Faith to faith – Missiology as encounterology

Abstract

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.

Discerning the role of faith communities in responding to urban youth marginalisation

“…This is relevant for an urban public theology and the basis for much of the work done in the South African context. One, however, also has to follow the ongoing discourse on the various possibilities in which the pastoral cycle has been used and adopted (Cochrane et al 1991;Kritzinger 2002Kritzinger , 2008Wijsen et al 2005), but more specifically, how Holland and Henriot themselves envisioned it. Taking into account the critique by Ward (2008), this cannot be a mechanical step-by-step process.…”

Reimagining mission in the public square: Engaging hills and valleys in the African City of Tshwane

“…In his article, 'Mission as prophetic dialogue', Klippies Kritzinger defines his praxis matrix as 'A missiological approach that discerns contextual priorities [and] consciously integrates the theology and practice of mission' (Kritzinger 2013:37). It is from this perspective that he developed an understanding of 'missiology as encounterology' (Kritzinger 2008b Mission in this article is defined as critical prophetic witness in transformative encounters that seek to bring the justice and shalom of the reign of God to the city. This definition demonstrates that city missions call for an approach which transcends the notion of mission as evangelism or conversion of souls; hence David Bosch (1991:551) would have called for 'transforming mission'.…”

Unsettling Theology: Sunday school children reading the text of the Bible in the age of recolonisation

“…In the embryo, all four dimensions are emerging in the current research data. In ongoing research the dimension of insertion or agency (Kritzinger 2008) could be provoked by the facilitator creating space explicitly for children to tell their own stories. The same applies to context analysis.…”