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Serving single-parent families with adolescents: An inclusive and intergenerational challenge. This article focused on the ministry to single-parent families after divorce. The study had its origins in the author’s observation that adolescents from single-parent homes are picked up and dropped off by their parents for catechesis, but that the parents are not involved in activities in the congregation – not even just to attend the worship service. The research had the objective to investigate why single-parent families do not experience themselves as true families within the church and do not receive the necessary support in the faith formation of their children. The fourfold reflective equilibrium approach of Osmer was used as the frame for how this article was structured. As a basis for the interpretation of the empirical findings, the relationship between youth and family ministry is portrayed to lay a theological basis for an inclusive approach. The qualitative empirical study included 17 randomly selected single parents. The empirical study confirmed that single parents find it difficult to survive. The demands placed upon them are intense and they depend on a support network to meet the basic needs of the family. These single parents further believe that the church cannot help them with this. The research confirmed that single parents do not experience acceptance in the church and that they do not receive support in the faith formation of their children. The two hermeneutic spheres for the understanding of faith are a source of tension for the adolescents because of the difference in understanding of matters of faith between their divorced parents. The involvement of grandparents was found to be a key factor in the support of the single-parent family and needs to be addressed in an intergenerational approach. The positive involvement of the local pastor can also be used as a changing factor in the support of the single-parent family. Contribution: This article contributes to a paradigm shift in the understanding of how families are constructed, especially single-parent families. The article reports on research that will be valuable for congregations in planning their ministry towards single-parent families.

This article reports on the findings of the Christian youth ministry involvement in community development in the Mayibuye community of Tembisa, in the Gauteng province of South Africa. The article employed Richard Osmer’s model of the four tasks of practical theological interpretation. These tasks have been used to understand better what is happening in youth ministry and community development contexts in the Mayibuye community by utilising documentary analysis and in-depth semi-structured interviews. The findings divulged that the Mayibuye community faces several socio-economic challenges. Most importantly, young people are the most affected. Furthermore, the findings exposed that youth involvement is limited in community development processes within local communities. As a result, the article proposes implementing a pragmatic strategy to enhance the youth ministry’s involvement in community development. Various principles of the youth ministry have been presented in the study as the essential principles that need youth leaders’ attention for functional youth ministry, and to achieve developmental outcomes. The study also recommended further empirical studies on youth culture, the importance of young people’s inclusion in leadership roles and the use of young people as catalysts for community transformation. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The anticipated outcomes of this research endeavour are poised to make a valuable contribution to the current corpus of knowledge in various academic domains, including Practical Theology, Youth Ministry, Theology and Development, Community Development, Congregational Studies, Missiology, Anthropology, and Sociology. This contribution suggests that adopting a pragmatic strategy is likely to yield positive outcomes for local churches, youth ministry, and community development as a whole.

Climate change represents the most significant challenge facing the global community. The issue in question has an impact on the younger generation, whose prospects may be jeopardised. Both younger and older generations are participating in climate movements. An illustrious instance is the School Strike for Climate, which was orchestrated by the adolescent environmentalist, Greta Thunberg. The climate movements exhibit a range of objectives, actions and focus. Various social movements construct narratives that appeal to the youth demographic. The presence of a coherent narrative aids in the formation of personal identity and the establishment of a shared sense of self among individuals. Collectively, they have the potential to advocate for equitable treatment of the environment. Climate activism, although not regarded as religious, employs religious language and concepts. Research examining the climate movements’ impact on churches has revealed the presence of religious effects. Upon conducting research on the involvement of young individuals in churches and climate movements, specifically with regard to their agency, it has been observed that climate movements are fundamentally grounded in religious language and ideals. This article analyses the religious concepts found within youth climate movements and further investigates the correlation between youth climate activism and religion through the analysis of religious rhetoric. Interdisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary nature of this contribution is spread across the fields of theology and religion. The sub-disciplines of the youth in general, youth ministry and youth work, religious rhetoric, climate change, climate justice and environmental consciousness within the academic discourse of sustainability are studied.

