Cobus van Wyngaard
Biographic Data
| ID | 6789143 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Cobus van Wyngaard |
| GIVEN NAMES | Cobus |
| FAMILY NAME | van Wyngaard |
| SIGNATURE | VAN WYNGAARD C |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of South Africa |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1607-4736 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 0 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 12 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 0 |
Belhar and the human
In commemorating 40 years since the adoption of the Belhar Confession, this article traces the ecclesiological focus of Belhar and probes the limits of this approach for addressing questions of racism and whiteness. It argues that the underpinning anthropological questions, already visible in the infamous 1857 decision of the Dutch Reformed Church, remain unexplored and proposes that it is exactly in questions of theological anthropology that the…
Ecumenical reflections on race, racism, and whiteness in the afterlife of apartheid in South Africa
This article examines the contributions made to a 28 April 2022 ecumenical dialogue on race, racism, and whiteness in South Africa. Following a careful analysis of the recordings and transcripts from this dialogue the article identifies multiple themes regarding race and whiteness that emerged from participants at this event. The article seeks to point out contemporary challenges identified by Christian leaders around race and whiteness in order …
Affordances for a More Human Life
This article forms part of the extensive process of reflecting on Nicaea, taking the form of a reflection on the commemoration of Nicaea. It adds to the longstanding concern with the imperial underpinnings of Nicene language by drawing attention to the ongoing implications of Christian imperialism into the present of 2025. The article seeks to draw on the recent methodological contributions of Hanna Reichel to provide the theological language for…
The future of empirical research in and through the Dutch Reformed Church
This article is my contribution to a Festschrift for Kobus Schoeman. It focuses attention on Schoeman’s relationship with the Dutch Reformed Church’s (DRC) empirical research work. It situates Schoeman within the DRC and provides an overview of the empirical research projects from within the DRC and to which Schoeman contributed uring his career. The article outlines Schoeman’s analysis of the state of the DRC. The article then discusses three fo…
Political theology, radical democracy, and explorations of liberation
In 2012, Vuyani Vellem made a brief proposal for a deeper engagement with political theorists and activists working around the notion of radical democracy, a proposal he reaffirmed in 2013 in articulating the challenge for the church in the face of an inability to contribute to meaningful change amidst vast economic inequality in South Africa. Despite extensive engagement with the work of Vellem in recent years, this particular proposal has so fa…
A Kind of Social Theology for the Sake of Humanity
In this contribution to a review symposium on Jason Storm’s book, Metamodernism , Silakhe Singata and Cobus van Wyngaard explore key aspects of Storm’s proposal on the future of studies in the humanities, relate these aspects to the task of theology when situated as part of the humanities and respond to Storm’s constructive proposal for the humanities by tracing South African and African reflections on rehumanisation
Theology from the Suburbs
This article seeks to interrogate critically and problematize the silence on the suburb in urban theology: in the process the article seeks to illustrate the importance of the suburb through examining it considering the soteriology underpinning apartheid spatial planning and its persistent quasi-soteriological envisioning of the good life in the ongoing spatial imagination of the South African city. While this proposal does not present a fully de…
Haunted by Reconciliation
Conversations about race in South Africa continue to be shaped by a religious-redemptive narrative of reconciliation that emerged in the democratic transition. However, there is a history of critical Black and liberation theological voices questioning whether the religious/ethical ideal of reconciliation adequately addresses the injustices of systemic racism. These questions gained new resonance in recent years with social movements like #feesmus…
Beyers Naudé (1966–1977)
This article examines public lectures of Beyers Naudé from 1966 until his banning in 1977, tracing on the one hand his critique on apartheid shortly before his engagement with black consciousness, and then his reception of black consciousness. Working from a 1967 lecture mostly ignored in literature to the present, Freedom in South Africa, onwards, the article illustrates how Naudé equates a particular normative understanding of Western emancipat…
Beautiful Places and Recreating Humanity in South Africa
The article investigates the connection between beauty and justice, by exploring everyday aesthetics through ordinary life, specifically the very concrete reality of contemporary urban South Africa. On the one hand, it delves beneath the statement that apartheid is ugly, by exploring the ugly spaces apartheid created, the devastation of an aesthetic built on segregation, and the distortions of whiteness. It also seeks to explore a theological aes…
A Next Generation? Young Dutch Reformed Church Ministers and Their Vision for the Church in South Africa
For the foreseeable future, the Dutch Reformed Church will be remembered for its role in the theological justification of apartheid and spiritual support for the leaders driving this political process. Questions on the faith, theology, and spirituality that made this theological and spiritual support possible have been analysed in detail over decades. This church is, however, poised to see a generation of ministers, who were trained after the Dut…
The theological anthropology of Simon Maimela
The lacuna around race in (white) Christian theological anthropology has often been pointed out. The canon of academic systematic theology seldom reflects on the implication of modern race and racism for our theological anthropologies and, therefore, fails to provide adequate resources for dealing with one of the most fundamental problems of modern theological anthropology that the modern human was conceived through a white racial lens. Black the…
No prominent works on this page.
