Ernst M Conradie
Biographic Data
| ID | 6692760 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ernst M Conradie |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ernst M |
| FAMILY NAME | Conradie |
| SIGNATURE | CONRADIE E M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of the Western Cape |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0020-6952 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 41 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 8 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 39 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2005 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
From confession to creed: Nicaea and the ecclesial dialectic between movement and institution
This contribution to “Receiving Nicaea” in 2025, within the South African context, examines the dialectic between confession and creed, specifically the act of confession and its corresponding creedal formulations. Its “theoretical framework” is provided by a similar dialectic between movement and institution in the works of Henri Bergson, H. Richard Niebuhr, and David Bosch. This raises the question of how a creative tension between movement and…
From the theological encyclopaedia to doing ecotheology: On finding and losing the way
This contribution is situated within the context of a ‘Multi-Disciplinary Theological Conference on the Ecological Crisis in Southern Africa’ involving colleagues from the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Pretoria and Zomba Theological University, hosted at Liwonde, 12–15 August 2025. It refrains from addressing ecclesial responses to ecological destruction (in Malawi) and, instead, focuses on the stated aim to invite multidi…
The significance of eschatology in the reception of the Belhar Confession
This article offers a constructive thesis on how the continued relevance of an ecclesial document such as the Belhar Confession can be maintained, given the need to recognise a particular casus confessionis. The Belhar Confession must indeed be understood as ‘a moment of truth’. While the themes of unity, reconciliation and justice have lost none of their relevance, the critique of heresy as expressed in the Confession cannot be reiterated given …
Educating for expected failure: Ontological or soteriological perspectives on crossing the digital divide
This contribution takes as a point of departure an assessment of the impact of the digital divide with specific reference to the education sector in the South African context. A core problem is clearly that such a large proportion of learners drop out of secondary schools, while the pass rates at Bachelors level are also alarming. Does this imply that education takes place with a view to expected failure? This contribution explores the question w…
Revisiting the Quest for a Just, Participatory, and Sustainable Society
The themes of justice, participation, and sustainability emerged from the 5th Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Nairobi in 1975 in the context of addressing global inequalities and promoting a more equitable society, and were brought together in the search for a “Just, Participatory and Sustainable Society.” While underlining the need for theological reflection on justice, particularly in the context of historical injustices and contem…
Die Stellenbosche Heyns: Nagedink oor die vroeë, middel en latere jare van ’n akademiese loopbaan
This contribution is structured in the genre of an academic letter to a deceased colleague, in this case Prof. Johan Adam Heyns (1928–1994). He was appointed for a short period from 1966 to 1970 as a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Theology at Stellenbosch University. This contribution offers a reappraisal of this period in the academic career of Prof. Heyns. His main focus at the time, in line with his teaching duties, was on apologetics and, …
Placing reform: The ecumenical future of Reformed Theology
This brief contribution offers personal reflections on the future of Reformed theology given the author’s experience in ecumenical collaboration on various volumes in the field of Christian ecotheology. It offers seven generalising theses on the future of Reformed theology. These theses raise the question what it is that is being reformed. It is suggested that this cannot be reduced to the church or the Reformed tradition, always reforming itself…
Mark McCleod-Harrison, Saving the Neanderthals: Sin, Salvation, and Hard Evolution
Mark McCleod-Harrison, Saving the Neanderthals: Sin, Salvation, and Hard Evolution(Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2020), xiv + 155 pp. $95 (hbk), ISBN: 978 1978706545
How Would We Know What God is Up To?
