucidating unconscious conceptual image schemas such as feminine-masculine, this article proposes a blended text-art approach as a means of representing the perceptual system that underlies this contested concept. Collaborating with a local artist, Hennie Kruger, the aim of this article is to identify meaningful patterns in the image schema and provide a redescription of experience, by means of a process of perceptual meaning analysis within the context of art, as an ‘essentially contested concept’. This article personifies Sheba as a metonymy for the voiceless sufferer – the widow and orphan – as well as fire from God out of heaven, mantic wisdom, and wind-all in the feminine gender. By rendering abstract concepts more immediate and accessible, the image schema of feminine-masculine is made more tangible. While the image schema of feminine-masculine is inherently schematic, and therefore, more abstract in nature, the combination and flow of the four paintings embody the concordant nature of an image schema, with individual mental images elucidating the details of the schema. Ultimately, the paradox evident in each scene serves to illustrate the disruption of the divine order within the feminine-masculine image schema. Contribution: This article contributes to the understanding and translation of the calamities described in Job 1 in the Hebrew Bible.","PeriodicalId":44312,"journal":{"name":"In die Skriflig-In Luce Verbi","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135045097","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}
When the economy turned downwards across most African nations over the past two decades hitherto today, multifarious neo-Pentecostal churches correspondingly multiplied in and beyond the Global South. While it ordinarily appeared to be a revolutionary Africanisation of Christian revival through massive indigenous evangelisation and establishment of new denominations, countless leading prophetic apostles were selfishly enriching themselves paradoxically in the world’s headquarters of poverty, where the needy are multiplying and dying. Most diaconal publications engage with classical and mainline ecclesiology. Notably, minimum scholarly attention has been given to diakonia in African neo-Pentecostalism. Applying grounded theory, researching through the available literature, observation and the media, this article sought answers to issues that problematise diakonia in African neo-Pentecostalism. It unfolded and concluded that, instead of being other-centred, the generality of neo-Pentecostal leaders are self-centred, greedy opportunists exploiting the needy. Consequently, it recommended theological education, ecumenical engagement, and the establishment of an inclusive and independent regulatory body to enlighten and empower gospel ministers to revise their hermeneutics, theologies, ecclesiologies, governance and administration for the accomplishment of diakonia , as well as other dimensions of missio ecclesiae . Contribution: This article contributes to the transformational development of African Spiritualities and Leadership in Ecclesiology and Missiology by reviewing diakonia in African neo-Pentecostalism.
{"title":"Serving the needy from the greedy: Reviewing Diakonia in African neo-Pentecostalism","authors":"Kimion Tagwirei","doi":"10.4102/ids.v57i1.2981","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4102/ids.v57i1.2981","url":null,"abstract":"When the economy turned downwards across most African nations over the past two decades hitherto today, multifarious neo-Pentecostal churches correspondingly multiplied in and beyond the Global South. While it ordinarily appeared to be a revolutionary Africanisation of Christian revival through massive indigenous evangelisation and establishment of new denominations, countless leading prophetic apostles were selfishly enriching themselves paradoxically in the world’s headquarters of poverty, where the needy are multiplying and dying. Most diaconal publications engage with classical and mainline ecclesiology. Notably, minimum scholarly attention has been given to diakonia in African neo-Pentecostalism. Applying grounded theory, researching through the available literature, observation and the media, this article sought answers to issues that problematise diakonia in African neo-Pentecostalism. It unfolded and concluded that, instead of being other-centred, the generality of neo-Pentecostal leaders are self-centred, greedy opportunists exploiting the needy. Consequently, it recommended theological education, ecumenical engagement, and the establishment of an inclusive and independent regulatory body to enlighten and empower gospel ministers to revise their hermeneutics, theologies, ecclesiologies, governance and administration for the accomplishment of diakonia , as well as other dimensions of missio ecclesiae . Contribution: This article contributes to the transformational development of African Spiritualities and Leadership in Ecclesiology and Missiology by reviewing diakonia in African neo-Pentecostalism.","PeriodicalId":44312,"journal":{"name":"In die Skriflig-In Luce Verbi","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135044829","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}
This article compares a Setswana philosophy of community self-upliftment and self-reliance, known as letsema, with communion ecclesiology. The intention is to contribute towards the decolonisation of theology project. The objectives are to enlighten theologians that African philosophies are vital in decolonising theology and that these philosophies of botho or ubuntu enhance understanding of ecclesiology from the African perspective. A literature review, starts with a philosophical definition of letsema and make a comparison of letsema and communion ecclesiology, showing how the two are complementary and can work symbiotically to decolonise theology in Africa. Letsema, like communion ecclesiology is voluntary, non-hierarchical, goal-oriented, and purposeful. Communion ecclesiology is the perichoretic mutuality of the triune God with those who are called out to be a koinonia of participants in the Kingdom of God. Acts 2:42–47 express the essence of communion ecclesiology. African communities are religious; therefore, using any epistemology to enhance religion is accepted and appreciated. Religion runs deep in the veins of Africans. Letsema is indeed a communion ecclesiology in action (Ac 2:42–47) (the togetherness [ homothumadon ] of the church) - the community that coherently lives together with the trinitarian God, expressing its identity through doctrine, prayer, eucharist, sharing, and embracing each other indiscriminately. Contribution: Through the interdisciplinary approach, this article engages socio-history, philosophy, anthropology, theology, and psychology to express the importance of African philosophies in the processes of decolonising theology. The Letsema concept is communion ecclesiology in action and the two can work symbiotically to decolonise theology.
{"title":"Letsema: Communion ecclesiology in action","authors":"Kelebogile T. Resane","doi":"10.4102/ids.v57i1.2989","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4102/ids.v57i1.2989","url":null,"abstract":"This article compares a Setswana philosophy of community self-upliftment and self-reliance, known as letsema, with communion ecclesiology. The intention is to contribute towards the decolonisation of theology project. The objectives are to enlighten theologians that African philosophies are vital in decolonising theology and that these philosophies of botho or ubuntu enhance understanding of ecclesiology from the African perspective. A literature review, starts with a philosophical definition of letsema and make a comparison of letsema and communion ecclesiology, showing how the two are complementary and can work symbiotically to decolonise theology in Africa. Letsema, like communion ecclesiology is voluntary, non-hierarchical, goal-oriented, and purposeful. Communion ecclesiology is the perichoretic mutuality of the triune God with those who are called out to be a koinonia of participants in the Kingdom of God. Acts 2:42–47 express the essence of communion ecclesiology. African communities are religious; therefore, using any epistemology to enhance religion is accepted and appreciated. Religion runs deep in the veins of Africans. Letsema is indeed a communion ecclesiology in action (Ac 2:42–47) (the togetherness [ homothumadon ] of the church) - the community that coherently lives together with the trinitarian God, expressing its identity through doctrine, prayer, eucharist, sharing, and embracing each other indiscriminately. Contribution: Through the interdisciplinary approach, this article engages socio-history, philosophy, anthropology, theology, and psychology to express the importance of African philosophies in the processes of decolonising theology. The Letsema concept is communion ecclesiology in action and the two can work symbiotically to decolonise theology.","PeriodicalId":44312,"journal":{"name":"In die Skriflig-In Luce Verbi","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135303665","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}
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