Journal articles: 'South Africa – Church history'

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Maritz, P. J. "History reconstruction: Third century parallels to 20th century South African Church 'History Origen Adamantinus." Verbum et Ecclesia 18, no. 2 (July 4, 1997): 291–304. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ve.v18i2.564.

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History reconstruction: Third century parallels to 20th century South African Church History - Origen Adamantinus. In this paper a possible third century contribution to Church History reconstruction is considered. This is employed as an example for South African church historians who are dedicated to history interpretation, whether it be from the perspective of: acceptance on face value; justification; verification; criticism or renunciation of twentieth century historical events and the WG)'S in which they have influenced the prophetic task of the church in South Africa. To this end, a parallel is drawn between third century Origen and a few South African church figures from the twentieth century, which will highlight the church's continuing prophetic ministry.

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Hofmeyr, J. W. "Enkele onlangse ontwikkelinge op die terrein van die Kerkgeskiedenis elders ter wêreld." Verbum et Ecclesia 14, no. 2 (July 19, 1993): 195–202. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ve.v14i2.1067.

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Some recent developments in the field of Church History elsewhere in the worldThe academic subject of church history in South Africa is facing various challenges on its way into the twenty first century. In many ways it can also be regarded as a science in transition with realities like paradigm-switches, processes of reinterpretation and a new dialogue between church historians and secular historians. In this process the knowledge and understanding of recent developments in the field of church history elsewhere in the world can be of great value and relevance for the church historian in the South African context.

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Powell, Caroline, and Ntandoyenkosi Mlambo. "Space, Place and the Church: Fostering a Consciousness and a Theology of Spatial Justice in South African Churches." International Journal of Public Theology 16, no. 1 (March 22, 2022): 74–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15697320-01540030.

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Abstract Located within the wider questions that the South African church is asking about the relationship between reconciliation and restitution in post-apartheid South Africa, this article tracks the emergence of a movement of churches seeking to address the urban and rural land restitution question and puts it into conversation with the praxis of spatial justice. The authors introduce insight into the history of land and specifically church land in South Africa and explore what actions have been taken towards restitution of church-owned land and what this means for the development of a theology of spatial justice. Additionally, it includes an overview of South African churches’ declarations on land over the last thirty years and what has been done since these declarations. Finally, the authors will look at how these actions help develop a theology of spatial justice for a renewed praxis on land and space in South Africa.

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Forster, Dion. "A state church? A consideration of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa in the light of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s ‘Theological position paper on state and church’." STJ | Stellenbosch Theological Journal 2, no. 1 (July 30, 2016): 61. http://dx.doi.org/10.17570/stj.2016.v2n1.a04.

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This article considers whether South Africa’s largest mainline Christian denomination, the Methodist Church of Southern Africa, is in danger of embodying or propagating a contemporary form of ‘state theology’. The notion of state theology in the South African context gained prominence through the publication of the ‘Kairos Document’ (1985) – which celebrated its thirtieth anniversary in 2015. State theology is deemed inappropriate and harmful to the identity and work of both the Christian church and the nation state. This article presents its consideration of whether the Methodist Church of Southern Africa is in danger of propagating ‘state theology’ in dialogue with Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s important document, <i>Theological Position Paper on State and Church</i>. The article offers some insights into the complex relationship between the state and the church in South Africa in the apartheid and democratic eras. It further problematizes the relationship between the Methodist Church of Southern Africa and the governing African National Congress by citing some concerning examples of complicit behaviour from recent history. The MCSA’s polity and doctrine on church and state relationships are also considered before some critique and warning is offered in the light of Bonhoeffer’s <i>Theological Position Paper on State and Church</i>.

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Heuser, Andreas. "Memory Tales: Representations of Shembe in the Cultural Discourse of African Renaissance." Journal of Religion in Africa 35, no. 3 (2005): 362–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1570066054782315.

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AbstractThe discourse on African Renaissance in South Africa shapes the current stage of a post-apartheid political culture of memory. One of the frameworks of this negotiation of the past is the representation of religion. In particular, religious traditions that formerly occupied a marginalised status in Africanist circles are assimilated into a choreography of memory to complement an archive of liberation struggle. With respect to one of the most influential African Instituted Churches in South Africa, the Nazareth Baptist Church founded by Isaiah Shembe, this article traces an array of memory productions that range from adaptive and mimetic strategies to contrasting textures of church history. Supported by a spatial map of memory, these alternative religious traditions are manifested inside as well as outside the church. Against a hegemonic Afrocentrist vision, they are assembled from fragments of an intercultural milieu of early Nazareth Baptist Church history.

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de Gruchy, John W. "From Resistance to National Reconciliation: The Response and Role of the Ecumenical Church in South Africa." Studies in Church History 40 (2004): 369–84. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0424208400002990.

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Scattered through the history of the Christian Church are seminal moments that have shaped the future course of Christianity whether for good or ill. When later historians of Christianity will write about the twentieth century, I anticipate that they will refer to the role of the Churches in Nazi Germany and apartheid South Africa as paradigmatic both in terms of success and failure. They might also refer to the role of the Christian Church in the transition to democracy in both countries in similar terms. In what follows I will offer some reflections on the South African side of the story, briefly tracing the response and role of what I have termed the ‘Ecumenical Church’ in South Africa to African resistance, democratic transition and national reconciliation.

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Pullen, Ann Ellis. "Campbell, Songs Of Zion - The African Methodist Episcopal Church In The United States And South Africa." Teaching History: A Journal of Methods 22, no. 1 (April 1, 1997): 46–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.33043/th.22.1.46-47.

