Can Conviviality Trump Polarization? Exploring the Notion of Conviviality as Calling of the Church in Times of Polarization

Nadine Bowers Du Toit

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Chapter 1 Can Conviviality Trump Polarization? Exploring the Notion of Conviviality as Calling of the Church in Times of Polarization

In: The Calling of the Church in Times of Polarization

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Nadine Bowers Du Toit

Nadine Bowers Du Toit
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DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004527652_003

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1 Introduction

The title is, of course, meant to bring to mind one of the most polarizing global political figures of our generation in a play on the word ‘trump.’¹ In many ways Donald Trump has become the poster child for populist leaders everywhere as we see a rise in neoliberal capitalist, fascist-like politics across the globe. Discourse, often fueled by and connected to the religious and fundamentalist right and which excludes the most vulnerable in society such as migrants, people of color, women, and indigenous peoples and ignores the looming climate crisis in favor of extractive neoliberal capitalist motives. Trump’s uncritical support by individuals such as Franklin Graham and James Dobson²—American fundamentalists with widespread evangelical support—and also Brazilian president Bolsanaro’s support by Brazilian Pentecostals—is particularly worrying as we seek to discern the calling of the church in times of polarization.³ At the grassroots level we see the outworking of empire as the increasing marginalization of the most vulnerable and widening divisions between race, culture and religion.

In this article, I firstly seek to explore some of the thinking around the notion of polarization—also with regard to the manner in which media heightens fissures with regard to race, class and religion, followed with a distinctly South African perspective on our current political polarization. I then present the notion of conviviality as a possible antidote to engaging faithfully at grassroots within what seems like an increasingly VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous) world and bring this into conversation with stories from grassroots (again with a largely South African flavor) and with other theological conversation partners in seeking to discern the church’s role in polarizing times.

2 Deep Cleavages

According to De Klerk

deeply divided societies are societies with deep ethnic, linguistic, regional, religious, or other emotional and polarizing cleavages. Citizens of deeply divided societies are segregated along polarizing lines which reduce interaction between different groups in society… and could result in different segments of society living in parallel spheres, where people are unable to think outside their own group, which could result in alienation and distrust.⁴

Indeed, the volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity of a VUCA world often fosters fear on the most primal level and results in individuals and groups aligning themselves with ideological, political or religious positions that most closely affirm their own in order to protect themselves against ‘othered’ ways of being in the world and thus assume what could be termed a false sense of safety.

Polarization is most commonly discussed in the broad political sense as “the extent to which partisans view each other as a disliked group.”⁵ However, in this paper we will take a broader perspective. This of course implies that there are in and out groups, dependent on which side of the fence you are sitting and also apparently on who you are listening to, too. Studies with regard to the influence of media argue that “rather than being motivated to avoid dissonance, people prefer likeminded information as a strategy to process information with less cognitive effort.”⁶ Studies regarding implicit bias found for example that biases occur even among those who profess to be impartial, such as judges (or academics?) and that while “these biases do not necessarily correspond with our professed beliefs and views, they generally favor our own group and affect our actual behavior.”⁷ Furthermore, “because likeminded information is considered more credible and convincing compared with dissonant information, people prefer likeminded news and information.”⁸ The latter is not helped by social media such as Facebook, whose algorithms pick up your most likeminded information which in turn links to websites and adverts, which only seek to reinforce your views. This is worrying if one considers that scholars show that “selective exposure to similar points of view and avoidance of challenging information will likely hurt democracy.”⁹ Mutz argues that, therefore:

Citizens need a range of common experiences to develop a broader understanding of others, and sharing common experiences with different others may lead to social consensus. By contrast if people are not exposed to others opinions, they are less likely to be aware of others legitimate rationales and even their own rationales. In addition, if people expose themselves only to similar points of view and ignore contrasting perspectives, they are less likely to be tolerant of challenging viewpoints.¹⁰

It is this point that is picked up on later as we explore the notion of conviviality and its possible relevance to ‘trumping’ polarization.

