Seminar addresses decolonising the Bible

Held in Cape Town, South Africa, the seminar focused on challenging oppressive texts and interpretations, as well as dismantling the eurocentrism of mission and ecumenism.

Welcoming participants and officially opening the seminar, the head of the Religion and Theology Department at the University of the Western Cape, Prof. Ignatius Swart, began by stating the “reading of the Bible matters!” 

The deputy dean for research for the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Prof. Fiona Moolla, lifted up the history of the University of the Western Cape as a history of struggle.The Cape Town context immersion both inspired and dismayed the participants. Many participants pointed to a liberative decolonial pedagogy as an agenda for universities and for ecumenical education and formation. 

Participants were challenged to see the work of decolonisation as not an intellectual trend but a calling and commitment which must combat colonialism and neocolonialism’s destruction amongst us today.The papers helped us to locate sites of this destruction in climate change, in racist and gender-based violence, in land theft and in mission and unity,which fails to disrupt marginalising forces and privileges. 

While the Bible remains a weapon in justifying privilege, violence and domination, seminar participants showed again and again the power the Bible has to inspire resistance to domination with countering visions of an alternative world, rooted in the movement of God towards us in mission. 

The participants called on the WCC and especially the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME), the WCC programme on Overcoming Racism, Xenophobia and related Discriminations and the Commission on Faith and Order to develop a combative decolonial model which seeks to bring change and not just analysis.

Canon Rev Dr Peniel Rajkumar, global theologian with the United Society Partners in the Gospel, spoke of the complex entanglement of the Bible both as colonising weapon as well as a decolonising tool. “Through creating a collaborative space where the uncovering of imperial agendas and the recovery of suppressed voices was made possible, this meeting fostered a solidarity which can be foundational for decolonial living,” he said.

Prof. Esther Mombo, of St Paul’s University School of Theology, said that decolonising the Bible challenges the literal reading of the Bible, which has justified racial injustices."Decolonization empowers the people to name their lived realities—racism, sexism, patriarchy—and to seek solutions for their situations, for example the African Theologians or the GenZ call for dismantling systemic injustices,” she said.
Rev. Dr Teddy Chalwe Sakupapa, from the University of the Western Cape, Department of Religion and Theology, commented that the seminar highlighted the importance of developing and strengthening networks and communities.“While not named explicitly, this seminar gave expression to mission from the margins,” he said. 

The seminar was structured in two thematic focus areas, the first embodied perspectives and the second hermeneutics, epistemologies, and translation. “Through context immersion, participants were alerted to and inspired by movements and acts of resistance against the colonial and colonising uses of the Bible to dominate,” said Sakupapa. “The outcomes of the seminar hold significance for ecumenical theological education, the missional praxis of churches, and for trans-disciplinary work and resistance against the powers of our time.”

The seminar pointedly called for a decolonial imagination. Litsoanelo Cecilia Zwane, associate lecturer, with the University of the Western Cape, Department of Religion and Theology, said the seminar was an invaluable opportunity to fully grapple with the various intersections of social issues.“What was very clear is how collaboration is important in how we can at least begin to chip away at rampant socioeconomic, epistemic, gender, and ecological inequity,” said Zwane. "The inclusion of diverse people from diverse academic, personal, and epistemological backgrounds added great nuance to the discussions.”

Prof. Sarojini Nadar, the Desmond Tutu chair for Social Justice at the Universe of the Western Cape, reflected that anger is a legitimate epistemological starting point for appropriate decolonial work that acknowledges the current asymmetries and injustices including exposure to sexism, climate change, racism, and ableism.

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