Abstract:
The entire Bible is full of themes calling humans to live justly with one another and fear God
who is the author of justice. The first book of the Bible, Genesis, carries the story of God’s
relationship with his people. Their relationship is bound by social justice and mutual love in
reciprocity. This article argues that African Ubuntu has an affinity with the Bible’s message of
justice and mutual caring for one another. Ubuntu presupposes that humans were created in
God’s image and indicates that characteristics such as kindness, charity, equality, love of one’s
neighbours and voluntarily dispensing justice to others are present in human life. God created
humans to be bound to one another in caring love, coexistence and total dependence. In
today’s world, social justice requires good judgement from those who are in privileged
positions to implement it.
Description:
This research is part of the
project, ‘The role of German
Churches in the demise of
apartheid in South Africa’,
directed by Prof. Dr Thias
Kgatla, Department of
Missiology and Science of
Religion, Faculty of Theology,
University of Pretoria.
