Research News - Africa

Participating Research Institutions in Africa

Beyers Naudé Centre for Public Theology, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa

Just a short note to inform you, especially our friends abroad without access to South African media reports, that two weeks ago we received wonderful news here at the Beyers Naudé Centre. Our publication Christian in Public: Aims, methodologies and issues in Public Theology, has been awarded the prestigious Andrew Murray-Desmond Tutu Prize. For those of you unfamiliar with this Prize, it is awarded annually for a Christian or theological book published during the previous year (2008, in our case) in South Africa in an official language other than Afrikaans (for Afrikaans works, the Andrew Murray Prize is awarded annually). We share the Prize with Prof Vincent Brümmer for his book, What do we do when we pray?

All local publishers of Christian books are asked to nominate potential prize-winners from the titles they have published during the year and the winners are then chosen by independent judges from the theological fraternity. The judges this year were Prof Denise Ackermann, Dr Chris van Wyk and Dr Daniel Maluleke, who were of the opinion that (I quote from the press release) “this compilation of essays on public theology issued by the Beyers Naudé Centre (University of Stellenbosch) succeeds in exploring a particularly relevant current theological theme. Public theology is at the forefront of much theological debate at present and this volume is a useful addition to available material on this topic.” There will be an official presentation of the Prize in Cape Town on 7 May 2009, where all of us here at the Centre will be present.

For us at the Centre this is a great honour for which we are immensely grateful. Not only does it acknowledge the importance and relevance of our work at the Centre, but it also strengthens our conviction, which we share with all contributors to this volume, that the Christian faith and theology do indeed have a place in and a unique contribution to make to the public domain in addressing the many challenges that face our societies today.

Beyers Naudé Centre for Public Theology, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa

Christian in Public: Aims, methodologies and issues in Public Theology

Len Hansen (Ed.)

SUN PReSS, 2008, ISBN 978-1-920109-35-6

AP: “Where does the role of a minister of God, of Christ, begin to take on a justifiable political connotation?”
BN: “At that point where the minister is confronted with the question whether the issue concerned is purely a party political one or whether, in fact, it touches a very deep moral truth. Where a basic Christian truth is threatened by any political action or any political policy a priest must stand up and speak out – not to criticise and condemn a specific party, but to state clearly what Christian truth, justice and love demands of everyone. And that includes the Christian members of that party. He [sic] must state clearly what needs to be done. If he doesn’t do so, he does a great disservice, not only to the church but also to government.”
--Beyers Naudé, in an interview with Alan Paton, The Star, 13 December 1984.

Book Cover - Christian in Public“The Church of Jesus Christ ... to be sure, is not of this world, but is church in the world and for the world, called to confront every person and every system with the gospel of Jesus Christ ... The Christian who shrinks from this, in this regard fails in his [sic] calling.”
--Beyers Naudé, quoted in Die Transvaler, 11 August 1966 [trans. ed.]

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Beyers Naudé Centre for Public Theology, University of Stellenbosch,
South Africa

Anlené Taljaard

http://academic.sun.ac.za/theology/centres.html#bnc

The BNC organized and participated in various exciting events during 2007. These events reflect the endeavour of the BNC to engage various aspects of broader public life, and to do this from a Christian theological perspective that is enriched by other disciplines.

1. Public lectures

2. Public lectures organized with Stellenbosch University campus community:
To celebrate Human Rights Day: Jody Kollapen, chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of South Africa; To celebrate Freedom Day: Gertrude Fester

3. Conferences and consultations in collaboration with organizations of civil society:
With the Ethical Leadership Project: Ethical leadership in and through political life/labour/business (3 consultations)

With the Evangelisch Reformierte Kirche Deutschland and the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa: The impact of globalization on the so-called north and south.

