Robert Vosloo: When the Times Are Out of Joint & Bonhoeffer’s Call to Agency
Rise of Bonhoeffer with Tripp Fuller
In this illuminating conversation, South African theologian Robert Bonhoeffer shares how Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s work influenced the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa and continues to speak to contemporary challenges. He describes how Bonhoeffer’s theology provided a framework for confronting apartheid’s theological justifications, highlighting how the German church struggle offered parallels for South Africa’s own church struggles. Robert explores Bonhoeffer’s Christology as central to his work, emphasizing how recognition of Christ in others challenges systems of separation and exclusion. The discussion moves to our current global moment, where Robert suggests we may be at a similar historical juncture as the early 1930s, requiring theological vigilance against hardening identities and nationalist rhetoric. He advocates for a theology that remains open to being decentered through engagement with different contexts and voices, even as it stays rooted in particular commitments. Throughout, Robert emphasizes Bonhoeffer’s continuing relevance in addressing issues of democracy, populism, and the church’s responsibility to guard against dangerous rhetoric that minimizes past injustices.
Robert Vosloo is professor in Systematic theology at the Faculty of Theology, Stellenbosch University, South Africa, and a senior researcher at the Beyers Naudé Center for Public Theology at the same institution. His most recent book is entitled Reforming Memory: Essays on South African Church and Theological History.
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