Search Results (119)

This article addresses the underrepresentation of religion in historical accounts of apartheid’s gendered political economy. It asks how colonial missionary discourse and apartheid law interacted in constructing and regulating Black womanhood, and how intersectionality and Bosadi hermeneutics can expose and contest the theological legitimation of Black women’s labour, sacrifice, and endurance. The study uses a qualitative historical-theological and contextual biblical method. It analyses selected historical scholarship, South African legislation, the Constitutional Court’s Mahlangu judgment, and Proverbs 31:10–31 and Ruth, through the lens of Kimberlé Crenshaw’s intersectionality and Madipoane Masenya’s Bosadi hermeneutics. The analysis finds that mission Christianity and the apartheid state were neither identical nor uniform, but influential Christian ideals of domesticity, respectability, service, and feminine sacrifice could converge with a racialised system that restricted African women’s land, mobility, residence, labour, and family life. Proverbs 31 and Ruth are therefore treated as contested resources: they can affirm women’s agency and economic intelligence, but they can also be appropriated to moralise overwork and precarious survival. The article contributes an integrated historical-theological account that links law, labour, religion, and biblical reception without reducing African women to passive victims. It recommends that churches and theological institutions audit the distribution of labour and authority, support decent work and shared care, and interpret biblical texts with women whose lives are shaped by racialised and gendered inequality. Full article

This essay theorizes Black prophetic soundwork as a rhetorical framework through which sonic Blackness operates prophetically—not merely as cultural expression or aesthetic resistance, but as a sacred technology of ancestral communion and communal transformation. Drawing on scholarship centered on sonic Blackness, African cosmological frameworks, and the Black prophetic tradition, the author argues that Black sound, music, and musical instruments function as prophetic vessels that transgress linear time, invoke ancestral presence, and contest the spiritual colonization enacted by white Christian hegemony. Through an analysis of Malcolm Washington’s The Piano Lesson (2024) and Ryan Coogler’s Sinners (2025), the essay demonstrates how Black prophetic soundwork enacts two defining rhetorical moves: prophetic rupture, through which sound collapses colonial temporality and makes ancestral presence experientially real, and prophetic witness, through which sound contests white Christian hegemony and affirms African spiritual traditions as living, authoritative forms of Black agency. Ultimately, the author introduces Black prophetic soundwork as an original contribution to Black rhetorical theory that expands existing scholarship on Black prophetic rhetoric into the sonic domain, offering scholars a heuristic for examining how Black sonic practices function prophetically across diverse cultural contexts. Full article

This article reconsiders the relationship between religions and the environment from a historical and methodological perspective. It argues that the ecological orientation of a religious tradition cannot be deduced directly from its sacred texts, since texts become socially effective only through a range of mediating processes such as interpretation, preaching, ritual, education, institutional authority, devotional practice, and political use. This is especially evident in ancient and medieval societies, where most believers encountered Scripture through mediators rather than as individual readers. The article discusses the influential paradigm inaugurated by Lynn White, the critical contribution of ecofeminism, and recent theological genealogies linking Christian doctrines to ecological and colonial violence. While recognising the importance of these approaches, it stresses the need to avoid anachronism and overly linear explanations. Concepts such as “nature” and “environment” have changed over time, and the environmental question, as currently understood, belongs to the modern and contemporary world. The article also criticises the public tendency to rank religions according to their supposed ecological value. Religious environmentalism is interpreted as a contemporary process of reinterpretation, in which inherited symbols, doctrines, and practices are resemanticised in response to the ecological crisis. In doing so, it proposes mediation as a central category for studying religions and environmental thought historically. Full article

South African cities are marked by deepening social and spatial inequalities that produce exclusion, vulnerability, and contested forms of belonging. In this article, these inequalities are understood as the result of historically entrenched processes of colonialism, apartheid spatial planning, and contemporary economic exclusion that continue to shape urban life. These realities not only shape the socio-historical context of Christian mission but also expose the inadequacy of specific ecclesial forms—such as racially and linguistically differentiated synodical structures, centralised theological training institutions, and the historical distinction between “kerk” (church) and “sending” (mission), including mission paradigms characterised by a movement from institutional centers to marginalised communities under paternalistic control. This article argues that faithful participation in the missio Dei, understood here as the Triune God’s redemptive and transformative activity in the world, into which the church is called to participate rather than initiate, requires a reimagined missional ecclesiology shaped in, with, and from the margins. Framed by a broader transforming missiological paradigm and drawing on qualitative literature, this article critically engages key streams within African urban theology, missional ecclesiology, and discourses of power and marginalisation, patriarchy, and ecclesial control to interrogate how churches often reproduce dependency, paternalism, and unequal agency in urban spaces. Using the Reformed Churches in South Africa (RCSAs) as an illustrative case, this article demonstrates how inherited missionary structures have constrained the theological and missional agency of so-called mission churches—that is, churches established among Black and Coloured communities under conditions of financial, administrative, and theological dependence on historically white “mother churches”. Full article

