Abstract:
Is there anything outside the Christian Text or is the Christian Text all there is? The article will
argue that the Christian Text has formed and shaped Western thinking to such an extent that it
is impossible to think in the global world, co-created by various Western texts, without
Christianity. The fact that the West colonised the world, and that today the Western media
dominates the language of the global village, makes it nearly impossible to think outside the
Christian Text and thus the universal domination by the Text. This article will first argue that
for the Western-influenced world, there is nothing beyond the Christian Texts, and then it will
argue that although this Text has universal (global) dominance, there is an interpretation of its
central message as a message of weakness and vulnerability, which challenges (deconstructs)
its imperialism. This leads towards the question: what is a possible praxis of such a universal
and ‘imperial’ Text with its message of vulnerable weakness, specifically from a post-colonial
context like South Africa?
Description:
This research is part of the
project, ‘Towards a practical
postfoundational theology as
public theology in response
to the challenges of lived
religion in contemporary
Southern Africa’, directed by
Prof. Dr Johann Meylahn,
Department Practical
Theology, Faculty of
Theology, University of
Pretoria, South Africa.
