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Interviewed by Patricia M. Markun
[Woodstock Report, October 1990, no. 23, pp. 3-5]
Copyright © 1990 Woodstock Theological Center
All rights reserved
Rev. Charles Villa-Vicencio, head of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of South Africa, is currently a visiting fellow of the Woodstock Theological Center. Born and educated in South Africa, he came to the United States for graduate work, earning a S.T.M. at Yale University and a Ph.D. in theology at Drew University. An ordained Methodist minister, he has served congregations both in South Africa and the United States. He is the author of three books and the editor of a further five publications. As a distinguished theologian, he is a frequent contributor to scholarly publications. Conferences and speeches take him on travels all over the world. He first came to Georgetown in October 1988 as a distinguished lecturer on South Africa.
Question: I notice you did your master's degree at Yale University and your doctorate at Drew University. Were there some particular advantages for a South African theologian to study in the United States?
I think that, especially at the time I wanted to do my graduate work, there were somewhat limited opportunities inside South Africa. That has been remedied since then, but certainly the United States has resources that enable a doctoral student to specialize in areas that we couldn't specialize in at home. Since those days, of course, South Africa has become a very exciting context within which theology is taking place. Many of the most creative ideas in contextual and liberation theology are in fact grounded in the kind of struggle that is presently unfolding in South Africa. And so there are some students today who are preferring not to come to the United States, precisely so they can develop their doctoral theses in a context such as South Africa.
Question: What can theology contribute to South African society?
One needs to understand the South African situation in order to answer that question. First, both black and white South African identity is to a significant degree grounded in a religious culture. This makes South Africa less secularized than the United States or Western Europe. Theology informs the South African culture and theology is informed by this culture. And so one speaks theologically in the political context of South Africa with less hesitation than one would, I think, in the United States.
The second thing one needs to remember is that until the beginning of this year all the major political organizations, community structures, and parties on the side of the liberation struggle were banned or restricted. The major liberation leaders, Nelson Mandela for example, were in jail or in exile. In that vacuum, the church provided hospitality and interim leadership for the forces of liberation. The church acquired a high political profile during that period and names like that of Archbishop Desmond Tutu became household names around the world.
But now, of course, organizations like the ANC (African National Congress) are no longer banned. The authentic leaders, Nelson Mandela and others, are now released. They are now exercising the necessary political leadership.
Question: So the role of the church is in transition now?
Yes, its role is clearly changing from a high-profile, politically visible role to a community of people who, in accordance with the Gospel, are to share with others in the struggle for a better, democratic, nonracial, just South Africa. The church must now learn to be less ready to receive bouquets, more ready to suffer with the people, and to commit itself to the democratic process.
Question: I know you have been active with others in a process of "contextual theology." What is it exactly? How did it originate, and what are some concrete examples of its modus operandi?
I think that if one talks about contemporary forms of liberation theology, a South African contribution to that type of theology has been at the level of what we call contextual theology. Of course, theology is always written in a specific context. What distinguishes our understanding of contextual theology is that we consciously take that context very, very seriously. We don't put it aside and say that it implicitly informs us. We bring it to the center of the stage, and allow it to explicitly inform our theology.
Question: How did "contextual theology" originate in South Africa?
All theologies are prefaced by a set of questions. To understand Thomas Aquinas' theology, one needs to understand the questions that Thomas asked of his theology. Once you understand the questions, the answers are remarkably beautiful. If you don't understand the questions, you don't know what the man is talking about. Liberation or contextual theology in South Africa, is also formed by a set of questions. Asked by whom? Asked by the people who are poor, marginalized, and oppressed. So we are seeking to articulate a theology in response to the questions asked by people who are struggling for human dignity, struggling to overthrow apartheid, struggling for a more just dispensation. Our theology is shaped by this context, a context of the poor and oppressed.
Question: Have you any concrete examples of this process?
Perhaps the best example of contextual theology is the Kairos Document. The Kairos Document (kairos in Greek means "the proper time or season") seeks theologically to articulate the nature of the time, the moment of decision, within which we as Christians find ourselves in South Africa.
The Kairos Document is an explicit attempt to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ within our situation in South Africa at this particular time. We believe it is a prophetic theology. It is calling the church to repentance. It's calling Christians to realign themselves with the poor, which is, of course, the community of people with whom Jesus was aligned.
What is perhaps most significant about the Kairos Document as an example of contextual theology is how it was written. A group of learned theologians did not sit around a table and decide to write this theology. It is in a very real sense a theology of the people. It is a theology from below. It began with a meeting essentially of black people, some in the church, some outside the church, who gathered in Soweto, a township outside Johannesburg, in 1985.
They spoke about what it means to be a black, to be oppressed victims of apartheid and also Christian. Out of that, questions began to arise, and discussion began to take place. Formulations began to emerge and ultimately the Kairos Document appeared from within this community of people.
Question: So, it is people speaking in this historical moment within this social context that makes it "contextual" theology?
Yes. It is contextual theology because it takes the context seriously. It is theology from the perspective of the oppressed people, and importantly it is a group, communal, or corporate theology. It is a pilgrim theology. It is part of an ongoing discussion.
Question: Is there a historical link between contextual theology and liberation theology?
Contextual theology is liberation theology. We are continually enriched by what is happening in Latin American and Third World liberation theology circles as well as by black theology in the United States and by feminist and womanist theological debate. We are part of a family of liberation theologians.
Question: As a citizen of South Africa, what is your prognosis of the political situation in your country? As a theologian, how would you interpret these signs of the times?
We find ourselves today at a point where we probably have a better chance to realize peace and to realize justice than we've had for a long, long time. In that sense, we really are at the kairos, the moment when we need to make a decision. The decisions that we make now, we will live with for generations to come. If we miss the moment now, we may live with chaos for a long time.
My prognosis is that if we all keep our heads, that if the international community keeps the pressure on the white regime, and that includes economic sanctions, there is a reasonable chance that in the next few years we will move toward a more just, more equitable society in South Africa. There is a process underway that no one can stop. The task of the church is to make sure that when that process is complete, we see on the other side a more caring society, a society that is committed to those who are now marginalized, a society that is in every sense nonracial, in every sense nonsexist. This must be a society within which people will be judged on the basis of who they are, not on the basis of their race, their sex, their age, or anything else. That's a tall order. It is also an imperative of the Gospel.
Question: What concrete steps will need to be taken?
What we don't need in South Africa is a nice, bourgeois revolution, where a few blacks are incorporated into the wealth, and the majority continues to be impoverished. We need to address the redistribution and reallocation of resources, educational, cultural, and economic. That is going to be a painful process. But we've got to do it. Black people have been dispossessed over a period of 300 years. They have had their land taken away, their education, their dignity. The task of the church is to say to the whites, the time has come for you to restore that which you have unjustly taken. The time has come for the church to help empower the poor to claim their rights. Only then will all South Africa know what it is to be a part of the one family of God.