• Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage
• Missionalia: Southern African Journ... close

The Bantu Presbyterian Church of South Africa (BPCSA) was the first autonomous South African church to be established in 1923 as the result of the work of the mission of a Church of European origin (CEO). It had taken one hundred years after the first missionaries of the Glasgow Missionary Society and subsequently the Free Church of Scotland and the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland, which united in 1900 to form the United Free Church of Scotland, had arrived in the Eastern Cape to form an autonomous church. It would continue to pursue its missionary strategy for the next seventy-six years until it united with the Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa in 1999 to form the Uniting Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa. The aim of this article is to explore the extent to which it remained true to the mission of its founders and God’s mission as it became institutionalised. The ecumenical aspect of mission has already been dealt with and will not be considered here. This particular article will concentrate on internal church policies and activities including the role of missionaries, evangelists and church associations, theological education and socio-political issues. This is predominantly an exercise in primary archival research.

Prophetic mission praxis is increasingly becoming difficult in the democratic South Africa. This article unearths and analyses the prophetic role played by faith communities in South Africa during the apartheid regime. It focuses on different approaches adopted by each of the major faith communities in response to apartheid. The author categorises the role of faith communities into three viz; those that supported apartheid, those that rejected it and those that adopted what he refers to as 'quiet diplomacy' with regards to apartheid. Apart from Christian faith communities, the author also analyses the role played by other faith communities such as Islam and African Traditional Religions. Having this in mind, the author looks at the current situation with regards to the prophetic role of faith communities in the democratic South Africa and thereafter proposes a way-forward for a relevant prophetic mission praxis.

The arrival of foreign missionaries played some significant roles in the formation of the Assemblies of God (AOG). The new Pentecostal denomination was originally a church of blacks, though under white control. In 1925, the Americans and Europeans in this church organised themselves as South African District of the Assemblies of God, and AOG in America recognised AOG of South Africa as a separate national church in 1932. This article traces how AOG evolved by entrenching a ‘Group” system significantly divided along racial lines. This status quo has marked AOG as a racially divided church regardless of South African socio-cultural and theo-cultural realities in the changing demographics since 1994. This structure is the polity that reflects South African Apartheid legacy of separate development – the compromise between unity and mission.

This study explores the role of temple symbolism in the mission of the Pauline churches. It is theoretically informed by Beale’s (2004) and most recently Wright’s (2013) claim that Genesis 1:28 and 2 should serve as “the controlling paradigm” for mission. Taking the Garden of Eden as an archetypal temple, a ‘cosmic mount’ that provides a microcosmic portrayal of the cosmos, Beale and Wright don’t discuss important concerns about the ‘cosmic mount’ theory. This study addresses these concerns, providing an alternative interpretation that emphasizes the contextual nature of temple symbolism.

The paper examines the indigeneity and missionality of the Pentecostal churches in South Africa, and how they have indiginised themselves in order to be effectively missional in South Africa. The research methodology and findings lean heavily on personal observation, literature reviews, and informal interactions with those in and outside these churches. The scope broadly surveys the one Pentecostal church (Assemblies of God) and one Charismatic Church (Grace Bible Church). Looking into these two churches’ expansion and growth, research examines their history, missional methodologies, contexts, and culture to assess the extent at which the two churches navigate between missionality and indigenization

There is enough evidence that while listening to the preaching and messages of most Pentecostal preachers or watching them on some free television channels today, the emphasis is on freeing people from the oppression of demons and witchcraft. Many people, the poor included, risk asking for cash loans to use for travelling to meet with the so-called prophets in distant areas. There is an example of those South Africans who died in Nigeria when the double storey building fell upon them. Besides promising them prosperity, these prophets also promise to protect them from those who bewitch them. This kind of message is fast becoming the driving force behind the fast-growing megachurches around Gauteng and in other parts of South Africa. The intention of this article is to check if it can be theologically justifiable to use witchcraft to make people come to church. It will be important to also investigate if this kind of advent brings the intended message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.