Abstract
The thesis of this article is that the arrival and non-arrival of African migrants fractures the pseudo innocence of Western Europe exposing its colonial entanglements hence challenging the church to develop a decolonial theological politics. The article develops such a politics by re-examining and reconfiguring elements of Barth’s theological politics. It draws on his understanding of the “lordless powers” and of God taking the side of the poor and rereads them in the light of a counter imperial reading of the New Testament. This forms the basis for a reconfiguring of themes from his Christian Community and Civil Community.
Highlights
The thesis of this article is that the arrival and non-arrival of African migrants fractures the pseudo innocence of Western Europe exposing its colonial entanglements challenging the church to develop a decolonial theological politics
The arrival in Europe of millions of migrants, fleeing war, poverty, ecological disaster, dictatorial rule, and political instability has been described as a crisis of migration – focusing on the presence of those who are other, or as a crisis of solidarity – focusing on the rejection experienced by the migrants
The crisis challenges the nations of Western Europe to come acknowledge and respond to their culpability in the colonial, neocolonial, and post-colonial exploitation of Africa and Asia
Summary
The arrival in Europe of millions of migrants, fleeing war, poverty, ecological disaster, dictatorial rule, and political instability has been described as a crisis of migration – focusing on the presence of those who are other, or as a crisis of solidarity – focusing on the rejection experienced by the migrants It is more accurately described as a crisis of innocence. My share in the sin against Africa or Asia for the last hundred or fifty years may be very remote or indirect, but would Europe be what it is, and would I be what I am, if that expansion had never happened?1 More this crisis of innocence poses a fundamental challenge to the way European Christians and churches understand their identity and witness. Can they come to terms with their colonial entanglements and chart a new decolonial theological politics that enables them to bear faithful witness to the crucified Christ in contemporary Europe? Barth’s classic portrait of the relation between church and state, The Christian Community and the Civil Community makes a significant contribution to such an endeavour
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