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Ethics As the Bridge Between Dogmatics and Historical Contexts

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Ethics As the Bridge Between Dogmatics and Historical Contexts Page 1 of 7 Original Research What has Lapland to do with Tshwane? Ethics as the bridge between dogmatics and historical contexts Author: This article explores the question: what does it mean to do theology in South Africa today? 1 John W. de Gruchy It does so in three parts based on a narrative account of the author’s relationship with Johan Affiliation: Heyns from 1972–1990. In the first, the focus is on the reasons for and the significance of the 1Department of Religious transition of the Dogmatologiese Werkgemeenskap, in which Heyns played an influential role to Studies, Faculty of the Theological Society of South Africa, of which the author was president from 1987–1992. In Humanities, University of the second, the author examines the reason for this transition by comparing the role of Beyers Cape Town, South Africa Naudé with that of Heyns in doing theology, the one working outside the white enclave of the Note: DRC, and the other from within. He then examines the criticism of Heyns’s theology which Prof. De Gruchy is Emeritus was expressed by J.J.F. Durand and which gave rise to the title of the article. In the final part Professor at the University of of the article, the author reflects on the narrative in responding to the initial question on doing Cape Town, South Africa. theology in context today. He highlights the importance of social location, of the willingness to Correspondence to: transcend boundaries, and the need to regard the task of dogmatics and ethics as an integrated John de Gruchy whole in responding prophetically to historical contexts. Email: [email protected] Introduction Postal address: PO Box 130, Hermanus 7200, Theologians are engaged in the humbling yet joyful and imaginative art of putting into words South Africa the glimpse received of the One in whom we live, move and have our being. Anyone who has embarked on this journey of faith into the mystery of the God is a theologian whether or not Dates: we agree. For we are fallible human beings dependent on grace as we move beyond debate and Received: 03 June 2015 Accepted: 23 June 2015 reasoned discourse into a realm in which silence is more appropriate than speech, and in which Published: 28 Aug. 2015 all our endeavours, no matter how impressive, are cut down to size. In the end, we are not judged by our peers in the academy or church, but by the God of truth, holiness and love. How to cite this article: De Gruchy, J.W., 2015, ‘What has Lapland to do Theology as a journey of faith into mystery is also about faith seeking understanding in order to with Tshwane? Ethics as the discern to the extent we can, who God is, what God is doing in the world, and what this requires bridge between dogmatics of us. In academic disciplinary terms, these are the inseparable tasks of dogmatics and ethics. But and historical contexts’, doing theology is not confined to the seminary or the university any more than poetry, painting HTS Teologiese Studies/ Theological Studies 71(1), and music are the sole prerogative of schools established for such pursuits. Doing theology is Art. #3068, 7 pages. http:// more than an intellectual exercise; it is about participation in God’s ongoing, just and reconciling dx.doi.org/10.4102/hts. transformation of the world and, therefore, of the community of faith that seeks to serve God’s v71i1.3068 mission. But such participation in God’s transformation agenda requires critical reflection on Copyright: events and actions in relation to biblical traditions and the historical context in which we live. In © 2015. The Authors. pursuing this task during the past millennium, theology has become a scientific discipline within Licensee: AOSIS the academy, not separate from what happens elsewhere, but enabling it to happen with deeper OpenJournals. This work is knowledge and insight. licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License. If Tshwane, the city of my own birth and the capital city of South Africa, is a symbol of the country as a whole, and if theology is about God’s compassionate and just transformation of the world, then doing theology has everything to do with Tshwane. As such, it also has a justifiable place within this university where Johan Heyns had such a distinguished career as a professor of Christian theology. But if theology has no scientific basis and is not about transformation, then it might well be asked whether or not it has a rightful place in this or any other university in South Africa. Critical reflection on a personal narrative Although I knew Johan Heyns, I did not know him well enough to talk about him with confidence Read online: to those who did, whether as family, colleagues or students. Moreover, I am not fully acquainted Scan this QR 1 code