Research Articles (Religion & Theology)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10566/312

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Christian faith, contingencies, and resonance
(John Wiley and Sons Inc, 2026) Henriksen, Jan-Olav
How are experiences shaping how people understand, relate to, and see Christian faith and doctrine as relevant in their lives? It can be argued that this is due to how such doctrines can relate to and interpret their experiences of contingency and resonance. This approach entails elements that can help understand the quest for experiences with religion within a larger theoretical framework and point to some of the implications that can be derived from a theoretical approach that addresses a specific understanding of Christian—and especially Lutheran—theology. A main idea here is that the contemporary discussion about the uncontrollable features of reality corresponds to and supports the notion of the human being as being referred to something other than its own agency.
On the intersections of power, critique, discourse and invention
(Brill Academic Publishers, 2025) van den Heever, Gerhard
In spite of the impression of unconnected contents, there is a golden line running through this issue of Religion & Theology that creates a conceptual unity in the collected essays here. This issue of Religion & Theology revolves around issues of power, critique, discourse, and invention, and not as freestanding topics but as interweaving practices that, in concert, illuminate the processes of manufacturing religion.1 Hence the two section topics of “On Power, Contestations, Contextualisation, and Innovation: Perspectives from Africa,” with essays on the reception and interpretation of the Council of Nicaea and its Creed in Africa (by Teddy Sakupapa), contestations around the intrusion of Christian discourses and practices in traditional cultural contexts, in this case Cameroon (by Elias Bongmba), and the construction of a new religious movement in the hybrid Christian–African traditional religion of the Ibandla lamaNazaretha (Nazareth Baptist Church) by Isaiah Shembe (by Sibusiso Masondo); and “Power, Critique, Feminism, and Invention: Critical Perspectives on Religious Discourses,” with essays on Catholic discourses on the paranormal and practices of exorcism (by Nicole Bauer), conceiving of new directions in Catholic theology of human dignity as public theology (by Christiaan Hermans), New Materialism as a philosophical framework to engage the figure of Mary, the Mother of God, to reconceptualise divinity for feminist theology (by Calvin Ullrich), and the retrojection of Romanticism and its legacy cultural values on to the processes of inventive curation of those material artifacts that (now supposedly) constitute – for us – the cultural world of the Roman Empire (by Robyn Walsh).
Echoes of empire: Nicaea’s legacy and the call to decolonise Orthodoxy
(Brill Academic Publishers, 2025) Sakupapa, Teddy Chalwe
This article critically probes the early entanglement of imperial power and Christian orthodoxy through engagement with Peter Leithart’s Defending Constantine and selected African theological responses to Nicaea. Moving beyond conventional applications of ancient creeds to modern contexts, it interrogates how imperial-theological alliances at Nicaea forged enduring Church-State paradigms that continue to inform and, at times constrain the church’s public witness. Framed by Allan Boesak’s notion of “Kairos consciousness,” the article revisits the contested legacy of Nicaea within the shifting terrain of World Christianity and raises pressing questions for the decolonisation of ecumenical theology
Bondage instead of freedom? How can Lutheran Theology prevent the use of Sola Scriptura as an entrance to Pathological Theology?
(John Wiley and Sons Inc, 2026) Henriksen, Jan-Olav
The principle of Sola Scriptura was originally intended to liberate the Church from external authorities, ensuring that no power other than the Word of God dictated its teachings and practices. It served a critical role over against human authorities that demanded obedience to doctrines and practices that were not grounded in Scripture. The following analysis explores the shadow side of this principle, inspired by some elements in the psychology of religion. The reason for this approach is that the meaning of theology is not found solely in its articulation but in its practical effects—how it orients life, shapes identity, and enables or constrains human flourishing. To examine this, I will also employ Hanna Reichel's concept of theology as design. Her approach addresses “bad theology,” or theology that fosters pathological dynamics, and this can also be the case with the principle in question.
Understanding the ecclesial model of conflict transformation from a study of the Nigerian Baptist Convention in Northern Nigeria
(AOSIS (pty) Ltd, 2026) Adehanloye, Oladele P.; Sakupapa, Teddy C.
Ethno-religious conflict remains a persistent challenge in Northern Nigeria, where religious communities navigate tensions between complicity and agency in peacebuilding. This article examines the Nigerian Baptist Convention (NBC)’s engagement in conflict transformation and develops a theologically grounded ecclesial model of peacebuilding. Drawing on Adehanloye’s qualitative, interpretive case study and employing Lederach’s conflict transformation theory, the study analyses the NBC’s praxis through a theological–hermeneutical lens. Using thematic analysis, it identifies motifs of reconciliation, justice and peace (shalom) and demonstrates how the NBC mobilises moral authority, relational networks and ecumenical partnerships across executive, mid-level and grassroots structures to foster peace and interfaith engagement. The findings inform a multi-tiered ecclesial model of conflict transformation that integrates theological reflection with practical strategies, offering a contextually grounded framework for churches seeking to sustain peace in Northern Nigeria. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The article offers a praxis-oriented theological framework that reflects the NBC’s contextual witness and therefore contributes to broader discourses on religion and society, conflict transformation and peacebuilding in Africa.
