Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae Volume 38 Number 2, December 2012
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Item Lindiwe Myeza: unfreezing the walking voice(Church History Society of Southern Africa, 2012-12) Landman, ChristinaLindiwe Myeza walks with stories. These include stories about working hand in hand with the great Afrikaner anti-apartheid activist Beyers Naudé and caring spiritually and practically for the youth after the Sharpeville massacre of 1960. The most powerful stories relate to the literacy training Myeza conducted to teach the illiterate to read and write and understand their own human dignity. These stories are told here through the changing lenses and shifting identities that are common to oral history. Therefore, this raises the question of how, methodologically, these “walking voices can be frozen into a story that deals respectfully with the interviewee and her past. Three methodological approaches are employed, which are mutually inclusive. Firstly, ownership of the story is given to the interviewee on the grounds of the indigenous knowledge she presents in her stories and in terms of the vulnerability she displays in revealing her life story. Secondly, contextual and cultural bridging is achieved by being sensitive to the social location of both the interviewer and the interviewee. Finally, the story is moved towards the healing of society.Item Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) and the Nature of Theology(Church History Society of Southern Africa, 2012-12) Neele, Adriaan CThis article proposes that Jonathan Edwards’ inquiry into the nature of theology continues the tradition of Protestant scholasticism, and appropriated medieval and early Protestant models of the systems of theology within the theological context of eighteenth-century New England. In fact, Edwards’s use of post-Reformation reformed scholasticism was a mediating source of medieval theology of Franciscan and Scotist origin. E Brooks Holifield in Theology in America (2003) has the following to say: Edwards drew the common distinction between the two kinds of theological knowledge, the first speculative … and the second practical … The aim of [Edwards’s] theology was to nurture a “sense” of divine things that took one deeper into their nature than the speculative understanding alone could penetrate and to “guide” and influence us in our practice (Holifield 2003:102).Item "Ungusobaba" (you are our father): the life of an Anglican bishop, Lawrence Bekisisa Zulu (1937-2013+)(Church History Society of Southern Africa, 2012-12) Mbaya, HenryThis study seeks to document the role that Lawrence Bekisisa Zulu played in the Anglican Church in South Africa (ACSA), particularly in the dioceses of Zululand and Swaziland, as a bishop. It records the life story of Zulu as a leader whose gifts as a pastor, teacher and priest enriched the lives of many clergy and lay people. That Zulu was entrusted with leadership positions in three dioceses, also suggests the strength of his moral authority and spirituality. The study demonstrates how the context of colonialism and apartheid shaped Zulu’s approach to the issues of poverty and human dignity. Zulu’s contribution is evident especially in the manner in which he as a community leader tried to enhance social development by fostering the spirit of self-reliance through his pastoral ministry, consequently striving to assert the dignity of humanity.Item The life and times of Christoph Sandrock, missionary of the Berlin Mission Society during the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) at Springfontein, South Africa(Church History Society of Southern Africa, 2012-12) Britz, DolfThis article traces the life and times of Christoph Sandrock (1845–1930), a missionary with the Berlin Mission Society, during the Anglo Boer War at Springfontein in the southern Free State, South Africa. Based mainly on his diary, his Erinnerungen aus dem südafrikansichen Kriege aus dem Jahre 1899–1902 and primary sources from South African archives, this research not only contributes to the biography of a remarkable missionary, but also to our knowledge of the local experience of the Anglo-Boer War by blacks and whites who lived at Springfontein or who were forced during the war to reside in the differentiated refugee (or concentration) camps that were erected at the railway station.1 Sandrock lived in Springfontein throughout the war and ministered to the Boer commandos, a German and a British field hospital, his mission congregation and the white and black concentration camps. He received international visitors – Missionsdirektor Gensichen (from Berlin), the German Consul, and the activist Emily Hobhouse. The article discloses a unique perspective on the Anglo-Boer War, which was renowned for its scorched earth tactics, guerrilla warfare and concentration camps.Item The role of eugenics and religion in the construction of race in South Africa(Church History Society of Southern Africa, 2012-12) Naicker, LindaIt has been postulated that Christian Nationalism, an ideology inspired by Afrikaner Nationalism, was the most powerful influence with regard to racial segregation and the implementation of racially oppressive legislation in apartheid South Africa. This article examines the influences that advanced the legislation galvanising racism in South Africa with particular emphasis on the scientific and ideological reasoning that led to entrenched notions of racial division and racial hierarchy. Socially constructed bias masquerading under the guise of science, religious rhetoric and governmental legislation were fundamental to the production, maintenance and surveillance of the apartheid nation-state. The main aim of this article is to challenge the perception that Christian thinking, propagated by Afrikaner Nationalists, was the sole instigator in the proliferation and perpetuation of a racially entrenched nation. The study of eugenics, which has its origins in Britain, played a critical role in the development of social and political arrangements in South Africa, and fuelled the social and physiological reality of racism which was institutionalised, legalised and internalised under apartheid. Introduction