scholarly journals The role of prophetic action in public theology – the implications for addressing corruption in a context of sustainable development

2014 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Friedrich W. De Wet
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Public Space ◽  
South African ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Role ◽  
African Churches ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Two Kingdoms ◽  
The Church

After almost two decades of democratic rule in South Africa, patterns of withdrawal and uncertainty about the complexities involved in defining the contents, rationality and impact of the public role of the church in society seem to be prevalent. As unabated levels of corruption and its sustained threat to sustainable development point out, a long-awaited reckoning should take place – at least in the circles of South African churches from reformed origin – regarding its rich tradition of critical and transformational prophetic involvement in the public space. In this article, the author places different models for the public role of the church in the field of tension that is generated when the private and public spheres meet each other. The author anticipates different configurations that will probably form in this field of tension in the cases of respectively the Two Kingdoms Model, the Neo-Calvinist Approach and the Communicative Rationality Approach.Die rol van profetiese prediking in publieke teologie: Die implikasies vir die hantering van korrupsie in ‘n konteks van volhoubare ontwikkeling. Na bykans twee dekades van demokratiese regering in Suid-Afrika blyk dit dat patrone van onttrekking en onsekerheid oor wat die inhoud, rasionaliteit en impak van die publieke rol van die kerk in die samelewing presies behels, steeds voortduur. In ‘n situasie waaruit dit blyk dat daar geen werklike teenvoeter is vir die hoë vlakke van korrupsie asook vir die bedreiging wat dit vir volhoubare ontwikkeling inhou nie, is dit hoog tyd dat die kerk, ten minste in die geval van die Suid-Afrikaanse kerke van reformatoriese oorsprong, diep oor sy profetiese rol in die samelewing moet besin. Hierdie kerke kom uit ‘n ryke tradisie van kritiese en transformerende betrokkenheid in die publieke sfeer. In hierdie artikel plaas die outeur verskillende modelle vir die publieke rol van die kerk in die spanningsveld wat gegenereer word wanneer die private en publieke sfere mekaar ontmoet. Die outeur antisipeer verskillende konfigurasies wat waarskynlik na vore sal tree in hierdie spanningsveld in die gevalle van onderskeidelik die Twee Koninkryke Model, die Neo-Calvinistiese Benadering en die Kommunikatiewe Rasionaliteit Benadering.

scholarly journals Theology in Public Space and Social Movements: Notes from Alain Badiou’s Concept of Event

Open Theology ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 395-406
Author(s):  
Felipe Gustavo Koch Buttelli ◽  
Clint Le Bruyns
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Social Order ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Role ◽  
The Social ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Role Of Religion ◽  
The Church

Abstract The debate over the public role of religion and of theology has become quite urgent. Not only by the evident religious presence in the party politics sphere, nor by its influence in the Brazilian social culture and life, but by the role that theology and, in this case, the churches can have to transform the social order. The present work reinforces the emancipatory potential of theology and the action of the church in the public space, pointing to a priority locus, from which both reflection and practice can be emancipatedly formulated, namely, social movements. Social movements, it will be argued, are the space in which the spark that gives rise to social and political change emerges in reality. In this sense, some notes will be made from the notion of Event of Alain Badiou, which recognizes, so to speak, the unique epiphanic character of the Events that can divide history between before and after, which effectively have a radically transforming character. In this sense, the heuristic potential for the church and theology will be emphasized to engage in the struggles of movements in the experience of the Badiousian Events that we could characterize as based on the paradigm of revelation.

Italian Perspectives on Pandemic Responses: Tracing Early Critiques from Europe’s First Lockdown

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 288-305
Author(s):  
Andrea Fumagalli ◽  
Sara Gandini ◽  
Cristina Morini
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Collective Good ◽  
Public Health Issue ◽  
Public Healthcare ◽  
Social Infrastructure ◽  
Term Care ◽  
The Public ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
European Investment