Towards a contemporary islamic environmental ethics: the nature and moral status of animals
(Brill Academic Publishers, 2025) Mohamed, Nabil Yasien
This paper examines the moral and ontological status of animals in Islamic thought and advances a contemporary Islamic environmental ethic rooted in a theocentric worldview. It critiques dominant secular models, Peter Singer’s (b. 1946) utilitarianism and Tom Regan’s (d. 2017) deontology, arguing that their one-dimensional and non-transcendental grounding limits their scope. Drawing on classical Muslim philosophers of the third/ninth to the sixth/twelfth centuries, spanning Persia to al-Andalus, this paper highlights a teleological framework that grants animals moral consideration. The Islamic ethical framework constitutes both anthropocentric and ecocentric dimensions: humans are uniquely honoured, and animals are created for human benefit (taskhīr), animals nevertheless possess sacred value, with Qurānic and Prophetic teachings underscoring kindness and stewardship. To reconcile the apparent anthropocentric – ecocentric impasse, a theocentric ethic is proposed, grounded in recognition of all creatures as God’s creation. We develop this ethic through a tripartite framework: (1) Divine Command Theory, (2) the Higher Objectives of the Divine Law (Maqāṣid al-Sharīa), and (3) Islamic Virtue Ethics. This integrative model offers a holistic, theologically grounded alternative to secular environmental ethics.
Sacred contradictions: religion, conflict and peacebuilding in Northern Nigeria
(AOSIS (pty) Ltd, 2025) Sakupapa, Teddy Chalwe; Adehanloye, Oladele Peter
This article explored the ambivalent role of religion in Northern Nigeria’s ethno-religious conflicts in ways that move beyond reductionist interpretations. It aims to offer a nuanced and contextual analysis of how religion simultaneously fuels division and fosters peace and reconciliation. Methodologically, this study adopts a qualitative, literature-based methodology, engaging interdisciplinary scholarly sources on religion in Africa, African theology, peace studies and political theory. Drawing on Scott Appleby’s concept of the ambivalence of the sacred and Gerrie ter Haar’s multidimensional understanding of religion as descriptive and analytical framework, the article conceptualises religion as a holistic and embodied mode of knowing and being. This research revealed that religion in Northern Nigeria is deeply intertwined with identity politics, historical grievances and socio-political structures. It operates both as a catalyst for violence and as a resource for peacebuilding, depending on how it is interpreted, lived and mobilised. The article interrogated colonial legacies, postcolonial state formation and structural inequalities in Nigeria that shape the deployment of religious narratives, actors and institutions. Contribution: The findings of this contribution highlight the need for a transformative, context-sensitive ecclesial engagement that embraces the lived realities of faith communities. Such an approach affirms religion’s capacity to contribute to sustainable peace when grounded in historical consciousness and a hermeneutics of reconciliation. This study contributes to theological and interdisciplinary efforts to reimagine religion’s role in conflict transformation in Northern Nigeria, in particular and Africa, in general.
The culture, the council, and the really important sideshow
(Brill Academic Publishers, 2025) van den Heever, Gerhard
This essay surveys the dominant commentaries and discourses on the Council of Nicaea and the Nicene Creed, and proceeds to critique contemporary Nicene-derived and -inspired theological thinking which constructs its meaning to reside solely in the theological discourses associated with and clustering around the Council and its Creed. Through critical historiography and theories of discourse, the history of the Council and the Creed is read as a discursive formation the meaning of which lies outside of the Nicene disputation. By setting “Nicaea” as icon within the framework of changes in religious mentalities of the period, the rising cults of saints and martyrs, the article argues that the Council of Nicaea was actually conceived as the vicennalia, the celebration of Constantine’s rule, especially his victory over Licinius, and that the real prize for Emperor Constantine was the erection of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The Church was celebrated as a monument to Constantine’s victory, and the celebrated Nicene formula of homoousios helped link Constantine to Christ as a means to authorise his rule.
Diaconia and Christian social practice in a global perspective: concluding synthesis of emerging topical issues and themes
(Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI), 2025) Swart, Ignatius; Eurich, Johannes
Trust in politics and institutions, as well as the upholding of social cohesion, is presently under pressure globally. This has side effects for the work of civil society organizations that take on social challenges. Thus, this seems to be an appropriate time for a special issue focusing on specific civil society organizations, such as faith-based organizations, which devote themselves to addressing the challenges of poverty and social exclusion in many societies. In some contexts, when dealing with the tradition of the Christian faith, such organizations are referred to as “diaconal organizations” within a longstanding tradition. In other contexts, these organizations fall into the category of “Christian social practice” or are recognized as “development actors” (faith-based development organizations) in the still relatively new field of religion and development.
