Abstract
Die waardering vir president MT Steyn onder sy mense het weerklink in beskrywings waarmee hulle hom gekarakteriseer het, soos "Afrikaner van die Afrikaners" en "siel van die Vryheidstryd". Steyn (1896-1902) was die laaste president van die Republiek van die Oranje-Vrystaat, maar die eerste een wat in dié onafhanklike Boererepubliek gebore is. Omstanders kon sy belydenis van God Drie-enig as die Driemaal Heilige God uit sy eie mond hoor. Hy het sy taak, waaronder die Vrystaat se deelname aan die Anglo-Boereoorlog, in die geloof aangepak. Sy reaksie op probleme was gegrond op Christelike lewenswaarhede. Hoewel hy soms in onpersoonlike, onsydige terme na God verwys het, sou dit hom nie verhinder om die Bybel as gids vir die lewe te aanvaar nie. Vanuit sy agtergrond as 'n Vrystaatse boerseun sou Steyn 'n spontane band met die Afrikaner en veral die Vrystaatse Afrikaner ontwikkel. Deur studie en opleiding as 'n Afrikaner uit Afrika in Nederland en Brittanje, asook deur sy vriendskap met bekende Engelse van Bloemfontein en sy werk as 'n Vrystaatse regter, sou Steyn ontwikkel in 'n moderne, belese en berese staatsman. Hierdie Vrystaatse president het gedurende sy ampstydperk (1896-1902) getoon dat hy deeglik op hoogte was van Suid-Afrikaanse en Westerse denkrigtings en dat hy sy eie posisie as Vrystater in hierdie opsig na binne en buite kon verantwoord. Steyn se optrede as president op nasionale sowel as internasionale vlak is deurgaans gerig deur die beginsel van reg en geregtigheid. Hy was uitgesproke Afrikaans, maar met lewensruimte vir ander groepe. Daarby was hy 'n voorstander van die strukturele gelykwaardigheid van state, ongeag hulle mag of vermoë. Steyn se sentrale lewenskompas is op die Vrouemonument aangebring: "Uw wil geschiede …".
Highlights
Steyn was born near the town of Winburg in the Free State on 2 October 1857, the first president to be born in the republic as such and educated within an Afrikaner farming community – according to him he was a “simple” son of a farmer (“’n gewone boerseun”), familiar with both “a horse and a gun”
He was the political and spiritual leader – the real first citizen – of the Republic of the Orange Free State at the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer war in 1899. His reading of this momentous event was that the very existence of the Afrikaner people was at stake
Even the unimaginable suffering endured by women and children in concentration camps, where more than 34 000 Afrikaner women and children reportedly died of unnatural causes, eventually resulted in the words, “Let thy will be done..” being included in the inscription on the Women’s Memorial in 1913
Summary
Pieter Johannes Strauss word in 1988 ’n dosent in Ekklesiologie of Kerkgeskiedenis en Kerkreg aan sy alma mater, die Universiteit van die Vrystaat. Pieter Johannes Strauss was appointed as a lecturer in Church Polity and Church History at his alma mater, the University of the Free State in 1988. Apart from more than 150 articles in accredited academic journals, he authored a number of books In his scriptural academic work he focuses on a refor med Polity and contemporary (modern) Church History. Two of his main books are Church and order today (2010) and Being church in troubled times – the Dutch Reformed Church in the bond of its general Synod (2013). Tydskrif vir Geesteswetenskappe, Jaargang 61 No 3: September 2021 doi.10.17159/2224-7912/2021/v61n3a3
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
