The Story of Isaiah Shembe, Volume Three: The Continuing Story of the Sun and the Moon

Sacred History & Traditions of the Amanazoretha #3

by Irving Hexham (Editor), Hans-Jurgen Becken (Translator), G. C. Oosthuizen (Editor)

The third volume in a series on the oral history of the Ibandla IamaNazaretha, the Nazareth Baptist Church of South Africa - the largest African Independent Church among the Zulu-speaking people of Southern Africa.

Oral testimony and the sacred history of the ama-Nazarites under the leadership of bishops Johannes Galilee Shembe and Amos Shembe.

364 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Irving Hexham (born 1943) is a Canadian academic and writer who has published twenty-three books and numerous articles, chapters, and book reviews in respected academic journals. Currently, he is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, married to Dr. Karla Poewe who is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Calgary. He holds dual British and Canadian citizenship.

Hexham was born in Whitehaven, Cumberland, England. After leaving school at the age of fifteen he spent six years (1958–1964) as an apprentice gas fitter with the North Western Gas Board, and obtained his City and Guilds and advanced diplomas in Gas Technology. After the completion of his apprenticeship he was offered a management position with the Gas Board. During his industrial career he also served as a union representative.

Hexham qualified for university matriculation by correspondence study and entered the University of Lancaster in 1967 where he majored in Religious Studies with minors in History and Philosophy. He graduated with a B.A.(Hons) in 1970. He then proceeded to post-graduate studies, obtaining his MA "with commendation" in religious studies and theology from the Bristol University in 1972. His MA was based on anthropological methods and theories and involved a short dissertation on Glastonbury. He obtained a PhD in History from the University of Bristol in 1975. His PhD thesis was on Afrikaner Calvinism and the origins of apartheid as an ideology. In the course of his studies he lived in the Republic of South Africa and studied the languages of German and Afrikaans. His MA supervisor was F.B. Welbourn; his PhD supervisor was Kenneth Ingham. When he was in South Africa Elaine Botha at Potchefstroom University was appointed his local supervisor by the University of Bristol.