Scott Couper
Scott Couper (1972 – ) was born in the United States. His parents were members of the US military, which meant the family moved every two and half years. While studying international relations, Scott lived in countries as diverse as Chile, Nigeria, Ghana, Kingdom of Lesotho, and Zimbabwe. Couper obtained a Masters in Divinity from the Chicago Theological Seminary and was awarded a PhD in history from the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
Currently, he is the Development Manager at the historic Inanda Seminary, a featured stop on KZN Literary Tourism’s INK Writers Trail. Couper is married with two children.
Extract from Bound by Faith
In choosing the title Let My People Go for his autobiography, Luthuli invoked the prophet Moses’ divinely inspired biblical refrain to the Egyptian Pharaoh who oppressed the Hebrew nation. As with ‘The Road to Freedom is Via the Cross’, the choice of title strongly suggested that he perceived himself to be a spiritual leader as much as, if not more than, a political leader. He may well have understood his life and life’s work along the lines of a typological re-enactment, by which is meant a method or lens of biblical hermeneutics whereby one discerns one’s context, calling or life direction, by identifying with personalities in the biblical narrative. Typological re-enactment encourages one to emulate faithful biblical personalities or, conversely, to learn from them if they failed in some way. If Luthuli understood his life’s purpose to be a re-enactment of the role of Moses in the Bible, it would have provided for him a framework for both understanding the past and discerning the will of God for the future. His emulation of Moses became a simple method of making relevant the biblical text to his life.
Bibliography
2010. Albert Luthuli. Bound by Faith. . Pietermaritzburg: UKZN Press.
Extract from Bound by Faith
In choosing the title Let My People Go for his autobiography, Luthuli invoked the prophet Moses’ divinely inspired biblical refrain to the Egyptian Pharaoh who oppressed the Hebrew nation. As with ‘The Road to Freedom is Via the Cross’, the choice of title strongly suggested that he perceived himself to be a spiritual leader as much as, if not more than, a political leader. He may well have understood his life and life’s work along the lines of a typological re-enactment, by which is meant a method or lens of biblical hermeneutics whereby one discerns one’s context, calling or life direction, by identifying with personalities in the biblical narrative. Typological re-enactment encourages one to emulate faithful biblical personalities or, conversely, to learn from them if they failed in some way. If Luthuli understood his life’s purpose to be a re-enactment of the role of Moses in the Bible, it would have provided for him a framework for both understanding the past and discerning the will of God for the future. His emulation of Moses became a simple method of making relevant the biblical text to his life.
Bibliography
2010. Albert Luthuli. Bound by Faith. . Pietermaritzburg: UKZN Press.