Abstract

WESSELS, Wessel. Identity, power, and responsibility: Refl ections on prophetic preaching in South Africa. STJ [online]. 2022, vol.8, n.2, pp.1-22. ISSN 2413-9467.  http://dx.doi.org/10.17570/stj.2022.v8n2.a6.

Within South African homiletic thought, prophetic preaching has been understood as preaching steeped in Black Theology of Liberation (BTL). This being said, South African homiletic thought has historically showcased a rejection of BTL as a merely political ideology and promoted BTL as paramount for prophetic preaching in the democratic context. The former relented, whilst the latter is still dominant. However, there has been no research on the implications of prophetic preaching regarding the proposed outcomes of such preaching, which has a relatively broad scope, including poverty relief, development, admonishment of corruption, and the Lordship of Christ in the public sphere. In this article, I will reflect on prophetic preaching as preaching BTL from a postcolonial, psychological, and ethical perspective, locating four deadly sins of prophetic preaching: a colonial identity paradigm, resentment, misrepresentation of the vital flaws of society, and the relenting of personal responsibility.

Keywords : Prophetic preaching; Black Theology of Liberation; postcolonial thought; identity; resentment; power; responsibility.

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