With the Uniting Reformed Church: 21st anniversary of the Confession of Belhar 1986: Allan Boesak, Dirkie Smit, Simon Konzapi, Elize Julius and Sipho Mahokoto

With Mkar Centre for Public Theology and development, and the International Reformed Theological Institute (IRTI), Free University, Amsterdam on religion and the common good

With various partners in northern and southern countries: The international legal trade in conventional arms, Nairobi

With German Academies Arnoldshain and Bad Boll: Social Corporate Responsibility and Gender Justice

Media, religion and public opinion formation

Participation in the Pan African Congress of the Circle of Concerned Women

4. Annual Beyers Naudé Public Lecture in collaboration with the Kagiso Trust
Theme: Is quality education for the privileged only? Main Speaker: Franklin Sonn

5. Symposium on new book
Author: Jaap Durand. Title of book: The many faces of God (2007). Stellenbosch: Sun Press. Reviewers: Christo Lombard, Sipho Mahokoto, Len Hansen and Nico Koopman

6. Publications
2007. Conradie, E (ed) Collected Essays in Public Theology – Dirk Smit. Stellenbosch: Sun Press; 2007. Essays on human dignity with colleagues of Kampen Theological University, The Netherlands, in forthcoming Scriptura; 2007. Third book publication in the Beyers Naude Series on Public Theology; Also: various publications on Public Theology by BNC members

7. New staff members
Allan Boesak has joined the BNC as professorial researcher for three years. He leads the programme on globalization, in partnership with the Reformed Church in Germany and the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa; Jan Nieder-Heitmann has joined the BNC as researcher. He leads the programme on religion and the common good in partnership with Mkar Centre for Public Theology and Development and the International Reformed Theological Institute at the Free University in Amsterdam.

Department of Religion and Theology,
University of the Western Cape, South Africa

Christo Lombard

http://www.uwc.ac.za/

News/Forthcoming Activities:
In September we (at the University of the Western Cape) had a wonderful evening with Archbishop Desmond Tutu: The occasion was the annual Desmond Tutu lecture, this year presented by the well-known American theologian Michael Battle, who published extensively on Bishop Tutu's work on reconciliation and Ubuntu theology, and Prof Ciraaj Rassool, a UWC historian, who emphasised Tutu's very unusual biography, not guarded or idealised by any form of "official branding", but still ongoing in its prophetic courage and critical impact. At the same occasion, where his twentieth year as Chancellor of the University was also celebrated, the Chairperson of the Department of Religion and Theology, Prof Ernst Conradie, announced the launch of the initiative, supported by big names in the ecumenical world, of establishing a Desmond Tutu Chair in Ecumenical Theology and Social Transformation at the University of the Western Cape. This Chair will enhance the agendas of public theology in South Africa and especially post-graduate studies on issues of "social transformation" in a big way.

At UWC (University of the Western Cape), our Department of Religion and Theology, a full partner in our Global Network for Public Theology, had quite a busy year as far as "public theology" is concerned:

  1. In August we had our annual public theology conference, this year on the theme "Law without Morality?", in which a number of top Law and Theology Professors (also from the USA), and high-ranking Judges of the South African Bench and Constitutional Court presented papers and engaded in serious debate. The major contributions will be published early in 2008. More than two hundred people attended for the whole day, and especially towards the end, when time was allocated for discussion, the need for a culture of deeply embedded, shared, moral values (such as *Ubuntu*), to undergird the law and its implementation and enforcement, was underlined in many different ways. It was a heartening experience to see how engaged South Africans are in the struggle after the struggle: for a truly free, just and democratic society where everyone's dignity and security are safe-guarded.
  2. Another public theology occasion was in August in Stellenbosch, at the Beyers Naude Centre for Public Theology, when a new book by Prof Jaap Durand, retired Vice Rector of the University of Western Cape and one of the initiators of the Belhar Confession against Apartheid, was launched: "The many faces of God". Prof Durand explained how he found his way through 17 centuries of church history and dogma to understand the "orthodox" picture of God shining through the multiple manifestations of God in different contexts. Prof Christo Lombard, who did his doctorate on one of the leading public theologians from the Netherlands, Prof A.A. van Ruler (whose centenary will be celebrated in 2008), under Prof Durand at the University of the Western Cape, delivered an introduction to the book at the launch that was very well attended.

 

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