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Apartheid Resistance and Biblical Interpretation: From Christian Confession to Materialist Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 May 2015

Niall McKay
Niall McKay*
Affiliation:
The University of Newcastle, Australia and The University of Stellenbosch, South Africa
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Niall McKay, 153 Tudor St., Hamilton, NSW 2303, Australia. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

The rhetorical resistance to Apartheid in South Africa appealed to many sources of authority. In Christian communities, the New Testament was brought into creative conversation with traditional “confessional” texts, modern scholarship, and Marxist class analysis in order to develop contextually-located theologies and practices of resistance. This article highlights the important insights of Allan Boesak, Albert Nolan, and Itumeleng Mosala, which served the Apartheid struggle. After noting key differences in the methods and conclusions of these scholars, I suggest that another look at their insights may well be critical in developing Christian responses to the deep structural injustices of the post-Apartheid period.

Type
Articles
Information
Politics and Religion , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , June 2015 , pp. 358 - 378
Copyright
Copyright © Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association 2015 

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