Jakub Urbaniak
Biographic Data
| ID | 1695119 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jakub Urbaniak |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jakub |
| FAMILY NAME | Urbaniak |
| SIGNATURE | URBANIAK J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of the Free State |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4375-932X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 13 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2005 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Women’s priestly ordination in the Catholic Tradition with the focus on the subversive praxis of the Roman Catholic Women Priests
Against the background of the recent history of the controversy regarding the Roman Catholic Church’s (RCC) position on women’s priestly ordination, this study focuses on an alternative ecclesiological model embodied by the Roman Catholic Women Priests (RCWP), a movement born in 2002. The article explores this unique form of dissent that strives for difference without seeking to effectuate the actual rupture from the RCC. The movement’s subversiv…
A white theologian learning how to fall upward
As a theologian coming from Europe, a ‘postcolonial import’ into South Africa, it is my white privilege in particular that continues to queer my understanding of a social revolution on which our future, as a people, may depend. In this article, I seek to turn my personal experience of grappling with my whiteness into the source of my reflection. Drawing inspiration from fallism – a recent student movement that inscribes itself into a larger decol…
A Critique of H. Kroesbergen’s The Language of Faith in Southern Africa (2019)
The essay offers a critique of Hermen Kroesbergen’s 2019 book titled The Language of Faith in Southern Africa: Spirit World, Power, Community, Holism. Kroesbergen holds that, far from offering additional information about reality (designation), in the African grammar of faith, references to the spirit world, power, community and holism, are in fact responses to the world (connotation): they provide a way to deal with that which cannot be explaine…
Unpacking the meanings of ‘virtual spirituality’ in Vuyani Vellem’s critique of Empire
The modest goal of this article is to creatively unpack and render more accessible (mainly by means of cultural illustrations) Vuyani Vellem’s account of the virtual spirituality of Empire. Geared towards the maximisation of the economic profit by the elite at the expense of the poor, today’s Empire is a result of the unprecedented convergence of the military, political, economic and cultural powers, along with advanced sciences and technologies.…
Canaan Banana, Churches and the Land Issue
This study seeks to revisit and evaluate the “combat theology” developed by Canaan Banana, a contemporary theologian, Methodist minister and the first president of Zimbabwe, notably with regard to the issue of land dispossession. It does so primarily against the backdrop of the historical analysis of the ways in which power operated at the intersection of religion and politics during the first three decades after Zimbabwe’s attainment of politica…
South Africa’s Jacob Zuma and the Deployment of Christianity in the Public Sphere
Through the dialogue between an emerging pan-Africanist political scholar and a Christian theologian, this study interrogates key aspects of the deployment of Christianity in the public domain under the presidency of Jacob Zuma. After giving an overview of Zuma’s controversial public career, the article focuses on the role of religion and culture in Zuma’s political demagogy, and particularly on his deployment of the Pentecostalized public cultur…
Decolonisation as Unlearning Christianity
The students whose protests have captured the public imagination of South Africans since 2015, seem to, by and large, have replaced Christianity with a new “religion,” namely decolonisation. On the other hand, many African Christians seem to remain oblivious to the #MustFall movement’s revolutionary manifesto. And yet I argue that unlearning Christianity by the fallists and learning it anew by African Initiated Churches, among others, are two sid…
Between the Christ of Deep Incarnation and The African Jesus of Tinyiko Maluleke
All differences considered, the Christ of deep incarnation and the African Jesus of Tinyiko Maluleke share at least one fundamental dimension: they both stand out as signs of God's radical embodiment in the world of creation/of African culture(s). Put crudely, while the deep incarnation theologians extend Jesus’ body into social and cosmic bodies, Maluleke locates Jesus’ body in the bodies of his fellow Africans. This study first identifies major…
Elitist, Populist or Prophetic?A Critique of Public Theologizing in Democratic South Africa
