Daniël J Louw
Biographic Data
| ID | 5910229 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Daniël J Louw |
| GIVEN NAMES | Daniël J |
| FAMILY NAME | Louw |
| SIGNATURE | LOUW D J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Stellenbosch University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4512-0180 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 27 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 2 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 26 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1998 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Reframing the Nicaean creed Toward a theological quantum leap of “imaging God”: From zombie categories (the ontological-imperial God of “Condensed milk imaging”) to bowel categories (the misericordia …
It is hypothesised that the Nicaean Creed in its conceptualisation of “God” is paradigmatically framed and determined by the Emperor Mystique (Caesar cult). Thus, the impact of Constantine’s imperialism, as well as Hellenistic Neoplatonism, in the formulation of the creed. Due to a lack of theological grammar at that time, the rather metaphysical allure of conceptualisation in the 4th century BC, specifically around 316–315 BC, put a rather radic…
Diagnosis in clinical pastoral counselling: The Sanctuary Model as Theological Anthropological Framework for Spiritual Assessment and Treatment
The article investigates the feasibility of the sanctuary model as a possible theological anthropological framework for diagnostic and treatment purposes in clinical pastoral practice. It is argued that the wilderness tabernacle matched the criteria for qualifying as a prototype sanctuary. The building-sanctuary is viewed as a metaphorical “body” for God’s being present in, and daily engagement with, human beings throughout all life trajectories …
The threat of “soulful pornography” in cloud computing and metaverse thinking: Toward a panentheistic theology of diachronic thinking in pastoral caregiving
Due to the impact of metaverse thinking, both religious thinking (homo religiosus) and the spirituality of transcendence (homo transendentalis) is constantly exposed to the demands of what can be called a digitalized online spirituality (homo digitalis). Facebook and Instagram brought about a fundamental paradigm change regarding spiritual experiences. It transformed the spirituality of metaphysical and analytical thinking into diachronic network…
‘Pastoral and ecclesial madness’: Facing the failure of ‘democratism’ within the current civil turmoil in South Africa
The Zondo Commission’s report of 2022 plays a decisive role in the motivation to write the article. Considering recent political developments in South Africa, specifically the uprising of violent protests on grassroots level in many townships, it has become paramount for research in theology, specifically, the branches of practical and pastoral theology, to give thorough attention to the following research questions: How can the discipline of pas…
Metaverse as challenge to homo religionis. Diachronic thinking in theory formation for pastoral caregiving to netizens
Metaverse brings about the reshaping of the playful human being (homo ludens) into the digitalised human being (homo digitalis). Transcendence (homo transcendentalis) has become digitalised by the power of technologised options (optimalisation of our being human) and fictive forms of sublimations (avatars). Due to, inter alia, Facebook and Instagram, a spirituality of diachronic networking and digital immediacy, set in: I start to exist through a…
Grave as space for grace – “Come you sweet hour of death: On seeing the beauty of aging and dying within an aesthetics of mortality and decay (human decomposition)
Within the ineluctable contingency of death and dying as horrifying and terrifying existential prospects, the notion of “grave” immediately corresponds with the natural facticity of human decomposition and the fear for death and dying. Decomposition is, in fact, a natural process beginning several minutes after death, with a process called autolysis, or self-digestion. From a pastoral and spiritual perspective, the following research questions su…
Shameful disgrace reframed by ‘amazing grace’, probing into ‘dog’s life’ within the pigmentocratic polarisation of a ‘post-apartheid bubble’
Despite the dawn of a non-racial democracy, many black people still experience public life as being treated as the ‘underdog’ (Canis Africanis as ostracised dog). Within the demeaning pigmentocratic categorisation of ‘white’ and ‘black’, the post-apartheid euphoria seems to become merely an artificial slogan denying undergirding racial polarisations. The phenomenon of ‘shameful disgrace’, as articulated by, inter alia, the novel of J.M. Coetzee, …
