Afrikaner Calvinism: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|19th-century Afrikaner cultural and nationalist movement}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{more citations needed|date=September 2016}}
{{Essay-like|date=December 2024}}
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{{Use South African English|date=May 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2022}}
{{Calvinism}}
'''Afrikaner Calvinism''' ({{lang-langx|af|Afrikaner Calvinisme}}) is a cultural and religious development among [[Afrikaner]]s that combined elements of seventeenth-century [[Calvinist]] doctrine with a "chosen people" ideology based in the Bible. It had origins in ideas espoused in the Old Testament of the [[Jews as the chosen people]].{{sfn|Du Toit|1985|p=209}}
 
A number of modern studies have argued that [[Boers]] gathered for the [[Great Trek]] inspired by this concept, and they used it to legitimise their subordination of other South African ethnic groups. It is thought to have contributed the religious basis for modern [[Afrikaner nationalism]].{{sfn|Williams|1991}} Dissenting scholars have asserted that Calvinism did not play a significant role in Afrikaner society until after they suffered the trauma of the [[Second Boer War]]. Early settlers dwelt in isolated frontier conditions and lived much closer to pseudo-Christian [[animist]] beliefs than organised religion.{{sfn|Hexham| Poewe|1997}}
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== Background ==
 
White settlement in [[South Africa]] is traced to the 1652 arrival of the [[Dutch East India Company]] at the [[Cape of Good Hope]], seeking to establish a supply and refreshment station for its ships and crews bound to and from Indonesia.{{sfn|McNeill|1967|p=381}}{{efn|The Dutch administration at the Cape did not initially envision or desire a large European settlement there.}} From its headquarters in [[Amsterdam]], the Company recruited crew and equipped voyages for the Orient. Most of its Dutch employees were Protestant Calvinists, who were the majority of the population in the region, supplemented by other Protestants: a few Lutheran Germans, Scandinavians, and numerous French [[Huguenot]] refugees who had fled religious persecution in France.{{sfn|McNeill|1967|p=381}}{{sfn|Greaves|2013|p=37}} Among their Afrikaner descendants, individual religious communities such as the ''Dopper''s became known for establishing their own doctrine in rifts with the [[Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (NGK)|Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk]] ([[Dutch Reformed Church]]). By the late nineteenth century, the separatist churches of [[Reformed Churches in South Africa|Gereformeerde Kerk]] had developed in South Africa.{{sfn|Du Toit|1985|p=214}}
 
==Settlement period==
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In 1985, 92% of [[Afrikaners]] were members of Reformed Churches. By late 2013, this figure had dropped to 40%, while actual weekly church attendance of Reformed Churches is estimated to be around 25%.{{sfn|Oosthuizen|2014}}
 
Today, many Afrikaners have found their spiritual homes in charismatic and Pentecostal churches.{{Citation needed|date=October 2023}}
 
==See also==
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[[Category:Afrikaner nationalism]]
[[Category:Apartheid in South Africa]]
[[Category:History of CalvinismReformed Christianity]]
[[Category:History of Christianity in South Africa]]
[[Category:History of South Africa]]
[[Category:History of the Dutch East India Company]]
[[Category:Protestantism in South Africa]]