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Aspects of the Present Religious Scene in South Africa Christo Lombaard

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Aspects of the Present Religious Scene in South Africa Christo Lombaard Faith matters: aspects of the present religious scene in South Africa Christo Lombaard Christian Spirituality University of South Africa In preparation Some key points in the history of South Africa: ¢ “Golden Age” 1: Mapungubwe (1075–1220) ¢ 1652: Jan van Riebeeck Dutch and British colonialism ¢ “Golden Age” 2: mining (1870 ff) – gold, diamonds, charcoal, platinum ¢ Anglo-Boer / South African War, 1899-1902 (incl. guerilla warfare & concentration camps): → British rule ¢ 1948: Afrikaner (= National Party) rule Red danger, Black danger, Roman danger ¢ 1989: Fall of Berlin Wall ¢ 1994: African (= African National Congress) rule Population Groups in South Africa: ¢ Black (different language & tribal groups) ¢ White (Afrikaans & English) ¢ Indian ¢ Coloured ¢ Pop. ± 50 million ¢ 11 official languages; 9 provinces Literature Davenport, TRH & Saunders, C 2000. South Africa: a modern history (5th ed.). Basingstoke: Macmillan. Giliomee, H. 2003. The Afrikaners – Biography of a people. Cape Town: Tafelberg Publishers. Thompson, LM 2010. A history of South Africa (3rd ed.). Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball. 1 Introduction If South African society had to be diagnosed, broadly, it would be have a doctor worried. Apart from the country’s economy (cf. e.g. Du Plessis & Smit 2007) and daily interpersonal relations in the urban areas, which are in good health, almost other all aspects of society are faltering. It is a traumatised society, still, even though the popular expectations around 1994, the year of the turn from white rule to black democratic rule that has been much idealised, had been much different. With crime and corruption in government and police services, as well as in broader society, crumbling (and at times failed) road and water and electricity infrastructure, courts and correctional services flailing, disastrous education policies and practices, unemployment at a rate of 40%, and with the country topping world scales of murder, rape and HIV/Aids rates (cf. Faber 2009 for a brief overview), it all adds up to a society with a poor prognosis. In a way these strains can be understood as simply the by-product of a society going through the massive societal adjustments; the country has been hit with wave upon wave of change over the past quarter of a century: • The global changes that were brought about by the revolution of Information Communication Technologies, particularly e-mail and the internet, with all the social implications thereof for the effects of freer information flow, dawned in rudimentary form in South Africa late in 1987 (cf. Lombaard 2003:16-27); • The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 had a direct impact on the way the country set aside its remaining apartheid policies in favour of a transition to democracy, starting in February 1990 and culminating just more than four years later in the April 1994 elections (cf. Lombaard 2009:89-93); • The 1994 transition from white to black rule also focused via the new 1992 Constitution the worldwide trends towards other equalities and urgencies, namely of gender, sexual preference, ecological sensitivity, and such matters. 2 These multiple concurrent changes, by no means listed here exhaustively but rather as examples, fill the agendas of social identity construction within the South Africa of today in such ways that a matrix of fluid characteristics can hardly be drawn up with any accuracy. It is against this diverse background that current religious trends in South Africa are to be understood. In what follows, therefore, a few of the religious trends within South African society are indicated. Rather than aiming in any way at giving a substantive overview here, some developments in religious circles are indicated in order to convey some sense of the diversity of trends developing, at times unrelated to one another, at time in interesting intersections. Numbers and predictions • Mainline churches • AICs (African Independent / Instituted / Initiated Churches) All are liberation theologians Exegetical trends • The Pretoria school of structuralism • Historical-critical methods • Africanisation • Popularisation: the “How to read the Bible books” (Christian) Faith trends • A(nti)-faithful • Unchurchly believers • Charismatics (including Angus Buchan [= Mighty Men]) • The spiritually-inclined • The thinkers (New Reformation) • New (= old) Orthodox (Evangelical Initiative) • The churchly 3 All the Presidents’ amens: • Backgrounds: o Christian National Education o Marxist thinking o Enlightenment thinking • FW de Klerk • Nelson Mandela (ANC’s Religion Desk: Cedric Mason) • Thabo Mbeki (ANC’s Religion Desk: Cedric Mason) • Jacob Zuma (ANC’s “Religion Desk”: Mathole Motshekga) The