Reimagining Liberation: Gawani Theology and Hermeneutical Perspectives in the Malawian Context

Uniting ethnographic fieldwork in Malawi with critical dialogue in liberation theology, Reimagining Liberation advances a systematic account of gawani--the Chewa verb "to share"--as a norm for ecclesial life and social policy. Drawing on interview transcripts, cooperative-economy case studies, and close readings of Acts 2-4, the study demonstrates how reciprocal exchange practices constitute a locally rooted yet theologically translatable model of communal care. Baek situates gawani within African contextual theology, critiques prevailing charity paradigms, and articulates a constructive hermeneutic in which resource circulation functions as both spiritual discipline and political strategy. The argument revises classical liberation frameworks by foregrounding relational surplus rather than material deficit, offering scholars new categories for analyzing power, poverty, and ecclesiology across the Global South. Serving theologians, development practitioners, and social historians, this monograph provides a robust theoretical vocabulary and a comparative methodology for re-imagining justice as participatory abundance rather than redistribution alone.