Belhar revisitedThe unity of the church and socio-cultural identitieswithin the Reformed tradition2

Abstract

This article addresses the question whether the Belhar Confession provides the theological resources to deal with the issue of the unity of the church in relation to socio-cultural identities within the Reformed tradition. After providing an analysis of Belhar, a historical account is given of its reception within the World Alliance of Reformed Churches during the 1990s, after the demise of state-sanctioned apartheid in South Africa and the global rise of nationalistic identity politics. The very limited impact leads one to a new reading of Belhar in order to discover its potential, as well as its limitations.