Calvinism and South African women : a short historical overview
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Authors
Landman, C.(Christina)
Issue Date
2009
Type
Article
Language
en
Keywords
Christian women , Calvanism
Alternative Title
Abstract
For the past three-and-a-half centuries, Christian women in
South Africa have chosen for pietistic expressions of their
faith, even when their teachers or husbands were committed to
dogmatic Calvinism. This article traces the history of female
piety in South Africa from its Calvinist introduction by Maria
Quevellerius, the wife of Jan van Riebeeck. It tells the history
of women in South Africa, both black and white, who were
exposed to the sin-soul-salvation model of belief imposed upon
them by missionaries, and who read pietistic literature from
countries abroad. Three types of female piety are evident in
South Africa today: firstly in black women healers; secondly in
women attending the Worthy Women conferences where they
openly assume subordinate roles vis-à-vis their husbands; and
thirdly in women who accept the decision by the 2009 Synod
of the ultra-Calvinist Reformed Churches in South Africa not
to allow women to become elders or pastors. This article
examines the historically relevant question of the influence of
Calvinism on these three forms of female piety, and seeks
reasons for the apparent absence of Calvinist loyalties amongst
South African women. While Calvinism regulates the fate of
(especially white) women in South Africa as regards their
formal recognition as elders and pastors, women themselves
seem to feel comfortable within the worship patterns of pietism
and revivalism which, in the final instance, are as sexist as was
local Calvinism.
Description
Peer reviewed
Citation
Landman, C. 2009', Calvinism and South African women
: a short historical overview',
Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae, vol. XXXV, no. 2, pp. 89-102.
Publisher
Church History Society of Southern Africa
License
Journal
Volume
Issue
PubMed ID
DOI
ISSN
1017-0499