3 The South African Scenario

In South Africa, we have seen a fragmentation of the dream of the rainbow nation. A nation, which has overcome the horrors of colonialism and Apartheid to achieve the dream of a bloodless transition to a democratic dispensation termed ‘post-Apartheid.’ To many—particularly people of color in South Africa—the rainbow has faded and dark clouds have gathered in its wake. These clouds are the lingering inequality and poverty still plaguing many South Africans 25 years later as the nation was recently identified once again as the most unequal country in the world by a World Bank Report—with race skewed inequality still a key feature.¹¹ Despite the fact that white people on average still earn up to four times more than black people and the majority of the poor in South Africa are black, the past few years have witnessed the re-emergence of the white right—possibly best represented by Afrikaans country singer Steve Hofmeyr—who claim that white people are persecuted and even experience genocide as evidenced by the murder on farms. While farm murders are horrific, they can by no means be termed ‘white genocide’ at this point, when compared to the high rates of murder with regards to all population groups.¹² The recent elections held in May 2019 further indicate a worrying trend as the Freedom Front Plus (a decidedly rightist party) achieved a drastic increase in votes—largely supposedly garnered from the more centrist Democratic Alliance party. These trends point to rising racial tensions in light also of the Black Land First movement’s explicit emphasis that it was not interested in white members or voters and their leader’s worrying outburst that white people will be killed for their land—a position which only fuels the white genocide narrative.¹³ What lies at the heart of the continuing and now deepening cleavages of polarization between race groups? According to the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation’s 2014 Barometer:

Apartheid regulated and enforced the psychological segregation of South Africa’s constitutive population groups. Apart from the economic dispossession that coincided with forced removals and the enforcement of pass laws to police geographic segregation, the imposition of these laws also had a profound effect on the psyche of all south Africans, instilling a “toxic understanding” of intergroup relations.¹⁴

South Africa is a notoriously religious nation with over 80% expressing affiliation to Christianity,¹⁵ yet it remains unclear how religion (as it well does in countries such as the US or Brazil) plays any clear role in party political polarization. While the so-called Christian party, the ACDP,¹⁶ saw a slight increase in votes in the recent elections, its focus on the type of individualized moral single voter issues such as abortion, the death penalty and gay marriage appear to only appeal to a small minority of self-professed Christians if they only achieved 0.84% of the votes and over 80% of the population self-identify as Christians.¹⁷ Christians are, therefore, just as likely (or more accurately more likely if one inspects voting statistics) to vote for any of the political parties on offer. What is interesting to note is that in the South African governments National Action Plan to Combat Racism—nowhere are religious groups listed as a key actor in combating and eliminating racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.¹⁸ Civil society is indeed listed, but no reference is made to religion. This is perhaps not surprising in a secularized Western Europe, but for South Africans who still have vivid memories of the church’s double legacy in both supporting and opposing Apartheid, religion can and must be public—for better or for worse.

4 Why the Notion of Conviviality?

In terms of this discourse, why is the notion of conviviality introduced within the context of rising polarization? It is important to note that I work in the field of Theology and Development, or more commonly known as Diaconia within the European context, and within our field this notion has become a helpful heuristic tool. I, therefore, also draw extensively in this piece on the work of Tony Addy, an experienced ecumenical diaconic academic and practitioner, within the context of the Lutheran World Federation and the Eastern European educational institution, Interdiac. The term conviviality of course relates to the term ‘con-vivere,’ which asks “how can we live together?” and in times of polarization this is certainly a question that centers our discourse and practice.¹⁹ It is important to note that in the expansion of this term, three roots of this term have been identified.

Its most immediate roots lie within the context of Spanish history and the word ‘Convivencia,’ in reference to a time when Muslims, Jews and Catholics resided in relative peace on the Iberian Peninsula and the “study of Convivencia has been given impetus by the need to understand how different religious, ethnic and cultural groups come to live peaceably together.”²⁰

Secondly, the term has most popularly been used by Ivan Illich in his book Tools for Conviviality. A Croatian-Austrian with both Jewish and Catholic parents, Illich (a priest) trained those from the “global north going to work in Latin America to work with sensitivity and not to impose their values.” His use of the word means “the autonomous and creative relationship between people, people and their environment and with technology. He considered conviviality to be freedom realized in personal independence and as such, an intrinsic ethical value.”²¹ In this way notions of power and culture and the way they intersect within the global system are explored.