Diaconate and youth in Afrikaans-speaking Reformed congregations in South Africa. South Africa is characterised by various socio-economic and socio-political challenges (fractures) not easily met (or healed). ‘Fractures’ refer to social, economic, religious, spatial, ecological, environmental, and economic injustices and other issues. Within this context, the church is confronted with her vocation. The unique vocation of a congregation is that the members become a ‘new community’ (koinonia) in which they not only care for one another but also develop relationships featuring care for, and mercy and solidarity (diakonia) with the weak, poor, and marginalised in society. Several researchers prove that the current South African youth could be classified as vulnerable and marginalised. Since the church does not preach the gospel in a vacuum but in relation to specific human realities, the theme of the youth and diaconate in the Afrikaans-speaking Reformed churches in South Africa is examined in this study, based on Osmer’s Practical Theological Interpretation. Interdisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The interdisciplinary nature of this contribution is spread across the two fields of youth ministry and diaconate. The sub-disciplines of both the youth in general, and youth ministry and youth work within the academic discourse of the diaconate are studied, specifically in the Afrikaans-speaking Reformed denomination.

The development of ars in the theological-philosophical works of Ramon Llull (ca.1232–1316). By synthesising the most recent specialist research, notably that of Anthony Bonner and Mark D. Johnston, this article provides an accessible overview of the development of the ‘great universal art’ or ars in Ramon Llull’s (ca.1232–1316) theological-philosophical output, as presented in his works Libere de contemplació en Déu, Ars compendiosa inveniendi veritatem, Ars inventiva veritatis, Tabula generalis, Ars demonstrativa and Ars generalis ultima. It is shown that Llull’s ars was an eccentric yet coherent attempt to provide an alternative to both the Aristotelian scholastic-conceptual framework and its radicalised versions in Averroism during the second half of the 13th century. By insisting on religious tolerance as its premise, Llull embedded this alternative squarely within the monotheistic missionary context of the same period. Without neglecting the discursive magnitude of his ars, this rather ‘nonmedieval’ tolerance stands as Llull’s greatest gift to the central Middle Ages and its subsequent idea-historical development in both theology and philosophy. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: As a millennium-long discourse, Medieval philosophy functions in a Venn diagrammatic relationship with Medieval history, church history, patristics, philosophy of religion, and in this case, missiology. Whenever mainstream or ‘canonised’ Medieval philosophy is being impacted by specialist research, it may well have noteworthy implications for these related disciplines. Such is the case in this critical reappraisal of theological-philosophical aspects in the central Medieval ars of Ramon Llull.

The medievalist caricature of sexual regress in Late-Medieval female monasteries: This article confronts the widely published medievalist caricature of sexual regress in Late-Medieval female monasteries by presenting a statistical analysis of the relatively low (measured against the Early and Central Middle Ages) frequency of sexual contact between monks and nuns, monks and monks, and nuns and nuns in 15th century England. C.H. Knudsen’s examination of the pastoral register of the bishop of Lincoln, William Alnwick, in the period from 1436 to 1449 is utilised to counter the common, yet profoundly modernist notion of the Late-Medieval ‘wayward nun’. Five idea-historical developments from the Early and Central Middle Ages are presented as a backdrop to this statistical analysis, showing that sexual encounters in monasteries in the Early to Central Middle Ages in the Latin West occurred more often than merely sporadic. Having defined medievalism as ‘post-Medieval ideological-reductionist and anachronistic reconstructions of the Middle Ages, whereby the Middle Ages is essentialised by one or more contingencies’, it becomes clear that the notion of ‘sexual regress in Late Medieval female monasteries’ with the image of the ‘wayward nun’ centralised therein, points to a form of medievalism: a single contingent aspect of Medieval female monasteries – the occurrence of sexual contact, however discreet – is used to present a fabricated totality of a complex socio-historical context. How complex this historical context indeed is, becomes apparent in Knudsen’s analysis of the bishop of Lincoln’s pastoral register during his 79 visits to 70 monasteries and interrogations of 217 nuns and 528 monks. Concluding that the ‘promiscuous monk’ was a far more general phenomenon than the ‘wayward nun’ in the Later Middle Ages, Knudsen’s analysis confirms that the Middle Ages is still as much a domain of research as it is a realm of fantasy today. The modernist fixation on the Late-Medieval ‘wayward nun’ is, for example, expressed in Heinrich Lossow’s (1843–1897) provocative painting Die Versündigung (ca.1880). It is argued that the ‘wayward nun’ in Lossow’s painting was a self-conscious attempt to escape from the impasse created by Victorian sexual repression: just as in every other 19th and early 20th century representation of sexual regress in Late-Medieval female monasteries, ‘she’ was nothing more than vulgar fiction. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This critique of the medievalist caricature of sexual regress in Late-Medieval female monasteries overlaps with a variety of philosophical and theological disciplines, including Medieval philosophy, Medieval history, church history, patristics, philosophy of religion and sociology of religion. Whenever these proximate disciplines are impacted by niche Medieval research, it may hold implications that these disciplines could take note of.

