Prof Dion Forster from the Department of Systematic Theology and Ecclesiology and the Beyers Naudé Centre for Public Theology at Stellenbosch University recently delivered his professorial inaugural lecture titled 'Living more decently in an indecent world? The virtues and vices of a public theologian'. He spoke to the Division of Corporate Communication and Marketing about how his research aims to help us connect responsible, constructive, and resilient faith with a deep commitment to justice, peace, and the flourishing of humans and the rest of creation.

Tell us more about your research and why you became interested in this specific field.

My research fits into a field known as 'Public Theology'. This field studies the ways in which faith impacts upon public life (e.g., how belief shapes morals, political commitments etc.), and also how what happens in society impacts upon faith (e.g., we face violence, corruption, racism, and environmental abuse in South Africa – how should persons of faith respond to such realities to work for peace, justice, and the common good?). Most of my own work is in the field of theological ethics. I have a particular interest in political ethics and economic ethics.

My interest in this field emerged from my involvement in numerous faith communities working against apartheid in the 1980's, and then seeking to contribute towards a better society after 1994. South Africa remains a deeply religious society (with almost 93,3% of our citizens indicating that they are religious in the last household census). Yet, if we look at our country, we can see that we still face significant moral and social problems. Economically we are among the most unequal societies in the world. A large majority of our citizens continue to live in poverty. Politically we remain deeply divided – white South Africans remain disproportionately wealthy, safe, and privileged, while black South Africans continue to suffer economic, spatial, and social injustice. We face unprecedented rates of gender-based violence. Our concern for non-human creation, and environmental justice, is deeply lacking.

Much of my work aims to understand how we might connect responsible, constructive, and resilient faith with a deep commitment to justice, peace, and the flourishing of humans and the rest of creation. For the last 10 years or so I have been working on a project on the 'politics of forgiveness' among black and white South Africans. The project has helped us to understand what South Africans believe, and expect, in relation to forgiveness that is coupled with justice.

How would you describe the relevance of your work, especially for our South African context?

Given the high rates of religiosity in South Africa, coupled with the presence of religious communities in almost every society, there is a great deal of relevance for research in 'Public Theology'. There are more Churches in South Africa than there are municipalities, schools, clinics, feeding schemes, or branches of political parties. The World Values Survey shows that South Africans place much higher levels of trust in religious communities and religious leaders than they do in political leaders and business leaders.

So much of what I do seeks to help religious leaders and religious communities to be 'worthy' of that trust. The role that religious leaders played in ending apartheid, in caring for the poor, in educating our population, and in offering hope and support during some of our darkest times, is inspiring. However, we are also aware of unscrupulous religious leaders, politicians, and business persons, who abuse the faith of persons for unjust and unethical ends.

The work that I do personally, and the work that we do in the Beyers Naudé Centre for Public Theology (of which I am the director) is often called upon by religious leaders, faith communities, political structures, the media, and of course academics throughout the continent and the world, to help them understand the intersections between faith and public life. Our Gender Unit (headed by Prof Julie Claassens), Unit for Reconciliation and Justice (headed by Prof Christo Thesnaar), and the Unit for Moral Leadership (headed by Dr Chris Jones) (in the Beyers Naudé Centre for Public Theology) all do ground-breaking work to inform communities, point out abuses, and help individuals and groups to live more ethically and selflessly for the common good.

My work, and the work of my colleagues and students, has been featured on numerous international academic platforms, and in the international media, and has been used on 'grassroots' level to encourage, support, and inspire hope and transformation.

Can you tell us more about the impact of your research?

We measure our impact in two primary ways. First, since we are a university that is directed towards research, we measure the global impact of our work in Public Theology in terms of its contribution to shape and inform global and local fields of knowledge and concrete action. As mentioned earlier, our work (which includes scholarly books, academic articles, reports, workshops, and tools) is frequently featured in international academic locations, and used by international bodies (such as the World Council of Churches, United Nations, World Economic Forum, G20 etc.) Second, we measure the social impact of our work in how it reaches to, and serves, communities in supporting their efforts for justice, peace and the flourishing of humanity and creation. We are very grateful to serve as an African hub for Public Theological research, and the development of courses, materials and tools.

I am frequently asked to offer comment on local and global events that have some relationship to religion (e.g., Russia's ties to the Russian Orthodox Church, or Donald Trump's relationship with American Evangelicals, the occupation of Palestine by Israel, the 'Roe v Wade' ruling, and of course in South Africa the relationship between politics and religion, e.g., Mr Zuma's appeals to religious rhetoric, former Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng and his utterances about the Covid-19 vaccine and the 'number of the beast', or the pastors who rob and abuse their members).

