AT 2017 Volume 37 Issue 1

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http://hdl.handle.net/11660/6404

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    African postfoundational practical theology
    (Faculty of Theology, University of the Free State, 2017) Muller, J. C.
    Practical theology is located in a fragile, vulnerable space between various disciplines, where it is exposed to multiple different narratives. The author proposes a postfoundational, narrative approach to practical theology that favours the local over the global and the specific over generalisations. Africa is taken as the defining context for the understanding and development of a specific postfoundational practical theology. People and their stories are central, and this requires a coconstruction of meaning with “co-researchers”. The author’s “seven movements”, as published in other articles, is used with an Ubuntu research project as a case study. The “seven movements” facilitate the telling and retelling of unheard stories, particularly stories of the marginalised and vulnerable. This way of doing practical theology takes the experiences of “co-researchers” seriously and conducts research wíth people rather than on them. The researcher’s focus is concrete, local, and contextual, but also extends beyond the local by engaging in transdisciplinary conversation and developing interpretations that point beyond the local.
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    The biblical view of humanity and the promotion of the rights of persons with disabilities: the call and mission of the church
    (Faculty of Theology, University of the Free State, 2017) White, P.
    It is estimated that 10 per cent of the world’s population, approximately 650 million people live with disability. Eighty per cent of them live in developing countries. The needs and rights of persons with disabilities have been high on the United Nations agenda for at least three decades. This concern of the United Nations raises the question of the missional role of the church in addressing the spiritual, social and emotional needs of people with disabilities. “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute” (Prov. 31:8). In this light, the article discusses the missional role of the church in promoting the rights of people with disabilities, by engaging literature on disability, the rights of people with disability, the biblical view of humanity, and the missional agenda of the church from an ecumenical and theological perspective. The article concludes that the church has a missional call to serve as the home and prophetic voice for the marginalised in society.
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    Christian and secular values for sale: the religious apostasy of celebrity and Disney's "Hannah Montana" star Miley Cyrus
    (Faculty of Theology, University of the Free State, 2017) Sanchez Sabate, R.; Gelabert Santane, R. C.; Badilla Briones, Y. A.; Del Valle Rojas, C.
    Religious apostasy is a complex phenomenon that becomes even more obscure when it involves public figures in the media industry with economic interests at stake. A paradigmatic case is that of American singer Miley Cyrus, who went from being a famous religious role model for conservative American evangelical Christians to becoming a secular and liberal celebrity, playing in highly sexualized live shows and videos. Drawing on a complementary use of sociological, economic and language theories of value, this paper explores Cyrus’ religious apostasy as a transformation from a Christian commodity to a secular one. Our study shows that, while for the industry, be it Christian or secular, Cyrus’ sociological and language values are always subsidiary to her economic value as a commodity, for Christian consumers, her economic value depends on her social and language values.
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    The gospel contra Nietzsche: a South African literary critique of Wille zur Macht
    (Faculty of Theology, University of the Free State, 2017) Hale, F.
    A century of scholarship has shed countless photons of light on the reception of Friedrich Nietzsche’s ideas in numerous countries. Still largely unilluminated, however, are South African reactions to his scepticism and moral pessimism. The present article explores how Joseph Doke, a scholarly, transplanted Englishman who served as a Baptist pastor in Johannesburg and elsewhere and wrote the first biography of Gandhi, used fiction to criticise Nietzsche early in the twentieth century. His novel The queen of the secret city (1916) embodies an explicit rejection of this German philosopher’s pivotal notion of Wille zur Macht (will to power). It is further suggested that Doke was probably indebted to G.K. Chesterton’s confrontation with that idea in Orthodoxy (1908). In Doke’s critique of Nietzsche, he also described ethnic and religious clashes and implicitly argued for the moral superiority of Christianity and the ethical need for missionary endeavours.
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    Interview with Rothney S. Tshaka
    (Faculty of Theology, University of the Free State, 2017) Laubscher, Martin
    Abstract not available
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    Music, theology, and space: listening as a way of seeking God
    (Faculty of Theology, University of the Free State, 2017) England, F.
    Music, it will be claimed, intones the meaning of being human. In the Christian tradition, music is central to liturgy and worship. From its roots in the New Testament, through its approval or prohibition by the Church Fathers, to the Puritan purges, the Classical liturgical commissions, and the revivalist celebrations, sacred music continues to be a means of negotiating the relationship between human selves and the sacred. The theological importance of music has been examined most recently with respect to time, but the theological promise of the spatial dimension of music either has been ignored or rejected. Accompanied by the Augustine of the Confessions, this article asks whether “the space of music” offers a way of seeking to know who one is and who God is.
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    The narrative of the woman caught in adultery (JN 7:53-8:1-11) re-read in the Nigerian context
    (Faculty of Theology, University of the Free State, 2017) Manus, C. U.; Ukaga, J. C.
    This article draws on the spirit and letters of the Vienna Declaration and its Program of Action that emanated from the World Conference on Human Rights held in 1993. It delineates the fact that Women’s rights are essential aspects of the fundamental human rights of every individual. With the synchronic study of the receivers as our methodology, we expose the narrative of the unnamed adulteress woman in John 7:53-8:1-11, in order to seek a theological grounding for women’s human rights in the context of Nigeria, where Boko Haram’s dehumanization of the Chibok girls and other women is rife, and explore the Nigerian history of women activists. We exegetically expose the storyline of the text of John and contrast the ideas with the horrific incidence of women’s degradation in Nigeria. The findings reveal abiding lessons adjudged relevant for a sustainable pro-life Christology and theology of the rescue and liberation of women from militant jihadists in north-eastern Nigeria. For Jesus, women are divinely blessed with equal rights with men.
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    Review: The parables of Jesus the Galilean: stories of a social prophet
    (Faculty of Theology, University of the Free State, 2017) Howes, L.
    Abstract not available