Penetrating xenophobic remoteness in interreligious encounters: Toward a pastoral praxis of befriending neighbouring in ‘pavement caregiving’ and ‘streetwise compassion’
Meeting the foreign and strange other should be viewed as a natural and inevitable feature of everyday life. When the other is endangering one’s comfort sones, especially in cases of ‘bread-and-butter’ questions, xenophobic fear sets in. Furthermore, when resistance is fuelled by fanatic expressions of religious self-maintenance or racial polarisation, xenophobic remoteness contributes to modes of discriminating suspicion, resistance of the stran…
Living wounds (anfechtungen) or blacksmithing of the human soul? The pastoral art of marvellous exchange (mirifica commutatio) in spiritual well-being
Many of the unexpected, undeserved forms of suffering and the constant exposure to human brokenness infiltrate schemata of interpretation and frameworks of meaninggiving, causing guilt, doubt, torment, and anguish – a kind of paralysis of the human soul; the hopelessness of désespoir (the nausea of unhope). Instead of blacksmithing spiritual pathology (spiritual victimisation by means of punishment and self-blame), an approach of living wounds is…
The human dilemma of displacement: Towards a practical theology and ecclesiology of home
In this book social responsive theological research converges to provide practical theological and ecclesiological perspectives on the growing human dilemma of displacement. The book presents the research of practical theologians, a missiologist and a religious practitioner whose work pertains first and foremost to the (South) African context. The different fields of expertise of the contributors within the broader field of practical theology wor…
Care, Healing, and, Human Well-Being within Interreligious Discourses
Care, Healing, and Human Well-Being within Interreligious Discourses is an edited, peer reviewed volume of global perspectives on interreligious approaches to healing and well-being by 23 academics and practitioners from five different faith practices and 13 different cultures. With chapters by counsellors, chaplains, religious thinkers and linguists, the multifaceted nature of the volume provides an expansive approach to spiritual care and couns…
Apathy in caregiving: Intoxication of the human mind and the inflation of compassion within the cool, “Zombie-culture” of “Not-giving-a-f*ck”
Over the years little attention has been given to a practical theology of compassion. Even in the discussion on theopaschitic theology, and the implication of a theology of the cross for theory formation in practical theology and the praxis of ministry, the emphasis was mainly on reconciliation, forgiveness, and the notion of restorative justice. Ethical and moral issues dominated the discourse. In the meantime, it seems that people in their ques…
The professionalization of pastoral caregiving: A critical assessment of pastoral identity within the helping professions
Pastoral caregiving within a clinical setting and the parameters of interdisciplinarity and a team approach to healing and helping, cannot escape the public demand for a professional approach to caregiving i.e. safeguarding the well-being of people and patients. In this regard, differentiation in terms of theory, paradigmatic conceptualization, and directives for a base anthropology, are paramount. To detect the identity of the pastoral caregiver…
Towards the aesthetics of self-termination (suicide): The spiritual interlude between death (shadow) and life (light)
To end one’s life (suicide) creates a lot of questions concerning the identity and eventual emotional and spiritual condition of the person. Within a more religious context, the intriguing question surfaces: When a committed believer commits suicide, will such a person still go to heaven? The ethical dilemma evolves around questions regarding right (good/liberation) and wrong (evil/damnation), heaven or hell. Instead of a moral approach, the arti…
Anagnorisis (processing forgiveness): The mystical praxis-space of diaconal reaching out to the Other/others (the hopeful case of Joseph and his brothers)
The following question is at stake: What entails forgiveness and reconciliation within processes of healing regarding schisms in a very diverse and polarised society? Despite the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission the burning question that still prevails: What is meant by a praxis of forgiveness and a spirituality of reconciliation within a post-apartheid dispensation? It is argued that forgiving and reconciling are not instant or me…
A Christian spirituality of imperfection: Towards a pastoral theology of descent within the praxis of orthopathy
