This year, the
Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of the Free State (UFS) resumed its annual tradition of celebrating the new academic year, after being halted by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
The focus was on a theology of vulnerability for our times, with the theme supported by the text verse from 2 Corinthians 4:7: “We have this treasure in clay jars.”
God embodies vulnerability
Dean of the faculty,
Prof Rantoa Letšosa, left delegates with the inspiring message that one of the treasures in these clay jars is the power of God; power that enables us to stand strong and move forward in trying circumstances, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. He wished all attendees, both in person and online, to experience this extraordinary strength and power of God in the new year.
“However, the One in whom we believe as our Saviour and Lord is a vulnerable God; he embodied vulnerability. We cannot talk about God as if he is not affected by our vulnerability. He is love. He is affected by us,” he said.
Depriving people of humanity
But to be vulnerable can also be seen as to be weak, defenceless, open to harm, in need of care, and deprived of one’s humanity.
Dr Siphiwe Dube from the
University of the Witwatersrand integrated the topic of vulnerability into the paper he delivered, speaking from a decolonialism point of view on the research topic: Towards a Decolonial Political Theology of Vulnerability: Reflections from the Margins. In one of his statements, he said that black people are living in the reality constructed for them and have not discovered what blackness is. He urged the young attendees to make use of spaces created for discussion of this matter.
Bringing to the table another perspective on this topic, was
Prof Charlene van der Walt from the School of Religion, Philosophy and Classics at the
University of KwaZulu-Natal. Her paper was on the othering, stigmatisation, and exclusion experienced by the LGBTIQA+ people in the African context in general and the African faith communities in particular. She connected the shame experienced by queer people in a family setting to the story of Joseph in the book of Genesis in the Bible. In her paper: Reflecting on Joseph in the context of Izitabane vulnerability, violence, identity erasure and the imperative of recognition and accompaniment, she stated that Joseph’s otherness informed the vulnerability, exclusion, violence, and identity erasure that happens within the confines of family.
According to Prof Van der Walt, she wished to not argue for LGBTIQA+/ Izitabane people to be seen or that they somehow ‘pass’ and slip below the radar, but that the recognition called for implied a different kind of seeing: it implied a compassionate witnessing and a humanising recognition. “It implies process, interrogation of power, empathy and imagination, weeping and a commitment to community,” she said.
Another interesting perspective on the theology of vulnerability was that of
Dr Eugene Fortein from the Department of Historical and Constructive Theology at the UFS. In his paper on Vulnerability by Design: On a Theology of Prophetic Solidarity, he asked why the vulnerable is vulnerable? What led to them being vulnerable?
“The presence of the vulnerable in South Africa is not an accident. It is not because of fate, but because of a design that is 370 years in the making; deliberately to keep people poor for generations to come.”
He said it started with Jan van Riebeeck. Legislation such as the Natives Land Act of 1913, the Group Areas Act of 1950, and the Bantu Education Act of 1953 also played a key role. “These were designed to oppress one group and enabling the other to thrive.”
“The scars of this legislation are still haunting us today,” he said.
The One in whom we believe as our Saviour and Lord is a vulnerable God; he embodied vulnerability. We cannot talk about God as if he is not affected by our vulnerability. He is love. He is affected by us. – Prof Rian Venter
“The vulnerable have names and faces. They are experiencing the effects of being vulnerable on their bodies and that is not to be taken lightly.”
“Do not only pray for the poor and the vulnerable, but work actively to bring restitution,” he said. The church now has the opportunity to be a true servant of Christ,” Dr Fortein added.