A Theologate at the Margins – of A Slum

Abstract

This article invites the Hekima College Community to use the occasion of this year’s commemoration of the Ignatian Year, on the 500th anniversary of the conversion of St Ignatius of Loyola, to examine one of the current apostolic preferences of the Society of Jesus, namely, walking with the excluded. As an invitation to Jesuits and their collaborators to walk with the poor, the author invites Hekima to reflect on this preference as an institution neighboured by a slum. After providing a personal background to situate the discussion, the author examines Hekima’s self-un-derstanding as a centre of contextual learning. He argues that academic discourses must be true to experience. On the basis of that he identifies the reality of suffering as a common feature of the African experience and thus should be an object of study. The article concludes by proposing the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm as a tool for reflect-ing on a theology of suffering. The conclusion provides a question for further reflection and a message of hope