Papers by Madipoane Masenya
In response to HIV/AIDS and its consequences, this collection of essays by young African scholars... more In response to HIV/AIDS and its consequences, this collection of essays by young African scholars proposes a pattern of Christian education designed to equip churches for ministry in a time of crisis. Theological institutions are urged to address the HIV/AIDS pandemic through the academic disciplines of ministerial preparation as well as in continuing education opportunities, short courses for laity and training-of-trainers seminars for parish workers. Practical guides for classroom discussion are provided in the areas of health and human sexuality, biblical interpretation, theology, counselling, gender perspectives, project design and management. The book ends with a detailed 'HIV/AIDS Curriculum for Theological Institutions in Africa', which can be adapted easily for other regions.
Dictionary of AfricanChristian Biography, Oct 1, 2017
The Journal of African Christian Biography was launched in 2016 to complement and make stories fr... more The Journal of African Christian Biography was launched in 2016 to complement and make stories from the on-line Dictionary of African Christian Biography (www.DACB.org) more readily accessible and immediately useful in African congregations and classrooms. Now published quarterly, with all issues available on line, the intent of the JACB is to promote the research, publication, and use of African Christian biography within Africa by serving as an academically credible but publicly accessible source of information on Christianity across the continent. Content will always include biographies already available in the database itself, but original contributions related to African Christian biography or to African church history are also welcome. While the policy of the DACB itself has been to restrict biographical content to subjects who are deceased, the JACB plans to include interviews with select living African church leaders and academics.
A publication of the Dictionary of African Christian Biography with U.S. offices located at the C... more A publication of the Dictionary of African Christian Biography with U.S. offices located at the Center for Global Christianity and Mission at Boston University. This special issue is in honor of and focuses on Project Director Jonathan Bonk. 1. Introduction by Associate Editor Jesse Mugambi; 2. DACB Kenya Report 2019 (Excerpts) By Jonathan J. Bonk; 3. Jonathan Bonk and the DACB: A Treasured Contribution to African Christian History By Deji Ayegboyin and M. A. Ogunewu; 4. His Mission and Its Impact on Africa By Olusegun Obasanjo; 5. Professor Jonathan J. Bonk: The African Dimension By Gabriel Leonard Allen; 6. A Strategic Mentor By Thomas Oduro; 7. A Humble Servant of God By Philomena Njeri Mwaura; 8. Biography as History in Explication of African Christianity A Reflection in Appreciation of Professor Jonathan Bonk By Jesse N. K. Mugambi; 9. Context in African Biblical Studies: Some Reflections By Madipoane Masenya (Ngwan’a Mphahlele); 10. The Faith and Witness of the Uganda Martyrs ...
Old Testament essays, 2009
In her quest for the continued close connection between the Christian Bible and Africana women's ... more In her quest for the continued close connection between the Christian Bible and Africana women's realities, the author uses the folktale of the Rabbit and the Lion (cf. Ndebele 2007) as a background to portray the ambiguous post-apartheid South African reality. The South African context, which is the author's social location, serves both as a point of departure and a connecting link between African women in South Africa, those on the African continent as well as women of the Africa Diaspora regarding the intersection of power, the Christian Bible and Africana women's realities. The main question addressed by the article is: Why do Africana women continue to cling dearly to this Book that has, historically, mostly been used "for worse" in their varying interpretive contexts? The agency of these women in the interpretative processes is also highlighted. As one form of redress, a communal Africana women's reading strategy is employed to read some of the texts from the Hebrew Bible.
Reading Proverbs Intertextually, 2019
HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies, 2021
Transgression and Transformation, 2021
This volume on intercultural biblical interpretation includes essays by feminist scholars from Bo... more This volume on intercultural biblical interpretation includes essays by feminist scholars from Botswana, Germany, New Zealand, Nigeria, South Africa, and the United States. Reading from a rich variety of socio-cultural locations, contributors present their hermeneutical frameworks for interpretation of Hebrew Bible texts, each framework grounded in the writer's journey of professional or social formation and serving as a prism or optic for feminist critical analysis. The volume hosts a lively conversation about the nature and significance of biblical interpretation in a global context, focusing on issues at the nexus of operations of power, textual ambiguity, and intersectionality. Engaged here are notions of biblical authority and postures of dissent; women's agency, discernment, rivalry, and alliance in ancient and contemporary contexts; ideological constructions of sexuality and power; interpretations related to indigeneity, racial identity, interethnic intimacy, and violence in colonial contexts; theologies of the feminine divine and feminist understandings of the sacred; convictions about interdependence and conditions of flourishing for all beings in creation; and ethics of resistance positioned over against dehumanization in political, theological, and hermeneutical praxes. Through their textual and contextual engagements, contributors articulate a broad spectrum of feminist insights into the possibilities for emancipatory visions of community.
