Violence, liberation and the legacy of modernity: towards a theology of peace

Abstract

Since the rise of democracy in South Africa violence has been erasing freedom and justice. In this article it is argued that the different theologies of Liberation, such as Black, Feminist, Ecological and other contextual theologies, might have perpetuated violence as part of the modernistic tradition they stood in. The irony is that the emancipatory motives of these theologies precipitate the oppression they are fighting. Theology therefore needs to revisit the modernist foundations of these theologies in a robust dialogue that challenges the limitations of modernity in order to discover emerging alternatives that nurture a theology of life, freedom and peace. David Hart proposes a theology where the theme of beauty, as essentially peace, adheres to every moment of the Christian story: A theology which celebrates a God whose being is beauty; whose works are an expression of his beauty; and in which the gospel is a story that persuades only by its beauty. This theology stands in contrast to the dichotomies of for example Black and African Theologies which are based on ‘modernity’s violent legacy’ – a reductionistic ontology.