The violence of Jesus and the justice of God : the life, death, resurrection, and Parousia of Jesus as exemplary of non-lethal violent resistance, and the implications for acts of protest by the subaltern
| dc.contributor.advisor | Forster, Dion Angus | en_ZA |
| dc.contributor.author | Brown, Alease A. | en_ZA |
| dc.contributor.other | Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. of Systematic Theology and Ecclesiology. | en_ZA |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2019-02-26T12:01:09Z | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2019-04-17T08:28:20Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2019-02-26T12:01:09Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2019-04-17T08:28:20Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2019-04 | |
| dc.description | Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. of Systematic Theology and Ecclesiology. | en_ZA |
| dc.description | Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2019. | en_ZA |
| dc.description.abstract | ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Non-violence in personal and political life has become an unassailable pillar upon which the Christian church leans. The New Testament text, church tradition, and cultural mores converge in establishing non-violence as the pre-eminent mark of those who would be faithful followers of Christ. However, in a context where violence is embedded in the social order, the ethos of non-violence as an end goal in itself generally fails to aid the Christian, particularly the Black Christian, in the task of honouring one’s dignity and the dignity of one’s neighbour. With respect to the use of physical force during protest, it gags on the gnat of damaged property, and swallows the camel of degraded lives. This ethos is inconsistent with the Gospel of Jesus, which has foremost concern for the abundant life of the person. I do not assert in this project that Jesus promoted the use of force, or that Jesus opposed the use of force. I argue that the issue of the use of force was not as central to the teachings of Jesus as the tradition has made it. Ultimately, Jesus’s ethics allows for either the use of force or the non-use of force; with freedom for the choice of action depending upon the person and the circumstances. Jesus’s utmost concern was the internalization and assertion of one’s human dignity, not as an approved of member of the citizenry, but as a child of God. The goal of this research is to shine a light on the violence that goes unnamed that is perpetrated against Black being in ways that debilitate and destroy life. Being raced as Black is to be always already violently acted upon, and also to be made a threat or perpetrator of violence by virtue of being. Until Blackness becomes the centre of theologies of (non)violence, such theologies will remain incomplete, and operate in complicity with the violence of the culture against Black life. This study accomplishes several tasks. First, it examines biblical texts that are often used to establish that Jesus was principally concerned with non-violence and with the necessity of suffering. Using an honour/shame paradigm, it demonstrates the misreading of such texts, and offers an alternative understanding based upon the first century context. Such an alternative reading constitutes “good news” to those in perpetually unjust social orders that establish and maintain racialized dishonour and marginalization of many. Second, the study assesses Church history as to how non-violence has been conceived and practiced from the church’s origin to the present. The research concludes that the language and idea of non-violence has been mutable. Further, the research discloses that there has never been a period when the coercive use of force has been fully delegitimized by the church. Third, having exposed scripture and tradition’s de-emphasis on (non)violence, the research then considers the meaning of “violence,” and uses the heuristic of Afropessimism to demonstrate the existential violence inherent to Black life. I argue that because violence functions perennially in an existential way against Black persons, the good news of the Gospel must address violence, primarily, in an existential way, such as the reading I have offered, which privileges Jesus’s concern for the dignity and self-actualization of despised persons. Relying upon Duns Scotus’ metaphysics of the will, I show the nature of the impairment to Black human will/freedom/life that occurred over centuries as a result of anti-Black torture and social control. I then demonstrate, with South Africa as a case study, the ways in which forceful protest is evidence of a repairing or properly operative human will. Such protest is not a moral wrong but reflects the resilient re-animation of the impaired will of Black humanity. Such protest incarnates the healing, liberative, resurrecting, good news of the Gospel. | en_ZA |