Religion, Culture and Spirituality in Africa and the African Diaspora, 2017
Missionalia : Southern African Journal of Mission Studies, 2001
The South African context has historically, at least since the missionary era, been conspicuously... more The South African context has historically, at least since the missionary era, been conspicuously shaped by the Christian faith, and more importantly for the present article, also by the Christian Bible. This context also shares a world view that is in many respects similar to that found in the Old Testament. When confronted by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, a devout reader of the Book of Job in the Hebrew Bible cannot remain unchanged. Informed by this (South) African context, how does one make sense of the 'unjust' suffering of the devout biblical character, Job?
Black Theology, 2021
prayers. One example is “Benediction for Stepping out into the Empire” [57] with the deploying of... more prayers. One example is “Benediction for Stepping out into the Empire” [57] with the deploying of “the light, the salt, the hand, the water”. How about being light that liberates, salt that savours, hands that carry, water that washes. Grammar, empire’s tool, is not neutral. In this regard I would have loved to see more prayers in local “tongues in order to ‘mash-up’ empire’s White English grammar”! A “betraying of tradition” has to be pushed to greater lengths. For instance, the able-bodiedness of some of the imagery is striking whether eyes, hands, head, hearts, feet, etc. Then there is an internalising deployment of “light” over darkness [light-bearers, 63] which is troubling. There are some excellent materials around baptism and eucharist, though we seem to be stuck to the inherited sequences of the rituals. I wonder what a full “break-out” from the liturgical empire would look like.
Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, 1995
Senegalese writer Awa Thiam echoes the thoughts and feelings of her black sisters in South Africa... more Senegalese writer Awa Thiam echoes the thoughts and feelings of her black sisters in South Africa.1 Black women in South Africa-here under stood as African women-form the vast percentage of the population in the country. Despite their majority, they suffer exploitation, invisibility, and silence; as a result, they are "unknown." Though the most exploited of all groups, they remain in South Africa. In the midst of adverse socioeconomic conditions, they survive. And amidst pervasive oppression caused by kyriar chal structures,2 they are not crushed. At times these factors impact on them "with a relentlessness that leaves them drained of both creativity and vision."3 But despite all these daunting obstacles, they remain brave. Jacqui line William argues: "My offspring are stronger than me for they have sucked fertile milk from the bravest of the brave women. In poverty and in richness and in war I am still a woman. And I will remain a brave woman."4 These ...
Missionalia : Southern African Journal of Mission Studies, 2005
The Bible plays a very important role in Pentecostal churches, not only of African-South Africa, ... more The Bible plays a very important role in Pentecostal churches, not only of African-South Africa, but worldwide. The question explored in this paper is whether members of these churches use prophecy in the same way as the eighth century Old Testament prophets such as Hosea, Isaiah, Amos, Jeremiah, etc. Do they see prophecy as an important tool for social critique, or does prophecy have another meaning in the lives of Pentecostal believers? If the latter is true, how do the members of these churches interact with prophetic texts in their sermons and daily lives?
Old Testament essays, 2003
The Northern Sotho proverb: serokolwana se sennyane se ikoketÂ?a ka go nkga is translated: a smal... more The Northern Sotho proverb: serokolwana se sennyane se ikoketÂ?a ka go nkga is translated: a small herb increases itself / its influence by a bad odour. If applied literally, it shows that though the herb in question is small (compared to its human users), once it is applied for use, it releases a strong (therapeutic) odour. One of the tenors of this proverb is as follows: those that are deemed small or insignificant have a way of making their influence felt by those that are bigger/stronger than they. The proverb reminds us of the struggle for survival which, women as others, experience in a patriarchal world. The present text is an attempt to re-imagine the Vashti figure in Esther 1 from the viewpoint of modern African South African women in their struggle for survival in postapartheid South Africa. Contrary to the traditional anti-Vashti interpretation of Esther 1, the present text seeks to show that irrespective of the marginalisation of Vashti by both the narrator and the king ...
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Papers by Madipoane Masenya