1,720,962 research outputs found
Christian ministry and theological education as instruments for economic survival in Africa
Full text linkThere is a conflict over whether Christian ministry and theological education should be pursued with an expectation for economic survival. The rise of Christian ministry practice emphasising wealth and prosperity has heightened commodification of the Christian ministry. Church ministry and theological education are being used as instruments for economic profit. The link between theological education and Christian ministry, among other things, is that church practices and ministry expressions reflect the underlying theology. In such a situation, this article reflects on the following questions: How are Christian ministry and its undergirding theology being utilised as instruments of economic prosperity in Africa? What is the theological education approach that is employed to support this ministry approach? The article attempts to establish an understanding of ministerial practise that has biblically and theologically informed views of material wealth. It begins by examining the traditional missionary model of ministry as a sacrificial act and responses by African clergy. This is followed by examination of the development of the view of ministry as a means of economic survival and commodification of ministry and theological education in Africa. It concludes by providing an evaluation and proposing a way forward
Competing with Christ? A critical Christological analysis of the reliance on Pentecostal prophets in Zimbabwe
Full text linkHow can we make Christological sense of the Zimbabwean Pentecostal prophets’ mediatory role? This article analyses the domineering and mediatory role of the Pentecostal prophets from a Christological perspective. The mediatory role of the Pentecostal prophets is riddled with competition against the mediatory role of Christ between God and humanity (1 Tm 2:5) as it tends to usurp Christ’s role over the church. Instead of being channels that lead people to depend only on Christ for their spiritual security, prosperity Pentecostal prophets present themselves as super spiritual authorities who must be relied upon by the believers in addition to Christ. Prosperity Pentecostalism, also known as the gospel of wealth and health, emphasises that prosperity in material wealth and good health is an integral component of the Christian faith. As super spiritual authorities, Pentecostal prophets project themselves as uniquely anointed by God. This places them closer to God than other people and, in turn, they receive spiritual power and authority over other believers. The prophets mediate their presence in the lives of their followers through anointed objects such as their personal pictures, anointed oil and armbands. This article analyses the distorted views about Christ created by the reliance on the prophets. The article concludes by proposing steps that should be taken to empower Christians to dissuade themselves from reliance on such prophets
The ecclesiological significance of the ‘African kraal’ metaphor in a context of urban poverty in Zimbabwe
Full text linkCITATION: Banda, C. & Van der Merwe, I. J. 2017. The ecclesiological significance of the ‘African kraal’ metaphor in a context of urban poverty in Zimbabwe. Stellenbosch Theological Journal, 3(2):243-267, doi:10.17570/stj.2017.v3n2.a11.The original publication is available at https://ojs.reformedjournals.co.za/stjThe 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.https://ojs.reformedjournals.co.za/stj/article/view/1741Publisher's versio
Aiming beyond the written, to the writer and writing: The writing consultation as a mentoring process for life-long writing
Full text linkThis article critically reflects on how writing centres can address the notion that their primary role is to deal with students struggling with their writing. This critical reflection focuses on the following question: how can writing centres challenge the view that they exist primarily to assist students struggling with or lacking the academic writing skills required at university level? This question is answered from a theoretical framework of writing consultancy as a process of identity change. Presenting the writing consultation as a mentoring process for life-long writing, the article describes the author’s experiences of students who viewed the writing centre as a place for students who lack good writing skills. The article further examines some steps that may be taken to de-stigmatise writing centres, and promote them as places of identity change and empowerment. The article envisages that when the writing consultation is viewed as a mentoring process, writing centres may appeal to the greater university population, even students who are competent writers who would normally never see the need to consult writing centres
Publish or perish? : communicating research with the public
Full text linkCITATION: Banda, C. 2016. Publish or Perish? : communicating research with the public, in L. Frick, P., Motshoane, C. McMaster & C. Murphy (eds.). Postgraduate study in South Africa : surviving and succeeding. Stellenbosch: SUN PRESS. 223-231. doi:10.18820/9781928357247/20.The original publication is available from AFRICAN SUNMeDIA - www.sun-e-shop.co.zaINTRODUCTION: 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.Publishers' versio
Empowering hope? : Jürgen Moltmann’s eschatological challenge to ecclesiological responses in the Zimbabwean context of poverty
Full text linkThesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2016.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.AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie stoei met Jürgen Moltmann se eskatologiese konsep van die ‘kerk van hoop vir die armes’ binne die Zimbabwiese konteks van armoede en soek na ʼn bemagtigende en bevrydende ekklesiologies-etiese raamwerk wat reageer op armoede.
