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Biblical & Historical Studies, Theological Studies & Ethics

Permanent URI for this communityhttps://hdl.handle.net/10413/6837

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Browsing Biblical & Historical Studies, Theological Studies & Ethics by SDG "SDG5"

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    Isitabane of faith: an auto-ethnographic exploration of Isitabane lived reality in the Shembe Faith Tradition.
    (2021) Mazibuko, Siphelele Sabathile.; Van Der Walt, Charlene.
    (queer people) experience discrimination, isolation, exclusion and homophobic attacks due to their sexual orientation and gender identity in the South African contexts. LGBTIQA+ voices are made invisible and silenced through the use of Bible scriptures, culture, and tradition embedded in patriarchal systems. The aim of this study is to explore the lived reality of isitabane within the independent Shembe faith tradition, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. This study looks at the embodied experience of a queer persons within the African Independent Church (the Nazareth Baptist Church) through narrative and explores the experience of participants who witnessed her navigating her journey as a queer individual in the hetero-patriarchal church in KwaZulu-Natal. The researcher shares her experience and tells how she came to understand herself as a queer within this church, and how faith people responded to this identity. The study focuses on six snapshot themes and extracts six dominant themes (understanding lesbian sexuality as rejection of men rather than women attraction, a link between male violence and lesbian sexuality, a link between faith-heterosexuality and reproduction, a human being cannot be ditched, queer bodies and dress, and naming) from these snapshot themes and interview discussions, which form a significant part of the lived reality or embodied experience of isitabane identity within the independent Shembe faith tradition. Queer theory was used in this study, which took a phenomenological approach to explore the lived reality of isitabane within the independent Shembe faith tradition. The findings of this study challenge the essentialist perspective of ideological notions of gender and sexuality in association with sex assigned at birth. Findings suggest that the independent Shembe faith tradition and other African Independent Churches ought to be engaged in a contextual bible study, which may assist the church in reworking its vocabulary, policies, and related theories, in order to enable it to collectively engage and negotiate gender and sexual identities, as well as issues pertaining gender and sexuality in a life-affirming way. This will assist many silenced queer voices to be heard. Participants emphasise the oppression, isolation, discrimination, hate crime, hate speech, and homophobic attacks experienced by queer people within South African contexts, especially within its religious landscape, due to their gender identity and sexual orientation.
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    Militarisation and empire: an eco-feminist theological perspective in the context of South Korea.
    (2022) Oh, Minwoo.; Siwila, Lilian Cheelo.
    The Korean Peninsula has seen an increase in militarisation since the end of the Korean War. The US military deployed the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) in Seongju County, South Korea in 2017. The deployment of THAAD confirms the phenomenon of militarisation in the name of national security. Militarisation is seen as linked to the notion of ‘empire’, and ‘empire’ has become a new form of sovereignty. The US military is the military empire that promotes hegemonic power in military activities of security. However, the deployment of the THAAD system has come at a cost to residents who are concerned with the damaging effects of THAAD on women’s lives and natural resources. This study interrogates how militarisation of the military empire affects women and natural resources through the lens of eco-feminist theories. The study employs a qualitative research methodology. Semi-structured interviews and focus-group discussions were the instruments used to collect data. The data collected were analysed thematically. From the eco-feminist theories of the West, dualistic thought in the militarisation process by empire influences a division to superior privilege, and inferior degradation. In their argument, Christian triumphalism advocates militarisation. Militarised Protestantism, based on triumphalism, is exposed as militarised patriotism relevant to pro-Americanism in South Korea. However, the eco-feminist perspective from the Global South offers an alternative spirituality to respond to the destruction of the environment and the oppression of women. This alternative spirituality is the notion of Life in East Asian knowledge. Moreover, women's resistance against militarisation as a Western-centred socio-economic and political system is under scrutiny by the eco-feminists of the Global South. Therefore, this study discovered the subjecthood of Life as an alternative spirituality from the perspective of East Asian knowledge. The subjecthood of Life provokes liberation from militarised masculinity in women's resistance to the THAAD movement. The women's resistance that embraced the subjecthood of Life embodies all living beings and seeks to create a community that lives in harmony with nature. Thus, a women's theology of Life from an East Asian perspective to respond to militarisation and empire in the context of South Korea is suggested in this study.