University of the Free State Thinking about God today: Eavesdropping on four

discourses The article investigates the contemporary academic reflection on God and addresses the question as to whether there are new perspectives and sensibilities which destabilise the persistent classical theistic notion and prompt alternative constructions. A concern for speaking of God in a responsible and contextual manner forms the background of the study. Four major contemporary discourses, which have issued significant new challenges to the tradition doctrine of God, are identified and explored: those in Biblical Studies, Trinitarian Renaissance, Alterity Studies, and Philosophy of Religion. The article raises the question of an episteme of theo-rhetoric which structurally addresses the constituent elements of a ‘doctrine of God’ and intimates that the present moment may be evidencing a new trajectory in the genealogy of God. 1