Shattering the idols: confronting the obstinate hold of dehumanising powers on post-apartheid South Africans with the living presence of the crucified and resurrected Lord

Abstract

This practical-theological article focuses on the spiritual dimension of forces that are influencing the social fabric of post-apartheid South Africans. Working with Eswine’s assumption, we reflect on the hold of idols on the hearts and minds of people. The spiritual powers at work in society develop into idols and place their own desires above God’s purpose for humanity and creation. Rather than serving the ends of human life, the powers exercise dominion over human beings, restricting and dehumanising them and destroying the fabric of integrated social life by means of the blinding and hardening hold of idolatry. In the post-apartheid South African society this idolatry manifests in the illusion of power flowing from entitling oneself to self-aggrandisement and in the false sense of stability flowing from the efforts of the middle class in establishing a sophisticated first-world enclave aimed at protecting themselves from the third-world masses. The purpose is to develop the contours for a homiletic theory aimed at shattering the obstinate hold of idols by means of the prophetic act of ministering the living presence of the crucified and resurrected Christ in the hearts and minds of preachers and listeners. A theory is envisioned for an iconoclast action that originates from a different power and wisdom base than is the case with the dominating forces and the hold of their idols,namely a field of force with the integrating presence of the risen Christ at its heart; a space where a liberated and reconciled humanity will be able to flourish.