Cheap grace in South Africa

Dietrich Bonhoeffer warned Christians about the perils of cheap grace, which he defined as “the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession . . . grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ.” Most people have an idea of what cheap grace looks like at an individual level. Eve Fairbanks shows us what happens when cheap grace becomes a national policy.

The Inheritors tells the troubled racial, cultural, and political history of South Africa through the embodied experiences of three average South Africans: Dipuo, an anti-apartheid Black activist; her daughter Malaika, born after the end of apartheid; and Christo, a White South African who fought for the apartheid regime. Fairbanks guides readers into the social turmoil of South Africa through these three individuals’ experiences.

Dipuo’s life shows us the strength she summoned to navigate her longing for Black liberation within her community and beyond. We feel the injustice she experiences, her joy of new hope, and the frustrations of her postapartheid reality. Christo shows us what it was like to be one of the last White South Africans drafted to defend the White ruling regime. We see his confusion as the racial caste system that upheld his world ended overnight. His life confirms the adage that when you are used to privilege, equality can feel like oppression. Malaika shows us South Africa through the eyes of a generation born into the promise of freedom and equality but never experiencing it in real life.