Barend J. Marais

Barend Jacobus "Ben" Marais (26 April 1909 – 27 January 1999) was a South African Dutch Reformed minister, theologian, church historian and ecumenist. He was among the earliest prominent Afrikaner theologians within the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) to reject attempts to justify racial segregation and apartheid from the Bible.

Marais served as a professor of church history and church polity at the University of Pretoria from 1954 until his retirement in 1974 and subsequently taught at the University of South Africa until 1986. He participated in international ecumenical organisations, contributed to the anti-apartheid theological collection Vertraagde Aksie (Delayed Action), and was a founding member of the Christian Institute of Southern Africa. Although his early criticism did not amount to an immediate rejection of every form of racial separation, his challenge to the biblical foundations of apartheid helped establish a tradition of dissent within the DRC later associated with theologians such as B. B. Keet, Beyers Naudé and David Bosch. He was the son of Willem Frederik Marais and Elizabeth Magdalena Botha and was one of twelve children. On 29 April 1939 Marais married Sebastina Catharina Maria Botha in Kuruman, Cape Province.

He entered Stellenbosch University in 1928 to prepare for the ministry of the Dutch Reformed Church. After completing his theological training at Stellenbosch, Marais continued his studies at Princeton Theological Seminary in the United States. He obtained a Master of Theology degree there in 1936. His experience abroad exposed him to American discussions of race, mission and ecumenism and contributed to his growing awareness that the racial policies of South African churches were increasingly isolated from international Christianity.

Marais's contribution, "Die Kerk in die Huidige Wêreld" ("The Church in the contemporary world"), addressed the church's public responsibility in a racially divided society. He argued that Christians could not refuse fellowship or prayer with other believers solely because of their race.

The University of Pretoria held the first Ben Marais Memorial Lecture in August 1993. Marais attended and participated in the event, which reflected a growing reassessment of his treatment by the university and the DRC.

Marais suffered a stroke in 1998 and did not fully recover. He died in Pretoria on 27 January 1999, aged 89.

Legacy Marais is remembered as one of the earliest sustained critics of apartheid theology from within the Dutch Reformed Church. His significance lay particularly in challenging the claim that racial separation was an unambiguous biblical doctrine. His appeals to Christian brotherhood, the universal church, responsible biblical interpretation and international ecumenical opinion provided resources later developed more radically by figures such as Beyers Naudé, Albert Geyser and other anti-apartheid theologians.

His career also illustrates the gradual development of white Afrikaans theological opposition to apartheid. Marais moved beyond the dominant racial theology of his church but remained committed to reform through established church institutions. His opposition to the WCC's support for liberation movements and the paternalistic elements in his earlier work distinguish his position from later Black and liberation theologians.

The DRC's recognition of Marais in 1994 symbolised its broader repudiation of the theological justification of apartheid and its acknowledgement that internal dissenters had been marginalised or ignored.

Selected publications (1946). Die Christelike Broederskapsleer: Sy Agtergrond en Toepassing in die Vroeë Kerk. Doctoral dissertation, Stellenbosch University. (1950). "Die Skrif en Rasse-apartheid." Die Gereformeerde Vaandel. 18 (1): 14–25. (1952). Die kleur-krisis en die Weste. Johannesburg: Goeie Hoop Uitgewers. (1953). Colour: Unsolved Problem of the West. Cape Town: Howard B. Timmins. (1960). "Die Kerk in die Huidige Wêreld." In A. S. Geyser and B. B. Keet, eds., Vertraagde Aksie: 'n Ekumeniese Getuienis uit die Afrikaanssprekende Kerk. (1960). Die Kerk deur die Eeue. Pretoria: N. G. Kerkboekhandel. (1964). The Two Faces of Africa. Pietermaritzburg: Shuter & Shooter. (1974). Die Verre Horison: Gebede vir Soggens en Saans. Pretoria: N. G. Kerkboekhandel.