About Us

The Department of Church History and Church Polity is the largest in South Africa. The three full-time staff members are specialists in the field of South African church/mission history and church polity. We operate from the perspective of ecumenical church history in a multi-church faculty. While we serve the specific needs of partner churches, we offer broad based courses in general world Christian history and South/African church history.

To complement and supplement the current staff, we have extraordinary professors who specialise in early Christianity, South African mission history, post-Reformation and modern church history and ecumenical church polity.

Two of our staff members have been rated by the National Research Foundation (NRF), one of whom is an ‘A’ rated scholar.

All our staff take advantage of opportunities to enhance their personal and professional development. All are involved in various community engagement projects within their own denomination and in the wider community.

Vision

The vision of the Department is aligned to the vision of the Faculty of Theology and the University of Pretoria, which is to be a Faculty recognised for its creative engagement with a life-giving theology and religious insight, of service to the academy, church and community. The Department aims to be grounded in investigating the past with a view to developing a sound historical consciousness and understanding of Christianity, which are indispensible to authentic and relevant ministry and theology. This vision is pursued in an ecumenical context. Our aim is to be responsive to our local, national and international contexts.

During the past few years we have introduced new undergraduate programmes that are supported by study guides, the use of ClickUP. The current focus of our teaching methodology is a blended learning approach to support inquiry-based learning.