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Through a comparative study of the AME Church in the U.S. and in South Africa, James Campbell in Songs of Zion examines not only the church's history but also the self-perceptions of church members. His "central premise" is that "African and African American identities are and have always been mutually constituted." Campbell begins with the conflict between Methodist authorities and Philadelphia's Bethel Church, which in 1816 led to incorporation of the AME Church under the leadership of Richard Allen.

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Müller, Retief. "Traversing a Tightrope between Ecumenism and Exclusivism: The Intertwined History of South Africa’s Dutch Reformed Church and the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian in Nyasaland (Malawi)." Religions 12, no. 3 (March 9, 2021): 176. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rel12030176.

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During the first few decades of the 20th century, the Nkhoma mission of the Dutch Reformed Church of South Africa became involved in an ecumenical venture that was initiated by the Church of Scotland’s Blantyre mission, and the Free Church of Scotland’s Livingstonia mission in central Africa. Geographically sandwiched between these two Scots missions in Nyasaland (presently Malawi) was Nkhoma in the central region of the country. During a period of history when the DRC in South Africa had begun to regressively disengage from ecumenical entanglements in order to focus on its developing discourse of Afrikaner Christian nationalism, this venture in ecumenism by one of its foreign missions was a remarkable anomaly. Yet, as this article illustrates, the ecumenical project as finalized at a conference in 1924 was characterized by controversy and nearly became derailed as a result of the intransigence of white DRC missionaries on the subject of eating together with black colleagues at a communal table. Negotiations proceeded and somehow ended in church unity despite the DRC’s missionaries’ objection to communal eating. After the merger of the synods of Blantyre, Nkhoma and Livingstonia into the unified CCAP, distinct regional differences remained, long after the colonial missionaries departed. In terms of its theological predisposition, especially on the hierarchy of social relations, the Nkhoma synod remains much more conservative than both of its neighboring synods in the CCAP to the south and north. Race is no longer a matter of division. More recently, it has been gender, and especially the issue of women’s ordination to ministry, which has been affirmed by both Blantyre and Livingstonia, but resisted by the Nkhoma synod. Back in South Africa, these events similarly had an impact on church history and theological debate, but in a completely different direction. As the theology of Afrikaner Christian nationalism and eventually apartheid came into positions of power in the 1940s, the DRC’s Nkhoma mission in Malawi found itself in a position of vulnerability and suspicion. The very fact of its participation in an ecumenical project involving ‘liberal’ Scots in the formation of an indigenous black church was an intolerable digression from the normative separatism that was the hallmark of the DRC under apartheid. Hence, this article focuses on the variegated entanglements of Reformed Church history, mission history, theology and politics in two different 20th-century African contexts, Malawi and South Africa.

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ENGEL, ELISABETH. "Southern Looks? A History of African American Missionary Photography of Africa, 1890s–1930s." Journal of American Studies 52, no. 2 (May 2018): 390–417. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s002187581700192x.

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This article traces and analyzes the missionary photography of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), the most important independent black American institution that began to operate in colonial South Africa at the onset of the politics of racial segregation in the 1890s. It argues that AME missionary photography presents a neglected archive, from which a history of black photographic encounters and a subaltern perspective on the dominant visual cultures of European imperialism and Christian missions in Africa can be retrieved. Focussing in particular on how AME missionaries deployed tropes of the culturally refined “New Negro” and the US South in their visual description of South Africa, this article demonstrates that photography was an important tool for black subjects to define their image beyond the representations of black inferiority that established visual traditions constructed.

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Khosa-Nkatini, Hundzukani P., and Jacob T. Mofokeng. "The paradox of safety between pastors and female congregants." Khazanah Theologia 4, no. 3 (November 3, 2022): 159–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.15575/kt.v4i3.19867.

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Gender-Based Violence (GBV) is a world concern; however, in South Africa it has been declared as a national crisis that is embedded in the social-cultural context and history of the country. One of the greatest challenges in South Africa is the high unemployment rate and the pressure to fit into society. Some of those unemployed South Africans go to church for prayers with the hope to get employed. Unemployed South Africans are vulnerable due to unemployment and pressure to fit in, and this is sometimes influenced by social media. Some pastors take advantage of these individuals either by asking them to plant a “seed” (money) or taking advantaged of them sexually. Women, young and old are the most vulnerable in church, the pressure to get employment, to get married, to stay married, to have children etc. are the most common prayer requests from women in church. GBV in South Africa have been an ongoing investigation by various disciplines. One of the most difficult and sensitive realities to investigate is the existence of clergy who abuse women they are supposed to care for as caregivers. The Church has been in the front line in spearheading programms within it to deal with GBV but little to done are said about Pastors as perpetrators directly the problem of GBV has been further fueled by socio status, poverty, gender and equality issues, African culture, long-standing silence about a problem that undermines the very foundations of pastoral work and institutional Christianity: sexual abuse of women by pastors. The aim of this article to challenge theology and the church on how the cycle of perpetrators among pastors can be broken and what role can pastoral counsellors’ play regarding both victims and offenders to prevent history from repeating itself and assure female congregants of their safety in church, this study will use literature review.

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Freston, Paul. "The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God: A Brazilian Church Finds Success in Southern Africa." Journal of Religion in Africa 35, no. 1 (2005): 33–65. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1570066052995816.

