scholarly journals Theologia and the Ideologica of Language: The calling of a theology and religion faculty in a time of populism

2017 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Johann-Albrecht Meylahn

This article represents a response to Andries van Aarde’s view on a ‘gateway to the future from a deconstructed past’, a paper presented as part of a conference, ‘Gateway to the Future from a Deconstructed Past’, commemorating the centennial anniversary of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Pretoria, 05–06 April 2017. The article argues that texts, and theology faculties as texts, are just as any structure or construction haunted by their sacred secret. Haunted by the ghosts in the texts from the past to be inspired for the calling of a theology and religion faculty in a time of populism and the ‘renaissance of (neo)nationalism’, according to Van Aarde. In being given the responsibility not only of responding to his contribution but also co-sharing the responsibility of the history of the faculty, the author says that he has a choice: he could respond to the letter of the text or I could be spooked by the ghosts of these texts, the haunting of the sacred secret, calling through Professor Van Aarde’s deconstruction of these texts. The author decides to seek to allow the ghosts of his text to call him. A call, as most calls, to which one can only respond: Here I am! Here I am in this moment (here) of history at this particular Faculty of Theology and Religion. This is a call to share the responsibility, the responsibility of being here and the responsibility of the being of a theology and religion faculty in a time of populism and (neo)nationalism, both globally and locally.

1992 ◽  
Vol 48 (1/2) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. H. Koekemoer

Dogmatics and Christian Ethics within the Faculty of Theology (Sec A) at the University of Pretoria This article explores the history of the Department of Dogmatics and Christian Ethics within the Faculty of Theology. The focus is on two specific lines in this history, namely the period which ended in 1952 and the period from 1952 onwards. Attention is given to the thoughts of P J Muller, J H J A Greyvenstein, S P Engelbrecht, H P Wolmarans and B J Engelbrecht, and their influence on the study of Dogmatics and Ethics in the Department. The article concludes with a vision for the future of the Department at the University of Pretoria and it highlights the importance of theological research for the doctrine and life of the Church.


2007 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glenn Van Wyhe

Where we have been can tell us a great deal about where we are going. If we wish to direct the future, then understanding the past can help us see how much we actually influence that direction. Ignorance of the past, on the other hand, allows unrealistic expectations and creates unnecessary frustration. The history of accounting higher education in the United States is most informative for anyone who wants to influence the future direction of our profession. The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief overview of the history of accounting higher education in the U.S., from its beginnings to its settled position in the university. This historical overview informs us that the profession of public accounting had everything to do with establishing and growing accounting education. Around the time of the Second World War, however, forces were set in motion that would try to pull accounting education from the grasp of public accounting. The belittling of public accounting, first in the name of the new management accounting and then by the Foundation Reports, combined with public accounting leaders' ongoing desire for a five-year education requirement above all other educational reforms, resulted in accounting higher education's inability to single-mindedly identify its goals and work toward them.


Author(s):  
Yvette Weiss

Learning from history does not automatically mean that history prevents us from repeating mistakes. We cannot see what happens in the future, even with the most profound knowledge of the past. Although it is not possible to make such causal connections, the study of structural components, which recur and make up patterns, can certainly contribute to sharpening political judgement. How can the teaching of the history of mathematics education then help to support an understanding of possible courses of individual actions without indoctrination through the political or even ideologically influenced production of time references? The paper presents the concept of a lecture course in mathematics education, held at the University of Mainz. We take as a point of departure the everyday experience of our prospective mathematics teacher with various current education reforms and present seemingly similar processes during former reforms. Here we limit ourselves to reforms during the 19th and 20th century.


