Return to search

The interpretation of the Last Supper Rite by the St. John Apostolic Faith Mission Church of Bapong: the case for an Afro-Biblical hermeneutics

MAAS / Centre for African Studies / The link between Africa and the Bible goes back several centuries before the birth of
Christ. As most key African scholars such as Mbiti and Mulago once asserted, Africa is
incurably religious. This assertion although sounding a bit generalised, somehow provides
one with insightful perspectives about how Africa’s religiosity evolved through time. The
narrative of the Last Supper is biblically located and has assumed new character, form
and function in various church settings. Interestingly (recently) a number of local African
Initiated Church (AICs) have adopted the practice of Holy Communion as part of their
worship services. In this case special times and sacred spaces are defined to demonstrate
the significance of conducting this special part of the worship. Having interacted with a
number of leaders and members of some of these local AICs one gets an impression that
both the ‘idea of Christ’ is differently conceived and constructed as compared with other
so called established or mainline churches. It was this idea or the constructed image of
Christ that created the interest to look at how these local churches look or imagine Christ.
Christ in this case becomes the owner of the buffet or feast and he epitomises unity, family,
reconciliation, values of botho etc. The research site for this study was the St. John
Apostolic Faith Mission of Bapong in the North West Province in South Africa. Grounded
theory was used in both providing the theoretical framework and methodological foci of
the research study. The study recommended that existing images of Christ should be
recorded for the purpose of the church life history. These should be recorded from one
generation to the next. Also African Christologies should penetrate every church in the
community and be utilized. / NRF

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:univen/oai:univendspace.univen.ac.za:11602/1153
Date18 May 2018
CreatorsMogale, Herman Kelebogile
ContributorsMasoga, M. A., Netshandama, V. O., Thobeejane, T. D.
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeDissertation
Format1 online resource (ix, 71 leaves)
RightsUniversity of Venda

Page generated in 0.002 seconds