scholarly journals Submitting to the civil authorities today

1985 ◽  
Vol 19 (73) ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Eloff
Keyword(s):  
Southern Africa ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Human Relations ◽  
South Africans ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church

In Southern Africa, as is often the case in the rest of Africa, the relationship between “church and state” is an important one. This is the case not only because of the importance of politics in the lives of (South) Africans, but especially because of the churches’ involve­ ment in human relations and society. It is therefore all the more surprising that such few exegetical studies were done in this field in the past two decades. Some historical (“The Church Struggle” of De Gruchy is a good example) and some ethical studies lightens this somewhat dark picture.

scholarly journals A state church? A consideration of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa in the light of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s ‘Theological position paper on state and church’

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dion Forster
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Position Paper ◽  
African National Congress ◽  
Methodist Church ◽  
Thirtieth Anniversary ◽  
African Context ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church

This article considers whether South Africa’s largest mainline Christian denomination, the Methodist Church of Southern Africa, is in danger of embodying or propagating a contemporary form of ‘state theology’. The notion of state theology in the South African context gained prominence through the publication of the ‘Kairos Document’ (1985) – which celebrated its thirtieth anniversary in 2015. State theology is deemed inappropriate and harmful to the identity and work of both the Christian church and the nation state. This article presents its consideration of whether the Methodist Church of Southern Africa is in danger of propagating ‘state theology’ in dialogue with Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s important document, <i>Theological Position Paper on State and Church</i>. The article offers some insights into the complex relationship between the state and the church in South Africa in the apartheid and democratic eras. It further problematizes the relationship between the Methodist Church of Southern Africa and the governing African National Congress by citing some concerning examples of complicit behaviour from recent history. The MCSA’s polity and doctrine on church and state relationships are also considered before some critique and warning is offered in the light of Bonhoeffer’s <i>Theological Position Paper on State and Church</i>.

Sacred Sounds, Secular Spaces

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Walker
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Reception Studies ◽  
Liturgical Music ◽  
International Exhibitions ◽  
Republican Government ◽  
Epistemological Position ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Opera Houses ◽  
The Church

This book is the first comprehensive study that reevaluates music’s role in the relationship between the French state and the Catholic Church at the end of the nineteenth century. As the divide between Church and State widened on the political stage, more and more composers began writing religious—even liturgical—music for performance in decidedly secular venues, including popular cabaret theaters, prestigious opera houses, and international exhibitions: a trend that coincided with Pope Leo XIII’s Ralliement politics that encouraged conservative Catholics to “rally” with the Republican government. But the idea of a musical Ralliement has largely gone unquestioned by historians and musicologists alike who have long accepted a somewhat simplistic epistemological position that emphasizes a sharp division between the Church and the “secular” Republic during this period. Drawing on extensive archival research, critical reception studies, and musical analysis, this book reveals how composers and critics from often opposing ideological factions undermined the secular/sacred binary. From the opera house and niche puppet theaters to Parisian parish churches and Montmartre’s famed cabarets, composers and critics from opposing ideological factions used music in their effort to craft a brand of Frenchness that was built on the dual foundations of secular Republicanism and the heritage of the French Catholic Church.

scholarly journals Kerk en burgerlike owerheid: Die Nederlandse geloofsbelydenis en drie kerkordes

2021 ◽  
Vol 77 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Piet J. Strauss
Keyword(s):  
Church And State ◽  
Church History ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Dynamic Relationship ◽  
Ten Commandments ◽  
Church Life ◽  
Reformed Churches ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church

Church and state authorithy: The Confessio Belgica and three church orders. In reformed churches the Bible is regarded as the norm of the norms. The confessions of faith of these churches are the second norm and subjected to the Bible. The church order is less powerful than the Bible and the confessions but of a higher status than the normal decisions of church assemblies. Therefore, the influence of the Belgic Confession on three church orders is an important issue in these churches.The author recommends four principles to understand the relation between the church and the state authority in article 36 of the Belgic Confession: both should honour God in their activities; both are guided by the Ten Commandments; both have their own internal law to fulfil the purpose as an institution; and both should respect and co-operate with one another. Although they are not in agreement on every aspect, these principles give the guidance to understand the main issue in all four documents which are investigated. The theme of this article is of a theological and church historical nature and a contribution on a well-discussed topic in reformed churches.Contribution: It should be important for the reformed churches in the Dutch tradition that a dynamic relationship exists between their confessions of faith and their church orders. While the Bible is the first and most important norm for church life, the confessions are the second most important. Church history shows that the relationship between the church and state is of utmost importance for the church, the quality of the confessions and the order of the church.

The view from the devil’s mountain: Clarendon, Cressy and Hobbes, and the past, present and future of the Church of England

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Seaward
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Thomas Hobbes ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Conventional View ◽  
State Relations ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church

The lives, and political thought, of Edward Hyde, earl of Clarendon, and Thomas Hobbes, were closely interwoven. In many ways opposed, their views on the relationship between Church and State have often been seen as less far apart, with Clarendon sharing Hobbes’s Erastianism and concerns about clerical assertiveness in the 1660s. But Clarendon’s writings on Church-State relations during the 1670s provide little evidence of concern about clerical involvement in politics, and demonstrate his vigorous adherence to a fairly conventional view among early seventeenth-century churchmen about the proper boundaries to royal interference in the Church; his worries about attempts to push further the implications of the royal supremacy in ecclesiastical affairs are evident in his writings against Hobbes, as are his even greater anxieties, exacerbated by the conversion of his daughter, the Duchess of York, about the dangers of Roman Catholic encroachment.

scholarly journals Rethinking the message of the church in the 21st century: An amalgamation between science and religion

2019 ◽  
Vol 75 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dirk G. Van der Merwe
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Science And Religion ◽  
Western World ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The World ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church ◽  
Theological Training

