Pathways in theology

If we needed good theology to lead us from apartheid to democracy, we now already know that we need even better theology to strengthen and sustain our democracy through a vigilant civil society in which the university and vibrant scholarship are crucial partners.

The sin of our disunity does not lie in our differences, not even in the tensions between us, but in our refusal to expose ourselves to the highly uncomfortable, challenging, and transformative encounter with our enemy brothers and sisters; our refusal to suffer them as Christ has suffered; our refusal to forgive the unforgiveable; to accept the unacceptable.

We need an awakening of the Spirit to unite us once again on issues that might not be politically correct, that might not reach the front pages of newspapers or the attention of TV crews . . . The gospel of righteousness, with its imperatives superseding the significant normative guidelines of human rights, did not suddenly change in 1994.

- Piet Naudé