{"title":"The Christology behind The Black Messiah","authors":"Carsten Elmelund Petersen","doi":"10.7833/121-1-2072","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7833/121-1-2072","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Allan Boesak developed his ethics of the Black Messiah in the 1970s while he wrote his dissertation in Kampen, The Netherlands. These ethics said no to slavery, colonialism, apartheid, racism, and poverty as a consequence of oppression. Behind these ethics lies the Christological problem. Jesus Christ is truly God and truly human being, which is the universal Christian creed. What is the relationship between the universal confession to Jesus Christ as true God and true human being and the contextual confession to the Black Messiah? The Black Messiah is black for the black people for identification. Is the true humanity universal and the color contextual? The article gives a possible solution. Keywords: Allan Boesak, Black Theology, Black Ethics, Black Messiah, Black Christ, Christology","PeriodicalId":44409,"journal":{"name":"Scriptura-International Journal of Bible Religion and Theology in Southern Africa","volume":"27 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89816011","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":"Reassessing the Significance of Gendered Embodiment in Paul: Beyond Reception-Historical Impositions","authors":"J. Punt","doi":"10.7833/121-1-2091","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7833/121-1-2091","url":null,"abstract":"Planetary entanglement is often tangential to if not totally absent from the Pauline letters. Traditionally, the letters are interpreted as originating from an apostolic author with an eschatological and apocalyptically driven focus, resorting to a Platonic body-soul dichotomy and largely alienated from society and this world and its concerns. However, considering how Pauline rhetoric, especially when read in its socio-historical context, involves and at times even is based on embodiment and gender awareness, shows the Pauline letters in a different light, with strong, if at times covert and assumed, inter-personal, communal, and terrestrial entanglements or intersectionalities. Textual examples from Paul are provided for each of these three intersectionalities to show that reassessment of gendered embodiment in Paul holds promise for theological reflection from biblical perspectives in general and for socially engaged theology in relation to the Anthropocene, in particular. Keywords: Pauline rhetoric, Embodiment, Intersectionalities, Gender, Necropolitics","PeriodicalId":44409,"journal":{"name":"Scriptura-International Journal of Bible Religion and Theology in Southern Africa","volume":"18 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82134722","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":"Proverbs 28:20, 22 and Nigerian Youth’s Drive for Rapid Money","authors":"F. Uroko","doi":"10.7833/121-1-2061","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7833/121-1-2061","url":null,"abstract":"While in the last decade the Nigerian youth quest for wealth has entered into the mainstream of Old Testament studies, Proverbs 28:20,22 have remained largely unexplored from this perspective. To address this omission, I intend to draw attention to the value of looking at the unbridled quest of Nigerian youth to get rich quickly through the lens of the pericope. Many investors fall prey to ponzi schemes, which are a type of investment scam. They are duped into believing that their money will return 100% in a short amount of time. Many ambitious investors have lost their money as a result of such schemes, which are unlawful and offer unrealistic profits. Proverbs 28:20,22 exist in a cultural context and communicate common values and beliefs in a community such as Nigeria. The rhetor encourages his audience to be faithful so that in the short and long run they will enjoy the needed blessings. This article explores the significance of using Proverbs 28:20,22 for interpreting youth participation in ponzi schemes. Furthermore, I demonstrated that greed and lack of patience are the remote causes of youth falling prey to ponzi schemes. The rhetoric analysis was used as the methodology due to the various rhetoric axioms that the rhetor employed in the pericope. It is believed that the pericope will speak anew to the youth quest for quick money. Keywords: Proverbs, Youth, Greed, Ponzi schemes, Old Testament","PeriodicalId":44409,"journal":{"name":"Scriptura-International Journal of Bible Religion and Theology in Southern Africa","volume":"13 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85957469","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":"Some Theological Reflections Regarding Multi-disciplinary Discourse on the “Anthropocene”","authors":"E. Conradie","doi":"10.7833/121-1-2076","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7833/121-1-2076","url":null,"abstract":"In this contribution, some salient insights emerging from multi-disciplinary discourse on the so-called Anthropocene are noted. These touch briefly on stratigraphical markers, on disturbances in the Earth system, on dating the “Anthropocene”, on identifying its root causes, on naming the “Anthropocene” as such, on assessing the “Anthropocene”, and concomitant responses to the “Anthropocene”. In response, four clusters of challenges posed by such discourse on the “Anthropocene” to Christianity and Christian theology in particular are identified and outlined, namely 1) the critique of Christianity as complicit in the root causes of the “Anthropocene”, 2) Christian critiques of the “Anthropocene” and of naming it as such; 3) prospects for constructive Christian responses to the “Anthropocene” for the sake of the common good (stability in the Earth system); and 4) prospects for constructive responses to the “Anthropocene” for the sake of Christian authenticity. This yields the conclusion that, in the “Anthropocene”, Christians need to acknowledge