Throughout its history, Christianity has stood in a dichotomous relation to the various philosophical movements or eras (pre-modernism, modernism, postmodernism and post-postmodernism) that took on different faces throughout history. In each period, it was the sciences that influenced, to a great extent, the interpretation and understanding of the Bible. Christianity, however, was not immune to influences, specifically those of the Western world. This essay reflects briefly on this dichotomy and the influence of Bultmann’s demythologising of the kerygma during the 20th century. Also, the remythologising (Vanhoozer) of the church’s message as proposed for the 21st century no more satisfies the critical Christian thinkers. The relationship between science and religion is revisited, albeit from a different perspective as established over the past two decades as to how the sciences have been pointed out more and more to complement theology. This article endeavours to evoke the church to consider the fundamental contributions of the sciences and how it is going to incorporate the sciences into its theological training and message to the world.

scholarly journals Tradisionele geloof

1995 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
W. A. Dreyer ◽  
F. E. Mjwabe
Keyword(s):  
Oral Tradition ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Traditional Beliefs ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Traditional Belief ◽  
Black South Africans ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Source Of Information ◽  
The Church

Traditional belief Traditional belief is still very strong among black South Africans. Many Christians not only believe in Christ, but also in the spirits of the fore-fathers. The question arises as to how the  relationship between traditional belief and christian faith must be seen. It also poses problems to the church in South Africa, which is mainly orientated to the theology of Western Europe. Proclaiming the gospel in a traditional situation will only be effective if traditional beliefs are taken into consideration. This article uses oral tradition as a source of information.

Further observations on the relationship and distribution of Schistosoma margrebowiei and S. leiperi in central southern Africa

1977 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 327-336 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. J. Pitchford ◽  
B. Wolstenholme
Keyword(s):  
Southern Africa ◽  
National Park ◽  
Endemic Area ◽  
Skin Tests ◽  
African Buffalo ◽  
Papio Ursinus ◽  
The Past ◽  
Surrounding Areas ◽  
The Relationship

ABSTRACTA further survey in East Caprivi, Chobe National Park, Okavango swamps and Kavango was undertaken in June 1976. No evidence of lechwe schistosomes was found in droppings of African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) nor baboons (Papio ursinus) living in lechwe habitats. It was thought that they were not capable of spreading or maintaining these parasites outside the confines of the known distribution of Kobus sp. The role of goats was equivocal but probably they too are poor hosts.Kavango, an endemic area of S. haematobium and S. mansoni, was thought to be free of all animal schistosomes, thus confirming the hypotheses that (1) cattle and goats are poor hosts of the lechwe schistosomes and (2)S. mattheei was blocked from entering the territory by the presence of lechwe schistosomes in the surrounding areas. Evidence of schistosomes was not found in cattle and goats at Maun for the same reasons. The prevalence of S. mansoni at Maun has increased alarmingly over the past 20 years with a simultaneous disappearance of lechwe from the area. S. margrebowiei and S. leiperi eggs were found in lechwe and tsessebe droppings some 80 km north of Maun.A high proportion of children with negative excreta from “non-endemic” areas in East Caprivi had positive CFT and/or skin tests, suggestive of exposure to lechwe schistosomes resulting in a possible immunity to S. mansoni and S. haematobium.

The Anabaptists and the Civil Authorities of Strasbourg, 1525–1555

1955 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Kreider
Keyword(s):  
Church And State ◽  
The State ◽  
16Th Century ◽  
Western Civilization ◽  
Religious Dissent ◽  
The World ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church

Since the dawn of the Christian era the relationship between church and state has been one of the pivotal issues of western civilization. Men have offered a variety of answers to this problem. The much- persecuted Anabaptists of the 16th century presented one set of answers, radical for their age, which called for a decisive separation of the church from the state and complete freedom for the church to pursue its vocation in the world. The Anabaptists were a distressing annoyance to the civil authorities. This movement posed for the 16th century the acute problem: how should religious dissent be handled?

‘Up Above the River Jordan’: Hymns and Historical Consciousness in the Cherubim and Seraphim Churches of Nigeria

2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vicki L. Brennan
Keyword(s):  
Spiritual Healing ◽  
Historical Consciousness ◽  
Church Members ◽  
Musical Practice ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
Worship Practices ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church

Bringing together historical and ethnographic materials, this article analyses how members of the Cherubim and Seraphim churches of Nigeria engage with and remember the history of the church through singing hymns, which thus serves as a mode of historical consciousness. In their performance of hymns church members articulate a conception of the relationship between musical practice and spiritual healing in Cherubim and Seraphim worship that draws on a particular conception of the past in order to legitimate certain worship practices. In doing so church members are able to attract God's power and to localise it in a particular space. Because of this hymns continue to be an important spiritual healing practice for church members.

William Warburton and the Alliance of Church and State

1992 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 271-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Church Of England ◽  
Church And State ◽  
House Of Commons ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church

In January 1736 an anonymous pamphlet appeared under the title,The Alliance between Church and State, or the Necessity of an Established Religion, and a Test Law demonstrated. Its author was William Warburton, a well-to-do but still comparatively obscure country clergyman. Although this was only his second publication in the field of divinity, he was already revealing the taste for controversy which was to characterise his literary career. TheAllianceappeared at the height of the campaign by the Protestant dissenters to repeal the Test Act of 1673, and only weeks before the defeat, on 12 March 1736, of a motion for its repeal in the House of Commons. Clearly intending his work as a contribution to this debate Warburton was concerned less with giving an account of the relationship between Church and State than with providing a coherent and forceful justification both of the establishment of the Church of England and of the defence of that establishment by the Test Act. In the preface he claimed to treat the subject ‘abstractedly’.

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