?It is the value of Templin's thorough study that it carefully examines ... and calls into serious question the unthinking equation of Afrikaner nationalism and its apartheid ideology with Calvinism. Templin does this by tracing the role which the concept of an elect people' played in the history of Afrikanerdom from the beginning of the Dutch settlement at the Cape in 1652 to the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910. ... Those who are relatively unfamiliar with South African history will find this a useful introduction to a major segment of it. But the importance of the book is really its unpacking of the role which the concept of divine election' has played in fashioning Afrikaner consciousness and identity.?-The Iliff Review