During 1985 and 1986, a variety of theological documents were published in reaction to the political situation in South Africa when a State of Emergency was declared by the apartheid regime on 20 July 1985. This article deals with the South African Kairos Document (KD) of September 1985. The images of God in the KD will be compared with two other documents which were issued within the next year. The three documents that will be compared are:

The aim of this article is to profile the images of God portrayed in the KD, which will be done in the first part of the article. To understand the use of these images at this particular point in time, it will – in the second part of the article – be compared with the images of God used in the CB (DRMC) and the CS (DRC). These documents are supported by a variety of theological positions (Pietism, Liberation Theology, status quo theology, Black Theology, Prophetic Theology, contextual theology, etc.) that all have their origin in missionary theology but are different in their contextual expression in the middle-1980s. Studying their use of the images of God will highlight these differences and similarities.

As stated, the focus of this article will be on the 40-year-old KD of 1985. The other two documents have been chosen for this study since they stem from the same period and are relevant for comparison. While the KD was written by an ecumenical group of church leaders and committed laity, the CB is a church document of the (then) DRMC, now the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa. The CS or KS is a position statement by the (white) DRC, a church both Kairos and Belhar reacted to as a result of their State Theology.

Although the main part of this article will offer an analysis of the contents and references of the words and phrases used for ‘God’ in the KD, an introductory and cursory overview will be provided of how often these words and phrases are used in all three the mentioned documents.

In the KD (1985:1–29) the designation ‘God’ appears 73 times. In 27 of these, God is acting, that is, God as an actor is provided with a verb, such as ‘God issues a challenge’; ‘God will not permit’; ‘the peace God wants’; ‘God will intervene’; ‘God redeems’; ‘God takes sides with the oppressed’. The verbs are notably all in the present tense as God is portrayed as acting in the present. These God-verb constructions constitute more than a third of the God-references. References are also made to the false god (of the state, 10 times), the godless (3 times) and the enemy of God (3 times). More passive ways of referring to God occur in phrases such as ‘the Word of God’ (4 times), ‘in the name of God’ (6 times), and ‘the Kingdom of God’(once). Names given to God in the KD are ‘Yahweh’, ‘Liberator’, ‘Almighty God’ and ‘God of the Bible’. The KD only refers three times to ‘Jesus Christ’, 11 times to ‘Jesus’ and six times to ‘Christ’. There is one reference to the ‘anti-Christ’.

While the KD fills about 29 printed A4 pages, the CB (Belhar Confession 1986/2017) covers only four pages. In the latter there are 24 references to ‘God’, while more than half of them is to God as actor, for example ‘God has entrusted the church …’; ‘God has revealed Godself’; ‘God brings justice’, and ‘God supports the down-trodden’. Again, the verbs associated with God are in the present tense. Passive references to God are mainly to the ‘people of God’, the ‘will of God’, and ‘God’s life-giving Word and Spirit’. There is one reference to the ‘ungodly’. In comparison to the 24 references to ‘God’, the CB refers 11 times to Jesus (Christ) and four times to the (Holy) Spirit.

Church and Society (Algemene Sinode van die Ned Geref Kerk 1986:1–63) is a document of more than 60 pages in A5 format; therefore almost twice as long as the KD and at least 15 times longer than the BC. It contains 204 references to ‘God’, 57 to Jesus (Christ) and 19 to the Holy Spirit. In only 29 references to ‘God’, he (sic) is an actor, usually in performing deeds of salvation such as ‘God has chosen Israel’, ‘God calls his people’, ‘God reconciles’ and ‘God concludes a covenant’. However, most of the God-verb-constructions are in the past, referring to God’s actions in the Bible. Passive references are to the ‘will of God’ (9 times); the ‘Word of God’ (14 times), the ‘Kingdom of God’ (5 times), Christians as the ‘image of God’ (15 times), and to the ‘people of God’ (volk van God 17 times). God is also called ‘Yahweh’ (3 times); the ‘triune God’ (8 times), ‘Father’ (6 times) and once the ‘God of the less privileged’.

From this cursory overview of the usage of the images of God in the three documents under discussion, the following five research questions are formulated:

No publications, academic or secular, could be found that dealt with the images of God in the South African KD, although scant references to God are made in some of the academic articles on the KD, in which the theologies informing the KD are discussed.

