Liminality : recent avatars of this notion in a South African context

Abstract

In 1995 the ritual studies expert Ronald Grimes observed: ‘This generation’s intellectual task seems to be that of getting beyond Victor Turner’.3 This was, however, roughly the same time that Victor Turner’s work was being discovered by a few theologians in South Africa who recognized the importance of concepts such as societas, communitas and liminality; they were also beginning to understand the significance of his notion of so-called social drama for in what was then a dramatically changing South African social context and along with that congregational contexts. Several theologians in general, especially practical theologians working in congregational studies, and some liturgists have since then also explored the value specifically of the concept of liminality for the church in South Africa and for South African society in general. In this article my aim will be to try and trace the path of the concept of liminality and its concomitant concepts in theological discourse in South Africa over the past two decades.