"Imagining a just and equitable African Christian community" : a critical analysis of the contribution of Theological Education Fund/Ecumenical Theological Education (1910-2012).

Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2013.This study utilizes a systematic review method to assess literature about the Protestant Christian tradition to enhance theological education in the African context. It explores the development and transformation of African theological education in the period 1910 to 2012. A ‘follow the money trail method of investigation’ was utilized to expose the theological issues that African theologians fundraised for African theological education through the Theological Education Fund/Ecumenical Theological Education of World Council of Churches. These were perceived as crucial in developing an African theological education that promotes the principles of a just and equitable African Christian community. The primary data was extracted by utilizing an approach that demanded searching various media sources which included electronic databases. The search strategy for electronic databases was developed from the key words and phrases of the research question. The search yielded about 10, 821 results and having carefully perused through them, 169 primary sources were included in this study. This was significant as it helped make sense of a large body of literature and was a means of isolating and synthesising the main theories and pragmatics of African theological education. The insights gained from this study are significant as a contribution to the current search for a vision of African theological education that promotes the principles of a just and equitable African Christian community in the twenty-first century. The study makes two unique contributions in the search and vision for African theological education. The contribution lies in constructing an example of an African pedagogy of community of life which is based on education for life-giving. This pedagogy is based on the Bemba understanding of insaka which is a process of life-giving-learning methodology. This theme is as relevant for global Christianity as it is to the Bemba people in their quest for life-giving theological education. Another critical contribution lies in the understanding that through Africanization, African theological education has been in a process of acquiring its own unique character or theological identity. African theological education has shifted from a merely dogmatic orientation to praxis orientation. This is based on a theological pedagogy that recognises that doing theological education involves critical engagement in a missional process of liberation—of seeking fullness of life in its interpenetrative dimensions as spiritual-material starting with the least of the community, but embracing the whole of God’s creation. To achieve this, theological education has to cut across denominational allegiances, privileging of academic disciplines, and embracing the insaka pedagogy of life through ecumenical and trans-disciplinary approaches. The viability of African theological education resides in its critical engagement with the concrete societal challenges of the African peoples. As a result, this study argues that creating a just and equitable African Christian community to a large extent depends on embracing the life-giving pedagogy as an imperative in African theological education

Creation as a dwelling place of God : a critical analysis of an African biocentric theology in the works of Gabriel M. Setiloane.

Thesis (M.Th.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2010.The study argues that for the African church to become responsive to the changing circumstances with regard to the African ecological crisis, there is a need to reconstruct those aspects of Christianity that are non-functional in an African Christian context. Drawing insights from both Gabriel Setiloane‘s thoughts on African Biocentric theology and the myths of origin among the Yoruba, the Chewa and the Boshongo people, the study argues that in African cosmology, there is a clear interconnectedness that does not allow for complete independence of one another as is the case in the western world-view. In this regard, the study argues that these African myths of origin are not only feasible but are a more plausible theological response to the contemporary understanding of the universe emerging from scientific explanation of the development of life on earth than the Judaeo-Christian myth of origin (Setiloane 1986:15). In African thought, as envisaged by Setiloane and the three myths of origin, cosmic harmony and balance depend on the integrity of each being for the sake of all other creation. This means that every action that does not affirm life in the cosmos has an effect not only on other creation but on humanity as well. Thus, the study proposes that for African Christian ecological theology to be effective in the context of Africa, first, it must embrace a unified approach to the cosmos and all things because both the physical and spiritual share the same community and the Creator. Thus, there will be equality between humans and nonhuman nature. Second, it must rediscover the Holy Spirit in the African concept of Vital Force and God must be seen as dwelling in the cosmos through the Holy Spirit. This view will re-sacralise the material universe on account that it will be seen as the holy of holies, a dwelling place of God

Enabling Liminary Prophetic Witness to Xenophobia in South Africa: A Missiological Spirit Response

