The church's responsibility towards the social order : an Old Testament hermeneutic problem

Abstract

There is a widespread conviction among conservative groups in the Afrikaans speaking mainline churches in South Africa that the church has a responsibility towards the structuring of society. This conviction is based on a reading of the Old Testament which can be traced back to Calvin. The article hypothesises that such a hermeneutic cannot be maintained in the aftermath of historical-critical research in Biblical studies.