A meditation on bending the carbon curve
(Brill Academic Publishers, 2025) Conradie, Ernst M.
This article reflects on discourse on “bending the curve” in the context of the Covid19 pandemic and on carbon emissions in the context of climate change. Two crucial features of the latter are highlighted, namely, the need for carbon emissions to peak “soon” and to decline rapidly afterward in order to reach net zero emissions by around 2050.Thisraisesthequestionwhether(Reformed)Christianitycancontributetobending the carbon curve or whether it forms part of the underlying problem. Bending the carbon curve is contrasted with the “Christian curve” that could describe the transformative impact of the gospel in society. Several differences are emphasized in order to suggest that a “blending” of the curves is not advised so that, instead, these discourses are best held in a paradoxical tension.
Dialectics of Satanic technologies through the lens of Mountain of Fire and Miracles ministry, Nigeria
(Cogent OA, 2025) Adedibu, Babatunde Aderemi; Adeyemo, Adeleke Olujobi; Akanbi, Oluyomi Jude
Pentecostalism in Africa, particularly in Nigeria, has brought a new chapter in the history of Christianity. However, one of the conspicuous peculiarities of the kind of Pentecostalism that has emerged, especially in Nigeria, is the spiritual warfare and rituals of the movement. There is also the dawning fear and the use of prayer as performative acts that disarticulate visible and invisible political hegemony. Contextual and close-reading methodologies are employed for the study to discuss these peculiarities of Pentecostal doctrine and practices. As notably practised by the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries (MFM), Pentecostalism in Nigeria has been at the forefront of teaching and employing the doctrinal teachings and practices that deal with local satanic technologies. The contextual approach concentrates on a critical study of the literature produced by Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries (MFM) on ‘Satanic technologies’. In contrast, the close-reading approach relies on the Bible interpretation of selected Biblical texts on which the ideology of satanic technologies is built. The argument here is that the theological praxis of Mountain of Fire and Miracle Ministries, especially in ‘Satanic technologies’, undermines the basis of classical Pentecostal theologies and the Reformation theological orientation that interprets exposition of Biblical passages in their contexts for salvation and transformation to a ‘cacophonous’ phenomenon.
A critical analysis of ubuntu as the nexus of identity development in present-day Africa
(AOSIS (pty) Ltd, 2024) Anofuechi, Benson O; Klaasen, John S
In African society today, ubuntu as a notion of African humanism has been, and still is, subject to critical discussion. In African literature, philosophy, ethics, anthropology and theology, ubuntu plays a vast role and scholars in Africa and globally find the notion highly debated. The concept of identity development on the African continent has been written about broadly. This article unpacks the ubuntu philosophies of Augustine Shutte, Kwame Gyekye and John Mbiti. The views of these scholars will be contrasted to critically engage the conceivable commonalities for identity development through cultures. The question addressed herein is: What are the similarities and dissimilarities of ubuntu as a cornerstone for identity development in modern Africa? This article also examines the divergent definition and historical development of ubuntu culture, ubuntu philosophy of identity development, environmental development and various thinkers’ understanding of this African worldview in current Africa and further afield. Contribution: This research contributes to African theological ethics of the new landscape identity and explores the ubuntu worldviews as a developmental process of identities across cultures. Since identity development across cultures is highly dynamic, the hermeneutical interpretation of the principles of ubuntu is crucial.
Masculine aesthetics and food ascetics: an autobiographical exploration of fitness religion in Cape Town
(Taylor & Francis Group, 2025) Jodamus, Johnathan
This article explores how South African gym culture crafts racialised, gendered and classed identities through the aesthetics of the body (“bodywork”) and the discipline of diet (“foodwork”). following various scholars who have conceptualised fitness regimes as religion, i conceptualise gym culture as a form of “wild religion”. challenging mainstream literature on fitness and masculinity – which largely overlooks race and class dynamics – i draw on autobiographical embodied experiences within fitness spaces to reveal the power of this culture to function as a quasi-religious domain, with its own symbols, rituals and beliefs. this analysis exposes how ideals of masculinity are forged within these sacred spaces, underscoring the need to interrogate how race and class intricately shape these ideals in ways that are often hidden from view. by reframing fitness as a site where masculinities are not only formed but ritualised, this work calls for a new understanding of gym culture as a potent arena for exploring race, class and masculine identity in South Africa.
