About the Author

Mirjam Rahel Scarborough (nee Meier—1957-2011) was a Swiss ‘farm girl’—yet one of considerable depth and sophisti­cation.  She was a Con­gregational minis­ter, a doctor of philosophy, a co-director of the World Evangelical Alliance's Inter­na­tional Insti­tute for Relig­ious Freedom, and execu­tive editor of the Inter­na­tion­al Journal for Religious Free­dom. She was treasured for her ministry in the local and area Church.  In 1982, she married Thomas, and they have a son Matthew, who was born in 1986.  Thomas is a Con­grega­tion­al min­ister, and Matthew is pursuing doc­toral research in palaeo-biology at the Uni­versity of Cape Town (UCT).  Mirjam loved cook­ing and enter­tain­ing.  She was char­ac­ter­ized by a peace­ful, radi­cal faith.  Sadly, at the end of 2009, shortly after com­plet­ing her doctorate, she was diag­nos­ed with end-stage bone marrow cancer.  Her speci­alist called her ‘our miracle girl,’ as she far outlived medical expec­ta­tions.  She said that her final year was the most fulfilled year of her life.  Her memorial service was conducted by her academic supervisor Prof. John de Gruchy—who, she said, was like a father to her.  In spite of her connec­tions, she wanted all other participants in the service to be persons without note. —Thomas Scarborough.