Celebrating communal authorship : the theological declaration of the Belydende Kring (1979) and the Belhar confession : in honour of Simon Maimela and in memory of Chris Loff

Abstract

A Reformed Confession of faith represents the voice of a church as community of faith, and yet individual authors play a role in its formation. This article demonstrates that the Theological Declaration of the Belydende Kring (1979) had a formative effect on the Belhar Confession, which was drafted in 1982. The article analyses the similarities and differences between the two documents and concludes that “communal authorship” is the most appropriate term to describe the process that led to the formulation of the Belhar Confession.