Corporate citizenship is a prominent international issue as contemporary corporations are no longer expected to perform financially, but are also expected to have an ethical relationship of responsibility between the corporate itself and the society in which it operates and performs it business activities. Provides an up-to-date theoretical content pertaining to corporate citizenship, providing local and global examples and case studies.

In this review article, the book by J.H. van Wyk, Augustine: A study on the ethics of the church father from Africa is presented and discussed. Short overviews of the content of the six chapters are given. They are: Introduction – the necessity for a book on Augustine’s ethics in Afrikaans, Orientation – an overview of his life and works, Grounding – the relationship between dogmatics and ethics, Typology – the character of his ethics, Themes – marriage and sexual ethics, (...) political ethics and animal ethics, Findings – evaluation of Augustine’s ethics. Support is given to the argument that Augustine is an important forerunner to the Reformation. Information is provided on Augustine and the early years of the Reformation in Wittenberg. Critical remarks are made about the author’s understanding of the relationship between faith and works, dogmatics and ethics. The Lutheran understanding of this topic is presented as an important alternative to the Reformed version that is defended in this book. Finally, attention is given to Augustine’s ‘theory of the two cities’. Also in this regard advice is given from one of Luther’s publication. His exposition of Mary’s Song in Luke 1:46–55 is used as an example of how a witness to the government could look like. (shrink)

This article considers how the metaphor of Mother Earth, for women, concerns a dual stance of both belonging and distance. The link between women, nature and Mother Earth is problematised by considering the possible, or contested, link between population growth and climate change, and the South African population policy specifically is considered as an example. Ecofeminism’s challenge to the perceived connection between women, motherhood and Earth, that is the ‘distance’ stance, is considered and a response to that is offered by (...) reflecting on Mercy Oduyoye’s notion of mothering, which represents the ‘belonging’ stance. In this regard, an intercultural approach to the definition of motherhood is implied. It is ultimately indicated that for women to reclaim their own agency regarding a perceived responsibility towards nature, it is necessary to deconstruct and reconstruct ‘motherhood’ to free themselves from being stuck between Mother Earth and a mother’s womb.Contribution: This article makes a contribution to feminist studies at the intersection of gender roles and the climate crisis, as it relates to population growth and an intercultural definition of motherhood. It contributes to UN’s sustainable development agenda as it relates to both SDG 5 (gender equality) and SDG 13 (climate action). (shrink)

God, trust and doubt: The women in the concentration camps of the Anglo-Boer or South African War.Many books and articles have been written on the religious concept of the Afrikaner women who suffered in and survived the concentration camps during the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902) in South Africa. It seems as if nothing has been written, though, on their image and understanding of God. This article is an attempt to close the gap in the research. These women’s understanding of God (...) was mainly shaped by the Old Testament. They saw the two Boer republics as the new people of God, elected to exist in freedom, as independent states. To them, God was the God of justice and righteousness, who will defend his chosen people from oppression. The defeat on the battlefield caused a crisis of faith among many women. The war diary of Johanna Brandt (née Van Warmelo) offers useful information about the women’s faith and the shattering of their faith. In the second part of this article, Lutheran perspectives on the God of the Bible and man-made idols are provided as a Christian alternative to the faith of our forefathers. The Psalms and the prophets are also revisited to point out the presence of God, as well as the ethical consequences of the Jewish-Christian religion. Contribution: This is probably one of the first articles written on women’s understanding of God, women who were confined to the concentration camps during the Anglo-Boer War of 1899–1902. The main emphasis falls on Johanna Brandt (née Van Warmelo), who was an assistant nurse in the Irene camp, on the outskirts of Pretoria. She formulated her and the other women’s belief in the God of justice. Their understanding of God motivated them to endure the hardships and thousands of deaths in the camps. (shrink)

Many logical systems today describe intelligent interacting agents over time. Frameworks include Interpreted Systems (IS, Fagin et al. [8]), Epistemic-Temporal Logic (ETL, Parikh & Ramanujam [22]), STIT (Belnap et al. [5]), Process Algebra and Game Semantics (Abramsky [1]). This variety is an asset, as different modeling tools can be fine-tuned to specific applications. But it may also be an obstacle, when barriers between paradigms and schools go up. This paper takes a closer look at one particular interface, between two systems (...) that both address the dynamics of knowledge and information flow in multi-agent systems. One is IS/ETL (IS and ETL are, from a technical point of view, the same up to model transformations, cf. [20]), which uses linear or branching time models with added epistemic structure induced by agents’ different capabilities for observing events. These models provide a Grand Stage where histories of some process unfold constrained by a protocol, and a matching epistemic-temporal language describes what happens. The other framework is Dynamic Epistemic Logic (DEL, [10, 4, 34]) that describes interactive processes in terms of epistemic event models which may occur inside modalities of the language. Temporal evolution is then computed from some initial epistemic model through a process of successive ‘product updates’. It has long been unclear how to best compare IS/ETL and DEL. Various aspects have been investigated in [10, 30, 32], but in this paper, we study the interface in a more systematic way. Often, DEL and ETL are presented as alternative ways of adding dynamics to multi-agent epistemic models. In this paper, we rather focus on how merging the two different modeling choices leads to interesting new questions. Our leading interest here will be a view of informational processes as evolving over time. To see what we mean, consider the simplest version of DEL, viz. the logic of public announcements PAL ([23]) which adds a very specific type of communicative 1 action to epistemic models: a public announcement.. (shrink)

