Abstract
The Christian church in Zimbabwe radically indicated the courage and consciousness to identify itself with the struggle for liberation of the marginalised, the oppressed and the impoverished, more specifically in the context of chimurenga or the armed struggle. Thus, the Kairos model of ecclesiology consistently and unequivocally supported masses who were the majority Zimbabweans during the protracted struggle of the 1970s against racial system, thereby assuming such designations as the church of struggle, the Church of chimurenga, the church in trenches and combat with the people; hence, the liberationist language signalled a symbol of Kairos consciousness for Zimbabwean ecclesiology. Kairos consciousness implies the liberationist methodological framework of ecclesiology when the church becomes the interlocutor and articulator identified and associated with non-persons. Furthermore, the non-persons, the impoverished and the marginalised occupy the epicentre of epistemological space in ecclesiological discourse. Precisely, the socio-economic and political landscape of Zimbabwe radically shifted from 2000 onwards, marking the genesis of a crisis. This article based on ecclesiology investigates prophetic role and the impact of the church in the context of Zimbabwean crisis.
Highlights
This article investigates the Zimbabwean crisis of 2000–2013 through the liberationist framework of Kairos consciousness as articulated by Allan Boesak
The scope of this study critically examines whether the Zimbabwean ecclesiology is pro-third chimurenga or anti-chimurenga considering James Cone’s (1975) notion that: Neutrality is not an option when people are oppressed, the fight for justice and freedom is a divine right for every Christian. (p. 141)
As some scholars and theologians wrestling with the history and development of Kairos consciousness and ecclesiology have a consensus that it is about God’s liberating acts of justice in history for the souls of the oppressed and downtrodden, our framework portrays liberationist views ‘from below’
Summary
This article investigates the Zimbabwean crisis of 2000–2013 through the liberationist framework of Kairos consciousness as articulated by Allan Boesak. This framework is developed based on the notion which focuses on Christian church’s openness to its social http://www.hts.org.za environment in form of the society in a dynamic rather than a passive sense (Orobator 2005:31) This approach raises the symbol and appraisal of ecclesiology in public space which is relevant for this study because of church’s role for liberation in Zimbabwe. As alluded to in this article, Robert Mugabe insisted that the word ‘crisis’ was misplaced and misused; he overemphasised that the church was venturing dangerously in political domain, leaving spiritual matters unattended (Chitando 2013:44) The perpetuation of this myth did not stop or deter the consciousness of Zimbabwean Christianity as they shelled out silence, thereby challenging the political environment of Zimbabwe in public. The political elite in Zimbabwe constantly reminded the church to avoid meddling in political space
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