Johan Heyns and the class of '51 - prolegomena to a story of people who got hurt

Abstract

This article consists of three parts. In the first part a story is told of Johan Heyns and some of the men who shared with him the final year of theological training at the University of Pretoria in 1951. In the second part prolegomena to the telling of a new story of Johan Heyns are explained. Finally this new story is told by using the voices of six people - students, colleagues and family - who interrupt each other's voice on Johan Heyns, thereby undermining the popular ideal amongst local church historians that religion biography can and should recreate a complete and consistent image of a person's (moral) reality.