Original Research - Special Collection: Graham Duncan Dedication

‘Doing theology as though nothing had happened’ – reading Karl Barth’s confessional theology in Zimbabwe today?

Rothney Tshaka
HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies | Vol 72, No 1 | a3028 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v72i1.3028 | © 2016 Rothney Tshaka | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 07 May 2015 | Published: 26 May 2016

About the author(s)

Rothney Tshaka, Department of Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology, University of South Africa, South Africa

Abstract

Although confessional theology is making its rounds across Reformed communities, this theology remains virtually unknown north of the Limpopo River. The Reformed Church of Zimbabwe (RCZ) is one of the immediate neighbours of the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa, which produced the Belhar Confession during the apartheid era. The confessional theology of Karl Barth, which informed this confession, has proven to be versatile in diverse contexts. Confessions, it will be argued, do not exist independently from the socioeconomic and political situations from which they arise. This article will attempt to argue that this theology can contribute to the Reformed theology in present day Zimbabwe. It will therefore attempt to introduce the confessional theology of Karl Barth to Zimbabwe; however, it also argues that the RCZ will have to realise that a number of adjustments need to be made on its part to ensure that it appropriates this theology profitably for its situation.

Keywords: Zimbabwe, Karl Barth, confessional theology, Reformed Church in Zimbabwe, politics


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