Nurturing Intercultural Theological Education towards Social Justice Ideals in South Africa

Abstract

Post-apartheid South Africa, almost three decades into the democracy, is a society in crisis, facing burgeoning economic and social challenges. Religion is seen as a potential force in supporting social cohesion and nation building. Theological education in its handling of diversity and decoloniality reveals complicity and avoidance. A significant task is to embrace the ‘other’ and to affirm the equality and dignity of all people, bearing in mind there is sufficient theological impetus for this. A key question for this study is how theological education can engage in an intercultural ideal towards authentic participation in the development of society. This article reveals the resources and process of embodied formative education within a mediated learning environment to create a hospitable space for learning about differences. It also allows for antiracist pedagogies to be realised within this safer community. Attention is also given to on how epistemological justice and decolonisation is engaged, envisioning a less domineering approach to theological education that makes space for other voices. This contextual case study affirms African identity, revealing humanising education that can support political change at an interpersonal level, as well as at a geo-political level, in its decolonial agenda of creating an engagement of equals.