that (some) humans have become a geological force of nature but also that it should now be more clear than ever before that humans cannot save themselves from self-destruction. Keywords: Anthropocene, Christian authenticity, Common good, Constructive theology, Earth system science, Ecological reformation, Human uniqueness, Human sin","PeriodicalId":44409,"journal":{"name":"Scriptura-International Journal of Bible Religion and Theology in Southern Africa","volume":"52 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81511441","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":"Unraveling the Collision of Rigid Religious Mindsets: Towards ‘Cross-Religious Tabernacling’ within a Praxis of Interpathetic Transspection in Pastoral Caregiving – a Hermeneutical Approach","authors":"D. Louw","doi":"10.7833/121-1-2063","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7833/121-1-2063","url":null,"abstract":"Within the context of global pluralism and cultural diversity, religions can and should play a decisive role in creating safe spaces for meaningful encounters and interreligious dialogue in pastoral and interpathetic caregiving. In this regard, a hermeneutic of networking understanding should be rendered critical for promoting meaningful interreligious dialoguing because enmity, prejudice and suspicion, fed by rigid doctrinal stances and autocratic forms of rather imperialistic God-images, contribute in most cases to schismatic estrangement, as well as static, paralyzing thinking (stringent mindsets). In order to contribute to constructive forms of crossing over to the religious other, it is argued that David Augsburger’s notion of interpathetic care (1986) should supplement the traditional understanding of the cure/care of human souls (cura animarum). To foster a culture of mutual exchange of paradigmatic convictions, a diagnostic chart is developed. The argument is that a comprehensive framework of conceptional and cognitive networking (patterns of thinking) opens up new vistas, i.e., on seeing the ‘bigger picture’. It is further argued that a theological and religious understanding of ‘tabernacling’ could help to create concrete, communal spaces for significant interreligious encounters and interfaith cooperation. Keywords: Apathy, Cross-religious tabernacling, Diagnostic chart, Interpathetic caregiving, Schemata of interpretation, Transspection, Presencing as mode of compassionate being-there","PeriodicalId":44409,"journal":{"name":"Scriptura-International Journal of Bible Religion and Theology in Southern Africa","volume":"9 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81802925","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":"Dialogical Theology and Dialogical Practice","authors":"W. Weisse, E. Meir","doi":"10.7833/121-1-2069","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7833/121-1-2069","url":null,"abstract":"This article focuses on the relationship between religions and dialogue, considering its current relevance. It shows how interreligious dialogue forms the basis for a pluralised theology. Against the backdrop of the established research project ‘Religions and Dialogue in Modern Societies’ (ReDi), we find an integrative approach to interreligious dialogue desirable, as it offers a means of linking three different research strands: religious studies, social sciences and education. In explaining their concept of a Dialogical Theology, the authors offer an answer to developments of global religious pluralisation. An important impulse of this approach lies in the concept of “trans-difference”, anchored in Jewish philosophy. Dialogical Theology requires the counterbalance of analyses related to interreligious dialogue at the grassroot level. This endeavour, carried out with sociological methods, is called “Dialogical Practice”. The article relates general ideas of a Dialogical Theology to concrete analyses of Dialogical Practice. In an imagined interreligious dialogue between the activists Abraham Joshua Heschel and Mahatma Gandhi, it shows how interreligious dialogue can contribute to a practice-oriented Dialogical Theology. Concluding remarks point to perspectives that underscore the need for further development of a Dialogical Theology with reference to Dialogical Practice. Keywords: Dialogical Theology, Trans-difference, Dialogical Practice, Interreligious Dialogue, Heschel, Gandhi","PeriodicalId":44409,"journal":{"name":"Scriptura-International Journal of Bible Religion and Theology in Southern Africa","volume":"45 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78567369","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":"Who was first? Mary Magdalene, Peter and the Ending of Mark","authors":"J. G. Tönsing","doi":"10.7833/121-1-2027","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7833/121-1-2027","url":null,"abstract":"This article discusses one of the most perplexing questions in textual criticism – the wide variety of endings for the gospel of Mark. The most reliable early manuscripts end at verse 8, but this is a very strange ending, and other endings seem to have been added later: the shorter and the longer ending. The article discusses various hypotheses about whether an original ending was lost or whether this ending was deliberate and concludes that Mark decided to end this way because of conflicting versions of the Easter story circulating in his community: One was the early traditional version, probably proclaimed by the Jerusalem apostles and taken up by Paul, that Peter was the first one to see the risen Christ. The other was more controversial and had implications for questions of authority and leadership in the church: the testimony that Mary Magdalene, or several women, were first. Mark chose to allow the women the place of first witnesses to the empty tomb, but to leave open the question of who had the first encounter with the risen Christ. The different factions were then free to choose their own ending. As the empty tomb was not an integral part of the Petrine