Evangelicalism and Racial Exclusivism in Afrikaner History: An Ambiguous Relationship

What was the relationship in South Africa between evangelicalism and policies of segregation and apartheid in Afrikaner reformed Christianity? This article critically engages this question in reference to the claim by David Bosch that the first internal voices of protest against apartheid came from the side of evangelicals who had been involved in crosscultural mission. This considers the background of the theory, some historical representatives of evangelicalism in South Africa, and the hybridization of evangelicalism in the lives of certain dissident Afrikaner theologians. The conclusion assesses possible ways in which the Bosch thesis may, or may not, pertain to evangelicalism more generally.