Between the Scylla and the Charybdis : theological education in the 21st century in Africa
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Buitendag, JohanContributor(s)
johan.buitendag@up.ac.za
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http://hdl.handle.net/2263/45077Abstract
This article is a reworked version of the keynote address presented by Prof. Dr Johan Buitendag on 08 November 2014 at the 69th Graduation Ceremony of the Trinity Theological Seminary in Legon (Ghana) on invitation of the President of the Seminary, Rev. Prof. J.O.Y. Mante.The article reflects on the challenges of theological education in the 21st century and in Africa. Reputation, impact, success and funding have become the driving forces of the modern university. However, we are living in the 21st century and in Africa with a subsequent frame of reference that is holistic and faith-based. The article therefore argues for a multi- and transdisciplinary approach towards the nature of a university and recognition of the unique contribution theological education can contribute. Due to the inherently cooperative nature of theological scholarship, theological education could be able to avoid the extremes of the Scylla and the Charybdis, that is, fideism and secularisation, and therefore be able to survive at an academic institution. Both sectarianism and scientism should be avoided. Theological education in Africa needed to travel the same difficult road of theological faculties in Europe in the previous century.
am2015
http://www.hts.org.za
Date
2015-05-08Type
ArticleIdentifier
oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/45077Buitendag, J., 2014, ‘Between the Scylla and the Charybdis: Theological education in the 21st century in Africa’, HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies 70(1), Art. #2855, 5 pages. http://dx.DOI.org/10.4102/hts.v70i1.2855
10.4102/hts.v70i1.2855
0259-9422 (print)
http://hdl.handle.net/2263/45077
2072-8050 (online)