This paper undertakes a comprehensive exploration of two seminal theological movements that emerged from Latin America in the twentieth century: Liberation Theology and Integral Mission. It delineates their distinct historical origins, core theological tenets, and methodological approaches to social transformation. The analysis proceeds to a comparative investigation, by charting the significant points of convergence and divergence between Liberation Theology’s emphasis on structural critique and systemic change, and Integral Mission’s holistic paradigm integrating evangelism with social responsibility. The central argument of this work posits that while these movements possess unique theological similarities, their profound influence on South African theological discourse and social activism reveals a shared capacity for contextual adaptation and a common commitment to human dignity and justice. The paper examines how these Latin American frameworks were received, reinterpreted, and contextualized within apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa, giving rise to potent local expressions such as Black Theology of Liberation. By assessing their combined impact and ongoing relevance, this article illuminates the nuanced ways in which these theological paradigms have challenged ecclesiastical norms, fostered advocacy for the marginalised, and continue to inform the quest for social justice in contexts marked by profound historical and contemporary inequality. The paper concludes by considering the future trajectory for a contextualised public theology in South Africa, one that synthesises the strengths of both traditions to address the persistent challenges of the post-apartheid era.

ABSTRACT This essay develops a distinction between “major” and “minor” revolution through Amaryah Armstrong’s interventions in Black theology and Saidiya Hartman's intervention in the Black radical tradition. Major revolution—exemplified by Marxist historical materialism and liberation theology—imagines emancipation as a promised cataclysmic event. Such models, however, inadequately address racial and sexual subalternity. This is either because of their allegorical/analogical construction, or due to the selectiveness and incompleteness of God's redemptive gestures. Indeed, Armstrong’s wayward reading of Hagar reframes her as a limit figure who exposes the contradictions of redemption and allegorical universality. Hagar’s ambivalent naming of God underlines the violence of freedom-as-promise. An isomorphic ambivalence lies in Saidiya Hartman’s notion of “revolution in minor key," which recasts revolution as nonevental, fugitive, and recurrent. This is a minor revolution that foregrounds survival in brutal conditions, where structural liberation remains unrealized but a freedom as otherwise material conditions is discernible.

This article revisits the enduring theological and missional importance of the Nicene Creed, even seventeen centuries after its origin. It focuses on a recurring Christological crisis known as the “Barabbas Delusion”. Inspired by the biblical account of the crowd choosing Barabbas over Jesus (Mt 27:17), this delusion highlights the ongoing temptation within the Church to favour politically or culturally driven messianic figures instead of the crucified and risen Lord. By tracing this pattern throughout history, particularly within Christian Zionism, Apartheid Theology, Liberation and Black Theology, the Prosperity Gospel, and identity-based tribalism, the article suggests that such distortions indicate a shift away from the high Christology affirmed at Nicaea. The Nicene Creed’s declaration of Jesus as “true God from true God” is presented here not just as doctrinal nostalgia but as a theological guide that counters ideological captivity and reorients the Church’s identity and mission amid an era of post-Christendom, global Christianity, and ideological confusion. The article concludes by urging a Christ-centred mission renewal rooted in Nicene faith.

Colonial Christianity has brought misery to the lives of Africans and the people of the Global South. It brought colonisers and imperialists who oppressed, killed, stole the land and the precious minerals of the Africans and the people of the Global South. Christianity was used as a tool of oppression and racial discrimination on the Global and African land. They came to the people’s land with Christianity to save the barbarians from Africa and the global South. This kind of Christianity must be rejected with the contempt it deserves, as it promotes blasphemy of theft, oppression, and poverty of people who are non-white from Africa and the Global South. Christianity must give power and peace to Christians irrespective of their gender, creed, sexual orientation, colour of the skin and the land of origin. It must be the equal answers to their prayers for a prosperous and peaceful life on equal footing.

While, in theory, largely opposed to violence, the Church, conceived broadly, has historically and in contemporary times been complicit in the legitimation of various forms of violence. To makes sense of this, this paper theorises the concept of selective violence-blindness as a phenomenon operating within the church to legitimise violence enacted upon certain bodies. It does this through analysing and drawing connections between two examples. The first highlights hegemonic readings of Hagar’s story in Genesis 16 to highlight selective violence-blindness in engagements with “the word”. The second centres hegemonic readings of the genocide in Gaza to highlight selective violence-blindness in engagements with “the world”. The paper begins with an exploration of these phenomena. It then offers a framework with which to analyse some of the factors producing this selective violence-blindness. Subsequently, the paper names and analyses three of these factors: coloniality, theological grand narratives, and a failure to recognise discourses as sites of struggle. Finally, drawing on scholars of black theology, Palestinian liberation theology, and black feminism, the paper proposes ways of addressing these factors through liberatory readings of both “the word” and “the world” that make visible and problematise the violence enacted upon certain bodies.

