scholarly journals The tradition of Practical Theology at the University of Pretoria

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.

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.


Author(s):  
Julian C. Müller

At the University of Pretoria the author, a practical theologian, experiences a fruitful soil for the development of an interdisciplinary process. He referred to concrete examples of cooperation, but used the article to reflect on best practices for the interdisciplinary dialogue. He came to the conclusion that it probably made more sense to talk of Practical-theological alternatives rather than to describe the subject in a single fixed manner of understanding and action. Our goal should rather be to open up the boundaries between Practical Theology, Human, Social and Natural Sciences.


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.


2009 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elsje P. B�chner ◽  
Julian C. M�ller

This article tells the story of the development of the Department of Practical Theology of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Pretoria. The story goes back to the start of the Faculty in 1938, although the Department of Practical Theology was only established in 1966 when Professor H.D.A. du Toit applied himself fully to the subject and Professor C.W.H. Boshoff became the first full-time lecturer for Missiology. The article is written mainly from the perspective of the Dutch Reformed Church, but with the acknowledgement of the appointments of Professor Yolanda Dreyer from the Nederduitsch Reformed Church of Africa and Professor Maake Masango from the Uniting Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa.


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.


Author(s):  
L. A. Schwarzschild

The imperative occupies A unique position in the conjugation system. In its real function it implies the presence of a speaker issuing a command to one or more listeners, or making an order referring to a third person or persons. This means that the conjugation tends to be defective. Because of its immediate association with the speaker the imperative is generally linked with the present tense, but through its meaning it is also associated with the future tense. The uncertainty of whether a command will be carried out links the imperative with the subjunctive, while the idea of volition brings it close to the optative. These special features and varying associations make the history of the imperative extremely complex in Middle Indo-Aryan as in other languages. An attempt is made here to study two aspects of this history: the use of the subject pronoun with the imperative, and the distribution of the forms of the second person singular of the imperative. Other features of the imperative, in particular its relation to the passive, will be discussed later.


Author(s):  
Steven J. R. Ellis

Tabernae were ubiquitous among all Roman cities, lining the busiest streets and dominating their most crowded intersections, and in numbers not known by any other form of building. That they played a vital role in the operation of the city—indeed in the very definition of urbanization—is a point too often under-appreciated in Roman studies, or at best assumed. The Roman Retail Revolution is a thorough investigation into the social and economic worlds of the Roman shop. With a focus on food and drink outlets, and with a critical analysis of both archaeological material and textual sources, Ellis challenges many of the conventional ideas about the place of retailing in the Roman city. A new framework is forwarded, for example, to understand the motivations behind urban investment in tabernae. Their historical development is also unraveled to identify three major waves—or, revolutions—in the shaping of retail landscapes. Two new bodies of evidence underpin the volume. The first is generated from the University of Cincinnati’s recent archaeological excavations into a Pompeian neighborhood of close to twenty shop-fronts. The second comes from a field survey of the retail landscapes of more than a hundred cities from across the Roman world. The richness of this information, combined with an interdisciplinary approach to the lives of the Roman sub-elite, results in a refreshingly original look at the history of retailing and urbanism in the Roman world.


2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 189-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabio Rodrigues ◽  
Douglas Galante ◽  
Ivan G. Paulino-Lima ◽  
Rubens T.D. Duarte ◽  
Amancio C.S. Friaça ◽  
...  

AbstractThis review reports the Brazilian history in astrobiology, as well as the first delineation of a vision of the future development of the field in the country, exploring its abundant biodiversity, highly capable human resources and state-of-the-art facilities, reflecting the last few years of stable governmental investments in science, technology and education, all conditions providing good perspectives on continued and steadily growing funding for astrobiology-related research. Brazil is growing steadily and fast in terms of its worldwide economic power, an effect being reflected in different areas of the Brazilian society, including industry, technology, education, social care and scientific production. In the field of astrobiology, the country has had some important landmarks, more intensely after the First Brazilian Workshop on Astrobiology in 2006. The history of astrobiology in Brazil, however, is not so recent and had its first occurrence in 1958. Since then, researchers carried out many individual initiatives across the country in astrobiology-related fields, resulting in an ever growing and expressive scientific production. The number of publications, including articles and theses, has particularly increased in the last decade, but still counting with the effort of researchers working individually. That scenario started to change in 2009, when a formal group of Brazilian researchers working with astrobiology was organized, aiming at congregating the scientific community interested in the subject and to promote the necessary interactions to achieve a multidisciplinary work, receiving facilities and funding from the University de Sao Paulo and other funding agencies.


1989 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
P. S. Dreyer

The philosophical background of the theological training of the Nederduitsch Hervormde Church of Afrika at the University of Pretoria Since the inception of the theological training of the Nederduitsch Hervormde Church of Africa at the University of Pretoria in 1917 philosophy has been a mandatory subject for all propaedeutic theological students. The history of the Department of Philosophy is traced to show the prevalent types of philosophy taught in the Department, because the philosophical training is considered important as preparation for theological training.


Curationis ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
LO Fouché ◽  
R Du Toit

Due to feedback from students, student abuse during fieldwork, was brought to the attention of the researchers. The study aimed to determine whether a need for a nonabusive intervention programme (NIP) existed amongst the School of Health Care Science students at the University of Pretoria. All students enrolled at the School of Health Care Sciences completed a questionnaire. An overwhelming response indicated that the majority of students (95.85%) have a need for a non-abusive intervention programme (NIP). A significant need was identified especially among Nursing-, Physiotherapy- and Radiography students, 2nd and 4,h year students, and within a psychiatric fieldwork setting. Two surprise findings were firstly, that students who have no history of abuse have a greater need for an intervention programme than students with a history of abuse. Secondly superiors in the field are responsible for the majority of abusive incidences reported by students. The implementation of a non-abusive intervention programme (NIP) to help students handle abusive incidences effectively and humanely is strongly recommended.


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