In 1987, shortly after the publication of the KD in 1985 and a revised version published in 1986, two of its self-acknowledged authors, Albert Nolan and Bonganjalo Goba, published academic articles on aspects of the KD. Nolan (1987) wrote on ‘The Eschatology of the KD’ and presents an image of God as active and interventional in the kairos, that is, the present crisis. Nolan draws this image of godly activity from the Old Testament prophets: ‘God is directly involved in the changing times. God speaks loudly and clearly through this crisis or that conflict or some victory over the forces of evil’ (Nolan 1987:63). Nolan (1987:64) defines the eschaton as a time when God is going to do a new thing (Is 43:19). Nolan therefore interprets the crisis addressed by the KD as pointing forward to the eschaton and liberation.

Goba (1987:313) explains in his article ‘The KD and its implications for liberation in South Africa’ the insight of the KD that liberation is only possible after a critical social analysis of the present situation has been made and an appropriate theological response is formulated, as the KD set itself out to do. According to Goba (1987:317), this analysis will show that the god of the apartheid state is false and that the real God becomes apparent from the ‘vision of God held by oppressed Christians’. This is according to ‘a biblical understanding that the God of the Bible always sides with the oppressed’ (Goba 1987:322). According to a later article by Johannes Smit (2023:2), ‘Bonganjalo Goba and the challenge of Black Theology’, Goba views Black Theology as South Africa’s Liberation Theology. Black Theology is based on Black Consciousness, which is not equal to African Theology, which is ethnographic, but is the Theology for black people in a specific situation of oppression. Black Theology, based on the Black Consciousness of South African Blacks, is the theology underlying the KD.

Since 2010, articles on the KD have tried to determine anew what the theology of the KD is. Vuyani Vellem (2010:1010) discusses Kairos Theology as Prophetic Theology in his article ‘Prophetic Theology in Black Theology, with special reference to the KD’. Prophetic Theology is a trajectory of Black Theology. As such it is firstly a contextual theology, reacting to the crisis of the time, and secondly a confessing theology that confesses that apartheid is a sin against God and that Jesus Christ is Lord of all. Black people have always been excluded ‘in the discourse of God-talk’ (Vellem 2010:4) and a contextual Prophetic Theology, as discussed in the KD, put the record straight.

Buttelli (2012) discusses Kairos Theology as Public Theology in his article ‘Public Theology as Theology on Kairos: The South African KD as a model of Public Theology’. Herein, he states ‘[P]ublic [T]heology is a new way of doing theology, which emerges from the [L]iberation [T]heology tradition’ (Buttelli 2012:101). A Prophetic Public Theology, such as that of the KD, therefore aligns Liberation Theology to its context of crisis (Buttelli 2012:105). The Prophetic Theology of the time exposes the tyranny of the State to which God is opposed since God takes sides in the political struggle in which the people of God must engage alongside God (Buttelli 2012:95). Le Bruyns (2015), too, explains Kairos Theology as Public Theology in his article ‘The rebirth of Kairos Theology and its implications for Public Theology and citizenship in South Africa’. As a Public Theology, it is a ‘[P]rophetic [T]heology for a time of struggle’ (Le Bruyns 2015:461). Both Buttelli and Le Bruyns masterfully argue for the relevance of the KD for the democratic South Africa of today, based on the KD’s ability to be a Public Theology for times that need a critical theological input.

Gabriel Ndhlovu (2016) questions the relevance of the KD for democratic South Africa in his article ‘The theology of truth and social justice in the present context: An examination of the relevancy of the KD 30 years after its draft’. He criticises the KD on two points. He (2016:77) pleads for peaceful civil disobedience as opposed to the KD’s call for radical public action, and points to the need to address black-on-black violence, and not only white-on-black violence, as far as reconciliation is concerned. Demaine Solomons (2020), on the other hand, praises the KD in the article ‘Re-examining a Theology of Reconciliation: What we learn from the KD and its pedagogical implications’, for insisting that reconciliation is not possible without justice, and for depicting God as not neutral in the struggle for liberation (2020:5).

This article’s contribution is the systematic, albeit limited, exploration of the uses of the images of God in the KD, which is missing from the literature. Comparing the KD with contemporary documents, such as the CB (DRMC) and the CS (DRC), as it is explored in this article, is even more unlikely to be found in academic research.

The South African KD consists of a preface, five chapters and a conclusion. In the preface the process is described, which led to the publication of the KD on 25 September 1985 in Johannesburg. There are no references to God in this preface.

The first chapter consists of about 500 words and introduces the concept of kairos and how the KD has not only been necessitated by the crisis situation in South Africa, but also ordered by God himself. There are two references to God in this chapter, and in both God is active in the calling for a kairos document. Firstly, ‘God issues a challenge to decisive action’, and secondly, it is God who offers an opportunity, a Kairos, which needs to be taken (Lk 19:44). There is one reference to Jesus in ‘Jesus wept over Jerusalem’.