with your with his many publications and, therefore, cannot claim to be familiar with all he has written. But smart phone or mobile device 1.I am indebted to Professor Robert Vosloo of Stellenbosch for sharing his insights on Heyns’s legacy and making many of his publications to read online. available for my perusal, and also to Danie Veldsman, currently Professor of Dogmatics and Ethics at Pretoria University, both for his insights and especially for his lecture on Heyns ‘Oor verwondering en vervreemding’, (May 2008). http://www.hts.org.za doi:10.4102/hts.v71i1.3068 Page 2 of 7 Original Research as will become clear, his narrative and my own intersected and theologians, including Beyers Naudé. The year before I in significant ways, so that what follows may be described joined the Werkgemeenskap I completed my doctorate at the as a critical reflection on that story which spans the period University of South Africa (UNISA) where I came to know from 1972, when I first met Heyns, until 1990 when I last Johannes Lombard and Ben Marais. At the same time I joined encountered him. I start by expressing my gratitude to Johan the Werkgemeenskap vir Sendingwetenskap and became friends Heyns for something that he did, but for which I never had with David Bosch, Willem Saayman, Jaap Durand, Nico Smit opportunity to thank him prior to his death. By the time my and others whose experience in the black community had late son Steve was called up for military service in the mid- made them critical of apartheid. These friendships introduced nineteen-eighties, there had been a change in government me to a very different Dutch Reformed and, therefore, policy with regard to conscientious objectors in South Africa. Afrikaner world from the likes of Drs. Koot Vorster and J.S. Previously if you refused to begin military service in the South Gericke whom I encountered in the course of my ecumenical African Defence Force (SADF) you could be imprisoned for work. But it was also different from that of the Dogmatologiese 2 years, as were several of my students and acquaintances. Werkgemeenskap. But the change in policy meant that if you convinced a tribunal that you were a conscientious objector (CO) on The Werkgemeenskap was white, patriarchal, predominantly religious grounds, then you could undertake alternative Afrikaans, and seldom if ever referred to social, ethical service in the national interest. Steve applied for this status and political issues. Its focus was strictly on dogmatics and was granted permission to serve as pastoral assistant at as understood primarily within a Reformed theological Groote Schuur hospital. Much later I was told that when his framework. This did not bother me too much, after all I, application came up for consideration before the Chaplaincy too, am a Reformed theologian. In any case, one reason Board meeting in Bloemfontein, there was strong objection why I joined the Werkgemeenskap was because I knew that on the part of one of the English-speaking church chaplains. if I was to do theology in South Africa it was important to But Johan Heyns persuaded the Board to decide in Steve’s know the mind of Afrikaner theology, not just in the circles favour. I do not think he did this because he knew me, for in which I mixed and with whom I agreed, but within we were not really friends. He did it for the right reason. He the Afrikaner theological and ecclesiastical establishment recognised the strength of Steve’s theological argument as with which I did not. This was the world inhabited by to why he should be regarded as a CO. If he had not, Steve Johan Heyns. Furthermore, I also had a keen interest in would have gone to prison for 2 years and in all likelihood the historical and contemporary relationship between the direction of his life would have changed. Unfortunately the English-speaking churches and the Dutch Reformed I could never thank Johan because I did not know about this Church (De Gruchy 1974a). until after his tragic death. At the time I joined the Dogmatologiese Werkgemeenskap I was There is a second personal reason; it is a sign that there also secretary of the Church Unity Commission (CUC) is, today, a much more positive and creative theological which exists to seek the union of the Anglican, Presbyterian, dialogue across those cultural and linguistic barriers that Methodist and Congregational Churches. I cannot remember previously kept us apart in South Africa. It would have been how many times the CUC representatives, the majority white unthinkable not so long ago for someone like me to be asked ministers and theologians, gathered together for lengthy to give this lecture, or that I should be an Extraordinary discussions on the doctrines that divided us: tradition and Professor in the Faculty of Theology at Stellenbosch where scripture, episcopacy, the Eucharist, ordination and the Johan Heyns taught before he came to Pretoria hope.
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