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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

UFS establishes a Postgraduate office
2007-07-18

The University of the Free State (UFS) will establish a postgraduate office that will serve as a one-stop service for the co-ordination of academic support services for postgraduate students.

According to the Director: Research Development at the UFS, Prof Frans Swanepoel, the primary purpose of the Postgraduate Office is to provide co-ordination and support services for postgraduate students and postdoctoral fellows, as well as academic staff across the University.

“Guided by values such as intellectual inquiry, innovation, collegiality, integrity and efficiency, the Postgraduate Office will seek to foster a challenging, inclusive and supportive environment for postgraduate teaching, learning, research and scholarship; and will strive to engage students in the vibrant life of a research university”, Prof Swanepoel said.

All sectors of the University, namely students, faculties and staff, stand to benefit from the establishment of this office. Amongst other benefits for these sectors, postgraduate students and postdoctoral research fellows will have their interests promoted in synergy with faculty and departmental facilities. On the other hand, the office will provide a critical resource to the faculties in the form of a single database of postgraduate students, postgraduate topics, supervisors and funding opportunities. Furthermore, it will serve as a useful resource and base for training and information for younger and less experienced staff members.

The establishment of this office will be undertaken in two phases. The first phase will focus on the most critical areas that will make an immediate impact and the second phase on those areas that are not as urgent.

Areas that will be prioritised include the appointment of a manager and co-ordination of stakeholders, the provision of information and communication, useful resources for the UFS, policy administration and monitoring, postgraduate supervisors’ facilitation, recruitment activities, advice and referral, and postgraduate scholarship and bursary management.

The less urgent components of the office will be the development and implementation of academic and professional support programmes, the formation of a research information commons to create an integrated learning environment for postgraduate students, and the development of a postgraduate association or a postgraduate students’ liaison committee to provide a recognised channel of communication between postgraduate students and the University authorities.

The Postgraduate Office will form a vital component of the Directorate Research Development (DRD) at the UFS because of its experience and a noteworthy track record with regard to a facilitative and co-ordinating role that would be essential for the office.

“Establishing the Postgraduate Office as part of the Directorate would give the Centre the necessary links to the research-related issues that are important to most of the postgraduate students at the UFS. Of essential importance will be the linkages with the full spectrum of Strategic Clusters”, Prof Swanepoel explained.

“An important component of the Postgraduate Office will be related to international students and international opportunities for UFS postgraduate students. As the Office for Internationalisation has similarly been placed within the Directorate, the work of the Postgraduate Office will be facilitated by similar placement within the same Directorate”, he concluded.

Media release
Issued by: Mangaliso Radebe
Assistant Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 051 401 2828
Cell: 078 460 3320
E-mail: radebemt.stg@mail.ufs.ac.za  
18 July 2007
 

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