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Ever since devout Dutch Reformed migrants established a settlement in the Cape of Good Hope in the mid-seventeenth century, the Christian religion has played a profound role in shaping the social, political, economic, and cultural life of South Africa. Because nearly three-fourths of its people profess Christianity, some foreign observers have wondered how such a country could have developed and institutionalized apartheid—a brutal system of racial segregation. More particularly, how could the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC), the dominant religious institution in South Africa, have helped to establish and legitimate such a system? Why were Christian churches not more effective in dismantling racial segregation once it became clear that apartheid policies were fostering profound injustices? Why did some churches challenge the apartheid regime, while others failed to do so?
Richard Elphick and Rodney Davenport's Christianity in South Africa: A Political, Social, and Cultural History—a collection of 25 specialized essays—provides an invaluable overview. Although some of the essays examine the political role of churches, most are concerned with the institutional expression of Christianity in South Africa, focusing on such issues as the nature and role of missionary enterprise among indigenous people, the nature and organization of different church denominations, the impact of Christianity on distinct subcultural groups, and the role of Christianity in the creative arts. Collectively, these essays provide "a macro-narrative" of South African Christianity that not only illuminates the rise and evolution of Christianity in South Africa but also helps to explain the extraordinary impact of Christian beliefs and practices on the country's cultural, social, and political life.
Elphick makes clear that, although Christianity could have contributed to the development of a coherent, unified society, its integrative role has been "slight"—in great part because its message has been interpreted and applied from numerous theological and institutional perspectives. Despite Christianity's universal claims, believers have interpreted Christianity in widely different ways, especially when confronting major social and political issues. As a result, Christians have frequently found themselves "on both sides of the political barricades, denouncing each other's political behavior as heretical, idolatrous, or treasonous."
Although racial segregation emerged from the outset of South African colonization, the most comprehensive social engineering was instituted by Afrikaners after their political party (National Party) gained control of the government in 1948. In his illuminating essay on the role of Afrikaner churches and apartheid, Johann Kinghorn, a professor of religion at South Africa's Stellenbosch University, argues that the apartheid regime is best described as a consequence of "Afrikanerdom's slow and agonizing adaptation to modernity." Afrikaners were predict ably resistant to modernization, he suggests, because they remained until the l940s a rural, nationalist, and conservative people, deeply suspicious of European liberalism, secularism, and globalism. Not until Afrikaners were forced to migrate to the cities to find work during the 1920s and 1930s did they begin to shed their cultural isolationism and confront modernity.
Historically, Afrikaners have been devout Christians, staunchly committed to the Reformed faith. The Afrikaner Reformed churches1 have traditionally emphasized the maintenance of religious orthodoxy and fostered social and cultural norms that were consistent with their religious beliefs. Given the close affinity between the culture and religious life of Afrikaners, it is not surprising that dominant cultural norms profoundly influenced Afrikaner churches. These churches, in turn, nurtured and sustained many of the underlying values of society, playing a far more influential role in the social and cultural life of Afrikaner people than is normally the case in modern society. Indeed, Kinghorn suggests that the reluctance of Afrikaners to adapt to modernity helped to sustain social and political structures that were considered unacceptable by the international community.
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