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AbstractThe Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, a Brazilian Pentecostal church which in little more than a decade has had considerable success in southern Africa, is analyzed as a new phenomenon in the region's religious world, bypassing the West and straddling existing ecclesiastical typologies. However, its success has been limited virtually to three countries in the region, and the reasons for its appeal in democratic South Africa and post-Marxist Mozambique and Angola are examined. In the Lusophone sphere, its Brazilian cultural heritage and media power have made it a powerful social force; and in the new South Africa (despite the strong contrast in race relations with its Brazilian homeland), it has found a country with similar levels of development and similar inequalities, within which it has been able to fill a niche in the local religious field newly emerged from apartheid, and to begin a process of South Africanization.

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Hofmeyr, J. W. "Carl Borchardt en die Suid-Afrikaanse kerkgeskiedenis." Verbum et Ecclesia 16, no. 2 (September 21, 1995): 350–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ve.v16i2.456.

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Carl Borchardt and South African church historyCarl Borchardt was in the first instance a general church historian who specialised in the field of the Early Church. However, born as a South African, he did not only do some research in the field of South African church history but he even partook in some crucial events in modem South African church history. This article attempts to describe and explain his interest and involvement in South African church history.

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Mashabela, K., and M. Madise. "An ongoing search of constant and sustainable Lutheran Theological Education in South Africa in the 21st century." Acta Theologica 43, no. 1 (June 30, 2023): 60–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.38140/at.v43i1.7039.

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This article explores the recent history of Lutheran theological education in South Africa, which is still confronted by the legacy of colonial and apartheid education systems. The latter need to be confronted with liberation and decolonisation systems that reclaim African indigenous identities. There is a need to cultivate a culture of quality and equal education, spirituality, politics, and socio-economic systems for the service of South Africans. Evangelical Lutheran churches inSouthern Africa are committed to improve and reform Lutheran theological education in the 21st century. Lutheran theological education is necessary to make a meaningful contribution towards training theological students to assist the church in its response to societal concern and contextual issues. The article introduces a recent renewal of Lutheran theological institutions in a new teaching and learning environment by the Lutheran Church. It discusses the implications and successes of Lutheran theological education in South Africa.

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Saayman, Willem. ""EX AFRICA SEMPER ALIQUID NOVI": Some Random Reflections on Challenges to Christian Mission Arising in Africa in the Twenty-first Century." Mission Studies 20, no. 1 (2003): 57–81. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157338303x00052.

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AbstractIn this article, South African missiologist Willem Saayman outlines and reflects on four issues and challenges which arise from Africa and serve to define missiological thinking today. The first three are "problems": (1) the AIDS crisis and its implications for an African sexual morality; (2) the question of authentic contextualization or inculturation; (3) the scandal of African poverty and the call for justice in an age of globalization. The fourth issue and challenge reflects on the reasons for the growth of the church in sub-Saharan Africa. Saayman cites six reasons for such growth: (1) a holistic understanding of the gospel; (2) joy in evangelizing; (3) a non-apologetic approach to evangelism; (4) the presentation of the gospel as truly good news; (5) the worshiping of a person, not a book; and (6) mission carried out as an action in hope-against-hope. Saayman concludes with a caution about the quality of such rapid church growth. Quoting a line from the late Orlando Costas-"Sometimes, when we think the church is growing, it is actually simply getting fat!"-Saayman warns that the church needs to grow as well in theological depth and the capacity for self-critique.

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Bate, Stuart C. "Foreign Funding of Catholic Mission in South Africa: a Case Study." Mission Studies 18, no. 1 (2001): 50–84. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157338301x00199.

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AbstractThis article forms part of an ongoing study of money as a cultural signifier in western missionary praxis. The focus here is foreign funding of Catholic mission in Africa. It presents a case study of a particular donor agency, given the pseudonym, "funding the mission," and its role in financing Catholic mission projects in South Africa between 1979 and 1997. This period was one of tremendous social change in South Africa during which the Catholic Church spent a large amount of time and effort in reviewing its own praxis culminating in the launch of a pastoral plan in 1989. The article begins by reviewing "funding the mission's" own vision of its missionary role emphasizing its funding criteria. Then there is an analytical presentation of the funding data. This looks at the amounts donated, the categories of projects funded and the identity of the applicants. Identity is first considered in terms of Catholic criteria: dioceses, religious congregations, lay people and ecumenical groups and then as social criteria: foreign, South African and racial identity. The article then proceeds to a missiological reflection in terms of the meaning of money in ecclesial praxis and then its cultural role in society and the church. In this section the missiological category of inculturation provides the hermeneutic key both from the cultural perspective of the donors and that of the recipients. Finally there is a reflection on the notion of sharing within the church and whether sharing from the richer nations is helping or hindering the process of inculturation within African local churches. It includes some suggestions for a more effective response.

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Toit, Brian M. Du. "Theology, Kairos, and the Church in South Africa." Missiology: An International Review 16, no. 1 (January 1988): 57–71. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/009182968801600104.

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The theology of a people is in part a product of their history, but is also influenced by current living conditions. In South Africa two different theologies have emerged as whites developed a privileged-status position and blacks were forced into an inferior status. In time this dichotomy has been questioned and today, primarily in concert, interdenominational and interethnic groups seek a solution to the problems of race in religion. The Kairos document is one such an attempt.

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Hofmeyr, Hoffie. "Die Afrikaanse gereformeerde kerke in Suid-Afrika en hul aanbiddingspraktyke (1990–2020)." STJ | Stellenbosch Theological Journal 6, no. 3 (January 8, 2021): 171–98. http://dx.doi.org/10.17570/stj.2020.v6n3.a5.

