the biblical texts themselves. "Such openness does not eliminate a hermeneutics of suspicion and evaluation, but it does eliminate a hermeneutics of arrogance and of accusation and a presumption that prejudges and presumes the ancient world should look like the modern or that we already have the truth. Humility is part of a hermeneutics of hearing; it seeks to know rather than professes to know" (Snodgrass 2002:28)! It therefore does not offer universal, absolutistic, final and unalterable answers, decisions and certainties, but rather seeks for solutions that would be truthful to, and that would make sense in individual contexts. It challenges Christian Theology to live patiently and humbly with the tension of risk, paradox and ambiguity.Ultimately, a hermeneutic of listening gives priority to the imaginative, hopeful possibilities of the living God's radical and healing love over the broken realities of our world, including the world of (secular) universities. May Christian theologians - in continuation with those early Christians - be overwhelmed and surprised by God's presence in the resurrected Christ and the Spirit, even though they do not fully understand. Works consultedDube, M W (ed) 2001. Other ways of reading: African women and the Bible. Atlanta: WCC Publication. [ Links ]Johnson, L T 1999. The writings of the New Testament: An interpretation. Rev. ed. Minneapolis, MA: Fortress. [ Links ]Mouton, E 2005. Christian theology at the University: On the threshold or in the margin? Theologische Universiteit van de Protestantse Kerk in Nederland, Kampen. (Kamper Oraties 30. [ Links ])Mouton, E 2006. The pathos of New Testament Studies, Theologia Viatorum 30(1), 50-86. [ Links ]Ricoeur, P 1975. Biblical Hermeneutics. Semeia 4, 29-148. [ Links ]Ricoeur, P 1976. Interpretation theory: Discourse and the surplus of meaning. Fort Worth, TX: Texas Christian University. [ Links ]Smit, D J 2003. Can we still be Reformed? Questions from a South African perspective, in Alston, W & Welker, M (eds), Reformed theology: Identity and ecumenicity, 233-253. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm B Eerdmans. [ Links ]Snodgrass, K 2002. Reading to hear: A hermeneutics of hearing. Horizons in Biblical Theology 24, 1-32. [ Links ]Taylor, M K 1990. Remembering Esperanza: A cultural-political theology for North-American praxis. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis. [ Links ]Tracy, D 2002. On theological education: A reflection, in Petersen, R L & Rourke, N M (eds), Theological literacy for the twenty-first century, 13-22. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. [ Links ]Van Eck, E 2004. Die opstanding in die Jodendom, die Grieks-Romeinse wereld en die Nuwe Testament. HTS 60(1&2), 555-574. [ Links ]Van Gennep, A 1960. The rites of passage, tr by M B Vizedom & GL Caffee. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. [ Links ] * A reworked version of my address at the official opening of the academic year at the Theologische Universiteit Kampen, The Netherlands, on 5 September 2005. It is republished here with permission (cf Mouton 2005).1 The early Christians - by, for example, referring to God as recreator and redeemer in Jesus Christ; to Jesus as son of God, lord (kurios) and saviour; by witnessing of the Spirit as the seal of their ownership by