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Title: Reconciliation: The Ubuntu Theology of Desmond Tutu by Michael Battle ISBN: 0-8298-1158-3 Publisher: Pilgrim Press Pub. Date: 01 June, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (1 review)
Rating: 4
Summary: A much needed corrective to rampant individualism
Comment: Christianity in North America and Europe tends to buy into the Enlightenment ethos of "enlightened self-interest" and "rational individualism." The individual as free agent is the starting point for thinking about society, and this of course reduces community to little more than a collection of individuals who come together out of self-interest. A Christianity saturated with this way of thinking about the relation between persons and society tends to focus too much on individual salvation and individual sin and too little on the Kingdom of God as communitarian ideal, collective salvation, and corporate sin.
The underlying principle of Archbishop Tutu's Christian ethics is the African notion of "ubuntu." Ubuntu is a difficult word to translate, but it connotes community, with the understanding that it's impossible to isolate persons from community, that there's an organic relationship between all people such that when we see another, we should recognize (an important word for Tutu) ourselves and the God in whose image all people are made. Interdependence and reciprocity, not independence and self-sufficiency, are the keys here. As Tutu magnificently says, "A self-sufficient human being is subhuman. I have gifts that you do not have, so consequently, I am unique--you have gifts that I do not have, so you are unique. God has made us so that we will need each other. We are made for a delicate network of interdependence." (p. 35)
Michael Battle, an African-American theologian who lived and worked for a while in South Africa, has written a comprehensive and lucid account of Tutu's understanding of ubuntu. He carefully explores its ethical, theological, and spiritual implications for Tutu and, by association, for contemporary Christianity. Battle is generous in his quotes from Tutu, but he also provides insightful commentary on Tutu's words. Strongly advised for anyone wishing to explore Christian social ethics. I recommend it be read along with Bishop Tutu's *No Future Without Forgiveness.*
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Title: No Future Without Forgiveness by Desmond Mpilo Tutu ISBN: 0385496907 Publisher: Image Pub. Date: 17 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Conquest of Violence by Joan Valerie Bondurant ISBN: 069102281X Publisher: Princeton University Press Pub. Date: 01 June, 1988 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Ways of Dying: A Novel by Zakes Mda ISBN: 0312420919 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 01 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Journey of One Buddhist Nun: Even Against the Wind by Sid Brown ISBN: 0791450961 Publisher: State University of New York Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $20.95 |
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Title: Moral Knowing in a Hindu Sacred City by Steven M. Parish ISBN: 0231084390 Publisher: Columbia University Press Pub. Date: 15 April, 1994 List Price(USD): $27.00 |
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