In recent years, there is growing concern with some of the bizarre practices in some neoprophetic churches. Amongst the concerns raised are the bizarre practices and the commercialisation of churches with claims that churches are being turned into lucrative businesses. In this article, the relationship amongst prophets, churches and commerce is explored, focusing on competitive behaviour in an open market or free market. The article engages the following issues: firstly, the issue of religious marketing in the context of a free (...) market and consumerism; secondly, branding faith in relation to competition between churches and brands of prophets and thirdly, fraudulent activities facilitated by prophets.Contribution: The article provides a critical assessment of the practices of prophets and neoprophetic churches considering their commercial interests. Thus, the study points to the intersection between religion and commerce. (shrink)

This article reflects on two rape stories, namely, the rape of Dinah and the rape of Tamar. In the two rape stories, the male figures are portrayed as heroes – the defenders of the rape victims. However, this article uses the isiZulu saying ‘ Wathint’umfazi, wathint’ imbokodo, uzakufa ’ to foreground the role of the rape victims as the unsung heroines in the stories. Thus, the paper presents Dinah and Tamar as heroines, who represent the demand for justice in the (...) face of the violation of female bodies in society. It is the woman’s voice of protest that should be heard in each of the rape story crying out, ‘My life matters!’. (shrink)

The article focuses on a debate initiated by Masenya and Ramantswana in 2012 about the lack of engagement with contemporary issues by South African Old Testament scholars. The article shows with reference to the book of Leviticus that ancient texts grew over time in order to become relevant for later generations. It then asks, if it is possible for Old Testament scholars to construct ancient examples of writers engaging with contemporary issues, why these same scholars are reluctant to make (...) these texts relevant for today? The article then engages with the work of Farisani and describes strong points and weaknesses in the way in which he uses biblical texts to engage with contemporary debates before returning to the central question. (shrink)