The third way in which it is rooted, refers to the use of the word as “the sociable pleasure of people coming together and enjoying conversation and discussion in a relaxed manner, not under any constraints sharing a meal. Conviviality, therefore, relates to friendly dealings and also to relationships unconstrained by organizations or technology.”²² Often in today’s context this can be most clearly reflected in the simple sharing of food and drink and it should be pointed out that within diaconal “and other engagement with refugees as well as with marginalized groups, the joint preparation and sharing of food is very often a feature.”²³ It also has links to the Eucharistic meal which will later be explored. Addy also notes, in line with Paul Gilroy’s work, that “conviviality could also be used as a way to describe everyday life in multicultural and diverse areas,” where boundaries of race, class and culture are crossed every day in a manner which may not go very deep, but through which common humanity is shared.²⁴

5 Engaging Conviviality in Times of Polarization

In light of what has been discussed, I would like to suggest three possible ways in which this notion could be engaged to assist us to discern the calling of the church in times of polarization and attempt to bring it into conversation with theological reflection and praxis.

5.1 Conviviality as Challenge to Boundary Making

One of the ways in which polarization occurs is through boundary making and marking. This process of exclusion works according to Volf through

cutting the bonds that connect, taking oneself out of the pattern of interdependence and placing oneself in a position of sovereign independence. The other then emerges either as an enemy that must be pushed away from the self and driven out of its space or as a nonentity—a superfluous being—that can be disregarded and abandoned.²⁵

In other words, those who are not likeminded and do not share our views are avoided. This form of boundary making elevates us and dehumanizes the other in such a way that those who do not share our political views, social identities or religious identity (or other identity markers) are ‘othered.’ Convivial thinking requires, however, that we work for peace and reconciliation, but that this work recognizes the need to acknowledge and value diverse ways of thinking and being in an effort to restore trust and conviviality.²⁶ In this way seeking conviviality is not merely seeking tolerance of the other—it is also a “step towards resolving intolerance through dialogue and practice.”²⁷ It is possibly even an acknowledgement and identification of the implicit bias that drives ‘othering’ as starting point. This is hard work and will require courageous, faithful Christ followers who faithfully continue to push in and engage tough issues around race, class, religion and gender for example in the face of fear driven needs to feel safe.²⁸

In what was termed by many as a polarizing engagement during the #Feesmustfall student protests at our university²⁹ (and in the context of our own faculty of theology), is for me an excellent example of what seeking conviviality through dialogue could start as. In a tense, yet open, dialogue with students at our faculty around transformation a student called Jeffery Ngobeni burst out in anger: “we loved white people, but they didn’t love us back.”³⁰ I remember the moment like it was yesterday and while many white people in the room only heard anger—I heard pain, I heard rejection, I heard socio-economic suffering…The core of his pain was at the core of human experience—our need to be loved. He wasn’t asking for the soft version of love. The kind of love offered by our Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s reconciliatory apologies, where white people were called on to apologize for the sins of Apartheid, but not challenged to address the socio-economic injustices that were its fruits. He was getting to the heart of neighborly love in South Africa. He was challenging us: what does it really mean to love our neighbor in a context of inequality where most black people are poor and most white people are middle class to rich? What will it cost? That is at the heart of restorative justice in South Africa. In this case, love for the so called ‘other’ may look like confrontational, polarizing dialogue but really it is the most radical form of working our way towards neighborliness of the kind that cannot push the other aside—it is a call for neighborly interdependence, which takes the first steps towards conviviality as life together. Looking back on this encounter, it becomes clear to me that this seemingly polarizing confrontation crossed boundaries and challenged us to become the robust faculty we are today—as we learn from each other how to become better neighbors, who cross from tolerance to embrace.³¹

Addy notes that unlike the term koinonia, which has a possibly closed connotation as it most popularly refers to fellowship within the body of believers, the notion of conviviality asks for more porous boundaries that extends to common action with others in society in order to work for the common good.³² In a recent Masters class with ordained ministers from several denominations, it became clear that one of the reasons why they struggled to engage the issues of community, was that they centered their thinking in terms of church, rather than Kingdom. Some, despite years of theological education and ministry recognized with great dismay that they had in fact equated the Kingdom with the church. The community was seen as “out there” and the church was centered—a problematic ecclesiology which failed to recognize that the Kingdom invites all towards the restorative action of shalom and that the church is the open armed servant of the Kingdom in this response to the world.

