"e;The subject of the Belhar Confession is an academic one which has enjoyed international attention, with congregations in the West having adopted it as one of their confessions for use. The content of this book is aimed chiefly at a scholarly community with ample knowledge of confessional documents and is a contribution on the subject of the Belhar Confession. The current challenges to the church and theology are discussed. Racism is one issue that poses an increasingly huge challenge to South Africa today. The book demonstrates what needs to be done extra to deal with the scourge of racism that seems to have percolated through virtually all aspects of our existence and particularly the church today in South Africa."e; - Prof. Rothney Tshaka (University of South Africa)

This book includes all papers presented at the colloquium on Church and State on 28 February and 1-2 March 2001. The colloquium, focusing on the legal position of churches, the autonomy of churches in modern societies and recent tendencies in jurisprudence, was organised by the Faculty of Canon Law of the Catholic University Leuven in collaboration with the Faculty of Theology of the University of Stellenbosch. Both the conference and the book have two objectives. The fist is informing about the South African history on Church and State relationships and its current situation under the new Constitution. The second objective is to search for models leading to a new equilibrium between Church and State in South Africa. Models offered by other countries are examined as a point of reference or as a possible source of inspiration. International scholars and academics, church Ministers as well as leading politicians offer their viewpoints and enter into debate with each other.

The topic covered by this book is important (crucially so in post-apartheid South Africa) and the research is meticulous. This has resulted in an impressive collection of material concerning welfare, religion and gender in twenty-first century South Africa, which includes both theoretical reflections and an abundance of empirical data. - Professor Grace Davie (Professor Emerita of Sociology, University of Exeter, UK)

What are the connections between the polity of the church and church unity - or division? Does the polity of churches serve or obstruct the missional nature of the church? These questions were the focus of the Third Conference of the International Protestant Church Polity Study Group (IPCPSG), held in Princeton, New Jersey in April 2016. The authors of the essays in this volume probe these questions from a variety of angles. The conference intended to model close attention to and reflection on the theological import and value of church order and polity. Attendees of the conference came from churches and denominations in the Reformed tradition, gathering from across the United States and around the world. They included scholars of church order and polity, and practitioners with depth of knowledge and experience gained through the exercise of polity in a variety of settings and contexts. Conference papers, discussions, and informal conversations turned from theological reflection to practice and back.

This study presents the religious factor in the development of a separatistic group identity among the forebears of the Afrikaners during the Dutch colonial period of South African history. Dutch Reformed covenant theology and baptism practice rooted in the thousand generation covenant theory helped to shape this self-understanding. It traces the basic developments of covenant theology in the Netherlands during the period and demonstrates how these concepts were conveyed to colonial South Africa. The dominant strain of covenantal thought treated the entire community as redeemed and called to be separate. It was presented through a variety of means through which virtually every colonist was exposed. This study offers a balanced historical approach to the role of theological concepts in the colonial roots of Afrikaner group identity. It answers traditional scholarship in the field which either directly identify the concepts behind the development of apartheid with Calvinist theology or, more recently, deny that the Reformed faith had any role in the development of apartheid ideology until the twentieth century.