A leading international theologian who fought to end apartheid in South Africa will deliver a public lecture at Charles Sturt University's (CSU) Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture (ACCC) in Canberra on Monday 26 May.

 

Professor Nico Koopman was born in Niekerkshoop, South Africa, in 1961, and participated in the struggle to end apartheid in that country.

 

Professor Koopman’s public lecture is titled ‘Theology and public policy discourses in South Africa’, and is presented by the Public and Contextual Theology (PACT) Strategic Research Centre at CSU. Members of the public are invited to attend.

 

CSU’s Reverend Professor James Haire, AM, Director of PACT, will chair the lecture and introduce Professor Koopman as one who was close to the heart of the struggle to end apartheid.

 

“In the new South Africa after the rise of President Nelson Mandela, and now President Thabo Mbeki, Nico Koopman has been part of a critical evaluation of that country. Some things have progressed well, others not. As someone close to the struggle to end apartheid, Professor Koopman has been no less critical of events since freedom came,” Reverend Professor Haire said.

 

Professor Koopman is currently Chairperson of the Global Network for Public Theology, and Director, Beyers Naudé Centre for Public Theology in the Faculty of Theology, Stellenbosch University, South Africa. He is also public-theologian-in-residence at the Centre of Theological Inquiry, Princeton University, USA.

 

Contact CSU Media to arrange interviews with Professor Nico Koopman, or with Reverend Professor James Haire.

 

Professor Nico Koopman, BA, BTh (Hons,) MTh, DTh (University of the Western Cape) served as pastor of the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (URCSA) in Atlantis, as chaplain and part-time lecturer at the University of the Western Cape and as senior lecturer and vice-rector of the Huguenot College of the University of South Africa. He has published over 35 articles and chapters of books in South African and international journals and publications, edited a special edition on Public Theology for the Journal of Reformed Theology and writes a monthly column in Die Burger, the biggest Afrikaans daily newspaper. His book on ethics in contemporary societies, co-authored with colleague Robert Vosloo, won the Andrew Murray Prize for theological literature in 2003. He is Chairperson of the Theological Society of South Africa, and of the Global Network for Public Theology.