Om oor God te praat: ’n Kritiese oorsig van gesprekke onder Afrikaanssprekende Christene van die gereformeerde tradisie (1998–2003)

Abstract

The book  Die  vreemde God en sy mense (The enigmatic God and his people) — published in 1998 — marks the beginning  of a new debate about God amongst Afrikaans-speaking people of  the reformed  tradition. The fall of the National Party government and the end of the Apartheid policy in 1994 forced  theologians to reflect on the authority of the Bible; the issue of creation, the Big Bang and evolution; the relationship between Christianity and other religions; the historical Jesus research and the possibility of a new reformation. Afrikaans-speaking people suddenly became part of the global village and could not ignore these issues anymore. Four tendencies in the debates are identified: (1) clinging to the credos of the reformed tradition and adhering to the master narrative of Western Christianity; (2) looking at the credos as cultural and time-conditioned ones but trying to integrate the theories of the Big Bang and evolution with the master narrative of Christianity, (3) breaking away from the master narrative of Western  Christianity and creating a new  tradition; (4) abandoning the Christian tradition altogether and exploring another religious tradition, especially Buddhism.