Foreword

Fawcett (media studies, U. of Ulster) argues that mainstream western Protestant religions have proved as liable to become involved in ethnic conflict as the foreign religious fundamentalists the media perpetually warn against. She cites two lengthy examples. One, not surprisingly, is the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, and the other is the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa. She demonstrates the interdependent nature of the relationship between the religious and secular spheres during a period of rapid change in both territories, and investigates the powerful symbolism of civil religion that encompasses the Protestant Orange Order and the imagery of Afrikaner nationalism.