The Nazareth Baptist Church as Subordinationist Christianity

Abstract

In response to earlier syncretic and nationalist approaches, recent scholarship has avoided questions of how African Zionist churches fit within Christendom. This article contends that we should not abandon such comparative questions, even though the first and second generation of attempts produced results we now find objectionable. An examination of the theology of Isaiah Shembe and the early Nazareth Baptist Church reveals both a soteriology and a concept of Godhead that was subordinationist. This article illustrates that when contextualised within Christian history Shembe and the Nazareth Baptist Church would best be understood as an alternative and latent form of Christianity that has surfaced at multiple points in Christian history. The early Nazareth Baptist Church, as previous scholarship insisted, represents neither a syncretic deviation from orthodoxy nor an oasis of indigenous cultural preservation, but was rather an alternative form of Christianity. However, unlike neighbouring churches in colonial-era South Africa, the early Nazareth Baptist Church has much in common with other forms of Christianity that do not follow the orthodox consensus. Thinking of Shembe and the Nazareth Baptist Church in this comparative manner enhances our appreciation of their Christianness and more closely resembles how the members of the church wished to be understood.