| dc.description.abstract | AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Nie-gewelddadigheid op persoonlike en politieke vlak het ‘n onaantasbare pilaar van die Christelike kerk geword. Nuwe Testamentiese geskrifte, kerktradisie en kulturele norme stel saam ‘n standaard van nie-gewelddadigheid aan diegene wat getroue volgelinge van Christus wil wees. Egter, die etos van nie-gewelddadigheid as ‘n einddoel op sigself help die Christen nie juis in die algemeen nie, veral nie die Swart Christen nie, veral waar dit gaan oor die kwessie van die self en die buurman/-vrou eer. In besonder wat betref protesgeweld, verstik dit aan die muggie van beskadigde eiendom terwyl die kameel van vernielde lewens gesluk moet word. Hierdie etos pas nie by die Evangelie van Jesus nie, waar die belangrikste oorweging die oorvloedige lewe van die persoon is. Ek maak nie in hierdie projek aanspraak dat Jesus ‘n voorstander was vir die gebruik van mag, of teen die gebruik van mag was nie. Ek voer aan dat die gebruik van mag nie so sentraal in Jesus se leerstellinge was as wat tradisie dit uitmaak nie. Uiteindelik het Jesus se etiek die gebruik van sowel as die nie-gebruik van mag toegelaat; die besluit van hoe om op te tree hang uiteindelik van die persoon en die omstandighede af. Jesus se uiteindelike bekommernis was die internalisering en bevestiging van iemand se menswaardigheid, nie as ‘n vooraanstaande burger nie, maar as ‘n kind van God. Die doel van hierdie navorsing is om die lig te laat skyn op die naamlose geweld wat teen Swart wesens gepleeg word op wyses wat lewe verswak en vernietig. Om geklassifiseer word as Swart is reeds om gewelddadig behandel te word, of om as ‘n bedreiging of geweldenaar beskou te word bloot deur te wees. Tot die dag wanneer Swartwees die kern van teologieë van (nie)gewelddadigheid word, sal sulke teologieë onvolledig bly en kop in een mus funksioneer met die geweld van die kultuur teen Swart lewe. Hierdie studie bereik ‘n aantal take. Eerstens word bybelse tekste ondersoek wat dikwels gebruik word om vas te stel dat Jesus hoofsaaklik betrokke was met nie-gewelddadigheid en die noodsaaklikheid van lyding. Die studie wys dat sulke tekste verkeerd gelees word en bied ‘n alternatiewe verstaan daarvan, gebaseer op die eerste eeuse konteks. Hierdie alternatiewe lees van die tekste sal mense in onregverdige sosiale omstandighede waar rasgebonde oneer en marginalisering van baie mense vasgestel en voortgesit word, beter bystaan. Tweedens assesseer die studie Christelike geskiedenis vir bewyse hoe nie-gewelddadigheid verstaan en beoefen is van ontstaan tot in die huidige tyd. Die navorsing kom tot die slotsom dat taal en die idee van nie-gewelddadigheid veranderend van aard is. Daar was ook nooit ‘n tydperk waar die gedwonge gebruik van geweld ten volle deur die kerk onwettig verklaar is nie. Derdens, nadat die skrif en tradisie se gebrek aan klem op nie-gewelddadigheid ontbloot is, fokus die navorsing op die betekenis van geweld en gebruik die heuristiek van Afro-pessimisme om die eksistensiële geweld wat deel is van die Swart betaan, te demonstreer. Ek voer aan dat aangesien geweld primêr op ‘n eksistensiële manier teen Swart persone funksioneer, die goeie nuus van die Evangelie geweld hoofsaaklik op ‘n eksistensiële manier moet aanspreek, soos byvoorbeeld in die leesstuk wat ek aanbied, waar Jesus se besorgdheid vir die menswaardigheid en selfaktualisering van veragte mense uitgelig word. Met die gebruik van Scotus se metafisika van die wil, wys ek op die inkorting van Swart wil/vryheid/lewe deur die eeue deur middel van marteling en sosiale kontrole. Vervolgens demonstreer ek, met Suid-Afrika as ‘n gevallestudie, op watter maniere kragdadige protesaksie ‘n bewys is van ‘n herstellende of funksionerende menslike wil. Sulke proteste is nie moreel verkeerd nie, maar die veerkragtige herstel van die ingeperkte wil van Swart humaniteit. Sulke protesaksies is die genesing, bevrydend, opstanding, goeie nuus van die Evangelie. | af_ZA |
| dc.format.extent | xiv, 394 pages : illustrations | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/106095 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_ZA |
| dc.publisher | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University | en_ZA |
| dc.rights.holder | Stellenbosch University | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | Violence | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | Justice | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | God | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | Second Advent -- Biblical teaching | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | Resurrection | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | UCTD | en_ZA |
| dc.title | The violence of Jesus and the justice of God : the life, death, resurrection, and Parousia of Jesus as exemplary of non-lethal violent resistance, and the implications for acts of protest by the subaltern | en_ZA |
| dc.type | Thesis | en_ZA |