Chapter

Finding an academic voice in postapartheid South Africa: Systematic Theology at the University of Pretoria

Dani P. Veldsman, Johan Buitendag, Willem Fourie, Tanya Van wyk
Verbum et Ecclesia | Vol 38, No 4 | a1616 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/ve.v38i4.1616 | © 2017 Dani P. Veldsman, Johan Buitendag, Willem Fourie, Tanya Van wyk | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 14 April 2016 | Published: 20 December 2017

About the author(s)

Dani P. Veldsman, Department of Dogmatics and Christian Ethics, Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Johan Buitendag, Department of Dogmatics and Christian Ethics, University of Pretoria; Dean of the Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Willem Fourie, Department of Dogmatics and Christian Ethics, Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Tanya Van wyk, Department of Dogmatics and Christian Ethics, Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria, South Africa

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Abstract

How can an academic voice concerning systematic-theological reflection find expression at a public university in a postapartheid SA? In this chapter, the different research foci of the members of the Department of Dogmatics and Christian Ethics at the UP are presented and interpreted as attempts to find such a voice as a collection of voices within a society characterised by shifting social-ecclesial and theological landscapes. The specific research foci, namely eco-hermeneutics; evolutionary perspectives on religious experience; an ethic of sociality within postcolonial, pluralist and unequal societies; and ecclesiological challenges and political theology are structured and presented in terms of the hermeneutical question that was posed by Ricoeur, namely D’où parlez-vous? [Where do you speak from?]. Against the background of the vision, objectives and values of the Department, the main objectives of their respective approaches as explication of the ‘speaking from’ and ‘speaking to’ are outlined. Some of the most important contemporary issues are identified in a conclusion that are, according to them, to be addressed within the Southern African contexts.

Keywords

eco-hermeneutics; eco- theology; religious experience; evolutionary theology; ethic of sociality; ethics within Africa; ecclesiological challenges; political theology

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Crossref Citations

1. Some reflections on the genealogy of the ‘Pretoria model’: Towards a definition of theological education at a public university
Johan Buitendag
HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies  vol: 75  issue: 3  year: 2019  
doi: 10.4102/hts.v75i3.5487