Raptus and the ‘form of the will’: A transgressive reading of Foucault’s interpretation of Augustine in Les aveux de la chair. This article presents a reading of Michel Foucault’s (1926–1984) interpretation of Augustine of Hippo’s (354–430) views on sex in Histoire de la sexualité 4 (Les aveux de la chair), published in February 2018 at Gallimard in Paris under editorship of Frédéric Gros. The article contributes to the reception and ongoing analyses of Les aveux de la chair by presenting a transgressive reading of the Augustinian prioritisation of the will, and Foucault’s emphasis on the Augustinian notion of sexual desire as the ‘form of the will’. Raptus or ‘divine orgasm’ is presented from the texts of several female mystics from the central Middle Ages as an example of a sexual context in which the will is unable to claim the pinnacle position Augustine attributed to it, precisely as a form of identity – and language transgressing eroticism in the ‘mystical presence of God’. Foucault’s reading of John Cassian’s (ca.360–435) ‘battle for chastity’ is presented as the discursive background of his interpretation of Augustine, followed by a presentation of raptus as a resource to reconsider Augustine’s prioritisation of the will (and the ‘problem of the libido’) in sexual contexts. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: Foucault’s reading of the church and desert fathers in Histoire de la sexualité 4 (Les aveux de la chair) impacts early Medieval philosophy, early Medieval history, church history, patristics, philosophy of religion and sociology of religion. Since these proximate disciplines are affected by Foucault’s text, they may well take note of the ongoing examinations of this recently edited work.

Reflection on philosophy in the mystical cloistral text Hortus deliciarum (ca. 1185) by Herrada Landsbergensis (ca. 1130–1191). The aim of this article is to reappraise the understated philosophical aspects in the mystical cloistral text Hortus deliciarum, finalised around 1185 by Herrada Landsbergensis (ca. 1130–1191; also Herrad of Hohenburg), the abbess at Mont Saint-Odile, with specific reference to reflection on the nature and the limits of philosophy. Drawing on the most recent specialist research regarding its historical artistic and theological contributions (per Fiona Griffiths, Danielle Joyner and Nathaniel Campbell), and situating Herrada within a clear Platonic Augustinian framework, her life and the unique aesthetic appeal of the Hortus deliciarum are explored in this article. The reconstructed manuscript (under guidance of Rosalie Green in 1979) is henceforth engaged with, regarding its philosophical selfreflection (on the ‘nine Muses’ and ‘Lady Philosophy and the seven allegorical figures of the liberal arts’, as its entrance points), as well as Herrada’s modest participation in the intellectual discourse of the twelfth century, regarding cosmology (‘the human being as microcosm’) and ethics (‘both a contemplative and speculative distinction of the good’). Herrada’s self-reflective and aesthetic presentation of philosophy and her deeply conservative reflections and emphasis on the didactic nature of philosophy are described as a unique offering from philosophy in the central Middle Ages to the broader landscape of the Western history of ideas. Intra/interdisciplinary implications: As a millennium-long discourse, Medieval philosophy functions in a Venn diagrammatic relationship with Medieval history, Church history, patristics and the philosophy of religion. Whenever ‘mainstream’ or ‘canonised’ Medieval philosophy is impacted by niche research, it may well have implications of which these closely related disciplines could take note. Such is the case in this reappraisal of the philosophical aspects in the Hortus deliciarum by the abbess of Hohenburg, Herrada Landsbergensis.