2016 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
J.S. Krüger

This article suggests a theoretical and methodological perspective primarily hinging on the categories of Horizon, Totality and conditionalism, with an outspoken mystical orientation, radically relativising yet simultaneously treasuring diverse religious expression. This model was developed with a view to interpreting the history of religions, in this case applied to the history of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Pretoria from 1917 to 2017.Utilising this perspective, the history of the faculty is analysed in terms of three qualitatively distinct yet continuous epochs, overlapping with the three epochs of South African history during the twentieth century: 1902–1948, 1948–1994 and 1994 to present. In particular the article focuses on two dimensions of theological existence at the University of Pretoria: firstly, its interaction with the state over this century, that is, its political existence during the decades prefiguring apartheid, during apartheid and during the aftermath of apartheid; secondly, its relationship with the wider world of religious pluralism over the past century, implying its notion of religious truth. Differences of emphasis and conflicts during the century, involving both sets of problems, are explained and understood conditionalistically and with reference to Totality and Horizon. Racial exclusion and religious exclusion are understood as mutually determining and are both informed by and dependent on a certain view of religious truth.In the context of its own ambit this article has a reconciliatory intention, not evaluating the mistakes of the past in terms of the categories of sin and guilt, but rather in terms of tragic misjudgements of situations: shortcomings in historical hindsight, sufficiently wide peripheral vision, realistic foresight and sufficient insight into the epochal conditions of the times and the essence of religion. Greed and hatred, seemingly ingrained in human nature, are taken to feed on such lack of insight. 


2008 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
T.F.J. Dreyer

The Church Reformation of the sixteenth century provided an important stimulus to the academic training of ministers at universities. The origin of some of Europe’s oldest universities is closely associated with faculties of theology. In some instances universities grew from the early beginnings of a theological faculty. The past hundred years of history of the University of Pretoria (UP) also reflects something of this close partnership between theological training and a university. The Netherdutch Reformed Church of Africa (NHKA) has been part of UP ever since the establishment of a faculty of theology at this university in 1917. Opsomming: Die Kerkhervorming van die sestiende eeu was ‘n belangrike stimulus vir akademies- universitêre opleiding van predikante. Die ontstaan van die oudste universiteite in Europa is ten nouste verweef met teologiese fakulteite. In sommige gevalle het universiteite gegroei vanuit ’n aanvanklike teologiese fakulteit. Die honderd jaar se geskiedenis van die Universiteit van Pretoria (UP) reflekteer ook iets van die verbondenheid van teologiese opleiding met UP. Van die honderd jaar was die Nederduitch Hervormde Kerk van Afrika (NHKA), vanaf die vestiging van ‘n teologiese fakulteit in 1917, verbonde aan die Universiteitvan Pretoria.


Author(s):  
Cornelius J.P. Niemandt

The research addressed the issue of symbolic walls that divide, segregate, preserve and institutionalise. The way in which institutions and especially the Faculty of Theology at the University of Pretoria facilitated symbolic ‘walls’ was discussed in the overview of the Department of Science of Religion and Missiology in the first century of the Faculty of Theology. The concepts of ‘gatekeepers’ and ‘traders’ were then applied because walls, paradoxically, need gates to facilitate control, movement and, eventually, life. Gatekeepers were described as the guardians of the status quo, and traders as agents who, in one way or another, facilitate movement, trade, flow and life in the midst of the shadows of walls. Missionaries are, by the very nature of the missionary enterprise, more traders than gatekeepers. Here, the work of Bosch – specifically his ground-breaking work on mission as contextualisation – provides an explanation of the art of mission as breaking down walls, opening gates and empowering traders. That is precisely why Missiology is particularly well suited to assist the church and theology in the art of breaking down walls. The theological imperative of contextualisation means that the life of the church, theology, and  thus theological training, cannot do without Missiology. The concept of ‘deep contextualisation’ was discussed as a particularly relevant approach to include a post-anthropomorphic discourse in Missiology. It can assist with the reorientation of the history of mission on the whole of history and, thus, also deep history. The concept also provides a way to address the discourses on colonialisation and includes a reorientation on the future and embracing hope.


