Sedert die uitbreek van die COVID-19-pandemie in Suid-Afrika, het die gevolglike inperking van kerke gevra om oor die formaat en inhoud van prediking te herbesin. Die vraag het ontstaan hoe prediking in tye soos hierdie lyk en kan lyk en spesifiek die inhoud van preke die week vóór en ná die staat van inperking. Hierdie artikel ondersoek die inhoud van preke wat in hierdie tydperk in Suid-Afrika gelewer is deur middel van gegronde teorie, ten einde die kerntemas in die prediking te midde van die COVID-19-pandemie en grendeltyd te identifiseer en vandaar ’n homiletiese praxisteorie vir prediking in tye soos hierdie daar te stel. Die naby-ver spanning wat in die wisselwerking tussen die beleefde realiteit van die hoorders en die realiteit wat verkondig word, na vore kom, word ondersoek. Geloofsgewoontes en geloofsonderkeid word ondersoek as kernkonsepte wat hierdie spanning kan vashou en wat hoorders kan help om die dun ruimtes wat deur liminale tye soos hierdie geskep word, te navigeer.

Meditation liegt im Trend. In den verschiedensten gesellschaftlichen Bereichen lässt sich diese Feststellung auch ohne eine erschöpfende Analyse nachvollziehen. Charakteristisch ist dabei in den letzten Jahren in aller Regel die Dominanz eines neurowissenschaftlichen oder -psychologischen und damit verbunden eines überwiegend gesundheitsorientierten Zugriffs auf den Gegenstand Meditation. In einem vorangegangenen Forschungsprojekt diente dieses Szenario als Ausgangslage, um religionstheoretische Implikationen der neurowissenschaftlichen Meditationsforschung herauszuarbeiten.8 In der vorliegenden Arbeit möchte ich hingegen gerade das diskursive Geflecht um das zeitgenössische Verständnis von Meditation selbst untersuchen. Dabei stellt die überwiegend neurowissenschaftliche Meditationsforschung weiterhin den Türöffner meines Zugangs dar, da sie – soweit zumindest die Annahme – als maßgeblicher Motor des aktuellen Meditationsbooms fungiert.:Verzeichnisse Abbildungsverzeichnis Tabellenverzeichnis Abkürzungsverzeichnis Sigelverzeichnis Einleitung 1 Vorüberlegungen 2 Das Netzwerk der Meditationsforschung 3 Die diskursive Formation des Meditationsdiskurses 4 Der Meditationsdiskurs als Grenzdiskurs 5 Schlussbetrachtung Literatur

In this paper, the question of whether Christian preaching is implicated in the growing movement of populism is posed. The paper has identified three critical issues that call for investigation in homiletical hermeneutics. The first issue addresses the problem of biblical interpretation for homiletic practice. The second issue has to do with the impact of social media that often distorts the truth. Alarming dependence on the smart phone suggests that the task of the preacher in this rapidly changing visual and high tech culture is to deliver sermons that are critically aware of visual culture rather than literary culture. Finally, the paper calls for an approach to preaching that seeks to reveal missing, hidden and distorted truth as a way to speak against the demonic power of the profit-driven capitalism and the epidemic of gender-based violence against women and sexual minorities.

The fourth volume of the International Journal of Homiletics opens with an article from South Africa presenting first results of an empirical research on preaching in times of the pandemic. Marileen Steyn, Cas Wepener and Hennie Pieterse, all three from Stellenbosch University, conducted a grounded theory exploration on Preaching During the COVID-19 Pandemic in South Africa analyzing 24 sermons preached on March 22 and March 29 2020- during the time of the South African lockdown. They convincingly show that in an experience of ‘distance’ (to God and the others) sermons primarily try to present a God who is ‘near.’ The authors explore the ‘hinges’ preachers use to help people on the threshold between near and far. They also point to the role liturgy plays together with the words of the sermon and suggest Holy Saturday/Silent Saturday as a metaphor for the homiletical endeavor of preaching in times of crisis. The article is presented in our volume in an English and an Afrikaans version.

2020 – this year will surely be remembered as the year of the Covid19-pandemic. Writing these lines in August 2020, there are around 20 million people infected (numbers increasing continuously) – and the whole population of the world affected by the virus. 750.000 people died in the first months of the pandemic. And all over the world poverty increases, and the most vulnerable are most affected by the crisis. Are there any ‘answers’ sermons can give? Or is this a time for silently listening with the congregations to the word of God? What is the role of preaching in the pandemic – knowing that we will never simply return to the situation ‘before’ the pandemic, but that our way of living, and also our way of preaching and celebrating worship will change.

The purpose of this article is to reflect on homiletics and Christian preaching in the context of Latin America, in the current times of transition. In order to provide a better understanding of the approach, initially aspects of the Latin American religious and cultural context will be analyzed. Then there will be considerations on aspects of the development of Christian preaching, creating a space to think about the relationship between Christian preaching and theologies that are relevant to the context, such as liberation theology. Finally a few challenges to Christian preaching in times of transition will be pointed out. Due to the delimitation of the article, it will focus on the homiletic development of the historical Protestant churches on the continent, above all in the Brazilian context.

Este artigo tem por objetivo refletir sobre a homilética e a pregação cristã no contexto da América Latina, em tempos atuais de transição. Para tanto, afim de propiciar uma melhor compreensão da abordagem, analisar-se-á aspectos do contexto religioso e cultural latino-americano, num primeiro momento. Em seguida, refletir-se-á sobre aspectos do desenvolvimento da pregação cristã, dando espaço para pensar a relação entre a pregração cristã com teologias relevantes para o contexto, como a Teologia da Libertação, para, finalmente, apontar alguns desafios para a pregação cristã em tempos de transição. Devido a delimitação do artigo, o enfoque estará concentrado no desenvolvimento homilético das igrejas protestantes históricas do continente, sobretudo do contexto brasileiro.

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In this paper, a brief overview is given of two research projects that were done in South Africa during 1987 (a particularly difficult time under apartheid), and 1994 (the year that the first democratic elections took place), respectively. Some of the findings are discussed under the keywords: silence, transition, reservation, new vision. Reference is made to a historic sermon preached by Archbishop Desmond Tutu in St. George’s Cathedral in Cape Town only three days before the first democratic elections were held in South Africa on the 27th of April, 1994. The paper concludes with a reflection on an artwork by the South African artist, Willie Bester.

In this article, I present insights from an empirical study of a congregation which consists of a medley of refugees from the Middle East who have recently converted from Islam and ethnic Danes whose families have belonged to the Lutheran Church for generations. The empirical material is analyzed in light of Søren Kierkegaard’s category of repetition, in the sense of receiving anew, because this phenomenon appears crucial, not only to the genre of preaching but to preachers and listeners alike – especially, in times and situations of transition. I suggest that the Kierkegaardian notion of repetition may be useful as a homiletical category with regard of scholars’ method, preachers’ preparation and listeners’ appropriation of preaching.