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The Afrikaans reformed Churches in South Africa and their worshipWorship as a major window on church life remains one of the most visible and obvious areas to discover and identify changes, movements and transformation quickly. Worship also reflects clearly on the way we experience the church. John van de Laar puts it aptly when he stated that “the way we worship, defines the way we live”. The question being addressed in this article is whether there have been some clear changes in the style of worshipping in these South African reformed churches and if so, why. In a brief overview the focus is on, inter alia, the most important areas of the worship of the church, that is, liturgy and the church service, preaching, church music and hymns, sacraments, small groups, and contemplative services. Many challenges remain; the important reality also remains that changes ought to be according to the basic principles of Scripture and the confessional tradition, always with a realisation of our contextuality in Africa and the needs of the 21st century.

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Randall, Peter. "The Church, Schooling and Segregation in Colonial South Africa." Paedagogica Historica 31, sup1 (January 1995): 139–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00309230.1995.11434842.

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Cabrita, Joel. "Revisiting ‘Translatability’ and African Christianity: The Case of the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church in Zion." Studies in Church History 53 (May 26, 2017): 448–75. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/stc.2016.27.

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Focusing on the ‘translatability’ of Christianity in Africa is now commonplace. This approach stresses that African Christian practice is thoroughly inculturated and relevant to local cultural concerns. However, in exclusively emphasizing Christianity's indigeneity, an opportunity is lost to understand how Africans entered into complex relationships with North Americans to shape a common field of religious practice. To better illuminate the transnational, open-faced nature of Christianity in Africa, this article discusses the history of a twentieth-century Christian faith healing movement called Zionism, a large black Protestant group in South Africa. Eschewing usual portrayals of Zionism as an indigenous Southern African movement, the article situates its origins in nineteenth-century industrializing, immigrant Chicago, and describes how Zionism was subsequently reimagined in a South African context of territorial dispossession and racial segregation. It moves away from isolated regional histories of Christianity to focus on how African Protestantism emerged as the product of lively transatlantic exchanges in the late modern period.

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Hofmeyr, J. W. "Die wording van ’n Suid-Afrikaanse kerkhistoriese bibliografie: ’n Historiese en bibliografiese oorsig." Verbum et Ecclesia 11, no. 2 (July 18, 1990): 166–73. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ve.v11i2.1018.

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The making of a South African church historical bibliography: An historical and bibliographic survey The compilation of the History of the church in Southern Africa: a select bibliography of published material (compiled and edited by J W Hofmeyr and K E Cross) is discussed especially in historical perspective. The prime purpose of this article is to provide information both for the continuation of the project itself and to give for various purposes the outsider an insight into the compilation of a bibliography of this nature.

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Meiring, P. G. J. "Poverty - The road ahead. A theological perspective." Verbum et Ecclesia 14, no. 2 (July 19, 1993): 263–76. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ve.v14i2.1072.

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The article focuses on the role of the Church in combating poverty in South Africa. After a brief discussion of Biblical perspectives on poverty, an overview of the involvement of the Church throughout history, especially during the second half of the 20th century, is given.

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Nord, Catharina. "Healthcare and Warfare. Medical Space, Mission and Apartheid in Twentieth Century Northern Namibia." Medical History 58, no. 3 (June 19, 2014): 422–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/mdh.2014.31.

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AbstractIn the year 1966, the first government hospital, Oshakati hospital, was inaugurated in northern South-West Africa. It was constructed by the apartheid regime of South Africa which was occupying the territory. Prior to this inauguration, Finnish missionaries had, for 65 years, provided healthcare to the indigenous people in a number of healthcare facilities of which Onandjokwe hospital was the most important. This article discusses these two agents’ ideological standpoints. The same year, the war between the South-West African guerrillas and the South African state started, and continued up to 1988. The two hospitals became involved in the war; Oshakati hospital as a part of the South African war machinery, and Onandjokwe hospital as a ‘terrorist hospital’ in the eyes of the South Africans. The missionary Onandjokwe hospital was linked to the Lutheran church in South-West Africa, which became one of the main critics of the apartheid system early in the liberation war. Warfare and healthcare became intertwined with apartheid policies and aggression, materialised by healthcare provision based on strategic rationales rather than the people’s healthcare needs. When the Namibian state took over a ruined healthcare system in 1990, the two hospitals were hubs in a healthcare landscape shaped by missionary ambitions, war and apartheid logic.

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Cobley, Alan Gregor. "The ‘African National Church’: Self-Determination and Political Struggle Among Black Christians in South Africa to 1948." Church History 60, no. 3 (September 1991): 356–71. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3167472.

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The first generations of black Christians in Southern Africa went through a painful process of critical examination and experiment as they struggled to assimilate new economic, social, and religious values. These values were presented to them mainly by white missionaries and were based largely on European models. It was as part of this dialectical process that an independent black churches movement—quickly labeled by friends and foes the “Ethiopian Movement”—had emerged at the end of the nineteenth century. The independent black churches spread and multiplied rapidly in South Africa. By 1919 there were seventy-six recognized sects; however, there were many more which were not officially recognized. A black newspaper reported in 1921 that there were “at least one thousand natives within the municipal boundary of Johannesburg who call themselves ministers, but who are unattached to any recognised chuch, and who live on the offerings of their respective flocks.” Although many members of these churches were active politically, the most pervasive influence of the movement was on the ideology of African nationalism, as the role of the church became a recurring theme in debates on the development of an African national identity.

