1The article is part of a project with financial support by the National Research Foundation. Die artikel is deel van 'n projek met finansiële steun van die National Research Foundation. 2011 31(1): 95-112 doi: 10.4314/actat.v31i1.6 ISSN 1015 Acta Theologica

The complex and problematic role of religion in the public sphere in modern, democratic societies raises many questions for a public theology. The aim of this article is to contribute to the ongoing debate about the task and methods of public theology by asking what we can learn from the ideas of Jürgen Habermas. Habermas was a leading participant in the thinking process on the secularisation thesis in Western societies. His view was that religion will eventually disappear from the public scene due to the rationalisation of society. In recent years he seems to have changed this view in the light of new developments in the world. He now maintains that religion has something important to offer in the public sphere. Religion could thus participate in this public discussion, provided that it satisfies strict conditions. We argue that public theology can learn from Habermas's recent ideas regarding religion in the public sphere: attention should be paid to the cognitive potential of religion, especially regarding the importance of the lifeworld and the role of religion in social solidarity with the needy and vulnerable; hermeneutical self-reflection is important; a distinction should be made between the role of religion in faith communities and in public life; we have to accept that we live in a secular state; and we have to learn the possibilities and impossibilities of translating from religious vocabulary into a secular vocabulary in order to be able to participate in the discussions in the public sphere. HTS HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies

Since 2009, I am researching sermons on Matthew 25:31-46 by preachers of the Uniting Reformed Church and the Dutch Reformed Church (Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk). The sermons are collected in South Africa's eight provinces. This is an empirical-homiletic study with a grounded theory methodology. The open coding and selective coding cycles are already completed. This article presents the results of the last cycle, namely theoretical coding. The theory for practice describes the concepts which emerged from the data and shows the relationships between the concepts. This is a theory for the practice of preaching on Matthew 25:31-46 in the South African context of poverty. It has a bearing only on the qualitative analysis of the texts of the sermons on this text in Matthew, and does not address the entire process of the preaching event from the sermon text, the rhetorical and communicative process. It only covers the sermon analyses and the effects on the listeners' actions on the sermons mentioned in the sermons.

This article reported on the second cycle (selective coding) of grounded theory research of sermons on poverty in the South African context, with Matthew 25:31–46 as the sermon text. The problem which the author was researching pertained to the question: How do congregations in the Dutch Reformed Church (Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk) and the Uniting Reformed Church handle the care for the poor in practice? A theoretical sample of congregations with outreach projects to the poor and humble was drawn. After the analysis of the sermons was conducted, the next question to be addressed was: What are the categories and properties of the projects by congregations as the how of the care for the poor? New thinking on the issue of preaching on poverty is necessary because homiletic literature in this field of preaching does not address the how question. The author therefore described a theoretical framework for the interpretation of the projects, as well as an anthropological view of the communication occurring on an equal footing, with the givers in the projects functioning as social capital and the receivers (the poor and humble) as the participants with their own responsibility and freedom. The classification of the projects in categories showed that a wide variety of different types of projects to the poor have emerged from the sermons

The challenge of working with metatheoretical assumptions in a postmodern situation of a plurality of scientific-theoretical approaches is taken up in this article. The question whether the researcher must, in a practical-theological study, begin with theory analysis first or with praxis analysis first, is discussed. In sermon analysis with a grounded theory, abductive approach, the question is whether we have to begin with a blank mind. In order to answer this question the theory-praxis relationship is discussed. This leads to the argument of the article that wherever we begin the researcher cannot work without a theological perspective and in the case of homiletics, without a homiletical-theoretical framework.