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The conference, convening 27-30 August, is examining theological anthropology from intercultural, postcolonial, and liberationist perspectives by scholars of African, Asian, Latin American, European, and American descent.
Contributions to the conference acknowledge that changing geopolitics challenges the understanding of rules-based order, international relationships, human rights, and democracy. Participants are noting that it is necessary to lift up new theological and interreligious anthropologies emerging from the sociopolitical margins, and that different ways of learning and knowing must be honored, recognizing that cultural and religious memories and traumatic experiences can be expressed through art, poetry, narratives, and practices. The consultation is exploring how traditional Christian theology has been criticized as anthropocentric and androcentric, contributing to a variety of challenges, among others to the ecological crisis and climate emergency.
As part of a panel offering regional perspectives, Mtata spoke on “Characteristics and dynamics of African theological anthropologies.”
“The contemporary crises of war, poverty, inequality, displacement, ecological destruction, and exclusion are not merely crises of societies or systems; they are crises of human dignity. They undermine people’s capacity to live, to belong and to flourish as fully human beings,” said Mtata. “Today, theological anthropology asks us to recover the human person as a being who needs not only bread to live and dignity to be, but also belonging—to know that one has a place, a community, and a future.”
Dr Masiiwa Gunda, WCC programme executive and Ecumenical Institute at Bossey adjunct professor, will speak on “Systems of Supremification: Interrogating the genealogy of racialization."
