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Background: Food insecurity among students was a global concern even before the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Food security comprises having access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food at all times. The COVID-19 containment measures negatively influenced economies, impacting citizens’ food security. Aim: This study aimed to investigate the food security of a cohort of South African students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Setting: The sample included Health Science students from a university in Central South Africa. Methods: A mixed-method study was performed using questionnaires and focus group discussions. The questionnaire and focus group discussions investigated similar areas and were supported by literature. Ethical clearance was obtained. Results: Food insecurity existed among 84% of questionnaire participants. Dietary intake changed, with mainly a decrease in sugary and salty snacks. Focus group participants indicated an increase in the intake of starchy foods and reverted to binge eating. Dietary intake changes were attributed to poor availability and limited resources, for example money and electricity. Few participants were aware of or utilised available support services. Conclusion: The isolated, confined and extreme (ICE) environment that resulted from COVID-19 negatively impacted students’ dietary intake and food security. Institutions should implement measures to support students’ intake of healthy foods during ICE events. Contribution: This study provides significant insights into the dietary intake and food security of a cohort of Health Science students during COVID-19. It highlights the need for improved institutional and government food relief interventions during future pandemics. Therefore, this study contributes to the second sustainable development goal namely: zero hunger.

The theme of “the Cushites” has been investigated in Chronicles by various scholars. The Cushites are mentioned in passing in various passages of the book, but more prominently in the first part of the Asa narrative (2 Chron 14–16). Herodotus has also given attention to them in Book III of his Histories. These ancient discussions of the Cushites are brought into interaction in this article. However, not only the different ways in which these historiographies use the Cushites as rhetorical trope, but also the issue of classical Greek influence on Yehudean literary development form the focus of this article. https://doi.org/10.17159/2312-3621/2023/v36n1a6

This article examines the last contributions that Gary Knoppers made to the study of Ezra-Nehemiah. In his last book, which was published posthumously, he examined the ‘conspicious’ disappearance of Zerubbabel from Ezra-Nehemiah (and from other prophetic literatures) as well as the surprising down-playing of the places Mizpah and Ramat Rahel that were – according to the archaeological record – important places during the post-exilic period. In his assessment, he shows a more prominent ideological-critical line of scholarship that had not been so overt in his very well-known work on Chronicles. This article engages in further debate with Knoppers regarding these contributions to the study of Ezra-Nehemiah. https://doi.org/10.17159/2312-3621/2021/v34n3a13

The need for apologetic equipment already in preschool catechesis. From a young age, children are busy making sense of the world around them. Their worldview is formed by influences and/or guidance and their own intrinsic participation. With the availability of information provided by the media in the 21st century, Christian children are exposed to not only a Christian worldview, but also to other dominating worldviews. This exposure can have a negative effect on the formation of a Christian worldview if not treated correctly. When leading Christian researchers assume the prerequisite that pre-school children do not have the ability to grasp aspects of faith due to their so-called inability for Abstrak thoughts, the results will be the underemphasis, neglect and even disapproval of equipment in terms of a Christian biblical worldview. The result of this view is that non-biblical worldviews will dominate and shape Christian children’s thoughts from an early age, while there is little to no equipment guiding them. This occurs notwithstanding that the Word of God demands believers to educate their children and to equip them from an early age with the necessary foundational tools and resources. Apologetical equipment in the understanding of God, man and the world ought to be part of this education in faith that leads to a biblical and Christian worldview from a young age. Contribution: In their first six years, children form important concepts and presuppositions that could influence and affect the rest of their lives. Especially also through the stories they watch and listen to, they are confronted with conflicting ideas and concepts from which they must make sense. Sufficient apologetic and catechetical resources on the cognitive level of pre-school children should be provided to parents and educators of these children. These materials of which worldviews should be an integral part of, can and should guide these young believers in the consideration of conflicting ideas and even the defence of what they believe.

