Abstract:
Almost three decades after the end of apartheid in South Africa, Cape Town remains a
racially, economically and spatially divided city. This study focuses on the praxis of
suburban churches and is located within a wider national conversation about land
reform, the crisis of ongoing urban land (in)justice and the position of church-owned
land and property in this discourse. It takes an emancipatory research approach
towards fostering a praxis of spatial justice in churches located in the former Whitesonly
Southern Suburbs of the City of Cape Town. The framework of the praxis cycle
guides the literature and the voices of ministers in suburban Cape Town into three
moments: immersion and social analysis, theological reflection and action towards
spatial justice. Lenses are then proposed with which it is possible to approach an
ongoing emancipatory approach to suburban churches, and churches in general, in the
quest for more just and inclusive cities.
