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Puritans in Africa? Afrikaner “Calvinism” and Kuyperian Neo-Calvinism in Late Nineteenth-Century South Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

André Du Toit
André Du Toit
Affiliation:
University of Stellenbosch
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Extract

Accounts of South African history and politics have been much influenced by what might be termed the Calvinist paradigm of Afrikaner history. As a model for the historical understanding of modern Afrikaner nationalism and of the ideology of apartheid it has proved persuasive to historians and social scientists alike. In outline, it amounts to the view that the “seventeenth-century Calvinism” which the Afrikaner founding fathers derived from their countries of origin became fixed in the isolated frontier conditions of trekboer society and survived for generations in the form of a kind of “primitive Calvinism”; that in the first part of the nineteenth century, this gave rise to a nascent chosen people ideology among early Afrikaners, which provided much of the motivation for, as well as the self-understanding of, that central event in Afrikaner history, the Great Trek, while simultaneously serving to legitimate the conquest and subordination of indigenous peoples; and that, mediated in this way, an authentic tradition of Afrikaner Calvinism thus constitutes the root source of modern Afrikaner nationalism and the ideology of apartheid. In fact, very little of this purported historical explanation will stand up to rigorous critical scrutiny: in vain will one look for hard evidence, either in the primary sources of early Afrikaner political thinking or in the contemporary secondary literature, of a set of popular beliefs that might be recognised as “primitive Calvinism” or as an ideology of a chosen people with a national mission.

Type
Profane Uses of the Sacred
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 27 , Issue 2 , April 1985 , pp. 209 - 240
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1985

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References

1 The Calvinist paradigm of Afrikaner history figures prominently both in Afrikaner historiography and in South African liberal historiography, and is often assumed by social scientists writing on race and politics in South Africa. The Bibliographical Comment included at the end of this article sets out the principal examples of this literature.

2 See my “No Chosen People: “The Myth of the Calvinist Origins of Afrikaner Nationalism and Racial Ideology,” American Historical Review, 88:4 (1983), 20–52;Google Scholaridem, “Captive to the Nationalist Paradigm: Prof. F. A. van Jaarsveld and the Historical Evidence for the Afrikaner's Ideas on his Calling and Mission,” South African Historical Journal, 16 (1984), 48–79.Google Scholar

3 It is, however, extraordinary that the Calvinist paradigm of Afrikaner history had already made its appearance in the secondary literature some decades earlier. This can be traced to the influential writings of David Livingstone in the 1850s, and it derived from Livingstone's own assumptions of a divine calling and mission and his polemical cancers at the time, rather than being based on any firsthand knowledge of early Afrikaner views; see my “No Chosen People,” 939ff.

4 See, e.g., Walzer, Michael, “Puritanism as a Revolutionary Ideology,” History and Theory, 3:1 (1963), 118–54.CrossRefGoogle ScholarHill, Christopher, Puritanism and Revolution (London, 1968);Google ScholarWeber, Max, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (New York, 1958);Google ScholarBiéler, André, La pensée eco (Geneva, 1959).Google Scholar

5 Hudson, W. S., ed., Nationalism and Religion in America (New York, 1970), 3.Google Scholar

6 Miller, Perry, The New England Mind: The Seventeenth Century (Cambridge, Mass., 1954), 414; see also chs. 13, 14.Google Scholar

7 See Toit, André du and Giliomee, Hermann, Afrikaner Political Thought: Documents and Analyses. Vol. 1: 1780–1850 (Cape Town and Berkeley, 1983),Google Scholar ch. 1: “The Historical Context.” See also Elphick, Richard and Giliomee, Hermann, eds., The Shaping of South African Society: 1652–1820 (Cape Town, 1979).Google Scholar

8 Loubser, , “Calvinism, Equality, and Inclusion,” 371.Google Scholar Cf. Howe's, Daniel Walker use of the five points of Dordt as a framework for his comparative survey of Calvinism, “The Decline of Calvinism: An Approach to Its Study,” Comparative Studies in Society and History, 14:3 (1972), 307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