Abstract This article reflects on Christology, understood as part of a theological imagination whereby theological language is functionally world structuring. Beginning with how this theological imagination has a history of creating intra-black tension in South Africa, this article reflects on how the constitutive elements of this kind of theological imagination are drawn from Nicene orthodoxy. Then by heuristically engaging Mofokeng’s Black Christology and Ramose’s notion of the suspension of Christology, this article seeks to classify what is meant by the end of Christology. I conclude by arguing that while this is not an attempt to instrumentalise Christology for black liberation, it also does not mean the repudiation or even suspension of Christianity. It refers instead to the end of Christology as a language that structures reality. The importance of this argument is that it contributes to attempts to move beyond the ways in which Christianity’s imbrication in settler-colonialism has produced recuring obstacles for shared life in South Africa.

This article explores the role of Black Theology within the context of sustained anti-blackness. It argues that anti-blackness is not only a political failure but the ontological ground of modern life. Engaging critically with Black Theology of Liberation, the article examines how even liberatory theological discourses can become entangled in Christianised redemptive frameworks that inadvertently uphold anti-black metaphysics. Drawing from a broader scope of black studies, it argues that Black Theology often remains entangled in anti-black metaphysical structures, especially in its assumptions about being, life and liberation. The article turns to Armstrong’s ‘Wayward Black Theology’, which foregrounds waywardness, refusal, lament and disruption as theological imperatives. Building on this, it proposes a both–and approach to blackness. That is, blackness as poiesis: a creative, spiritual and ideological force tethered to waywardness, and blackness as a condition that signals the end of the world as we know it, where black existence has been positioned as non-being. Contribution: Ultimately, the article asks: What theo-political and spiritual imperatives must Black Theology embrace if it is to move beyond the limits of the world structured by anti-blackness and its metaphysical foundations?

The socio-economic-cultural and political conditions under which the black people live warrant ongoing black theological reflection in the context of poverty. Decades after the dawn of democracy in South Africa, black people continue to suffer because of the dehumanising poverty, inequality and unemployment. The majority of those who suffer are black people whose lives have not changed for the better despite promises that are often made by the governing party, the African National Congress (ANC). The promises continue even during the time of the Government of National Unity (GNU) following the electoral losses of the ANC and their initiation of the GNU in 2024. Despite the establishment of the GNU, indications are that black people will continue to live in poverty and that South Africa will continue to be the most unequal society and that unemployment will continue to reach high levels. This article argues that the persistent poverty experienced in black communities in South Africa demands critical theological reflection by pastors and theologians rooted in those contexts. Using the historical-theological method, the article argues that Christian faith in black communities must continue to be articulated from the standpoint of the poor and oppressed, who are the interlocutors of Black Theology. Utilising a situational theological method grounded in the works of Cone, Boesak and Motlhabi, this study examines the socio-theological role of Black Theology under the GNU. Contribution: The article contributes to discourse related to Black Theology in the context of poverty in the South African context, where the majority of those who are poor are black. The article serves as a corrective discourse that rebuts the perception that Black Theology is an American theology that has no place in Africa.

This article investigates the outstanding question in South Africa of the land, by way of Black Theology, honing in on it the liberative optic of Steve Biko (Stephen Bantu). It argues that today’s post-apartheid land clashes do not engage ordinary politics or law; they involve theological crises that expose the moral bankruptcy of both the Church and South Africa. The article juxtaposes the Reformed ethics of Jacobus Vorster, the eschatological perspective of Kelebogile Resane and the radical emancipatory paradigm of Black Theology with a view to highlight land as neither commodity nor property, but sacred inheritance, communal memory and spiritual root. Biko’s theology is informed by Black consciousness, the memory of ancestry and incarnational practice, which constructs a decolonial Christology that challenges Christian nationalism and spiritual responsibility for land dispossession. The analysis contends against white refugee claims and theological amnesia that reverses justice, arguing for a prophetic voice rooted in remembrance, restitution and ethical impetus. Contribution: It mobilises Biko, Mosala, Vellem and others to (re)imagine an African and African Christian identity by restoring the role of the Church as conscience of the nations. Land justice appears here as a theological imperative, as a site where liberation, self-expression and divine action meet. When people whose land was stolen from them regains that land, it is not, after all, just the land they are reclaiming but their testimony.