Although individuals who experience a vocational calling tend to be less receptive to psychological distress causing burnout, depression and turnover the prevalence of these cases are on the rise among religious ministers. This hitherto unexplained phenomenon is investigated in this study by exploring psychological contract violation experience with religious ministers in South Africa. A total of 11 participants were interviewed using a narrative approach, forming a qualitative study exploring the content of calling, expectations created by calling in reaction to it and the perceived violation of these expectations in the vocational setting. The result indicates that religious ministers do indeed experience psychological contract violation that leads to a host of negative effects. Opsomming: ‘n Ondersoek na psigologiese kontrak skending- en roeping ervaring by geestelike leiers. Alhoewel individue wat ‘n roeping ervaar die geneigdheid het om minder vatbaar te wees vir psigologiese stress wat uitbranding, depressie en omkeer-intensie voorafgaan, is daar ‘n toenemend hoër voorkoms hiervan by geestelike leiers. Hierdie onverklaarde fenomeen word in hierdie studie ondersoek deur psigologiese kontrak verbreking ervarings onder geestelike leiers in Suid Afrika te ondersoek. ‘n Totaal van 11 deelnemers is by wyse van narratiewe onderhoude ondervra om ‘n kwalitatiewe studie te doen wat die inhoud van roeping, verwagtinge vanuit die roeping en beleefde skending van hierdie verwagtinge in die loopbaankonteks te ondersoek. Die resultaat dui daarop dat geestelike leiers wel psigologiese kontrak skending ervaar wat negatiewe gevolge inhou. https://doi.org/10.19108/KOERS.85.1.2480

The purpose of this article is, first of all, to provide a short overview of the socio-religious development to personalise evil into a Satan figure alongside God. Thereafter, I will provide one biblical example which stands at the beginning of this development, namely 1 Chr 21. This text analysis will merely serve as one example to illustrate the relationship between the socio-religious developments in the Second Temple period and biblical textual formation through the reinterpretation of earlier traditions. In a last section, I will reflect on how our awareness of this relationship between socio-religious development and reinterpretation affects how Christian theology participates in social-theological diagnostics today.

The purpose of this article is, first of all, to provide a short overview of the socio-religious development to personalize evil into a Satan figure alongside God. Thereafter, I will provide one biblical example which stands at the beginning of this development, namely 1 Chronicles 21. This text analysis will merely serve as one example to illustrate the relationship between the socio-religious developments in the Second Temple period and biblical textual formation through the reinterpretation of earlier traditions. In a last section, I will reflect on how our awareness of this relationship between socio-religious development and reinterpretation impacts on how Christian theology participates in social-theological diagnostics today.

Scholars generally agree that the Books of Chronicles are the products of certain Israelite (Levitical) groups in the Persian province of Jehud who struggled with the dissonance between their older historical and theological traditions on the one hand, and their present reality on the other hand. Within the totally different conditions under Persian rule (a multi-religious and multi-ethnic society) they had to find a new identity. The primary focus of this article is to examine the rhetorics of the intense struggle for a new identity presented to the reader in the Books of Chronicles. It is argued that this new identity represented a shift from a historically-defined identity that lasted from the monarchical period to the early post-exilic phase, to a cultic identity during the Persian era. The article also endeavours to relate the identity forming discourse of these biblical books to the present processes in post-apartheid South African society. The question is asked whether a similar shift can be observed in this modern situation.

In this article the author illustrates that the relationship between the Bible and the Church could also be described from the post-modern perspective of intertextuality. He argues that communities of faith are texts in an all-encompassing network of textuality. However, these texts, as all other texts, are involved in clusters of related texts that show an affinity with one another. Within these clusters the related texts become more prominent and significant than texts �further away� in the network of textuality. He uses this view to argue that the Church, along with the Synagogue, has a special responsibility in the process of interpretation of the written biblical texts. He also argues that all the approaches that biblical scholars have utilized through the ages, when viewed as different perspectives on the network of textuality, could assist in our reading of communities of faith as texts.

Since the linguistic turn of New Criticism and the advent of reader-response approaches in the previous century, the category of history has come under pressure in biblical interpretation. New developments in general historiography have also emphasised that the past is forever past, and that only constructions of the past remain. These developments bring many to the conclusion that the past offers no assistance in the interpretation process. In my paper I would like to re-emphasise that �historical consciousness� does not mean an anachronistic clinging to something which no longer exists, but rather refers to the ability to sense the multidimensionality of interpretation, particularly in the case of ancient biblical texts.

