ABSTRACT
Archbishop Desmond Tutu has become South Africa’s primary public confessor who articulates why forgiveness is better than retributive justice. The thesis of this paper is that Tutu’s role in South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (abbreviated to TRC) is unique and cannot be displayed in other Truth Commissions such as in Chile. I base my claim on the following argument. The greatest religious challenge in a new South Africa is the maintenance of what has become an amalgam of spiritual and political leadership, especially as displayed in the life and thought of Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Tutu’s context of South African apartheid presented the dilemma in which he, as ecclesial head of a historically white Church, negotiated how to act effectively in a society so defined by race that both Afrikaner and African could each claim God’s election as the chosen race. Subsequently, as head of the TRC in South Africa, Tutu’s urgency toward restorative justice, I argue, is not simply to restore black people to a place of flourishing – such an interpretation of Tutu forfeits his profound contribution toward reconciliation of races. Because of Tutu’s Trinitarian spirituality in which diverse personhood flourishes in unity, Tutu is obligated to articulate a theology of community in which all South Africans have an opportunity to grow toward unity. All of this makes sense, however, in South Africa and not in other Truth Commissions such as in Chile.