Much has been already written about public theology’s prophetic role in democratic South Africa. This study seeks to offer a reality check. By probing some of Nico Koopman’s views on justice and reconciliation I draw tentative conclusions regarding the shortcomings characteristic of the prevalent discourses that have developed in South Africa under the umbrella of public theology since the mid-1990s. I seek to explain why liberation theologies—be…
Theologians and Anger in the Age of Fallism
Christian theology will be poised to play a constructive role in the current social transition in South Africa only insofar as it is capable of revolutionizing people’s love while patiently listening to and being shaped by their anger. In this article, I offer the comparative study of Public theology and Black theology as the best candidates to embrace such a radically prophetic voice. The main discrepancy between the two approaches lies in the d…
Liberation as a Correlate of Religiosity
This article explores the dialectical relationship between liberating trust in reality and religious \nfaith in God, interpreted from a Christian–Muslim perspective. An underlying conviction is \nthat liberation constitutes a necessary mutual correlate of a “true” religiosity, i.e. liberation is \nto be conceived as both prerequisite for and realization of a genuine religiosity, and vice \nversa. As opposed to a “true” religiosity, born from libe…
From Religionless Christianity to Immanent Grace
This paper seeks to answer the question: In what sense can Alain Badiou's idea of evental \ngrace, conceived of as radically immanent, be understood as the continuation of the legacy of \nDietrich Bonhoeffer's nonreligious interpretation? The thematic scope of my analysis is \ndetermined by two factors: first, the notions of "religionless Christianity" and "immanent \ngrace" which, as I will argue, despite the evident discrepancy between Bonhoeff…
The Dynamics of Societal Transition
Social influence plays an important role in social transitions. The model of dynamic social influence is used to model social transitions. We assume that individuals communicate with a certain number of others to find out how much support each of the possible opinions has. Opinions of others located nearby and of those who are most influential are given the most consideration. Individuals adopt the opinions that they find most influential in the …
Canaan Banana, Churches and the Land Issue
This study seeks to revisit and evaluate the “combat theology” developed by Canaan Banana, a contemporary theologian, Methodist minister and the first president of Zimbabwe, notably with regard to the issue of land dispossession. It does so primarily against the backdrop of the historical analysis of the ways in which power operated at the intersection of religion and politics during the first three decades after Zimbabwe’s attainment of politica…
The Dynamics of Societal Transition
Social influence plays an important role in social transitions. The model of dynamic social influence is used to model social transitions. We assume that individuals communicate with a certain number of others to find out how much support each of the possible opinions has. Opinions of others located nearby and of those who are most influential are given the most consideration. Individuals adopt the opinions that they find most influential in the …
Liberation as a Correlate of Religiosity
This article explores the dialectical relationship between liberating trust in reality and religious \nfaith in God, interpreted from a Christian–Muslim perspective. An underlying conviction is \nthat liberation constitutes a necessary mutual correlate of a “true” religiosity, i.e. liberation is \nto be conceived as both prerequisite for and realization of a genuine religiosity, and vice \nversa. As opposed to a “true” religiosity, born from libe…
From Religionless Christianity to Immanent Grace
This paper seeks to answer the question: In what sense can Alain Badiou's idea of evental \ngrace, conceived of as radically immanent, be understood as the continuation of the legacy of \nDietrich Bonhoeffer's nonreligious interpretation? The thematic scope of my analysis is \ndetermined by two factors: first, the notions of "religionless Christianity" and "immanent \ngrace" which, as I will argue, despite the evident discrepancy between Bonhoeff…
Theologians and Anger in the Age of Fallism
Christian theology will be poised to play a constructive role in the current social transition in South Africa only insofar as it is capable of revolutionizing people’s love while patiently listening to and being shaped by their anger. In this article, I offer the comparative study of Public theology and Black theology as the best candidates to embrace such a radically prophetic voice. The main discrepancy between the two approaches lies in the d…
Between the Christ of Deep Incarnation and The African Jesus of Tinyiko Maluleke