9 See, e.g., Moodie, , Rise of Afrikanerdom, 22–23.Google Scholar

10 For some perceptive critical comments on the pervasive confusions in the literature regarding Afrikaner fundamentalism, see Hexham, Irving, “Dutch Calvinism and the Development of Afrikaner Nationalism,” African Affairs, 79: (1980), 200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

11 Given the meagre and fragmentary evidence regarding the popular religious beliefs or theological traditions of early Afrikaners, this is unlikely to be forthcoming. In general there is a serious lack of a critical and comprehensive social history of early South African religious and theological traditions. In the circumstances perhaps the most useful source, though limited to the clergy, is Toit, H. D. A. du, “Predikers en hul Prediking in die N. G. Kerk in Suid-Afrika” (D. Th. diss., Pretoria University, 1947).Google Scholar It is significant that there is only incidental mention of the doctrinal theme of predestination in this exhaustive survey of sermons and preachers. For some references to predestination in the preaching of Dutch Reformed Church ministers by the middle of the nineteenth century, see Kitshoff, M. C., Gottlieb Wilhelm Antony van der Lingen: Kaapse Predikant uit die Negentiende Eeu (Groningen, 1972), 46.Google Scholar

12 See, e.g., Hankom, T. N., Helperus Ritzema van Lier: Lewensbeeld van'n Kaapse predikant van die Agriende Eeu (Cape Town, 1959);Google Scholar“M. C. Vos,” Dictionary of South African Biography, Kock, W. J. de, ed. (Cape Town, 1972), II, 822–24.Google Scholar See also the references to the impact of Vos's work on the Tulbagh congregation in Lichtenstein, H., Travels in Southern Africa in the Years 1803, 1804, 1805, and 1806 (Cape Town, 1928).Google Scholar

13 Spoelstra, , Die Doppers in Suid-Afrika, 1760–1899 (Johannesburg, 1963).Google Scholar

14 Ibid., 20.

15 Ibid., 27–29.

16 It must, however, remain a moot point what the actual nature and content of early Dopper religious beliefs really were. Spoelstra, like other writers, simply assumes that the Gereformeerde or Dopper tradition from the second half of the nineteenth century can be equated with its predecessor in all essentials. But this is to assimilate a tradition of organised religious belief largely fashioned by trained theologians from the Netherlands, such as the Reverend Postma, with an inchoate set of popular beliefs.

17 Beckers, Gerhard, Religiöse Faktoren in der Entwicklung der Süd-afrikanischen Rassenfrage: Ein Beitrag zur Rolle des Kalvinismus in Kolonialen Situatione? (München, 1969),Google Scholar 89ff. See also Walzer's, Michael analysis of Calvin's basic understanding of politics as aimed at establishing a repressive order, The Revolution of the Saints (New York, 1972), 31–57, 199–204, 306–20.Google Scholar

18 Beckers, , Religiöse Faktoren, 110–14.Google Scholar

19 Ibid., 114–16.

20 Ihid., 117–10

21 For an illuminating analysis of the different structural processes involved on the open pioneering frontier and on the closing frontier, see Giliomee, Hermann, “Processes of Development of the South African Frontier,” in The Frontier in History: North America and Southern Africa Compared, Thompson, L. M. and Lamar, H., eds. (New Haven, 1981).Google Scholar For a general discussion of cultural conditions in trekboer society on the pioneering frontier prior to the Great Trek, see Muller, C. F. J., Die Oorsprong van die Groot Trek (Cape Town, 1974), 146–69;Google Scholar and Scholtz, G. D., Die Ontwikkeling van die Politieke Denke van die Afrikaner. Vol. II: 1854–1881 (Johannesburg, 1974), 63–78.Google Scholar

22 There is no satisfactory general treatment of Afrikaner religious and church history during the nineteenth century. The biographies of the main church leaders, like Andrew Murray, the Reverends van der Hoff, Postma, etcetera, contain much relevant material, but these, like the various church histories in general, are rather narrowly focussed and overly concerned with the apologetics and polemics of the various Afrikaans churches. Especially informative and suggestive is the study of Kitshoff, Gottlieb Wilhelm Antony van der Lingen.

