De Beer, Stephanus Francois2026-03-052026-03-052026-01-13De Beer, S.F., 2026, ‘“Where are the prophets?”: How academic theology failed us’, HTS Teologiese Studies/ Theological Studies 82(1), a10981: 1-9. https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v82i1.10981.0259-9422 (print)2072-8050 (online)10.4102/hts.v82i1.10981http://hdl.handle.net/2263/108760DATA AVAILABILITY : The author declares that all data that support this research article and findings are available in the article and its references.Against the backdrop of precarious global and local politics – a threat to democracy, global wars, xenophobic violence, oppressions of sexual minorities and a permanent youth precariat in South Africa – do academic theologies foster prophetic responses or succumb to imperial co-option? Departing from the Kairos Document’s threefold call to conversion, this article laments the lack of a Kairos consciousness today, with reference to five areas of concern. CONTRIBUTION : This study explores what theological formation for prophetic communities might look like, marked by Le Bruyns’ three elements of criticality, contextuality and change; participating in concrete sites of struggle and sustained by a ‘lived faith’. It imagines theological schools as ‘schools of prophets, servants and healers’, not only breaking the silence but also going beyond prophetic rhetoric through embodied theologising.en© 2026. The Author. Licensee: AOSIS. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Kairos documentKairos consciousnessTheological educationProphetic theologyProphetic communitiesArticle