Doctoral Degrees (Systematic Theology and Ecclesiology)

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Browsing Doctoral Degrees (Systematic Theology and Ecclesiology) by Subject "Apartheid -- South Africa"

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    Avowing truth, embodying justice : a theological analysis of truth-telling and transitional justice in South Africa
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2021-10-19) Van der Riet, Ryno Louis; Van der Borght, Eduardus; Vosloo, Robert; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. of Systematic Theology and Ecclesiology.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study presents a theological analysis of the hermeneutic and ethical challenges of truth-telling in the pursuit of justice within the context of transitional justice in South Africa. The main research objective of the study is to deepen understanding of the exchange between theological perspectives on truth-telling for justice, and the enacted mandates of transitional justice. This exchange is drawn from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and is shown to have implications for the public theology of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa. The first chapter introduces and frames the systematic, theological rationale and methodology of the study and the chosen hermeneutical contours concerned with historical theology, Christian ethics, and public theology. A porous division is introduced between ascribing truth and constituting truthfulness, in order to test the theological argument for the embodiment of truth-telling. Naming this division is a descriptive attempt that contributes to contouring the challenges of avowing truth while embodying justice. Based on a public theological rationale and methodology, these challenges are addressed as theological problems with consequences for Christian public witness. Chapter Two and Four explore these challenges of truth and truthfulness as enacted in both the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) (Chapter Two) and in Reformed public theologies in South Africa (Chapter Four). In Chapters Three and Five, two conversation partners are chosen to aid the analysis of the challenges of truth-telling; Michel Foucault, primarily in conversation with the TRC, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer in conversation with Reformed public theologies in South Africa. The historical philosophy of Foucault on regimes of truth is taken from his Louvain lecture series Wrong-Doing, Truth-Telling: The Function of Avowal in Justice (Chapter Three). As a long-standing conversation partner in the formation of public theologies in South Africa, Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s thought on truth-telling is chosen and drawn specifically from his essay, What Does it Mean to Tell the Truth (Chapter Five). The sixth chapter concludes the analyses presented in this study by summarizing and drawing together the contours of truth, truthfulness and truth-telling in the previous chapters. These contours are shaped by perspectives on how truth and truthfulness have been enacted in transitional justice, and in Reformed public theologies in South Africa, and by asking how a focus on truth-telling has contributed to better understanding how truth and truthfulness function in transitional justice. Finally, these various perspectives on the problematic of truth-telling are used to suggest future research possibilities for the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa, especially regarding race and sexuality as issues of human dignity and theological anthropology. The contours of a theological hermeneutic of truth-telling that emerge from the TRC, Foucault, Reformed public theologies, and Bonhoeffer demonstrate the practice of confession as a quintessential form of avowing truth and embodying justice. This study demonstrates that conceptual clarity and historical descriptions of what it means to tell the truth has made a theological enquiry into truth-telling more suited to the demands of restorative justice. The research contributes to the demands of working with verifiable (whether through judicial practice, personal testimony or other) information; the demand of qualifying and identifying who is responsible for the action steps necessary to bring about justice; and the demand to know how those telling the truth come to know what they claim as truth and as true. The concept of truth-telling emerges as an apt description for the embodiment of truth and truthfulness and is therefore not a stand-alone concept. Truth-telling is unavoidable for both theological witnessing and for transitional justice practices as it stresses the embodied nature of what it means to tell the truth for justice.
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    Prof. B.B. Keet, 1885 tot 1974, leraar en hoogleraar in die Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 1992) De Beer, J. C.; Brown, E.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. of Systematical Theology and Ecclesiology.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This scientific biography deals with the life of Prof. Barend Bartholomeus Keet. An attempt is made to penetrate to the fundamental characteristics of his life, and to establish why Prof. Keet found it necessary on occasion to take a stand which brought him into conflict with the church and society. His influence on others in this regard .is not ignored either. The course of his life is described in its historical context. Events and discussions in which he took part are identified and discussed with a view to reaching a synthesis. The conclusion arrived at is that Prof. Keet's life was governed by his interpretation of his calling, namely to verbalise the will of the Lord for society according to the Scriptures. Three of his personality traits, namely his formidable reasoning abilities, his sense of justice and his aversion to dissension, played a decisive role in this respect.It was therefore vitally important to him, as a theologian, always to be accountable to the Scriptures and the reformed tradition. Prof. Keet's influence was especially evident in his introduction into the Dutch Reformed Church of the theological principles set by the Free University of Amsterdam. He was very particular, however that advocacy of these principles should not lead to a pedantic approach. For forty years he instructed future ministers in these principles. When he retired, he could take pleasure in the fact that all the lecturers at the Theological institutions at Stellenbosch and Pretoria were past students of his! As an ethicist he exerted his influence to great effect to convince the Dutch Reformed Church that the State's policy of apartheid could not be substantiated by the Scriptures. In conclusion it can be said that his own words "The church must not allow itself to be led by others; it should rather show others the way", serve to describe the fundamental principle of his life. That is why the text used at his funeral was so appropriate: "It is the duty of priests to teach the true knowledge of God. People should go to 'them to learn my will, because they are the messengers of the Lord Almighty."(Mal.2:7)