Overview

In this study of the life of Bishop Sigqibo Dwane (1941–2006), first bishop of the Ethiopian Episcopal Church, Professor Peter Mtuze investigates the unique nature of Bishop Dwane’s spirituality, a bold embracing of his culture within his Christian faith. Exploring the writings, speeches and advocacy of the doughty bishop, Mtuze – who is singularly well-fitted to reflect on the meeting of Africa and Europe, of isiXhosa and English – reveals the bishop’s passion for the expression and embodiment of African spirituality, values and culture in the life of the church, something never previously attained in the Western-dominated established church in Africa. He was empowered to depart radically from standard Western practice with the granting of autonomy by the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, the Ethiopian Episcopal Church’s “last surrogate mother”. The bishop, recognised as a man of principle with unshakeable ethical standards, though soft-spoken and gentle, was the bold spearhead of a radical paradigm shift towards the corporate expression of a truly African spirituality. Nevertheless, in his commitment to the unity and catholicity of the church, he never broke communion with the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, and it was Anglican doctrines and liturgical norms that formed the basis for his 1999 liturgy, indigenised by being firmly rooted in African custom and idiom. This study makes a long overdue contribution to the history of Xhosa Christianity, as well as more broadly to systematic theology, church history and African religion. Notably, it demonstrates how the historical mainline churches failed to take cognisance of the culture of the people they sought to Christianise. It will serve as a valuable guide to students in theological colleges, and to all who are studying and doing theology in the context of the new South Africa.

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9781868889037

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The Revd Professor Peter Tshobisa Mtuze is a poet, priest and academic. He worked as an interpreter in the law courts of the old South Africa, a radio announcer, a salesperson for a publishing company, a civil servant in the homeland government structures, a lecturer at Unisa, an Editor in Chief of the Greater Dictionary of isiXhosa at Fort Hare, before joining Rhodes University as Professor and Head of the isiXhosa Department.

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