Towards a Grieving Church: Theo-ethical considerations for homophobic violence in South Africa

Verbum et Ecclesia

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Towards a Grieving Church: Theo-ethical considerations for homophobic violence in South Africa
 
Creator Mdokwana, Ayanda
 
Subject Theology, Ethics, Gender Studies LGBTQI+; metaphysics; ecclesiological confessions; radical ethics; body theology; masculine violence; theological anthropology; ethics
Description Hetero-masculine violence in South Africa continues to be an obstacle to peace. As indicated by crime statistics in South Africa, heterosexual women, heterosexual men and LGBTQI+ community have been victims of murder. Many continue to be victims of sexual violence as a result of hetero-masculine violence. While some Christian confessional traditions in South Africa have evolved and have become more welcoming to the LGBTQI+ community, this evolution has not made much difference to the public violence the LGBTQI+ community is exposed to in South Africa. Using the intersections of Caputo’s radical ethics and Meiring’s body theology, I propose a new theological framework that will assist and encourage confessional ecclesiological traditions in South Africa to deal with their own internal contradictions influenced by masculinist heterosexist discourse. This is an attempt to meaningfully contribute to the discourse on violence experienced by the LGBTQI+ community in South Africa. This article contends that the intersections of body theology and radical ethics assist ecclesiological traditions to recognise and embrace the fragility of metaphysics even in the face of discomfort. I argue that the exercise of continuously embracing the fragility of metaphysics assists ecclesiological traditions to be open to their own flaws. This gives them an authentic voice to constantly reconstruct and effectively speak out against the rejection of and violence perpetuated against the LGBTQIA+ community in South Africa.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This paper draws on conversations from Christian theology, ethics and their engagement with LGBTQI+ and public homophobic violence in South Africa.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2024-02-27
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Desktop Study; Literary Analysis
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/ve.v45i1.2992
 
Source Verbum et Ecclesia; Vol 45, No 1 (2024); 9 pages 2074-7705 1609-9982
 
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://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/2992/7175 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/2992/7176 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/2992/7177 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/2992/7178
 
Coverage Africa ; South Africa — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2024 Ayanda Mdokwana https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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