In terms of the research questions, God, as portrayed in the first chapter, is active in demanding action. God is transcendental, not genderised as male or female, and deeply involved in the contextual issues of the time. Moreover, God is portrayed as the Lucan God who calls the ‘church’ to act against injustice (Kairos Document 1985:3–4).

The second chapter of the KD offers a critique of State Theology, the theology of the South African apartheid State that justifies the status quo of racism, capitalism and totalitarianism that especially oppresses the poor. This chapter consists of about 2000 words. It especially criticises ‘the use that is made of the name of God’. It uses ‘God’ and ‘god’ 29 times, of which nine references are to the idol god of the State. It refers to the Second Coming of Christ once. No references are made to Jesus or Jesus Christ (Kairos Document 1985:4–10).

This chapter criticises ‘Church Theology’, that is, the theologies of a majority of ‘English-speaking churches’. These churches use stock phrases to plead for reconciliation, peace, justice and non-violence, and deliberately do not call the church to transforming action. The chapter is a third longer than the previous one on State Theology and comprises about 3000 words. It contains 12 references to God and four to Jesus (Kairos Document 1985:10–17).

The fourth chapter of the KD deals with Prophetic Theology as opposed to both State Theology and Church Theology. It contains about 2500 words and refers to God 13 times, incidentally mainly in noun constructions, in order to give a ‘new’ image to God as opposed to the other theologies (Kairos Document 1985:18–25).

Chapter 5, the last chapter of the KD, calls for the church to participate in the struggle. Seven references are made to God, being actively leading and demanding this struggle, and a call is made to the church to obey, and follow God in this. The chapter is about 1000 words long (Kairos Document 1985:25–28).

The KD concludes with the prayer that ‘God will help all of us to translate the challenge of our times into action’. The final two sentences of the KD are allotted to God:

As indicated above, the God of the KD is an actor. God is a liberator who acted to achieve justice in the Exodus and throughout the history of his people. God’s revelation as an actor has not stopped beyond biblical times, and God reveals himself contextually in the crisis of the present moment. The God of the Bible is the true God and is still acting against his enemies, which now are the idol god of the State and the passive God of some churches.

As in the KD, the CB (1986/2006) of the (then coloured)DRMC provides more than half of its references to God with a verb. God is an actor – and an actor in the moment. God calls the church. God brings justice. God frees, protects, restores and supports. The CB takes God’s caretaking and protecting role seriously and confesses this God at the cost of God the creator, as its other confessions do (ed. Plaatjies-Van Huffel 2017).

Church and Society (Algemene Sinode van die Ned Geref Kerk 1986) is the first step given by the (white) DRC to ‘take itself away from the policy of apartheid’, a move prompted inter alia by the publication of the CB in 1986, a process that had already started in 1982 (Van der Merwe 2013:1). However, the God-talk of the CS remained within the State Theology that was so heavily criticised by the KD, and reacted against by the CB. In short, while the God of the KD and CB is an active God who engages in the moment, the God of the CS is revealed; that is, God’s revelation has been concluded with the Bible. Paragraph 10.2 states that:

(In short, the Word of God is the completed revelation of God and the only measure against which the South African situation will be tested). God is now ‘passive’ whose will should be deduced from how God was revealed in the Word of God. The expressions ‘will of God’ and ‘Word of God’ appear numerous times in the CS as passive constructions. From the 204 references to God, only 24 (11%) see God in action. These references are to God’s actions in the Bible and do not refer to today. Therefore, the verbs assigned to God are mostly in the past tense, for example, ‘God het ‘n nuwe begin gemaak’ or ‘God has made a new beginning’. In short, the God of the CS is the God of ‘heilsgeskiedenis’, who has revealed himself (sic) in salvation history; he is not the contextual God who calls upon his church to action in a specific crisis, as is done in the KD (and also in the CB).

In the KD, God is transcendental and powerful to mobilise people against injustice. However, some of the images in the KD of God siding with the poor and addressing his people’s conscience to obey him may suggest an image of God that is immanent in people as co-sufferer (Landman & Pieterse 2019).

In this regard, the CS has the same image of God as transcendental, encouraging God’s people through God’s Spirit, which also remains transcendental. The CB confesses a God that is siding with the poor, which may point towards some immanence just as it is found in the KD.

The CS once refers to God as on the side of the ‘minderbevoorregtes en die weerloses’ [the less privileged and the defenceless] (Algemene Sinode van die Ned Geref Kerk 1986:26). For the rest, God is fiercely transcendental as the triune God consisting of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Reference to the triune God is made about 15 times in the document. However, several references are made to human beings [die mens] as image bearers [beeldddraers] of God and his representative in paragraph 12.3.5.1 of the CS. Is this to emphasise that, contrary to State Theology in the past, all human beings, irrespective of race, are worthy in God’s eyes, or does it reflect some (albeit accidental) immanency of God in every person?