The endeavour towards perfectionism in a praxis pietatis is most of the time described and portrayed as the preferential “narrow way”, resulting in a kind of “theology of ascent” (the legalistic upgrading of human beings equipped with super, spiritual abilities). Rather than a spirituality of self-improvement, the article proposes a theology of descent (engaging with human suffering, weakness, brokenness, frailty, and imperfection), as well as a …
Disillusionment and the dilemma of ‘the Democratic Type’: From Plato (Athenian populism), to Helen Zille (constitutional democracy), Cyril Ramaphosa (cooperative democracy) and Jesus Christ (compassio…
Worldwide democratic institutions are threatened by right-wing reactions. The fear for a loss of power brings about a paradigm shift from democratic sensitivity to autocratic control. Political leaders tend to become more reactionist, populistic and despotic. Conservative reactions hamper processes of democratisation. Besides the migrant crisis, democracy in South Africa staggers under escalating forms of state capture, fraud, violence, mismanage…
The angry and aggressive patient in clinical pastoral care: Towards a spiritual and hermeneutical approach within the interplay between hoping and dread
Aggressive behaviour is quite common to ailments and diseases that imply impairment and has an impact on mobility, communication and logical expression of frustration and disappointment. Within a clinical environment and medical setting, anger and aggressive behaviour impacts on the quality of caregiving and nursing. The phenomenon of anger, as related to the existential realm of anxiety and dread, is researched in order to detect its impact on c…
The Aesthetics of Covid-19 Within the Pandemic of the Corona Crisis: From Loss and Grief to Silence and Simplicity – A Philosophical and Pastoral Approach
Within the corona crisis, the core question is: What is the impact of Covid-19 on the spiritual realm of meaning-giving, hoping and pastoral caregiving? How does it affect the realm of habitus and religious convictions, specifically when pastoral caregivers become involved? With reference to the human quest for wholeness in healing and helping, existing paradigms are critically analysed. What is meant by the aesthetics of Covid-19? A soulful move…
Divine designation in the use of the Bible: The quest for an ‘all-powerful God’ (the omnipotence of God) in a pastoral ministry of human empowerment
In our exposure to weakness, vulnerability, loss, anguish and different forms of impairment, the following pastoral theological questions arises: What is meant by divine almightiness within the human need for spiritual strength, empowerment, encouragement and well-being? The epithet of almightiness (omnipotence, pantokratōr) gave birth to fictitious and speculative associations, even fear and anxiety: The paralyzing fear of God Almighty – divine …
Identity and dignity within the human rights discourse: An anthropological and praxis approach
The theological discourse mostly focuses on the moral and ethical framework for human rights and human dignity. In order to give theological justification to the value and dignity of human beings, most theologians point to the imago Dei as theological starting point for the design of an anthropology on human dignity. Within the paradigmatic framework of democracy, human dignity and human rights have become interchangeable concepts. This article a…
Network of the Human Soul: On Identity, Dignity, Maturity and Life Skills
Marketplace Masculinities’ Within the International Public Arena of Global Media: Towards a Christian Spiritual Approach to Male Embodiment and ‘Genital Ensoulment’
Under the pressure of deconstruction, criticism within the gender discourse, and the fading away of the traditional patriarchal male role functions, male identity is in a crisis. Due to the impact of the mass media, masculinities are currently mostly determined by the healthiness, body-image and achievement ethics of a market-driven economy (marketplace masculinities). It becomes closely associated with the instant need-satisfaction of a consumer…
Pastoral Care and Counseling
OVERVIEW. This chapter focuses on the the unique contribution of pastoral care and counseling to processes of healing. The dimension of healing is connected to existential realities that reflect real-life issues. The emphasis is on the healing of life in order to connect to African spiritualities and its interconnectedness to spiritual forces believed to determine the destiny of everyday life. A systems approach, taking into consideration process…
Counseling People of African Ancestry
This volume advances a uniquely Afro-centric, sociocultural understanding of health maintenance and risk reduction in African cultural heritage populations. It unites a diverse group of leading African and Africanist scholars in an exploration of common cultural values in African heritage communities and their practical applications in contemporary counseling. The chapters highlight the prominent health issues faced in Africanist settings today a…