This second volume in the series on "An Earthed Faith" will address the following question: "Given what we know about the Anthropocene, how does one even begin to answer the question: What is this God up to, and how ought humans respond?” This is a question of theological method, including the sources and interlocutors of Christian theology, its aims and starting points, social theories shaping it, and presuppositions grounding it. Addressing thi…
In service of language: Dirk Smit on the human senses
This contribution in honour of Professor Dirk Smit engages critically and constructively with his inaugural lecture at Stellenbosch University published in 2002 as “In diens van die tale Kanaäns? Oor sistematiese teologie vandag†(“In service of the language of Canaan? On systematic theology today†). It raises the question whether Smit, like his own Reformed supervisors, would agree that “the ear is more spiritual than they eye†. This may seem app…
Reconstructing the history of doing Systematic Theology at UWC: Some fragmentary decolonial perspectives
On the basis of a companion article on reconstructing the history of doing theology at UWC, this article offers several qualifications on how to approach and not to approach doing systematic theology at UWC before eight soteriological themes that have been prominent in theological discourse at UWC are outlined, namely conversion / transformation, unity / ecumenicity, reconciliation, justice, human dignity, liberation, reconstruction / development…
The mirage of a triune rainbow
This contribution explores the state of the debate on the triune God in theological discourse in South Africa. It assesses the direction in which this debate is going in conversation with Prof. Rian Venter, one of the senior scholars contributing to this debate. It is written in the form of an “academic letter” that assumes the requisite scholarship, but deliberately engages in a conversation that is appropriate to the exploratory approach that i…
African Perspectives on Religion and Climate Change
This book interrogates the contributions that religious traditions have made to climate change discussions within Africa, whether positive or negative. Drawing on a range of African contexts and religious traditions, the book provides concrete suggestions on how individuals and communities of faith must act in order to address the challenge of climate change. Despite the fact that Africa has contributed relatively little to historic carbon emissi…
David Tracy on fragments, fragmentation, and frag-events: On picking up a conversation
This contribution offers a review of David Tracy’s recent collection of essays entitled Fragments: The Existential Situation of Our Time (2020). This volume is quite an event since Tracy’s last monograph was published in 1994. This review gives an account of the continuity and discontinuity in Tracy’s oeuvre with reference to themes such as conversation, fragments, the Infinite, and an analogical imagination. It also mentions some other jewels fo…
Some reflections on human identity in the Anthropocene
This article observes that both the similar and the dissimilar are of ethical importance in discourse on human identity. There is a need for a common humanity and to guard against domination in the name of difference – precisely by recognising the otherness of the other. This also applies to reflections on what it means to be human in the age of the human, namely the Anthropocene. A survey is offered of how this tension between the similar and th…
A Green Reformation of Christianity? Anthropological, Ethical and Pedagogical Reflections on Ecology as Ecumenical Theme
This contribution builds upon and contributes to many recent ecumenical calls for an ecological reformation of Christianity. It seeks to guide such calls on the use of the term “ecology” by offering five brief statements in this regard, namely 1) on ecology as a transversal theme; 2) on ecology as an ecumenical theme; 3) on the root metaphor of the “whole household of God”; 4) on Christian doctrinal assumptions on such a household; and 5) on the …
Human uniqueness: An unfinished agenda
This contribution is structured in the form of a letter to Van Huyssteen focussing on his magnum opus, Alone in the World? ( 2006 ). It recognises, with Van Huyssteen, the danger of docetic detachment and scientific reductionism. It suggests that what is at stake in debates on human uniqueness is a defence of human dignity, human rights and human responsibility. It points to a dilemma in this regard, namely that affirming the evolutionary continu…
Secular Discourse on Sin in the Anthropocene: What's Wrong with the World?
In Secular Discourse on Sin in the Anthropocene: What’s Wrong with the World, Ernst M. Conradieutilizes a notion of social diagnostics to explore not only the surface-level symptoms of ecological destruction, but also its ultimate causes. Conradie uses two toolkits to review secular literature on the Anthropocene, namely the prophetic and pastoral vocabulary of Christian sin-talk and the theological critique against apartheid in South Africa. Var…
The Project / Prospects of “Redeeming Sin?”: Some Core Insights and Several Unresolved Problems
This contribution offers an overview of a five-year project on Redeeming Sin that included a number of postgraduate projects registered at the University of the Western Cape, a series of international colloquiums hosted more or less annually, two monographs by Ernst Conradie (one forthcoming), and a number of articles. The notion of “redeeming sin” is ironic, as Christians typically speak of redemption from sin. Here it refers to attempts to retr…
Is Christian humanism what is needed in the Age of the Anthropocene
Dear John,When I was asked for a contribution to the Festschrift for Steve I opted to write him a letter, reminiscing about a journey through the Karoo when we talked through the night about our fathers. Now I am writing you a letter as well, basically to tell you how I have been struggling with your retrieval of the concept of Christian humanism. When I was invited to contribute in honouring you in this way, this was the theme I had in mind. I f…
Unravelling some of the theological problems underlying discourse on nature
This article offers an overview of various theological discourses on the concept of nature. These are illustrated with examples of contributions to reformed theology from within the South African context. It is argued that there is ample room for confusion to reign in the connotations attached to ‘nature’ and the underlying theological problems that emerge. Often such connotations are merely adopted from other disciplines. To juxtapose such disco…
T&T Clark Handbook of Christian Theology and Climate Change
The T&T Clark Handbook to Christian Theology and Climate Change entails a wide-ranging conversation between Christian theology and various other discourses on climate change. Given the far-reaching complicity of "North Atlantic Christianity" in anthropogenic climate change, the question is whether it can still collaborate with and contribute to ongoing mitigation and adaptation efforts. The main essays in this volume are written by leading schola…
What hope is there – for Klaus
This contribution engages with Klaus Nürnberger’s eschatology as expressed in his Invitation to Systematic Theology. It suggests that his notion of Christian hope has to be understood in terms of the triad of core concepts that he offers, namely creative power, benevolent intentionality and a vision of comprehensive optimal well-being. These are dialectically related as thesis, antithesis and synthesis. Moreover, this dialectic comes to expressio…
The Christian faith and evolution: An evolving, unresolved debate
This article sketches how the debate on Christian faith and evolution has evolved. Seven challenges are identified and described in the debate, namely, regarding a recognition of deep (geological) time (challenging the historicity of the biblical creation narratives), understanding the role of chance in natural selection (posing questions about the nature of divine action, e.g., providence), human descent (challenging presumed human distinctivene…
An Ecological Christian Anthropology: At Home on Earth?
