Please join me for my Inaugural Lecture at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

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Please join me for my Inaugural Lecture as University Research Chair and Professor of Public Theology and Ethics at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

The lecture is scheduled to take place on:

🕰️ Friday, 23 October 2026, at 15.45 CET

📍 The Aula of the University’s Main Building

🤝 The lecture will be followed by a reception.

 Online stream: https://vu.nl/pedel/livestream

Please find below a brief summary of the lecture below:

Sawubona: (Mis)Recognition and the Task of Public Theology

Sawubona is an everyday isiZulu greeting: “I/we see you.” But what happens when politics teaches us not to see people? In the Netherlands and South Africa, political movements increasingly invoke religious language, symbols and identities to divide society between “our people” and threatening “others”, reducing human beings to migrants, foreigners or outsiders. This lecture asks how religion is used to sanctify exclusion, who is made invisible, and who gets to decide. Yet faith can also offer powerful resources for recognising every person’s God-given dignity and worth. Human dignity is not something a state, party, religious community or political movement can grant or withdraw. Public theology seeks to expose the abuse of religion while drawing on religious traditions to help us see again: truthfully, critically and humanely, fostering justice, sustainable peace and human flourishing.

[Nederlands] 

Sawubona is een alledaagse groet in het isiZulu: “Ik/wij zien jou.” Maar wat gebeurt er wanneer politiek ons leert om mensen niet te zien? In Nederland en Zuid-Afrika beroepen politieke bewegingen zich steeds vaker op religieuze taal, symbolen en identiteiten om de samenleving te verdelen tussen “onze mensen” en bedreigende “anderen”, waarbij mensen worden gereduceerd tot migrant, vreemdeling of buitenstaander. Deze oratie vraagt hoe religie wordt ingezet om uitsluiting te heiligen, wie onzichtbaar wordt gemaakt en wie mag bepalen wie gezien wordt. Toch kan geloof ook krachtige bronnen bieden om de door God gegeven waardigheid en waarde van ieder mens te erkennen. Menselijke waardigheid is niet iets wat een staat, politieke partij, geloofsgemeenschap of politieke beweging kan verlenen of intrekken. Publieke theologie probeert het misbruik van religie bloot te leggen en put tegelijk uit religieuze tradities om ons te helpen opnieuw te leren zien: waarachtig, kritisch en menselijk, en zo bij te dragen aan rechtvaardigheid, duurzame vrede en menselijke bloei.

Professorial Inaugural Lecture: On living more decently in an indecent world - The virtues and vices of a Public Theologian

On the 16th of August 2022 I was exceptionally grateful to deliver my Inaugural Lecture as a Full Professor at Stellenbosch University.

The tradition of the Professorial Inaugural Lecture is that once one is promoted to Full Professor you have to make a 'profession'. It is generally assumed that some years or decades of research and scholarship will mean that you have something of meaning and value to say.

I took that very seriously. Wrestled for some months with what to 'profess'. Of course there was the pressure that the lecture's text had to be finalised in order to be prepared for publication! This was actually quite good - it meant that I had to read, listen, discern, and write! In the end I tried to discern what might be appropriate, fitting, and just for me to profess as a white, male, professor of Public Theology and Ethics in Stellenbosch South Africa in 2022? As it happened, the date that the University set for the lecture coincided with the 10th Anniverary of the Marikana massacre (about which I had done research and written previously). The mine workers who were shot in that terrible event had built their campaign around decency - what they were advocating for was a 'decent wage' (not just a 'living wage'). They wanted to earn enough to be able to undo the evils of colonialism and apartheid for them and their families. They were asking to earn enough to be able to undo the dehumanization of migrant labour, of inadequate education, of a lack of health care, and of ongoing poverty. They expected, that in a decent society they should be able to earn a decent wage. Sadly, 47 persons died indecently during that week's protests.

So in the end, the title of my lecture was:

Living more decently in an indecent world? The virtues and vices of a public theologian.

You can download PDF copy of the published lecture here.

The event was attended by family, friends, my wonderful colleagues, and members of the Rectorate of Stellenbosch University. It was such a special evening! I am so grateful.

You can watch the lecture itself here (or see the embedded youtube video below which will start playing at the start of the lecture itself, skip back to the beginning to watch the whole evening with inputs from special colleagues and friends).