Critical Openness

When I began at Fuller Theological Seminary in 2004, a professor taught us about critical openness. One might call it academic detachment. Lately, the atmosphere in South Africa does not lend itself well to academic detachment or critical openness -- although South Africans have always been said to lack it. It is with trepidation that one comments academically or "disinterestedly" on anything today, as far as any of us is capable of impartiality. If one fails to tow the correct line, one may come under emotional attack -- in our top universities, too. OBSERVATION: The very notion of critical openness may come under attack. How dare one be open when there is a duty to the revolution? Who is this? A sellout? And so on.

POSTSCRIPT: However, something good in this is that issues are not (usually) met with silence, as is a tendency in some parts of the world.