- Faculty of Theology, Stellenbosch University 171 Dorp Street 171 Dorp Street
- 0218083264
Cas Wepener
Stellenbosch University, Practical Theology and Missiology, Faculty Member
- University of Pretoria, Practical Theology, Faculty Memberadd
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In the second part of this article exploring angry liturgy and preaching, a preliminary theory of liturgical and homiletical praxis for angry liturgy and preaching is developed. The theoretical exploration of anger from Part 1 is... more
In the second part of this article exploring angry liturgy and preaching, a preliminary theory of liturgical and homiletical praxis for angry liturgy and preaching is developed. The theoretical exploration of anger from Part 1 is developed by means of explicating the themes of angry listening, angry hermeneutics, practices, and strategies for angry preaching, and angry liturgy as a liturgical and homiletical praxis theory.
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In a world plagued by injustices such as gender-based violence, racism, poverty, and inequality, preaching and liturgy can foster a prophetic imagination that simultaneously criticizes and energizes. In two articles, the potentially... more
In a world plagued by injustices such as gender-based violence, racism, poverty, and inequality, preaching and liturgy can foster a prophetic imagination that simultaneously criticizes and energizes. In two articles, the potentially positive role that anger can play in this kind of liturgy and preaching is explored. After a narrative-style introduction, the first article provides a contextual and theoretical background by describing a South African and global context that elicits a wide range of angry responses. It follows with an exploration of anger as an emotion and the importance of the human body, including the emotions and the senses, in the performance of worship and preaching. Furthermore, anger in theological discussions is presented, as well as the practice of listening to anger. Finally, different kinds of anger are described with one specific type, named Lordean rage by Myisha Cherry, being examined as a meaningful type of anger for liturgical praxis. Expressions of Lordean anger as encountered in biblical and present-day contexts can, and even should at times, be embodied in preaching and liturgy. The second article builds on these insights and develops a preliminary liturgical and homiletical praxis theory for angry preaching and worship.
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Since 1994, a democratic South Africa has seen many positive changes towards transformation; however, ‘exclusion, marginalization and social injustice’ are still prevalent (Buitendag 2017:65). As part of the overarching transformation... more
Since 1994, a democratic South Africa has seen many positive changes towards transformation; however, ‘exclusion, marginalization and social injustice’ are still prevalent (Buitendag 2017:65). As part of the overarching transformation processes, in general, and in institutions of higher education, the transformation of the curriculum has been a slow process (Bunting 2006:35). Theological education has also been highlighted as having a continuation of a Eurocentric mode within previously white Afrikaans Universities and resembles that of a ‘little Europe’ (Buitendag 2014:1). The research gap for the work presented in this article was discovered, whilst the researcher herself was in a lecturing role teaching theology. The Curricula and Pedagogy (Freire 1970), in other words both the content she had to teach and the ways in which she had to teach it, were not conducive for learning in a multicultural and multi-denominational setting, as it was just perpetuating a Western paradigm witho...
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Illness is a reality that affects all people, and healing is the main reason why people attend worship services in sub-Saharan Africa. According to the Ritual Studies scholar Ronald Grimes, illness is a social reality; it is socially... more
Illness is a reality that affects all people, and healing is the main reason why people attend worship services in sub-Saharan Africa. According to the Ritual Studies scholar Ronald Grimes, illness is a social reality; it is socially imagined and constructed. Healing in the church is something that many believers experience, also in the context of worship and liturgy. In order to explore such healing as it occurs in liturgy a research project was undertaken making use of both empirical work and a literature study. The aim of this research was to take the light off of direct pastoral care and investigate how the liturgy affects individuals within the congregation with regard to healing. A praxis-theory cycle was followed in the research, and a preliminary liturgical theory for praxis was developed based on the insight from the empirical study and ritual theory that healing through worship entails either transformation or reconciliation.
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In this article the fields of speech and language pathology and of homiletics join hands to explore the theological and spiritual aspects of preaching in combination with the aspects influencing voice production in the (South) African... more
In this article the fields of speech and language pathology and of homiletics join hands to explore the theological and spiritual aspects of preaching in combination with the aspects influencing voice production in the (South) African context; this is done to highlight the importance of reflexivity/self-awareness and the self-care of preachers. The main aim of the article is to promote the need for a distinctly (South) African cura vocalis by exploring factors that influence preaching and use of voice in this context. This aim is pursued by firstly describing preaching as a performance that involves the whole human body. The article then describes and discusses the challenges that preachers face in the (South) African context. These homiletical and contextual insights are augmented with insights from the domain of speech and language pathology, which includes a brief description of the main organs involved in voice production and how voice works, along with factors that have an impa...