Marketplace Masculinities’ Within the International Public Arena of Global Media: Towards a Christian Spiritual Approach to Male Embodiment and ‘Genital Ensoulment’
Under the pressure of deconstruction, criticism within the gender discourse, and the fading away of the traditional patriarchal male role functions, male identity is in a crisis. Due to the impact of the mass media, masculinities are currently mostly determined by the healthiness, body-image and achievement ethics of a market-driven economy (marketplace masculinities). It becomes closely associated with the instant need-satisfaction of a consumer…
God as Friend”: Metaphoric Theology in Pastoral Care
God as Friend”: Metaphoric Theology in Pastoral Care
Creative Hope and Imagination in a Practical Theology of Aesthetic (Artistic) Reason
In order to take Kant's third question seriously, practical theology should respond methodologically to the question: What may we hope? The hypothesis is argued that practical reason needs to be supplemented by aesthetic reason in order to deal with 'the absurd logic of hope' (Ricoeur). The latter can prevent a practical theological hermeneutics falling prey to a positivistic stance and an empirical model which makes little room for the spiritual…
Pastoral Care and Counseling
OVERVIEW. This chapter focuses on the the unique contribution of pastoral care and counseling to processes of healing. The dimension of healing is connected to existential realities that reflect real-life issues. The emphasis is on the healing of life in order to connect to African spiritualities and its interconnectedness to spiritual forces believed to determine the destiny of everyday life. A systems approach, taking into consideration process…
Counseling People of African Ancestry
This volume advances a uniquely Afro-centric, sociocultural understanding of health maintenance and risk reduction in African cultural heritage populations. It unites a diverse group of leading African and Africanist scholars in an exploration of common cultural values in African heritage communities and their practical applications in contemporary counseling. The chapters highlight the prominent health issues faced in Africanist settings today a…
Network of the Human Soul: On Identity, Dignity, Maturity and Life Skills
Marketplace Masculinities’ Within the International Public Arena of Global Media: Towards a Christian Spiritual Approach to Male Embodiment and ‘Genital Ensoulment’
Under the pressure of deconstruction, criticism within the gender discourse, and the fading away of the traditional patriarchal male role functions, male identity is in a crisis. Due to the impact of the mass media, masculinities are currently mostly determined by the healthiness, body-image and achievement ethics of a market-driven economy (marketplace masculinities). It becomes closely associated with the instant need-satisfaction of a consumer…
Identity and dignity within the human rights discourse: An anthropological and praxis approach
The theological discourse mostly focuses on the moral and ethical framework for human rights and human dignity. In order to give theological justification to the value and dignity of human beings, most theologians point to the imago Dei as theological starting point for the design of an anthropology on human dignity. Within the paradigmatic framework of democracy, human dignity and human rights have become interchangeable concepts. This article a…
Disillusionment and the dilemma of ‘the Democratic Type’: From Plato (Athenian populism), to Helen Zille (constitutional democracy), Cyril Ramaphosa (cooperative democracy) and Jesus Christ (compassio…
Worldwide democratic institutions are threatened by right-wing reactions. The fear for a loss of power brings about a paradigm shift from democratic sensitivity to autocratic control. Political leaders tend to become more reactionist, populistic and despotic. Conservative reactions hamper processes of democratisation. Besides the migrant crisis, democracy in South Africa staggers under escalating forms of state capture, fraud, violence, mismanage…
The angry and aggressive patient in clinical pastoral care: Towards a spiritual and hermeneutical approach within the interplay between hoping and dread
Aggressive behaviour is quite common to ailments and diseases that imply impairment and has an impact on mobility, communication and logical expression of frustration and disappointment. Within a clinical environment and medical setting, anger and aggressive behaviour impacts on the quality of caregiving and nursing. The phenomenon of anger, as related to the existential realm of anxiety and dread, is researched in order to detect its impact on c…
