Allan Boesak

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Allan Boesak (1986)

Allan Aubrey Boesak (born February 23, 1945 in Kakamas , Cape Province ) is a South African Reformed pastor , theologian , anti- apartheid activist and at times also a politician . He was sentenced to six years in prison in 1999, of which he served one year and was subsequently parole. At the turn of the year 2004/2005 he was again admitted as a pastor in his church and also pardoned by the state.

Theologian, pastor and activist

Boesak first drew attention to himself in 1976 with his published doctoral thesis Farewell to Innocence , with which he cleverly wrote a contribution to a South African theology of liberation (especially in the field of social ethics ), especially in dialogue with the American black theologian James H. Cone . In the following ten years a number of other relevant well-known publications came about.

From 1982 to 1991 he was President of the World Reformed Federation . During the 1980s he was known as an anti-apartheid activist. In 1983 he helped found the opposition alliance United Democratic Front . In 1986 he received the Thomas Merton Award for Peace and Social Justice. In 1990 Boesak had to resign from his church offices in South Africa after an extramarital relationship with Elna Botha (whom he later married) became public.

In 1991 he was elected chairman of the regional branch of the African National Congress in the Western Cape .

Fraud controversy

In the late 1990s, Boesak and his non-governmental Foundation for Peace and Justice sparked controversy and ultimately a trial in which he was sentenced to six years in prison for fraud. However, he only served one year from it. Boesak was pardoned by South African President Thabo Mbeki and dismissed on May 22, 2001; his criminal history has been removed from the register. A few months earlier, a rural church near Cape Town had elected him pastor.

Works

  • Farewell to Innocence: A Socio-Ethical Study on Black Theology and Black Power. 1976 (German: innocence that makes you guilty: a social-ethical study of black theology and black power. ) Hamburg: Lutherisches Verlagshaus 1977 ISBN 3-7859-0424-X
  • The Finger of God: Sermons on Faith and Socio-Political Responsibility. 1982 (German: A hint from God: 12 sermons in the situation of black people in South Africa. Hamburg: Lutherisches Verlagshaus 1980 ISBN 3-7859-0465-7 )
  • Black and Reformed: Apartheid, Liberation, and the Calvinist Tradition. Maryknoll: Orbis Books 1984 ISBN 0883441489 .
  • Boesak, AA & C Villa-Vicencio (eds) 1986. When Prayer Makes News. Philadelphia: Westminster Press. ISBN 0664240356 [= A Call for an End to Unjust Rule. Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press. ISBN 0715205943 ]
  • Comfort and Protest: Reflections on the Apocalypse of John of Patmos. 1987 (German: Write to the Angel of South Africa: Consolation and Protest in the Apocalypse of Johannes. Stuttgart: Cross 1988 ISBN 3-7831-0913-2 )
  • If This Is Treason, I Am Guilty. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans 1987 ISBN 0802802516 .

literature

  • Hans-Jürgen Sievers: Allan Boesak. Union, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-372-00240-7 .
  • Adelbert Scholtz: Allan Boesak: Religion and violence. Busse Seewald, Herford 1989, ISBN 3-512-00955-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Portrait at sahistory.org.za (English), accessed on November 13, 2016
personal data
SURNAME Boesak, Allan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Boesak, Allan Aubrey
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African Reformed pastor, theologian, anti-apartheid activist and politician
DATE OF BIRTH February 23, 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH Kakamas , Cape Province