5.2 Conviviality as Invitation to Reciprocity and Power Sharing

What has become clear in the relationships between powerful populist presidents, such as Trump, Bolsonaro and even South Africa’s own corrupt former President Zuma and church leaders, is that their alignment with the fundamentalist church is rooted in power. Both parties seek power—religious entities seek the influence that political ties bring and political entities seek the legitimacy that religious affiliation often provides. Empire demands religious justification and uses god-talk to “call up a conjured reality of evil on the other side.”³³ In fact, a few short years ago, Rev Franklin Graham (son of Billy Graham) called for a day of prayer for Trump describing it as a type of “spiritual warfare,” necessary because Trump’s many accomplishments “make him very unpopular with the Devil and the kingdom of darkness.”³⁴ In this case the enemy is all those that oppose Trump, and Boesak notes that

since the enemy is not humans, but ‘evil,’ any and all means are justified; there is no possibility for error on the side of those who represent goodness. This theological stance harbors within itself another ideological trait: it closes itself off from all self-criticism or correction. It ascribes to itself an attribute only ascribable to God: that of sinlessness.³⁵

We are called to resist these forces of empire that often seek to marginalize the poorest and most vulnerable and claims to be all powerful “based on a false premise that it can save the world through the creation of wealth and prosperity, claiming sovereignty over life and demanding total allegiance, which amounts to idolatry. Like Moloch it demands ‘an endless flow of sacrifices from the poor and creation.’”³⁶

The diaconal praxis of conviviality provides one such way in which we can resist at grassroots as it recognizes the interconnectedness of justice and dignity for all, based upon the understanding that Jesus was in the midst of those who were suffering from injustice and marginalization and indeed challenged the powers that be even unto death. It is also a praxis that upends the way in which power is usually practiced amongst the “least of these.”³⁷ More often than not, in working with marginalized groups such as migrants, asylum seekers, the unemployed, vulnerable women and children and other oppressed groups, there is the tendency to respond with charitable action of the kind that “projectizes” their marginalization and poverty—leading us to once again separate them from ourselves and make them objects of charity dependent on our power to give.³⁸

In reflecting on the concept of conviviality from a theological perspective we must therefore “move firmly away from the concept of working for other people, or the church for others, but rather with other people “– the church with others.”³⁹ Addy further emphasizes that we need to

move away from simply well-meaning actions for other needy people towards sharing life, based on empathy, reciprocity and presence… seeking conviviality implies that openness to the ‘other’ is a condition for our faithful Christian living as persons or as congregations. The people of God are those who can work with the marginalized other without wanting to dominate.⁴⁰

This action works against the second aspect of exclusion as identified by Volf: “Second, exclusion can entail erasure of separation, not recognizing the other as someone who in his or her otherness belongs to the pattern of interdependence. The other then emerges as an inferior being who must either be assimilated by being made like the self or subjugated to the self.”⁴¹

It recognizes that “we too are needy, with self-sufficiency giving away to solidarity… we are all beggars.”⁴² This relates to the call for interdependence within the notion of conviviality as conceptualized by Illich and also links to the African notion of Ubuntu—“I am because we are,” muntu ngumuntu ngabantu. My humanity is tied to yours and, therefore, exclusion and inequality is not an option. The oppression of Empire through assimilation and subjugation of those deemed inferior by the system cannot stand where my humanity is bound to the so called other. My wealth and prosperity and that of the earth is bound up in relation to you—and we are called to work together for the good life. Conviviality also calls for interdependent solidarity in standing against the forces of Empire to “stand where God stands” (Belhar Confession, Article 4) “namely against injustice and with the wronged; that in following Christ the church must witness against all the powerful and privileged who selfishly seek their own interests and thus control and harm others.”⁴³ Simangaliso Khumalo points out that part of practicing Ubuntu is that “we take sides with those that are in need, we support strangers by sharing our humanity with them and thus restoring their own humanity in the process.”⁴⁴ In diaconal praxis that acknowledges the need for a pilgrimage of justice and peace, convivial diaconal praxis also seeks to confront the economic and political power structures that produce injustice. Seeking conviviality, therefore, not only offers an alternative vision for society and informs practice, but also offers a kind of prophetic critique of “present structures which obstruct convivial life together.”⁴⁵ Such critique in certain instances could be viewed as polarizing and risky, but confronting power for the sake of the other makes moral demands.