Disability and digital ecclesiology: Towards an accessible online church
(AOSIS, 2024) Amanyendzi, Seyram Brigitte
Even though the digital church has been in existence for some time, it was mainly a transmission of onsite church services and programmes in the online space. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and its demands for a global shutdown to mitigate and contain the disease moved almost all social activities including church services to the online space. It is evident that persons with disability experience extreme exclusion from the church’s theology, praxes, and ethos. Unfortunately, this phenomenon is replicated in the virtual space. Research proves that persons with disability were not considered in the migration of churches to the virtual space; hence, digital accessibility is minimal or non-existent during and after the COVID-19 era.
'Preface',Religious Human Rights in Global Perspective: Religious Perspectives
(2023) Tutu, Desmond M
I am pleased to be able to offer a preface to this volume on religious rights. I will want to speak really from the perspective of the Christian faith, which is the one that I know best, and hope that my comments would apply mutatis mutandis to other religious faiths as well. This will also serve to protect me from arrogance and triumphalism as I rehearse the pathological aspects of Christianity. I hope I will then be able to speak with a salutary modesty.
Disability and digital ecclesiology: Towards an accessible online church
(Aosis, 2024) Seyram B. Amenyedzi
Even though the digital church has been in existence for some time, it was mainly a transmission of onsite church services and programmes in the online space. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and its demands for a global shutdown to mitigate and contain the disease moved almost all social activities including church services to the online space. It is evident that persons with disability experience extreme exclusion from the church’s theology, praxes, and ethos. Unfortunately, this phenomenon is replicated in the virtual space. Research proves that persons with disability were not considered in the migration of churches to the virtual space; hence, digital accessibility is minimal or non-existent during and after the COVID-19 era. Contribution: This article explores the various transformational stages of both the church and media while further exploring possible ways by which the virtual church may grant accessibility to persons with disability.
Black theologies of liberation: how should black lives matter theologically?
(The Ecumenical Review, 2022) Nadar, Sarojini; Solomons, Demaine
This article introduces this thematic issue of The Ecumenical Review, which originates from a colloquium hosted at the University of the Western Cape on Black theologies. Our aim is to propose a set of theological frames through which to consider the 11 articles presented here, as well as the study of Black theology in general. We propose that Black theologies of liberation can be understood within three theological frameworks: a theology of resistance that encompasses both the social and epistemic, a theology of existence that focuses on Black consciousness and identity, and a theology of solidarity that fully embraces African feminist and queer theological perspectives. What the contributors to this issue on Black theology succeed in doing is ushering in new ways of thinking about the subject. Not only do they open new frontiers for theorizing and conceptualizing the gospel in light of Black experiences, but they also challenge the exclusionary nature of the old frontiers, calling to attention how even liberation discourses can sometimes reinscribe hegemony.
African studies keywords: Queer
(Cambridge University Press, 2023) Otu, Kwame E.; van Klinken, Adriaan
�Queer� is a relatively recent and somewhat controversial term in African studies. Yet it is proving to be productive, not only for understanding African subjectivities of sexuality and gender, but also for situating Africa�s position in the larger economy of knowledge. Otu and van Klinken explore the productive tensions between �queer� and �Africa,� and aim to read Africa as queer and to read queer from Africa. Thus, rather than imagining Africa and queer as polar opposites, the authors seek to harness the critical, productive, and creative affinities between these two terms that are vital for the project of decolonizing and queering queer Africa.
Expanding the boundaries through African women�s theologies
(Wiley, 2022) Headley, Selena D.
The development and key features of African women�s theologies, primarily through the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians, has entered the mainstream of theological education, which could provide insights for Black theology. In the landscape of theological education, which has been dominated by western-centric approaches, Black theology and the quest for liberation have made some inroads in challenging dominant discourses. However, aspirations for a liberative Afrocentric curriculum and pedagogy are yet to be realized. This paper will briefly survey the development of Black theology, primarily in the South African context, where theology was dominated by universal Western claims to theological education and repressive anti-Black theology. Second, the development of African women�s theologies, primarily through the work of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians, will be explored with particular features which created inroads in theological education despite its marginal position.
Identity formation at the dawn of liturgical inculturation in the Ethiopian Episcopal Church
(AOSIS, 2023) Kama, Phumezile; Klaasen, John S.
This article reflects on the impact of the inculturation of liturgy in the Ethiopian Episcopal Church (EEC) on identity formation within the context of African Christianity. In the EEC, the quest for African Christian identity formation is essential in understanding the role of black culture at the advent of the inculturation of liturgy. Inculturation can be viewed as the meeting and interaction of the Christian gospel and local cultures where neither the liturgy nor the cultures are superior than the other. Thus, it is vital to understand the inculturation of liturgy and its implications for African Christian identity in the EEC. There is a need for an official guiding principle or doctrinal and theological position on use of language and instruments associated with ancestor veneration at all levels of the EEC.

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