Text in Afrikaans / Hierdie studie kom voort uit die groeiende behoefte onder Christene in Suid-Afrika om die evangelie aan Moslems te kommunikeer. Die vertrekpunt van die studie is in 'n charismaties-evangeliese teologie, 'n tradisie wat tot op hede nog nie ernstige teologiese aandag aan getuienis teenoor Moslems gegee het nie. Dit gee 'n oorsig oor die herkoms van Suid-Afrikaanse Moslems en konsentreer dan op die uitdaging wat aan Christene gestel word deur die aktiwiteite van Mnr. Ahmed Deedat en die Islamic Propagation Centre International (IPCI). Die ontstaan van die IPCI en die inhoud van hulle openbare debatte en publikasies word eerstens ontleed. Daarna word die programme van drie Christengroepe, wat pertinent op die aktiwiteite van die IPCI reageer, beskryf en geevalueer. In 'n slothoofstuk word riglyne neergele vir 'n alternatiewe benadering teenoor Moslems wat klem le op die plaaslike gemeente en op vriendskapevangelisasie / This study emerges from a growing desire of Christians in South Africa to communicate the gospel to Muslims. The starting point of the study is in a charismaticevangelical theology, a tradition which has not yet given serious theological attention to Christian witness to Muslims. It gives a survey of the origin of South African Muslims and then concentrates on the challenge presented to Christians by the activities of Mr. Ahmed Deedat and the Islamic Propagation Centre International (IPCI). First of all the development of the IPCI and the content of its public debates and publications are analysed. Then the programmes of three Christian groups that have have reacted pertinently to the IPCI are described and evaluated. In a closing chapter some guidelines are given for an alternative approach to Muslims which emphasises the local congregation and f~iendship evangelism / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M. Th. (Sendingwetenskap)

