Editing Afrikaner Calvinism (section)

==Doppers==
In the South African Dutch Reformed Church in Transvaal, the more conservative party (known as [[Doppers]]) were opposed to singing some hymns in church. They asked the Afgescheiden Gereformeerde Kerk in the Netherlands to provide them with a minister. The Rev. [[Dirk Postma]] came from Zwolle to the South African Republic in 1858, and was accepted as a minister of the Hervormde Kerk, but on learning that he and his congregation could be required to sing hymns (rather than [[Exclusive psalmody|the Psalms only]]), he and the Doppers, numbering about 300 adults, among whom was the [[South African Republic]]'s President [[Paul Kruger]], broke away from the state church to form the [[Gereformeerde Kerk]] in Rustenburg in February 1859. There were thus now three Dutch Reformed Churches in South Africa – the Afrikaner Nederduits Gereformeerde Kerk (the Cape Synod), the Boer [[Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk]], which was the State Church of the South African Republic, and the Boer [[Gereformeerde Kerk]], the smallest of the three, led by Rev. Postma.

The originally contemptuous name, ''Dopper'', may come from the Dutch ''domp'' (''wick-snuffers'') for their opposition to candles and other innovations in worship, perhaps representing their contempt for the Enlightenment; or, ''Dopper'' may originate from Dutch ''dop'' (and thus ''drinkers''), perhaps on account of their strong opposition to small, individual communion cups.{{sfn|Lee|1992}}

The [[separatism]] of the Doppers, expressed in the severity of their doctrine, the austere [[Religious fanaticism|puritanism]] of their worship, and even in their distinctive dress and speech, set them in stark contrast to European influence. Nevertheless, the Doppers were symbolic of resistance to all things English in South Africa, and despite their small size and distinctiveness they were culturally sophisticated and disproportionately influential during and after the Great Trek. It was the Dopper church that established [[Potchefstroom University]].

[[Boer Republic]]s which arose after the Great Trek needed a comprehensive philosophy upon which to organise a puritanical Boer society. [[Paul Kruger]], first president of the [[South African Republic]] upon its reacquired independence after the brief British annexation, adopted the Calvinistic principles in its political form, and formulated a ''cultural mandate'' based on the Voortrekkers' conviction that they had a special calling from God, not unlike the people of Israel in the Bible. The Doppers waged an intellectual war against the perceived influx of [[uitlander]] culture which was flooding into the Transvaal through the mass settlements of foreign immigrants lured by gold and diamonds.