THE ORAL CHRIST OF SHEMBE: BELIEVING IN JESUS IN ORAL AND LITERATE SOCIETIES

• J A Loubser University of Zululand

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7833/12-0-1962

Keywords: South Africa, Redistribution of wealth, Regeneration of the economy, Democratic creativity, Traditional society, Modern society, Literate society, Christologies, Shembe

Abstract

Our immediate challenge in South Africa is to balance the need for a redistribution of wealth with a regeneration of the economy; to stimulate democratic creativity and conflict while still preserving law and order. This is especially difficult because int his country we speak to one another from different ages – as is also the case of the UN.Even with forced segregation gone and the question of exploitation gradually being addressed, there still remains a deep cultural division. This is a division not so much between black and white/African and European, but between traditional and modern society, between pre- or semi-literate and literate society.In building ecumenical bridges between different sections of our population, and awareness of the socio-cultural conventions underlying our varying theologies, and especially christologies, is indispensable. It is in this regards that I will attempt to make a contribution.