Thesis (D. Th.)--University of South Africa, 2002.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2004. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In this thesis the focus is on the history of the Kareeberg Bastaards who lived in the Kareeberg region at the time of the establishment of the Amandelboom mission station by the Rhenish Mission Society in 1845. Marginalised by their more powerful white neigbours, the Kareeberg Bastaards existed as semi-independent nomadic pastoralists in the Kareeberg mountains on the northern borders of the Cape Colony. The objective of the Rhenish Mission Society in extending their missionary activities to the Kareeberg region was to first convert the Kareeberg Bastaards and later the Schietfontein Xhosa into settled Christian communities. What was first viewed as a simple missionary endeavour by the Rhenish Mission Society unexpectedly developed into a serious problem for the Society. Due to several factors the initial objectives ofthe Rhenish Mission Society for these people were never fully realized. The most obvious reason for the initial problems experienced by the misssionaries was their strong Eurocentric ideas - something which characterized virtually all foreign missionaries to South Africa during the 19th century. This aspect which complicated matters at Amandel boom from the outset, is thoroughly examined in this thesis. It is argued that the main reason for the failure of the Rhenish Mission at Amandelboom can primarily be found in its world view. In this regard particular attention is paid to the regional factors operating in Germany which impacted upon the origin and development of the Rhenish Mission Sociey. The influence of these factors on the development of the Rhenish Mission Society could possibly explain why the Amandelboom missionaries were so out of touch with the realities of the Kareeberg area and its peoples. The impact of these factors on the Bastaard community specifically and the Amandelboom mission in general, is thoroughly investigated. Another aspect of the missionary's involvement at the Amandelboom mission which can be attributed to the specific characteristics of the Rhenish Mission Society itself, was that the society confined itself almost exclusively to the spiritual needs of the Bastaard people. In general the emphasis on spirituality to the exclusion of everything else in the training programme of the Rhenish Mission Society resulted in somewhat naive missionaries who, when in the field, found themselves out of their depth in the special circumstances that prevailed in the societies they tried to minister. In particular the position of the Bastaards in the broader sphere ofthe Cape colonial politics and their socio-economic position in that society, were crucial aspects of the Kareeberg Bastaard community which the missionaries either ignored, or failed to grasp. In contrast to the London Mission Society and its workers who often fought on behalf of their congregations for their rights and liberties, the Amandelboom missionaries assumed that the worldly condition of their congregants had to be accepted as the will of God. According to the strong Pietistic principles of the Rhenish Mission Society they held the view that true Christians should refrain from indulging in undesirable political activity. However, the complicated history of the Kareeberg Bastaards prior to the arrival of the missionaries and several external factors which applied to this community, resulted in an intricate and uncertain relationship between the Bastaards and the rest of the people of the Cape Colony. The threat which resulted from this to the existence of the Bastaards as a group required a more drastic approach from the missionaries than that which they were trained for, or prepared to perform. The missionaries were consequently ill-prepared for their task in the Kareeberge. Against this background, coupled to the fact that the Bastaards were isolated in an ecologically marginal farming area, the associated land questions and threats of displacement of the community made for insurmountable problems at the Amandelboom mission. These socio-political questions were more complicated than anything that could be handled by means of instructions from Germany. The change in farming practices in the districts adjacent to Amandelboom from meat to wool production, the impact thereof on the acquisition of land and how land reforms in these districts eventually impacted upon the Amandelboom Bastaard communities, form an integral part of this thesis. Against this background an attempt is made to put the Kareeberg mission and the involvement of the Rhenish Mission Society at Amandelboom, in its proper historical perspective. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In hierdie proefskrif word die fokus geplaas op die Kareebergbasters as 'n uitgeworpe splintergroep van die blanke samelewing aan die Kaapkolonie se noordgrens. Teen 1845, met die vestiging van die Rynse sendingstasie by Amandelboom, het die Kareebergbasters nog 'n semionafhanklike nomadiese bestaan in die Kareeberge gevoer. Die doelstelling van die Rynse Sendinggenootskap met die uitbreiding van hulle sendinginisiatiewe na die Kareebergstreek, was om hierdie verdronge groep, en later ook die Schietfontein-Xhosa, in gevestigde, Christelike gemeenskappe te verander. Wat aanvanklik as 'n maklike sendingveld gesien is, het egter spoedig na die vestiging van die eerste sendelinge op Amandelboom, onverwags in 'n ernstige probleem vir die genootskap ontaard. Weens talle faktore het die aanvanklike doelstellings van die Rynse Sendinggenootskap vir die Kareebergbasters nooit werklik gerealiseer nie. Die mees voor-die-hand-liggende rede vir die aanvanklike probleme waarmee die sendelinge te kampe gehad het, was die sterk Eurosentriese idees van die sendelinge wat so 'n algemene kenmerk was van feitlik alle buitelandse sendinginisiatiewe in Suid-Afrika gedurende die 19de eeu. Hierdie aspek wat vanuit die staanspoor sake op Amandelboom ernstig bemoeilik het, word in hierdie proefskrif diepliggend ondersoek. Daar word aangevoer dat die rede waarom die Amandelboomsending misluk het in die eerste plek teruggevoer kan word tot die wêreld-en lewensbeskouing van die Rynse Sendinggenootskap self. In hierdie verband word indringend gekyk na die impak van streeksfaktore in Duitsland op die ontstaan en ontwikkeling van die Rynse Sendinggenootskap as moontlike verklaring waarom die ter plaatse sendelinge op Amandelboom dikwels so uit voeling was met die realiteite van die Kareebergstreek en sy inwoners. Die impak hiervan op die Bastergemeenskap, asook die implikasies daarvan vir die Kareebergsending in sy geheel, word indringend ondersoek. Nog 'n aspek van die Kareebergsending wat tot die aard van die Rynse Sendinggenootskap self teruggevoer kan word, was dat die sendelinge hulle taak in die Kareeberge bloot tot die geestelike bearbeiding van die Basters beperk het. In die algemeen het die ietwat "wêreldvreemde" Rynse Sendinggenootskap en hulle sendelinge in die sendingveld weinig begrip vir die besondere sosioekonomiese en veral politieke posisie van die Bastergemeenskap in die breë Kaapse samelewing getoon. In teenstelling met die Londense Sendinggenootskap wat dikwels as kampvegters vir die regte van hulle volgelinge opgetree het, het die Rynse Sendinggenootskap in hierdie stadium nog uitsluitlik op die geestelike welstand van hulle volgelinge gefokus. Buite hierdie breë raamwerk is in die algemeen streng afsydig gestaan teenoor elke ander aspek van die gemeenskappe waaronder hulle gewerk het. Die aardse lotgevalle van hulle volgelinge was Godgegewe en moes so aanvaar word. Volgens die streng Piëtistiese interpretasie van die Rynse Sendinggenootskap moes die opregte Christen hom weerhou van ongewenste politieke bemoeienis. Die ambivalente posisie van die Basters in die koloniale gemeenskap; hulle lang, ingewikkelde voorgeskiedenis en komplekse verweefdheid met talle eksterne faktore, het egter 'n meer drastiese benadering geverg as waarvoor die Rynse sendelinge opgelei was, ofwaarop hulle ten opsigte van die Kareebergbasters voorbereid was. Teen hierdie agtergrond was die verdringingsprobleem van die Kareebergbasters as 'n vasgekeerde gemeenskap in 'n ekologiese randgebied en die gepaardgaande grondkwessies op Amandelboom, meer ingewikkeld as wat die sendelinge en veral die voorskriftelike direksie van die genootskap in Duitsland ooit besef het. Die oorskakeling van vleis- na wolproduksie in die aanliggende blanke distrikte, die impak daarvan op toegang tot grond en hoe grondhervormings in hierdie distrikte uitgekring het na die onafhanklike Bastergemeenskap buite die grense van die kolonie, vorm 'n geïntegreerde deel van die proefskrif. Teen hierdie agtergrond word gepoog om die Kareebergsending en die Rynse betrokkenheid by die Bastergemeenskap op Amandelboom, in sy besondere historiese perspektief te plaas.