5.3 Conviviality as Life Together

As I wrote this article, our Muslim community was celebrating Eid and I reflected on the notion of hospitality through what we in the Cape call the ‘Boeka table.’ This is a long table often set on the streets of communities and where everyone in the community is invited to break the fast with the Muslim community during the month of Ramadan. An act, which in one community riddled by gangsterism and poverty, was said to bring a cease fire of warring gangs.⁴⁶ Conviviality as “the sociable pleasure of people coming together and enjoying conversation and discussion in a relaxed manner, not under any constraints sharing a meal. Conviviality, therefore, relates to friendly dealings and also to relationships unconstrained by organizations or technology.”⁴⁷ In sharing meals and life together, there is also an element of the potential for live giving fun—of sharing cultures through the adventure of food and drink. A foretaste of the feast table set for all. I was particularly encouraged by a young Dutch Reformed Church (DRC)⁴⁸ Minister in the central city and a minister of the oldest DRC church in South Africa—still for many a symbol of the way in which state and church oppressed people of color—has met for meals and meetings with the Muslim community (most of whose ancestors were the oppressed slaves and victims of Apartheid supported by this denomination) in the wake of the New Zealand and Sri Lankan terrorist attacks⁴⁹ in 2019, to build community. His clear commitment to Christ and openness to fellow citizens is to be admired. While some in the denomination felt that he was syncretic and have even instituted church polity complaints against him, these convivial actions by Muslims and Christians in the city go a long way towards promoting shalom in our city.⁵⁰

The notion of hospitality is closely tied to that of conviviality, but Addy notes that while “a hospitable attitude may be a precursor to conviviality … it still implies that the one offering hospitality defines the terms of the relationship. If one is a guest one is expected to leave and if one stays and becomes a member of the community, hospitality in its original meaning ends!”⁵¹ Addy is, here, possibly referring to the kinds of hospitality that “keep people needy strangers while fostering an illusion of relationship and connection. It both disempowers and domesticates guests while it reinforces the hosts power, control and sense of generosity.”⁵² Conviviality as life together invites the kind of hospitality that recognises these power dimensions: “if we are hospitable, we can welcome the stranger and maybe learn something, it may change us or not. If we work for conviviality, we do not reckon with the ‘other’ leaving and therefore we have to live together.”⁵³

An initiative in my home city of Cape Town, one of the initiatives that stands out as a local congregation’s engagement in crossing boundaries of power, race and class in a convivial manner has been the St Peters Community Supper. St Peters is an Episcopal Church situated near the inner city, which hosts what they call a community supper each week, which brings together church members and street people from the surrounding areas for a meal of equals. Each week between 80–120 people come together to eat a meal.⁵⁴ A recent PhD by an Anglican priest on the supper argues that during colonial times and Apartheid “we had no shared rights and no shared human identity” and that “ethnocentrism, or our status as oppressor or oppressed precluded a shared human identity,” but that “these former categories are being erased, or certainly blurred at the Supper as people share a meal.”⁵⁵ He notes that while this is not instantaneous, one of the values of the meal is openly stated as ‘we work at equalizing power’—this is not a charitable meal for the homeless, but rather a meal of equals where they “become neighbors and friends by hearing each other’s stories” and sharing the love of Jesus.⁵⁶ Respondent P11 says, “what I appreciate mostly of the community dinners that for the hour that I am here then I am human… there are people who are interested in me” [P11:2].⁵⁷ He also notes in his study the need for privileged white people to stop “claiming an ‘innocence’ and an unawareness of what happens when white people position themselves in a space”—in drawing on Boesak’s earlier work over 40 years ago—he calls on them to make a “deliberate effort is to be made to eschew innocence and give power away.”⁵⁸ To be in terms of Philippians 2—kenotic/self-emptying. Living together, often requires that we empty ourselves of our prejudices and blind spots and expose ourselves to others worlds and ways of being and doing in the world. For South Africans (and perhaps in many other contexts) at least, this is one of the first steps towards less toxic intergroup relations.

In concluding this article, it is fitting to end with the Eucharist, because what greater symbol remains as challenge to life together? Addy notes that:

In the Eucharist we express gratitude for the food and drink we have to share—and implicitly for the work of those who produced it. But we share equally, which is a powerful symbol contrary to the usual pattern of sharing resources in everyday life. It is not surprising that the Eucharist is the central act of the Christian liturgy, because it makes visible our conviviality with each other and with God in Christ. We recognize that God is present in the world and active with all people and we are invited through the Eucharist to share the liturgy after the liturgy in which we re-enact the symbolism concretely in compassion for the other.⁵⁹

In polarizing times, we are challenged to share the liturgy after the liturgy—to share the grace we have received in concreate and sacrificial ways. I wonder, coming from a country where Sunday is the most segregated time of the week,⁶⁰ how our understandings of Eucharist can draw us into convivial sharing of life together across lines of class and culture?

