The Church as refuge: missiology, migration, and belonging in South Africa’s literary landscape
Author(s): Bogdan Andrei
Authors Affiliations:
Associated Prof., Faculty of Letters/ Faculty of Theology University of Oradea/University of West Timișoara
DOIs:10.2015/IJIRMF/202502036 | Paper ID: IJIRMF202502036The Church as a place of refuge has been a main idea in Christian missions for a very long time, however, it has an entirely different position in migration and belonging within the South African literary world. In post-apartheid fiction, stories of displacement, exile, and religious sanctuary overlap a lot, showing how invariants of religious communities are the means of both affiliation and separation. Writers like Zakes Mda in The Heart of Redness centres concerns around interrelations of indigenous traditions and Christian structures, as they unveil the elasticity of groups of believers during societal shifts. Likewise, Phaswane Mpe’s Welcome to Our Hillbrow deals with the moral dilemmas of migration, as urban spaces once the scenes of opportunity turn into places of alienation and condemnation, thus challenging the Church's role as a place of unconditional acceptance. The shaded writings in Mandla Langa's The Lost Colours of the Chameleon and K. Sello Duiker's The Quiet Violence of Dreams enhance the intricacy of the portrayals and illustrate the variety and destructiveness of religious stories and concepts of home, exile, and redemption. Through a missiological lens, this research probes how literature apprehends Christian hospitality’s blemishes and chances in contemporary society still wrestling with the apartheid’s remnants. It also prompts the readers to think on a wider sense if one may ask whether the Church can still be a true haven to the ones who are forced to leave their homes due to the progressing social and political upheaval in our world. This research is an interrogation of the role of faith in constructing, defying, and reshaping the South African socio-cultural landscape through the lens of literary and missiological studies.
Bogdan Andrei(2025); The Church as refuge: missiology, migration, and belonging in South Africa’s literary landscape, International Journal for Innovative Research in Multidisciplinary Field, ISSN(O): 2455-0620, Vol-11, Issue-2, Pp.236-241. Available on – https://www.ijirmf.com/
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