| Popis: |
The question of race and the making of South African Christianity brings into conversation two-fluid ideas historically seen as rigid, the boundaries of which were defended with anxiety and cruel rigor throughout much of modern South African history. This essay discusses how South African Christianity was forged in the crucible of conflict that was often between groups seen as different “races,” how the racial identity and the state enforcement of racial identity shaped the social practice of Christianity, and how racial conflict was reflected in diverse conceptions of Christianity. At the same time, Christianity was mobilized across the lines of the race to a variety of ends, including attacking racism. The essay necessarily cuts across the boundaries of the nation, including both regional and transnational trends. Some specific topics covered include race and Christianity among white settlers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; labor and religious identity; the uses of Christianity by the dispossessed; missions and colonialism; religion and ethnogenesis; the development of African Christian communities; Ethiopianism and the revolt of Black preachers; the African Independent Church movement; and the use of Christianity both to defend and attack apartheid. I consider Christianity in terms of communities and institutions but also in terms of ideas, from prophetic beliefs to the defense of apartheid. The essay argues that diverse racialized communities helped create different forms of Christianity, just as debates about race and efforts to reach across racial divides were also critical defining features of South African Christianity. |
