Historical Theology at public universities matter

Abstract

South African universities are in the process of serious transformation and restructuring. The place of faculties of theology at universities has come under the spotlight resulting in the closure of several theological faculties or in the moving of theology to other faculties, mainly humanities or arts. Theology is under pressure and in the current academic environment, Church History, in its traditional form, has all but disappeared from South African universities. This article is an attempt to address the current situation. Whilst this article looks at the issue of theology at public universities, its main focus is to explore the future study of church history in the context of universities and, in particular, a Faculty of Theology. Understanding church history in the broad framework as Historical Theology, this article asserts the significance of church history at public universities, but points out the need to restructure the Department giving due consideration to community engagement, internationalisation, transformation, africanisation and interreligious collaboration. All of these would have a serious impact on teaching, learning and research.

Decolonising Religious Studies in South Africa: Reflections on the field 26 years after democracy

“…Although a compelling case for the place of the nonconfessional plural academic study of religion/s over theology could be made over, this essay is more concerned with the conditions which should be considered when imagining the study of religion within the decolonial turn, and against the background of the Christonormative character of society. If changes to the higher education landscape have affected the study and teaching of theology, represented in more than half the total number of universities in the country, to the extent that church historian Pillay (2017) claims under it is under ‘threat’ then Religious Studies, autonomously represented in only one university and one academic journal is gasping for its last breath.…”

Theological Education and Missional Formation in the South African Context

“…Needless to say, this significantly impacted on theological education as well. Issues such as the colonial nature of theological education (see Kaunda, 2016; Le Grange, 2016), its commodification (see Hadebe, 2017; Naidoo, 2017), its relevance (see Maluleke, 2006; Wahl, 2013) and its future at a public university (Ford, 2017; Pillay, 2017a) are all common topics of discussion. Added to these is the debate on the relationship between the church and academy in relation to theological training.…”