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Katts, Donald. "The prophetic voice of the ecumenical church in South Africa and the role of the Volkskerk van Afrika." STJ | Stellenbosch Theological Journal 1, no. 1 (July 31, 2015): 187. http://dx.doi.org/10.17570/stj.2015.v1n1.a9.

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In this essay the author briefly wants to state the historical events that led to the spirit of Ecumenism. Secondly the article wish to give an overview of the early history of the Volkskerk van Afrika and state the church’s experience and response at the time. Thirdly the article outlines how the Volkskerk van Afrika came to join the ecumenical movement and finally portrays what the prophetic voice of the ecumenical Church in South Africa entails or should be today.

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Teulié, Gilles. "L’Église réformée hollandaise d’Afrique du Sud : Une histoire du calvinisme afrikaner, 1652-2002." Études théologiques et religieuses 77, no. 4 (2002): 537–62. http://dx.doi.org/10.3406/ether.2002.3710.

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Since the first permanent settlement of a white colony in 1652, the history of South Africa is undistinguishable from that of the Dutch Reformed Church established by the first Calvinist settlers. This Church, perhaps more than anywhere else, has played a vital role in the development of the country. Its influence on the mentalities was not only spiritual, but it also contributed in a decisive way to the political life. It is therefore through the theological developments of that Church that one can understand the attitude of the Afrikaners and what prompted them to institute and then reject apartheid in the 20th century. It is this long path through history which linked both the Afrikaner people and its Reformed Church(es) which is at stake here, as we celebrate the 350th anniversary of the Calvinist landing in Southern Africa.

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Coertzen, P. "Freedom of religion in South Africa: Then and now 1652 – 2008." Verbum et Ecclesia 29, no. 2 (November 17, 2008): 345–67. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ve.v29i2.19.

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This article is about freedom of religion in South Africa before and after 1994. It is often argued that the relationship between church and state, and the resultant freedom of religion, during 1652-1994 was determined by a theocratic model of the relationship between church and state. In a theocratic model it is religion and its teachings that determine the place and role of religion in society. This article argues that it was, in fact, a Constantinian model of the relationship between state and church which determined the place and role of religion in society between 1652 and 1994. In a Constantinian model it is the governing authority's understanding and application of religion that determines the place and role of religion in society as well as the resulting degree of freedom of religion. Examples from history are used to prove the point. The second part of the article discusses freedom of religion in South Africa after 1994.

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Van Wyk, Barry. "Kerkbegrip en kerkorde." STJ | Stellenbosch Theological Journal 6, no. 3 (January 8, 2021): 141–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.17570/stj.2020.v6n3.a4.

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Church concept and church order: a comparative study between the four Afrikaans reformed churches in South AfricaThis article is about the church concept and church order as formulated by churches of Reformed offspring, especially since the Reformation. To be more specific: since the day when Martin Luther voiced his disgust in the church of his days in public on 10 December 1520. Church concept and church order is a Scriptural debate because both follows from a Christological ecclesiology.The second part of the article compares the church orders of the churches in South Africa with themes typically inherent to church orders of Reformed standing. This includes themes like the offices of the church, church discipline, as well as matters related to being anti-hierarchical and anti-independentistic with reference to the Reformed churches.

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Czeglédy, André. "A New Christianity for a New South Africa: Charismatic Christians and the Post-Apartheid Order." Journal of Religion in Africa 38, no. 3 (2008): 284–311. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157006608x323504.

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AbstractThe international growth of Pentecostalism has seen a rush of congregations in Africa, many of which have tapped into a range of both local and global trends ranging from neo-liberal capitalism to tele-evangelism to youth music. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, this discussion focuses on the main Johannesburg congregation of a grouping of churches that have successfully engaged with aspects of socio-economic transformation in post-apartheid South Africa. Such engagement has involved conspicuous alignment with aspects of contemporary South African society, including an acceptance of broader policy projects of the nation state. I argue that the use of a variety of symbolic and thematic elements of a secular nature in the Sunday services of this church reminds and inspires congregants to consider wider social perspectives without challenging the sacred realm of faith.

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Gregg, Robert, and James T. Campbell. "Songs of Zion: The African Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States and South Africa." Journal of American History 83, no. 2 (September 1996): 638. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2945017.

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Stegmann, Robert N., and Marlyn Faure. "Reading Scripture in a Post-Apartheid South Africa." Religion & Theology 22, no. 3-4 (2015): 219–49. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15743012-02203010.

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While the Bible continues to fund the religious imagination of the community of faith, the church has often been found guilty of reading the Bible oppressively. Such readings emerge because of a general ignorance of the layered traditions that reflect diverse social locations, and a complex transmission and interpretive history. This essay is particularly concerned with reading practices which both remains faithful to ancient biblical contexts, as well as to how gender identity, as a fluid construct, is continually negotiated in post-apartheid South Africa. By employing postcolonial optics, this paper hopes to re-imagine gendered identity in a post-apartheid South Africa.

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Meijers, Erica. "White Brothers–Black Strangers: Dutch Calvinist Churches and Apartheid in South-Africa." Exchange 38, no. 4 (2009): 365–80. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/016627409x12474551163691.