The Aesthetics of Covid-19 Within the Pandemic of the Corona Crisis: From Loss and Grief to Silence and Simplicity – A Philosophical and Pastoral Approach
Within the corona crisis, the core question is: What is the impact of Covid-19 on the spiritual realm of meaning-giving, hoping and pastoral caregiving? How does it affect the realm of habitus and religious convictions, specifically when pastoral caregivers become involved? With reference to the human quest for wholeness in healing and helping, existing paradigms are critically analysed. What is meant by the aesthetics of Covid-19? A soulful move…
Divine designation in the use of the Bible: The quest for an ‘all-powerful God’ (the omnipotence of God) in a pastoral ministry of human empowerment
In our exposure to weakness, vulnerability, loss, anguish and different forms of impairment, the following pastoral theological questions arises: What is meant by divine almightiness within the human need for spiritual strength, empowerment, encouragement and well-being? The epithet of almightiness (omnipotence, pantokratōr) gave birth to fictitious and speculative associations, even fear and anxiety: The paralyzing fear of God Almighty – divine …
The human dilemma of displacement: Towards a practical theology and ecclesiology of home
In this book social responsive theological research converges to provide practical theological and ecclesiological perspectives on the growing human dilemma of displacement. The book presents the research of practical theologians, a missiologist and a religious practitioner whose work pertains first and foremost to the (South) African context. The different fields of expertise of the contributors within the broader field of practical theology wor…
Care, Healing, and, Human Well-Being within Interreligious Discourses
Care, Healing, and Human Well-Being within Interreligious Discourses is an edited, peer reviewed volume of global perspectives on interreligious approaches to healing and well-being by 23 academics and practitioners from five different faith practices and 13 different cultures. With chapters by counsellors, chaplains, religious thinkers and linguists, the multifaceted nature of the volume provides an expansive approach to spiritual care and couns…
Apathy in caregiving: Intoxication of the human mind and the inflation of compassion within the cool, “Zombie-culture” of “Not-giving-a-f*ck”
Over the years little attention has been given to a practical theology of compassion. Even in the discussion on theopaschitic theology, and the implication of a theology of the cross for theory formation in practical theology and the praxis of ministry, the emphasis was mainly on reconciliation, forgiveness, and the notion of restorative justice. Ethical and moral issues dominated the discourse. In the meantime, it seems that people in their ques…
The professionalization of pastoral caregiving: A critical assessment of pastoral identity within the helping professions
Pastoral caregiving within a clinical setting and the parameters of interdisciplinarity and a team approach to healing and helping, cannot escape the public demand for a professional approach to caregiving i.e. safeguarding the well-being of people and patients. In this regard, differentiation in terms of theory, paradigmatic conceptualization, and directives for a base anthropology, are paramount. To detect the identity of the pastoral caregiver…
Towards the aesthetics of self-termination (suicide): The spiritual interlude between death (shadow) and life (light)
To end one’s life (suicide) creates a lot of questions concerning the identity and eventual emotional and spiritual condition of the person. Within a more religious context, the intriguing question surfaces: When a committed believer commits suicide, will such a person still go to heaven? The ethical dilemma evolves around questions regarding right (good/liberation) and wrong (evil/damnation), heaven or hell. Instead of a moral approach, the arti…
Anagnorisis (processing forgiveness): The mystical praxis-space of diaconal reaching out to the Other/others (the hopeful case of Joseph and his brothers)
The following question is at stake: What entails forgiveness and reconciliation within processes of healing regarding schisms in a very diverse and polarised society? Despite the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission the burning question that still prevails: What is meant by a praxis of forgiveness and a spirituality of reconciliation within a post-apartheid dispensation? It is argued that forgiving and reconciling are not instant or me…
A Christian spirituality of imperfection: Towards a pastoral theology of descent within the praxis of orthopathy