23 Jaarsveld, F. A. van, The Awakening of Afrikaner Nationalism, 1868–1881 (Cape Town 1961).Google Scholar See also “Die onafhanklikheidstryd en die ontstaan van Afrikanernasionalisme,” in Vryheidsoorlog, Die Eerste, Jaarsveld, F. A. van, Rensburg, A. P. J. van, Stals, W. A., eds. (Pretoria, 1980), 257–68, and the survey of the literature given there.Google Scholar

24 Jaarsveld, Van. “The Afrikaner's Image of His Past,”Google Scholar in idem. The Afrikaner's Interpretation of South African History, 55, 59.

25 See du Toit, and Giliomee, , Afrikaner Political Thought. Vol. I: 1780–1850, introduction.Google Scholar

26 See, e.g., Schutte, G. J., DeHollanders in KrugersRepubliek, 1884–1899 (Pretoria, 1968);Google Scholaridem, “Nederland en de eerste Transvaalse Vrijheidsoorlog 1880–1881,” Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis. 94 (1981), 565–94.Google Scholar

27 See, e.g., Berdahl, Robert M., “New Thoughts on German Nationalism,” American Historical Review, 77:1 (1972), 65–80;CrossRefGoogle Scholar and the review essay by Geoff Eley, “Nationalism and Social History,” Social History, 6 (1981). 83–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

28 The traditional Dopper community was, of course, itself transformed in the process of setting up an organised Calvinist church with its own theological seminary and (later) Christian National schools, so that this description needs qualifying. Hexham has argued that though this (neo-) Calvinist community was indeed to prove a consistent foe of modernity in the sense of secular rationalism, its members can in a wider context of religious belief be seen as agents and advocates of modernity where this “includes such things as attitudes toward education, rationality, demystification of the world, rejection of magic, democracy, and the acceptance of industrial civilization” (Hexham, Irving, “Modernity or Reaction in South Africa: The Case of Afrikaner Religion,” Consultation on Modernity and Religion, University of British Columbia (manuscript, 1981), 20).Google Scholar

29 Moodie, , Rise of Afrikanerdom, chs. 1, 2.Google Scholar

30 Ibid., ch. 4, 6–72.

31 Ibid., preface, ix.

32 Ibid., 22.

33 Ibid., 22–26.

34 Ibid., 26. At least one experienced historian has been led by Moodie's formulation to conclude that Kruger explicitly appealed to this particular doctrine of Calvin's. See Fredrickson, , White Supremacy, 193. Of course, there is no evidence that Kruger was acquainted with Calvin's theology in general or with this doctrine in particular, nor that he ever invoked either. In some ways Kruger's Paardekraal speech of 1886 provides a clearer statement of his views. However, since this speech, reported in the Volksstem of 23 December 1886, has not been republished in the various collections of his speeches and writings and has not been utilised by Moodie at all, I have concentrated on the better-known 1891 speech.Google Scholar

35 Moodie, . Rise of Afrikanerdom, 26–27.Google Scholar

36 The most important passages bearing on Kruger's views regarding the relation between church and state are discussed by Smit, F. P., Die Staatsopvattínge van Paul Kruger (Pretoria., 1951), 1–2, 189–91;Google Scholar and Plessis, J. S. du, President Kruger aan die Woord (Bloemfontein, 1952), 123–25.Google Scholar On religious toleration and freedom of religion, see, e.g., Minutes of the Eerste Volksraad, 29 August 1899, art. 1010; and Smit, , Staatsopvattinge van Paul Kruger, 3–5.Google Scholar

37 From Kruger's speech at Paardekraal 1891, as published in van Oordt, , Paul Kruger, 559. My translation.Google Scholar

38 Actually Moodie's precise claim is not altogether clear. He certainly does not claim that Kruger believed in an exclusive and ethnic election of the Afrikaners as an ethnic group, but rather that Kruger applied Calvin's notion of the “‘intermediate election’ of an ethnic group” (Rise of Afrikanerdom, p. 26, my italics) to the “people of Transvaal.” In effect this a part-juridical and part-racial category (excluding blacks and Cape Afrikaners, but including English-speaking citizens of the Transvaal). Moodie admits that, thus defined, Kruger used “the People” in an inclusive sense (p. 31), but he then goes on to argue that “in practice” Kruger tended towards a more exclusive sense of this term (p. 32). Still, the general thrust of Moodie's argument is to claim that Kruger serves as a crucial link between Calvin's notion of ethnic election and the latter-day Afrikaner nationalist civil religion.Google Scholar

