Prof. Fanie Snyman (left) and Prof. Leder.

Prof. Arie Leder, professor in Old Testament at the Calvin Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, Michigan in the United States of America (USA) set foot on the African continent for the first time when he visited Prof. Fanie Snyman of the Department Old Testament in the Faculty of Theology at the University of the Free State (UFS). Prof. Leder is a visiting professor at the Department of Old Testament.

During his two-week-long visit to the faculty he amongst others lectured to undergraduate and master’s students. The lectures addressed issues related to the first five books of the Old Testament with the focus on the interpretation of the Hebrew text. The mentioned historical books of the Old Testament were discussed with the postgraduate students of the faculty. During the meeting of the Discussion Group for Biblical Sciences, Prof. Leder presented a public lecture with the theme, “Lady Wisdom and Sir Folly: Preaching Esther for such a time as this”.

According to Prof. Snyman, the agreement with Prof. Leder was to present the same lectures as what he would have delivered at the Calvin Theological Seminary. “The aim was to compare the standards, course content and presentations of the lectures that are presented by the respective departments, with each other. We compare well with the Calvin Theological Seminary and we do not have to be ashamed of ourselves. The feedback of the students about the exposure to another lecturer from another institution was also positive,” said Prof. Snyman.

The possibility of future collaboration was also discussed, specifically with the objective of both institutions publishing articles in the respective journals of both institutions. A further positive result of Prof. Leder’s visit is that colleagues of the Calvin Theological Seminary will be approached to act as external examiners for postgraduate students,” said Prof. Snyman.

The Calvin Theological Seminary libraries are some of the best equipped theological libraries in the world and as a result of the collaboration between our two institutions, staff of this faculty will get the opportunity to visit the Calvin Institution and to utilise the facility.

Photo: Leonie Bolleurs