Abstract
This article addresses a specific issue, namely the ramifications for theology practised at a public university under (post)-apartheid conditions. In South Africa, scholarly opinion has not paid sufficient attention to what “transformation” entails for theology under these circumstances. The article describes transformation in detail by clarifying the main referents for this notion and attending to discourses in higher education. Heuristic categories such as inclusivity, alterity, critique, freedom and flourishing are identified that should inform multi-level and comprehensive embodiment in terms of knowledge, people and practices. The article identifies several critical issues such as the plurality of intellectual traditions and identity formation that should be explored in more detail. It also emphasises the distinctive theological task of theology at a public university – the articulation of transcendence and the construal of a non-naturalistic symbolic interpretation of reality.
Highlights
This article addresses a specific issue, namely the ramifications for theology practised at a public university under-apartheid conditions
Venter Transformation, theology and the public university in South Africa those involved with theology at public universities to dismiss these “signs of the times” and continue as if it is “business as usual”
This article aims to participate in the wider discourse on transformation and investigates what this might entail, conceptually, for theology
Summary
The transition from the apartheid dispensation to an inclusive democratic era inevitably prioritizes the undoing of the pervasively discriminatory system and the introduction of practices of justice. “Transformation” has become the simple way to signify this radical change taking place in the South African society, and at public institutions of higher learning. This article aims to participate in the wider discourse on transformation and investigates what this might entail, conceptually, for theology. The critical question to be examined is what kind of theology can be legitimized at public institutions, and how is this epistemic vision to be embodied organisationally. The challenges of how to implement change and transformative activities of teaching and learning should be addressed in another article. This article focuses on the challenge to articulate a conceptual frame in order to consider the practice of theology under new circumstances. The mode of reflection is subjunctive, indicating how the practice of theology at public universities in South Africa might be like
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