Three South African perspectives on Calvin : William Thompson, Tiyo Saga and Klaas Hofmeyr

Abstract

On 27 May 1864 William Thompson, who succeeded the famous Dr John Philip as pastor of the ‘Union Chapel’ in Cape Town, delivered a lecture in memory of Calvin, three centuries after his death – probably the only meeting of this kind in ‘Calvinist’ South Africa. Thompson's interest in Calvin centered mainly around Calvin’s evangelical soteriology and his successful anti-Roman Catholic polemic. Klaas Hofmeyr, professor at the Stellenbosch Kweekskool, was not only a strong critic of modernism, but also rejected contemporary Reformed orthodoxy. He appreciated Calvin mainly for laying a solid theological foundation on which others could build freely – only bound by Scripture and enlightened by the Spirit and their religious experience. Hofmeyr's own Christology was a remarkable example of this approach, but, in his emphasis on the real humanity of Christ, he went much further than Calvin. Tiyo Soga was born into a traditional Xhosa family that came into contact with Christianity as a result of Ntsikana's conversion. While he fully internalised the evangelical and experiential traditions of Scottish Calvinism, he also had an exceptional cultural G Thom sensitivity that enabled him to preach the gospel in a culturally relevant way. As a Calvinist he uncompromisingly rejected modernism, but, like Hofmeyr, he did not see himself as a follower of Calvin, but of Jesus Christ.