Abstract
The unity of the church in jeopardy This article examines the possible influence that a church’s understanding of ecclesiology could have on its approach to homosexual people, with special reference to the Netherdutch Reformed Church of Africa (NRCA). By referring to recent debates in the NRCA concerning the prominence the Church awards to the tenet of an ‘ethnic church’ (‘volkskerk’) in its ecclesiology, it is argued that the Church’s understanding of the confession of the one, holy, apostolic and catholic church is not reflected in the NRCA’s own ecclesiology and that this has direct implications for the Church’s understanding and accommodation of homosexual people. It is concluded that if the Church maintains an inclusive character as it is meant in the Creeds, the Church has to design and incorporate models of being church that adhere to this character and the abovementioned confession.
Highlights
Die huidige debat aangaande homoseksualiteit1 het die Christelike kerk voor ‘n krisis te staan gebring (Rogers 2006:i; Dreyer 2004:176)
Ook Küng ([1968] 2001:115) verklaar dat die kerk die uitdrukkings wat in die Ou Testament op Israel van toepassing was, op sigself van toepassing maak en dat gelowiges hulself nie noodwendig Christene nie, maar volk van God genoem het
Wolff, E., 2006, ‘Die anatomie van ‘n teologiese ideologie: Die Hervormde Kerk se steun aan die Apartheid Ideologie’, Historia 51(1), 141−162
Summary
Affiliations: 1Department of Systematic Theology and Christian Ethics, Univeristy of Pretoria, South Africa. Postal address: Department of Systematic Theology and Christian Ethics, Univeristy of Pretoria, Lynwood Road, Hatfield 0083, Pretoria, South Africa. How to cite this article: Van Wyk, T. & Buitendag, J., 2010, ‘Die eenheid van die kerk in gedrang’, HTS Teologiese Studies/ Theological Studies 66(1), Art. Note: This article is a reworked version of a minidissertation entitled ‘Die rol wat ‘n ekklesiologie speel in die verstaan en hantering van homoseksuele persone met besondere verwysing na die NHKA’, presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Theology in 2009 at the University of Pretoria under the supervision of Prof.
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