Abstract:
The story of Dr Beyers Naude is part of the history of the Afrikaner nation. Brought up in a home where a great deal of effort went into changing the status of the Afrikaner Nation from an underprivileged to a privileged nation, Naude grew up with a well-developed sense of social injustice. As a result, Naude has been at loggerheads with the Dutch Reformed Church (hereafter abbreviated to: DRC) since 1960 about the way in which it handled the racial question. Naude resigned as a minister of the DRC and became director of the multiracial anti-apartheid organisation, the Christian Institute of Southern Africa (hereafter abbreviated to: CI). The climax of all these actions came in 1966 when the General Synod of the DRC judged against the CI and pronounced it a heretical organisation. The DRC's action drew serious criticism from national and international groups. Naude became a celebrity among ecumenicals worldwide and used his position to isolate the DRC. As a result of Naude's ecumenical contracts' he became theologically more radical. This radicalization is evident from his support of liberation theology, black theology and neo-Marxism. All the above took place despite the fact that the DRC and the South African Government have gradually been eliminating apartheid since 1966. During this time the brief was given to revise the concepts race, group and nation. These revisions eventually led to the publication Church and Society in which a negative view of apartheid is promoted.
