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Reformation and/or Renaissance? A comparison between John Calvin’s and Thabo Mbeki’s ideas of renewal
Get PDFThis essay compares the differences and similarities between the European Renaissance (±1300 – ±1600) and the African Renaissance in order to determine what an apposite Christian attitude would be. The first section describes the European Renaissance as a reaction to the Middle Ages and a return to the original sources of Western civilisation. Two different trends are distinguished, viz. classical humanism and evangelical humanism. The ideas of the great Renaissance thinker and evangelical humanist, John Calvin, about reformation receive special attention in this regard. He learned much from his contemporaries, but did so in a critical, independent way. From the five different Christian worldviews which crystallised during the Renaissance epoch, his Reformational worldview was the most strongly biblically founded one. The second main part of the essay first asks some critical questions about the African Renaissance and then provides a brief historical survey of past efforts at an African Renaissance, followed by an exposition and evaluation of Thabo Mbeki’s ideas about an African Renaissance. The third main section of the essay poses the question as to what role Christianity can and should play in the African Renaissance. Similar to the attitude of Calvin, we should both learn from it and contribute to it from the perspective of a Christian worldview
Onderwys-/opleidingsvoorsiening en ekonomiese aanvraag
Get PDFEducation/training and economic demand Education systems and their output appear to be out of step with the demands of the economy in many countries, including South Africa. Massive education investment and expansion seem to have resulted, especially in developing countries, in schooled unemployment rather than economic development, modernisation and full employment. A historicalcomparative overview reveals how economically successful countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Germany, and (until recently) the new economic giants of South-East Asia and the Far East, succeeded in aligning education and training with the economy. In conclusion the implications of their strategies for South Africa are explored. A combination of the British and Singaporean models is recommended for South Africa. A warning is, however, sounded throughout that economic systems that do not adhere to the principles of human stewardship and responsible management should not be supported by education and training in their present forms. Those involved in education and training should rather call for reform of the systems that they are expected to support
Omgewingsbestuur vanuit ’n Christelike lewensbeskouing – riglyne vir volhoubare ontwikkeling
Get PDFEnvironmental management from the perspective of a Christian world view – guidelines for sustainable development The ecological crisis facing humanity requires that the current approach to developmental thinking and decision-making be reconsidered. This implies that the impact of development on economic, social and biological systems be balanced to ensure that the optimal outcome is ensured. Environmental management is a science that studies the interrelationships among these systems. The concept of sustainable development is proposed as the ideal approach to development and is considered as the ultimate aim of environmental management. Metatheoretical, philosophical and ideological viewpoints are, however, also decisive in determining our views on development. This article will provide an overview of Christian principles with regard to sustainable development that could serve as a basis for Christianity’s approach to environmental management
The uniqueness of cultures, universality and normativity – with special reference to the normative meaning of differentiation
Get PDFThe inevitable presence of similarities between different cultures sets a limit to the (irrationalist) claim that the uniqueness of every culture precludes the comparability of cultures. Investigating the background of this untenable view opens up the way to arrive at a reassessment of the role of continuity and universality. This provides the basis of an account of the normative meaning of biotical analogies within the various normative aspects of reality. The characterization of undifferentiated societies in a contrasting way highlights the normative meaning of societal differentiation. Examples of an excessive expansion of the power of particular societal spheres, such as the domain of the church or the scope of science (during the Middle Ages and the modern development of society), demonstrate that the course of factual events frequently does not observe the normative (sphere-sovereign) structural boundaries for differentiated societal collectivities
Die vroeg-Christelike doop as kultureelrituele simbool
Get PDFEarly Christian baptism as a cultural, ritual symbol This article describes baptism as a cultural, ritual symbol. Baptism is seen as a symbol consisting of reason, value and meaning. The reason why baptism functions as a symbol has a historical basis in the death and resurrection of Jesus. For the first Jesus followers the value of being baptized was that they became part of a new value system. This value system gave meaning to the lives of the baptized and others who stood in relationship with them. The initiation into this alternative lifestyle (through baptism) was made possible by an altered state of consciousness
