This article uses a fictionalised encounter as the basis for an autoethnographic exploration of the intersections between the South African social value of ubuntu and the notion of spatial justice. Ubuntu describes the interconnectedness of human lives. It asserts that a person is only a person through other people, a recognition that calls for deep respect, empathy and..
Read moreThe transformation of the city of Zion: From decadence to justice and prophetic hope (Is. 1:1–2:5) – Alphonso Groenewald
This article focuses on the story of the transformation of the city called Zion. Isaiah 1:1–2:5 is the key to the book. This chapter describes the failure of Israel to be the people of God: Israel’s covenant breach, a corrupted cult and imminent punishment. It tells of the existence of two groups within Israel: the righteous remnant who..
Read moreHow does justice smell? Reflections on space and place, justice and the body – Jacob Meiring
Flowing from a joint consultation on Spatial Justice and Reconciliation on 21–22 September 2015, hosted by the Centre for Contextual Ministry and the Ubuntu Research Project of the University of Pretoria, this article reflects on the notions of space and justice from the perspective of a contemporary theological anthropology as ‘embodied sensing’, where the making of..
Read moreFacing our whiteness in doing Ubuntu research. Finding spatial justice for the researcher – Julian Müller; Sheila Trahar
In this article, the two authors, academics from different contexts and both aware of their whiteness, focus on their own vulnerable selves. The aim is to reflect on their specific agency in this project and to create awareness for subjectivity in research. What are the challenges of two white academics – the one from a first world country..
Read moreThe parable of the Feast (Lk 14:16b–23): Breaking down boundaries and discerning a theological–spatial justice agenda – Ernest Van Eck; Wayne Renkin; Ezekiel Ntakirutimana
The parable of the Feast (Lk 14:16b–23) is perhaps the example par excellence in the New Testament that addresses spatial justice and reconciliation. In the parable, Jesus advocates for the eradication of all boundaries linked to the social–economic status of the marginalised. The parable argues, from a social justice perspective, that there is no such thing as..
Read moreTiyo Soga: Violence, disruption and dislocation in the white polis – Vuyani Vellem
Tiyo Soga must be celebrated as he is the personification of a body of knowledge pertinent to the development of foundational knowledge in examining the violence, disruptions and dislocations of the bodies, knowledge and spirit in modernity. The question of skill and memory cannot be dichotomised in epistemologies of justice—the naming of black as pagan, kaffir, native, bantu, etcetra,..
Read moreDoing theology with children in a South African context: Children as collaborators in intergenerational ministry
The vision of Child Theology Africa is to advance a child-friendly continent by doing theology with, for, about and through African children. In this article we would like to explore the voice, role and position of the child in church and society, as important and integral to authentic intergenerational church praxis. This is based on..
Read moreChildren as theological hermeneutic: Is there a new epistemological break emerging? – Nico Botha
Children are the great omission in theology. The objective of the article is to show that there is a growing realisation of this reality. More than that, there are attempts afoot to salvage the situation by factoring children more and more into theological writing, not in an objectified manner, but as serious agents of theology..
Read moreTheology disrupted: Doing theology with children in African contexts
The thrust of this article is an attempt to respond to the question whether we can read and interpret the bible in Africa from the child theology vantage point. The author’s answer is in the affirmative in two ways: Firstly, it is that the majority of children in Africa are facing abuses of unprecedented proportions...
Read more‘Children must be seen and heard’ – Doing postcolonial theology with children in a (southern) African Reformed church
Taking theology to the African children needs to start with a serious engagement of the colonial experience that African Christianity, communities and families were subjected to – mostly in subdued silence. The often heard platitude of the stereotypical ‘friendly’ African children, who is so ‘open to the gospel’, needs to be deconstructed in terms of..
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