God In South Africa – Albert Nolan

The effect is to make people thoroughly passive and submissive. We must deal briefly with disobedience and pride and then with doubt, criticism and suspicion, and finally with anger. Disobedience is the so-called sin of not being submissive to every established authority and every law, no matter what it might demand of us. Once someone is in power, no matter how illegitimate that may be, once something is declared a law, no matter how unjust and evil it may be, we are made to feel guilty about disobeying.

And people do feel guilty even when their disobedience is the only moral response in the circumstances. We have been conditioned to feel that we are holier, more spiritual and closer to God when we are submissive. The Kairos Document has pointed out how ‘State Theology’ uses Paul’s statement about obeying the government (Rm 13: 1ff) to make people feel guilty about any kind of disobedience (1986: 3-5) and how the concept of ‘law and order’ is used to make people who resist ‘feel that they are lawless and disorderly …

guilty of sin’ (1986: 5). Anyone who does feel guilty on account of this has a misplaced sense of guilt. We are not sinning, because, in the final analysis, “we must obey God rather than man [human beings]’ (Acts 5: 29). Pride is an ambiguous word. It could mean arrogance, like the arrogance of white superiority, or it could mean that sense of dignity and worth that we all ought to have as human beings created in the image and likeness of God.

Too many Christians have been made to feel guilty about anything that expresses their human dignity and worth. Humility does not mean that we must treat ourselves as worthless objects, as doormats to be trampled on by everybody. To tell people whom the system treats as mere labour units, that they must humbly accept their lot otherwise they will be guilty of the sin of pride, is to add insult to injury and to outdo the system in wickedness.

A black youth once told me that he was unable to pray those words in the Mass: ‘Lord, I am not worthy to receive you.’ He said the system in South Africa told him every day that he was not worthy. He was not about to stand up and admit that he was Sin and guilt in South Africa not worthy.

He still had some human pride left, he said.

The challenge of the gospel David Philip: Cape Town & Johannesburg Wm. B. Eerdmans: Grand Rapids, Mich. Mambo Press: Gweru CIIR: London First published 1988 in southern Africa by David Philip, Publisher (Pty) Ltd, 217 Werdmuller Centre, Claremont 7700, South Africa Published 1988 in Zimbabwe by Mambo Press, P O Box 779, Gweru Published 1988 in the United Kingdom by Catholic Institute for Inter- national Relations, 22 Coleman Fields, London N1 7AF Published 1988 in the United States of America by Wm.

B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 255 Jefferson Ave. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49503 ISBN 0-86486-076-5 (David Philip) ISBN 1-85287-014-1 (CIIR, cased) ISBN 1-85287-010-9 (CIIR, paper) ISBN 0-8028-0413-6 (Wm. B. Eerdmans) © 1988 Albert Nolan All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data: Nolan, Albert God in South Africa. 1. South Africa. Society. Role of Christian Church I. Title 261. 10968 ISBN 1-85287-014-1 Hdbk ISBN 1-85287-010-9 Pbk Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: Nolan, Albert, 1934- God in South Africa: the challenge of the gospel/ Albert Nolan. p- cm. Bibliography: p. 230 Includes index.

ISBN 0-8028-0413-6 1. Theology, Doctrinal – – South Africa. 2. Christianity and culture. L Title. BT30.S5N65 1988 Theol ogy Li brary 230°.0968 – – aC 88-21737 SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY. ™ AT CLAREMONT Californie Printed by Clyson Printers (Pty) Ltd, Maitland, Cape, South Africa OMAN DU FWN —_—= — less KES) Contents Foreword by M. Malusi Mpumlwana vii Preface xi List of Abbreviations xiv Introduction 1 What is the Gospel?

7 Sin in the Bible 31 A Crucified People 49 Unmasking the System 68 Sin and Guilt in South Africa 89 Salvation in the Bible 106 The Signs of Hope 134 The Struggle 157 The Good News of Salvation 180 The Challenge 195 The Role of the Church 209 Appendices 221 Bibliography 230 Index 235 I hear it said all the day long: ‘Where is your God?’

Psalm 42: 3 Foreword When one looks back at the history of the Christian faith, one is amazed at the resourcefulness of the Church. It is both amazing and exciting to see the Church’s ability to produce its rare but timely insights of dissent in human affairs.

Jesus of Nazareth represented such a phenomenon in his lifetime. Through his resurrected life, numerous others have stood as beacons of witness to what he called the narrow path, which few will find. Through this volume, Father Albert Nolan must be given a place among those beacons. He throws a beam of light on the narrow path for all to see.

Some will be blinded by the brilliance of the light, and instead see darkness! Some will see and know that this is the narrow path which is hard and painful to follow. They will choose to close their eyes to avoid seeing it.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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