6 Conclusion

The title of this paper considers the question of whether conviviality can indeed ‘trump’ polarization. The answer to this question is not simple or unnuanced, more especially in light of some of the ‘deep cleavages’ identified in society, but it is hoped that an interpretation of conviviality which challenges exclusion, invites reciprocity and power sharing and seeks the notion of ‘life together’ could go some way towards engaging these divisions. Perhaps because I am a Pentecostal, I would like to end this article by arguing that living in conviviality requires the creativity and empowerment of the Spirit. To live ‘con-vivier’ is not easy—it requires courage to acknowledge our own perspectives as limited, to engage power and to seek the shalom of our world. The challenges of an increasingly VUCA world, in which we see the rise of populism, fear of the ‘other,’ growing climate change due to extractive capitalism and pressing marginalization of the most vulnerable in our society as markers of a polarizing global world perhaps calls to mind the chaos at creation. We as the church will need the power and creativity of the Spirit to hover over us as we seek the fullness of God’s shalom in polarizing times.

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Morais, Sheldon. “What the Numbers Tell Us About the General Elections.” Accessed June 1, 2019. https://www.news24.com/elections/news/2019-vs-2014-what-the-numbers-tell-us-about-the-general-elections-20190512.
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Pohl, Catherine. Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as Christian Tradition. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999.
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Schoeman, Jakobus. “South African Religious Demography: The 2013 General Household Survey.” HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies 73.2 (2017). https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v73i2.3837.
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Smith, Amy, Ryan Lloyd. “Top Pentecostal Leaders Supported the Far Right in Brazil’s Presidential Campaign.” Accessed May 4, 2020. https://www.vox.com/mischiefs-of-faction/2018/10/8/17950304/pentecostals-bolsonaro-brazil.
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Volf, Miroslav. Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness and Reconciliation. Nashville: Abingdon, 1996.
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Vosloo, Robert. “Traumatic Memory, Representation and Forgiveness: Some Remarks in Conversation with Antjie Krog’s Country of My Skull.” In In die Skriflig 46 (2015): 1–7.
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Wykstra, Ken. The Myth of Equality: Uncovering the Roots of Injustice and Privilege. Illinois: Intervarsity, 2017.
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Digital Editors, “South African Election Results,” https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/2019-south-africa-election-results-national-provincial-all-votes/.
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This article was originally presented as a keynote lecture at the International Reformed Theological Institute held at Vrije Universiteit and Protestant Theological University, 4–7 July 2019.

John Fea, “How Evangelical Leaders Surrounded Clinton During Last Presidential Impeachment Process,” https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2019/09/27/how-evangelical-leaders-surrounded-clinton-during-last-presidential-impeachment-process/ (accessed March 8, 2020).

Amy Smith and Ryan Lloyd, “Top Pentecostal Leaders Supported the Far Right in Brazil’s Presidential Campaign,” https://www.vox.com/mischiefs-of-faction/2018/10/8/17950304/pentecostals-bolsonaro-brazil (accessed May 4, 2020).

Leo De Klerk, Political Polarisation in post-Apartheid South Africa: A Case Study on Institutional Design, Race and Politics in South Africa from 1994–2016 (Master Thesis: University of Utrecht, 2016), 12.

Shanto Iyengar, Gaurev Sood and Yphtach Lelkes, “Affect, Not Ideology: A Social Identity Perspective on Polarization,” Public Opinion Quarterly 76:3 (2012), 405–431.

Yonghuan Kim, “Does Disagreement Mitigate Polarisation? How Selective Exposure and Disagreements Affect Political Polarisation,” Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly 92:4 (2015), 915–937, 917.

Ken Wykstra, The Myth of Equality: Uncovering the Roots of Injustice and Privilege (Illinois: Intervarsity, 2017), 143.

Wykstra, The Myth of Equality, 143.

Kim, “Does Disagreement Mitigate Polarisation,” 916.

Kim, “Does Disagreement Mitigate Polarisation,” 917.

Nico Gouws, “SA Most Unequal Country in World: Poverty Shows Apartheid’s Enduring Legacy,” https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2018-04-04-poverty-shows-how-apartheid-legacy-endures-in-south-africa (accessed May, 3 2019); Tiaan Meiring, Catherine Kannemeyer and Elanri Potgieter, The Gap between Rich and Poor: South African Society’s Biggest Divide Depends on Where You Think You Fit In (SALDRU: Working Paper Series Number 220, 2018), 5.