39 See, e.g., the “political testament” by the Voortrekker leader, Pretorius, Andries, of July 1853,Google Scholar in which he urged the Military Council to give wise guidance to “the people of the Lord” (het volk des Heeren) and instructed his successor in scriptural terms to “let God's people (het yolk Gods) graze” (cited in Engelbrecht, S. P., Geskiedenis van die Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk van Afrika, 90–91).Google Scholar At the time Pretorius was much concerned not merely with the fledgling political institutions of the infant republic but also with the founding of the church in the Transvaal, which was at a critical stage because the recent arrival of the Reverend van der Hoff had opened the possibility of an organised church with no connection to the Cape Synod (and hence, none with the British colonial government). In the circumstances, he hardly distinguished among the military, political, and religious spheres of community organisation—which in any case largely involved the same people—and referred to all generally as “God's people” without, however, implying any doctrine of exclusive election. In the more immediate context of late-nineteenth-century sermons, the expression “God's people” (Gods yolk) was in common usage as a way of referring to the Christian congregation at large. See, e.g., the report of a sermon by the Joubert, Reverend at Paarl in De Zuid-Afrikaan, 22 August 1899.Google Scholar

40 See, e.g., Minutes of the Volksraad, Eerste, 29 August 1899, art. 1010.Google Scholar

41 From the text published in Oordt, Van, Paul Kruger, 552. My translation, emphasis added.Google Scholar

42 Oordt, Van, Paul Kruger, 553.Google Scholar As the political crisis deepened and war came, Kruger's references to the fate of “God's people” took on an increasingly eschatological tone. He not only saw the war as God's chastisement of His people, but became convinced that it was the fullness of time (een punt des tijds) in which God was allowing “the Beast” to persecute His “Church” before coming to the aid of His people in final judgment. Kruger's views were now evidently based more on the book of Revelation than on the Old Testament, but, though he continued to believe that God would intervene specifically on behalf of the Transvaal republic, his reference to “God's people” never became exclusive and included “God's people on the whole earth,” ‘all Christians the world over,” etcetera Cf. Kruger's speeches to the combined Volksraad, 2 October 1899 and 7 May 1900, and telegrams to the military officers of 20 June 1900, and to the Commandant General of 7 July 1900, all reprinted in Bredell, H. C. and Grobler, Piet, Gedenkschriften van Paul Kruger (Amsterdam, 1902) 249–51, 260–69.Google Scholar

43 See Krüger, D. W., Paul Kruger (Johannesburg, 1963), II. 90–92.Google Scholar

44 From the text in Oordt, Van, Paul Kruger, 554. My translation.Google Scholar

45 Moodie, , Rise of Afrikanerdom, 27–28; see also 3.Google Scholar

46 D. W. Krüger asserts that the doctrine of predestination was of particular significance to Kruger as a key Calvinist doctrine (Pau Kruger, I, 101). However, he does not on this occasion give any evidence bearing on this assertion at all, and it appears to be a speculative inference from the “fact” that Kruger was a “Calvinist.” Elsewhere, in his account of Kruger's Paardekraal speech of 1886, he writes that Kruger “saw the doctrine of predestination in everything” (11, 91, my translation). This is based quite literally on the report of Kruger's, speech in the Volksstem of 23 December 1886. However, on examination it appears that this particular passage is not, like the rest of the report in the Volksstem, a direct transcription of Kruger's words but a summary by the reporter of the more theological part of the speech. “Predestination” is the reporter's term, not Kruger's, who does not use it at all in the more literally rendered parts of his speech. Moreover, the reporter's general statement regarding the central significance of the doctrine of predestination to Kruger's version of soteriological history is clearly erroneous. From the summary itself it is evident that what Kruger had stressed was not so much the specific doctrine of predestination but—as throughout the rest of the speech, and in many others similar statements—the more general belief in the sovereign and providential rule of God in history. Whether, and in what sense, Kruger may also have referred to the doctrine of predestination as well is less clear. (It should be added that in the course of D. W. Krüger's account of the 1886 Paardekraal speech, the statement that according to Paul Kruger “his people, just like Israel, is also elected for a mission” (II, 91) is not an accurate rendition of the reporter's summary in the Volksstem and reflects the influence of the Calvinist paradigm.)Google Scholar