This article examines Bonganjalo Goba’s theological vision through the lens of Azanian Africanist critique, arguing that his historical awareness fundamentally shapes his theology as an Africanist theology. Goba’s work, particularly Agenda for Black Theology: Hermeneutics for Social Change, foregrounds conquest as the foundational injustice structuring black oppression, positioning black theology within the broader struggle for liberation. The article situates Goba’s theology within the Azanian intellectual tradition, engaging with Joel Modiri’s tenets of Azanian Africanist critique – specifically, the insistence that South Africa is an illegitimate settler-colonial construct requiring fundamental transformation. Central to this argument is Goba’s eschatology, which frames Azania as an eschatological horizon, rejecting Western theological frameworks that defer liberation to an otherworldly realm. Instead, Goba’s theological vision insists on the inseparability of history, faith and the political imperative of black self-determination. By engaging Goba’s theology alongside Azanian thinkers, this study demonstrates that his eschatology is not merely a doctrinal position but an urgent commitment to dismantling settler-colonial structures. In doing so, the article reclaims Goba’s relevance for contemporary black theological discourse, affirming that black theology must remain attuned to the unfinished struggle for liberation and the realisation of Azania as both a theological and political horizon. Intradisciplinary and interdisciplinary implications: This article creates commensurability between Goba’s theology and Azanian Africanist discourse (predominantly in law, political science and philosophy). It calls for rethinking theological reflection in relation to historical consciousness, settler colonialism and the black radical tradition within theological and religious studies.

This article explores the intricate relationship between Black Theology and Pan-Africanism. The impetus behind this study is the resentment against the enduring legacy of historical oppression and the persistent sting of systemic discrimination experienced by individuals of African descent worldwide, as well as the perceived inadequacy of existing analytical frameworks to fully capture this complex phenomenon. As highlighted in this study, the greatest challenge for people of African descent is dehumanisation resulting from colonialism and racism, along with the ongoing struggle against neo-colonialism. The study is framed within the ideological concepts of Black Theology and Pan-Africanism, both of which advocate for the centrality of liberation, affirm the importance of identity and dignity, and emphasise the necessity of unity in overcoming oppressive structures. The article addresses the implicit research question of how these two paradigms intersect and contribute to the pursuit of liberation and self-determination. A major finding is the striking convergence of core tenets between Black Theology and Pan-Africanism, particularly their shared critique of oppressive power structures, their unwavering focus on liberation, and their emphasis on identity and self-respect as crucial elements of resistance. Contribution: Considering these findings, the study argues that merging Black Theology with Pan-Africanism offers a more comprehensive and powerful approach to addressing the intricate challenges of black freedom.

As part of the ecumenism movement, mainline churches have contributed to, and were in the forefront of fighting the apartheid government, which favoured the interests of white people as opposed to black people. Christian leaders who belonged to mainline churches included Manas Buthelezi, Desmond Tutu, Simon Maimela, Buti Tlhagale, Beyers Naude, Alan Boesak, Itumeleng Mosala, among others. Despite the rich legacy of Black Theology, after the dawn of democracy, the church seems to have gone in seclusion, and shrewd capitalists and politicians are running the show. This article aims to concede that mainline churches have abandoned the struggle after the dawn of democracy in South Africa. In this article, the struggle refers to deliberate involvement in economic liberation, especially the black African population, focusing on mainline churches in the rural and township areas where the majority of the poor population resides and worships. To achieve this, the article firstly explores the realities of poverty in South Africa. Secondly, it examines the ills that continue to be perpetuated by crime to demonstrate poverty and unemployment. Thirdly, it shows the strength of mainline churches in how they, through their leadership and congregations, participated in other struggles in South Africa. Fourthly, the article argues that mainline churches’ drive, attitude and fortitude have diminished, especially by exploring the economic disfranchisement of the black South African populace. The article explores Black Theology of liberation and Miriam Makeba’s song titled ‘A luta continua’ to address identified issues, and employs desktop literature review as a methodology. Contribution: The article concludes that the direct activism that existed within black, African mainline churches has diminished, despite its black, African populace being at the receiving end of the economic injustices in South Africa.

