Department of Systematic Theology and Ecclesiology

Permanent URI for this community

https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/125

Browse

Browsing Department of Systematic Theology and Ecclesiology by Author "Banda, Collium"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The ecclesiological significance of the ‘African kraal’ metaphor in a context of urban poverty in Zimbabwe
    (Pieter de Waal Neethling Trust, 2017) Banda, Collium; Van der Merwe, I. J.
    The essay considers how the communal and empowering nature of the African kraal can be a metaphor of a liberating and empowering church in a context of urban poverty in Zimbabwe. Africans generally experience urban centres as foreign and hostile places where they ideally only live temporarily during seasons of urban employment. In Zimbabwe, poverty alleviation strategies that pay attention to the unique context of urban centres are few. This heightens the African experience of urban centres as foreign places. Urban churches often struggle to respond to urban poverty meaningfully. The African kraal, although a rural oriented metaphor, can direct the church in the city to meaningfully respond to urban poverty.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Empowering hope? : Jürgen Moltmann’s eschatological challenge to ecclesiological responses in the Zimbabwean context of poverty
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2016-03-01) Banda, Collium; Van der Merwe, I. J.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. of Systematic Theology and Ecclesiology.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study wrestles with Jürgen Moltmann’s eschatological concept of the ‘church of hope for the poor’ within the Zimbabwean context of poverty, in search for an empowering and liberating ecclesiological ethical framework of responding to poverty. The first section of the study analyses how the notion of the church of hope for the poor is conceptualised in Moltmann. The section argues that in Moltmann’s eschatological vision the church of hope for the poor emerges from at least three notions: the historicity of the trinitarian God of hope, the kingdom of God that promotes the restoration of life and the communality of the church of hope. The central argument is that, for Moltmann, eschatological hope stirs and empowers the church that believes in the triune God of the exodus and is waiting for God’s life-loving and life-promoting kingdom to use its communal nature to defend the poor. Using Moltmann’s categories of the church of hope, the second section assesses the dominant church responses to poverty in Zimbabwe. The section highlights that in the colonial period, the church combined the preaching of the future hope with addressing the poverty of the local people, but also aided their oppression and segregation by the colonial administration. The slow rise of critical theological education among the indigenous ministers heightened the irreconcilability of the Christian hope for the future and present poverty, which resulted in the challenge of socio-economic marginalisation in the colonial era. However, in present liberated Zimbabwe, the church that challenged the impoverishing nature of oppressive colonial structures has either aided similar oppressive structures by the present ruling elite or seems too powerless and disinterested to oppose those structures that perpetrate poverty. The last section formulates an eschatologically informed ecclesiological ethical framework of liberating and empowering the poor to respond to poverty meaningfully. It establishes an eschatological basis for the church’s prioritisation of responding to poverty. Using the metaphor of the church as an African kraal, Moltmann’s notions of the historicity of the God of hope, the kingdom of God and the communality of the church of hope are unpacked as resources for empowering the church to engage with the Zimbabwean context of poverty. Imaged as the African kraal, the church is affirmed as a place where communality functions as a resource of empowering the poor, where the historicity of God is a place for human capacitation of the poor, and where the kingdom calls for a public theology model that rejects the church’s co-option by the ruling elite who oppress the poor and powerless. Thus, eschatological hope calls the church to play a critical and empowering role in a context of poverty.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Mocking the just God? : a theological critique of President Mnangagwa’s use of the name of God to justify his rule in Zimbabwe
    (AOSIS, 2021-10-12) Mudzanire, Suspicion; Banda, Collium
    Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa justified his unconstitutional ascendency to power after a military coup that dethroned former President Robert Mugabe in 2017 by claiming that ‘the voice of the people is the voice of God’. He repeated the claim in 2018 when Nelson Chamisa refused to recognise him as the legitimately elected president of the country after accusing him of rigging the 2018 elections. Mnangagwa’s use of God’s name to authenticate his rule raises the question: as one of the foundational attributes of God is justice, what does it mean for political leaders openly claiming to be ordained into office by him? This leads to a further question: Has Mnangagwa’s rule satisfied the demands that come with claiming to be ordained by God to rule, and what should be the church’s response towards Mnangagwa’s rule in view of God’s justice? This article uses God’s attribute of justice to critically evaluate Mnangagwa’s claim that ‘the voice of the people is the voice of God’. The claim is described and placed within Mnangagwa’s claims and insinuations to be a Christian. His current rule, which is characterised by violent repression and corruption is examined and evaluated. God’s attribute of justice is presented and highlighted in how it challenges Mnangagwa to reform his rule to align it with God’s nature of justice. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The article combines insights from religion and politics, the mission of the church in a context of political oppression and systematic theology to highlight the need for the Zimbabwean churches to judge all political systems according to the adherence to God’s justice. It also provides some theological tools by which churches can protect themselves from being co-opted by unjust and oppressive regimes that violate God’s justice.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Publish or perish? : communicating research with the public
    (SUN MeDIA, 2016) Banda, Collium
    INTRODUCTION: The saying, “publish or perish” left me agitated, wondering about my ultimate academic destiny at the beginning of my doctoral studies. Whether I would succeed or fail seemed to depend on whether I publish or not. At one point, I heard the saying so often it left me confused as to whether doing a postgraduate degree was about studying or publishing. I was fully aware that publishing is the pulse that keeps alive the ideas that I worked hard to formulate. I kept wondering about two related aspects: if I published, who would read my work? And, as scholarly publishing is a lengthy process, how long would it take before my ideas would circulate into the public domain? I observed one established academic who liked to publish in newspapers but was annoyed when the readers complained that they found his articles too difficult to understand. Looking at the comments of his frustrated readers, I wondered if academics really intended to communicate to anyone at all, or just to themselves.