John Scheepers

Hermeneutics and Justice Seminar

Seminar, Video
This seminar raises questions concerning our inherited methods of biblical interpretation developed as they were by the beneficiaries of colonisation may (inadvertently?) perpetuate theologies of oppression and injustice. Our inherited Western hermeneutics values a heavily rationalistic, objective reading of Scripture, detached from the context of the reader. These interpretative methods seldom produce theology to challenge the power and the privileged. This seminar will instead explore a hermeneutical method that is…
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Redeeming Reconciliation

Seminar
Reconciliation has become something of a dirty word in South Africa, synonymous with a cheap reconciliation and a superficial notion of societal change. A concept which asks much of black people whilst asking relatively little of white people in return. A concept which deals with individual forgiveness but leaves unjust structural systems largely untouched. Nowhere...
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Just Preach the Gospel? Rethinking Great Commission Theology and Social Justice in the South African Context

Seminar, Video
The evangelical church, as a whole, failed the test of apartheid. These failures to stand up against the injustices of the apartheid state were widely acknowledged by evangelicals during the TRC. What was most significant in its absence from these submissions before the TRC was any sustained reflection on the role in which evangelical theology might have played in their failure to engage prophetically with the apartheid regime. In this…
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Repentance in a Time of Awakening

Blog
I confess that this current moment of racial awakening in white society and in "evangelical" churches has me deeply conflicted. I have never seen so many prominent white or multi-ethnic (with white leadership inevitably) "evangelical" churches addressing issues of race and injustice concurrently. Of course, we have traditionally had the bi-annual sermon or workshop on racism or caring for the poor but nothing like the sheer volume of sermons, panel…
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Made in the Image of God

Made in the Image of God: Some Contextual Reflections

Blog
Interpretation is, in the words of David Bosch, always a creative tension between text and context. There are no neutral or abstract interpretations of Scripture. How then do we read and interpret Scripture in the context of a county like South Africa, with such a rigidly racialised past and a vastly unequal economic and racial present? In this post we will explore the doctrine of Creation, grounding our theology in…
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Racism and Power: Seeing the Invisible Structures

Talks, Video
Racism has both an individual and a structural element and as such is intricately linked to systems of power and privilege. This talk probes us to examine the intricate link between power and prejudice within both society and the church. And then, building on the work and example of Christ in Philippians 2, invites us to consider what a biblical theology of power and privilege could look like as we…
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