What is the place and vocation of human beings in the earth community? This is the central question that this contribution towards a Christian ecological anthropology addresses. In ecological theology this question is often answered by the affirmation that 'We are at home on earth'. This affirmation rightly responds to the widespread sense of alienation from nature, to the anthropocentrism that pervades much of the Christian tradition and to conc…
The Christian faith and evolution: An evolving, unresolved debate
This article sketches how the debate on Christian faith and evolution has evolved. Seven challenges are identified and described in the debate, namely, regarding a recognition of deep (geological) time (challenging the historicity of the biblical creation narratives), understanding the role of chance in natural selection (posing questions about the nature of divine action, e.g., providence), human descent (challenging presumed human distinctivene…
The Salvation of the Earth from Anthropogenic Destruction: In Search of Appropriate Soteriological Concepts in an Age of Ecological Destruction
Founded in 1683 in Leiden, the Netherlands, Brill is a leading international academic publisher in the Humanities, Social Sciences, International Law, and Biology. With offices in the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, the USA and Asia, Brill today publishes more than 360 journals and 2,000 new books and reference works each year as well as a large number of databases and primary source research collections
Human uniqueness: An unfinished agenda
This contribution is structured in the form of a letter to Van Huyssteen focussing on his magnum opus, Alone in the World? ( 2006 ). It recognises, with Van Huyssteen, the danger of docetic detachment and scientific reductionism. It suggests that what is at stake in debates on human uniqueness is a defence of human dignity, human rights and human responsibility. It points to a dilemma in this regard, namely that affirming the evolutionary continu…
The journey of doing Christian ecotheology: A collective mapping of the terrain
This contribution is a collective attempt to map the terrain of Christian ecotheology on the basis of the metaphor of a journey. Various dimensions of this journey are identified and described. The context within which this contribution emerged is described in the editorial. It follows upon a colloquium that took place in San Francisco in November 2011
Climate Change and the Common Good: Some Reflections from the South African Context
This article is based on the observation that any theological discourse is always from a particular location and a particular point of view, which is immediately recognized by others. At the same time, any (theological) discourse cannot escape the use of universals, of common categories that we need to communicate with others. We make constructions of the whole, of that which is common, albeit that we ineluctably make particular constructions of …
Towards an Agenda for Ecological Theology: An Intercontinental Dialogue
This contribution to outline an agenda for (Christian) ecological theology includes a position paper from Ernst Conradie (Part 1). Responses to this position paper from Sigurd Bergmann, Robert Borrong, Steve Bouma-Prediger, Celia Deane-Drummond, Denis Edwards, William Everett, David Field, Samson Gitau, Jesse Mugambi and Peter Scott, form Part 2. There is also a rejoinder by Ernst Conradie. The paper identifies a number of issues that an ecologic…
Towards an Agenda for Ecological Theology: An Intercontinental Dialogue
This contribution to outline an agenda for (Christian) ecological theology includes a position paper from Ernst Conradie (Part 1). Responses to this position paper from Sigurd Bergmann, Robert Borrong, Steve Bouma-Prediger, Celia Deane-Drummond, Denis Edwards, William Everett, David Field, Samson Gitau, Jesse Mugambi and Peter Scott, form Part 2. There is also a rejoinder by Ernst Conradie. The paper identifies a number of issues that an ecologic…
Healing in Soteriological Perspective
Founded in 1683 in Leiden, the Netherlands, Brill is a leading international academic publisher in the Humanities, Social Sciences, International Law, and Biology. With offices in the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, the USA and Asia, Brill today publishes more than 360 journals and 2,000 new books and reference works each year as well as a large number of databases and primary source research collections
Christianity and Ecological Theology - Resources for further research
Gender, Religion and the Environment: A University of the Western Cape Case Study
