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We continue our journey towards a better understanding of the city and the way in which God wants us to demonstrate love and justice within the city.
In this piece we journey through the streets of Woodstock, Cape Town, taking in Thandi Gamedze's experience of the city and the theology embodied within it.
ANNO DOMINI PRESENTS:
Theology as Contestation
TEXT: THANDI GAMEDZE / PHOTOGRAPHY: SESIHLE MANZINI
The idea of contestation is one that I can’t seem to get away from.
The realm of the theological is a site of perpetual struggle.
The word struggle is important
as it surfaces memory of historical moments and movements...
...where people marginalised by unjust systems refused to accept the dehumanisation that these systems tried to impose on them
I think that the theological struggle carries some similar dynamics.
Resistance against theological hegemony is present in powerful and courageous ways
as the dehumanising nature of the dominant theologies are challenged and fought against in various expressions of liberation theologies
Theology is not simply believed or theorised
Theology is not simply believed or theorised
WHO ARE THE PEOPLE WHO HELP US SEE?
In this story, it was those that the city excluded that helped the city see
The city and its theology is alive with contestation
The theology of Empire brings death and destruction
The theology of life is found in the prophetic minority
the church is at its best when it is the prophetic minority
SEEING IS ESSENTIAL
Being able to see our own positionality and ideology in the process of trying to build a different world
When ideas are seen as norms, and ‘just the way things are'
they are very difficult to see, let alone change.
THE PROCESS OF SEEING
creates the possibility
for imagining things... different
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