Medieval Studies, Medievalist Studies and Medievalism: Critical distinctions and intersections. The aim of this article is to clarify Medievalism (Mediëvalisme) as a research challenge in Medieval Studies, thereby contributing to the discipline’s methodological and contemporary-discursive development. In conjunction with the author’s recent analyses of three subject-internal problems in Medieval philosophy ([1]the calibration of periodisation; [2] latent Orientalism and the subsequent problem of ‘two registers’ [‘East’ and ‘West’]; as well as [3] the problem of the ‘canon’), Medievalism is presented as the idea-historical postulation of a Medieval ‘Other’ with the subtle intent to alleviate the notion of some contemporaneous ‘Self’; in other words, Medievalism points toward the apparent spontaneous acceptance of a disparity between a superior post-Medieval Self and an inferior Medieval Other. This includes the essentialising of a single aspect, or contingent aspects, of the Medieval Other, which results in conjectures of deeply caricaturised and quasi-comprehensive views of the Middle Ages. Medievalist Studies (translated for the sake of clarity, as Mediëvalistiek in Afrikaans to circumvent the curious and confusing overlapping of the terms ‘Medievalist Studies’ and ‘Medievalism’ in English), the discipline that studies the post-Medieval reception of the Middle Ages (in whatever form or genre), is presented as a legitimate supplementary tool for exposing Medievalism, particularly in non-specialised contexts. The article henceforth argues for the systematic employment of Mediëvalistiek in its countering of Mediëvalisme as an effective supplementary resource in Medieval Studies – especially within the context of the contemporary Neoconservative reception of the Middle Ages. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: Dealing with a millennium-long variety of discourses, Medieval Studies functions in a Venn-diagrammatical relationship with Medieval philosophy, Medieval history, church history, patristics, philosophy of religion and sociology of religion. Whenever these proximate disciplines are impacted by specialist Medieval research, it may well have noteworthy implications. Such is the case in this critical distinction between and clarification of the intersections between Medieval Studies, Mediëvalisme (Medievalism) and Mediëvalistiek (Medievalist Studies).

The South African people continuously engage in social actions characterised by intolerance, pointing to frustrations and disillusionment in a post-apartheid era. A need to find creative ways to engage diverse communities to work together to participate in their own development and well-being was identified. This article is based on long-term transdisciplinary discourse and work. The aim is to explore how the disciplines of social work, theology and the arts could contribute together towards the development of communities where participation, collaboration and cooperation as key principles of authentic community development are actively implemented. Within a transdisciplinary framework, the disciplines engaged in participatory research projects that resulted in findings that informed the development of a process where people at grassroots level become aware and more tolerant of each other, begin to work together and as such become involved in their own futures. It is concluded that by encouraging participation, collaboration and cooperation in social change processes, the South African people can be empowered towards working together and becoming involved in their own futures. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The disciplines of social work, theology and the arts entered into a transdisciplinary dialogue and work over the past years. The transdisciplinary team engaged in four participatory research projects to include input from grassroots levels to inform their understanding of how the different disciplines can better contribute towards a process of authentic community development in the diverse South African society. This resulted in the process