47 Krüger, D. W.Paul Kruger, 1, 47–49.Google Scholar See also Bigelow, P., White Man's Africa (London, 1900), 47–48;Google ScholarOordt, Van, Paul Kruger, 101–2;Google ScholarJorissen, E. J. P., Transvaalsche Herinneringen (Pretoria, 1897), 17;Google ScholarTromp, T. M., Herinneringen uit Zuid-Afrika ten tijde der annexatie van de Transvaal (Leiden, 1879), 135.Google ScholarEngelenburg, F. V. expressed some scepticism regarding “these stories,” in 'n Onbekende Paul Kruger (Pretoria, 1925), 17.Google Scholar

48 Plessis, J. du, The Life of Andrew Murray of South Africa (London, 1919), 203.Google Scholar

49 See Hofineyr, S., Twintig Jaren in Zoutpansberg (Cape Town, 1890), 144–80.Google Scholar

50 In his Paardekraal speech of 1886, where Kruger first used the distinction between the “internal” and “external” callings, he linked its specifically with the commonly used distinction between the “invisible” and the “visible” church (see Volksstem, 23 December 1886).

51 See Krüger, D. W., Paul Kruger, I, 254ff; II, 13–14.Google Scholar

52 Cited by Oordt, Van, Paul Kruger, 379.Google Scholar

53 See Oordt, Van, Paul Kruger, 379,Google Scholar n. 1; Plessis, du, President Kruger aan die Woord, 118,Google Scholar n. 2; Smit, , Staatsopvattinge van Paul Kruger, 1–2, 189–90.Google Scholar

54 Plessis, Du, President Kruger aan die Woord, 118, n. 2.Google Scholar

55 Kruger, D. W., Paul Kruger, I, 272;Google Scholar see also Schutte, , De Hollanders in Krugers Republiek, 30–31, 34–36.Google Scholar

56 See Davenport, T. R. H., The Afrikaner Bond (Oxford, 1966), 38–40, 322–23.Google Scholar

57 Toit, S. J. du, Het Program van Beginselen van de Nationale Partij, opgesteld, verklaard en toegelicht (Paart, 1884).Google Scholar See Kuyper, Abraham, Ons Program (Amsterdam, 1878).Google Scholar See also Scholtz, D. A., “Ds. S. J. du Toit, as Kerkman en Kultuurleier” (D. Th. diss., University of Stellenbosch, 1975), 135–39;Google ScholarDavenport, , Afrikaner Bond, 38, 51–52.Google Scholar

58 From Toit, S. J. du, Program van Beginselen. My translation. The Dutch expression Formulieren van Eenigheid refers to the three basic confessional documents of the Dutch Reformed Church, viz., the Heidelberg Catechism, the Netherlands Confession, and the Doctrinal Rules of Dordt.Google Scholar

59 Hexham, , “Dutch Calvinism and Development of Afrikaner Nationalism,” 195–208.Google Scholar See also Moodie, , Rise of Afrikanerdom, ch. 4.Google Scholar

60 Hexham, , “Dutch Calvinism and Development of Afrikaner Nationalism,” 203.Google Scholar Hexham argues that it was through the Gereformeerde Kerk, and thus via the tradition of Potchefstroom Calvinism, that du Toit had a major impact on the ideological formation of modem Afrikaner nationalist thought in the post Anglo-Boer War period. In his The Irony of Apartheid: The Struggle for National Independence of Afrikaner Calvinism against British Imperialism (New York, 1981),Google Scholar Hexham goes so far as to project this “Dopper” version of neo-Calvinism as the major source of the ideology of apartheid. This gets the contribution of the Potchefstroom tradition of Christian Nationalism, which has always been a distinctive but nevertheless minor subcu-ent of Afrikaner political thinking, quite out of proportion. See also Moodie, T. Dunbar, “Calvinism and Afrikaner Nationalism—A Comment,” African Affairs, 80 (07 1981), 403–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