God is not overtly genderised in the KD. However, there are two places where God is referred to as ‘Father’. Also, the pronouns ‘his’ and ’him’ are used in connection with God, which makes the image of God in the KD male.

The 2006 English version of the CB, which is used here, uses language inclusively as far as God is concerned, replacing all pronouns such as ‘his’ or ‘him’ with a repetition of ‘God’. However, the first and last sentences of CB confess God as Father, which ultimately makes God male, as does the KD.

In the CS, God is overtly male in referring (several times) to God as Father and in the pronouns ‘him’ and ‘his’. Not only is God male, but male is presented as superior, where the CS in paragraph 12.3.5.4 makes some subordinating remarks about ‘woman’ [die vrou] who has been taken from man (sic) to be his helper and supplement.

It seems that (the then called) Feminist Theology which was already rife in Europe as well as in North and South America in the 1980s, and even in Asia and the rest of Africa (see Landman 1984) had not yet hit the South African theological scene in the mid-1980s, not even in local liberation theologies.

What are the theologies underlying the KD? Analysing the theology of Bonganjalo Goba, one of the authors of the KD, Smit (2023:1–13) describes Goba’s Black Theology as the South African Liberation Theology that is based on the local Black Consciousness. It is not ahistorical, but contextually and contemporarily linked to the crisis addressed by the KD. Although Smit’s analysis was made many years after the KD, this author is of the opinion that Black Theology is not only linked to the Kairos Theology but has indeed fed it. Furthermore, although the Prophetic Theology described in the KD is underdeveloped, it provided the Public Theology needed at the time (see Le Bruyns 2015).

While the KD was written by lay and professional theologians, the CB was constructed by academic theologians of the (then) DRMC. It reflects the characteristics of Liberation Theology in presenting God as the active and intervening liberator. However, since Liberation Theology carries many characteristics of missionary piety in its overly biblical language, the CB also displays its roots in the missionary piety of sin, soul and salvation in its choice for these or related words.

The CS is firmly rooted in the predestination theology that has formally been part of its Church Theology for a long time. It confesses the triune God who has chosen ‘his people’ since biblical times and predestined their future for times to come. Israel is God’s chosen people in paragraph 12.1.2, and in paragraph 14.1.1 it is stated, in the same language as pertaining to Israel, that ‘die Ned Geref Kerk vorm deel van God se unieke, heilige en uitverkore eiendomsvolk …’ [the DRC forms part of God’s unique, holy and chosen people that belongs to God]. This theology of being God’s chosen people makes it extremely difficult for the DRC to deviate from the State Theology of apartheid and address the kairos of 1985/1986.

The God of the KD calls to action and leads the war against the idol god of the State, as God has done in the Exodus and numerous other times in the Old Testament. However, the war is not for blood or power, but to restore justice, reconciliation and eventually peace. However, the God of the KD does not reconcile before injustice has been conquered. In the KD God speaks through the Lukan Jesus for justice. However, while God is mentioned 73 times in the KD, there are only seven references to Jesus, and three to Jesus Christ. It seems, therefore, that in the KD priority is given to God as the liberating God, especially rooted in the Old Testament. While God revealed himself in the active spirituality of both the Old and New Testaments, it is the God of the Exodus that takes the front page in the KD.

The God of the CB is the New Testament God of love, justice and peace. Of the almost 50 Scriptural references in CB, only three are from the Old Testament, all of them confirming God’s loving commitment to justice and reconciliation (Baron 2017). However, in comparison to the 24 references to ‘God’, the CB only refers 11 times to Jesus (Christ) and four times to the (Holy) Spirit.

The God of the CS is the God who has chosen his people since Israel’s time to be his special focus. Emphasis is on the triune God of the New Testament, who has his roots in the Old Testament and has remained the same forever. God has appointed the State (in this context the apartheid State) to rule over people with authority, and the State should therefore be obeyed. Claiming that God is the God of both the Old and the New Testament, the CS, however, continues to confess the God of the status quo of State Theology. Like the KD and the BC, the CS contains 204 references to ‘God’ in comparison to the 57 references to Jesus (Christ) and the 19 references to the Holy Spirit.

The question remains why these three documents, but especially the liberational KD and the CB, make significantly more references to God than to Jesus (Christ) or the (Holy) Spirit. At this stage, it can only be regarded as an observation; the explanation for this observation is to be undertaken in future research.