Graham Duncan

• Doctor of Philosophy
• University of Pretoria

A perduring theological and practical problem of the universal church relates to the doctrine of baptism. This article investigates hermeneutical and historical issues in relation to what it means to be a member of Christ’s church and the implications thereof in the specific context of the Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa (PCSA). The debate h...

The issue of human sexuality has many negative implications in African society. These arose in a number of contexts – legal, religious, cultural and societal – and were significantly divisive. This article examines these responses in terms of critical solidarity, critical engagement and critical distance, and attempts to find a way of considering t...

Worship as the work of the people of God does not arise in a vacuum. It is contextual and cultural. In the areas of the world, long designated as the mission field, many developments were transported to countries in the global south and imposed on local peoples. This was true of the arrival of Presbyterians who came to settle in southern Africa. Pr...

The issue of human sexuality has many negative implications in African society. These arose in a number of contexts – legal, religious, cultural and societal – and were significantly divisive. This article examines these responses in terms of critical solidarity, critical engagement and critical distance, and attempts to find a way of considering t...

The purpose of this article is to examine the process by which the Presbyterian Church of South(ern) Africa (PCSA), conceived of, developed and promoted its programme of theological education, during the twentieth century. This occurred after its yet to be united struggle as a collection of independent congregations and presbyteries in the nineteen...

This article investigated the paradox between church response to apartheid and resulting action at the local level in the South African churches of European origin from the perspective of the Presbyterian Church of South(ern) Africa (PCSA). It indicated that this discrepancy arose between the reflections (cerebral faith) at the highest levels of ch...

This book gives an account of the Free Church of Scotland mission to South Africa from its beginning in 1824. It explains the progress of mission up to the formation of the Bantu Presbyterian Church of South Africa (BPCSA) in 1923 and its subsequent history, through its name change to the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa in 1979, unt...

Century City, SA: Penguin Random House. 2021. xviii + pp. 614, price: R320.00 ISBN 978-1-177609-596-4

Stellenbosch: SUNPRess, 2021. xiv + pp.180 ISBN 978-1-991201-46-1

Bellingham WA: Lexham Press. 2021. xix + pp. 370 ISBN 978-168-35946-6

The year 2022 marks a century since the death of Reverend John Knox Bokwe, a minister of the United Free Church of Scotland Mission in South Africa. Although little known, Bokwe was an important member of the emerging African intellectual elite towards the end of the 19th century. He demonstrated the creative tension that arises when two cultures e...

The formation of the Presbyterian Church of South Africa (PCSA) in 1897 was an acknowledgement of the principle of not doing separately what can be done together. The implementation of this principle was essential to the continued existence of Presbyterianism as opposed to the prevalent independency and the development of a specific brand of South...

This review article enters into discussion with Peter Kallaway, in his work, The Changing Face of Colonial Education in Africa: Education, Science and Development, who raises serious issues related to the historical development of South Africa’s education during the first half of the 19th century and its current situation and future prospects in th...

Early in the life of settler/colonial Presbyterianism in South Africa (PCSA), congregations embarked on missions to indigenous local peoples. This was done under the supervision of White sponsoring congregations. A considerable period elapsed before any thought was given to the autonomy of these missions, and even longer before autonomy was granted...

Cascade. 2021. Eugene, Or: viii + pp. 137.ISBN 978-1-7252-5731-3

This article analyses the conflict which arose as a result of the attempt to amalgamate the church associations in the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa (UPCSA) between 1999 and 2015, following the union of the black Reformed Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa (RPCSA) and white dominated Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa (PCSA...

The mainline churches in South Africa are in turmoil internally as a result of divisions arising out of issues related to human sexuality. These issues have serious implications for these churches, church families within them, and the relationship of these churches with one another and with the state. There is little open space for debate as discus...

This is the second part of an investigation of the subject of injustice relating to the issue of human sexuality in a mainstream South African Christian denomination. The first paper, entitled ‘Hated without a reason I – Contending with issues of human sexuality in a South African ecclesial context: A case study of the Uniting Presbyterian Church i...

This article explores an emerging ecumenical church polity in Zambia from a church historical perspective. While church polity and church unity literature has acknowledged the role of church polity and church unity in Zambia, and its use for ecclesiological purposes, the growing use of church polity and the efforts at church unity in the period 196...

Vuyani Vellem was an outstanding Black Theologian of Liberation (BTL), who was approaching the zenith of his career when he died at the age of 50 years in 2019. This paper begins with a personal memoir to Prof. Vellem and a recognition that there is a lacuna in BTL relative to human sexuality issues. The contemporary global context of the human sex...

