The Department of Religion and Theology at UWC, together with the World Council of Churches Commission on World Mission and Evangelism and the Programme for Overcoming Racism, will host a Seminar titled, “Decolonising the Bible in the midst of colonial legacies and idolatrous powers”.
Rooted in the respective efforts of both UWC and the WCC to find ways to address decolonisation afresh, the seminar will offer opportunities to begin to investigate and raise the decolonial critique in the Bible, of the Bible and its use in the current phase of counter colonial struggle. The Bible was key to colonial domination and Christian expansion but also vital to the work of contextualisation and liberation, such as the story of the church struggle in South Africa demonstrates.
As ecumenical bodies and theologians/scholars of religion consider decolonisation afresh, it remains crucial to consider how the Bible is situated as a colonising and decolonising power. The seminar offers an opportunity to explore particular functions of the Bible in relation to the key issues and powers of our time. These powers are present at micro and macro levels as the systemic logic of empire continues to indwell so much of human community and practice. The neo-colonial power of white-dominated ideologies, economies, attitudes and systems continues to enslave and ensnare the nations that were promised freedom when Independence came.
Their power is also manifest in the global North, whose communities are also finding themselves prey to the economic and political interests of the new empire. The world’s policies towards climate, diversity, inequity, economics and faith are driven by dominant identities, interests, elites and epistemologies, which cause ever greater pain, death and disaster, especially for racialised and minoritised communities, and indeed the whole of creation.
Thus, the seminar will seek to read texts in the midst of such powers, but also in relation to certain colonial sites and the various ways in which the Bible has been used as both a tool of exploitation and an instrument of liberation. These could be the manifestations of historical colonial legacies shaping our lives now, or neo-colonial powers which have grown out of them. These include, but are not limited to, the climate crisis, land loss, economic inequity, and systems of oppression and supremacy such as whiteness, racism, misogyny, xenophobia, casteism, homophobia and ableism.
Questions of translation and epistemologies behind the use of the Bible will also feature as dimensions of critiquing not only the ecclesial power beneath and above the text but also the colonisation of Bibles through translation. These will point to ways to address the epistemological and systemic violence in which the Bible is used to reveal and repair but also perpetuate and permit. This might alert the ecumenical, academic and activist communities to the renewing, repairing, repenting and re-storying opportunities offered us by the multiversal worlds breaking out of the biblical text. This further entails addressing the ways the Bible commissions readers into certain postures, practices and attitudes. But it also means addressing the power that constructs the Bible as canon and sacred text, the power that curates, translates and interprets it, the power that confers to the Bible certain dominant norms, and the power the Bible has to subvert all this simultaneously.
The seminar will be held at UWC from 19 to 22 November 2024 and is envisaged to contribute toward developing strategies and resources for furthering the decolonial work of the ecumenical movement, especially in relation to mission and evangelism and anti-racism and anti-discrimination. The seminar will also contribute towards enhancing decolonial collaborative work on biblical, missiological and theological hermeneutics.
Rooted in the respective efforts of both UWC and the WCC to find ways to address decolonisation afresh, the seminar will offer opportunities to begin to investigate and raise the decolonial critique in the Bible, of the Bible and its use in the current phase of counter colonial struggle. The Bible was key to colonial domination and Christian expansion but also vital to the work of contextualisation and liberation, such as the story of the church struggle in South Africa demonstrates.
As ecumenical bodies and theologians/scholars of religion consider decolonisation afresh, it remains crucial to consider how the Bible is situated as a colonising and decolonising power. The seminar offers an opportunity to explore particular functions of the Bible in relation to the key issues and powers of our time. These powers are present at micro and macro levels as the systemic logic of empire continues to indwell so much of human community and practice. The neo-colonial power of white-dominated ideologies, economies, attitudes and systems continues to enslave and ensnare the nations that were promised freedom when Independence came.
Their power is also manifest in the global North, whose communities are also finding themselves prey to the economic and political interests of the new empire. The world’s policies towards climate, diversity, inequity, economics and faith are driven by dominant identities, interests, elites and epistemologies, which cause ever greater pain, death and disaster, especially for racialised and minoritised communities, and indeed the whole of creation.
Thus, the seminar will seek to read texts in the midst of such powers, but also in relation to certain colonial sites and the various ways in which the Bible has been used as both a tool of exploitation and an instrument of liberation. These could be the manifestations of historical colonial legacies shaping our lives now, or neo-colonial powers which have grown out of them. These include, but are not limited to, the climate crisis, land loss, economic inequity, and systems of oppression and supremacy such as whiteness, racism, misogyny, xenophobia, casteism, homophobia and ableism.
Questions of translation and epistemologies behind the use of the Bible will also feature as dimensions of critiquing not only the ecclesial power beneath and above the text but also the colonisation of Bibles through translation. These will point to ways to address the epistemological and systemic violence in which the Bible is used to reveal and repair but also perpetuate and permit. This might alert the ecumenical, academic and activist communities to the renewing, repairing, repenting and re-storying opportunities offered us by the multiversal worlds breaking out of the biblical text. This further entails addressing the ways the Bible commissions readers into certain postures, practices and attitudes. But it also means addressing the power that constructs the Bible as canon and sacred text, the power that curates, translates and interprets it, the power that confers to the Bible certain dominant norms, and the power the Bible has to subvert all this simultaneously.
The seminar will be held at UWC from 19 to 22 November 2024 and is envisaged to contribute toward developing strategies and resources for furthering the decolonial work of the ecumenical movement, especially in relation to mission and evangelism and anti-racism and anti-discrimination. The seminar will also contribute towards enhancing decolonial collaborative work on biblical, missiological and theological hermeneutics.
