A church as Kalafong: ecclesiology according to Gabriel Molehe Setiloane

Abstract

The interest of this article focuses on Gabriel Molehe Setiloane’s views about the ecclesiological make-up in the context of African theology. This focus is relevant as it has been argued that Setiloane pushed for the importance of African theological discourse (Masoga 2012a). Some of the sensitive but also critical expressions by Setiloane include statements such as Motho ke Modimo, which is translated into English as “a human being is God/Divine”. It has been Setiloane’s theological interest to develop what he called the “African Divinity discourse”, encompassing areas of life such as: ethics and morality in secular contexts; family life; civil authority; “riches and poverties”; the land question; crime; leadership styles; the functioning of the corporate sector in terms of ubuntu; and bio-centric ethics. This article aims to introduce Setiloane’s voice on the idea of the church. For this purpose, it was decided that the two terms, “church” and “ecclesiology” would be used to drive the theoretical framework and practice perspectives, both of which will become clearer in the primary data used in this article. For Setiloane, his calling as a pastor, and the church in which he was called to, had much to do with kalafo (African healing) and bongaka (a Motswana initiated healer). In this case, congregants were balwetsi (patients) looking to the ngaka (traditional healer) of their malwetsi (diseases). I had the privilege to have been entrusted with unpublished articles by the late Setiloane before he passed away, as well as the honour of holding formal and informal interviews with him. This research article made use of the Thematic Content Analysis (TCA) approach to broach the recorded data in the form of formal interviews, informal discussions, stories, and statements.