The formation of the Bantu Presbyterian Church of South Africa in 1923 was much criticised for being the result of a racist policy; yet, had racism not been prevalent in South Africa at the time, its formation might have been unnecessary as part of the missionary outreach of the United Free Church of Scotland. For better or worse it was established...

The semper reformanda [always reforming] principle has been fundamentally ignored by the Reforming tradition since it was conceptualised. The growing cadre of those who support a fundamentalist disposition believes in the durability (perdurance) of the tradition in the form in which they promote it, although little of this is traceable to the Refor...

From 1940, ecumenical developments in the Presbyterian/Congregational corpus in Southern Africa became more tortuous and complex, with an expansion of the number of denominations involved in union negotiations to include the Bantu Presbyterian Church of South Africa (BPCSA, from 1979 the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa, RPCSA), the...

The formation of the autonomous Bantu Presbyterian Church of South Africa (BPCSA) in 1923, as the culmination of the Scottish Presbyterian missionary enterprise, provided a unifying centre for the formation of other black denominations in South Africa by being the first of its kind. Other European sourced churches dealt with integration differently...

In contemporary South Africa, it would be true to say that there is no longer any urgency with regard to organic union as an aim of ecumenism. This marks a significant reversal of the pre-1994 situation where political and other motives stimulated the impulse. This is not only a local situation, for ecumenism has taken on a different character glob...

The issue of women in the ministry has been a vexed one historically. In many denominations, the ordination of women has been represented by some form of struggle, which culminated in the first ordinations of women during the second half of the 20th century. This article investigates the process towards the ordination of women in two Southern Afric...

This article explores the long history of both industrial and theological education and ministerial formation that since the 1850s has included, inter alia: Healdtown and Lesseyton; Kamastone; D’urban (Peddie); Bollihope; Fort Hare and Rhodes Universities; the Federal Theological Seminary and John Wesley College; and Kilnerton, Pretoria. Taken toge...

The semper reformanda [always reforming] principle has been poorly promoted by all traditions since it was conceptualised following the 16th-century Reformation. A significant problem caused by the missionary movement was the imposition of a Western-style approach to theology, liturgy and polity with little regard for the cultures that were being i...

This article analyses the impact of the Church of Scotland (CoS) magazine Life and Work on the Dutch Reformed Church and other individuals and bodies during the period 1975–1985. It does this through investigating the editor’s approach to South African affairs and the nature of contributions that he published. Significantly different views were exp...

The use of credentials in an ecclesiastical context is a means of assuring that a minister is who he or she claims to be and is therefore trained and qualified to exercise ministry within a particular church tradition as determined by individual denominations. The concept and use of credentials has developed over time. Using primary sources in the...

Since 1994 and the coming of democracy to South Africa there has been a concerted attempt to develop a coherent, unified educational system that will redress the inequities of the apartheid systems. Significant to this ongoing process is the field of higher education, where relevant legislation has been enacted in order to bring coherence and consi...

As from 1891, attempts to bring all Presbyterians of Scottish and Scottish mission descent in South Africa together into one church faced insuperable barriers. Their histories and traditions, as well as their demographic and ethnic composition were all issues, despite their similarities. The Presbyterian Church of South Africa was formed in 1897, a...

The continued appointments of white expatriate priests as rectors of Zimbabwean parishes constituted a challenge to the Quest for Belonging in the post-independence period in Zimbabwe. A substantial challenge to the status quo came from Bishop Nolbert Kunonga with the formation of the Anglican Province of Zimbabwe in his apparent attempt at "belong...

The conferment of martyrdom is a thorn in the flesh in the Anglican Church today. Bernard Mzeki has been commemorated annually since the late 1930s as a martyr in the Anglican Church of Zimbabwe. This is because Mzeki died a mysterious death on 18 June 1896 during the period of the first War of Liberation (Chimurenga) in Zimbabwe. Although there ar...

Tiyo Soga, the first black minister ordained in Scotland by the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland in 1856, was, by any standards, a conflicted character. He stood both in and between two worlds and suffered from the vulnerability that emerged from his dual allegiances. Yet he made a significant contribution to the mission history of South Afri...

This article explores the long history of both industrial and theological education and ministerial formation that since the 1850s has included, inter alia: Healdtown and Lesseyton; Kamastone; D'urban (Peddie); Bollihope; Fort Hare and Rhodes Universities; the Federal Theological Seminary and John Wesley College; and Kilnerton, Pretoria. Taken toge...