resurrection narrative, Mark’s version did not undermine this early Easter account, but opened the way to integrate the women’s story in official Christian tradition. Keywords: Ending of Mark, Mark 16, Mary Magdalene, Resurrection, Empty Tomb, Easter, Mark 16:8","PeriodicalId":44409,"journal":{"name":"Scriptura-International Journal of Bible Religion and Theology in Southern Africa","volume":"68 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90366550","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":"Prophetic Witness in Cyberspace during Pandemics","authors":"K. Mokoena","doi":"10.7833/121-1-2090","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7833/121-1-2090","url":null,"abstract":"Prophetic witness has been around since Biblical times, when prophets spoke truth to power on behalf of God. In the South African context, prophetic witness saw the church speaking out against the injustices of colonialism and apartheid using various forms of protest. In post-1994 democratic South Africa, prophetic witness had to be reimagined in the public square, a process which appropriated various modes of prophetic witness. Cyberspace encompasses information technologies which manifest into a “virtual” world, and social media is one of the platforms of cyberspace. Theological and religious scholars have argued that the Internet is an essential space for religion, and this article further argues that cyberspace can also be regarded as a public space for prophetic witness. The role of social media users during pandemics, such as COVID-19, has the implications of spreading information, misinformation, and misconceptions at a rapid pace. Many churches used the virtual space to provide spiritual and emotional support during the COVID-19 pandemic. This article argues that the church also has a prophetic role to play, especially in the social media space, regarding the dissemination of information during a pandemic. Therefore, the main task of this article is to utilise Nico Koopman’s five modes of prophetic witness, namely visionary, critics, storytellers, technical analysts, and policymakers in cyberspace in the recent COVID-19 pandemic and future pandemics. Keywords: Prophetic witness, Prophetic theology, Cyberspace, COVID-19, Internet, Infodemic, Social media","PeriodicalId":44409,"journal":{"name":"Scriptura-International Journal of Bible Religion and Theology in Southern Africa","volume":"35 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89236962","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":"Convivencia Loading …: When People of the Way Read Authoritative Scriptures Together","authors":"TK Mapfeka","doi":"10.7833/121-1-1795","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7833/121-1-1795","url":null,"abstract":"This paper is a preliminary submission of the insights gained from the CIAS Conference (11-13 September 2019) pilot scriptural reading sessions. The empirical component of the CIAS postdoctoral research project includes observing and interacting with groups of active adherents of the three Abrahamic faiths, taking note of how people of faith appropriate meaning to their own authoritative scriptures and those of others. As a precursor to that exercise, a related protocol was rolled out at the event of the 2019 CIAS conference to pilot the exercise. This paper aims to offer a summative view of the notations from these sessions and to show how these are of value going forward. Three texts have been selected, one from each scriptural tradition of the three faiths, namely the Hebrew Bible, the Christian Bible, and the Qur’an. Keywords: Abrahamic faiths, Africa, Egypt, Diaspora, thematic topos","PeriodicalId":44409,"journal":{"name":"Scriptura-International Journal of Bible Religion and Theology in Southern Africa","volume":"151 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88995880","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":"Redefining Inclusive Religion Education in Lesotho Schools: A Colonial Discourse Analysis","authors":"Rasebate I. Mokotso","doi":"10.7833/121-1-2026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7833/121-1-2026","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, I revisited the study conducted in 2017 on inclusive religious education in Lesotho. The point of the 2017 study was to figure out how participants perceive inclusive religious education. The Lesotho Ministry of Education and Training's inclusive education initiative piqued my curiosity. The findings were split into two categories. Firstly, it was discovered that religious education is commonly equated with Christian education. Secondly, inclusivity in religious education was defined as offering Christian instruction to all students, regardless of their religious affiliation. The previous study, however, could not provide a persuasive explanation for why religious education is equated to Christian education or why inclusive religious education is comparable to Christian education for all students, regardless of their religious views. I wanted to fill that vacuum in this essay by arguing for a new approach to inclusive religious education in Lesotho schools. I asserted that coloniality is a legitimate premise for believing that inclusive religion education means that all children should participate in Christian education learning. I also utilised (post)-colonial discourse analysis to support my claim. As a proposal, I suggested that inclusive religion education be defined in the context of decoloniality, which is a process of decentering and delinking from colonial thinking and action in order to embrace border thinking. Border thinking demands a new approach to inclusive religion education that is based on interculturality and pluriversality.","PeriodicalId":44409,"journal":{"name":"Scriptura-International Journal of Bible Religion and Theology in Southern Africa","volume":"19 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82671025","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}