Desmond Tutu: A Spiritual Biography of South Africa’s Confessor
The Rev. Michael Battle, Ph.D.
Herbert Thompson Chair of Church and Society
Also, Director of the Desmond Tutu Center
General Theological Seminary, New York
I would be remiss in offering this reflection on racial reconciliation if I did not promote a primary Anglican agent of racial reconciliation. I do so not out of the aggrandizement of selling a book; rather as a sort of introductory article to the subject of racial reconciliation. So many of us have waded through an apocalyptic era of COVID-19, racial unrest, and political polarity. One prominent leader among the Episcopal Church Women (ECW) wrote me that she worked as a court-appointed guardian for the mentally ill and therefore saw firsthand grave situations of inhumanity in need of healing and reconciliation. And yet, some of us, due to our socioeconomic status, are more “sheltered” from these apocalyptic storms but want to be part of the solution rather than the problems of our world. Well, the Anglican agent I mentioned above is a wonderful guide to educate us all about such topics, especially the ministry of reconciliation.
The Anglican agent whom I describe above is in fact a saint in my perspective. He is Archbishop Desmond Tutu, renowned for his ministry of reconciliation in South Africa and the rest of the world. I go further and describe him as a Christian mystic and saint in my new book, Desmond Tutu: A Spiritual Biography of South Africa’s Confessor (Westminster John Knox Press, launching on March 16, 2021). For more than 25 years, I have seen up close the deep spirituality that helped Tutu dismantle apartheid, having lived with Tutu in 1993 and 1994. His spirituality is rooted in ancient Christian practice as well as in the African concept of Ubuntu, human interdependence. In this book I examine how Tutu’s Christian mysticism shapes his commitment to restorative justice and reconciliation.
“Tutu’s life and work are crucial for both the wellbeing of the world and the survival of the church that seem equally bent toward crisis and culture wars,” I write. Tutu’s fight against apartheid is a spiritual battle, one with lessons for resisting the growth of Christian Nationalism today. “Getting the oppressor to see God in common with the oppressed was Tutu’s greatest contribution,” I conclude. “For the oppressor to confess that their god was ultimately diminished in the religion of apartheid is a miracle that we all need to replicate.”
In any ministry of reconciliation, we need to understand the source from which reconciliation flows. Even though I would argue that women are more of a source of reconciliation than men, the ultimate source is not from human beings but from God. Understanding Tutu as such a Christian mystic is essential to understanding this often-neglected perspective. “The aim of the mystic’s life is to achieve union with God,” I explain in Tutu’s biography. The way that Tutu tried to reach this goal is not only animated through his leadership in the church but through his political leadership as well. Tutu offers the ECW inspiration as well as strategy to be both a spiritual and political force for reconciliation in an apocalyptic world. By cultivating such a soul force the ECW counteracts systems of racism and inhumanity and establishes in a world that lacks self-esteem the practicality of building communities and networks that support so many who are marginalized in this world.
About the Author
Michael Battle is Herbert Thompson Professor of Church and Society and Director of the Desmond Tutu Center at General Theological Seminary in New York, and President and CEO of the PeaceBattle Institute. The author of 11 books, including Reconciliation: The Ubuntu Theology of Desmond Tutu, he focuses his ministry on nonviolence, Christian reconciliation, human spirituality, and Ubuntu (the African worldview of community). Battle lived in residence with Archbishop Desmond Tutu in South Africa for two years and was ordained a priest in South Africa by Tutu in 1993. In 2010, he was given one of the highest Anglican Church distinctions as “Six Preacher.”
For more information, visit his website at michaelbattle.com