‘Where are the prophets?’: How academic theology failed us

Against the backdrop of precarious global and local politics – a threat to democracy, global wars, xenophobic violence, oppressions of sexual minorities and a permanent youth precariat in South Africa – do academic theologies foster prophetic responses or succumb to imperial co-option? Departing from the Kairos Document’s threefold call to conversion, this article laments the lack of a Kairos consciousness today, with reference to five areas of concern. Contribution: This study explores what theological formation for prophetic communities might look like, marked by Le Bruyns’ three elements of criticality, contextuality and change; participating in concrete sites of struggle and sustained by a ‘lived faith’. It imagines theological schools as ‘schools of prophets, servants and healers’, not only breaking the silence but also going beyond prophetic rhetoric through embodied theologising.