61 See Toit, J. D. du, Ds. S. J. du Toil, in Weg en Werk (Paarl, 1917),Google Scholar ch. 9; Davenport, , Afrikaner Bond,Google Scholar ch. 4; Scholtz, D. A., “Ds. S. J. du Toit as Kerkman en Kultuurleier. 135–39.Google Scholar

62 Reports of the debates of the Congress, Afrikaner Bond in De Zuid-Afrikaan, March 1884.Google Scholar

63 De Zuid-Afrikaan, Editorial, 22 March 1884 (my translation).Google Scholar

64 Ibid., 19 April 1884.

65 A further indication of the failure of neo-Calvinist notions to evoke any significant response from Afikaners in the late nineteenth century (above all in the Cape) may be found in the efforts of S. J. du Toit and others, such as the Reverends Villiers, W. P. R. de and Coetzee, M. P. A., to propagate the “voluntary principle,” or the disendowment of public education, as the foundation of a policy of Christian National education throughout the 1880s. Again they met with little success, and it was the more secular compromise sponsored by Hofmeyr which became the official policy of the Afrikaner Bond.Google Scholar

66 Cited by Toit, J. D. du, Ds. S. J. du Toit, in Weg en Werk, 235.Google Scholar

67 De Getuige (Paarl, 1881), I, 49 (my translation).Google Scholar See Toit, J. D. du. Ds. S. J. du Toit, in Weg en Werk, 244–45.Google Scholar

68 Bezuidenhout, C. P., De Geschiedenis van het Afrikaansche Geslacht, van 1688 tot 1882 (Bloemfontein, 1883). This is essentially a home-grown history of Afrikaner grievances against British imperial rule from Slagtersnek in 1815 to the Transvaal War of 1881. The author's theological framework does not extend beyond his evocative use of a text from the Psalms as a metaphor for the providential founding of the Afrikaner people as a nation.Google Scholar

69 De Zuid-Afrikaan, Editorial, 13 October 1885 (my translation).Google Scholar

70 See the contemporary references cited in Jaarsveld, Van, “Afrikaner's Ideas on Calling and Mission,”Google Scholar in idem, Afrikaner's Interpretation of South African History. A particularly striking example is to be found in the sermons of the Reverend Boshoff, G. J. J., U Volk is my Volk (Johannesburg, 1959).Google Scholar More generally, see Adam, Heribert and Giliomee, Hermann, Ethnic Power Mobilized (New Haven, 1979).Google Scholar

71 Moodie, . Rise of Afrikanerdom,Google Scholar ch. 4, provides a useful survey of the impact of neo-Calvinist influences on Afrikaner political and religious life from the 1930s. Apart from its overdrawn main argument, Hexham's, IrivingIrony of ApartheidGoogle Scholar contains a wealth of material on the origins of Christian Nationalism. For a provocative but suggestive account of the material origins of Afrikaner nationalism and apartheid, see O'Meara, Dan, Volkskapitalisme (Cambridge, 1983).Google Scholar

72 Nye, Russel B., “The American Sense of Mission,” in This Almost Chosen People (East Lansing, Michigan, 1966), 164.Google Scholar

73 Walzer, , Revolution of Saints, 123–24, 301–3;Google Scholar cf. Morgan, Edmund S., The Puritan Family (New York, 1966). As Walzer explains (p. 309), the Calvinist and Puritan ideologies generally appealed to the “sociologically competent,” i.e., to the aristocrats, ministers, gentlemen, merchants, and lawyers who had “the capacity… to participate in the ‘exercises’ that sainthood required.”Google Scholar

74 Miller, Perry, “Puritan State and Puritan Society,”Google Scholar in idem Errand into the Wilderness (Cambridge, Mass., 1956), 143.

