Together in God's theatre: 'Practical theology in an African context

By Ian Nell

The stage, text, plot and characters of Together in God’s Theatre are rooted in (South) Africa and globally connected. As such it enculturates Practical Theology as a discipline in (South) African and a global network culture. We have been waiting for a Practical Theology that takes the important contribution of African Independent churches regarding faith practices seriously, whilst simultaneously not neglecting the practices of mainline churches. This book is a timely gift that will help with the understanding and appreciation of practices across denominational borders.

• Language: English
• Publisher: CLF Publishers
• Release date: Oct 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9781868044962

Book preview

"TOGETHER IN

GOD’S

THEATRE"

Practical theology in an African context

Ian Nell

TOGETHER IN GOD’S THEATRE

© Ian Nell

CLF Publishers

19 Oude Pont Street

Wellington Business Park

Wellington

www.clf.co.za

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any

means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without any prior written permission of the publisher.

Design and layout by: Joanne Bell

Cover design by: Joanne Bell

Printed and bound: Print on Demand (Pty) Ltd

First edition: 2020

ISBN 978-1-86804-496-2 Together in God’s Theatre

Photo for cover page from a scene in the film Son of Man - with permission of producers

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

With this book, I would like to acknowledge the fruitful conversations I have had with colleagues (both in academia and ministry) and with my students over the past fifteen years.

Soli Deo Gloria.

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER 1 SETTING THE STAGE

1. The opening scene

2. The plot of the film Son of Man

3. Texts in discussion

4. Faith seeking understanding (theology)

5.  Knowledge sources in theology

6. Faith in action (practical theology)

7. Behind the scene: Drama on African soil 

8. Inculturation as challenge for Africa

9. The role and importance of understanding

10. The role and importance of experience

11. The role and importance of play

12. The structure of the book

13. Conclusion

CHAPTER 2 THE STAGE

1. Introduction

2. All the world’s a stage

3. Micro stage

4. Meso stage

5. Macro stage

6. Inculturation and practical theology

7. Conclusion

CHAPTER 3 THE TEXT

1. Introduction

2. The Bible text and culture texts

3. The main moments of the Biblical text

4. The role of traditions and doctrines of faith

5. The central role of discipleship

6. Practical theology and discipleship

7. Different ways to read texts

8. The normative role of the text

9. Conclusion

CHAPTER 4 THE PLOT OF ACTIVITIES

1. Introduction

2. Worship

3. Proclamation

4. Teaching

5. Care

6. Service (diakonia)

7. To take the lead

8. Conclusion

CHAPTER 5 THE CHARACTERS

1. Introduction

2. Discipleship and calling

3. Biblical historical roots

4. Charismata in the mainline churches

5. Charismata in the African Independent Churches

6. Conclusion

CHAPTER 6 THE CURTAIN CLOSES

1. The Introduction

2. Opening scene

3. The stage

4. The text

5. The plot

6. The characters

7. The curtain finally closes

Endnotes

Bibliograpy

PROLOGUE

The field of practical theology is not only an interesting and dyna- mically evolving discipline within the science of theology, but is also a science that is already part of the life of Christian faith communities and every person who actively participates in these communities. If you are in any way part of a Christian faith community, whether as a believer or through your participation in worship services or other activities, you already qualify as a practical theologian. The fact that you already qualify does however not mean that you can’t learn anything anymore; it just means that you are not a total newcomer to the field.

The field of practical theology has several thinkers, writers and researchers who in turn belong to various faith traditions. Each of these people is in turn formed by faith communities and thus comes to the field of study with a number of presuppositions. Within the academic context, it is therefore good practice to account for yourself about your choices and about the way you approach the discipline. Of course, one’s choices are never neutral and are strongly determined by your own context and formation and by whom and where you got to know and practiced the field.

After my undergraduate studies at the North-West University and theological studies at the University of the Free State, I was privileged to gain first-hand experience of congregational ministry as a minister. I was called to the Dutch Reformed congregation, Suidkus (Amanzimtoti) in 1990 and took my first step as a practical theologian on the south coast of Natal. After I entered the ministry, I developed the need for further study and, under the supervision of Prof Cas Vos at the University of Pretoria, I further immersed myself in the field of practical theology. Gerben Heitink’s comprehensive work on practical theology Praktische theologie: geschiedenis-theorie-handelingsvelden (1993) has just appeared and was an enriching reading and learning experience, as well as the works of various other South African practical theologians involved in the communicative-action approaches. During this time, I also became aware of the fact that practical theology does not want to see itself primarily as the training of ministers for the ministry and therefore wants to move beyond the so-called ‘clerical paradigm’. Which is not to say that the latter is still a very important part of the discipline. Should it happen that the training of ministers as part of the discipline is lost sight of, the discipline loses its anchorage in the practice and in the life of the church. Practical theology needs to be rooted and secured in the everyday practices of the Christian faith in the church and the world. In the way I try to present the discipline in this book, traces will be found of my interest in the training of persons who want to prepare themselves for the congregational ministry. Along with that, I work with the presupposition that the academic practice of theology’s locality is found in the continuing life of the church. I therefore attempt to account for both the ecclesiological and theological nature of the discipline in my approach.

A further phase in my development as a practical theologian took place after I was called to the Dutch Reformed congregation of Sonstraal in Durbanville in 1997. During this time, I became involved in various research groups of the then BCTTR (Bureau for Continuing Theological Training and Research) of the Synod of the Western Cape and I especially learned the various elements involved in the sub-discipline of congregational studies. I became aware of various approaches to congregational studies of which the narrative, strategic-theological planning, ethnographic, contextual and missional approaches are the most important. My involvement in Synodical structures taught me the dynamic interaction between ministers, congregations and Synodical activities, especially around theological training.

In 2007 I was appointed senior lecturer in the discipline group practical theology and missiology and I became acquainted with the teaching of the subject at undergraduate and postgraduate level. Part of my job description was the coordination of the MDiv (Magister Divinitas) and the Postgraduate Diploma in Christian ministry, which is a prere- quisite for students who want to enter the full-time ministry. There is no place where one learns so much about a subject area as when one teaches and is constantly in conversation with students about the content of the study material and its practical application in the everyday practice of faith. Students who study the discipline of practical theology learn very quickly how to ‘do’ practical theology simply through their participation in the ongoing life of congregations and the church. I am convinced that the teaching of practical theology should begin by encouraging students to become aware of how they are already living their Christian lives and participating in the ministry by using practical theology in their daily lives. In this way, practical theology not only critiques the ways in which one works and thinks in the everyday practice of faith, but also builds on these practices. The latter asks that the practical theologian should have empathy with various faith communities and churches as well as a close involvement in their activities and the way in which they think theologically about the life of faith. The appreciative inquiry is a well-known method of inquiry in this regard.

It was precisely through my involvement with students and their everyday faith experiences that I became steadily aware of the need for a new approach to practical theology. The demographic changes in the composition of classes, with increasing diversity in terms of ethnicity, gender, age, language, gender, etc., made me aware of the fact that prevailing Western paradigms need to be supplemented with indigenous knowledge and faith experiences of students. My reading of several works related to Theo-drama, both in systematic theology and practical theology, made me aware of the importance of an aesthetic approach to practical theology. The origins of this approach can be traced back to the work of Rick Osmer, The teaching ministry of congregations (2005), and Nicholas Healy, Church, world and the Christian life: Practical-prophetic ecclesiology (2000).

The choice for a dramatological approach is related to the need in practical theology to supplement action-communicative models from the social sciences with models developed in the humanities and arts. The fruitfulness of this type of dialogue between theology and the humanities has begun to gain momentum in recent decades with the emergence of narrative as an important category in theology and ethics. The metaphorical complex of drama joins and retains the benefits of narratology. Drama is ‘story’ by nature with a plot that unfolds and emphasizes the unity of action over a period. But dramas also go further by bringing the role of action through dramatic realization to the fore. In other words, dramas are not only read but also performed.

In this regard, it is interesting that the practices of faith within the African context are often described as dramatic in nature. Anyone who has attended a worship service in any of the indigenous African churches will know that a large part of the worship service consists of rhythmic singing and physical participation. A variety of symbols XI

and rituals form part of the worship practices. Today, it is also very easy to gain insight into the worship practices of a diversity of faith communities in almost any denomination on the Internet using, for example, YouTube. Therefore, when David Ford speaks about the future of Christian theology and pleads for a dramatic code for twenty-first century theology it should not come as a surprise to the ears of believers in Africa nor be unattractive to practical theologians. A further chapter in the drama of practical theology on African soil can be attributed to the Covid-19 pandemic that has become part of our lives since March 2020. The Covid-19 pandemic has made a whole host of new words and phrases part of everyday vocabulary: ‘lock time’, ‘restriction’, ‘social distancing’, ‘adaptation to a new normal’, ‘self-isolation’ and then worst of all ‘the world will never be the same again’. Stress and trauma are slowly but surely becoming a part of all of our lives because some of us have already lost a loved one or friend due to the Coronavirus. There are some of us who do not know when and whether they will ever see their parents again. Parents are deeply concerned about the safety of their children in schools. We are all deeply concerned about the economic insecurity and the masses of people who are without food.

