Black and white civil religion as ideology

Abstract

The author points out that the term ideology has changed to a negative connotation following the initially positive connotation it had. The negative connotation has been reinforced following its association with Marxism. In this article it is pointed out that ideology has increasingly gained the nature of civil religion because soteriological issues have come to be settled in terms of some immanent frame of reference. The author looks at White(Afrikaner) civil religion in South Africa as well as at Black civil religion. The conclusion is inevitably drawn that in both Black and White civil religion in South Africa the fundamental message of the Gospel has been identified with the suffering, oppression or nationalistic aspirations of some or other specific group. The author concludes by saying that to the extent that Afrikaners have done this in the process of history their experience of history ought to be subjected to a critical test in the light of Scripture. To the extent that Blacks are tempted to harness the fundamental message of the Gospel to their own cultural and national aspirations, the same test has to be applied.