Abstract This paper is a translation of three early critiques of the responses of the Covid-19 pandemic in Italy, each addressing a unique facet and different perspective of Europe’s first lockdown. Through bringing together these memorial traces, the article captures the heterogeneity of discussions taking place on the left at the very beginning of the pandemic, destabilizing a totalizing framing of Covid responses through simple binaries such as health vs economics or individual rights vs the collective good. Crisitina Morini addresses the ambivalences around the term ‘care’ (in Italian meaning both ‘attention’ and ‘cure’). Grounded in feminist economics, she argues for the establishment of a self-determination income envisioned as an unconditional and universal income, not linked to working positions. Sara Gandini ponders the possibility of turning anger into a political force and questions what forms this could take. Highlighting the problems related to turning a public health issue into one of national security, Gandini probes the politics of acceptability around Covid-related deaths against non-Covid related deaths, particularly deaths precisely exacerbated by confinement strategies. She speaks also of the silencing and policing of dissent when one tries to raise such issues in the public space. Lastly, Andrea Fumagalli uses the idea of crisis as an opportunity to rethink social and economic issues. These include readjusting the balance between private and public healthcare, (especially as Covid treatments are not very profitable), the implementation of a major European investment plan relating to social infrastructure and the environment, which will relaunch the European economy. Though these critiques were formulated at the start of the pandemic. many of the arguments and questions the authors asked themselves at the time remain highly topical: the role of welfare and income, the regulatory devices (including gender) that risk passing using the fight against the pandemic; all of which are central to maintaining a lucidity of analysis and to be resistant witnesses, politicizing anger to turn it into an agency that takes advantage of this difficult experience to build a slightly better world.

Integrity in the public life of the Church from Acts 4:15–20

2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (3) ◽  
pp. 473-478
Author(s):  
Liliana Da Valle
Keyword(s):  
Role Model ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Community Leader ◽  
Truth Telling ◽  
The Public ◽  
Societal Issues ◽  
Local Parish ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
The Church

The purpose of this expository word is to demonstrate the need for churches to participate in public theology with integrity as partners in the dialog about societal issues. Within the framework of authority and responsibility, the author attempts to establish the Church’s unique position as a truth-teller, using her experience as a local parish pastor and community leader. Looking at Scripture as a role model for policy and action, this work lifts up the conviction of the primitive Church in its role as both witness and hero. Within the concert of voices in the world, the Church has to find its own voice to speak truth to power, and honor its calling by expressing its beliefs and behaving accordingly. Some of the main emerging themes in this article include secular vs divinely inspired authority, integrity as the quality of having only one identity and position, which is both private and public, and truth-telling as the ultimate action of faith and hope. This article will contribute to the extensive amount of literature that addresses the role of the Church in public life and encourage leaders to exert their authority based on the integrity of their convictions, actions, and words.

scholarly journals Die kerk en openbare beleidsvorming – ’n praktiese voorstel vir gereformeerde getuienis

2004 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Vorster
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Neutral State ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Role ◽  
Parliamentary Sovereignty ◽  
Church Structures ◽  
Prophetic Witness ◽  
The Church

Church and public policy – a practical model for reformed witness The transition to a new constitutional dispensation in South Africa during 1994 has fundamentally changed the relation between church and state. The main differences between the old and new dispensation that have a direct influence on the public role of the church as institution are, inter alia, the following: the change from parliamentary sovereignty to constitutional supremacy, the change from a theocracy to a neutral state, and from a representative form of democracy to a participative form of democracy. The crucial question at this stage is: How should the church as institution fulfil its prophetic task towards society within the new constitutional context? This article attempts to answer the question by focusing on constitutional guarantees of religious rights, main principles for prophetic witness within a neutral state and pluralist society, and existing church structures for public engagement. The hypothesis of this article is that reformed churches should become involved in the legislative processes of the country by establishing a reformed monitoring body of legislation. This will be the most effective way of influencing public policy.