The political activism of Birgitta Birgersdotter (1302/3–1373). The objective of this article is to illuminate the political thought of the Swedish Medieval thinker and mystic, Birgitta Birgersdotter (1302/3–1373; Birgitta of Sweden, Brigida Suecica), on the basis of an unprecedented acceleration in the specialist research over the past two decades, including significant expositions by Unn Falkeid, Bridget Morris, Maria Oen, Claire Sahlin, Päivi Salmesvuori and Jonathan Adams. When these recent outputs are disseminated and juxtaposed, Birgitta can be profiled as a political activist who, against all conventions and with significant self-exposure from 1349 to 1373, presented a fierce critique of both the Avignon Papacy (1309–1370) and secular forms of government in Sweden, France, England and Italy. Her political engagements, spread throughout her eight-volume Liber celestis revelaconium, bear witness to a first-hand experience of and profound insight in the complex intrigues between the church, nobility and sovereigns in the second half of the 14th century. Her understanding of the established political and theological-philosophical traditions of the Middle Ages made possible a thorough criticism of the abuse of political power, be it by the pope, king or emperor. Birgitta’s relentless attempts to reclaim Rome as the political and religious centre of 14th-century Christendom, her unrestrained critique of papal excesses at Avignon and her urgent calls to the general reform of the church take central stand in this political activism. As the specialist research continues to open up the legacy of this still underrated female thinker from the Middle Ages, Birgitta is placed in our midst as a crucial voice of dissent in the anarchistic contexts of the 14th century. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: As a millennium-long discourse, Medieval philosophy functions in a Venn diagrammatical relationship with Medieval history, Church history, patristics and philosophy of religion. Whenever ‘mainstream’ or ‘canonised’ Medieval philosophy is impacted by the specialist research, it may well have implications that these closely related disciplines could take note of. Such is the case in this reappraisal of the life and work of Birgitta of Sweden.

Histoire de la sexualité ‘4’ (Les aveux de la chair): Notes from the Dutch Foucault-scholarship. This article presents an overview of several Dutch disseminations of Michel Foucault’s (1926–1984) Histoire de la sexualité 4 (Les aveux de la chair), since its publication on 8 February 2018 at Gallimard (Paris) under editorship of Frédéric Gros. The exposé positions itself in terms of the most recent (December 2019) outputs of Foucault Cirkel Nederland/België (via the contributions of Steven Dorrestijn, Waldo Heugebaert and Michiel Leezenberg), as well as the recent critical studies of Machiel Karskens and Leezenberg. Several text-critical considerations regarding Les aveux de la chair are presented from these interpretations, in relation to the three standing volumes of Histoire de la sexualité (La volonté de savoir, December 1976, L’usage des plaisirs, May 1984, and Le souci de soi, June 1984). Foucault’s exclusion of posthumous publications of his unfinished texts is amplified, since Les aveux de la chair (its sources and time of composition notwithstanding), is indeed a posthumous publication in the strict sense of the word: this aspect is, however, understated in the above receptions, albeit on justifiable grounds (in the sense that the text is regarded to be based fundamentally on Foucault’s 1981–1982 Collège de France lectures and was therefore effectively ‘published’ by June 1984). The recent Dutch reception is in conclusion described as exceptionally erudite and rigorous in its exegesis and reviews of Les aveux de la chair in the span of just two years. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This dissemination of Michel Foucault’s Histoire de la sexualité 4 (Les aveux de la chair) impacts various other disciplines, inter alia Studies in Antiquity, Medieval Philosophy, Continental Philosophy, Patrology, Church History and Philosophy of Religion.

Female same-sex relations in the later Middle Ages: An idea-historical survey. This article presents an idea-historical survey of attitudes towards women who were involved in same-sex relations from the middle of the 11th century to the middle of the 15th century, how these attitudes manifested themselves in later Medieval societies and what the reflections about these women involved at the time. Taking as its premise the inclusion of ‘female sodomy’ in an extensive 11th-century (per Damian’s Liber gomorrhianus, 1049) articulation of ‘sodomy’ as every possible form of ‘irrational fornication’, and employing Foucault’s critique of modern, heteronormative scientia sexualis, themes presented in the article include the 11th-century construction of gender-inclusive ‘sodomy’ and the postulation of ‘the female sodomite’, the distinction between simple and complex taboos, transgressing and transcending modes of resistance to complex taboos, four significant developments during the 12th century (the subtle heterosexual distinction between male and female homosexuality, the critique of marriage as an institution, female same-sex relations as an agency for social change and a platform for the initial economical emancipation of women), the rise of the libertine beguine orders in the first decades of the 13th century, and ‘uniformity’, ‘homogenity’, as well as the rise of ‘minorities’ (including the ‘sexual minority’) within the characteristic cultural intolerance of the 14th and early-15th centuries. The historical development of ideas regarding female same-sex relations in the later Middle Ages must in the end be indicated as part of a regressive Medieval prelude to modern scientia sexualis. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This idea-historical survey of female same-sex relations in the later Middle Ages impacts numerous disciplines and sub-disciplines, inter alia Medieval Philosophy, Continental Philosophy, History of Ideas, Medieval History, Church History, Sociology, Dogmatics, Practical Theology and Philosophy of Religion.