In addition to this, I serve as a member of the World Economic Forum's 'Expert Network' on Religion in Africa, and the G20's 'Interfaith anti-racism task team'. My research has been picked up and featured by the BBC, the United Nations, the G20, the World Economic Forum, and the African Union.

My book 'The (im)possibility of forgiveness?' was shortlisted for the Andrew Murray / Desmond Tutu Prize in 2018, while my articles in 'The Conversation' have been read by almost 200 000 persons.

Which aspects of your work do you enjoy the most?

I am particularly grateful that the work that I do, and that I get to do with my colleagues and students, is contributing towards justice, peace and flourishing of humans and creation. We can often see, in very tangible ways, how the work that we do helps people. Much of what we do deepens understanding, fosters hope, and equips persons to act for justice.

I also really appreciate the fact that I can work across disciplines – my earliest work was in theology and science. My first PhD focussed on cognitive neuroscience, identity, and African intersubjective ontology. My more recent work (and what I did in my second PhD) is directly linked to faith and social identity – how our identity, history, and hopes inform our political and moral beliefs.

Finally, I am very grateful that Public Theologians often serve as 'translators' between the academy and 'grassroots' communities. We find ways to 'translate' highly technical research findings into concrete tools, materials, and courses. In addition to this, we often 'translate' the concerns, hopes, and commitments of 'ordinary believers' into the kind of technical language that academic theology needs. In this regard, we help to add value to academic research, as well as to concrete social action for the common good.

The pandemic has changed the way we work and live. What has kept you motivated during these times?

We have had to work in much more agile and creative ways. For example, in 2020 we had four significant regional conferences on Patriarchy, Gender Based Violence, and Religion planned through the Western, Southern, Eastern and Northern Cape. We had to find ways to make this work accessible to the communities that we were serving (most of whom did not have access to computers and the internet). Through one of our Dutch partners (Kerk in Actie) we were able to purchase equipment, pre-paid data, books and other materials to help our partners get online in 2020 and 2021.

We also ran a series of international collaborative research projects via MS Teams and Zoom. These focussed on issues of gender justice, Covid-19, religion and political populism, and our 'flagship' project that was funded by the Nagel Institute for World Christianity on 'Faith, Race, and Inequality among South African Youth' (undertaken with my colleague Prof Nadine Bowers du Toit).

Part of what we have been learning to do is to 'valorise' our research – I have been doing the same with my own work. For example, I have a YouTube channel on which I make short videos on topical issues available (that has approximately 1350 followers). But, as a public theologian I am also often engaged on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We also produced a global 26-episode course on Public Theology (that addressed issues such as economic justice, inter-religious encounter, political populism, gender justice, the arts etc.) in partnership with the Lutheran World Federation, the Berlin Institute for Public Theology at the Humboldt University of Berlin, and the Beyers Naudé Centre for Public Theology at Stellenbosch University.

Tell us something exciting about yourself that people would not expect.

I don't drive a car! I CAN drive, but I don't (or, at least, I almost never do!) I either drive my 20-year-old Vespa from Somerset West to Stellenbosch, or I cycle the 50km to work and back home. In part, this emerges from a deep commitment to lower my carbon footprint. In part it also allows me to spend less money on fuel so that I can support other worthy causes. I have a 22-year-old Brompton Folding bike that I take with me when I travel – it has three gears. I ride the Cape Town Cycle Tour (Argus) on it every year wearing a suit and tie.

Then, I have a 'relatively' large social media following – who knows why!? More than 5000 Facebook followers, more than 3000 Instagram followers, around 2900 Twitter followers, and 1350 YouTube followers.

How do you spend your free time away from lectures and research?

I am an avid (but SLOW) runner and cyclist. As I grow older, I love the longer distances more and more. I like running half marathons and marathons. I love doing ultra-distance mountain bike events (such as the 230km Trans-Baviaans from Willowmore to Jeffreys Bay).

I am also a family person – I love spending time with my wife Megan, and our children Courtney and Liam.

• Prof Dion Forster's inaugural lecture also coincided with the 10th anniversary of the Marikana massacre. He wrote an article for The Conversation in which he emphasised that to prevent a similar tragedy in the future, we need to build a society that is decent and does not humiliate people.​
  

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