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Abstract
Ever since the Declaration of Zambia as a Christian nation in 1991, the Bible has become foundational in the public of life, and often cited in public debates. This article employs symbolic power as an analytical tool to examine Sumaili’s state theology of the Bible which politicized and reduced the Bible in the public into a state apparatus for defining, shaping, and determining the meaning and content for governing Zambia. It proposes a Pentecostal public theology of the people’s Bible as a site of struggle against politics of dehumanization, oppression, exploitation, and systematic inequalities.
Abstract
The task of this article is to interrogate and reconstruct Fabien Eboussi Boulaga’s theory of the Christic model as a pragmatic response to negative messianisms among African Pentecostals. Taking the hint from the two-natures messianic metaphoricity, the article argues that the messianic structure of Christ as an eternal myth is infinitely culturally demythologized into different historical and cultural contexts. It concludes by demonstrating that the two-natures messianicity captures a dialectic connection between divine infinity and human finitude. A pragmatic reconceptualization of the two-natures messianicity serves as a structuring principle or functional messianic model in the search for a balance of power and accountability in the struggle against menacing dominant hegemonies. It is critical because African Pentecostalism functions with the power-over as a structuring principle which makes congregants vulnerable to abuse of spiritual power and objectification, sexualization, and exploitation of a mystified mass.
Abstract
This article employs a public theology approach from the perspective of a decolonial theory. It analyses how the Declaration of Zambia as a Christian Nation functioned as a nationalist neo-colonial ideology during the presidential campaign of 2016. It did so in a way that was designed to legitimize President Edgar Chagwa Lungu’s political candidacy and moral authority within the Pentecostal-Charismatic religious sector. The analysis seeks to demonstrate how the Declaration and the photography of the social media presidential campaign intersected in order to represent the image of Lungu as an idea Christian President. Informed by a thematic analysis and a decolonial public theology, the article unmasks and exposes how ideology can become normalized as social practice within a particular historical context. The theological-ethnographic material within the analysis was collected during the period from January 2016 to February 2017.