Theology in Conflict. Readings in Afrikaner Theology : The Theologies of F.J.M. Potgieter and B.J. Marais

Abstract: This dissertation is a critical study of Afrikaner theology during the apartheid era in South Africa. Focus in this systematic, theological inquiry is on two Dutch Reformed theologians, F. J. M. Potgieter, a Calvin scholar, representing a confessional, neo-Calvinist line of thought and B. J. Marais, a church historian and researcher on the early church, representing an ecumenical line of thought. Both were active in Dutch Reformed academic faculties in the decades after the Second World War.The prevalent apartheid ideology, accepted on theological grounds (Potgieter) and on practical grounds (Marais), is seen as a counterpoint to respective theology.Two kinds of reading have been undertaken, close reading and contrast reading. Close reading has taken into account social as well as interpreted reality. These realities support a reading in an ecclesiological context. So Potgieter is seen to embrace an ecclesiology as life system (inspired by Dutch theologian Abraham Kuyper), while Marais’ ecclesiology could be labelled “ecumenical church”. The second reading, the so-called contrast reading, is accomplished through the employment of (contemporary) fundamentalism and deconstruction. Both theologies are confronted with both phenomena/concepts. The inherent and concealed conflict between the two theologies is laid bare through the critical close reading as well as the contrast reading.