The potential value of the bodily expression of anger and lament has been explored in literature, also the value and need for rituals and liturgies of anger and lament. One aspect of angry liturgy that has not yet received much attention... more
The potential value of the bodily expression of anger and lament has been explored in literature, also the value and need for rituals and liturgies of anger and lament. One aspect of angry liturgy that has not yet received much attention is the spiritual practice of listening to anger and lament. This article explores listening to anger in the liturgy as a faith practice. It is argued that embodied liturgical expressions of anger should more readily be accompanied by angry listening. The theological premise of the argument is the God of the Christian liturgy is not only the God who speaks but, also and importantly, the God who listens, and that this listening (to anger) extends to both God and those encountering God in liturgy in a theonomic reciprocal way.
The similarities and differences regarding responses in the media to the phenomenon of lockdown liturgy in the Netherlands and South Africa is firstly explored in this article. The findings of Goyvaerts and Woude, which is based on their... more
The similarities and differences regarding responses in the media to the phenomenon of lockdown liturgy in the Netherlands and South Africa is firstly explored in this article. The findings of Goyvaerts and Woude, which is based on their study of discussions in Dutch media, is briefly presented and thereafter compared to responses in the South African Afrikaans media. Based on this comparison, core themes are identified and discussed as creative liturgical theological tensions pertaining to lockdown liturgies. These tensions include: Excarnation – Incarnation; Global – Local; and Prophetic – Pastoral. Revisiting and exploring these tensions are invaluable for reimagining the liturgia condenda pertaining to lockdown liturgy specifically and online liturgy in general.
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This specific contribution comes from the fields of Liturgy and Homiletics. By means of participatory action research ritual data were collected in several congregations. The data will later be analysed and interpreted by means of ritual... more
This specific contribution comes from the fields of Liturgy and Homiletics. By means of participatory action research ritual data were collected in several congregations. The data will later be analysed and interpreted by means of ritual criticism. In this article the theoretical foundation is being laid, and the specific way in which ritual criticism will be conducted is explained. This means that the concepts social capital and poverty will firstly be explored. Thereafter the so-called dimensions, processes and qualities of ritual are presented and discussed in the light of the concepts poverty and social capital. The hypothesis with which this research works, is that certain dimensions of rituals are ‘better’ or ‘more adequate’ with regards to the generation of social capital in contexts of poverty than other dimensions, and that depending on the context, some dimensions may even be counter productive in this regard.
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TeologiePraktiese Teologie En MissiologiePlease help us populate SUNScholar with the post print version of this article. It can be e-mailed to: scholar@sun.ac.z
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The office of the minister. Part 3: The tasks of the minister according to article 9 in historical and ecumenical perspective. The office of the minister of the Word is currently faced with a very demanding South African ecclesiastical... more
The office of the minister. Part 3: The tasks of the minister according to article 9 in historical and ecumenical perspective. The office of the minister of the Word is currently faced with a very demanding South African ecclesiastical context. The way in which the Bible speaks about the office of the minister, or religious leaders in general, is also very complex without any easy answers. We have however seen that the demands of the context play a vital role in defining the role of the religious leader and that there are some constant features concerning leadership in the Bible. In this article the historical development of article 9 in the Church Order of the DRC will be traced, specifically looking at early French Church Orders, the 1559 Institutes, the Church Order of the Synod of Dordt 1618/9, and a selection of South African Dutch Reformed Church Orders. The same article (9) is then scrutinised in the Reformed Family World Wide. Such a synchronic and diachronic survey helps to...
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In the first three articles in this series a diachronic historical overview of the development of the catechumenate has been conducted. In this article it will be shown how the old process of the catechumenate is being rediscovered by... more
In the first three articles in this series a diachronic historical overview of the development of the catechumenate has been conducted. In this article it will be shown how the old process of the catechumenate is being rediscovered by churches world-wide and utilised as a process, as well as some comparable developments in the domain of Ritual Studies. A description of what other churches are doing will shed light on how they have answered similar questions to the ones that we are asking in this series, specifically the questions concerning ethics, teaching and mission. Therefor after a very short literature survey an ecumenical survey will be conducted, concluding with suggestions for application in Protestant churches.
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In this article the central question being explored is ‘what is a missional liturgy?’ The exploration is conducted by making use of data and insights obtained from the Southern African Partnership for Missional Churches (SAPMC). After an... more
In this article the central question being explored is ‘what is a missional liturgy?’ The exploration is conducted by making use of data and insights obtained from the Southern African Partnership for Missional Churches (SAPMC). After an introduction to the theme as well as the SAPMC-process, the analyzed data is presented. In conclusion some observations are made in an attempt to provide preliminary contours for attempts to answer the initial question.