Abstract Missiological Spirit as multidisciplinary approach gives particular attention to how interaction with anthropology, sociology, theology and ritual studies can transform the Church in South Africa through reconceptualising some of the key Christian doctrines in the light of liminality theory. Through the case study of 2015 xenophobic attacks in South Africa that exemplifies the affinity between public speech and public violence, the article shows how Missiological Spirit framework can inspire and empower South African Christians to respond adequately to the plague of xenophobia through consciousness raising as means to prophetically resist violence entrenched in public speeches.Keywords: Public Speech, Missiological Spirit, South Africa, Xenophobia, liminality, Kingdom of God, EucharistOpsommingDie Missiologiese Gees is ‘n multidissiplinêre benadering tot die ekklesiologie wat gegrond is die begrip dat alles menslike kennis, insluitende sekulêre disciplines, ‘n mate van verlossende moontlikheid in hou, omdat die Gees vandie waarheid aktief betrokke is in elke dimensie van die menslike gees. In hierdie artikel veral kruis die gegewe met antropologie, teologie en studies van ritueel om aan te dui hoe hierdie dissiplines in interaksie kan tree om die Kerk in Suid-Afrika te transformer deur ‘n herkonseptualisering van sekere sleuteldoktrines van die Christendom in die lig van die teorie van liminaliteit. Deur ‘n gevallestudie van die 2015 xenofobiese aanvalle in Suid-Afrika wat die affiniteit van openbare redevoering en openbare geweld uitspel, toon die artikel aan hoe ‘n Missiologiese Geesraamwerk Suid-Afrikaanse Christene kan inspirer en versterk om toepaslik te reageer op die plaag van xenofobie deur bewusmaking as profetiese teenvoeter teen geweld.Sleutelwoorde: Openbare redevoering, Missiologiese Gees, Suid-Afrika, xenofobie, liminaliteit, God se koninkryk, Eucharisthttps://doi.org/10.19108/KOERS.81.1.221

‘The Ngabwe Covenant’ and the Search for an African Theology of Eco-Pneumato-Relational Way of Being in Zambia

This study explores the ways in which the born-again traditional leaders in Zambia are redefining neo-Pentecostal interaction with nonhuman creation. It demonstrates their attempts to rapture new religious imaginations in interstitial spaces between neo-Pentecostalism and Africa’s old spiritual systems. Since eco-spirituality is foundational to most African traditional institutions, some born again traditional leaders are forced to search for contextualized forms of neo-Pentecostalism to form new collective expressions of the spirituality of healing and reconciliation of all things. Grounded in the third space translation approach, this study analyzes ‘The Ngabwe Covenant’ which was made by the late neo-Pentecostal clergy and later traditional leader Ngabwe upon his inauguration as the traditional leader of Lamba-Lenje-and–Lima people of Central Province in Zambia. The study argues that Chief Ngabwe attempted to translate neo-Pentecostal spirituality through a traditional spiritual system of eco-relationality. In so doing, neo-Pentecostal spirituality and traditional religio-cultural heritages found new meaning and home within the hybridized (new) religious space. The study underlines that the resultant religious view which could be described as an African theology of eco-pneumato-relational way of being was envisioned as a new spiritual foundation for the Ngabwe kingdom. The article concludes that Rev. TL. Ngabwe’s theology of Spirit’s indwelling of the natural world is a critical contribution to neo-Pentecostal search for life-giving interactions between human and nonhuman creation

Theological education for social transformation: a missiological analysis of core elements in the theology of John Samuel Pobee

The study is a critical analysis of John S. Pobee’s theological thoughts on theological education in Africa focusing on social transformation. It argues that that for theological education to become relevant in the African context, it must be informed by the daily existential experiences of African people on the grassroots. By utilising a missiological analytical research methodology, the study has demonstrated that the mission of God is an all-embracing in which every Christian participates or struggles together with God in the humanization of the society. This means ecumenical imperative in theological education demands a new paradigm, which requires tools for social analysis and models for thinking theologically in order to occasion renewal in the Church for the purpose of social transformation. In this way theological education should be life centred and praxis-oriented. In other words, it is a way of critical participation in an on-going process of recreating and liberating work of God, in which human beings partner with God in the struggle for social transformation. This in itself calls for theological education in Africa, to complement the paradigm of Christocentric universalism with the paradigm of interrelatedness of all life. Finally, articulation of the notion of ecumenism within various African wisdom and philosophy must be perceived crucial for theological education. This is underpinned by an understanding that every human culture has categories and idioms in which the concept of ecumenism can be translated for contextual articulation. This implies that there is an urgent need for empirical studies in different African ethnic groups in order to retrieve indigenous concepts and metaphors of ecumenism