Interview with prof. Nico Norman Koopman

Abstract

E-mail: laubscherm@ufs.ac.za;ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4240-199 [Image omitted: see PDF] Nico Koopman is Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Social Impact, Transformation and Personnel at Stellenbosch University, and Professor of Systematic Theology, Ethics and Public Theology. Unforgettable are the high school years in Kimberley, where we learned to cherish diversity and embrace the other colour, the other religion, the other language, the other culture, the other gender, the other sexual orientation, the one living with disability or with differently abledness. At the University of the Western Cape, the Free University in Amsterdam, Stellenbosch University and all local and international university partners, we acquired and keep on acquiring the intellectual skills to develop impact-making theories and theory-laden practices for a life of dignity for all, healing of wounds for all, justice for all, freedom for all, and equality for all, especially for the most vulnerable. The church speaks prophetically in at least five modes, namely envisioning of a new church and society of dignity, healing, justice, freedom and equality;criticising where this vision is betrayed by church and society;telling of stories of despair and disappointment, as well as stories of hope and victory;technical and scientific analysis of complex concerns and challenges, and participation in public policy-formation processes.