How do South Africans understand democracy and Christianity?

The average South African is often seen as Christian and as supporting democracy. The intention of this paper is to interrogate the public understanding of these two concepts, by examining levels of agreement or disagreement with several statements regarding principles of Christianity and democracy that were included in public opinion surveys conducted during 2001. Indices of concurrence with orthodox Christianity and liberal democracy are generated in an attempt to elucidate differences of understanding by adult South Africans.