DIGITAL DISCIPLESHIP IN POST-APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICAN LITERATURE: TECHNOLOGY AND THE EVOLVING MISSION OF THE CHURCH

The relation between digital technology and religious talk in the post-apartheid South African literary leaves a digital theology that is on the move, where the Church is at the same time redefining its mission as part of a digital world. In Ways of Dying as narrated by Zakes Mda, the technical divide that is responsible for the increase of socio-economic inequalities is examined through the angles that tackle the Church's responsibility in digital inclusion. Similarly, Disgrace, a novel written by J.M. Coetzee, studies concepts of exile, loss and redemption in the new South Africa, a place where faith and digital excludes of shifting morals are intertwined. In his book Religion and Development in Africa, Ezra Chitando, suggest that digital work is an alternative to the authority of ecclesiastical institutions, which makes cyberspace the new place of faith dialogue. The story The Cry of Winnie Mandela by Njabulo Ndebele delineates how digital telling reconfigures people's memory, adding tone and the voices of the marginalized to faith-based activism. These literary pieces imply the continuity of the traditional mission in the digital era. Thus, they are more of a demand for reconfiguration of ecclesiastical involvement in the matters of justice and reconciliation. Technology transcends them in finding new transformative ways to engage with, but there is also the tricky question of authenticity in the spiritual realm and the prevalence of consumerist religiosity. These issues articulate the dichotomy of South African literature, which makes one rethink about whether digital discipleship can actually sustain the Church’s prophetic mission and thereby be a tool for social transformation or whether the radical call of the Church to social transformation is at stake.