School effectiveness research – ’n metateoreties-metodologiese perspektief
Get PDFSchool effectiveness research has been blossoming for the last three decades: people do things on purpose, and wish to establish from time to time whether they have reached their objectives. The history of school effectiveness research, however, reveals that it has often been hampered by shortcomings, such as striving to understand effectiveness in terms of inadequate criteria, and approaching education narrowly in the sense of teaching or instruction, in the process overlooking the complexities of the human being and of education. Such shortcomings can, however, be eradicated by taking into consideration some of the philosophical foundations of school effectiveness. Doing so leads, inter alia, to the methodological insight that school effectiveness should be assessed by means of a research strategy commensurate with the complexity of the problem
Corruption: A many-headed monster
Get PDFThe prevalence of corruption poses a serious threat to our nation. This paper intends to investigate, apart from the various forms of corruption and our reactions to them, the causes of and the possible cures for this evil in our society
Exhortation in Calvin’s sermon on 2 Timothy 3:16-17
Get PDFThis article deals with the aspect of exhortation in one of John Calvin’s sermons on the second letter of Paul to Timothy (2 Tim. 3:16-17). It is argued that the focus on exhortation in this sermon mainly serves three purposes: illustrating the specific “doctrina” on exhortation set forth in this Paulinian passage; defining more definitely the task of the pastor on the pulpit; dealing with the congregation like a doctor applying medicine to a sick body. Rhetorical devices (like equestrian or medical metaphors, or the use of the style of vehemence in the form of a diatribe set forth as a minidrama) are used to implement the purpose of the preacher in his parenetical application. In applying this, the lectio continua which was characteristic of Calvin’s homiletical style, gains much relief and escapes the danger of a cold and neutral exposition of the Biblical text – the very danger against which Calvin warns in this sermon
Heraclitean logos and flux in T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets: \u27cosmic consciousness\u27 and \u27the still point of the turning world\u27
Get PDFT.S. Eliot prefaces “Burnt Norton”, the first of his Four Quartets, with two quotations from the Greek philosopher, Heraclitus. By means of these epigrams, Eliot points us to the Heraclitean opposition and paradoxical interdependence between logos and flux as a paradigm in the poem, a paradigm that he uses for an investigation and articulation of a number of philosophical contemplations. In this paper, I discuss Eliot’s different configurations of the logos/flux paradigm in the poem, firstly to illuminate the relationship between temporality and eternity, secondly, to elaborate the relationship between God and humanity, and thirdly to express the relationship between structured art and chaotic experience. In each instance it is not only the opposition between the two elements that is important, but also the point of contact, the intersection. There is some evidence that Eliot’s depiction of this intersection as, for example, the “moment in and out of time”, is based on personal experience of a transcendent, mystical nature. His expression of this experience is also investigated by comparing it to similar experiences described by others, notably by a Canadian psychiatrist, Richard Maurice Bucke. A comparison of Bucke’s description in his evolutionist text of 1901 and Eliot’s poetic rendering reveals not only surprising similarities but also essential differences which highlights Eliot’s purely Christian interpretation in the face of Bucke’s more universalist approach. For T.S. Eliot, eternity or timelessness can only be accessed through the temporal experience of human consciousness, in fleeting moments of exaltation in daily life, in the charged, timeless configurations of art as an imitation of divine creation, and finally in Christ, who embodies the love of God and is for Eliot the ultimate transection of the temporal and eternal, the flux and the logos
Meeting the buddha on the road – An essay on christian scholarship
Get PDFThis essay looks at the christian theory of science from a very specific context. The essay is divided into two parts. In the first part two different (christian) theories of science, those of Dooyeweerd and Stoker, will be discussed. In the second part, these theories will be analysed against the background of recent developments in the theories of science and knowledge in the field of law and legal theory. The conclusion from the first part is that christian scholarship (and, conversely, a christian university) has nothing to do with the morality of either students or lecturers. It should also be clear that one cannot speak of “the” christian paradigm of science, but that there are various theories and paradigms. In the second part various problems with these two theories are discussed. These include the objectivist stance of both Dooyeweerd and Stoker, Dooyeweerd’s archimedean point of departure and Stoker’s use of socalled scriptural truths. These problems are highlighted by recent developments in legal theory of which christian scholarship must take cognisance