This article responds to a book edited by Prof PGJ Meiring in 1996 on the religions of South Africa. It appreciates the integration between the fields of Religious Studies and Theology of Religions in the book, but suggests that a missiological approach should explore the inter-religious encounter, rather than merely what others believe or what we believe about the possibility of their being saved. An approach of “encounterology” requires: a) a holistic and reflexive process that considers seven different dimensions of the encounter; b) a dialogical approach in which a Christian enters into a journey of mutual witness with a follower of another faith. The article uses a seven-point praxis cycle to indicate what such an encounterology could look like.

This article analyses Karl Barth’s 1919 Tambach lecture on “The Christian in society” in the context of post World War I Europe. After describing Barth’s early life and his move away from liberal theology, the five sections of the Tambach lecture are analysed. Barth’s early dialectical theology focussed on: Neither secularising Christ nor clericalising society; Entering God’s movement in society; Saying Yes to the world as creation (regnum naturae); Saying No to evil in society (regnum gratiae); respecting God’s reign as beyond our attempts (regnum gloriae)

This article reflects on a number of liturgical innovations in the worship of Melodi ya Tshwane, an inner-city congregation of the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (URCSA). The focus of the innovations was to implement the understanding of justice in Article 4 of the Confession of Belhar, a confessional standard of the URCSA. The basic contention of the article is that well designed liturgies that facilitate experiences of beauty can nurture a concrete spirituality to mobilise urban church members for a justice-seeking lifestyle. After exploring the message of Article 4 of Belhar, the article analyses eight liturgical features of Melodi ya Tshwane, showing how beauty and justice interact in those acts of worship.

This article flows from the previous one, which analysed Karl Barth’s Tambach lecture in its original German context. It uses the musical metaphor of “remixing” to describe the recontextualising of Barth’s Tambach approach in contemporary South African society. After recontextualising the theological foundations of the Tambach lecture, Barth’s three viewpoints (regnum naturae, regnum gratiae, regnum gloriae) are recontextualised for South Africa, addressing the issue of poverty as an example

Prophetic dialogue" is the underlying ethos or spirituality of Christian mission. This view is rooted theologically in the missio Dei, from which flows a "dimensional" understanding of holistic mission. A "praxis matrix" traces the contextual dynamics of mission, and the concept of "transformative encounter" highlights the complex interaction between Christians and other communities. Two case studies explore the nature of prophetic dialogue: the reconciling work of Maggie Barankitse in Burundi and the sermon of Desmond Tutu at the funeral of Steve Biko in South Africa in 1977. The article concludes with reflection on dialogue as embrace and prophecy as unmasking and imagining.