constitution of religious liberalism • SA Constitution • South African Charter for Religious Rights and Freedoms § (Schools and religion) § (Religion in the press) 4 Bibliography Benson, IT 2011. “What can be learned from the experiences of various societies in dealing with their principal trouble spots?” Can there be a legitimate pluralism in modes of protecting religions and their freedom? The cases of Canada and South Africa. Paper presented at the XVII Plenary Session, The Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, Vatican City. Conference - Universal Rights in a World of Diversity: The Case of Religious Freedom, 29th April – 3 May 2011. (Publication forthcoming.) Benson, IT 2008. The case for religious inclusivism and the judicial recognition of religious associational rights: a response to Lenta. Constitutional Court Review 2008/1: 297–312. Du Plessis, S & Smit, B 2007. South Africa’s growth revival after 1994 (Stellenbosch Economic Working Papers: 01/06\; revised edition). Stellenbosch: Department of Economics & Bureau for Economic Research, University Of Stellenbosch. Du Toit, CW & Mayson, CP 2006. Secular Spirituality as a Contextual Critique of Religion. Pretoria: Research Institute for Theology and Religion, University of South Africa. Faber, T. 2009. Contemporary issues in South Africa: a toolkit for journalists. Johannesburg: Open Society Foundation / www.osf.org.za/Publications/default.asp?PubCatID=31 5 Froise, M 2012/2013. South African Christian Handbook. Cape Town: Kalahri.com. Hendriks, HJ 1995. South African denominational growth and decline 1911- 1991. Journal of Theology for Southern Africa 91, 35-58. Hendriks, HJ 1999. Verwagting vir die nuwe millennium: gaan Gereformeerde Kerke groei, kwyn of verdwyn? Woord en Daad 13, 18-19. Hendriks, HJ 2000. Die Suid-Afrikaanse godsdienstige landkaart aan die begin van die nuwe millennium: Tendense in die eerste post-apartheid bevolkingsensus. Praktiese Teologie in Suid-Afrika 15/2, 73-97. Hendriks, HJ & Erasmus, JC 2001. Interpreting the new religious landscape in Post-Apartheid South Africa. Journal of Theology for Southern Africa 109, 41- 65. Hendriks, HJ & Erasmus J. 2003. Religious affiliation in South Africa early in the new millennium: Markinor’s World Value Survey. Journal of Theology for Southern Africa 117, 80-96. Hendriks, HJ & Erasmus JC. 2005. Religion in South Africa: the 2001 population census data. Journal of Theology for Southern Africa 121, 88- 111. 6 Hofmeyr, J.W., C.J.S. Lombaard en P.J. Maritz (reds.) 2004. 1948 + 50 years. Theology, apartheid and church: Past, present and future (Perspectives on the Church / Perspektiewe op die Kerk, Series 5: Vol. 1). Pretoria: IMER (Institute for Missiological and Ecumenical Research), Universiteit van Pretoria. Krüger, J.S. 2006. Sounding unsound. Orientation into mysticism. Pretoria: Aurora Press. Le Roux, JH 1993. A story of two ways. Thirty years of Old Testament scholarship in South Africa (Old Testament Essays Supplumentum 2). Pretoria: Verba Vitae. Lombaard, C 2012. Om die Skrif tot stilte te bring... Gewaarwordinge oor Afrikaanse Bybelse spiritualiteit. Litnet Akademies (Forthcoming.) Lombaard, C 2009. The fall of the Berlin wall and the end of apartheid South Africa, in Koschorke, K (ed.) 2009. Falling walls. The year 1989/90 as a turning point in the history of world Christianity / Einstürzende Mauers. Das Jahr 1989/90 als Epochenjahr in der Geshichte des Weltchristentums. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 89-93. Lombaard, C 2011a. Having faith in the university? Aspects of the relationship between religion and the university, in: Venter, R (ed.) Faith, religion and the public university (Acta Theologica Supplementum 14), 49-65. 7 Lombaard, C 2011b. Biblical Spirituality and human rights. Old Testament Essays 24/1, 74–93. Lombaard, C 2008. Gewaarwordinge. ’n Gesprek oor Afrikaans-Christelike geloofsprikkels in ons tyd. Pomp 1, 291–293. Lombaard, C. 2007. Does contextual exegesis require an affirming Bible? Lessons from "apartheid" and "Africa" as narcissistic hermeneutical keys. Scriptura 101, 274-287. Lombaard, C 2006. The relevance of Old Testament science in/for Africa: two false pieties and focussed scholarship. Old Testament Essays 19/1, 144-155. Lombaard, C 2003. The birth of the Internet in South Africa: a church- historical note. Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae 29/2, 16-27. Lombaard, C 2001. The left governing hand and the right governing hand: begging for a church without public hands? Journal of Theology for Southern Africa 109, 17-24. Muller, P., H. Wolmarans, S. Spangenberg, P.F. Craffert en P.J.J. Botha 2002. Die Nuwe Reformasie. (Referate gelewer by RAU werkswinkel, 18 Mei 2002). Johannesburg: Randse Afrikaanse Universiteit. 8 Nicol, W. 2002. Gebed van die hart. Word stil en beleef God. Wellington: Lux Verbi.BM. Olivier, E. 2006. Afrikaner spirituality: a complex mixture.
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