This contribution explores the relationship between gender, religion and the environment in terms of the perceptions of a group of first-year students registered for a course on Environmental Awareness Techniques and Training at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa. The empirical investigation indicates that there is a surprisingly high level of environmental awareness amongst this group, possibly reflecting their different living c…
How Can We Recognize God in the Singing River
Towards a Theology of Place in the South African Context: Some Reflections from the Perspective of Ecotheology
A theology of place has deep roots within the Jewish-Christian tradition. However, a theology of place has become obscured as a result of various trends in modernity. It has re-emerged through a number of theological strands over the past few decades, including various branches of ecotheology. Indeed, it would not be inappropriate to identify a widespread “spatial turn” in current intellectual discourse, including Christian theology. Such develop…
Climate Change and the Common Good: Some Reflections from the South African Context
This article is based on the observation that any theological discourse is always from a particular location and a particular point of view, which is immediately recognized by others. At the same time, any (theological) discourse cannot escape the use of universals, of common categories that we need to communicate with others. We make constructions of the whole, of that which is common, albeit that we ineluctably make particular constructions of …
The Salvation of the Earth from Anthropogenic Destruction: In Search of Appropriate Soteriological Concepts in an Age of Ecological Destruction
Founded in 1683 in Leiden, the Netherlands, Brill is a leading international academic publisher in the Humanities, Social Sciences, International Law, and Biology. With offices in the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, the USA and Asia, Brill today publishes more than 360 journals and 2,000 new books and reference works each year as well as a large number of databases and primary source research collections
Creation in Crisis: Christian perspectives on sustainability
Creation and Salvation: Dialogue on Abraham Kuyper’s Legacy for Contemporary Ecotheology
This volume explores the legacy of the Dutch theologian and statesman Abraham Kuyper for contemporary Christian ecotheology. A crucial problem in ecotheology is how to do justice to both creation and salvation as acts of God, given the impact of the environmental crisis and the concern for creation (as creatura). Can Kuyper help one in this regard, given his controversial legacy, especially in South Africa? The volume explores Kuyper's notions of…
Christianity and Earthkeeping: In search of an inspiring vision
The journey of doing Christian ecotheology: A collective mapping of the terrain
This contribution is a collective attempt to map the terrain of Christian ecotheology on the basis of the metaphor of a journey. Various dimensions of this journey are identified and described. The context within which this contribution emerged is described in the editorial. It follows upon a colloquium that took place in San Francisco in November 2011
Christian Faith and the Earth Current Paths and Emerging Horizons in Ecotheology
Christian ecotheology may be regarded as an attempt to retrieve the ecological wisdom embedded in the Christian tradition as a response to ecological destruction and environmental injustices. 1 However, it is also prompted by the widespread suspicion that the root causes of the crisis are related to the impact of Christianity (as pointed out in the somewhat exaggerated claims of early critics). Th at Christianity is deeply implied in the roots of…
In die netwerk van nadenke oor die omgewing
In the network of thinking about the environment. This contribution is based on a talk delivered at a conference for continuous education for pastors. The argument commences with reflections on thinking with one s hands , more specifically with engaging in earthkeeping praxis, with getting one s hands dirty. It is suggested that such thinking leads sooner rather than later to a widening network of fundamental questions about the human condition, …
Views on Worldviews: An Overview of the Use of the Term, Worldview, in Selected Theological Discourses
This article explores the ways in which the term ‘worldview’ is used in five distinct contexts that shape the study of religion and also of Christian theology, namely neo-Calvinism, the sociology of knowledge, discourse on religion and ecology, discourse on science and theology and African Traditional Religion. One text by one author is selected in each case to describe the distinct ways in which the term is used. This description suggests that t…
An Ecological Christian Anthropology: At Home on Earth?
