Michael Janse van Rensburg

Michael Janse van Rensburg lives in Strand, on the eastern shore of False Bay in the Western Cape, with his wife Lynn and their two sons, TJ and Daniel. He was born on 4 December 1984 and married Lynn in 2008.

He holds a Doctor of Theology from the University of the Western Cape, awarded in 2024 for his dissertation From Omega to Alpha: A Critical Analysis of Theistic Evolution in the Theology of Ted Peters, written under Prof Ernst Conradie. His scholarly work engages Ted Peters’ theology — including a theology of the cross, the problem of natural suffering, and the question of how a good God may be understood to be present in a world that hurts.

By profession he is the Chief Executive Officer of Heritage Western Cape — work that has taken him from communities along the Cape to UNESCO World Heritage Committee sessions abroad.

He was raised in the Dutch Reformed tradition, in a family of Christian faith — a line that runs back through his grandfather, Ds Helgard “Bombaai” Janse van Rensburg, a missionary to India. As an adult he became a member of his local Pentecostal church, and has spent much of the last few years thinking about how a good God can be present in a world that hurts.

At the centre of his books is his wife, Lynn. Lynn was first treated for sarcoma in 2009, recovered, and lived clear of cancer for sixteen years. The disease returned in October 2025 in a different organ, and Lynn has spent the months since at the centre of the household with the same quiet bravery that has marked her life.

His sons TJ (born 2013) and Daniel (born 2016) are the heart of his books. Michael has tried to set down enough of them, on the pages, that they will be able to find their parents in the books one day, and not only their sorrow.

When he is not with his family or at work, he is out running, or reading and learning — late, and as a husband — how to sit on the edge of a bed without trying to fix anything.