Abstract:
This article examines the manner and method of resistance against patriarchal power and
privilege. Two types of power are contrasted. One is the violent, war-like and hierarchical
power of an empire, and the other is the faithful resistance of Israel’s prophets. A further
distinction is made between violent male power and non-violent female power. It is argued
that Miriam was a prophet of the people and her prophetic witness is an example of the power
and outcome of non-violent resistance. Her theology explicitly and specifically praises God
not as a warrior. Hers is not a muscular, masculine God whose power seeks to match the
power of empire. Her God has a power that through radical love for a slave people and taking
sides with the enslaved overcomes the power of the slaveholder. In her theology, Miriam
recalls the God of the exodus, who begins the acts of liberation with the women, to whose
faithfulness, courage and defiant obedience, the freedom of the people is entrusted. From a
feminist perspective it is argued that this style of non-violent, faithful prophetic witness has a
greater impact than violent resistance associated with an empire-like power. It is suggested
that black liberation theology should adopt this paradigm in its witness of and resistance
against oppression.
Description:
Dr Allan Boesak is
participating in the research
project, ‘University, Education
and Theology’, directed by
Prof. Dr Johan Buitendag,
Department of Dogmatics
and Christian Ethics and
Dean, Faculty of Theology,
University of Pretoria.