The Bantu Presbyterian Church of South Africa (BPCSA) was birthed out of a quest for union amongst Presbyterians, which began in the 1890s more than 30 years before it was actually established as the fruit of the mission of the United Free Church of Scotland in 1923. From that date onwards church union hardly ever disappeared from the agenda of the...

The art of deconstruction is a process that aims to lead to the truth; the truth regarding apartheid in South Africa is contested. Presbyterian historiography regarding apartheid has lacked clarity because of a lack of reliable sources. This article seeks to elucidate greater clarity by interrogating one source written from within the Presbyterian...

John Knox the 16th century Scottish reformer made a lasting impact on the Scottish nation in the fields of society, politics, church and education. He is remembered mainly for his reform of the church but he also made a significant contribution to the reform of education, which has lasted until the present day and has impacted on other contexts. Al...

This article will investigate why Mission Councils continued to exist for so long after the so-called autonomous churches were established in South Africa following the upsurge ofEthiopian and other types of African initiated churches at the close of the 19th century inopposition to the European sending churches. It will also examine how the emergi...

The Bantu Presbyterian Church of South Africa (BPCSA) was birthed out of a quest for union amongst Presbyterians, which began in the 1890s more than 30 years before it was actually established as the fruit of the mission of the United Free Church of Scotland in 1923. From that date onwards church union hardly ever disappeared from the agenda of the...

The only constant in theological education is change, despite brave attempts to hold the tide back in some quarters. Yet, Western-based theological education remains the norm globally. The Faculty of Theology at the University of Pretoria exemplifies this norm despite its commitment to Africanisation. This article will consider transformation throu...

This article focuses on spirituality as the basis of life at the Federal Theological Seminary of Southern Africa (Fedsem) (1963-1993) during the apartheid years, when Fedsem, groups and individuals within it were subjected to regular surveillance and scrutiny. The spiritual life of the seminary, manifested most clearly in its worship life, became i...

Jean- François Bill was a significant church leader of the second half of the twentieth century. He was born, raised and educated in South Africa, and he lived, worked and died in South Africa. He possessed a multi-cultural identity. He had a rare academic ability but was no academic recluse. His varied and intensive ministry was marked by committe...

The traditional institution of the family within Roman Catholic Christianity and Christianity in general is in an invidious position in contemporary society, partly because it lacks an agreed definition in a fluid global context. The church is an institution in which families subsist and which both needs and bolsters the family unit for its own exi...

Jean- Francois Bill was a significant church leader of the second half of the twentieth century. He was born, raised and educated in South Africa, and he lived, worked and died in South Africa. He possessed a multi-cultural identity. He had a rare academic ability but was no academic recluse. His varied and intensive ministry was marked by committe...

If ever mission councils in South Africa had a purpose, they had outlived it by the time of the formation of the Bantu Presbyterian Church of South Africa (BPCSA) in 1923. However, autonomy in this case was relative and the South African Mission Council endured until 1981. It was an anachronism which served little purpose other than the care of mis...

This article surveys the origins, development and extent of Ethiopianism (part of the African Initiated Church Movement [AIC]) in Africa which was widespread throughout Africa during the ‘high’ imperial and missionary era (1880-1920) which is the main focus of this article. However, they appear to have a number of common features – response to colo...

When we contemplate ecumenism in South Africa in the twentieth century, we often automatically think of the outstanding work of the South African Council of Churches during the years of apartheid. However, it had two precursors in the General Missionary Conference of South Africa (1904-36) and the Christian Council of South Africa (1936-68). Parall...

This article seeks to explore the origins and development of the variant branches of South African Presbyterianism, originating in Scotland in the context of mission and migration. All mission involves migration, primarily as a physical, geographical movement. But there are other forms of migration that take place within the context; these are soci...

Celtic spirituality has a long and distinguished ancestry with its origins in pre-Christian times. It was inculturated amongst peoples in the far west of Europe, particularly in Ireland, Scotland and the north and south west of England. It was different from Roman Christianity in distinct ways until the mid-7th century CE when Roman Christianity be...

Celtic spirituality has a long and distinguished ancestry with its origins in pre-Christian times. It was inculturated among peoples in the far west of Europe, particularly in Ireland, Scotland and the north and south-west of England. It was different from Roman Christianity in distinct ways until the mid-7th century CE when Roman Christianity beca...