“I Willingly Speak to You about Her Virtues”: Catherine de Saint-Augustin and the Public Role of Female Holiness in Early New France

2010 ◽  
Vol 79 (2) ◽  
pp. 305-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy G. Pearson
Keyword(s):  
New France ◽  
The Public ◽  
Holy Trinity ◽  
Public Role ◽  
Four Corners ◽  
The World ◽  
Holy Water ◽  
French Colonial ◽  
The Church

On July 11, 1666, the new cathedral in the French colonial capital at Quebec was finally consecrated by the vicar apostolic of New France, Msgr. François de Laval. Catherine de Saint-Augustin, a nursing sister who belonged to the Hôtel-Dieu de Québec, described the elaborate ceremony in her journal. The celebrants in their regalia made three trips around the church sprinkling holy water and chanting prayers before they came to the main door. After striking the door three times with a cross, “to signify the power of Jesus Christ, sovereign bishop of the Church,” they entered, and majestically processed toward the high altar. Upon the altar sat four candles, which signified “that Catholics (have) spread to the four corners of the world.” In the middle of these was a single cross, “that of Our Lord,” which symbolically linked the entire Church throughout the world to its (European) center—“au milieu du monde.” Following a number of minor rites including lessons and responses, the bishop circled the altar seven times sprinkling its base with holy water. The relics of saints were interred within it, and the church was dedicated to the holy trinity—the new seat of a new bishop in a “New” World.

Spiritual Development, Its Thought, Public Praxis and the Crisis of Intersubjectivity Refocusing Religious and Theological Thought in Africa

2001 ◽  
Vol 8 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 138-164
Author(s):  
Elias M. Bongmba
Keyword(s):  
Spiritual Development ◽  
Religious Thought ◽  
African Countries ◽  
The Public ◽  
Economic Problems ◽  
Public Role ◽  
Spiritual Resources ◽  
Theological Thought ◽  
The Church

AbstractIn this essay I briefly discuss three texts on religion, theology and the public role of the church in Africa, arguing that these texts provide an understanding of spiritual development, religious and theological thought, and the public praxis of the church in selected African countries. I further posit that these texts demonstrate that spiritual resources are available to address the socio-economic problems in Africa, which I call a crisis of intersubjectivity. In the second part of the essay, I argue that to address these problems, religious thought and theology should continue to focus on relationality and community. I suggest ideas that should be considered so that religious and theological thought will continue to contribute to impact positively on the lives of people who live on the margins of society.

Schools as Architecture for Newcomers and Strangers: The Perfect School as Public School?

2010 ◽  
Vol 112 (2) ◽  
pp. 533-555
Author(s):  
Jan Masschelein ◽  
Maarten Simons
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
50Th Anniversary ◽  
Space Time ◽  
Free Time ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Role ◽  
New Beginning ◽  
Way Of Thinking

Background/Context The article reflects on the public role of education on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the publication of Hannah Arendt's essay, “The Crisis in Education” and in facing the current transformation of public policy into “new public management.” Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study Based on Arendt's essay, “The Crisis in Education,” the article explores that peculiar setting and architecture between family and world that is called school. The leading concern for this investigation is the school's public meaning. The point of departure is that today, the public role of education is an urgent concern, that is, the school's public role is questioned in view of the current processes of privatization, and what is critically described as the “capitalization of life.” In this contribution, based on a reading of Arendt's essay and relying on the analysis of a specific school design by the architect Wim Cuyvers, two different ways of thinking the public meaning of school education are explored. One way of thinking takes the school as an infrastructure of “intro-duction,” while the other way of thinking regards the school as an infrastructure of “e-duc(a)tion.” Research Design This article is an analytic essay. Conclusions/Recommendations The article shows that it is impossible to think “a new beginning in our world” without thinking the school as public space. Drawing on some thoughts of Agamben and the school architecture of Cuyvers, the article offers an outline for elaborating the Arendtian thinking of the “perfect school.” This school is conceived of as a space where people are exposed to things, and being exposed could be regarded as being drawn outside (or as e-ducation), that is, into public space. Public space is a “free space” or the space of “free time.” This free time is precisely the sense that the Greek “scholé” seemed to indicate—a space where (economic, social, cultural, political, private …) time is suspended and where people have time at their disposal for “a new beginning.” Whereas the museum is the setting that accumulates time, the school could be seen as the setting for suspending time. The school as “public architecture,” then, is not a space/time of “intro-duction” and “in-between,” but a space/time of “suspension” and “e-ducation.”

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