The question this essay asks is how does one respond in a credible way (from a position of whiteness) to the decolonial turn when that turn radically interrogates (to the point of shaming) one's being by questioning the morality of the cultural and social structures of whiteness and the zone of being in which one finds oneself. The essay proposes a hermeneutic of vulnerability as a response which is based on a mindfulness for the vulnerability of those who still bear the brunt of the aftermath of apartheid and a mindfulness for the vulnerability of the self as perpetrating agent. The essay proceeds as follows: (a) an introduction to the notion of the decolonial turn; (b) a decolonial critique of racialised discourse in a decolonial reality; and (c) a discussion of a hermeneutics of vulnerability with which exploitation of the other creates a vulnerability in the perpetrating self in order to discontinue the effects of coloniality.
The present tension within the Gereformeerde Kerke of South Africa (GKSA) is probably a result of a conflict between different plausibility structures. By referring to Berger’s definition of plausibility structures, the article illustrates their function in the churches. Because of the global village in which modern humankind finds itself the GKSA is furthermore influenced by other non-traditional plausibility structures. The theological implications of the change from a naive realistic plausibility structure to a more critical realistic one, as brought about by quantum metaphysics are explored. Similarly, the theological implications of retaining a naive realistic approach, namely a ghetto theology, are discussed.
Within a hierarchy of senses where sight dominates, race constitutes a regime of visibility with whiteness as the master signifier in the Western world. ITie essay explores the impossibility to think beyond race in a world that is still deeply racist. Racism is not undone once people have seen through it. In illustrating the performativity of race in terms of white identity issues, the discussion starts with a brief look at what constitutes identity and what is memory's function in constructing particular identities. The argument then turns towards an understanding of Africa's specific memory of Christianity's racialising mission by focussing on how the binaries of Spirit / Flesh became a racial binary of black and white th;it apparently continues in a post-modern empire without colonies. Subsequently, the essay focuses on an example of this entrapment, namely Bernal's book Blaek Athena and the ensuing debate where African and Western identities became markers of each other. Lastly, the discussion looks at the way Bernal's construction of memory in President Thabo Mbeki's challenge of Western hegemony and the role of whiteness in our thinking. The essay concludes that whiteness needs to be exposed in terms ofthe religious roots of its assumed naturalness, eternity and truth that went with its power.
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