the full thesis proposal

ThM Thesis Proposal

Otto Gareth Beyers

Thesis Title

Toward a new South African ecclesiology: conversations with Moltmann and Berger.

Thesis Statement

In the changing and increasingly secular South African society, historically white mainline churches need to ask the question “how can we ‘be’ church in the new South Africa?” Within the wider mainline theological tradition, Jurgen Moltmann’s challenging rethinking of ecclesiology and Peter Berger’s secularisation thesis provide interesting conversation partners for sketching this new contextual ecclesiology.

Thesis Description

Since the end of institutional apartheid in 1994, the mainline church in South Africa has been struggling to work out its calling and role within the life of the new nation. South Africa is a converging point of many traditions, worldviews and struggles: first world technology amidst third world problems; Western history and African roots; the continent’s biggest economy alongside a crippling unemployment rate. Added to this social atmosphere are two religious contradictions: a gradual secularisation of society and decline of the mainline church, similar to that experience in Western Europe within the last half-century; yet a recent growth in independent charismatic churches, with strong links to North American evangelicalism.

For the historically white mainline churches to play a meaningful role within this new South African society, foundational questions about the nature of church and society need to be asked. For the contours of this new contextual ecclesiology, instead of consulting evangelical American mega-church pastors, thinkers from within the wider mainline theological tradition should be studied. Two interesting conversation partners that merit exploration are the theologian Jurgen Moltmann, and the sociologist Peter Berger. For his secularisation thesis, critique of civil religion and societal insights, Peter Berger’s work is especially pertinent to the now-secular South Africa. Jurgen Moltmann’s Church in the Power of the Spirit has been described as the most important ecclesiological work of the last half century. His diverse influences (including Eastern Orthodoxy, third world work, Liberation theology, free churches and Catholic monastic communities) and desire to think contextually make him relevant in the globalised, multi-cultural South African context. These important scholars may be a valuable influence to the mainline church in South Africa, and to me as a future ordained Presbyterian minister, in sketching new ecclesiological guidelines.