Heinrich Bedford-Strohm | Peter Bubmann | Hans-Ulrich Dallmann | Torsten Meireis (Hrsg.): Kritische Öffentliche Theologie (Leseprobe)

38 Dirk J. Smit
What is critical for the future of the church, he concluded, is to concentrate on its
own task – and this task is so broad precisely because its center is so clear. He
soon developed these concerns more fully in Kirche in der Zeitenwende. Gesellschaftlicher
Wandel und Erneuerung der Kirche (1998), for his views on the
church’s public witness, particularly instructive.
2010
In 2010 he returned once more for two lectures on the church’stask in overcoming
violence. At Pretoria University he gave the keynote address during aconference
on violence in ademocratic South Africa. He spoke on »Religion and Violence
in aGlobalised World«, once again describing the challenges of that
historical moment with atypology. Against that background the second lecture –
aprestigious public one in Stellenbosch – focused on »Overcoming Violence –
ABasic Task of ChristianChurches«. The word »basic« already suggestedthat this
was not simply yet another challenge on along list of challenges, but that overcoming
violence somehow has to do with the nature of the church as church.
Again taking his departure in the Augsburg Confession’s view of the community
of saints as pure proclamation of the gospel and proper administration of the
sacraments, he argued that this gospelproclaimed and celebrated entails apreferential
option for non-violence that also includes the responsibility to put an end
to existing violence. His criticalclaim was once again that the Barmen Declaration
and later the Belhar Confession »made clear the inner dependencybetween faith
and obedience, witness and service, proclamation and existence of the church«
(Huber, 2011: 3). Once again he consideredpractical consequences flowing from
this basic calling as acommunity of peace – peace-making activities, peace-education,
promoting justice, solidarity with those in need. Once again he underlined
that »one will not find detailed guidelinesinthe Biblical Scriptures on how to deal
with those questions under present circumstances, but there isclearly acertain
tendency and direction«. (ibid.) In arecent address on »Overcoming Violence –
Church and Civil Society« in Rwanda in 2019, he again underlined that churches
should see their public responsibility as part of civil society. They should therefore
not oppose worship and public witness with one another, but see their own
commitment to education, to just peace, and to cultures of care as motivated by
basic theological reasons and ecclesiological convictions.
2015
In 2013 the Vice-Chancellor of Stellenbosch, Russel Botman, invited him as Honorary
Professor. By then his ties with Stellenbosch University had grown strong,