ORIGINAL RESEARCH
doi: 10.4102/ve.v30i3.178

 

Theological trends in our postsecular age

 

 

Andries van Aarde

Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria, South Africa

Correspondence

 

 

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ABSTRACT

The article is a contribution to the commemoration of the 2008 centenary celebration of the University of Pretoria. Its focus is on present-day theological trends. The article's point of departure is the commendation of the philosopher Charles Taylor for being awarded with the Templeton Prize in 2007. With this prize the Templeton Foundation bestows 'progress toward discoveries about spirituality'. The article links Charles Taylor's idea of the postmodern spiritual tendency of 'enchantment' as a closure of modernity's exclusive humanism to Peter Berger's reproach of civil religion. It pleads for a non-fundamentalist and non-populist post-secular spirituality which concurs with post-theism, a de-centring of the power of institutional religion and the enhancement of a biblical hermeneutics that does not emphasise a proposition-like and moral code-like reading strategy. The article is aimed at a spirituality of living faith in light of ancient biblical and confessional life stories.

Keywords: theological trends; postsecular society; University of Pretoria; centenary; Charles Taylor

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Full text available only in PDF format.

 

 

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Correspondence:
Andries van Aarde
Faculty of Theology
University of Pretoria
Lynnwood Road
Hatfield 0083, Pretoria
South Africa
E-mail: andries.vanaarde@up.ac.za

Received: 26 Nov. 2008
Accepted: 16 Jan. 2009
Published: 17 Dec. 2009