After Johan Cilliers

On the strange beauty of serving the Word?

Abstract

We find ourselves in the privileged yet intimidating position of doing homiletics and liturgy in South Africa after Johan Cilliers. He has not only been enormously productive over the past three decades (and gracefully not yet done) but has also ever continuously transformed and impacted immensely with his insights and creativity on the strange beauty of serving the Word within our context. An appreciative acknowledgment and critical reception of his work are called for as we identify and explore some perspectives and ways in which we find ourselves after Cilliers' work. After a brief introduction, we chronologically explore his oeuvre with four key perspectives, each time primarily from a particular monograph. In short, to the man who revealed and taught us so much about the strange beauty of preaching and worshipping in South Africa, we owe after all a proper and critical reading of his work in order to seek and serve the everstrange beauty of serving the Word anew.