This article, by reworking the most recent specialist contributions, presents a fresh overview of the scholastic and ecclesiastical contributions of the Oxford Dominican Robert Kilwardby (ca. 1215–1279). After highlighting the current research problem of the ‘canon’ in Medieval philosophy, the article turns to Kilwardby as a positive example of a ‘non-canonised’ thinker from the high Middle Ages – one who is thus thoroughly researched in a specialised or niche compartment, but who remains mostly unacknowledged in mainstream or ‘canonised’ Medieval philosophy. The article thus reappraises Kilwardby intending to accentuate his scholastic and ecclesiastical contributions beyond the confines of a particular niche. Kilwardby’s often provocative combination of Aristotelian natural philosophy and Augustinianism as a schoolman, and his central yet problematic role in the Paris-Oxford condemnations of 1277 as an ecclesiastical official, are henceforth reappraised. Intradisciplinary/interdisciplinary implications: As a millennium-long discourse, Medieval philosophy functions in a Venn diagrammatical relationship with Medieval history, Church history, patristics and philosophy of religion. Whenever ‘mainstream’ or ‘canonised’ Medieval philosophy is impacted from the niche research, it may well have implications that these closely related disciplines could take note of. Such is the case in this ‘hourglass’ reappraisal of life and work of Robert Kilwardby as a scholastic thinker and an ecclesiastical official.

A scholar from Nijmegen at the Universities of Paris and Heidelberg in the later Middle Ages: The life and work of Marsilius of Inghen (ca. 1340–1396). This article provides an introduction to the thought of the 14th-century Dutch intellectual Marsilius of Inghen, rector of both the University of Paris (1367, 1371) and the University of Heidelberg (1386). Inghen belongs to that special group of late Medieval nominalists, who were able to set nominalism up as a steadfast alternative to realism. Characteristic of his work was his rejection of real universals outside the human mind, his strict distinction between the capabilities of natural reason and truths in faith, his rejection of a suppositio simplex (in favour of a suppositio materialis), his defense of the possibility of an 11th Aristotelian category (‘signs’) and his critique of the Aristotelian theory of projectile motion. Enormously influential at European universities at the time, even in Spain, Inghen is described as one of the brightest minds in Medieval intellectual history – yet Inghen is sadly still bypassed and overlooked in standardised introductions to Medieval philosophy. Intradisciplinary/interdisciplinary implications: As a millennium-long discourse, Medieval philosophy functions in a Venn diagrammatical relationship with Medieval history, Church history, patristics and philosophy of religion. Whenever ‘mainstream’ or ‘canonised’ Medieval philosophy is impacted from the niche research, it may well have implications that these closely related disciplines could take note of. Such is the case in this niche-reappraisal of the works of Marsilius of Inghen.

