(Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria, 2008) Streets, Frederick J.
There is within the history of Christian worship practices a long tradition of someone offering a sermon to those gathered for worship. The primary means for many Christians throughout the world of receiving Christian education and guidance is by listening to sermons. There is generally embedded in all Christian preaching some attempt on the part of the preacher to share a worldview based upon the his or her biblical and theological interpretation of the meaning of faith and their application to daily living. This article explores how the sermon can be a source of religious instruction and aspect of pastoral caring for those infected and affected by HIV and AIDS. The article also suggests that such sermons can be a form of advocating social justice for those who are stigmatized because of their HIV status. Note: The people mentioned in this article, are real but, their names, Rob, Inspiration and Pastor Able are fictitious for reasons of confidentiality.
''My Africa is fading and no one sees or cares that it is happening.''
(Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria, 2008) De Villiers, D.E. (Dawid Etienne)
The Belhar Confession of the then Dutch Reformed Mission Church officially approved in 1986 confesses that the unity of the church should be made visible. Very little has since then come of this visible unity in the family of Dutch Reformed churches. Since 1996, however, new impetus has been given to the effort to bring about institutional unity. It has especially been in their ministries of public witness and service that these churches succeeded to a large extent to give visible and institutional expression to their unity. This would hopefully enable the churches of the Dutch Reformed family to play a more effective public role in the present South African society. They, however, face two serious restrictions in this regard: the limited scope for churches to play a public role within the new liberal democratic dispensation in South Africa and the limited motivation to play a transforming public role in the churches of the Dutch Reformed family. In the article a few pre-conditions for playing an effective public role the churches of the Dutch Reformed family have to meet are discussed. The most important one is that these churches should achieve full institutional unity as soon as possible. The conclusion of the article is therefore that the interdependence of institutional unity and public witness is a reality they will have to deal with effectively if they want to move forward.
(Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria, 2008) Maluleke, T.S.
Having dabbled with the metaphors of liberation, reconstruction and reconciliation, the time may have come for (South) African prophetic theology to seriously consider the metaphor of restitution. In this essay, the author outlines the contours of a theology of restitution. The starting point is the existing but mostly unspoken theologies for and against various forms of restitution. An exploration of the contours of a theology of restitution is conducted. In order to illustrate the tasks and challenges of a theology of restitution - the author refers to the parable of Lazarus and the rich man. For him a credible theology of restitution is a theology capable of restoring Lazarus before not after he dies.
(Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria, 2008) Botha, N.
After the dawn of democracy in South Africa in 1994 diverse paradigms on reconciliation have appeared on the scene. In this article these paradigms are not discredited so much for being downright unproductive, but they are found to be either too prescriptive as is the case with the TRC or too limited as is the case with the three paradigms of which mere sketches are offered.
The main thrust of the article is a proposal on developing reconciliation as narrative in contradistinction to a dogmatic, technical approach to reconciliation as something to be organised, to be prescribed and engineered. The basic thesis of the article is that narrative can potentially create vast space for story-telling and for many more voices to be heard on the issue of reconciliation. The notion of narrative is advanced as a serious academic category and not an intellectual fad. A further issue is illustrating how issues like remembering, forgiveness and justice need to be brought into discourse with reconciliation.
(Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria, 2008) Boesak, Allan Aubrey, 1946-
South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) has been praised the world over for its work and its example is being followed by many countries, in Africa especially. In South Africa the TRC has raised hopes and expectations that went beyond the TRC's functionality within the framework of South Africa's political settlement and its legal mandate given by Parliament. This contribution argues that there is growing disillusionment with the work of the TRC especially among black communities and that one of the major flaws of the TRC rests in its failure to link reconciliation with justice. Justice here must not be understood within the strict legal terms that some have applied to the work of the TRC but rather from within the expectations created by the TRC itself through its own insistence that its work should be seen as a Christian endeavour. This failure has a direct bearing on the situation South Africa finds itself in today, and the author argues that a return to an understanding of reconciliation that presupposes justice will help address one of the most critical issues in our social, political and theological discourse today.
(Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria, 2008) Muller, Retief
This article discusses the persistence and transformation of rain rituals in contemporary African Christianity. It argues that the concept 'hybridity' might be a useful addition to the vocabulary of scholars studying contemporary global Christianity. The use of hybridity could replace ideologically loaded terms, such as syncretism, while still describing the interaction between different religious traditions on the phenomenological level. In Africa, as elsewhere, there are ongoing internal dialogues between the often divergent traditions represented in the worldviews of contemporary Christians. Under the concept hybridity, this internal inter-religious dialogue might be well described using non-pejorative, empirical language.
(Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria, 2008) Meiring, Arnold Maurits
When Missio Dei is examined from the perspective of Postmodern and African Theologies, new possibilities and metaphors emerge that can contribute to our understanding of God and Church's mission in the world. Missio Dei, it is shown, should also deal with panentheism, relationships, sacrifice and justice.
(Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria, 2008) Van Aarde, A.G. (Andries G.)
This article links up with both the Fourth Nelson Mandela Commemorative Lecture presented by the previous President of the Republic of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, in 2006, titled the "RDP of the Soul" and with the book of Dr Richard Burridge (King's College, University of London), Imitating Jesus, in which he shows how biblical ethics has shaped South Africans' lives since colonialism, apartheid and post- and neo-colonialism. The article argues that moral leadership by the Christian faith community in South Africa which combats violence by rising up in compassion against injustice can counter-balance the spiralling out of retaliation through revenge. The article describes tolerance in terms of the Pauline concept of endurance and the internalisation of hope for the future. Perseverance despite suffering is seen as the contents of tolerance in the midst of aggressive opposition against the essence of life experienced in terms of an individual's thinking, willing and feeling. The article is a reworked version of a bilingual commemorative public lecture in English and Afrikaans presented on the occasion of the University of Pretoria's centenary celebration and is dedicated to Professor Dr P J G Meiring, a member of the Commission of Peace and Reconciliation in South Africa.
(Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria, 2008) Kritzinger, J.N.J. (Johannes Nicolaas Jacobus), 1950-
This article responds to a book edited by Prof PGJ Meiring in 1996 on the religions of South Africa. It appreciates the integration between the fields of Religious Studies and Theology of Religions in the book, but suggests that a missiological approach should explore the inter-religious encounter, rather than merely what others believe or what we believe about the possibility of their being saved. An approach of "encounterology" requires: a) a holistic and reflexive process that considers seven different dimensions of the encounter; b) a dialogical approach in which a Christian enters into a journey of mutual witness with a follower of another faith. The article uses a seven-point praxis cycle to indicate what such an encounterology could look like.
(Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria, 2008) Masango, Maake J.S.
This article analyses the work of reconciliation based on Prof P Meiring, especially his work with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The article takes seriously the theological aspect of reconciliation that leads to peace. This ritual is helpful in making sure that victims hear the stories of how their beloved were killed in Apartheid times. The TRC thus created a space where victims of injustices could have a privilege of meeting with perpetrators, in a way of reconciliation. It finally looks at the suffering experienced by them and the response by government.
(Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria, 2008) Gort, J.D.
This essay deals with the relationship between Christianity and other religions. Part one looks briefly at the matter of religion itself. Part two provides a condensed historical survey of the attitude of Christianity toward the world outside itself: the approach of the church to other religions changed from initial appreciation through a long phase of rejection to an increasingly affirmative posture in recent times. This shift is explained by a number of causal factors that gave rise to new understandings regarding God's work in the world and Christian mission, which in turn led to the emergence of various theologies of religion. The question confronting religious people today is how to foster the removal of interhuman divisions and the promotion of justice and peace. One potential means of achieving this goal is interreligious dialogue. In part three, the author delineates his concept of the four facets of dialogue: that of histories, of theologies, of spiritualities, and of life. Dialogue at all four of these levels is key to the establishment of interreligious convivance, which in our present world is prerequisite to the security and well-being of humanity.
(Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria, 2008) Niemandt, Cornelius Johannes Petrus (Nelus)
The article describes outlines of and elaborates on missional leadership in the challenging times of adaptive change. The insights of Roxburg & Romanuk (2006) and Van Gelder (2007), especially in terms of their contributions on Spirit-led missional leadership, serves as partners for the discussion. This is enriched by other publications and highlighted by the influence of prof Piet Meiring's life as missional leader. The article describes missional leadership as:
a journey directed by spiritual discernment,
Biblical imagination to discern God's preferred future, the art of listening, the cultivation of an environment that discerns God's activities among the congregation and in its context,
communally orientated and network-leadership,
cultural transformation, storytelling, and taking risks.