Evidently the toxic or antisocial manner in which some South Africans, from all levels of society, engage one another, especially in situations of contestation on either a position of power within a group or dissension of opinion on a socio-cultural, political or economic issue, is an indication that they are from a traumatised society. One of the possible contributing factors to this culture of violence, either verbally or physically, is the historical background and social construct of a society that was orientated and sustained through the apartheid draconian system that thrived on violation of human rights. On 08 May 1996, while adopting a Constitution that was designed to form the basis for an alternative society, the people of South Africa declared as their desire ‘to heal the divisions of the past and establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights.’ Therefore, the main objective of this article is to review the meaning of the concept of transformation and renewal from both the socio-cultural underpinning and Pauline theology of transformation and renewal as presented in the Letter to Romans 12:2. Significantly, from black theology of liberation’s approach, such an exercise requires some praxis (reflection and action approach) and a sense of an absolute need for metanoia [change]. The qualitative research methodology utilised in this study identified themes and trends from reports and literature on the post-1994 South Africa’s transformation trajectory and its challenges of inequality and poverty, and leadership crisis. Contribution: The article argues for a sincere consideration and embracing of moral values that signify an alternative society with a renewed mind, embedded in African cultural beliefs and practices alongside Paul’s theology of transformation and renewal as essentials that have the potential to contribute towards the healing of a traumatised South African society in its social transformation trajectory.

In honouring the biblical studies work of Madipoane Masenya (Ngwana' Mphahlele), my article situates Masenya within the debates in South African Black Theology on 'culture ' in the 1980s. This is the period Masenya began her formal biblical studies work, forging a distinctive cultural emphasis both within South African (largely White) Old Testament studies and an emerging African Biblical Interpretation/ Hermeneutics/ Studies. The particular focus of my article is on how Masenya' s (re-)turn to culture, intersected with the dominant race and/ as class analysis of Black Theology in the 1980s and how Masenya's work has over more than four decades intersected culture with gender as well as with multiple other systemic realities. My article places Masenya' s work alongside the related work of the Ujamaa Centre for Community Development and Research, for both have sought to intersect ' culture' and ' racial capitalism' and both have sought to serve ordinary African women with their biblical praxis. The article uses Masenya's and the Ujamaa Centre' s pivotal work on Job to illustrate how socially engaged biblical scholarship heeds the summons of local African communities to serve their lived realities.

he intersection of Black theology, African cultural identities and Indigenous belief systems has been topical in South Africa, given the apartheid history of the country. Black South Africans used theology to define their cultural identities and belief systems in their quest for liberation. The need to engage this symbiotic relationship in Zimbabwe arose with Joshua Maponga III, who used his theological background as a pastor to analyse the meaning of African cultural identities, Indigenous belief systems and the place of theology among suffering Africans. This article aims to interrogate Maponga’s writings, presentations and interviews on social media to find out how he drew from African cultural epistemologies to develop a Black theological perspective and define African cultural identities and Indigenous beliefs. The article argues that Maponga’s work offers a unique insight into how African culture can inform and enrich Black theological discourses. It discusses the methodology used and Maponga’s background. It further analyses how African cultural resources, such as traditional myths, rituals and symbols, enabled Maponga to develop a theology rooted in Black people’s experiences, challenging the dominant Western theological paradigms that have marginalised African culture and theological perspectives for years. Furthermore, the article discusses the implications of Maponga’s work for the ongoing development of Black and African Theologies. It concludes by stating that Maponga’s work offers an example of how African cultural resources can be used to develop a theology that is both contextual and liberative. Contribution: This study highlights the significance of intersectionality and contextualisation in theological research while also challenging dominant Western theological paradigms and emphasising the importance of African cultural epistemologies. It contributes to methodological innovation in theological research and provides implications for the ongoing development of Black and African Theologies.

Abstract The pioneering Black Liberation theologian James Cone devotes the final chapter of his posthumously-published memoir Said I Wasn’t Gonna Tell Nobody (2018) to the theological legacy of the essayist, novelist, poet and playwright James Baldwin, who Cone claims as a “theological mentor.” This article considers the nature of this mentorship while situating Cone’s reading of Baldwin in the context of his use of Black literature, music and art as primary sources of Black theology. It argues that Cone and Baldwin explore communal models of interpretation in Black religion and explores ways in which this communal hermeneutic might offer directions for liberationist theological reading.

