Research Profile

I am professor of Practical Theology in the Faculty, Stellenbosch University, specialising in the study of ritual, liturgy and homiletics, with the emphasis on religious rituals within their particular contexts. Recent projects included the study of rituals and social capital formation, rituals in fictive texts as well as liturgies of anger. I was the first editor of Bonding in worship. A ritual lens on social capital formation in African Independent Churches in South Africa, published by Peeters Press in Leuven in 2019. I also have strong interest in Afrikaans literature and am a novelist.

Teaching Profile

Liturgy & Worship; Homiletics & Preaching

Selected Publications

Weyel, B; Grab, W; Lartey, I & C. Wepener (eds.). 2021. International Handbook of Practical Theology. De Gruyter. (Work-in-progress)

Wepener, C.; Swart, I; Ter Haar, G & M. Barnard (eds..). 2019. Bonding in worship. A ritual lens on social capital formation in African Independent Churches in South Africa. Liturgia Condenda 30. Peeters Press, Leuven.

Wepener, Cas & Anandie Greyling (eds..) 2019. Ongekaart. ʼn Bronboek met roetemerkers vir oorgange. Nuwe rituele om op ‘n sinvolle manier oor die ongekarteerde drumpels van die lewe te tree. Wellington: BibleMedia. (Winner of the Gerrit Brand Desmond Tutu Prize for Theological Literature 2020).

Wepener, Cas. 2017. Die reis gaan inwaarts. Die kuns van sterwe in kreatiewe werke van Karel Schoeman. Stellenbosch/ Bloemfontein: African SUN Media.

Barnard, M. J.H. Cilliers & C.J. Wepener. 2014. Flows of worship in a network culture. Liturgia Condenda 26. Leuven/ Paris/ Walpole, MA: Peeters Pers.

Wepener, C.J. 2009. From fast to feast. A ritual-liturgical exploration of reconciliation in South African cultural contexts. Liturgia Condenda 19. Leuven/ Paris/ Dudley, MA: Peeters Pers.

Wepener, C.J. 2019. “Joining the slow pilgrimage of a second Holy Week in Autumn. A theopoetics from the Ars Moriendi.” International Journal of Practical Theology 23/1, 49-56. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ijpt-2018-0023

Wepener, C.J. 2015. “Burning incense for a focus group discussion. A spirituality of liminality for doing liturgical research in an African context from an emic perspective”. International Journal of Practical Theology 19(2): 271–291.

Wepener, C.J. “African therapy for a fractured world (view): The life of founder bishop Johannes Richmond and the invention of tradition and group cohesion in an African Initiated Church.” HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies; Vol 71, No 1 (2015), 9 pages. doi: 10.4102/hts.v71i1.2900

Wepener, C.J. 2015. “‘Bliksem!’ / Damn it!: ritual-liturgical appreciation of a deadly sin.” Verbum et Ecclesia Vol 36, No 3 (2015), 8 pages. doi: 10.4102/ve.v36i3.1422

Contact

Department of Practical Theology & Missiology
Faculty of Theology
Stellenbosch University
171 Dorp Street, Stellenbosch
7600, South Africa

Phone: 27847175723
Fax: 00270218083264

Email: cwepener@sun.ac.za
Homepage: http://www.sun.ac.za/english/faculty/theology/Pages/Practical-Theology—Missiology.aspx