Reflections on the Belote Lectures by Prof. J. Wentzel van Huyssteen

Reflections on the Belote Lectures by Prof. J. Wentzel van Huyssteen

Andres S. TANG

This paper is a response to and reflection on the Belote Lectures given by Prof. J. Wentzel van Huyssteen at Hong Kong Baptist Theological Seminary in October, 2006. Firstly, the author finds that most of the responses to the lectures fall into the trap of external criticism; that is, the critics do not go into the core of the theology of Prof. van Huyssteen in asking questions or giving comments. They cannot avoid insisting on their own position without properly understanding the speaker. Secondly, on the one hand, reading Prof. van Huyssteen's Alone in the World? and The Shaping of Rationality is necessary for one to grasp his methodology of postfoundationalism. On the other hand, contemporary theologians like Colin Gunton and Trevor Hart share the same spirit of giving significance to the role of tradition in the process of theological thinking. Prof. van Huyssteen's technical term, “transversal rationality” is used to describe reality in such a way as to go beyond both universality/modernity and particularity/postmodernity. Thirdly, Prof. van Huyssteen includes the contribution of the empirical sciences to support or develop a conception of the embodiment of human being which is not abstract but, rather, concrete and relationally alive.