Metaphors for the encounter between God and humanity and a roaming theologian’s reflective journey. This article maps the theology of Christo van der Merwe as a mobilising theology which aided the Netherdutch Reformed Church in Africa in discerning its character, role and purpose. The core of Van der Merwe’s theology consists of a journey with God as encountered in the narratives about Jesus and the Spirit told in the Christian Bible. The article shows that the mobilising core of his theology (...) is due to an ‘interoperational relationship’ between ‘knowing and believing’. In the article, the metaphor ‘roaming’ is used to illustrate this biographical journey as contextual theology which equips pastors with ministerial skills to take care of people who are haunted by trauma. (shrink)

SMEs are the driving force of economies. However, they face challenges that affect their long-term survival, such as developing ethical business environments. Business ethicsrelated research is underdeveloped in SMEs, thus limiting our understanding of business ethics in SMEs. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate how business ethics is conceptualised in SMEs, using the Delphi Technique. In SMEs, business ethics is viewed as doing the right thing, having integrity, being transparent, trustworthy, and behaving responsibly towards internal and external (...) parties. The contribution of this article is that business ethics is perceived as upholding quality, being transparent and trustworthy. (shrink)

Vryheid is naas regverdiging een van die belangrikste temas van die Reformatoriese teologie. Luther se geskrif 'Oor die vryheid van 'n Christenmens' is een van sy hoofgeskrifte. In hierdie geskrif beskryf hy die vryheid van die innerlike en die uiterlike mens. Die innerlike mens is vry en niemand se onderdaan nie. Die uiterlike mens is weer elke ander mens se onderdaan en dienskneg. Die Christen dien sy medemens deur die liefde. Luther se verstaan van naasteliefde word vanuit ander geskrifte toegelig. (...) Johannes Calvyn se verstaan van vryheid volgens sy 'Institusie' van 1559 word ook bespreek. Daar word op die groot ooreenstemming tussen Luther en Calvyn gewys. Die verskille tussen die twee Reformatore is minimaal. Calvyn het egter wel groter aandag aan die adiafora-vraagstuk gegee. Daar word ook deurgaans na Philipp Melanchthon se invloed op Calvyn gewys. Die relevansie van die vryheidsvraagstuk lê nie in die instrumentalisering van die Christelike vryheid nie, maar in die hernude bestudering van die klassieke tekste met die bedoeling om die belangrike reformatoriese motiewe te herontdek. Hierdie motiewe is relevant - ook in ons samelewing. (shrink)

The missionary work of the Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk van Afrika in theory and practice: in the past, present and futureIn this article a short survey is given of the missionary work, both in theory and practice, of the Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk during the last fifty years. There is also an indication that the Church has reached a crucial point which is going to require thorough rethinking and reconsideration of our missionary work.

This article examines the 19th and 20th century European context wherein religion was practiced. In a 'Rip-Van-Winkle' manner it is as if this context had no influence on the Afrikaans speaking church in South Africa. The isolation, that was the result of the apartheid ideology, lead to the Afrikaans speaking church in South Africa not internalising ecumenicity. It is argued that for the church to be able to take an active role in reconciling diversity and therefore contributing to social cohesion (...) in South Africa, the church needs to transcend being a 'nation' church. This is possible by respecting culture and diversity, while recognising the priority of salvation in Christ. This is the ellipse of being church. (shrink)

The contribution that Professor Pieter M. Venter has made to the study of the Old Testament during his academic and ecclesiastic career is reviewed. After a brief biographical introduction, the article surveys the development of his research interests, focusing specifically on his contributions to the study of wisdom literature, narratives and narratology, second temple literature, the formation of the canon, and Old Testament Theology. The review concludes with reference to his way of practising critical theology, taking full cognisance of research (...) into the linguistic, historical critical, narratological and ideological aspects of Old Testament texts, but always with a sensitivity for the needs of the church as interpretive community. (shrink)