The Cape of Good Hope was discovered by Ba.rtholomew Diaz, a Portuguese navigator, in 1487, but it did not occur to any European nation to make a settlement there until one hundred and sixty.years after that date. On the 6th April, 1652, Jan van Riebeeck founded the earliest settlement at the foot of Tab1e Mountain. Holland was at that time at the height of her political and commercial prosperity. The Dutch East India Company, founded in 1602, had acquired a practica~ monopoly of the sea-borne traffic with India and the East, and it was in order to provide a port of call for the outgoing and returning vessels of this Company that a tawnship was established and a castle built at the Cape of Good Hope in 1666, under the nsme and title of "the frontier fortress of India".

No description available.

This dissertation takes up the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AMEC) schism in 1946 in Namibia from the Rhenish Mission Society RMS), due to a protest against the inhumane treatment that the Nama leaders were forced to accept from the German missionaries belonging to the Rhenish Mission Society. The agitation movement of 1946 organized a church separated from the RMS which was started in response to the Africans' need for opportunities for self-expression, fuller involvement in the Church of God, and in society as a whole. It was the answer to a cry for social recognition as human beings, and the means through which a group of people started on a programme which gave them a growing sense of dignity and self respect. The underlying and longer term problems of this first schism in Namibia come out above all in the correspondence between the missionary Christiaan Spellmeyer and Petrus Jod, Markus Witbooi and Zacheus Thomas. These documents shed some light on the policy and attitude of the RMS in Namibia and in Gibeon in particular, mainly during the 1930's and early 1940's. This thesis records the significant role played by the Nama leaders to voice their grievances against the RMS. The involvement of the RMS missionaries in colonial politics has contributed to the subjugation of the black people. By concentrating their efforts on pioneering incentives in education, social care and ordination, the Nama leaders made an outstanding contribution to the establishment of AMEC in Namibia, the church which responds closely to the needs of the Nama people. This study should be of interest to those who are doing research on the history of Christian missions in Southern Africa, and in particular in Namibia. It is hoped that the findings of this study will bring a local perspective on the activities of the AMEC in Namibia, as up to the present, much available information has been written by German missionaries. A complete history of the indigenous clergy in Namibia, is unwritten. Much that would be most interesting and valuable went to the grave with those who had no possible means of transmitting it except by the uncertain and unreliable method of tradition. What made Zacheus Thomas, Markus Witbooi and Petrus Jod different from the Rhenish Mission Society's staff was the fact that they were from the IKhobesin clan, who understand and respect the culture of the Nama people. They could see and appreciate the structures of the Nama society and planned a development project from the African perspective. The researcher presents this work as a tribute to these pioneering Nama leaders whose lives and relationships are a true reflection of their Christian faith. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Durban-Westville, 2003.

