The Equality of Believers: Protestant Missionaries and the Racial Politics of South Africa (Reconsiderations in Southern African History) - Hardcover

Elphick, Richard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0813932734 ISBN 13: 9780813932736

Verlag: University of Virginia Press, 2012

Inhaltsangabe

From the beginning of the nineteenth century through to 1960, Protestant missionaries were the most important intermediaries between South Africa’s ruling white minority and its black majority. The Equality of Believers reconfigures the narrative of race in South Africa by exploring the pivotal role played by these missionaries and their teachings in shaping that nation’s history.

The missionaries articulated a universalist and egalitarian ideology derived from New Testament teachings that rebuked the racial hierarchies endemic to South African society. Yet white settlers, the churches closely tied to them, and even many missionaries evaded or subverted these ideas. In the early years of settlement, the white minority justified its supremacy by equating Christianity with white racial identity. Later, they adopted segregated churches for blacks and whites, followed by segregationist laws blocking blacks’ access to prosperity and citizenship—and, eventually, by the ambitious plan of social engineering that was apartheid.

Providing historical context reaching back to 1652, Elphick concentrates on the era of industrialization, segregation, and the beginnings of apartheid in the first half of the twentieth century. The most ambitious work yet from this renowned historian, Elphick’s book reveals the deep religious roots of racial ideas and initiatives that have so profoundly shaped the history of South Africa.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Richard Elphick, Professor of History at Wesleyan University, is coeditor most recently of Christianity in South Africa: A Political, Social, and Cultural History and World History: Ideologies, Structures, and Identities.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: University of Virginia Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2012
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0813932734
• ISBN 13: 9780813932736
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 437
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Mare Nostrum Group B.V.; gpsr@mare-nostrum.co.uk; ; Doelen 72; Breda; 4831 GR; Niederlande