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Department of Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology

Department of Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology

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DR-N-Mlambo.jpg

Dr NNN Mlambo

Senior Lecturer | College of Human Sciences
School of Humanities | Department: Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology

Tel: 012 484 1336
Campus: Muckleneuk
Building: Winnie Madikizela-Mandela (WMM)
Office: 06-124

  • BA Film and Media Production - University of Cape Town
  • Postgraduate Diploma in Theology - Stellenbosch University
  • Masters in Theology - Stellenbosch University
  • PhD - Stellenbosch University

  • THE1503
  • BTH3702
  • HRKEG81
  • SHIV01V

  • South African Church History
  • South African Land History Among Churches
  • Land Justice
  • Spatial Justice
  • Decolonialism 

  • South African Church History
  • South African Land History Among Churches
  • Land Justice
  • Spatial Justice
  • Decolonialism 

  • Mlambo, N. 2024. The role of black theology in the post-Apartheid context of landlessness and spatial injustice: A discussion on 1994-2021, in D. Solomons & E. Baron (eds.) Liberating Black Theology: Emerging South African Voices. Stellenbosch: African Sun Media. 60-70 (11 pages).
  • Mlambo, N. 2024. An ubuntu theology reflection on isiZulu cultural approaches to suicide, in A, Thyssen & L. Joubert (eds.). Embodying Theology: Reflections on the Intersection of spirituality and justice. Stellenbosch: Bybel Media. 51-66 (16 pages).
  • Mlambo, N. & Riches, T. 2023. Ideological Coloniality and Decolonizing Worship Practice at Hillsong, in J. Haustein & M. Wilkinson (eds.). Pentecostal World. London: Routledge. 316-327 (12 pages).
  • Mlambo, N. 2022. Youth and the contestation of inequality: challenging the status quo and an emergence of a theology of spatial justice from below, in N, Bowers Du Toit (ed.). Faith, race and inequality among young adults in South Africa: Contested and contesting discourses for a better future. Stellenbosch: African Sun Media. 105-116 (12 pages).

  • Mlambo, N. 2025. Why I Am No Longer a (Traditional) Church Historian: Towards a New Church History Dynamic. Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae, June 2025, 11 pages. https://doi.org/10.25159/2412-4265/18387.
  • Mlambo, N. 2025. The Church Land Programme and Black Theology of Liberation: Solidarity and Suggestions for an Innovative Methodology. Religions, 16:262.
  • Mlambo, N. & Mbaya, H. 2024. The Church of Nazarene in Khayelitsha: Developing a missional spatial consciousness with special reference to COVID-19. HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies, 80(1): a9217.
  • Mlambo, N. 2024. Blackness and Whiteness separated: A political theology after the subject-object relation. Verbum et Ecclesia, 45(1): a3137.
  • Mlambo, N. 2024. Can land help church history? A spatialised historical methodology using land contestations. In die Skriflig/In Luce Verbi, 58(1): a3113.
  • Mlambo, N. 2023. Dutch Reformed Church in inner city Pretoria: forming a new church space in South Africa: 1856–2020. Stellenbosch Theological Journal, Vol 9 (1): 1–15.
  • Mlambo, N. & Mbaya, H. 2023. St John’s Parish in Cape Town and a history of the lived spatial justice acts: 1956–2020. In die Skriflig/In Luce Verbi, 57(1): a3002.
  • Powell, C., & Mlambo, N. 2022. Space, Place and the Church: Fostering a Consciousness and a Theology of Spatial Justice in South African Churches. International Journal of Public Theology.16(1), 74-88.
  • Mlambo, N. 2020. Church Land Reform through a Combination of Examples and Theology of Spatial Justice: The Roman Catholic Church in the Diocese of Mariannhill 1999 to the Present. Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae,46 (2):15 pages.

Local conference presentations

  • A new spatial dynamic: creating a church for the poor in the midst of COVID-19, paper presented at South African Missiological Society conference, September 2020
  • Church Land Reform through a combination of Examples and Theology of Spatial Justice: The Roman Catholic Church in the Diocese of Mariannhill 1999 - the present, presented at the Church History Society of Southern Africa (CHSSA) conference, August 2019

 

International conference presentations

  • 2024 Political Theologies of Enmity: Time and the Other conference: Time and space in church history: a spatialised historical methodology using land contestations, paper presented at Oxford University in Oxford, UK.
  • 2024 Church History Society of Southern Africa (CHSSA) conference: Questioning the primacy of time and the archive as a historian’s mode of analysis: using Foucault’s concepts of discontinuity/continuity and embodiment toward a new church history dynamic, presented at Zimbabwe Open University.
  • 2024 RE-envisioning BTL and MT: A Transformative Dialogue: The Church Land Programme: the journey toward land and housing transformation and lessons for Black Theology of Liberation methodology, paper presented at Yonsei University, South Korea.
  • 2023 Political Theology after Christendom conference: What is Whiteness outside of Blackness: A possible political theology after the colony, presented at Oxford University in Oxford, UK.
  • 2019 Global Network of Public Theology conference: Space, Place and The Church: Fostering a consciousness and a theology of spatial justice in South African churches, presented in Bamberg, Germany.

Other publications, reports, and contributions

Presentations

  • A (re)newed spatial imagination: A call to just holy spaces, paper presented at the Stellenbosch University Faculty of Theology’s Theological Day, February 2022
  • Youth and the contestation of inequality with #RhodesMustFall: challenging the status quo and an emergence of a theology of spatial justice from below, paper presented at the ‘Faith, race and inequality among young adults in South Africa: Contested and contesting discourses for a better future’ colloquium by Stellenbosch University, February 2021
  • Development Action Group Brownbag discussion: Expropriation without Compensation online seminar by the Development Action Group, June 2021
  • The State of the Church in South Africa webinar by the Department of Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology at the University of South Africa, September 2021
  • Spatial (in)justice and the post-apartheid state webinar, by the Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law at the University of Pretoria, September 2021
  • What is a possible decolonial reality/realities? Reflections from a Black Pentecostal woman, paper presented at the ‘Confronting Decolonial Realities Symposium’ by ETF Leuven in Belgium, October 2021
  • Space: Philosophy Otherwise, paper presented at the Philosophy Otherwise Colloquium by the Institute of Christians Studies in Canada, November 2021
  • “THEY SHALL KNOW THAT THERE HAS BEEN A PROPHET AMONG THEM” Preaching Faith, Hope, and Resistance Amidst Calamities. Lecture response, response of a lecture by Prof Allan Boesak in a lecture series called “The Fire, the River, and the Scorched Earth Between: The Rise, Relevance, and Resilience of Black Theology in South Africa, Fifty Years of Black Theological Thinking and Doing”, November 2021

Professional Associations and Academic Citizenship Activities

  • Member of Theological Society of South Africa
  • Member of South African Missiological Society
  • Member of Church History of Southern Africa
  • Deputy Editor of Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae journal
  • Board member of Tshwane Leadership Foundation

Meal of Peace  and Garden of Peace - departmental engaged scholarship projects

Youth Theology Initiative - UNISA engaged scholarship project