All differences considered, the Christ of deep incarnation and the African Jesus of Tinyiko Maluleke share at least one fundamental dimension: they both stand out as signs of God's radical embodiment in the world of creation/of African culture(s). Put crudely, while the deep incarnation theologians extend Jesus’ body into social and cosmic bodies, Maluleke locates Jesus’ body in the bodies of his fellow Africans. This study first identifies major…
Elitist, Populist or Prophetic?A Critique of Public Theologizing in Democratic South Africa
Much has been already written about public theology’s prophetic role in democratic South Africa. This study seeks to offer a reality check. By probing some of Nico Koopman’s views on justice and reconciliation I draw tentative conclusions regarding the shortcomings characteristic of the prevalent discourses that have developed in South Africa under the umbrella of public theology since the mid-1990s. I seek to explain why liberation theologies—be…
Decolonisation as Unlearning Christianity
The students whose protests have captured the public imagination of South Africans since 2015, seem to, by and large, have replaced Christianity with a new “religion,” namely decolonisation. On the other hand, many African Christians seem to remain oblivious to the #MustFall movement’s revolutionary manifesto. And yet I argue that unlearning Christianity by the fallists and learning it anew by African Initiated Churches, among others, are two sid…
Unpacking the meanings of ‘virtual spirituality’ in Vuyani Vellem’s critique of Empire
The modest goal of this article is to creatively unpack and render more accessible (mainly by means of cultural illustrations) Vuyani Vellem’s account of the virtual spirituality of Empire. Geared towards the maximisation of the economic profit by the elite at the expense of the poor, today’s Empire is a result of the unprecedented convergence of the military, political, economic and cultural powers, along with advanced sciences and technologies.…
Canaan Banana, Churches and the Land Issue
This study seeks to revisit and evaluate the “combat theology” developed by Canaan Banana, a contemporary theologian, Methodist minister and the first president of Zimbabwe, notably with regard to the issue of land dispossession. It does so primarily against the backdrop of the historical analysis of the ways in which power operated at the intersection of religion and politics during the first three decades after Zimbabwe’s attainment of politica…
South Africa’s Jacob Zuma and the Deployment of Christianity in the Public Sphere
Through the dialogue between an emerging pan-Africanist political scholar and a Christian theologian, this study interrogates key aspects of the deployment of Christianity in the public domain under the presidency of Jacob Zuma. After giving an overview of Zuma’s controversial public career, the article focuses on the role of religion and culture in Zuma’s political demagogy, and particularly on his deployment of the Pentecostalized public cultur…
Women’s priestly ordination in the Catholic Tradition with the focus on the subversive praxis of the Roman Catholic Women Priests
Against the background of the recent history of the controversy regarding the Roman Catholic Church’s (RCC) position on women’s priestly ordination, this study focuses on an alternative ecclesiological model embodied by the Roman Catholic Women Priests (RCWP), a movement born in 2002. The article explores this unique form of dissent that strives for difference without seeking to effectuate the actual rupture from the RCC. The movement’s subversiv…
A white theologian learning how to fall upward
As a theologian coming from Europe, a ‘postcolonial import’ into South Africa, it is my white privilege in particular that continues to queer my understanding of a social revolution on which our future, as a people, may depend. In this article, I seek to turn my personal experience of grappling with my whiteness into the source of my reflection. Drawing inspiration from fallism – a recent student movement that inscribes itself into a larger decol…
A Critique of H. Kroesbergen’s The Language of Faith in Southern Africa (2019)
The essay offers a critique of Hermen Kroesbergen’s 2019 book titled The Language of Faith in Southern Africa: Spirit World, Power, Community, Holism. Kroesbergen holds that, far from offering additional information about reality (designation), in the African grammar of faith, references to the spirit world, power, community and holism, are in fact responses to the world (connotation): they provide a way to deal with that which cannot be explaine…
Sociology (13 works) · Philosophy (12 works) · Political science (10 works) · Law (9 works) · Theology (9 works) · Politics (8 works) · African cultural and philosophical studies (6 works) · Christian Theology and Mission (6 works) · Epistemology (6 works) · Religion, Society, and Development (6 works)