Research Articles (Systematic Theology and Ecclesiology)

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Browsing Research Articles (Systematic Theology and Ecclesiology) by Author "Akper, Godwin"

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    An ethos of hospitality as public morality in the face of the disorderly process in Nigeria today?
    (Pieter de Waal Neethling Trust, 2015) Akper, Godwin
    Nigeria, a highly populated country in West Africa, has for the past five years been embroiled in turmoil. Agitation arising from displacement of a large number of people coupled with alienation in their own ancestral lands and homes, due to activities of the unpopular Islamic sect, Boko Haram (roughly translated in English as “Western education is an abomination”). This radical religious sect seeks in the most poignant way, to create a wide gap for its own conceived Islamic world order by killing, dispossessing, kidnapping and alienating people, especially in the north-eastern part of Nigeria, bordering Cameroon, Chad and Niger Republics. Economic, religious, cultural and political lives of the locals including Muslims are destroyed. No end is in sight. However, in the face of hostility, hatred, injustice, disorder, despair and an attempt to create order, a new form of public morality is desperately needed in Nigeria, today. The questions then are: what is this public morality? How can a public morality be facilitated to salvage such a disturbing situation?
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    Glocalisation in the service of resistant discourses : towards reading with Volker Kuster
    (Stellenbosch University, Faculty of Theology, 2018) Akper, Godwin
    ‘Talking back’ in a non-confrontational way, this essay engages the German theologian Volker Küster’s ‘reading’ of what it views as resistant discourses from the global South. In the first instance, the essay attempts to ‘read’, with Küster, global political and social transformations since 1990, specifically looking at possible ways they have shaped theological discourses in the global South. Moving on, is Küster’s ‘reading’ of a selected number of the latter discourses. The essay also attempts to highlight analytically, how Küster came to the conclusion that a shift occurred from contextualisation to the so-called glocalisation. Finally, based upon an own ‘reading’ of the discourses and drawing on the discussants’ voices themselves, an argument is made for glocalisation in the service of contextualisation.
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    Is God in Nigeria? : land dislocation and the challenge of confessing Belhar in Nigeria today
    (Pieter de Waal Neethling Trust, 2018) Akper, Godwin
    Of the view that “in the land full of enmity, God is in a special way the God of the destitute and the wronged”, the essay explores the challenge of confessing the third article in the Confession of Belhar in Nigeria today. Nigeria has recorded a high number of displaced persons in the years between 1982 and 2016, who have been dispossessed of their lands and their hopes for better living standards. This situation has often been caused by the activities of radical religious activists. Also, a number of communal crises among ethnic nationalities especially in some parts of what can be described as northern Nigeria have added to the statistics of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). These destitute, many of whom are Christians, continuously cry out, hoping that God may intervene, and change their situations for the better, but seemingly to no avail. For some of them, it seems like all hope is lost. With such agonising situations among Christians, what sense will it make, “to preach” to them that “God is in a special way” their God? The essay examines this question by juxtaposing the Nigerian situation with South Africa’s past, when the Christians in South Africa confessed that God was still on their side amidst a seemingly hopeless situation. It also explores whether some lessons from the South African experience can be of any assistance or relevance to the Christians in Nigeria today.
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    We the poor must abandon our wheelchairs and begin to walk unaided : on African agency discourse
    (Stellenbosch University, Faculty of Theology, 2009) Akper, Godwin
    After mapping the current notions of African agency discourse, the article suggests a more dialogical approach to the discourse, the partnership notion of African agency discourse. This suggestion is based on the view that African leaders and academics are apparently not yet ready to walk unaided. Therefore, the article proposes a broadened African agency that involves other races. Specifically, it stresses the need for a discourse that goes beyond a black identity as a category for an African agency discourse to be African proper. The essay further suggests that the contribution of the “other” in the discourse should be cherished by black and white discussants.