Post-foundational theology and the contribution of African approaches to consciousness and identity

Verbum et Ecclesia

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Post-foundational theology and the contribution of African approaches to consciousness and identity
 
Creator Forster, Dion A.
 
Subject Systematic Theology; African Theology; Theology and Science Wentzel van Huyssteen; African theology; post-foundationalism; identity; consciousness; generous ontology
Description How do we know who we are? What sources can we draw upon in order to explain and understand the complex notions of identity and consciousness? This article revisits this debate and argues that African approaches the consciousness and identity cohere with Wentzel van Huyssteen’s post-foundational theology. Post-foundational theology offers a transverse rationality that operates between explanatory power and truth. The impetus for the research that informs this article emerged from a conversation with Prof. Van Huyssteen in 2000. The conversation set the author on a path of exploration which led to the discovery of the richness of African religious, philosophical and social resources on identity and consciousness. The outcome was an integrated approach to identity known as a ‘generous ontology’ that draws upon subjective, objective, inter-subjective and inter-objective sources of knowledge. The article concludes that an African approach to consciousness, as a post-foundational theological contribution, helps us to offer clear explanations and deeper truths in relation to our understanding of identity and consciousness.Intradisciplinary and or interdisciplinary implications: This article presents a post-foundationalist argument for the inclusion of African theological notions of identity and consciousness in the debates of this field that take place at the intersections of faith and science. The outcome textures our explanations and deepens our understandings of transdisciplinary approaches to identity and consciousness.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2021-10-21
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Literary analysis, philosophical inquiry
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/ve.v42i2.2363
 
Source Verbum et Ecclesia; Vol 42, No 2 (2021); 10 pages 2074-7705 1609-9982
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/2363/5234 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/2363/5235 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/2363/5236 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/2363/5237
 
Coverage Africa; Global Contemporary —
Rights Copyright (c) 2021 Dion A. Forster https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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