Abstract:
South African New Testament scholar Van Aarde’s explorative search for a new direction in
theological reflection is explicated in this article with reference to his discussion of Peter Berger
and Charles Taylor’s contemporary contributions, which Van Aarde takes as vantage point
to articulate the meaning of his ‘courage to be a religious person today’. The articulation of
his ‘courage’ to pursue a post-theistic understanding of a contemporary Christian religiosity
(read: spirituality) that is non-fundamentalistic, non-populist and post-secular is discussed. At
the same time, the basic tenets of his explorations are indicated, being constituted – negatively
– by a de-centering of the power of institutional religion and, positively, by the enchantment
of a Biblical hermeneutics that does not emphasise a proposition-like and moral code-like
reading strategy. Finally, his ‘new direction’, which finds expression in the articulation of a
‘spirituality of living faith’, is scrutinised. It exposes the shortcomings in his (individualistic)
exposition within the new correlation of modernisation and pluralism, causing it subsequently
to bypass the necessary contemporary outcome in social embodiment.