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AbstractAfter apartheid was abolished in 1994, fierce discussions within the Dutch churches on the theme of apartheid were quickly forgotten. However, we could still learn from this important chapter of church history. Erica Meijers argues that the debates during the 1970s and 1980s have their roots in the changes which the churches underwent in the 1950s and 1960s. Apartheid confronted protestant churches with their own images of black and white, their role in the colonial area and their view of the role of the church in society. All this led to a decreasing solidarity with the Afrikaners and a growing focus on black reality in South Africa. White brothers became strangers and black strangers became allies. This is in essence the transformation of attitude which both the Netherlands Reformed Church and the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands underwent between 1948 and 1972.

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Kruger, Pieter. "Afrikaanse gereformeerde kerke in die sleurgang van die tydgees." STJ | Stellenbosch Theological Journal 6, no. 3 (January 8, 2021): 49–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.17570/stj.2020.v6n3.a1.

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During the past nearly 30 years the epochs of democratisation and globalisation became intertwined with the South African society, determining its spirit of the age. The democratisation of South African since 1994 has its own history of radical rather than evolutionary transformative measures which brought about constructive changes to the political and social fibre of a secularised South Africa. In conjunction, globalisation as dominant worldview became evident in the transposition of South Africa into a secular, liberal, capitalistic, pluralistic society. Over this period the Afrikaans-speaking churches of reformed tradition were not immune to these influences, channelled via their members’ experiences of and responses to their changing social and economic setup. These churches have since also changed. Their influence on society and social matters has dwindled. The contexts of their congregations changed. Their traditional collective forms of institutionalised religion are changing due to the influence of a plurality of different personal, religious beliefs and practices. These developments challenge these churches to rethink their denominational identities and consider the way in which they approach society and what they can contribute to the ecumenical church.

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Hayes, Stephen. "Orthodox Diaspora and Mission in South Africa." Studies in World Christianity 16, no. 3 (December 2010): 286–303. http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/swc.2010.0105.

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The Orthodox diaspora has, paradoxically, spread Orthodox Christianity throughout the world, but has not contributed much to Orthodox mission. Even after the third or fourth generation of immigrants, church services are generally held in the language of the countries from which the immigrants came. This is certainly true of South Africa, where most of the Orthodox immigration has been from Greece and Cyprus, with smaller groups of Russians, Serbs, Bulgarians, Lebanese and Romanians. Though there were immigrants from these countries in southern Africa in the middle of the nineteenth century, it was only at the beginning of the twentieth century that Orthodox clergy arrived and churches were built, first in Cape Town and then in Johannesburg. It was only in the twenty-first century that clergy began to be ordained locally in any numbers. The churches therefore tended to be ethnic enclaves, and apathetic towards, or even opposed to, mission and outreach to other ethnic communities.

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Ranger, Terence, and James T. Campbell. "Songs of Zion. The African Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States and South Africa." Journal of Religion in Africa 27, no. 4 (November 1997): 426. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1581911.

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Duncan, G. A., and J. W. Hofmeyr. "Leadership through theological education: Two case studies in South African history." Verbum et Ecclesia 23, no. 3 (August 7, 2002): 642–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ve.v23i3.1229.

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The quality of visionary leadership requires serious attention in current South Africa, both because of its importance but also sometimes because of the lack of leadership in church and theological contexts. In the first section of this article, focus is placed on leadership in the Faculty of Theology (NG Kerk) at the University of Pretoria, and in the second section, on the leadership at the Lovedale Missionary Institution in the Eastern Cape. Finally, some comparisons and conditions are drawn.

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CABRITA, JOEL. "POLITICS AND PREACHING: CHIEFLY CONVERTS TO THE NAZARETHA CHURCH, OBEDIENT SUBJECTS, AND SERMON PERFORMANCE IN SOUTH AFRICA." Journal of African History 51, no. 1 (March 2010): 21–40. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0021853709990818.

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ABSTRACTTwentieth-century Natal and Zululand chiefs' conversions to the Nazaretha Church allowed them to craft new narratives of political legitimacy and perform them to their subjects. The well-established praising tradition of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Zulu political culture had been an important narrative practice for legitimating chiefs; throughout the twentieth century, the erosion of chiefly power corresponded with a decline in chiefly praise poems. During this same period, however, new narrative occasions for chiefs seeking to legitimate their power arose in Nazaretha sermon performance. Chiefs used their conversion testimonies to narrate themselves as divinely appointed to their subjects. An alliance between the Nazaretha Church and KwaZulu chiefs of the last hundred years meant that the Church could position itself as an institution of national stature, and chiefs told stories that exhorted unruly subjects to obedience as a spiritual virtue.

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Laubscher, M. "Interview with Prof. Piet Meiring." Acta Theologica 43, no. 2 (December 13, 2023): 1–10. http://dx.doi.org/10.38140/at.v43i2.7786.

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Professor Piet Meiring was born in Johannesburg in 1941. He studied at the University of Pretoria, and at the Free University, Amsterdam. He was ordained to the ministry of the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) in 1968 and served in three congregations in Pretoria. His academic career includes the chair in Missiology and Church History, University of the North (Turfloop); a parttime lectureship at the University of South Africa.

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Lephakga, T. "THE HISTORY OF THE CONQUERING OF THE BEING OF AFRICANS THROUGH LAND DISPOSSESSION, EPISTEMICIDE AND PROSELYTISATION." Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae 41, no. 2 (December 18, 2015): 145–63. http://dx.doi.org/10.25159/2412-4265/300.

