A white theologian learning how to fall upward
HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies
| Field | Value | |
| Title | A white theologian learning how to fall upward | |
| Creator | Urbaniak, Jakub | |
| Description | As a theologian coming from Europe, a ‘postcolonial import’ into South Africa, it is my white privilege in particular that continues to queer my understanding of a social revolution on which our future, as a people, may depend. In this article, I seek to turn my personal experience of grappling with my whiteness into the source of my reflection. Drawing inspiration from fallism – a recent student movement that inscribes itself into a larger decolonial ‘struggle against the globalised system of racist capitalism’ – I ponder what it could mean, in the South African context, for whiteness to fall upward (Rohr). Here, the metaphor of ‘falling upward’ as a kenosis of whiteness is considered specifically with regard to a white theologian’s (my own) attempt to open spaces that could be filled with blackness.Contribution: This auto-ethnographic essay inscribes itself into a transdisciplinary study of theology and race from both socio-cultural and religiospiritual perspectives. The author’s personal reflections, inspired by his own engagement with the fallist narratives and his ever-evolving attitude towards the blackness–whiteness binary, as experienced in the South African social and academic contexts, are shared as a means to crack open the societal and theological (notably Christian) imagination, both of which appear to suffer from a serious crisis. | |
| Publisher | AOSIS | |
| Date | 2022-12-14 | |
| Identifier | 10.4102/hts.v78i3.7893 | |
| Source | HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies; Vol 78, No 3 (2022); 9 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/7893/23804
https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/7893/23805
https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/7893/23806
https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/7893/23807
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