Marriage remains a central social institution among the Vatsonga, functioning not merely as a union between individuals but as a cultural institution through which gender identities, kinship relations, ritual obligations, and communal belonging are constructed and transmitted across generations. While scholarship has extensively explored marriage and gender in African societies, limited attention has been paid to the genealogical processes through which Vatsonga marriage rituals have historically shaped gender identities within changing social, political, and religious contexts. This article examines marriage as a site of gender construction by analysing the relationship between ritual practices, identity formation, and social belonging among the Vatsonga of Southern Africa. Using the genealogical approach of Michel Foucault and the theories of African feminists and decolonials, this study employs interpretive qualitative methodology, which entails the analysis of interdisciplinary literature in African philosophy, anthropology, gender studies, theology, and ritual studies. As a result of this analysis, it becomes evident that marriage rituals continue to play a great role in constructing masculinity and femininity, as well as kinship and community. At the same time, however, these rituals are dynamic and have undergone changes in light of colonialism, Christianity, urbanization, migrations, constitutional democracy, and modern concerns regarding gender equality. This article does not present marriage rituals of Vatsonga as static and monolithic practices, but rather shows their historical contingency, cultural dynamism, and continuous negotiation amid social change. Therefore, this study calls for critical engagement with marriage rituals in order to protect culture as well as to ensure gender equality and the dignity of all parties involved. With regard to the application of genealogy to marriage practices of Vatsonga, this article brings new perspectives to current debates on ritual, gender construction, African epistemologies and the decolonisation of marriage studies. Full article

This paper argues for the Catholic Church to receive and nurture the synod on synodality toward transformative decolonization through stronger and humbler engagement with Indigenous communities (primarily from North and South America) and their worldviews that parallel, augment, or challenge ecclesial doctrines and praxes laid out in the synod. The paper will first analyze the trend toward decolonization in the synodal process and then propose two clear opportunities for decolonial synodality informed by Catholic–Indigenous dialogue: the church as the people of God and as a community firmly rooted in and attentive to local contexts and, thus, place and space. Following these areas of relative harmony, the paper will highlight two regions likely to produce tension. The first is the significantly different worldviews of Indigenous cultures from the West that still dominate the church’s vision, language, and practice. The second is the possible refusal of Indigenous individuals or communities to engage in an “ecclesiology of recognition” that seeks to “include” Indigenous people and perspectives while exploiting them without challenging or changing the imperial and colonial heritages of Christianity. The paper will end by reaffirming the worth and necessity of decolonial synodality imagined, explored, and realized in creative and tense relationships with Indigenous communities. Full article

Contemporary Evangelicalism faces a paradox: despite its historical and demographic vitality, a soteriological imbalance in many (though by no means all) of its expressions—an overemphasis on afterlife-centred salvation relative to present flourishing—has contributed to a crisis of meaning for believers navigating present-day realities. This gap can leave the faith an insufficient bulwark against secular nihilism and radical ideologies, both of which thrive (however perversely) by addressing present suffering. This article argues not for the replacement of Evangelical soteriology but for its recovery and enrichment through a Theology of Human Flourishing, centred on the human person-in-communion conformed by grace to Christ—what it terms, with deliberate qualification, the Divine Individual. The theotic dimension developed here complements rather than supplants the forensic categories of justification, regeneration, and reconciliation. The argument proceeds in five moves. First, it grounds the Divine Individual in the New Testament “Son of Man” tradition, drawing on Walker’s exegesis of John 1.43–51 and Moule’s argument for Johannine individualism. Second, it deploys Jordan Peterson’s phenomenology of meaning as a modern grammar through which the patristic doctrine of theosis can be re-articulated, while critically assessing where Peterson’s anthropology of the autonomous subject diverges from a theology of grace and must be corrected by it. Third, it shows—with Henrich and Duchesne—that the Divine Individual is not a colonial construct but a long civilizational inheritance with deep biblical and Greco-Christian roots. Fourth, it answers the standard critiques: Pelagianism, syncretism, atomistic individualism, and the post-colonial objection. Fifth, it sketches the missiological implications: mission as the formation of Christ-shaped persons whose transformation ripples outward into the renewal of culture, institution, and civilization. Full article

