Abstract:
In this article, the author engages with the question ‘what is so theological about theological
education?’, which he calls a genealogy of theology. This matter is approached from a very
specific vantage point as the author was the former dean of the Faculty of Theology and
Religion at the University of Pretoria (South Africa) and has engaged in this research project
over the past 5 years, as the Faculty was under severe review as to its composition, and
ultimately its very future. This article endeavours to bring to the surface the underlying
theology of the author and the paradigm he is operating from. It concludes with a definition of
theology as he sees it, but with the explicit qualification of it being situated at a researchintensive
university competing for a notable position on the ranking indexes of world
universities. A new niche is thus opening up for theology (vis-à-vis a seminary or even a
Christian university), namely, a ‘scholarly endeavour of believers in the public sphere in order
to inquire into a multi-dimensional reality in a manner that matters’.
Description:
This research is part of the
project, ‘University, Education
and Theology’, directed by
Prof. Dr Johan Buitendag,
Department of Historical and
Systematic Theology, Faculty
of Theology, University of
Pretoria.