The endeavour towards perfectionism in a praxis pietatis is most of the time described and portrayed as the preferential “narrow way”, resulting in a kind of “theology of ascent” (the legalistic upgrading of human beings equipped with super, spiritual abilities). Rather than a spirituality of self-improvement, the article proposes a theology of descent (engaging with human suffering, weakness, brokenness, frailty, and imperfection), as well as a …
Shameful disgrace reframed by ‘amazing grace’, probing into ‘dog’s life’ within the pigmentocratic polarisation of a ‘post-apartheid bubble’
Despite the dawn of a non-racial democracy, many black people still experience public life as being treated as the ‘underdog’ (Canis Africanis as ostracised dog). Within the demeaning pigmentocratic categorisation of ‘white’ and ‘black’, the post-apartheid euphoria seems to become merely an artificial slogan denying undergirding racial polarisations. The phenomenon of ‘shameful disgrace’, as articulated by, inter alia, the novel of J.M. Coetzee, …
Penetrating xenophobic remoteness in interreligious encounters: Toward a pastoral praxis of befriending neighbouring in ‘pavement caregiving’ and ‘streetwise compassion’
Meeting the foreign and strange other should be viewed as a natural and inevitable feature of everyday life. When the other is endangering one’s comfort sones, especially in cases of ‘bread-and-butter’ questions, xenophobic fear sets in. Furthermore, when resistance is fuelled by fanatic expressions of religious self-maintenance or racial polarisation, xenophobic remoteness contributes to modes of discriminating suspicion, resistance of the stran…
Living wounds (anfechtungen) or blacksmithing of the human soul? The pastoral art of marvellous exchange (mirifica commutatio) in spiritual well-being
Many of the unexpected, undeserved forms of suffering and the constant exposure to human brokenness infiltrate schemata of interpretation and frameworks of meaninggiving, causing guilt, doubt, torment, and anguish – a kind of paralysis of the human soul; the hopelessness of désespoir (the nausea of unhope). Instead of blacksmithing spiritual pathology (spiritual victimisation by means of punishment and self-blame), an approach of living wounds is…
Grave as space for grace – “Come you sweet hour of death: On seeing the beauty of aging and dying within an aesthetics of mortality and decay (human decomposition)
Within the ineluctable contingency of death and dying as horrifying and terrifying existential prospects, the notion of “grave” immediately corresponds with the natural facticity of human decomposition and the fear for death and dying. Decomposition is, in fact, a natural process beginning several minutes after death, with a process called autolysis, or self-digestion. From a pastoral and spiritual perspective, the following research questions su…
Diagnosis in clinical pastoral counselling: The Sanctuary Model as Theological Anthropological Framework for Spiritual Assessment and Treatment
The article investigates the feasibility of the sanctuary model as a possible theological anthropological framework for diagnostic and treatment purposes in clinical pastoral practice. It is argued that the wilderness tabernacle matched the criteria for qualifying as a prototype sanctuary. The building-sanctuary is viewed as a metaphorical “body” for God’s being present in, and daily engagement with, human beings throughout all life trajectories …
The threat of “soulful pornography” in cloud computing and metaverse thinking: Toward a panentheistic theology of diachronic thinking in pastoral caregiving
Due to the impact of metaverse thinking, both religious thinking (homo religiosus) and the spirituality of transcendence (homo transendentalis) is constantly exposed to the demands of what can be called a digitalized online spirituality (homo digitalis). Facebook and Instagram brought about a fundamental paradigm change regarding spiritual experiences. It transformed the spirituality of metaphysical and analytical thinking into diachronic network…
‘Pastoral and ecclesial madness’: Facing the failure of ‘democratism’ within the current civil turmoil in South Africa
The Zondo Commission’s report of 2022 plays a decisive role in the motivation to write the article. Considering recent political developments in South Africa, specifically the uprising of violent protests on grassroots level in many townships, it has become paramount for research in theology, specifically, the branches of practical and pastoral theology, to give thorough attention to the following research questions: How can the discipline of pas…
Sociology (17 works) · Philosophy (16 works) · Aesthetics (13 works) · Epistemology (11 works) · Psychology (11 works) · Theology (11 works) · Political science (10 works) · Christian Theology and Mission (7 works) · Psychoanalysis (7 works) · Law (6 works)