Abstract:
This article argues from the
premise that theology is a creative undertaking. Nothing can be thought about God other than
by thinking about people’s experience and understanding of God. Theology therefore speaks
objectively about God from the subjective experience of God and from testimonies about that
experience. Such reflections and testimonies are expressed in language. However, the inherent
constraints of vocabulary and formulation render any linguistic expression of such spiritual
encounters incomplete. Theology is always seeking for new possibilities of expression in order
to overcome the constraints. It stands to reason that the figurative mode of expression will be
preferred to the concrete or factual register of language because figurative language is more
suited to articulate the elusive spiritual experience of meeting God through faith. Signposts,
thresholds and webs are employed here as metaphors to emphasise the creative aspect of
theology within the context of a changing world. They represent the three phases in the socalled
rites of passage described by anthropologist Arnold van Gennep and refined by Victor
Turner into an abstract model employed in the understanding of all similar experiences of
ritual transference. Here the model is applied to the church and its theology.
Description:
This article represents
a reworked version of a
public speech presented at
the Reformed Theological
College, Faculty of Theology,
University of Pretoria, on
13 March 2013. Dr Piet van
Staden is the pastor of the
Worcester congregation of
the Netherdutch Reformed
Church of Africa and is
participating as research
fellow of Dr Christo van
der Merwe, head of the
Reformed Theological College
at the Faculty of Theology
of the University of Pretoria,
Pretoria, South Africa.
