Department of Old and New Testament

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https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/1031

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Browsing Department of Old and New Testament by browse.metadata.advisor "Davids, N."

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    Navigating the threshold : an African-feminist reading of the Hagar narrative in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2022-11) Thabede, Slindile; Jonker, Louis C.; Davids, N.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. of Old and New Testament.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study focuses on the experiences of Hagar/Hajar, as depicted through the three monotheistic traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The scriptures from these traditions locate her in remarkably different ways, bringing into conversation profound considerations of who Hagar/Hajar is, not only concerning the specific faith traditions but what these varying traditions can offer for interreligious dialogue and sense-making. In this regard, the study first provides three vantage points, each couched in a monotheistic milieu, and argues for reconsidering the Hagar/Hajar traditions. Secondly, and more importantly, by focusing on Hagar/Hajar’s geopolitical positioning, the study adopts an African-feminist perspective, which opens new possibilities for the significance of her story. Finally, by emphasising her liminality, this bifocal framework lays bare Hagar/Hajar’s body as a site of multiple oppressions and as hope and transcendence. As a slave woman gifted to the monotheist Abraham, her body adopts an intersectional portrayal of oppression regarding sexuality, gender, culture, race, class, and ethnicity. While centrally located across the three Abrahamic traditions, her story reveals remarkably different contextually-bound interpretations, opening rich deliberations and debates for the position and positioning of women along a historical trajectory. Subsequently, this research aims to create a critical space within which the multiple oppressions exerted on black women in South Africa can be articulated. The study also reveals the structures that continue to oppress and subjugate black women. Hagar/Hajar’s memory is kept alive through the liminal identities of South African women who share similarities with her experience. Therefore, in telling their story through Hagar/Hajar as an African matriarch, her story offers new modes of survival and resistance for South African black women. Consequently, the story of Hagar/Hajar becomes an excellent “threshold” or “third space” where authentic engagement within the three religious traditions can also occur. The study constitutes an attempt to create a conversational space where all three Abrahamic traditions could potentially act as each other’s reflective space. Here they could hold one another accountable through the Hagar/Hajar story and together identify the life-giving or life-denying modes that their respective Hagar/Hajar narratives have established in their worlds of origin.