State Theology and Political Populism? A Kairos Critique of Religious Populism in South Africa

This article facilitates a critical theological conversation on religious populism and its role in contemporary South African politics. How could one identify or characterize religious populism in the South African social and political context? Moreover, in light of the role of religion and religious leaders in South Africa’s history, are all forms of populism inherently negative? What criteria could be used to judge whether a particular form of religious populism is good or bad? And finally, what is the current state of religious populism in South African political life? In order to engage these complex issues, we will consider one of South Africa’s most prominent contemporary mainline Christian denominations – the Methodist Church of Southern Africa (MCSA). The conversation takes place within the context of growing concerns of state corruption, the slow pace of transformation, and the re-emergence of identity politics in South Africa.1 From the side of the churches, there is a renewed interest in the theology of the 1985 South African Kairos document.2 This is particularly true in terms of the Kairos document’s notions of church theology, state theology, and prophetic theology.3 The theology of the 1985 Kairos South Africa document serves as a very helpful, and insightful, framework to texture and critique notions of religious political populism in contemporary South Africa.