No abstract available. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1971.

July 1997 marks the 110th anniversary of the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church's existence in South Africa. During this time the denomination has augmented both organizationally and numerically. Notwithstanding the expansion in these dimensions though, a thorough perusal of the denomination's history and present modus-operandi makes it clear that all is not as it should be within the denomination. In an attempt to discover the fundamental causes for the malaise that exists within the denomination, chapter one begins by succinctly tracing the growth of apocalyptic and millennial thinking. Beginning from the Maccabean era it reveals not only the numerous transformations that took place in millennial discernment throughout the subsequent centuries, but also demonstrates how these oscillations prepared the "soil" which allowed the emergence of the Millerite Movement - the immediate forerunners of the SDA church. Chapter two unveils the emergent movement in America initially opposed to to the formation of any formal organizations and hesitant to commission any missionaries to foreign lands. This period was destined however to also be an era of maturation. In the wake of the doctrinal consolidation that eventually took place, came not only an evolvement of missionary consciousness but also the successful development of a unique tri-lateral missiological approach that the denomination would employ' with great success on the world's mission fields.In July 1887 the first SDA missionaries stepped onto South African shores. Chapter three reveals this emergent church greatly stirred by the organizational, institutional and missiological developments experienced by the church in America, looking set to rapidly emulate both the missionary paradigm and numerous accomplishments of its mother church. Chapter four discloses however, how this once dynamic, intrepid, missionary-minded church very quickly became bogged down in a quagmire of difficulties. Many of these occurrences and other serious issues that followed in the ensuing years of the twentieth century were indisputably detrimental to the church, seriously affecting both its missionary expansion and its development in this country. As the denomination in South Africa stands on the brink of the twenty first century there is no question, that unless some drastic measures are taken, that it could very soon find itself under the sword of Damocles. This impending crisis is augmented not only by its almost total lack of involvement in crucial social issues, conspicuous inconsistencies present in its organizational structure, and its manoeuvre from a once dynamic evangelistically orientated movement to an institutionalized organization, but also by the fact that indispensable facets of its missionary strategy are at the present moment no longer in evidence in its continued operations. There is no question that the denomination is faced not only with a missiological identity crisis but also with the very sobering question whether it is indeed fulfilling the missionary mandate it ironically still preaches and still so strongly believes in. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1996.

This thesis proposes that Christian mission in South Africa should be understood in terms of liberation. To achieve this aim, the author listens attentively to Black Theology, and then responds from a position of solidarity to the double challenge which it poses: a negation of traditional mission and an affirmation of liberating mission. Since black theologians grapple with the concrete implications of their blackness, a white theologian needs to make a consciously white =esponse in order to do justice to it. Since Black Theology emerged out of the Black Consciousness movement and developed in dialogue with it, the study begins with an examination of the theory and praxis of the Black Consciousness movement. Then follows an overview of the two phases of Black Theology in South Africa, in which the emphasis is placed on the organisations and events which embodied this approach, rather than on individual theologians. In the systematic analysis of Black Theology, attention is first given to the element of negation. In this section the five inte=related dimensions of South African Christianity which cause black suffering are examined. Then an analysis is made of the element of affirmation: the liberating action proposed by black theologians for the eradication of suffering and the attainment of new human beings in a new South Africa. Since Black Theology has an holistic understanding of mission, attention is given to personal, ecclesial and societal dimensions. The final section is a white response to this double challenge. First, it develops the notion of liberating mission and conversian in the white community. Secondly it establishes a number of fundamental criteria for liberating mission. This final part draws conclusions from the analysis done in the earlier parts, and asks critical questions about some aspects of Black Theology. In this way the basis is laid for white involvement in liberating mission and for ongoing interaction with Black Theology. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D. Th. (Missiology)

This study presents the moratorium debate as a phenomenon of its own time. The challenges the moratorium debate poses to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Southern African/Central Diocese come under the spotlight. The AICs have taken the lead in attempting to live up to the “four selves” principle, that is, self-governing, self-supporting, self-propagating and self-theologizing, and areas which ELCSA/CD can learn from the AICs are highlighted. Finally the study explores issues of mutuality and interdependence, and few guidelines are proposed for ELCSA/CD. / Christian Spirituality / M. Th. (Missiology)