As the Research Institute for Theology and Religion (RITR) celebrates 50 years of theological and religious research, reflecting on how the two have shaped South Africa’s history is essential. Religion and theology had been used as weapons of oppression and liberation. Before 1994, the two stood on two conflicting sides – the oppressor and the oppressed. The elite identified with the minority, while the majority of the poor craved an incarnate black God, who sides with the marginalised. The engagement of God in the Kairos Document, Black Theology and the decoloniality of theology in the post-apartheid era redefined God as one who is not static. Using a qualitative research methodology, this article aimed to explore the contours of the theological discourse employed by the RITR during the colonial and post-colonial eras. The article argued that the trajectory of theology from 1975 to 2025 demonstrates that God’s revelation takes different forms of the Godself. The need to redefine and redescribe a God who cannot be captured but remains incognito has been the major thrust of RITR; as such, celebrating the golden jubilee is a just cause. The article concluded by proposing future trajectories of theology in South Africa. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The trajectories of theology from the minority to the majority, from confrontational and defensive to decolonial theology in South Africa, demonstrate that religion and theology are not static, but rather the people’s socio-political and economic life continues to define and redefine the relationship between God and humanity.

This article examines Takatso Mofokeng’s influential contributions to South African theological scholarship. It underscores the importance of his praxis-oriented approach to Christology and his dedication to socio-political justice, which enhance the relevance of contemporary theological movements addressing current challenges. Despite recognition within existing literature, there is a notable lacuna and dearth of widespread acknowledgement of Mofokeng’s scholarship across the theological spectrum. This gap can be attributed to factors such as the absence of an official biography or Festschrift in his honour. Through an integrative qualitative literature review, aimed at developing new theoretical frameworks and perspectives, this article examines Mofokeng’s theology to explore the depth of his liberation, praxis and identity theology. The findings reveal that Mofokeng’s theology offers a comprehensive framework, integrating personal, social and political dimensions of faith. His work engages with individuals’ lived experiences in their socio-political contexts, emphasising social justice and liberation for oppressed communities. Consequently, Mofokeng’s Black Christology provides a nuanced understanding of individual identity and collective struggle within South African Black Theology. Contribution: This article highlights Takatso Mofokeng’s intellectual legacy, underscoring its lasting relevance in addressing contemporary theological, social justice and liberation issues. It illustrates how Mofokeng’s Black Christology, situated within the Reformed tradition, has profoundly shaped South African theological scholarship, offering new perspectives on identity, social justice and collective struggle. Consequently, Mofokeng’s Christological framework offers a nuanced articulation of individual identity and collective struggle, positioning his theology as a critical resource within South African theological discourse and broader movements for liberation, particularly for future scholars committed to advancing Black African scholarship and contributing to the ongoing African liberation movement.

By exploring how Cone employs and emulates Black literary sources, this article argues that his theological writing can be understood as often translating and thereby making explicit the significance of the inner, emotional lives of Black folks, particularly Black rage, into Black theological thought. The argument, in other words, is that Cone’s writing is an ethical performance of rage and a literary process of reforming his rage. His performance of rage is ethical in that it is morally motivated by injustice and indifference. It is not a performance for its own sake or to simply blow off steam. The performance takes a literary form and becomes the means through which his rage is reformed. The aim of this article demonstrates how his theological writing copes with and transforms rage into ethical discourse.

The paradoxical nature of liberation theologies for African Christians has, for some time, been an intense subject of contestation. It has produced some polarised communities and made them acceptable on the basis of biblical interpretation. Liberation theological jargons such as ‘God sides with the poor’ and ‘God is for the oppressed’ seem to exemplify this attitude. As an acceptable standard of practice, this form of polarisation has been sustained through theological dogmas and ecclesiological dispositions. As a result, the South African biblical scholar, Itumeleng Mosala, has noted how the Bible is a ‘site of struggle’, which permits ideological contestations through biblical interpretation. His ideological formulations were later explored and expanded upon by Gerald O. West on ‘serving the sighs of the working class in South Africa with Marxist analysis of the Bible as a site of struggle’. This important work critically reflects on Itumeleng Mosala’s contribution to Black theology and its significance within the South African context. It considers Mosala’s use of Marxist concepts such as ‘mode of production’, his understanding of the relationship between biblical text and interpretive context and his ‘prophetic’ warnings about working with an ideologically uncontested Bible. It is to the latter – working with an ideologically uncontested Bible, that this paper is sorely focused.Contribution: It explores the paradoxical nature of liberation theologies, specifically Black theology, in African Christianity, and how it has failed to critically engage with the Bible as a ‘site of struggle’ within the South African context.