Author: Charles Villa-Vicencio Publisher: ISBN: Category : History Languages : en Pages : 420
Book Description
As a new democratic society still being formed, South Africa needs to look back and take stock of the key role of Christianity in its social formation. Rather than provide a mere chronological account of events and devote equal space to various denominations, John de Gruchy sets out to map and reflect the fact that some churches and Christian traditions have been far more influential in shaping South African society than others. Working from some 3500 primary documents relevant to understanding the role of Christianity in forming South Africa, dating from the mid-seventeenth century, the author offers an introduction to the final three decades of the nineteenth century, and the beginnings of modernisation. During this time the country was transformed from a primarily rural and traditional society into one which was increasingly urban, industrial and capitalist. This was also a moment of transition for Christian missionary endeavour and the formation of the colonial churches. This volume set out not to explore the various theologies which have emerged in this period, but rather to consider the way in which theology functioned in the construction of modern South Africa. In this regard, the most salient theological dimension concerns ecclesiology, or the doctrine of the church. This follows from the very nature of reading Christianity in view of the social history of South Africa. Ecclesiology functions at the interface of theological conviction and social reality. It seeks to describe both what the church should be and what it in fact is in day-to-day experience. This gap between faith and reality is nowhere more evident than in the account presented in this volume. But more so, one of the most remarkable aspects of South African social history has been the interaction and parallels between ecclesiological praxis, on the one hand, and social and political formation, on the other. Book jacket.
Author: Charles Villa-Vicencio Publisher: ISBN: Category : History Languages : en Pages : 396
Book Description
The initial religious encounters between settlers in southern Africa and the indigenous inhabitants entailed the establishment of settler churches and the relationships with their home countries. However, this era saw little by way of the spread of Christianity. In 1799, with the arrival of Johannes van der Kemp and other missionaries from the London Missionary Society, Christianity began to cross colonial boundaries, marking the great era of missions in southern Africa. At the outset, the missionary presence remained precariously perched between success and failure. While missionary influence among the indigenous peoples was relatively insignificant, the opposite was true within the colony. At the same time, expansion pressures from the Cape precipitated growing conflict between settlers and indigenous peoples. Increasingly, missionaries were caught between the interests of indigenous peoples and those of the colony. For the most part, they sided with their colonial heritage and roots, but in some significant instances, their identification with indigenous people led them to take extremely unpopular stands against both Boer and British colonial authority. Such conflicts are traced at various levels throughout this book. The broader spread of Christianity during this period is also examined through multiple voices and stories.
Author: Marie-Claire Foblets Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1317175328 Category : Law Languages : en Pages : 464
Book Description
This edited collection gathers together the principal findings of the three-year RELIGARE project, which dealt with the question of religious and philosophical diversity in European law. Specifically, it covers four spheres of public policy and legislation where the pressure to accommodate religious diversity has been most strongly felt in Europe: employment, family life, use of public space and state support mechanisms. Embracing a forward-looking approach, the final RELIGARE report provides recommendations to governance units at the local, national and European levels regarding issues of religious pluralism and secularism. This volume adds context and critique to those recommendations and more generally opens an intellectual discussion on the topic of religion in the European Union. The book consists of two main parts: the first includes the principal findings of the RELIGARE research project, while the second is a compilation of 28 short contributions from influential scholars, legal practitioners, policy makers and activists who respond to the report and offer their views on the sensitive issue of religious diversity and the law in Europe.
Author: Tim Keegan Publisher: A&C Black ISBN: 0718501349 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 379
Book Description
It is a story that is strong in notable events -slave emancipation, the arrival of the 1820 British settlers, a series of frontier wars, the Great Trek of Boer emigrants - as well as in striking personalities, among them Dr John Philip, Andries Stockenstrom, John Fairbairn, Moshoeshoe and Sir Harry Smith. In Keegan's pages these familiar historical landmarks and characters emerge in entirely novel ways, the subject of fresh interpretations and original insights.
Author: Darcie Fontaine Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 1107118174 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 269
Book Description
This book traces Christianity's change from European imperialism's moral foundation to a voice of political and social change during decolonization.
Author: Enrique Dussel Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing ISBN: 9780802821317 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 396
Book Description
This comprehensive history of the church in Latin America, with its emphasis on theology, will help historians and theologians to better understand the formation and continuity of the Latin American tradition.
Author: Charles Villa-Vicencio
Author: Charles Villa-Vicencio
Author: Marie-Claire Foblets
Author: 
Author: Tim Keegan
Author: Charles Villa-Vicencio
Author: Leonard Monteath Thompson
Author: John Iliffe
Author: Darcie Fontaine
Author: Enrique Dussel