Abstract
The background of this article is the ethical challenges presented by patronage that has been highlighted by the present coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic. The aim of the article is to understand the role patronage plays in Africa from the perspective of a relevant African hermeneutic. Like many studies undertaken in an African setting, it uses a comparative methodology to create a dialogue between a socio-historical textual analysis of the biblical text and the socio-economic and religio-cultural realities of African contexts. It specifically uses an analogical paradigm that compares the reception of the biblical tradition in a specific historical critical context to its reception in modern-day African contexts. The result of the comparison is that the misuse of patronage is engaged from the perspective of the response of early Christian writers to patronage in the 1st century. This initial exploration has indicated that an analogous comparative approach has the potential to provide deeper insights in understanding the relationship established by patronage in African contexts. The conclusion is that in its engagement with patronage in Africa, the church must encourage its members to ask if it establishes parasitic or exploitative relations, if it is beneficial to the whole society over an extended period of time and if a clear distinction is made between public (offices) and personal resources. Ultimately, it needs to be asked if benefaction reflects the will of God and enhances the reputation of the congregation of God. Contribution: The contribution of the article is in clarifying the potential analogical comparisons for studying the Bible in Africa and for the formulation of a critical African ethic.
Highlights
The coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic has highlighted different ethical challenges that need to be urgently addressed
It will focus on how the role patronage played in it should be understood from the perspective of a relevant African hermeneutic
One of the prevalent forms of corruption, the misuse of patronage, has been engaged from the perspective that this phenomenon must not be condemned by the church from a Western cultural perspective. It needs to be engaged with in a thorough manner guided by the timely exegesis of the Bible to provide a contemporary ecclesiology that embodies faith in a corona-defined world
Summary
The coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic has highlighted different ethical challenges that need to be urgently addressed. It will instead survey some of the aspects that need to be taken into consideration in future studies The premise of this survey is that the sociological investigation of the New Testament, supplemented by cultural-anthropological studies, has identified the typical roles, values and cultural matrices of meaning of the ancient world in which it was written (DeSilva 2004:124). This has enabled New Testament scholars to gain a deeper insight of the world in which the New Testament originated. Many of these sociology insights into human relationships and the social changes that shape a society, such as perceptions of limited good, dyadic personality types, the role of kinship, honour and shame values and patron–client relationships, can be compared to those in analogous African contexts
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