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18 April 2019 | Story Eugene Seegers | Photo Stephen Collett
Prof Chris Hermans
Prof Chris Hermans, extraordinary professor at the UFS, presents his inaugural lecture, titled Theology in an Age of Contingency.

“The road ahead is empty / It’s paved with miles of the unknown.”

Prof Chris Hermans quoted these lines from the song The Road Ahead, by Dutch vocal group City to City to introduce his inaugural lecture in the Faculty of Theology and Religion on 27 February 2019. Prof Hermans, a veteran researcher in pastoral theology, empirical, and practical religious studies at the Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands and an extraordinary professor at the UFS, chose as his theme Theology in the Age of Contingency, stating that the uncertainty of life has affected all disciplines in the academy, from the sciences, philosophy, and pedagogy, to theology itself.

Although contingency is often defined as a “future event ... which is possible but cannot be predicted with certainty” (Oxford English Dictionary), Prof Hermans stated that, in the context of theology, it has more to do with complexity, unpredictability, coexistence of cultures, and an increasing number of decisions people need to make in modern-day life. 

Changing lanes

Prof Hermans recounted a memory from his childhood to illustrate some aspects of contingency: “Growing up, my parents told me to cycle on the right side of the road. They knew what the right side was. Everything had a right side: What norms and values to live by, what was right or wrong, when to pray and which words to use. ... We now live in a different world.”

Prof Hermans’ inaugural lecture reflected on four tasks of practical theology and missiology. He further asserted that the content and aim of these tasks change from the perspective of contingency.

Contingency perspectives

From a sociological perspective, said Prof Hermans, contingency is a characteristic of the age of modernisation in which we live. He stated that in the modern age, people have a much greater choice of individual ‘action options’ as well as a growing number of experiences as a result. Expounding on this, he said, “The fact that I am a Christian, and another person Hindu or Muslim, is largely due to the fact that I was born within a Christian family. The fact that I am Christian is a possibility and an actuality, but not a necessity.”

Prof Hermans also helped listeners to understand other areas in which contingency plays a role, such as the binary logic used when determining modalities of truth, or changing world views and philosophies of being, or even in our ethos, our art of living, and outlook on life.

News Archive

Kovsies help SA Badminton win gold at 2013 AFCON
2013-08-27

 

Elmé de Villiers, Andries Malan, Wiaan Viljoen and Sandra le Grange.
Photo: Supplied
27 August 2013

A former Kovsie and the current captain of the South African Badminton team, Olympian Wiaan Viljoen, won two gold medals at the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) Individual events that concluded in Mauritius on 20 August 2013.

South Africa proved their dominance in the 2013 Continental Championships by winning three gold, two silver and three bronze medals in the Individual events. Combined with the gold medal for the team, South Africa won four out of the six gold medals up for contention, with the other two going to Mauritius in the ladies’ singles and to Seychelles in the ladies’ doubles respectively.

Kovsies’ Elmé de Villiers and Sandra le Grange also carried the ladies’ side of the South African team through every match of the AFCON and De Villiers won the deciding match in the final against Nigeria. De Villiers has been included in the 2016 Road to RIO BWF Project of Excellence. Both De Villiers and Le Grange are players to watch closely en route to the 2016 Olympic Games.

De Villiers and Le Grange also won the doubles title at the Mauritius International, which was held in the week after the AFCON. This was the first international title for both De Villiers and Le Grange.

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