This pandemic reminds one of the 9/11’s terrorist attacks in the USA that left the whole world in a state of fear and anxiety. Scholars speak of a time of liminality, but in the midst of liminality there are also green shoots of hope. Science, which is often treated quite contempt in popular culture, has suddenly taken the lead on the world stage. Excellence has once again begun to take its rightful place in the spotlight. Doctors and scientists are once again gaining recognition as the main actors on the world stage, because the facts are vital. We all want to know: what is going on, why is this the case, how can it be different and what can we do to improve and change the situation? These chaotic circumstances teach us as believers at least three things: First, that the world will indeed never be the same again, that we will truly have to get used to a ‘new normal’ where we will have to be content with less and be grateful for what we have. Where we look at our neighbour with softer and more appreciative eyes and especially to develop an eye for the neighbour in need, for the marginalized. Second, it motivates us not to give up and stick to scientific knowledge that helps us with the right facts. It motivates us not to give up on the highest ideals of science, to help discover the truth through research, through experimentation and a continual search for answers to some of the most pressing questions of life, including the question of life and death. Thirdly, one learns that behind and even before all this chaos on the world stage, a loving and merciful God is at work who constantly helps to create order out of the chaos – a God who does not sit on a throne in the distance and watch everything untouched from there, but who became part of the drama by becoming a vulnerable human being through the Son himself and eventually lost his life for it. The purpose of this book is therefore an attempt to help shape the field of practical theology by drawing attention to a specific approach, namely the Theo-dramatic approach that grapples with these tantalizing questions. With this I position myself within an aesthetic approach to the field of practical theology. This necessarily means that certain choices are made and there is a focus on specific aspects. I deliberately opted for two major traditions, namely the mainstream Protestant Churches and the African Independent Churches. I am aware of the large number of believers in our country who belong to Pentecostalism. I am also aware of the differences that exist between Pentecostalism and mainstream Protestantism, but in this book I include Pentecostalism in mainstream Protestantism.

Finally, in this book, I attempt to engage with at least two audiences in the field of practical theology. The first is my friends and colleagues who teach practical theology and who, within the Southern African context, are a group of people who have shrunk dramatically over the years due to a variety of factors, including large-scale demographic shifts involving students studying theology. Secondly, there is the more general reader, who may be a student taking a course in practical theology or it may be a practicing pastor or theologian who may want to sharpen their theological-critical skills and may be interested in new developments in the field.

CHAPTER 1

SETTING THE STAGE

1. The opening scene

The film Son of Man starts with a dramatic scene where Satan (Andries Mbali), portrayed as a sangoma, sits on a sand dune with Jesus (Andile Kosi) looking out over the sea.¹ The scene represents snippets from the Gospels’ stories about Jesus’ temptation on the mountain. Jesus must make a choice: either He gives in to the temptation of power, status and authority, or He reacts in obedience to his Father’s will. Jesus chooses the latter. He chooses the road of faith and obedience and calls people to follow Him as disciples on this road.

What makes the opening scene² and the rest of the film so gripping, is the creative reinterpretation of a selection of stories from the four Gospels in a southern African context. It is an imaginative and contemporary interpretation and performance of the story of Jesus in the context of an African township. Violence and conflict are at the order of the day, with especially women and children being the victims of clashing factions. Some of the scenes remind one of the genocides that took place in the past and still takes place in various African countries.

It is particularly the ‘African context’ that challenges us to look at Son of Man in new ways. When De Gruchy and Chirongoma in The

Routledge companion to the Christian church³ reflect on the followers of this Son of Man, Christ, in Africa, they use four elements from nature to describe them, namely earth, water, fire and wind. Each of these four elements points to some or other influence that today still characterises the followers of Jesus in Africa. Earth refers to the long history of the Christian faith on African soil as well as to the role of traditional African religions and their leaders; water pertains to the Western Christian influences that brought missionaries and colonialists with their ships to Africa; fire refers to the struggle of African believers to remain Christians and faithful to Africa amid the dehumanisation which came to them in colonial form; and lastly, wind refers to the signs of the Spirit in Africa in the form of Pentecostalism, revival movements and budding forms of being church as a reaction to the missio Dei (God’s mission) on this fascinating continent.

2. The plot of the film Son of Man

The film practically covers Jesus’ entire life, from the angel’s announcement to Mary that she will have a child, up to Jesus’ ascension. One can distinguish roughly three narrative parts of equal length in the plot of the film.⁴

The first part relates to Jesus’ early life as a child up to his ‘baptism’, which is represented in a meaningful way as part of the Xhosa initiation rites. The opening scene starts with what one would describe as the ‘fall of Satan’, which could also be interpreted as Jesus’ resistance to temptations and his victory over Satan. Symbolically, we could interpret Satan’s tumbling down the sand dune as his ‘fall to the earth or below’, which also brings an end to the ongoing violence in Judea, a land of repression and poverty, which appears to belong to Satan.

A young woman finds safety by hiding in a school among the bodies of murdered children. There, a child appears as an angel to her and tells her that she will give birth to a son with the name Jesus. The woman is obviously Mary and a traditional birth story follows with the participation of shepherds and wise men and the murder of innocent children. It is particularly the child murders that are the motivation behind the adult Jesus’ struggle, together with his community, for the reparation of human dignity. As mentioned in the beginning, Jesus’ baptism is represented as a Xhosa circumcision ritual together with other young men. His baptism is therefore a transitional ritual and way of access to the adult word, as well as the start of his political activism.

The second part of the film is an overview of Jesus’ public life and ministry that starts with the calling of the twelve disciples and his saving of a young prostitute’s life from being torched as punishment for her way of life.⁵ Three miracles follow, namely the healing of the paralysed man (Mark 2:1-12), the resurrection of Lazarus (John 11:11) and the exorcising of the devil, without any direct parallel to one of the Gospel stories. Then follows brief summaries of Jesus’s teaching from a modern and political perspective, which gives a new focus to the miracles. Human dignity and community development now receive a central place in the plot.

An interesting character is Judas. He films Jesus’ activities with a video camera and sneaks away in the