Africans are widely recognised for their deeply rooted communal orientation. This ethos is intricately embedded in cultural practices such as burial rites, matrimonial customs, ritual observances, and broader conceptions of kinship. Within many African societies, the notion of family transcends the boundaries of the living, encompassing ancestors often conceptualised as the “living-dead” as well as extended familial networks. Despite the historical introduction and sustained influence of missionary and colonial religions, particularly Christianity, African Traditional Religion (ATR) continues to shape the beliefs and practices of many South Africans. Although Christianity remains a dominant religious tradition in South Africa, the persistence of ATR generates both points of convergence and sites of tension within the lived religious experiences of adherents. Against this backdrop, the present study critically examines the intersections and complexities between ATR and Christianity in South Africa, with particular emphasis on the African philosophy of community. Employing a qualitative research design informed by social cognitive theory and utilising a self-selection sampling strategy, data were collected through interviews with young adults (aged 25–40) affiliated with three mainline churches in Mamelodi, Pretoria, South Africa. The findings indicate that, while notable convergences exist between ATR and Christianity, significant complexities persist, particularly when interpreted through the lens of African communal philosophy. Full article

This article examines the emergence of Jamaican Dancehall Gospel (JDG)—a genre that fuses Christian-themed lyrics with dancehall rhythms—during its formative years (1998–2006). Despite its religious content, JDG artists expressed that they were often rejected in religious spaces and their music was excluded from worship spaces, based on debates between gatekeeping religious actors and the artists about the music’s appropriateness and authenticity. Using Koskoff’s concept of musical canon as a framework, the study explores why JDG failed to embody the “philosophical and aesthetic principles” of many ecclesial institutions. Drawing on media discourse, artist interviews, and observations, the analysis addresses four contested elements: artists, music, language, and dance. Findings reveal that resistance stemmed from JDG’s association with secular dancehall culture, its use of Jamaican patois, and its incorporation of dance—practices historically stigmatized as “low class” and incompatible with sacred spaces. While proponents argued for cultural relevance and the neutrality of musical forms, critics viewed JDG as a threat to traditional worship norms and moral order. The paper situates these tensions within broader struggles over identity, authenticity, and cultural hierarchy, highlighting the persistence of colonial attitudes privileging Euro-American aesthetics over indigenous expressions. Ultimately, JDG’s gradual acceptance—facilitated by international recognition and generational shifts—underscores the dynamic interplay between religion, popular culture, and identity politics in Jamaica. This study contributes to scholarship on Caribbean sacred music by documenting the sociocultural negotiations surrounding JDG’s emergence and its implications for redefining worship practices in postcolonial contexts. Full article

This paper argues that the colonial introduction of Christianity in Africa must be understood as a reordering of personhood, moral feeling, and the conditions under which lived experience becomes intelligible, rather than as a change in formal religious affiliation alone. Drawing on scholarship in African philosophy, religious history, European intellectual history, and African psychology, the paper traces how missionary Christianity reclassified African spiritual worlds, recoded suffering and misfortune, and disrupted the transmission of spiritual knowledge across generations. Crucially, it situates this encounter within the longer history of Christianity’s own disenchantment: the suppression, within dominant Protestant and Enlightenment traditions, of enchanted practices that had characterised European Christianity for over a millennium. The missionary traditions that condemned African spirit mediation, ancestral veneration, and ritual healing were carriers of a tradition that had practised structurally analogous things before disciplining them out of its own self-understanding. The paper shows that colonial religion produced layered forms of subjectivity in which ancestral obligation, Christian doctrine, communal personhood, moral anxiety, and therapeutic pluralism coexist in tension. The concept of ontological compression is proposed to name the condition under which parts of the self become unsayable within authorised vocabularies, a condition rendered doubly intense by the fact that the compressing tradition had already performed this narrowing upon itself. Rather than treating African spirituality as residue, superstition, or cultural background, the paper proposes that it should be approached as a living philosophical and psychological archive through which many people continue to interpret suffering, relation, responsibility, and reality itself. Full article

Buddhist Sunday schools were modeled on the Christian Sunday school, a form of religious education that emerged in late eighteenth-century Britain to provide literacy and moral instruction for impoverished children. Following the Meiji Restoration, Japanese Buddhism institutionalized Buddhist Sunday schools (佛敎日曜學校) for children’s moral cultivation by adapting Christian methodologies, expanding them nationwide during the 1920s and 1930s through standardized curricula. In Korea, Buddhist Sunday schools were introduced from the 1920s onward in response to the expansion of propagation centers (p’ogyo-dang, 布敎堂), the growing demand for youth propagation, and the exclusion of religious education from public schools under the Japanese colonial system. This article examines the comprehensive educational vision and operational principles of these schools—integrating graded administration, teacher qualifications, worship, and recreational activities for children—with a focus on “佛敎 日曜學校案” [Proposals for Buddhist Sunday Schools] written by Ra Un-hyang (羅雲鄕) in 1940. It further analyzes the nationwide distribution of these schools in 1940, identifying limitations such as financial precariousness, personnel shortages, and a lack of societal recognition. Nevertheless, Buddhist Sunday schools represent a significant historical milestone, as they served as a practical site where the popularization of modern Buddhism was realized and as a strategic effort for the cultivation of children and youth as future religious adherents. Full article