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This paper examines the role of colonisation in the conquering of the Being of Africans. It is pointed out that the colonisation of Africa became possible only because the church − particularly the Catholic Church and the Protestants − gave backing to it. Colonialism and Christianity are often associated because Catholicism and Protestanism were the religions of the colonial powers. Thus Christianity gave moral and ethical foundation to the enslavement of Africans. Colonisation is a concept which involves the idea of organising and arranging, which etymologically means to cultivate or to design. Therefore, it is the contention of this paper that this organising and arranging of colonies had a dire impact on the Being of the African people. Colonisation manifests itself through land dispossession (which in South Africa was given theological backing by the Dutch Reformed Church), epistemicide and proselytisation. Colonisation was informed by the idea of the scramble for Africa, which was blessed and commissioned particularly by the Catholic Church; and the notion of geopolitics of space, according to which the world has been divided by Europeans into two − namely the centre (occupied by the Europeans) and the periphery (occupied by non-Europeans). This division was informed by the articulation that ‘I conquer; therefore I am the sovereign’. Therefore, following the ego conquiro (i.e. I conquer), which was followed by the Cartesian ego Cogito (i.e. I think) then those who possess both the ego conquiro and ego cogito felt justified to colonise those who lacked these. This was felt in Africa through land dispossession, and Africans were forced to go through a violent process which alienated them from their ancestral land. Land is ancestral in the Being of the African people, and therefore any disturbance to the relation between the land and the Africans will result in them losing their Being (or self) − becoming pariahs in their ancestral land. This made them a conquered people and empty shells that accepted everything coming their way. It is against this background that the paper will explore the role of colonisation in the conquering of the Being of Africans through land dispossession, epistemicide and proselytisation.

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Aldous, Benjamin, and Michael Moynagh. "Learning from “Fresh Expressions of Church” and the “Loving-First Cycle” through a Case Study from Cape Town." Mission Studies 38, no. 2 (September 28, 2021): 189–212. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15733831-12341790.

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Abstract This article outlines and engages the “loving-first cycle” as a contextual model for starting new faith communities and as potentially one of the lessons from “fresh expressions” for the wider church. Initially we describe two alternative approaches to church multiplication and explain the “loving-first cycle” as a contrasting methodology arising from the experience of fresh expressions of church in the UK. Next, we ground the cycle in a case study from Cape Town, South Africa. Then we argue that the cycle has the potential to be an intentional methodology for mission.

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Khosa-Nkatini, Hundzukani P. "Theology of inclusivity and hospitality in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in South Africa." Khazanah Theologia 5, no. 3 (December 30, 2023): 157–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.15575/kt.v5i3.23514.

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This article examines the liturgical practices of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in South Africa (EPCSA), focusing on its Sunday liturgy, within the broader context of cultural and linguistic considerations. The EPCSA, formerly known as the Tsonga Presbyterian Church (TPC), has a diverse array of liturgies, each composed in Tsonga. Liturgy, as an integral part of worship, has evolved over the history of Christian practices, influenced by various cultures and people. This study emphasizes the cultural aspect of liturgy, asserting that the incorporation of nature into the relationship with God holds cultural significance. While the Tsonga language remains central to the EPCSA's tradition, the changing demographic landscape, with the church previously comprising Tsonga-speaking members exclusively, necessitates a reconsideration of its liturgical approach. The article utilizes a literature review to argue that the current Sunday liturgy may exhibit exclusivity. It underscores the importance of adapting liturgical practices to accommodate changes in the composition of the congregation, emphasizing the unity of diverse individuals coming together to worship a shared God despite their differences.

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Goedhals, Mandy. "AFRICAN NATIONALISM AND INDIGENOUS CHRISTIANITY: A STUDY IN THE LIFE OF JAMES CALATA (1895-1983)." Journal of Religion in Africa 33, no. 1 (2003): 63–82. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157006603765626712.

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AbstractEven among historians of Christianity in South Africa sympathetic to the liberation struggle, there has been a tendency to focus on white clergy rather than the involvement of black clergy before the 1960s. This study of James Calata, Anglican priest and African nationalist, attempts to contribute to filling a gap in the existing historiography and also to address some of the problems raised by a biographical approach to history. Like white clergy, Calata faced opposition from the church hierarchy, but for Calata there was also a degree of racism in the way the church treated him, while his opposition was rooted in community, and integrated opposition politics and a struggle for an indigenous expression of Christianity. Calata's own ideological position reflects the ideological generosity (or vagueness) of the ANC. The essay also illustrates the radicalisation of Calata's position in response to increasing repression.

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Van der Merwe, Johan M. "Versoening en die Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk: Die Algemene Sinode van 1994 as baken vir ’n lewe van volheid." Verbum et Ecclesia 38, no. 3 (October 6, 2017): 105–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ve.v38i3.1626.

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The Faculty of Theology at the University of Pretoria chose oikodome as a Faculty Research Theme (FRT) in 2014. This term refers to life in its fullness. The Dutch Reformed Church, as one of the partners of the Faculty, contributed to life in its fullness through the important role it played in the reconciliation in South Africa since 1986. One of the beacons on this road of reconciliation was the General Synod of 1994. It became known as the ‘Synod of reconciliation’ as a result of the visits of Mr Nelson Mandela, Prof. B.J. Marais and Dr Beyers Naudé, and the important decisions that the meeting took. It was however, not only the visits of these important roleplayers in history which made the meeting a beacon on the road to reconciliation. This chapter shows that it was imbedded in a much larger context of reconciliation in South Africa in which the Dutch Reformed Church played an important role. By participating in the process of reconcilation in the country, the Dutch Reformed Church contributed to oikodome – life in its fullness for all.

