Abstract:
This article assesses the shortcomings and the disconnectedness of the current academic
theological education in South Africa. It offers a brief history to provide a guiding principle for
academic theology. It then proceeds to show the current disconnect and challenges between
academic theology and the church, with its primary focus on academic theology. Drawing on
original research and reflection on these responses, commodification, euro-centricity and
rankings are seen as three traps of modern academics. These three areas have distorted the true
content of theological reflection. This article thus clearly highlights the current problem and
motivates the need for academic theology and the local church to reconnect with each other.
With this article focussing on academic institutions, it calls for the academy to change not in
nature but in content, and to draw its content for the local context.
Description:
This research is part of the
project, ‘African Christianity
and Development’, directed
by Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay,
Department of Church
History and Church Polity,
Faculty of Theology and
Religion, University of
Pretoria.