Throughout the ages, the role of theology was understood to be that of serving the church to become what it should be, to become true to its own identity. In the theology of the Reformation, the identity of the congregation was sought in its being created and sustained by the Word of God. Consequently, theology was intended to serve the preaching, teaching and pastoral care of the congregation. However, since the Enlightenment, theology as a university discipline has been deeply influenced by the presuppositions of the modern spirit and has mostly lost its close relationship with the church. Because of its resultant critical approach to the Bible it often destroyed the very fabric of the gospel by which the church should live. It often became an impediment on the way of the congregation to remain true to its spiritual identity. The author contends that the time has now come to see the presuppositions of the Enlightenment for what they are: relative and one-sided, the biased assumptions of a positivistic era which is rapidly drawing to its end. He is of the opinion that theology should not aspire to operate within the limits of the modern world view, but accept the challenge to operate on the basis of the faith of the congregation as interpretative community, and to read the Bible as the Book of the church with the presuppositions of the Christian faith.

In hierdie bydrae word 'n oorsig gegee van die ontstaan, die ontwikkeling, die funksies en die benutting van die huidige MHAD van die Departement van Verdediging.In die loop van die oorsig sal die leser herhaaldelik 'n aantal vakterme teenkom wat dalk tot misverstand kan lei. Bulle is die volgende: Argief) argiefbewaarplek en argivalia.

Die verdedigingsorganisasies van die twee voormalige Boererepublieke het met die beëindiging van die Anglo-Boere-oorlog verdwyn. In Oktober 1902 het daar in Transvaal 'n heeltemal nuwe militêre stelsel tot stand gekom wat geen verband met die vorige gehad nie.

Scholars of Chronicles normally emphasise that the Chronicler used typical words and phrases in those parts that belong to his Sondergut. Amongst these are phrases like �to humble yourself�, �to seek Yahweh�, and �not to forsake Yahweh�. The writer�s typical changes to the burial notices of the royal narratives also belong in this category. Something which is often overlooked, however, is that many of these features already occur in the narrative about Huldah�s oracle (2 Chr 34:19�28) which was taken over with only minor changes from the Deuteronomistic version (2 Ki 22:11�20). My paper investigates whether or not the Huldah oracle could have served as theological paradigm according to which the Chronicler developed his own unique style. If so, the investigation will prompt me to revisit the issue of how continuity and discontinuity, with the older historiographical tradition, characterise the identity negotiation process that we witness in this literature.

In conversation with Johan Heyns The author commends Professor Heyns for his enormous contribution to the Reformed theology in South Africa. Heyns opted for a dynamic and inspiring theology of the Kingdom of God, which calls forth a response of obedience from all believers. However, the author is of the opinion that the philosophical character of the theology of Heyns, and especially his allegiance to the philosophy of Stoker in which the concept of the creation plays a dominant role, has hampered his possibility to develop a profound exegetical and Christological theology that could be critical enough of the kind of heresies which threatened the church during the apartheid era.

Starting with the Barmen Declaration of 1934, a new desire to confess the Christian faith in situations of political tension erupted worldwide, resulting in the formulation of new confessional statements. In South Africa a number of declarations and testimonies emanated from the struggle against apartheid. Not all these confessional statements had the same character and impact. The author of this article concentrates on the three most important documents which may have been influenced by Barmen: The Message to the People of South Africa (1968), the Belhar Confession (1982) and the Kairos Document (1985/6. He also refers to several other statements, including the document Geloof en protes (1987), which subscribes to apartheid as a matter of faith. The author concludes with a few critical remarks from a Calvinist point of view.

Abraham Kuyper het deur sy ekklesiologie in Suid-Afrika baie invloed uitgeoefen, veral op die teologie van die Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk. Onder andere het hy deur sy visie op die kerk en deur sy pluriformiteitsleer ’n instrument aan Suid-Afrikaanse teoloë voorsien waarmee hulle sedert die veertiger jare die konsep van aparte kerke vir aparte volksgroepe teologies probeer onderhou het. Maar het dit werklik ten regte geskied?

Met die aftrede van prof. dr. H. G.Schulze met pensioen word ons blikterug gevoer na een van die persoonlikhedewat die Potchefstroomse Universiteitvir C.H.O. in sy wordingsjare gehelpdra en bou het.

No abstract available.