Book Review

It seems cruel to begin, in describing a book that casts as wide a net as this one does, by noting what is missing rather than what is contained in its pages. This collection eschews radical or materialist perspectives. Its primary focus is neither on the spiritual aspects of the struggle of the white and black South African Left toward greater political liberation nor on the more repressive political consequences of institutionalized right-wing Christianity. Instead it concentrates on close scholarly consideration of the impact of liberal and conservative Western religious traditions, arguing in the process for the larger recognition of the myriad ways in which majority Christian influence has shaped the history of the region. While the emphasis is on Protestant denominations, especially the missions, organizations, and power of the dominant English-speaking churches and of the Afrikaner Dutch Reformed Church, there is also examination of German-Scandinavian Lutheranism-Moravianism, Roman Catholicism, Islam, and Judaism and of the strongly syncretic nature of non-mainline African churches. The book is densely concentrated and ambitious. While occasionally uneven in quality, it is admirably multifaceted, successfully presenting many carefully researched and richly reasoned individual readings that reflect the very complicated nature of its subject.

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