EDITORIAL

Editorial

This 2023 edition of the Stellenbosch Theological Journal (STJ) is the ninth annual volume of the journal published under this name. We present here 52 peer-reviewed academic articles and 4 book reviews.

Twelve of these articles are published in STJ 9/2 - the section of the journal dedicated to the work of the Society of Practical Theology in South Africa (SPTSA; with Anita Cloete as managing editor). Articles in this section focuses on, pastoral care, liturgy, spirituality, and gender-based violence. Themes in pastoral care pay attention to unattended grief during Covid-19, disenfranchised grief, the moral aspect of gender-based violence and an inquiry of thanatological concepts. These articles could be helpful to churches and pastoral care givers in assisting people that continue to be negatively affected by the aftermath of Covid-19 and other traumatic events. Articles in liturgy focus on whiteness and faith formation in sermons while voice care as part of preaching is explored from an interdisciplinary perspective. These articles argue for a more holistic understanding of sermons and singles out the use of the voice by preachers together with the importance of context where the sermon takes place. Other important themes in this volume are Christian spirituality in an age of scepticism and secularization and moral formation during emerging adulthood.

In STJ 9/1 there is a section with articles presented at the annual meeting of the Theological Society of South Africa (TSSA), that was held in June 2023 at the Faculty of Theology, Stellenbosch University. These articles (by Delport, Langerman & Marchinkowski, Banda, Forster, Conradie, Bentley, and Ullrich) all speak to the conference theme: "Crossing the digital divide: Theological reflection on (in)justice and (in)equality in the South African society." The other 33 articles deal with a wide array of theological themes, through various lenses, and with many different contexts in mind. A few of these articles were occasional speeches or memorial lectures. The article by Dirkie Smit ("On Theological Promise") was a public lecture in the Alte Aula of Heidelberg University on 27 May 2022 during the festive occasion when the 2022 Manfred Lautenschlaeger Awards were presented to the recipients, including a former doctoral student from Stellenbosch University, Calvin Ullrich. Johan Buitendag's article ("Integral Ecology: Response of an emeritus professor to the contributions of his septuagenarian Festschrift"), in turn, provides, as the subtitle indicates, an academic engagement with the articles presented in his honour (that was published in HTS Theological Studies, see https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/browseSearch/sections/view?sectionId=217). And we are also privileged to include Miranda Pillay's article "Mary-Anne Plaatjies-Van Huffel: Trailblazing journey off the patriarchal beaten track" that was presented on 11 August 2023 as the fourth Mary-Anne Plaatjies-Van Huffel Memorial Lecture at the Faculty of Theology, Stellenbosch University.

We can also mention that we have also published two supplementums of STJ this year. STJ 9/3 contains 13 articles presented at a conference with the theme: Mirrors and Windows: Reflecting on the Reformed Tradition Today (held on 17-18 October 2022 at the Faculty of Theology, Stellenbosch University). And STJ 9/4 presents 11 papers from the 13th International Bonhoeffer Congress that was hosted by the Faculty of Theology and the Beyers Naudé Centre for Public Theology (Stellenbosch University) in partnership with the Department of Religion and Theology of the University of the Western Cape. This congress took as its theme the question, "How is the coming generation to go on living?" (from Bonhoeffer's text "After Ten Years" in his Letters and Papers From Prison). Some more published articles from this conference are forthcoming in a book titled Bonhoeffer and the Responsibility for a Coming Generation: Doing Theology in a Time Out of Joint (published by Bloomsbury/ T&T Clark).

Robert Vosloo

General Editor: STJ