Die eerste afdeling van die studie analiseer hoe die idee van ʼn kerk van hoop vir die armes deur Moltmann gekonseptualiseer word. Dié deel betoog dat Moltmann se eskatologiese visie van die kerk van hoop vir die armes uit minstens drie begrippe vloei: die historisiteit van die drie-enige God van hoop, die koninkryk van God wat die herstel van lewe bevorder, en die kommunaliteit van die kerk van hoop. Moltmann se sentrale argument is dat eskatologiese hoop die kerk wat glo in die drie-enige God van die eksodus beweeg, bemagtig en laat wag op God se lewegewende en lewe-bevorderende koninkryk deur haar kommunale aard te benut om die armes te verdedig.
Die tweede afdeling assesseer die dominante kerk-reaksies tot armoede in Zimbabwe volgens Moltmann se kategorieë van die kerk van hoop. Dit beklemtoon dat die kerk in die koloniale tydperk die armoede van plaaslike mense aangespreek het deur die prediking van toekomstige hoop, maar ook hul onderdrukking en segregasie deur die koloniale administrasie ondersteun het. Die geleidelike opkoms van kritiese teologiese opleiding onder die inheemse leraars het die onversoenbaarheid van die Christelike hoop met huidige en toekomstige armoede beklemtoon, wat gelei het tot hul uitdaging van sosio-ekonomiese marginalisasie in die koloniale era. In die huidige, bevryde Zimbabwe het die kerk wat die verarmende aard van onderdrukkende koloniale strukture uitgedaag het egter soortgelyke onderdrukkende strukture van die huidige regerende elite ondersteun deur magteloos of belangloos voor te kom om strukture wat armoede bewerkstellig teen te staan.
Die laaste afdeling formuleer ʼn eskatologies-geïnformeerde ekklesiologies-etiese raamwerk vir die bevryding en bemagtiging van armes as ʼn sinvolle respons tot armoede. Dit vestig ʼn eskatologiese basis vir die kerk se prioritisering van ʼn reaksie tot armoede. Deur die metafoor van die kerk as ʼn Afrika-kraal te gebruik, word Moltmann se idees van die historisiteit van goddelike hoop, die koninkryk van God en die kommunaliteit van die kerk van hoop ingespan as hulpbronne om die kerk te bemagtig in die aanspreek van die Zimbabwiese konteks van armoede. Met die beeld van ʼn Afrika-kraal, word bevestig dat die kerk ʼn plek is waar kommunaliteit funksioneer as ʼn hulpbron wat armes bemagtig, waar die historisiteit van God ʼn plek is vir sorgsame bemagtiging van die armes en waar die koninkryk ʼn oproep maak tot ʼn publiek-teologiese model wat die regerende elite se koöptering van die kerk om die armes net verder te onderdruk en te ontmagtig, verwerp. Eskatologiese hoop doen dus ‘n beroep op die kerk om ʼn kritiese en bemagtigende rol te speel in ʼn konteks van armoede.Doctora
Mocking the just God? : a theological critique of President Mnangagwa’s use of the name of God to justify his rule in Zimbabwe
Full text linkCITATION: Mudzanire, S. & Banda, C. 2021. Mocking the just God? A theological critique of President Mnangagwa’s use of the name of God to justify his rule in Zimbabwe. Verbum et Ecclesia, 42(1):a2218, doi:10.4102/ve.v42i1.2218.The original publication is available at https://verbumetecclesia.org.zaZimbabwe’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.https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/2218Publisher's versio
Doctrine as security? A systematic theological critique of the operational theological framework of the controversial South African neo-Pentecostal prophets
Full text linkThis research article uses the theoretical framework of doctrine as believer’s security to critique the theological framework behind the controversial activities reported amongst some South African neo-Pentecostal prophets (NPPs), which include feeding congregants with grass, spraying them with insecticides and sexual violation of women congregants. The framework of the article falls within the discipline of systematic theology by raising the importance for South African Christians to develop a critical doctrinal framework for protecting themselves from controversial NPPs. The following main question