‘Do not ridicule the world’: A reappraisal of the philosophical aspects in Mechtild of Magdeburg’s Das fließende Licht der Gottheit (1250). This article provides a reappraisal of the philosophical aspects in Mechtild von Magdeburg’s (ca. 1207–1282) Das fließende Licht der Gottheit, written in 1250 and found in 1860, only then to be edited in modern German. The article argues that Mechtild’s philosophical output constitutes a unique counter-cultural reaction from the 13th century. Her philosophical perspectives are characterised and represented by a solemn dictum for a 13th century nun (albeit a beguine), ‘do not ridicule the world’), which amounts to an intellectual engagement that takes the world seriously on a constant basis. Her emphasis on the union of the human and the Godhead, the primary role she attributes to experience in the acquisition of knowledge and her ethical interest in the ‘Other’ in a fragile world, stand to serve her deepest impression that love is the primary principle of both God and creation. Showing little interest in essentialist or causal analyses, with the exception of the principle of love, and with little in common with her early-scholastic contemporaries in their intellectual, scholastic refinements of the life-world system, she nevertheless exerted an influence on the mystical trajectories of the later Middle Ages, especially in the German tradition of Meister Eckhart. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: As a millennium-long discourse, Medieval philosophy functions in a Venn diagrammatical relationship with Medieval history, Church history, patristics and philosophy of religion. Whenever ‘mainstream’ or ‘canonised’ Medieval philosophy is impacted from the niche research, it may well have implications that these closely related disciplines could take note of.

Policraticus and Metalogicon: Updating the Saresberiensis-research, 2013-2018. This article provides an overview of the philosophical outputs of John of Salisbury (ca. 1115–1180), with reference to his two main philosophical texts, Policraticus and Metalogicon (both circulated in 1159). After presenting current research challenges in Medieval philosophy, Salisbury is presented as an example of a ‘non-canonised’ figure in Medieval philosophy; one who is throughly researched in his niche compartment, but remains unacknowledged in ‘canonised’ Medieval philosophy. Few introductions, readers and companions in the discipline give attention to ‘non-canonical’ thinkers such as Salisbury – yet when the niche research itself comes forward with a remarkable output in a short period of just five years, the ‘canon’ of Medieval philosophy itself could possibly be challenged. The niche research in Salisbury’s case has indeed presented an energetic output over the past few years, which transcends the standardised sources and enriches the discipline. The question lingers: do these combined efforts have the ability to challenge the notion of a ‘canonised’ Medieval philosophy? Four contributions from the niche scholarship from 2013 to 2018 are henceforth discussed: i) A new translation of Metalogicon (Hall & Haseldine 2013); ii) A research-updated introduction (Grellard & Lachaud 2015), the first of its kind in Salisbury scholarship in more than three decades; iii) A monography (O’ Daly 2018, overstating the own case contra Nederman, yet with a stunning Roman premise); and iv) The replacement of the complete Salisbury section in the online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Bollermann and Nederman 2016). Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: As a millennium-long discourse, Medieval philosophy functions in a Venn diagrammatical relationship with Medieval history, Church history, patristics and philosophy of religion. Whenever ‘mainstream’ or ‘canonised’ Medieval philosophy is impacted from the niche research, it may well have implications that these closely related disciplines could take note of.

This case note provides a concise and understandable version of the confusing facts in Peel v Hamon J&C Engineering (Pty) Ltd, and deals with the remedy provided for in section 163 of the Companies Act (the oppression remedy). The importance of drawing a distinction between the application of this section and the orders that the Court can make to provide relief in terms of subsection (2) is explained, after which each requirement contained in subsection (1)(a) is analysed. With reference to the locus standi-requirement, it is indicated that the judgment is not to be regarded as authority for the contention that a shareholder or a director who wants to exercise the oppression remedy need not have been a shareholder or a director of the company at the time of the conduct. With reference to the conduct-requirement, it is indicated that it would have been more appropriate for the applicants to have made use of a remedy in terms of the law of contract. Most importantly, the result-requirement is indicated to have been ignored, as a lack of certainty that there will be a result is argued not to constitute a result. Ignoring the result-requirement is explained to have resulted in ignoring the detriment-requirement, in turn. Accordingly, it is concluded that the oppression remedy was utilised without the specified statutory criteria having been satisfied and that the applicants' interests were protected by a remedy which should not have found application under the circumstances, as this was beyond the remedy's statutorily intended reach.

Tibute to Elmene Bray