Examining Beyers Naudé’s witness in apartheid South Africa as an embodiment of Belhar confession

Abstract

Beyers Naudé’s witness from 1963 to the end of the apartheid government in 1994 reflects the principles of the Belhar Confession. He was originally an ardent supporter of apartheid theology, having been part of its most influential structures at the time. Some of them were the Dutch Reformed Church, the Afrikaner Broederbond, and Stellenbosch University, where he studied theology, which was also regarded as a factory for influential apartheid leaders such as John Vorster, a prime minister and later fourth state president of the apartheid regime as well as HF Verwoerd, the architect of apartheid. In the early 1960s, long before the birth of the Belhar Confession, he ‘converted’ from being an apologist of apartheid theology. He thus became a true servant of Christ who, in the wording of Black Theology, advocated a life of justice for all with God as understood to be of the side of what Mofokeng calls the ‘non-persons’ or the oppressed. Drawing on existing literature by way of a qualitative review, the author analytically links the life and witness of Beyers Naudé with the message of the Belhar Confession to examine the witness of Beyers Naudé within the parameters of the Belhar Confession after his ‘conversion’ in 1963 until 1994. In addition, the aim of this is to further explore and determine whether he could serve as an example of living the message of the Belhar Confession. The essay concludes that he succeeded in being an epitome of the message of the Belhar Confession in the apartheid context and that he remained a reliable role model for the lived experience of the Belhar Confession.
Contribution: This study argues that Beyers Naudé’s witness in apartheid South Africa succeeded in enacting the message of the Belhar Confession. While it falls within the scope of Systematic Theology, it also has interdisciplinary implications for disciplines such as Missiology, Church History, Sociology and Anthropology.