The Future of Black Theology in South Africa: A Critical Examination of the theological methodologies of Desmond Mpilo Tutu and Itumeleng J. Mosala

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 3: THE THEOLOGICAL METHOD OF DESMOND MPILO TUTU1

Tutu's Theological Orientation: The Ubuntu Theology1

Sources of Theology5

Experience8

Philosophy11

Hermeneutics16

Tradition18

Scripture20

Tutu and Liberation Theology22

Tutu and African Theology28

Summary32

END NOTES34

CHAPTER 3: THE THEOLOGICAL METHOD OF DESMOND MPILO TUTU

Tutu's Theological Orientation: The Ubuntu Theology

The concept Ubuntu regained prominence in post- apartheid South African. Following the demise of the repressive political regime of apartheid in 1994 and the release of Nelson Mandela who had been incarcerated on Robbins Island for 26 years, South Africans were faced with the task of building a post-apartheid society. Remarkably what was seen in South Africa, under the guidance of President Nelson Mandela and men such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu was the emergence of a new non- racist “rainbow nation”. Facing the task of creating such a society composed of eleven ethnic and linguistic groups, including Afrikaans and English, South Africa put forth one of the most progressive national constitutions in the world. This constitution honored the rights of all people, in its language of “non-racialism, and non-sexism. Throughout the country were signs in public buildings with the phrase “Batho Pele”, which translated to mean “People First”. What marked this transition, or transformation without the violence and reprisal that many feared coming from the hands of the formally repressed black South Africans, was that the architects of the new South Africa returned to an ethical, social, spiritual and philosophical concept that was a part of the indigenous cultural worldview of South African. This concept is Ubuntu.

To understand the meaning of the word Ubuntu, one can look at its linguistic origins. The term comes from a linguistics group of Sub-Saharan languages known as Bantu. Both words Ubuntu and Bantu can be recognized by the common root “ntu” (human). The prefix “ba” denotes the plural form for humanity. In short the term Ubuntu means personhood or human being or what it means to be human. The Zulu phrase “umuntu ngumutu ngabantu” means that a person is a person through other persons. Another phrase which speaks to the meaning of Ubuntu is “I am because we are and because we are I am”. It is a concept that is not unique to South African cultures. Rather, the sense that self identity is formed and understood within the matrix of community life is a belief that is found in other African cultures. Yet it is a concept that became a part of the South African consciousness as the nation recovered from the social devastation thrust upon it through apartheid.

The principle of Ubuntu helped to redefine the meaning of personhood as well as establish the framework for social, political, business and even spiritual relationships within the new South Africa. It was a concept used by Thabo Mbeki, the South African President, after Nelson Mandela, as the basis for an anticipated African Renaissance or the rebirth of the progressive elements in African ...