War, Exilic Pilgrimage and Mission: South Africa's Dutch Reformed Church in the Early Twentieth Century
2018; Edinburgh University Press; Volume: 24; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.3366/swc.2018.0205
ISSN1750-0230
Autores Tópico(s)Religion, Society, and Development
ResumoThe main subject of inquiry here is the interrelationship between war, mission and exile in South Africa's Dutch Reformed Church at the turn of the twentieth century. The first setting of note is the Anglo—Boer War (1899–1902) when a group of Boer soldiers decided to form the Commando's Dank Zending Vereniging (Commando's Thanksgiving Mission Society) after visiting a Swiss missionary station in the northern Transvaal. Next follows Boer experiences of exile on the islands of St Helena, Ceylon and elsewhere as prisoners of war. A number of these POWs were evangelised and recruited for mission through revivalist sermons preached by their chaplains. After their return, a substantial number of ex-POWs signed up for the DRC's missionary enterprise into wider Africa, most prominently Nyasaland. The missionary experience itself often lasted for several decades. These missionaries did not refer to their life contexts as pilgrimages as such, but they often described the mission field as a place of danger and adventure populated by wild and dangerous people and animals. This article therefore suggests that the missionary careers of the Anglo—Boer War recruits approximate voluntary sacred exile, which in having originated from their forced exile as POWs acquires a pilgrimage-like character.
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