Old and new alliances: Christian churches and the African National Congress in South Africa

This chapter explores the dynamic relationship between different Christian churches and the African National Congress across time. It highlights the importance of understanding the interconnective and evolving relations between religion and party politics in a country in which religion plays a major role in shaping society and visions for the future. Evangelical Christianity, in the case of South Africa especially in the form of Pentecostal-charismatic churches and African Independent Churches, remained distant from politics and public engagement with political parties and political movements during Apartheid and in the first democratic era. Mainline churches, after the huge effort of participating into the democratisation process of several African countries in the 1990s and challenged by the growth of evangelical Christianity, have struggled to redefine a clear political theology of action in more times. An honourable exception being the extremely active Catholic Church in the Democratic Republic of Congo during the build-up and running of the national elections in December 2019.