Implicit in the concepts Incarnation, narrative, Christology, Shona women of Zimbabwe today is
the God who acts in human history and in the contemporaneity and particularity of our being. The
Incarnation as the embodiment of God in the world entails seizing the kairos opportunity to expand
the view and to bear the burdens of responsibility. A theanthropocosmic Christo logy that captures
the Shona holistic world-view is explored. The acme for a relational Christology is the imago
Dei!Christi and the baptismal indicative and imperative. God is revealed in various manifestations
of creation. Human identity and dignity is the flipside of God's attributes.
Theanthropocosmic Christology as pluralistic, differential and radical brings about a dialectic
between the whole and its parts, the uniqueness of the individual, communal ontology and
epistemology, the local and the universal, orthodoxy and orthopraxis, Christology and soteriology.
God mediates in the contingency of particularity. Emphasis is on life-affirmation rather than sex
determination of Jesus as indicated by theologies ofliberation and inculturation. At the interface
gender, ethnicity, class and creed, God transcends human limitedness and artificial boundaries in
creating catholic space and advocating all-embracing apostolic action. Difference is appreciated
for the richness it brings both to the individual and the community. Hegemonic structures and
borderless texts are view with suspicion as totalising grand-narratives and exclusivist by using
generic language. The kairos in dialogue with the Incarnation is seizing the moment to expand the
view and to share the burdens, joys and responsibility in a community of equal discipleship.
In a hermeneutic of engagement and suspicion, prophetic witness is the hallmark of Christian
discipleship and of a Christology that culminates in liberative praxis. The Christology that
emerges from Shona women highlights a passionate appropriation that involves the head, gut,
womb and heart and underlies the circle symbolism. The circle is the acme of Shona hospitality
and togetherness in creative dialogue with the Trinitarian koinonia. The Shona Christological
designation Muponesi (Deliverer-Midwife) in dialogue with the Paschal Mystery motif captures
the God-human-cosmos relationship that gives a Christology caught up in the rhythms, dynamism
and drama oflife. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/19850 |
| Date | January 2002 |
| Creators | Chimhanda, Francisca Hildegardis |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | doctrinal.";"Liberation theology -- Zimbabwe.";"Shona (African people) -- Religion.";"Shona (African people) -- Social life and customs." |
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