Abstract
This article addresses the possible link between prophetic witness and weakness (one can also speak of vulnerability), and expands on reasons why this connection holds much promise for a theological engagement with the question regarding the prophetic role of Christians and churches in the public sphere in South Africa today. With this in mind, the various sections underscore the need for a form of prophetic witness that emphasises respectively prophetic solidarity, prophetic imagination and prophetic performativity. In the process, the article puts forward three statements or theses as invitation for further reflection and conversation, drawing on, among others, the work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Giorgio Agamben, Emmanuel Katongole and Judith Butler.
Highlights
The topic of this article – ‘Prophetic witness in weakness’ – raises vital questions about what it means for believers and faith communities to witness to their faith in the public sphere
To summarise the first thesis: authentic prophetic witness requires that we are contemporary in the sense that we stand in solidarity with the times with, as Bonhoeffer said, its crisis and hope
Prophetic witness is grounded in a prophetic solidarity with the times as well as in a hope-filled prophetic imagination in which, in the midst of suffering, people are enabled to see otherwise
Summary
The topic of this article – ‘Prophetic witness in weakness’ – raises vital questions about what it means for believers and faith communities to witness to their faith in the public sphere. The powerful role of social media and technology in more recent protest movements and justice quests raises questions about what prophetic witness could mean in such a context beyond merely entailing the action to ‘like’ a moral cause on Facebook.
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