The theological anthropology of Simon Maimela
The lacuna around race in (white) Christian theological anthropology has often been pointed out. The canon of academic systematic theology seldom reflects on the implication of modern race and racism for our theological anthropologies and, therefore, fails to provide adequate resources for dealing with one of the most fundamental problems of modern theological anthropology that the modern human was conceived through a white racial lens. Black the…
Beautiful Places and Recreating Humanity in South Africa
The article investigates the connection between beauty and justice, by exploring everyday aesthetics through ordinary life, specifically the very concrete reality of contemporary urban South Africa. On the one hand, it delves beneath the statement that apartheid is ugly, by exploring the ugly spaces apartheid created, the devastation of an aesthetic built on segregation, and the distortions of whiteness. It also seeks to explore a theological aes…
A Next Generation? Young Dutch Reformed Church Ministers and Their Vision for the Church in South Africa
For the foreseeable future, the Dutch Reformed Church will be remembered for its role in the theological justification of apartheid and spiritual support for the leaders driving this political process. Questions on the faith, theology, and spirituality that made this theological and spiritual support possible have been analysed in detail over decades. This church is, however, poised to see a generation of ministers, who were trained after the Dut…
Beyers Naudé (1966–1977)
This article examines public lectures of Beyers Naudé from 1966 until his banning in 1977, tracing on the one hand his critique on apartheid shortly before his engagement with black consciousness, and then his reception of black consciousness. Working from a 1967 lecture mostly ignored in literature to the present, Freedom in South Africa, onwards, the article illustrates how Naudé equates a particular normative understanding of Western emancipat…
A Kind of Social Theology for the Sake of Humanity
In this contribution to a review symposium on Jason Storm’s book, Metamodernism , Silakhe Singata and Cobus van Wyngaard explore key aspects of Storm’s proposal on the future of studies in the humanities, relate these aspects to the task of theology when situated as part of the humanities and respond to Storm’s constructive proposal for the humanities by tracing South African and African reflections on rehumanisation
Theology from the Suburbs
This article seeks to interrogate critically and problematize the silence on the suburb in urban theology: in the process the article seeks to illustrate the importance of the suburb through examining it considering the soteriology underpinning apartheid spatial planning and its persistent quasi-soteriological envisioning of the good life in the ongoing spatial imagination of the South African city. While this proposal does not present a fully de…
Haunted by Reconciliation
Conversations about race in South Africa continue to be shaped by a religious-redemptive narrative of reconciliation that emerged in the democratic transition. However, there is a history of critical Black and liberation theological voices questioning whether the religious/ethical ideal of reconciliation adequately addresses the injustices of systemic racism. These questions gained new resonance in recent years with social movements like #feesmus…
The future of empirical research in and through the Dutch Reformed Church
This article is my contribution to a Festschrift for Kobus Schoeman. It focuses attention on Schoeman’s relationship with the Dutch Reformed Church’s (DRC) empirical research work. It situates Schoeman within the DRC and provides an overview of the empirical research projects from within the DRC and to which Schoeman contributed uring his career. The article outlines Schoeman’s analysis of the state of the DRC. The article then discusses three fo…
Political theology, radical democracy, and explorations of liberation
In 2012, Vuyani Vellem made a brief proposal for a deeper engagement with political theorists and activists working around the notion of radical democracy, a proposal he reaffirmed in 2013 in articulating the challenge for the church in the face of an inability to contribute to meaningful change amidst vast economic inequality in South Africa. Despite extensive engagement with the work of Vellem in recent years, this particular proposal has so fa…
Ecumenical reflections on race, racism, and whiteness in the afterlife of apartheid in South Africa
This article examines the contributions made to a 28 April 2022 ecumenical dialogue on race, racism, and whiteness in South Africa. Following a careful analysis of the recordings and transcripts from this dialogue the article identifies multiple themes regarding race and whiteness that emerged from participants at this event. The article seeks to point out contemporary challenges identified by Christian leaders around race and whiteness in order …
Affordances for a More Human Life
This article forms part of the extensive process of reflecting on Nicaea, taking the form of a reflection on the commemoration of Nicaea. It adds to the longstanding concern with the imperial underpinnings of Nicene language by drawing attention to the ongoing implications of Christian imperialism into the present of 2025. The article seeks to draw on the recent methodological contributions of Hanna Reichel to provide the theological language for…
Belhar and the human
In commemorating 40 years since the adoption of the Belhar Confession, this article traces the ecclesiological focus of Belhar and probes the limits of this approach for addressing questions of racism and whiteness. It argues that the underpinning anthropological questions, already visible in the infamous 1857 decision of the Dutch Reformed Church, remain unexplored and proposes that it is exactly in questions of theological anthropology that the…
Philosophy (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Christian Theology and Mission (6 works) · Theology (6 works) · Political science (4 works) · Theological Perspectives and Practices (4 works) · African cultural and philosophical studies (3 works) · Gender Studies (3 works) · History of religions (3 works) · Law (3 works)