Lisel Joubert

It is a privilege to have the opportunity to think about the future of theology as an academic discipline and especially on the role of Ecclesiology (Church History). I will do it by just briefly making some comments on all five theses as were set on the table by Dr Vosloo. The comments are not extensive but rather reflects my own personal and passionate beliefs, and I will jump from the perspective of students, church leaders and my own position as lover of history.

This article explores the transformative power of narrative. In recent times scholars have explored the potential of narrative theology, including use of narrative in counselling, preaching and the formation of theological identity. In this article I do not focus on the narratives in the Hebrew Bible but the bulk of Jewish literature that drew its inspiration from Biblical stories. The wisdom character of narrative and its rhetorical function of transforming communities will be explored. In evaluating the role of the narrative aggada for today, I will plot how it was received and valued throughout the centuries by the church, especially the early Church Fathers. The main question concerns the possibility of using the narrative aggada in a positive way in the rhetoric of a Christian community?

The opening of the Andrew Murray Centre for Christian Spirituality in Wellington creates a space for potential research on the legacy of Andrew Murray in South Africa. In retrieving his spiritual legacy, it is important to understand the contextual character of spirituality. In this article, the importance of methodology in studying history and spirituality as part of such an enterprise is motivated, and possible avenues of research will be proposed.

In the writing of letters to his children Andrew Murray Jr gives the reader a glimpse in his understanding of reading not only of Scripture but of other books and texts. In his letters he teaches his children “how to read” using terminology that can be traced back to the Desert Fathers and the Benedictine tradition. This way of spiritual reading can be used fruitfully in dialogue with literary studies especially Reader Response theories in an age where reading, especially Bible reading, has become problematic.

This article engages with the reception and naming of women by contemporary historians and theologians. The core question is as follows: when is a woman received as a theologian? This question is looked at via the works of Hadewijch, a 13th-century Flemish writer. Scholars easily group together women from the High Middle Ages as mystics, referring to the experiential character of their theology and their writing in the vernacular. These criteria of gender, language and experience then disqualify them as theologians and qualify them as mystics. In this article, the dichotomy between spirituality and theology is revisited and examples of a growing discourse where Hadewijch and some of her contemporaries are called theologians are given. The genre of theology is then widened to recognise the worth not only of scholastic discourse but also of vision, poetry and bodily experience.Contribution: The renaming of historical woman figures is of utmost importance in the understanding of what c...

This book is a welcome translation of an important work and a definite contribution to the field of Biblical anthropology.  The authors describe it as a little snippet in this field with the theme "body and bodliness".  Even so this book has the potential to influence a wider range of biblical and theological studies.

In this essay the life and some of the writings of John de Gruchy are revisited in light of a retrieval of an understanding of mysticism rooted in the Early Church. In revisiting the concept of mysticism through the work of different scholars the question is posed whether the work of John de Gruchy reflects this understanding of mysticism and if he can be seen as a Reformed Mystic.

This article deals with how a flat character in a biblical narrative could grow and assume a life of its own that becomes the example par excellence of holiness for many believers throughout the ages. Inspired by the work of B. R. Gaventa and her narrative reading of the Gospel texts and exploration of the characterisation of Mary, I would like to explore the dynamic of reception history and the changing criteria for holiness. I will consider the phenomenon of characterisation in narratives, the blurring of lines in interpretation and how a character in a narrative, which is an artificial construct, is taken out of that context and placed in contexts determined, in a sense, by generations of ’new narrators’ with changing understandings of holiness.

This article explores the transformative power of narrative. In recent times scholars have explored the potential of narrative theology, including use of narrative in counselling, preaching and the formation of theological identity. In this article I do not focus on the narratives in the Hebrew Bible but the bulk of Jewish literature that drew its inspiration from Biblical stories. The wisdom character of narrative and its rhetorical function of transforming communities will be explored. In evaluating the role of the narrative aggada for today, I will plot how it was received and valued throughout the centuries by the church, especially the early Church Fathers. The main question concerns the possibility of using the narrative aggada in a positive way in the rhetoric of a Christian community?