A Critical Analysis of Secularism on Individual Eschatology: Conceptual Implications For Christians in Modern Zambia
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South African Theological Seminary
Johannesburg
Abstract
Modern Zambia is at crossroads with regard to the choice for a national ideology that must be on Zambia’s national constitution. One side argues for maintaining the status quo, ‘Christian state’, while the other is vying for legislating a ‘secular state’. While these polarized views are largely value-laden in scope, they have not touched on the ultimate teleological concerns that such a choice could have on individual modern Zambian Christians, who compose the country’s majority population. It is this gap that the study addresses. The study also suggests alternative solutions to the crisis. The research examines the ideological crisis in modern Zambia in light of the human ultimate question as provided in Christianity’s doctrine of individual eschatology. The study needed to be done thus because, the majority of Zambians are Christians and therefore the need to theologically contribute in resolving the national ideological crisis, from the angle of ultimate hope and not just ‘values’ alone, is critical. The Bible admonishes about having a worldview or ideology that transcends this present life (1 Cor. 15:19). I have used deductive data analysis. Secondary data was conceptually and philosophically analyzed to test the claims advanced by the study using three tests of analysis: the provisionality test; the ‘correspondence theory of truth’ test and; the ‘coherence theory of truth’ test.The study found that making an ideology to be a constitutional matter has little value in terms of determining the individual ultimate destiny for modern Zambian Christians. The reasons for this are twofold. First, modern Zambian Christians are already inundated with various unfavourable contextual challenges at both the macrocosm (Africa) and microcosm (modern Zambia) societal levels that bear on their spirituality. Secondly, some of the theological trends within Christendom itself on the ultimate question do engender a conceptual confusion for modern Zambian Christians. Thus, to talk about a legislated national Christian ideology would be both irrelevant (in such a harsh context) and discriminatory; to vie for a legislated national secular ideology would be to define an earthly ultimate hope for a people that are largely Christian – whose hope must be anchored beyond this world. Since the thesis raises issues of ultimate hope for human beings (modern Zambia Christians particularly); it is essentially a thesis arguing for extolling God’s consummate hope for all humanity, modern Zambian Christians included. The study demonstrates that human life lived without such a grander hope has eternal implications.
Modern Zambia is at crossroads with regard to the choice for a national ideology that must be on Zambia’s national constitution. One side argues for maintaining the status quo, ‘Christian state’, while the other is vying for legislating a ‘secular state’. While these polarized views are largely value-laden in scope, they have not touched on the ultimate teleological concerns that such a choice could have on individual modern Zambian Christians, who compose the country’s majority population. It is this gap that the study addresses. The study also suggests alternative solutions to the crisis. The research examines the ideological crisis in modern Zambia in light of the human ultimate question as provided in Christianity’s doctrine of individual eschatology. The study needed to be done thus because, the majority of Zambians are Christians and therefore the need to theologically contribute in resolving the national ideological crisis, from the angle of ultimate hope and not just ‘values’ alone, is critical. The Bible admonishes about having a worldview or ideology that transcends this present life (1 Cor. 15:19). I have used deductive data analysis. Secondary data was conceptually and philosophically analyzed to test the claims advanced by the study using three tests of analysis: the provisionality test; the ‘correspondence theory of truth’ test and; the ‘coherence theory of truth’ test.The study found that making an ideology to be a constitutional matter has little value in terms of determining the individual ultimate destiny for modern Zambian Christians. The reasons for this are twofold. First, modern Zambian Christians are already inundated with various unfavourable contextual challenges at both the macrocosm (Africa) and microcosm (modern Zambia) societal levels that bear on their spirituality. Secondly, some of the theological trends within Christendom itself on the ultimate question do engender a conceptual confusion for modern Zambian Christians. Thus, to talk about a legislated national Christian ideology would be both irrelevant (in such a harsh context) and discriminatory; to vie for a legislated national secular ideology would be to define an earthly ultimate hope for a people that are largely Christian – whose hope must be anchored beyond this world. Since the thesis raises issues of ultimate hope for human beings (modern Zambia Christians particularly); it is essentially a thesis arguing for extolling God’s consummate hope for all humanity, modern Zambian Christians included. The study demonstrates that human life lived without such a grander hope has eternal implications.
Modern Zambia is at crossroads with regard to the choice for a national ideology that must be on Zambia’s national constitution. One side argues for maintaining the status quo, ‘Christian state’, while the other is vying for legislating a ‘secular state’. While these polarized views are largely value-laden in scope, they have not touched on the ultimate teleological concerns that such a choice could have on individual modern Zambian Christians, who compose the country’s majority population. It is this gap that the study addresses. The study also suggests alternative solutions to the crisis. The research examines the ideological crisis in modern Zambia in light of the human ultimate question as provided in Christianity’s doctrine of individual eschatology. The study needed to be done thus because, the majority of Zambians are Christians and therefore the need to theologically contribute in resolving the national ideological crisis, from the angle of ultimate hope and not just ‘values’ alone, is critical. The Bible admonishes about having a worldview or ideology that transcends this present life (1 Cor. 15:19). I have used deductive data analysis. Secondary data was conceptually and philosophically analyzed to test the claims advanced by the study using three tests of analysis: the provisionality test; the ‘correspondence theory of truth’ test and; the ‘coherence theory of truth’ test.The study found that making an ideology to be a constitutional matter has little value in terms of determining the individual ultimate destiny for modern Zambian Christians. The reasons for this are twofold. First, modern Zambian Christians are already inundated with various unfavourable contextual challenges at both the macrocosm (Africa) and microcosm (modern Zambia) societal levels that bear on their spirituality. Secondly, some of the theological trends within Christendom itself on the ultimate question do engender a conceptual confusion for modern Zambian Christians. Thus, to talk about a legislated national Christian ideology would be both irrelevant (in such a harsh context) and discriminatory; to vie for a legislated national secular ideology would be to define an earthly ultimate hope for a people that are largely Christian – whose hope must be anchored beyond this world. Since the thesis raises issues of ultimate hope for human beings (modern Zambia Christians particularly); it is essentially a thesis arguing for extolling God’s consummate hope for all humanity, modern Zambian Christians included. The study demonstrates that human life lived without such a grander hope has eternal implications.
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Zambia