We consider social restitution; play and protest; and a wellbeing economy.

 

Social restitution: On 4 August Prof Sharlene Swartz is speaking about her book, Another country: Everyday social restitution, in which she brings into conversation black South Africans’ experience of dehumanizing racism, with white South Africans’ shame about the past and anxiety about the future, exploring daily practical, financial and symbolic acts to help “make right”. How can this be embodied in cities, companies, universities, churches and mosques, and other spaces of social, economic, political and spatial exchange?

 

Play and protest: Between 13 and 19 August the Centre once again partners with the annual Feast of the Clowns, engaging different themes in ways that could help foster a consciousness – and citizenship – for social justice. We are launching our Urban Studio on the Mamelodi Campus with a concert and exhibition on Sunday night 13 August, and we host a colloquium on the Hatfield Campus on Thursday 17 August – reflecting on the topic “Caring and just citizens, city and university” in the light of the challenges of mental health, gender justice, substance use and homelessness. On the Saturday we participate in the March of the Clowns in the inner city. Through play and protest we seek to advance a discourse of faith and justice. This will also mark the formal presence of the Faculty of Theology on the Mamelodi Campus and in the Mamelodi community.

 

Wellbeing economy: Prof Lorenzo Fioramonti will speak about his new book, Wellbeing Economy, on 25 August, with a response from Prof Vuyani Vellem. Advocate Thuli Madonsela says of this book: “Possibly disruptive but certainly worth considering... in response to our troubled world that cries out for social justice”. Fioramonti exposes how the ‘growth mantra’, as he calls it, results in “damage, inequalities and conflicts” instead of wellbeing.

 

Just faith – whether expressed spatially, in everyday actions of restitution, in play and protest, or in a daring search for alternative economies – will contribute to shalom in God’s household – the kind of wholeness marked by peace and justice; sustainable livelihoods and restored relationships; deep care of the earth, the most vulnerable among us, and the integrity of creation.

Or are we simply complicit, in spite of our jargon and nice-sounding vision statements, in the destruction of God’s household?