What is the place and vocation of human beings in the earth community? This is the central question that this contribution towards a Christian ecological anthropology addresses. In ecological theology this question is often answered by the affirmation that 'We are at home on earth'. This affirmation rightly responds to the widespread sense of alienation from nature, to the anthropocentrism that pervades much of the Christian tradition and to conc…
Is It Not God's Mercy That Nourishes and Sustains Us….forever? Some Theological Perspectives on Entangled Sustainabilities
This essay explores the question whether and if so what contribution Christian systematic theology can make to contemporary discourse on sustainability and more specifically ‘entangled sustainabilities’. It acknowledges that any such contribution would be deeply contested. It nevertheless suggests that one such contribution can lie in a critique of the underlying assumptions of discourse on sustainability and specifically any claims for ultimacy …
What hope is there – for Klaus
This contribution engages with Klaus Nürnberger’s eschatology as expressed in his Invitation to Systematic Theology. It suggests that his notion of Christian hope has to be understood in terms of the triad of core concepts that he offers, namely creative power, benevolent intentionality and a vision of comprehensive optimal well-being. These are dialectically related as thesis, antithesis and synthesis. Moreover, this dialectic comes to expressio…
The Christian faith and evolution: An evolving, unresolved debate
This article sketches how the debate on Christian faith and evolution has evolved. Seven challenges are identified and described in the debate, namely, regarding a recognition of deep (geological) time (challenging the historicity of the biblical creation narratives), understanding the role of chance in natural selection (posing questions about the nature of divine action, e.g., providence), human descent (challenging presumed human distinctivene…
Secular Discourse on Sin in the Anthropocene: What's Wrong with the World?
In Secular Discourse on Sin in the Anthropocene: What’s Wrong with the World, Ernst M. Conradieutilizes a notion of social diagnostics to explore not only the surface-level symptoms of ecological destruction, but also its ultimate causes. Conradie uses two toolkits to review secular literature on the Anthropocene, namely the prophetic and pastoral vocabulary of Christian sin-talk and the theological critique against apartheid in South Africa. Var…
The Project / Prospects of “Redeeming Sin?”: Some Core Insights and Several Unresolved Problems
This contribution offers an overview of a five-year project on Redeeming Sin that included a number of postgraduate projects registered at the University of the Western Cape, a series of international colloquiums hosted more or less annually, two monographs by Ernst Conradie (one forthcoming), and a number of articles. The notion of “redeeming sin” is ironic, as Christians typically speak of redemption from sin. Here it refers to attempts to retr…
Is Christian humanism what is needed in the Age of the Anthropocene
Dear John,When I was asked for a contribution to the Festschrift for Steve I opted to write him a letter, reminiscing about a journey through the Karoo when we talked through the night about our fathers. Now I am writing you a letter as well, basically to tell you how I have been struggling with your retrieval of the concept of Christian humanism. When I was invited to contribute in honouring you in this way, this was the theme I had in mind. I f…
Unravelling some of the theological problems underlying discourse on nature
This article offers an overview of various theological discourses on the concept of nature. These are illustrated with examples of contributions to reformed theology from within the South African context. It is argued that there is ample room for confusion to reign in the connotations attached to ‘nature’ and the underlying theological problems that emerge. Often such connotations are merely adopted from other disciplines. To juxtapose such disco…
T&T Clark Handbook of Christian Theology and Climate Change
The T&T Clark Handbook to Christian Theology and Climate Change entails a wide-ranging conversation between Christian theology and various other discourses on climate change. Given the far-reaching complicity of "North Atlantic Christianity" in anthropogenic climate change, the question is whether it can still collaborate with and contribute to ongoing mitigation and adaptation efforts. The main essays in this volume are written by leading schola…
David Tracy on fragments, fragmentation, and frag-events: On picking up a conversation
This contribution offers a review of David Tracy’s recent collection of essays entitled Fragments: The Existential Situation of Our Time (2020). This volume is quite an event since Tracy’s last monograph was published in 1994. This review gives an account of the continuity and discontinuity in Tracy’s oeuvre with reference to themes such as conversation, fragments, the Infinite, and an analogical imagination. It also mentions some other jewels fo…
Philosophy (32 works) · Religion, Ecology, and Ethics (24 works) · Sociology (24 works) · Theology (23 works) · Epistemology (18 works) · Environmental ethics (16 works) · Biblical Studies and Interpretation (14 works) · Political science (14 works) · History (13 works) · Religion, Society, and Development (13 works)