is answered by the article: from a systematic theological perspective, how can we evaluate the theological framework, which leads to the recent controversial activities reported amongst some NPPs in South Africa? Consequently, the article, firstly, describes the critical theological framework of the protective role of Christian doctrine. Secondly, it describes the South African NPPs and their controversial practices. Thirdly, this article analyses some of the theological problems in the current operative framework of NPPs. Fourthly, it argues for the need for doctrinally informed critical thinking as a safety measure against controversial NPPs. Finally, some steps that must be taken by NPPs to develop critical theological thinking in order to overcome doctrinally vacuous experientialism that promotes controversial religious activities are provided.
Contribution: From a systematic theological approach, this article attempts to demonstrate the importance of critical doctrinal thinking as a defence mechanism for protecting Christians from falling prey to harmful religious practices, such as those recently reported amongst some NPPs in South Africa
Supplementing the lack of ubuntu? : the ministry of Zimbabwe’s Mashoko Christian Hospital to people living with HIV and AIDS in challenging their stigmatisation in the church
Full text linkCITATION: Banda, C. & Mudzanire, S. 2018. Supplementing the lack of ubuntu? : the ministry of Zimbabwe’s Mashoko Christian Hospital to people living with HIV and AIDS in challenging their stigmatisation in the church. HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies, 75(4):a5468, doi:10.4102/hts.v75i4.5468.The original publication is available at https://hts.org.zaPublication of this article was funded by the Stellenbosch University Open Access Fund.This article uses the African communal concept of ubuntu to reflect on the ministry of Mashoko Christian Hospital (MCH), Zimbabwe, to people living with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and AIDS (PLWHA) during the early days since the discovery of the disease. The main question this article seeks to answer is: from a perspective of the African philosophy of ubuntu, how did the ministry of MCH to PLWHA challenge the fear and judgemental attitudes towards the disease within the Churches of Christ in Zimbabwe? This leads to another question: what should the churches learn from MCH’s response to HIV and AIDS? This article only focusses on trends in conduct and not on a detailed history of engaging HIV and AIDS. The significance of this article is to demonstrate the important role played by faith-based organisations (FBOs) in complementing the compassion and care often lacking in the official churches’ response to HIV and AIDS.https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/5468Publisher's versio
Stifling Human Responsibility? Human Agency and Transcendency in African Spirituality and Cultural Idioms
Full text linkThis article is an African traditional religious and cultural analysis of human responsibility as expressed in proverbs and idioms that demand human agency and transcendence in chiShona, Zimbabwean isiNdebele, and isiZulu languages. The analysis is done in line with the common spiritual belief that material wealth is a product of spiritual or magical power. The article analyzes selected proverbs and idioms from the three languages that demand or express agency and transcendence. This demand for agency and transcendence is juxtaposed with a religious belief of wealth as a product of spiritual and magical powers. Spiritualizing material wealth promotes a blame syndrome that is detrimental to human responsibility. A framework of human agency and transcendence that promotes human responsibility in African contexts of poverty is proposed. The article aims to contribute with an African response to poverty that promotes human responsibility and avoids a defeatist and escapist reliance on magic and spiritual solutions
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