Millenarianism originated from apocalyptic literature in Judaism, emphasizing that the “Messiah” would establish a “millennial kingdom” on earth ruled by the Jews. This ideology became a theoretical weapon for Jews to resist imperial tyranny during classical antiquity and was later embraced by early Christian theology. By the early modern period, with the intense unfolding of the Reformation and social upheavals, the theory of the “millennial kingdom” re-emerged as a mainstream topic in Christian theology. Regarding the nature of the “millennial kingdom” and how it would be realized, early modern Christian factions split into two interpretive camps. One emphasized the spiritual attributes of the “millennial kingdom”, while the other stressed its material aspects, advocating the violent establishment of a political entity on earth ruled by Christians. These two distinct interpretive models ultimately converged on the issue of colonial expansion, transforming millenarianism into a theoretical tool to justify overseas expansion. Full article

The historical debate over the apparitions’ historicity has overshadowed the beauty of the Guadalupe message. An understudied aspect warrants further analysis: the Indigenous interpretations and background of the Nahua stories of Our Lady of Guadalupe. In this paper, I will analyze the inner Indigenous Nahua meanings of the following Guadalupe Accounts: Nican Mopohua, Tepoanxcuicatl, Inin Hueitlamahuilzoltzin, and Relación Mercuriana. The sources will be studied in the context of Nahuatl literature, particularly the Nican Mopohua, in comparison with the Cantares Mexicanos (Songs of the Aztecs) and the Romances (Ballads of the Lords of New Spain). This work will complement Timothy Matovina’s scholarship on indigenous devotion and on the Indigenous interpretation of the Image. Therefore, the three sources of Guadalupan knowledge (Image, devotion, and the story) could be read through a Nahua-Indigenous lens. This piece will close the gap in the story source, arguing for the “nahuatization of Christianity” and presenting the extent of the Nahua worldview’s influence on Colonial Christianity. Full article

This article documents and analyzes a three-month intercultural performance collaboration with Metamorphosis Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, during the summer of 1992—a pivotal moment following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Drawing on the author’s fieldwork methodology developed through decades of collaboration with Indigenous communities in Alaska, Southern Africa, and Siberia, the project employed trance techniques, rhythm-based training, and ritual archaeology to reconstruct pre-Christian Slavic performance practices. The resulting production, Shadows from the Planet Fire, emerged through a process that positioned ritual not as nostalgic revival but as a living technology for addressing cultural trauma and existential displacement. This account contributes to performance studies, applied theatre, and cultural heritage discourse by demonstrating how cosmocentric Indigenous methodologies can be adapted to address the spiritual and psychological wounds of post-industrial, post-colonial societies. The work establishes foundational principles for what the author terms “Techdigenous” practice—the synthesis of Indigenous wisdom traditions with contemporary performance contexts—and argues for ritual as a necessary consciousness technology in an era of ecological crisis and cultural fragmentation. Full article

The 19th century Protestant missionary James Legge is acknowledged for his voluminous and Christianity-inflected translations of Chinese classics of “Three Teachings”, yet his rendition of Buddhist texts remains under-examined. This study analyzes whether a value of Western theology exists in his portrayal of the Chinese monk Fâ-hien in A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms, where the pilgrim should emerge as a devout Buddhist, a pioneering explorer, and a morally sensitive figure. Legge foregrounded these facets through paratexts such as illustrations and footnotes, but also repeatedly framed Fâ-hien within a biblical interpretation by frequently drawing parallels between Christianity and Buddhism. At the textual level, he shifted the original first-person narrative to a third-person perspective, which weakened the emotional and spiritual sense of Fâ-hien’s journey. Legge’s scholarly competence in Chinese learning and his role as Oxford’s first Professor of Chinese determined his precise representation of the rich connotations of Fâ-hien’s image, balancing academic rigor with an orientation toward Great Britain’s colonial education and imperial interests. His Christo-Buddhist intervention in the paratexts, associating the primary text with Christian culture, reveals his underlying missionary purpose to evangelize China. To this end, this study reveals how religious translation served both missionary and scholarly ends, contributing to Western perceptions of Chinese religion while illustrating the broader power dynamics of Christian engagement with modern China. Full article