2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 133
Author(s):  
Casparus J. Wepener ◽  
Yolanda Dreyer ◽  
Johann A. Meylahn

The focus of this chapter is the tradition of PT at the UP. We consider it as practiced in the Department of PT at the UP at the time of celebrating the centenary of the FT by looking at it from different angles in order to focus on its unique position and especially its future in its particular context. By looking at the history of the subject and the Department as well as the global and local context within which the discipline is practiced in Pretoria, the possible direction is sketched in which this discipline can move at the Department of PT at the UP after 2017 (the year of the centenary of the FT).The chapter challenges the discipline of PT to embrace the continent of Africa where the department is situated, assuming that such an embracing will impact both ontology and epistemology. In this regard, we suggest a pneumapraxis to be part of the future of this discipline in SA. The chapter promotes both an intra and interdisciplinary approach.


2017 ◽  
pp. 5-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Yasin

The article is devoted to major events in the history of the post-Soviet economy, their influence on forming and development of modern Russia. The author considers stages of restructuring, market reforms, transformational crisis, and recovery growth (1999-2011), as well as a current period which started in2011 and is experiencing serious problems. The present situation is analyzed, four possible scenarios are put forward for Russia: “inertia”, “mobilization”, “decisive leap”, “gradual democratic development”. More than 30 experts were questioned in the process of working out the scenarios.


1996 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jay Hall ◽  
Jonathan Prangnell ◽  
Bruno David

The Tower Mill, Brisbane's oldest extant building, was excavated by the University of Queensland to determine for the Brisbane City Council the heritage potential of surrounding subsurface deposits.  Following the employment of GPR, excavation revealed interesting stratifications, features and artefacts.  Analysis permits an explanation for these deposits which augment an already fascinating history of the site's use over the past 170 years or so.


2014 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-60
Author(s):  
Davide Sparti

Obwohl jede menschliche Handlung mit einem gewissen Grad an Improvisation erfolgt, gibt es kulturelle Praktiken, bei denen Improvisation eine überwiegende Rolle spielt. Um das Risiko zu vermeiden, einen zu breiten Begriff von Improvisation zu übernehmen, konzentriere ich mich im vorliegenden Beitrag auf den Jazz. Meine zentrale Frage lautet, wie Improvisation verstanden werden muss. Mein Vorgehen ist folgendes: Ich beginne mit einem Vergleich von Improvisation und Komposition, damit die Spezifizität der Improvisation erklärt werden kann. Danach wende ich mich dem Thema der Originalität als Merkmal der Improvisation zu. Zum Schluss führe ich den Begriff affordance ein, um die kollektive und zirkuläre Logik eines Solos zu analysieren. Paradigmatisch wird der Jazzmusiker mit dem Engel der Geschichte verglichen, der nur auf das Vergangene blickt, während er der Zukunft den Rücken zugekehrt hat, und lediglich ihr zugetrieben wird. Weder kann der Improvisierende das Material der Vergangenheit vernachlässigen noch seine genuine Tätigkeit, das Improvisieren in der Gegenwart und für die Zukunft, aufgeben: Er visiert die Zukunft trotz ihrer Unvorhersehbarkeit über die Vermittlung der Vergangenheit an.<br><br>While improvised behavior is so much a part of human existence as to be one of its fundamental realities, in order to avoid the risk of defining the act of improvising too broadly, my focus here will be upon one of the activities most explicitly centered around improvisation – that is, upon jazz. My contribution, as Wittgenstein would say, has a »grammatical« design to it: it proposes to clarify the significance of the term »improvisation.« The task of clarifying the cases in which one may legitimately speak of improvisation consists first of all in reflecting upon the conditions that make the practice possible. This does not consist of calling forth mysterious, esoteric processes that take place in the unconscious, or in the minds of musicians, but rather in paying attention to the criteria that are satisfied when one ascribes to an act the concept of improvisation. In the second part of my contribution, I reflect upon the logic that governs the construction of an improvised performance. As I argue, in playing upon that which has already emerged in the music, in discovering the future as they go on (as a consequence of what they do), jazz players call to mind the angel in the famous painting by Klee that Walter Benjamin analyzed in his Theses on the History of Philosophy: while pulled towards the future, its eyes are turned back towards the past.


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