The riverbank, the seashore and the wilderness: Miriam, liberation and prophetic witness against empire

HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies

 
 
Field Value
 
Title The riverbank, the seashore and the wilderness: Miriam, liberation and prophetic witness against empire
 
Creator Boesak, Allan A.
 
Subject — —
Description 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.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2017-07-25
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — —
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/hts.v73i4.4547
 
Source HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies; Vol 73, No 4 (2017); 15 pages 2072-8050 0259-9422
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/4547/9782 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/4547/9781 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/4547/9783 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/4547/9740
 
Coverage — — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2017 Allan A. Boesak https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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