Journal: Conspectus
Volume: CONSPECTUS 37:1 (Apr 2024)
Article: Maintaining An Evangelical Faith In The Face Of A Decadent Culture Of Democracy
Author: Kelebogile Thomas Resane

Conspectus 37:1 (April 2024) p. 69

Maintaining An Evangelical Faith In The Face Of A Decadent Culture Of Democracy

Kelebogile Thomas Resane

University of the Free State

About The Author

Dr. Kelebogile Thomas Resane is a former Teaching and Learning Manager at the University of the Free State in the Faculty of Theology and Religion. Resane remains a research fellow at the same university for the Department of Historical and Constructive Theology. He obtained his Ph.D. in Systematic Theology at the University of Pretoria in 2008. Over the years, Resane has been involved in various initiatives serving children and youth under Youth for Christ International. He retired in 2022 as a National Director of Bible League South Africa. He published over seventy academic articles in peer-reviewed journals and chapters in books and is the author of the books, Mentoring: A Journey to the Best One Can Be (2013), Communion Ecclesiology in a Racially Proliferated South Africa (2017), and South African Christian Experiences (2020). He was appointed the Editor-in-Chief of the African Journal of Pentecostal Studies in September 2023. Email: [email protected]

This article: https://www.sats.ac.za/conspectus/maintaining-evangelical-faith-face https://doi.org/10.54725/conspectus.2024.1.5

Abstract

Evangelicals living in a democracy are faced with the pressures of constitutionalism and the influence of secularism. These two forces unsettle God from the public spaces and enhance decadent culture. This article addresses the current challenges Evangelicals face in the decadent culture of democracy in South Africa. The essence of the proposal is how South African Evangelicals should maintain their confession, while surrounded by unethical practices of corruption and greed. An interdisciplinary approach is followed, so literature from the disciplines of Church History, Systematic Theology, Ethics, Cultural Anthropology, Sociology, and Political Studies are reviewed to address the problem. The history of the Evangelical faith and the rationale behind Evangelical awakenings open the discussion into the presentation. The Evangelical dogma is highlighted, followed by the definition of democracy with its entrenched decadent culture. Church, government, and the family are identified as places of contestation, where Evangelicals sense the threat to their doctrinal tenets. The challenge faced by Evangelicals can be addressed by remaining evangelically rooted and by holding unswervingly to three major doctrinal tenets, which are the doctrine of the Trinity, the doctrine of human depravity, and in the belief that the Bible is the measure of faith and conduct.

Keywords

Evangelical, culture, democracy, co...