The theological coherence between the Belhar confession and some antecedent church witnesses in the period This article explores the historical and theological relation between the Confession of Belhar (1982) A confession of faith cannot be carefully planned like a systematic theology or a catechism. The very nature of a confession as a moment of truth when the church "is hit on the mouth to proclaim credo" (Barth), renders it highly contextual and time-bound 1 , though obviously not without wider and further significance beyond its own time. This kairoscharacter does nevertheless not detract from the fact that a confession does not "fall from the sky" without significant antecedent developments.The people involved in formulating and accepting a confession bring with them their own histories and shaped convictions. The biblical and theological roots of a Christian confession lie far behind the confession itself in the canon, the tradition (including earlier confessions), and continued reinterpretations thereof. In fact, the confession is a confession not because it wants to declare an unknown secret, or spring a surprise on the church, but exactly because it aims at a renewed interpre-
Based on a turn to the rational human subject in Descartes, Kant and Feuerbach, this article critically examines four efforts at shaping sustainability discourse: the definition of sustainability in our common future; stewardship in Christian theology; forms of partisan justice; and GDP as measure of economic growth. These efforts made certain advances, but because they share the underlying anthropocentric bias of Western philosophy, they fail to step out of the current sustainability paradigm. The article closes with two suggestions of how to decentre the human subject and build a network-view of all species. It is only with great effort that we have managed to make ourselves unhappy.
ThisFacing and dealing with pluralism 2 have become part and parcel of our postmodern sensiblity and an urgent, ongoing task for theology. This is unavoidable if theology wants itself to be taken seriously in the Zeitgeist of the 21st century, or if indeed the gospel is to be made heard in our age. There are invigorating, enriching forms of pluralism, but also disintegrative, debilitating forms (see Welker 1994:23ff). The latter is usually linked to post-modern forms of pluralistic thinking that are not much more than chaotic relativism celebrating the fact that no construction of integrative sense is possible any more. I would like to argue below, that there are forms of social differentiation and plurality that does not so much relish in "chaos" but exactly "order", but that imbue their differentiation first with hierarchies, and then with devastating exclusions.As an example of the latter, the development of a theology that gave material support and moral legitimization to the racial institutionalization of apartheid in South Africa, could sensitise us to the theological bases that turn pluriformed differentiations into an ideology The term pluralism refers to the multiplication of differentiated forms in parts of society or in society as a whole. From a hermeneutical perspective, it denotes differentiated reading strategies and multiple perspectives; from a sociological perspective it refers to the multi-systemic texture and differentiation of modern and specifically post-modern societies. My application of the term to the late 19th and early 20th century might be anachronistic, but will emerge from the argument below.
3Two of the most prominent and fruitful attempts at constructing a theology of pluralisms are the Catholic hermeneutical scholar from America, David Tracy, and the German Reformed systematic theologian, Michael Welker.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.