Every person counts. And everyone counted during the City of Tshwane’s first official homeless count, counts! This is a critical moral, political and theological assertion, and insistence. It is also a critical methodological reminder. Losing one survey form, or miscounting, or messing up data, is miscounting one person’s dignity, importance and information. Without such insistence..
Read moreMending the broken city of Pietermaritzburg through a transformative urban theological programme: A challenge to Union Bible Institute
Rapid urbanisation, globalisation, and the advancement of information and technology come as a challenge for theological education in South Africa, generally, and, specifically, in an emerging city like Pietermaritzburg. This is a city with a multitude of urban fractures: the contesting space between informal traders and the taxi industry; rife political violence; gender- based violence;..
Read moreEquipping Lay Leaders for Christian Ministry in the Anglican Church of Kenya through Theological Education by Extension
The mission of ecclesia is to empower and equip its leaders for Christian ministry. This has been possible through theological education, particularly for the ordained ministry. Though laity form a substantial number in the Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK) ecclesiastical context, they are theologically ill-equipped for Christian ministry despite their integral roles in pastoral and..
Read moreDecolonising theological education in urban spaces A reflection on the “Abantu Book Festival”
The article argues that “Abantu Book Festival” (Abantu) held in Soweto annually signifies a decolonising space for theological education in the urban areas surrounding Soweto. From the perspective of Black theology of liberation (BTL) paradigms, the clear focus on blackness as a methodological framework for the Abantu programme signifies Abantu as a festival reflecting critically..
Read more“Just City-making” in Cape Town Liberating Theological Education
Aspirational terms such as world-class, resilient, climate-friendly and just City stand in contrast to adverse terms such as unequal, divided, colonial, violent, and segregated to describe the present and future state of the City of Cape Town. How do institutions offering tertiary qualifications in theology engage with the competing narratives of the City in the..
Read moreThe ‘good city’ or ‘post-colonial catch-basins of violent empire’? A contextual theological appraisal of South Africa’s Integrated Urban Development Framework
The Integrated Urban Development Framework (IUDF) was constructed as a ‘new deal’ for South African cities and towns. It outlines a vision with four overarching goals and eight priorities or policy levers meant to overcome the apartheid legacy through comprehensive spatial restructuring and strategic urban–rural linkages. This article is a contextual theological reflection ‘from below’,..
Read more‘Between life and death’: On land, silence and Liberation in the captal city
This article reflects on the unfinished task of liberation – as expressed in issues of land – and drawing from the work of Franz Fanon and the Durban-based social movement Abahlali base Mjondolo. It locates its reflections in four specific sites of struggle in the City of Tshwane, and against the backdrop of the mission..
Read moreDoing theology with children: Exploring emancipatory methodologies
This article serves as an introduction to a collection of articles that explores emancipatorymethodologies for doing theology and research with children. We focus on both the agency and the participation of children as an ethics and children’s rights imperative as well as the potential impact and outcomes of theology and research that focus on children...
Read moreRecovering a Gospel of Love Through Children: Shattering Faith, Knowledge and Justice
This paper seeks to consider the themes of justice, faith and knowledge using the South African context as its backdrop. South Africa provides acontext fraught with a multiplicity of challenges, many of which were inherited from the exceptional injustices which characterised the apartheid era, dating back to the days of British and Dutch colonisation. Since..
Read moreDemythologising social cohesion: Towards a practical
This article considers the topical issue of social cohesion. It seeks to demythologise the issue bringing it into critical conversation with eight related categories. It proposes that a vision of a socially cohesive society should employ all eight categories as parallel and complementary strategies. Secondly, it proposes a practical theological vision of social cohesion that..
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