Nechama Brodie, “Are White Afrikaners Really Being Killed Like Flies?” https://africacheck.org/reports/are-white-afrikaners-really-being-killed-like-flies/ (accessed May 2, 2019).

Azzarah Karrim, “Mngxitama’s Comments Inciting People to Take Up Arms and Start Killing People Says Afriforums Roets,” https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/mngxitamas-comments-inciting-people-to-take-up-arms-and-start-killing-people-says-afriforums-roets-20191113 (accessed May 2, 2019).

National Action Plan to Combat Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (2016–2021) (Draft for public consultation: South African Government, 2016), 23, https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/201903/national-action-plan.pdf.

Jakobus Schoeman, “South African Religious Demography: The 2013 General Household Survey,” HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies 73 (2017), a3837, https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v73i2.3837.

African Christian Democratic Party.

Digital Editors, “South African Election Results,” https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/2019-south-africa-election-results-national-provincial-all-votes/ (accessed June 1, 2019). Cf. Sheldon Morais, “What the Numbers Tell Us About the General Elections,” https://www.news24.com/elections/news/2019-vs-2014-what-the-numbers-tell-us-about-the-general-elections-20190512 (accessed June 1, 2019).

National Action Plan, 38–44.

Tony Addy and Ulla Sirto, “Conviviality as a Vision and Approah for a Diaconal Society,” In International Handbook on Ecumencial Diakonia, eds. Godwin Ampony, Martin Buscher, Beate Hoffmann, Felicite Ngnintedem, Dennis Solon and Dietrich Werner (Oxford: Regnum, 2021), 401.

Addy and Siirto, “Conviviality as a Vision and Approach for a Diaconal Society,” 401. Some scholars have labelled this a somewhat mythical notion in terms of the realities of Spain at the time and claim that the way in which this is often cited is romanticized. It can nevertheless still be used as a way into discussing inter-religious engagement (cf. Aomar Boum, “The Performance of Convivencia: Communities of Tolerance and the Reification of Toleration,” Religion Compass 6:3 (2012), 174–184, 10.1111/j.1749-8171.2012.00342.x).

Tony Addy, Seeking Conviviality… The Art and Practice of Living Together: A New Core Concept for Diaconia (Český Těšín: Interdiac, 2017), 7, 8. Cf. Ivan Illich, Tools for Conviviality (London: Marion Boyars, 2009), ch. 2, https://www.panarchy.org/illich/conviviality.html. According Illich: “A convivial society would be the result of social arrangements that guarantee for each member the most ample and free access to the tools of the community and limit this freedom only in favour of another member’s equal freedom. At present people tend to relinquish the task of envisaging the future to a professional élite. They transfer power to politicians who promise to build up the machinery to deliver this future. They accept a growing range of power levels in society when inequality is needed to maintain high outputs. Political institutions themselves become draft mechanisms to press people into complicity with output goals. What is right comes to be subordinated to what is good for institutions. Justice is debased to mean the equal distribution of institutional wares” (https://www.panarchy.org/illich/conviviality.html).

Addy, Seeking Conviviality, 4.

Addy and Siirto, “Conviviality as a Vision and Approach for Diaconal Work in Society,” 401.

Miroslav Volf, Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness and Reconciliation (Nashville: Abingdon, 1996), 67.

Tony Addy, “Seeking Conviviality—A New Core Concept for the Diaconal Church,” in The Diaconal Church, eds. Stephanie Dietrich, Kari Karsrud Korslien, Kjell Nordstokke and Knud Jørgensen (Oxford: Regnum Books, 2019), 5.

Addy, “Seeking Conviviality,” 5.

Cf. Emmanuel Levinas, Emmanuel Levinas: Basic Philosophical Writings, eds. Adriaan Peperzak, Simon Critchley and Robert Bernasconi (Indiana: Bloomington, 1996), 52–54.

These protests took place at institutions of higher learning across South Africa between 2015–2017 and were a call for greater access to higher education, decolonized curricula and transformation.

The student provided permission for me to use his name and recount this story—my version of the retelling was also discussed with him. It is important to note that he not only gave permission, he asked that I use his name.

See also Robert Vosloo, “Traumatic Memory, Representation and Forgiveness: Some Remarks in Conversation with Antjie Krog’s Country of My Skull,” In die Skriflig 46 (2015), 1–7, 3.

