The new in the religious movements among Zulu and Swazi

Authors

• Bengt Sundkler

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30674/scripta.67093

Keywords:

South Africa, Christianity and African religions, African independent churches, Africa, Group identity

Abstract

What was new in the Early Christian Church? Is it not a fact that continuity with the Old Testament background dominated? The first Christians were Jews; their Holy Book was the "Old" Testament; they honoured the Torah; and felt at the Sabbath at home in the Temple. All this goes to show that nothing, perhaps, was new. Yet, to the early Christians everything was, in fact, new. This same tension can be discerned in the modern Christian prophet movements in Africa. All of us who have tried to interpret aspects of this movement were intent on proving that what was new was in fact—the Old. Within the apparently Christian Church the old traditional African patterns showed through and dominated. If "magic" was found to have been smelled out, this was mentioned only in order to show how the particular group was dominated by fear of magic. In studying the "blend of old and new" in the movements it was easy to suggest that the interesting aspect was role of traditional values, dressed up in new forms.