75 Cf. de Klerk, , Puritans in Africa. If it was not so vague and confused as a work of intellectual history, the central proposition of de Klerk's popularization might well have served as a reductio ad absurdum of the Calvinist paradigm of Afrikaner history.Google Scholar

76 See Haller, William, The Elect Nation. The Meaning and Significance of Foxe's Book of Martyrs (New York, 1963).Google Scholar See also Hudson, Winthrop S., ed., Nationalism and Religion in America (New York, 1970), viii, 153–55;Google ScholarBercovitch, Savcan, The Puritan Origins of the American Self (New Haven, 1975), 72–86.Google Scholar

77 See Tuveson, Ernest Lee, Redeemer Nation: The Idea of America's Millennial Role (Chicago, 1968), esp. 138–42;Google ScholarBercovitch, , Puritan Origins, 98–105.Google Scholar See also Christianson, Paul, Reformers and Babylon: English Apocalyptic Visions from the Reformation to the Eve of the Civil War (Toronto, 1978);CrossRefGoogle ScholarFirth, Katharine R., The Apocalyptic Tradition in Reformation Britain, 1530–1645 (Oxford, 1979);Google ScholarCamont, William M., Richard Baxter and the Millennium: Protestant Imperialism and the English Revolution (London, 1979).Google Scholar

78 See Miller, , New England Mind, 366–77;Google Scholaridem, “The Marrow of Puritan Divinity” in Errand into Wilderness,Google Scholar 60ff. See also Morgan, S., ed., Puritan Political Ideals (Indianapolis, 1965), xx-xxv.Google Scholar

79 See Miller, , Errand into Wilderness, 11–12;Google Scholaridem, New England Mind, 468–70; Bercovitch, Savcan, The American Jeremiad (Madison, Wisc. 1978);Google ScholarCherry, Conrad, God's New Israel: Religious Interpretations of American Destiny (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1971), 27–28.Google Scholar

80 See Albanese, Catherine L., Sons of the Fathers: The Civil Religion of the American Revolution (Philadelphia, 1976), 27–30, 43–46,Google Scholar 89ff; Cherry, , God's New Israel, 61–62;Google ScholarHudson, , Nationalism and Religion, 33–35;Google ScholarWeinberg, Albert K., Manifest Destiny (Baltimore, 1935), 39–41;Google ScholarWilson, John F., Public Religion in American Culture (Philadelphia, 1979),Google Scholar ch. 2: “The Shape of the National Covenant.” For the concept of the civil religion, see Bellah, Robert N., “Civil Religion in America,” Daedalus (Winter 1967);Google ScholarRichey, Russell E. and Jones, Donald G., eds., American Civil Religion (New York, 1974).Google Scholar

81 Weinberg, , Manifest Destiny, 1–2.Google Scholar

82 Ibid., 128; Cherry, , God's New Israel, 114. Cf.Google Scholar also Herberg, Will, Protestant-Catholic-Jew (Garden City, N.Y., 1960).Google Scholar

83 Merk, Frederick, Manifest Destiny and Mission in American History: A Reinterpretation (New York, 1963), ch. 12 et passim.Google Scholar

84 See, e.g., the case of Reinhold Niebuhr, whose work includes a profoundly religious and moral critique of American political culture, but who could still subscribe to a modern version of the chosen people idea himself. Niebuhr, Reinhold, Moral Man and Immoral Society (New York, 1936),Google Scholar ch. 4; idem, The Irony of American History (New York, 1952);Google Scholar and selected writings compiled in Reinhold Niebuhr on Politics, Davis, H. R. and Good, R. C., eds. (New York, 1960), ch. 23, 269–83.Google Scholar See also his essay on “Anglo-Saxon Destiny and Responsibility,” reprinted in Cherry, , God's New Israel, 303–88.Google Scholar Cf. also Niebuhr, H. Richard, The Kingdom of God in America (New York, 1935).Google Scholar

85 I have in mind here the various criticisms of official policy which appeared in the journal Woord en Daad in the course of the 1970s, the Koinonia-declaration of 1977, and some recent statements and publications of the Afrikaanse Calvinistiese Beweging.

86 See, e.g., Adam, Heribert, “Ideologies of Dedication vs. Blueprints of Expedience,” Social Dynamics, 2:2 (1976), 83–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar