LIBERATION THEOLOGY IN SOUTH AFRICA 

ALLAN BOESAK 

We continue our quest for hearing the theological voices of our colleagues in the African continent.

Today we focus on one who was well-known and prophetic in South Africa.  His name is Allan Boesak. 

Allan Boesak was a prominent theologian in South Africa.  Boesak did his graduate training at the Theological Seminary in Belleville, South Africa, Union Theological Seminary, and Colgate-Rochester Crozer Divinity School in the United States.  He received his doctorate in theology from the Theological Academy of Kampen in the Netherlands (Ferm, op. cit. p. 29).

Boesak served as Chaplain at the University of the Western Cape and president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches.  He wrote an important book, "Farewell to Innocence: A Social-Ethical Study on Black Theology and Black Power (Maryknoll, N.Y. Orbis, 1977).  

Boesak also wrote another book.  It was called "Finger of God: Sermons on Faith and Socio-Political Responsibility (Maryknoll, Orbis, 1982).  

In Farewell to Innocence, he points out the difficulty of expounding Liberation Theology in the midst of the acute political crisis in South Africa.  He defines black theology as "The theological reflection of black Christians on the situation in which they live and on their struggle for liberation (Farewell to Innocence, p. 1).  

Boesak raises the following questions:

1. What does it mean to believe in Jesus Christ when one is black and living in a world controlled by white racists? (Ibid., 1-2).

2.  And what if these racists call themselves Christian also (Ibid.).  

Boesak believes that this is a time of a "farewell to innocence for whites, including those liberals who like to "do things" for blacks.  In language reminiscent of many Latin American liberation theologians, Boesak views Yahweh as the liberator God, and Jesus as the one who affirms liberation for the oppressed.  "To confess Jesus Christ is as the Black Messiah is the only true confession of our time (Ibid, p 42)."

Like other South African theologians, Boesak differs from Latin American theologians in stressing the sin of racism.  But by no means does he consider racism the only issue (Ferm, p, 67).  

Boesak says the following: "While absolutely not minimizing racism as a demonic, pseudo-religious ideology, we must nevertheless ask: Is racism the only issue? It seems to us that there is a far deeper malady in the American and South African societies that manifests itself in the form of racism...Black theologians still fail to see what was seen by Martin Luther King and Malcolm X:  The relation between racism and capitalism...Black Theology, then, must remain a search for a totally new social order, and in this search it will have to drink deep from the well of African tradition (Ibid., pp. 148-49, 151)."

Boesak takes pains to point out that the Christian gospel transcends all ideologies and national aspirations.  To have political preferences, he says, is not wrong; but it is wrong to equate these preferences with the Christian gospel.  Boesak rejects the approach to black theology that makes black the symbol of oppression, for this only serves to absolutize one's particular racial ideology.  Although pointing out the errors of capitalism, he does not extol the virtues of socialism.  Rather, he opts for a social democracy in which all citizens would have the opportunity to take part in the decisions that affect their lives (Ibid, p. 67).  

Boesak believes it important that liberation theologians from all over the world work together despite their different historical situations.  He says:

While we acknowledge that all expressions of Liberation Theology are not identical, we must protest very strongly against the total division (and contrast) some make between Black Theology in South Africa and Black Theology in the United States; between Black Theology and the Latin American theology of liberation.  As a matter of principle, we have therefore treated all these different expressions within the framework where they belong: the framework of the theology of liberation (Ibid., p. 7). 

It is important to underscore Boesak's insistence that African theology and black theology should not be separated.  (Ibid., p. 67).

Another important feature of Allan Boesaks' own theological perspective is his contention that Liberation Theology is a direct of the Reformed tradition associated with John Calvin Boesak's Black and Reformed: Apartheid, Liberation and the Calvinist Tradition documents this strong historical continuity (Maryknoll, Orbis, 1984).  

He quotes extensively from the writings of John Calvin to show that apartheid is completely alien to the Reformed tradition, and concludes:  

It is my conviction that the Reformed tradition has a future in this country only if black Reformed Christians are willing to take it up, make it truly their own, and let this tradition once again become what it once was: a champion of the cause of the poor and oppressed, clinging to the confession of the lordship of Christ and to the supremacy of the Word of God (Black and Reformed, p. 95). 

Among Boesak's greatest strengths are his willingness to build bridges of cooperation with liberation theologians of every type and his desire to uncover the rich resources of his own religious tradition (Ferm, op. cit. p. 68).

All in all, Boesak poses some great challenges for those who wish to see how black theology operates in South Africa, and also how it can be linked with other world-wide strands and variants.  Boesak takes a global rather than a parochial approach to Liberation Theology.  His perspectives are broad and not provincial in that he seeks to develop and see links with wider field of Liberation Theology.  

In the Name of the Creator, and the Liberator, and of the Sustainer. Amen.

Rev. Dr. Juan A. Carmona 

Past Visiting Professor of Liberation Theology 

Tainan Theological College/Seminary 

Tainan, Taiwan