Hendrik Viviers's research while affiliated with University of Johannesburg and other places
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Publications (18)
Words are more than vehicles for semantic meaning; they can also be regarded as ‘things’ with an ‘agency’ of their own. This happens when they are seen (iconic to legitimise) or heard (performative to inspire). According to S. Brent Plate, a key researcher on materiality (see reference list) ‘words are bodies, full of power’. Words, along with many...
An ethological appreciation of the donkey has confirmed that it is a special and unique animal. The donkey is a well-adapted, sensitive, sociable, intelligent and notably loyal animal. Their so-called ‘stubbornness’ (dumbness) points rather to a species-specific intelligence to survive. Because of their domestication, they have been incorporated in...
The Psychology of Place Attachment confirms the cognitive-emotional bond that humans, since early times, have with a specific place. A material place is not only shaped physically and psychologically/spiritually by its inhabitants, but it in turn also shapes them, as it mediates the meanings ascribed to it through its sensuous presence. Appreciatin...
It is well known that gardens have always been inspiring for great thinkers of the past, for instance Greek and Roman philosophers, Confucian thinkers, Desiderius Erasmus, Isaac Newton and Arnold Toynbee, to name but a few. Why is this so? Attention Restoration Theory, developed by environmental psychologists Stephen and Rachel Kaplan, explains how...
The Biophilia Hypothesis has emphasised our innate attraction to the natural world, where we come from. Modern psychologies (e.g. developmental, emotional and environmental) have built on this and have highlighted the worth of being exposed to nature. Developmentally it has been shown how exposure to nature enhances cognitive, emotional and moral d...
Working within the field of environmental psychology, Rachel and Stephen Kaplan developed their Attention Restoration Theory (ART) to address the problem of directed attention fatigue. 'Involuntary' attention can put the voluntary or directed attention mechanism at rest, to enable it to function effectively again. This happens markedly (but not sol...
Bron Taylor defines dark green religion as: '… a deep sense of belonging to and connectedness in nature, whilst perceiving the earth and its living systems to be sacred and interconnected’. It not only emphasises a felt kinship with the rest of life but also evokes awe, wonderment and humility towards nature that binds to something ‘greater than on...
The focus on god and Ubuntu constructs affirms the fact that people are natural social constructivists involved in a continuous process of conceptualising ideas that give meaning to their contexts. The juxtaposing of these two constructs extends what is known of new god ideas to that of Ubuntu or African 'humanness.' Whereas ideology criticism serv...
Even though the life stories of Jesus and the so-called second Christ, Francis of Assisi, incline to the fantastical, their value for a modern ecological consciousness is defendable. Behind Francis' personification of nature and his mystical experiences of nature lie an intuitive sense of interconnectedness and interdependence, of being fully part...
An eco-just evaluation of Psalm 148
Eco-justness determines whether the earth and her inhabitants are treated in their own right as subjects, and not only as objects to be acted upon. At first glance it seems as if Psalm 148 is eco-just. The poet encompasses all of creation in this hymn of praise to Yahweh. However, it does not pass the test of eco...
The absence of and the presence of “god(s)” in the Song of Songs
The absence of the Israelite God in the Song of Songs is conspicuous. The poet of the Song is far too sophisticated to attribute this to a slip of the mind. Among many reasons offered for the absence of Israel’s societal stereotype of God, might the Song’s alternative views on gende...
Creating science and theology from a cultural perspective is not a choice but a constraint. Our human capacity to symbolise, to create symbolic worlds within which we live always remains within the ambit of culture. The two dominant cultural discourses of science and theology both endeavour to explain reality, albeit in different ways. Both inform...
Song of Songs, body and the mystic, St Teresa of Avila (1515 – 1582)
In this article the interaction between an allegorical (tropological) understanding of the Song of Songs, the body and the internalized societal values of the sixteenth century Spanish mystic, St Teresa of Avila will be highlighted. Our bodies are central in our symbolizing activi...
God constructs represent the ideal symbolic �body� of a community, a regulating ideology that moulds and refines the values and norms of that community. In this study it is shown that values wherein femininity is incorporated, specifically with regards to the construction of a god character, lead to a more just attitude towards Earth. Values that l...
