Heretic or rebel? The heresy trial of Albert Geyser

HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Heretic or rebel? The heresy trial of Albert Geyser
 
Creator Dreyer, Wim
 
Subject Historical Theology Albert Geyser; heresy, Christology; apartheid; Cottesloe Consultation
Description During September 1961, a charge of heresy was laid against New Testament scholar and antiapartheid activist Prof. A.S. (Albert) Geyser. The charge was brought by three senior theological students of the University of Pretoria. They accused Geyser of interpreting Philippians 2 in such a way that it undermined the church’s doctrine of Christ’s pre-existence. The heresy trial started on 24 October 1961 under massive public interest. The trial lasted 6 months and the proceedings covered 2672 typed pages. Reporters of 25 national and international newspapers attended the trial. The heresy trial caused widespread international condemnation of what was regarded as an orchestrated attempt to get rid of Geyser, because of his public and radical opposition to apartheid. In this contribution, Geyser’s theological critique of apartheid as well as his conviction of heresy is discussed. The proceedings of the trial, minutes of the moderature, media coverage and Geyser’s publications serve as primary sources. It concludes with a critical evaluation of Geyser’s theology and his role as a public theologian.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor Research Development Programme (UP)
Date 2016-11-25
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Historical inquiry
Format text/html application/octet-stream text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/hts.v72i4.3745
 
Source HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies; Vol 72, No 4 (2016); 10 pages 2072-8050 0259-9422
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/3745/8936 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/3745/8935 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/3745/8937 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/3745/8853
 
Coverage South Africa 1960 50 male white
Rights Copyright (c) 2016 Wim Dreyer https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
ADVERTISEMENT