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Oakley, Robin. "The Nederduitse Gereformeerde Sendingkerk and the Nama Experience in Namaqualand, South Africa." Itinerario 27, no. 3-4 (November 2003): 189–204. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0165115300020829.

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In Steinkopf, a former coloured Reserve in the Northern Cape Province, the Nederduitse Gereformeerde Sendingkerk (NGS; Dutch Reformed Mission Church), a former sub-branch of the Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk (NGK; Dutch Reformed Church) forged a legitimate public space for the expression of Nama identity in the 1960s. The legitimisation of aboriginal identity was not accidental, but very much an expression of apartheid policies of the day. I hope to demonstrate both the content and the consequences of this particular episode in Steinkopf, and thereby contribute to an understanding of the links between a crumbling capitalist infrastructure and the ideological efforts to reinforce that infrastructure through processes of ethnic strengthening. My claim is that the NGK played an ideological role supporting the capitalist interests as it strengthened the super-structural pillars of the segregation and apartheid eras.

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Makutoane, Tshokolo J. "Promoting Social Reconciliation in Post-apartheid South Africa: Engaging "Forgiveness" Texts in Bible Translation Performance." Old Testament Essays 35, no. 2 (January 5, 2022): 1–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2312-3621/2022/v35n2a12.

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This article describes an ongoing effort within the Dutch Reformed Church in Africa to design a performative translation of biblical texts on forgiveness into Sesotho, one of the official languages of South Africa. The goal is to communicate effectively the concept of forgiveness to both confessional communities and those outside those communities. This translation will help the hearers to understand better the Old Testament concept of forgiveness and how that concept can promote social reconciliation within the polarised society of South Africa. The design of a performance translation of forgiveness texts and its implementation in society provides a model for similar translations into the other ten official languages of South Africa. The study is based on Biblical Performance Criticism.

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Watson, R. L., and James T. Campbell. "Songs of Zion: The African Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States and South Africa." International Journal of African Historical Studies 30, no. 1 (1997): 144. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/221554.

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Martin, Bernice. "Text and Authority in the South African Nazaretha Church, written by Joel Cabrita The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God in South Africa: A Church of Strangers, written by Ilana van Wyk." Journal of Religion in Africa 46, no. 2-3 (February 27, 2016): 330–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15700666-12340076.

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Pont, A. D. "Die betekenis van Abraham Kuyper (1837–1920) vir Suid-Afrika op kerkhistoriese en kerkregtelike gebied." HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies 43, no. 3 (January 23, 1987). http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/hts.v43i3.2265.

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The influence of Abraham Kuyper (1837–1920) on South Africa in the spheres of Church History and Church Polity A short biography of Kuyper is followed by an attempt to qualify him as a typical theologian of the 19th century, as leader of the Doleantie-movement in the Dutch church and as a man of many parts. His personal contact with South Africa is traced, as well as his direct and indirect influence in the South African churches. It is interesting to note that the influence of Kuyper's theology in the Gereformeerde Kerke in Suid-Afrika was largely initiated by JD du Toit while his father, SJ du Toit, introduced Kuyper's theology in the Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk. Subsequently it was mainly the influence of the VU (Bavinck and Rutgers) which prevailed in the abovementioned churches.

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Malinowski, Radoslaw. "South African Universities and the Question of Decolonization." Interreligious Studies and Intercultural Theology 5, no. 1-2 (July 22, 2021). http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/isit.19575.

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Ernst Wolff, in his paper “South African universities and the question of decolonization,” addresses the issue of colonial legacy and decolonization in the context of philosophy. This response takes the argument of Wolf further, using the example of Church History Discipline. African Church History, or general history, is studied as long as it is useful to Western Legacy (Augustine, Origen) or has elements of Western participation (Portuguese missionaries, nineteenth century to Africa); besides this, African history is ignored and trivialised. Overcoming this prejudice will not only be an act of historical justice but also will create opportunity for African history philosophy to demonstrate its full potential.

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Pont, A. D. "Die Groot Trek en die Kerk." HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies 45, no. 3 (January 23, 1989). http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/hts.v45i3.2315.

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The Great Trek and the Church The emigration of about 15 000 pioneer-farmers from the eastern Cape districts to the interior of Southern Africa, was a definite turning point in South African history. In 1852-1854, which can be regarded as the final date of the Great Trek, there were in South Africa two British colonies i e the Cape and Natal and two Boer republics i e the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. This study traces the history of the church during the emigration and the establishment of the church by the emigrants.

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Vellem, Vuyani. "Unshackling the Church." HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies 71, no. 3 (March 11, 2015). http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/hts.v71i3.3119.

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In whose ‘order’, ‘newness’ and ‘foundation’ is ecclesiology based in South Africa? The colonial legacy of pigmentocracy, the cultural domination and annihilation of the indigenous dispensation of black Africans, is not devoid of institutional structures of faith and their historical performance in South Africa. The church is one institution in South Africa that played a crucial role in perpetrating perversities of racial, economic and cultural exclusion with a fetish of its institutional character that is still pervasive and dangerously residual in post-1994 South Africa. By presenting a brief outline of the basics on ecclesiology, the article argues that things remain the same the more things seem to change if the methodological approach to ecclesiology circumvents the edifice and foundations on which the history of ecclesiology in South Africa is built. To unshackle the church, a Black Theology of liberation must begin from and debunk the foundations of models of ecclesiology that are conceived on perverse theological and ideologised forms of faith that have become residually hazardous in South Africa post-1994.

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Journal articles on the topic 'South Africa – Church history'

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