The purpose of this article is to examine the changing understandings of processes and terms which have been and are currently in use regarding the outworking of the mission of the church. This historical and missiological approach will evaluate the contribution of a number of African and other theologians during the 20th century and also the openi...

The Presbytery of Zimbabwe (POZ) of the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa(UPCSA) has been affected by a drastic exodus of members to African Independent Churches,which is taking advantage of its spiritual weaknesses in its missional endeavour. The spiritual weaknesses which the people of the POZ experiences are a product of the evangel...

Matters related to money were fundamental to the causes of the formation of Ethiopian-type churches. These included inter alia the raising of funds abroad and the subsequent need to control such funds by white ministers, delay or refusal of ordination due to cost factors and differentials in stipends, lack of or poor allowances, lack of trust in th...

The passive aggressive behaviour theory of de Angelis (2009) combined with the "hidden transcript" theory of Scott (1985, 1990) and the racial conflict theory of Himes (1971) provide a theoretical framework for understanding resistance to apartheid in South Africa as a protective mechanism. The specific focus of this paper is passive-aggressive res...

This article traces the origins and development of the Scottish Presbyterian mission in South Africa through its Scottish antecedents to its actual establishment in South Africa in 1824 until the end of the first phase of the mission in 1865. It begins by examining the Scottish context, the contribution of voluntary societies and the "Disruption",...

The Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) is regarded as one of the most significant processes in the ecumenical church history of the 20th century. At that time, a younger generation of Roman Catholic theologians began to make their mark in the church and within the ecumenical theological scene. Their work provided an ecumenical bridge between the Re...

The Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) is regarded by many in Protestant circles as one of the most significant processes in ecumenical church history during the 20th century. At the time hopes were high that closer cooperation was a reality to be embraced and achieved. Concurrently, a younger generation of Roman Catholic theologians began to make...

The Tsewu secession or dispute took place in the context of the emergence of African Initiated Churches during the latter part of the nineteenth century as a response to mission Christianity and an assertion of a distinct form of African Christianity. Tsewu’s brand of response falls within the genre of the Ethiopian-type church which tended to reta...

The role of Mission Councils in the growth and development of the Scottish Mission in South Africa is a confusing and vexing one. Whereas they were conceived and established as a means of facilitating mission, they often hindered this by drawing distinctions between agents of mission and delineating spheres of authority through exercises of power,...

The main purpose of this exercise was to develop an improved model of ministerial and spiritual formation in the training of ministers in the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa at the University of Pretoria. This is a perennial problem in many churches where there is a general dissatisfaction with the products, (i.e. ministers) not only...

http://www.ve.org.za/index.php/VE/article/view/368 The purpose of this article was to discuss the findings related to research on the life history of Fred Francis Bosworth (1877–1958). This article explored his life story and critically analysed the influential factors that may have contributed to his success in the ministry. It seeks to answer th...

The ecumenical marks of the church – unity, holiness, catholicity and apostolicity – have served it well as defining characteristics since the 4th century CE. The Reformation required that they be redefined in a particular context in terms of the soundness of doctrine preached, celebration of the sacraments and the exercise of discipline. In the 21...

The papers which constitute this volume were presented at a conference held at Oxford University in 2007 under the auspices of the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation, the Universities' University China Committee of London, the Sub-Faculty of East Asian Studies at the University of Oxford and the Centre for the Study of Christianity in China, Oxford. The E...

Church discipline - is semper reformanda in a time and space warp? Church discipline has become an anachronism in the life of the Christian faith community. In part, this results from a misunderstanding of the fundamental meaning of the term. Its early emphasis was on spiritual nurture, discipling people into the faith and into a relationship with...

Presbyterianism, through two significant personalities, provided an important impetus to the formation and development of the early University of Pretoria. Their contribution has to be understood in terms of the contexts of their Scottish Presbyterian heritage, South Africa in the early years of the twentieth century and the state of higher educati...

Partnership in mission came to be a byword for developing missionary relationships during the twentieth century. During this time its meaning and practice changed, often imperceptibly. This is seen in the regular conferences of the International Missionary Conference and its successors which had their origin in the International Missionary Conferen...

In view of Scripture, theology of worship, symbolism, history, tradition and current practice it is difficult, if not impossible, to come to any definite conclusions about ministerial dress in Presbyterian worship. The dissonance between the theological approaches of those who wear robes and those who do not, both of which positions are justifiable...