Addy, “Seeking Conviviality,” 1.

Alan Boesak, “Theological Reflections of Empire,” in Globalisation: The Political of Empire, Justice and the Life of Faith, eds. Alan Boesak and Len Hansen (Stellenbosch: Sun Media, 2009), 60.

Micheal Gerson, “Franklin Graham Has Played His Ultimate Trump Card,” https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/franklin-graham-has-played-his-ultimate-trump-card/2019/06/03/22a50b18-862b-11e9-98c1-e945ae5db8fb_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.a5e427af6892 (accessed May 2, 2019).

Boesak, Theological Reflections, 60.

Boesak, Theological Reflections, 60. See also Accra Document (paragraph 10).

Addy, Seeking Conviviality, 20.

Nadine Bowers Du Toit, “The Elephant in the Room: The Need to Re-Discover the Intersection between Poverty, Powerlessness and Power in ‘Theology and Development’ Praxis,” HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies 72 (2016), 1–9 a3459, http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/hts.v72i4.3459.

Addy, “Seeking Conviviality—A New Core Concept for the Diaconal Church,” 19.

Volf, Exclusion and Embrace, 67.

Erik Herrmann, “Compassion, Mercy, and Diakonia,” Concordia Journal 37 (2001), 270–2, 272.

Confession of Belhar, 1986, https://kerkargief.co.za/doks/bely/CF_Belhar.pdf.

Simangaliso Khumalo, “Ubuntu as an Asset for the Church in the Context of Migration and Interculturality,” in Pluralisation and Social Change: Dynamics of Lived Religion in South Africa and in Germany, eds. Lars Charbonnier, Johan Cilliers, Mattias Moder, Cas Wepener and Birgit Weyel (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2018), 157–172, 161.

Tony Addy, “Populism, Sustainability and Economics,” paper presented at CEC Peace Conference, Paris September 2019.

Dan Meyer, “Gangs Down Weapons as Thousands Gather to Break Fast in Manenberg,” https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2019-05-27-gangs-down-weapons-as-thousands-gather-to-break-fast-in-manenberg/ (accessed May 23, 2019).

Addy, Seeking Conviviality, 4.

This denomination is renowned for its support of the Apartheid state during that era.

The Sri Lankan attacks on Christian churches were perpetrated by an extremist Muslim group, while the New Zealand attacks were on a mosque, initiated by a white supremacist.

This has been documented on the minister’s own Facebook page and in the South African Afrikaans press.

Addy, Seeking Conviviality, 19.

Catherine Pohl, Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as Christian Tradition (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999), 120.

Addy, “Seeking Conviviality—A New Core Concept for the Diaconal Church,” 6.

Benjamin Aldous, Towards an Assessment of Fresh Expressions of Church in ACSA (The Anglican Church of Southern Africa) through an Ethnographic Study of the Community Supper at St Peters Church in Mowbray, Cape Town (PhD in Practical Theology, University of Stellenbosch, 2018), 102.

Aldous, Fresh Expressions of Church, 161.

Aldous, Fresh Expressions of Church, 162.

Aldous, Fresh Expressions of Church, 165.

Addy, Seeking Conviviality, 20.

This was famously quoted by Martin Luther King jnr. with reference to America during the civil rights era. Cf. Eddie van der Borght, “Sunday Morning—The Most Segregated Hour: On Racial Reconciliation as Unfinished Business for Theology in South Africa and Beyond. Inaugural Lecture Delivered upon Accepting the Position of VU University Amsterdam Desmond Tutu Chair Holder in the Areas of Youth, Sports and Reconciliation, at the Faculty of Theology of VU University Amsterdam on 7 October 2009,” https://research.vu.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/2632701/Oratie+Borght.pdf (accessed March 8, 2020).

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The Calling of the Church in Times of Polarization

Series: Studies in Reformed Theology, Volume: 46

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004527652

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 18 Oct 2022

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Chapter 1 Can Conviviality Trump Polarization? Exploring the Notion of Conviviality as Calling of the Church in Times of Polarization

1 Introduction

2 Deep Cleavages

3 The South African Scenario

4 Why the Notion of Conviviality?

5 Engaging Conviviality in Times of Polarization

5.1 Conviviality as Challenge to Boundary Making

5.2 Conviviality as Invitation to Reciprocity and Power Sharing

5.3 Conviviality as Life Together

6 Conclusion

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The Calling of the Church in Times of Polarization

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