The sentence 'to rule with him in the heavenly world' as example of an eschatological highlight in the letter to the Ephesians: The viewpoint in this article is that the above-mentioned statement in the letter to the Ephesians can be seen as an eschatological sentence of extraordinary value. In view of different eschatological viewpoints from the past, it can be stated that this sentence is an example of eschatology not only for the future, but also for the present. It is (...) understandable that there is a close link between eschatology and mission. The meaning of theosis, a concept from the Eastern churches' theological debate, underlines the need for a present eschatological consciousness that has significance for the future of church and faith. Believers can in this way escape from the destructive lust that is in the world, and may become partakers of the divine nature. (shrink)

A tolerant treatment of church order and the law of usance: This article discusses the recent decline of church polity in the Netherdutch Reformed Church which is obvious in different areas of the Church with special reference to the liturgy practised in sermons of some congregations. This decline is also observed in other churches in South Africa and abroad. The article is a reaction to the reason for this situation and indicates that it should not be found in a collegialistic (...) concept of church, but rather due to congregationalism or independentism in modern form. The article’s viewpoint is that the above-mentioned church polity decline is a result of the fact that church order is not valued as an order with a Scriptural and therefore an ecclesiological basis. (shrink)

This article can serve as an overview of the work of Yolanda Dreyer, or as an introduction to her work, by conversing with her as a public theologian in the tradition of Schleiermacher. The article highlights her passion to listen to the voices that are normally ignored or to hear what needs to be heard to transform discourses. It investigates the contribution of Yolanda Dreyer to public theology with regard to the newspaper columns she has been writing for more than (...) 17 years. It compares aspects of her public theology with the theology of Friedrich Schleiermacher, which can be characterised by an internalised spirituality and a critical hermeneutic of suspicion towards the abuse of power. Gender injustice and cultural criticism are prominent themes within Dreyer's public theology. She emphasises the vocation to speak out, but also the necessity to listen. These contributions also characterise Dreyer as a pastor-theologian. (shrink)

Rudolf Bultmann was one of the leading thinkers within an influential theological direction that arose in Europe after the First World War, known as dialectical theology. Comprehensive introductions to the life and work of Bultmann in the South African theological journals, written in Afrikaans, either does not exist, or are difficult to trace for the Afrikaans readership. This article on Bultmann aims to fill the gap by offering a lexicographical contribution on the life and work of Bultmann. The focus of (...) this article is on Bultmann as a Lutheran thinker. The theme of the New Testament and systematic theology is essentially the same, namely to explain the concept of Christian self-understanding as an eschatological event in which faith is expressed for the sake of faith in God and only in God. Bultmann explained the same theological concepts with his theology as those that were explained by the church reformers of the 16th century, but under radically new circumstances. The so-called modern and postmodern people of our time not only broke ties with the past, but in the process they also lost their ability for using historical-critical patterns of thought that tries to bridge historical distances, and therefore sacrificed all efforts to think systematically on the altar of relativism. We can learn from Bultmann what systematic reformed theology really is. (shrink)

This article believes church polity is critically important, especially in recent times where an appeal is quite easily made to the courts of the political dispensation. The article believes the scriptural viewpoint that Jesus Christ is head of the church plays a substantial role in the modern-day church, which should be kept in mind regardless. Reference is made to court cases in the past and the conclusion is that church polity is relevant because it is a scriptural necessity.

This article attempts to draw the scope and content of contemporary Political Theology, based on a review of the 2013 publication titled, Political Theology: Contemporary challenges and future directions, edited by Francis Schüssler Fiorenza, Klaus Tanner and Michael Welker. The book is a collection of contributions which explore the contemporary content and potential future of the subject discipline. ‘Political Theology’ as critical theology and as a ‘theology with its face towards the world’ is committed to ‘justice, peace and the integrity (...) of creation’ and is multifaceted. It represents a discipline with which theologians reflect on political-theological objectives across continents and paradigms. The article concludes with a brief investigation of the implications of insights offered in the book for the South African context. (shrink)

This article offers a rejoinder to Felix Waldmann. In a critical note published in Locke Studies, Waldmann challenges our recent reconstruction of Locke’s thesis, developed across the Second Treatise of Government, that humans cannot possibly agree to subject themselves to absolute rule. Call this thesis No Contractual Absolutism. Our reconstruction, Waldmann objects, “neglects a basic datum of scholarship”: i.e., that Locke’s Second Treatise intended to counter Filmer’s political theory. Our reply is two-pronged. First, we argue that No Contractual Absolutism cannot (...) plausibly be construed as an attack on Filmer, since it challenges a thesis that he did not hold. Indeed, as for him no form of government can be contractual in origin, Filmer would have agreed with Locke that absolute rule cannot be instituted by agreement. As our initial article suggested, the standard view about whom the polemical target is of the Second Treatise requires qualification with respect to No Contractual Absolutism. Second, we contend that Waldmann’s concerns rest on discipline-specific methodological assumptions, which are unhelpful for the kind of analytical reconstruction we advanced. We conclude with a plea for methodological pluralism in the study of Locke’s thought. (shrink)