The absence of the Israelite God in the Song of Songs is conspicuous. The poet of the Song is far too sophisticated to attribute this to a slip of the mind. Among many reasons offered for the absence of Israel's societal stereotype of God, might the Song's alternative views on gender relations, within a love setting, perhaps be a reason for prohibi...
God constructs represent the ideal symbolic "body" of a community, a regulating ideology that moulds and refines the values and norms of that community. In this study it is shown that values wherein femininity is incorporated, specifically with regards to the construction of a god character, lead to a more just attitude towards Earth. Values that l...
The beauty and awe that the natural world evokes lead humans intuitively to believe in an all powerful creator as is convincingly exemplified by Psalm 19. The author allows both nature and law to communicate elatedly about this god, who is believed to exist objectively. This ease with which human beings conceptualize counterintuitive beings ('gods'...
Marriage or not – what about the Song of Songs? The traditional heterosexual, monogamous marriage can be questioned, not only on the grounds of modern deviating practices in regard to permanent love relationships but on discrepancies within the Bible itself. It is a myth that the "Bible says…" and then voicing only one viewpoint, when there are mor...
Citations
... In patriarchal environments we cannot assume that theories that apply to women also apply to men the same way. Yet Ngunjiri (2016) and Viviers & Mzondi (2016) argue that women are most likely to use Ubuntu because it is linked to motherhood, participative and servant leadership. ...
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... 118 This quality's evocation of a connectedness also to something conceptually larger, "another world," works in partnership with the previous ones and leads to contemplation and reflection. 119 to great lengths to convince Job of the fine order and structure of the cosmos and of its rich and interesting interconnected/interdependent bio-diversity. Nature as depicted here clearly meets the requirement of "extent." ...
... This conviction has become almost common knowledge amongst academics in the Western world and South African scholars are no more hesitant to argue along these lines (cf. Du Toit 2020; Viviers 2008). The fear of being labelled a heretic or being excommunicated has dwindled since the change in government in 1994. ...
... Attention Recovery Theory postulates that, apart from sleep, connection with the natural environment is the most effective activity that restores attention and revitalises human mental health (Viviers, 2016). A growing number of empirical studies from many disciplines have since corroborated Attention Recovery Theory with the various mechanisms through which exposure to green spaces contributes to improved health and well-being. ...
... Intrinsic to the metaphor of a balanced harmonious body is the diversity of parts that finds the purpose of its existence not in domination, but in care for the whole. Mutual care forms part of the cosmic framework and the dynamics of YHWH's address to Job. 6 This becomes very clear when it is recognised 5.For an exposition of the transformation of gender values in God's address to Job, see again Venter (2006); also for more eco-justice principles uncovered by a bodycritical analysis. ...
... Evidentemente uno de los mayores aportes de Francisco es el aporte a la conciencia ecológica, así lo describe el profesor Hendrik Viviers del departamento de estudios religiosos de la Universidad de Johannesburgo, Sudáfrica: "[...] Figuras religiosas como Francisco y Jesús pueden proporcionar una actitud moral sólida hacia el cuidado del mundo natural" 3 . Y es que Francisco, el "Poverello" de Asís, demostró durante toda su vida un profundo amor y respeto hacia la creación de la naturaleza, no sólo a los seres humanos, sino también a los demás seres vivos, seres no vivos e, inclusive, entes abstractos como la muerte. ...
... Keel (1986:94) says: 'Man schwört nicht bei der Gottheit selber, sondern bei ihren Attributen, in unserem Falle den scheuen, agilen und die liebespotenten Geschöpfen der Wildnis. Die Substitution der Gottheit durch ihre Repräsentantinnen mildert einerseits den Polytheismus, erhält der Beschwörung anderseits aber doch die sakrale Aura und verschafft ihr damit stärkeren Nachdruck … ' Fontaine (2001:137) argues that the anthropomorphic male version of God is avoided in the Song to foreground nature: '… the divine takes the shape of Earth in all its forms …' According to Viviers (2008) the patriarchal God of Israel is avoided, probably to retain something of its gender inclusiveness (even though limited). ...
