29. Does Rian Venter make (Theological) Sense?

Engaging with the systematic-theologian Rian Venter in acknowledgement and celebration of his academic theological contributions for well over thirty years demographically from Pretoria to Lusaka and ultimately to Bloemfontein, is an awarding and theological enriching experience. He has widely and constructively contributed to South African scholarship on systematic-theological reflection. One of the most prominent foci of his academic scholarship – apart from exploring systematic-theological disciplinary reflection and methodology – has been from day one until now, the nature and art of religious experience or spirituality (and specifically the experiencing of God, the God-question and Trinity). In most of his latest publications, he strongly emphasises sense-making within theological reflection, proposing a (threefold) constructive-theological way to move beyond the traumatic Covid-19 experience. It’s a “beyond” that he explicates with the hope that some of the insights that have been generated by the pandemic, will be preserved and have enduring significance. What are these insights for him and how did they come about? In my engagement with him, I will restrict myself to his latest three publications, namely Making sense of the COVID-19 pandemic from the Bible – Some perspectives (2021), Divine hiddenness, the melancholic self, and a pandemic spirituality (2022a) and Pandemic, theological sense-making and the Triune God (2022b). I will firstly present and reflect on the core of his expositions and arguments in the three publications, then secondly focus specifically on his understanding of and emphasis on “sense-making” within a pandemic spirituality, posing the question “Does Venter make sense?” I will answer the question by making use of evaluative criteria that I earlier formulated with regard to South African scholarship on Covid-19. Lastly, I will engage critically with his contribution and the manner in which he sees our unfinished reflection on God and spirituality.