Abstract
The genre of laments (both individual and communal) can be traced historically, even up to today, to periods of crisis. The psalms of lament in the Hebrew Bible point to periods both of national crisis such as wars, exile, and individual crisis, namely attacks from enemies and illness among others. The crisis of the exile was typified by death (in the literal and metaphorical sense), pestilence, disease and war. It was also typified by hope as some of the prophets such as Jeremiah could prophesy both doom (read: death) and salvation (read: hope). If there is any crisis that people of African descent, particularly those located within the sub-Saharan continent, have ever come to experience it is the crisis brought by the pandemic of HIV and AIDS. The pandemic is better approached by scholars who hold the view that it is multisectoral. According to the latter view, the pandemic impacts the social, the economic, the religious or spiritual, and the psychological lives of both the affected and the infected. It is a justice issue. It can thus not be relegated to the individual because it is communal. Is it any wonder that in 2002 the members of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians set out to theologise and conduct God-talk that would be both gender- and HIV and AIDSconscious? In this article, we engage the works of Circle theologians and biblical scholars to see what kind of reading could emerge if we re-read the lament psalm, such as Psalm 6, gender and HIV and AIDS consciously.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: In this article, the disciplines of biblical studies, gender studies, and HIV and AIDS studies, among others, converge as the authors draw from Circle theologies and biblical hermeneutics to re-read Psalm 6 through an HIV and AIDS lens. In the process, issues such as patriarchy, poverty and social justice are also dealt with.Keywords: Circle biblical hermeneutica; Psalm 6; HIV and AIDS; Gender-sensitive
Highlights
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If there is any crisis that people of African descent, those located within the sub-Saharan continent, have ever come to experience it is the crisis brought by the pandemic of HIV and AIDS
Is it any wonder that in 2002 the members of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians set out to theologise and conduct God-talk that would be both gender- and HIV and AIDSconscious? In this article, we engage the works of Circle theologians and biblical scholars to see what kind of reading could emerge if we re-read the lament psalm, such as Psalm 6, gender and HIV and AIDS consciously
Summary
Dangling between death and hope: An HIV and AIDS gender-sensitive re-reading of Psalm 6. & Mtshiselwa, V.N.N., 2016, ‘Dangling between death and hope: An HIV and AIDS gender-sensitive re-reading of Psalm 6’, Verbum et Ecclesia 37(2), a1579. We engage the works of Circle theologians and biblical scholars to see what kind of reading could emerge if we re-read the lament psalm, such as Psalm 6, gender and HIV and AIDS consciously. An HIV and AIDS gender-sensitive biblical hermeneutic is first and foremost contextual It seriously takes into account the experiences of HIV and AIDS women sufferers. As African women are the hardest hit by the pandemic of HIV and AIDS in South Africa, our HIV and AIDS genderconscious re-reading of Psalm 6 will be informed first and foremost by the experiences of these women. Dr Wright noted that it was in South Africa that the President is reported to have cleansed himself from the HIV in a shower! the preceding critique could be viewed as based on an issue that may be deemed to belong to the dustbin of history, an important question we ask is: what may the institution of polygyny contribute to our communal struggle in the fight against the pandemic of HIV and AIDS? it might be argued that the (mostly younger) women who are South Africa’s many first ladies were not coerced into such a risky form of marriage in http://www.ve.org.za
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