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This dissertation analyzes Rick Warren's hermeneutic based on his writings, conferences, sermons, and Bible studies. Chapter 1 introduces the topic giving special attention to Warren's popularity and the need for an examination of his hermeneutic. Chapter 2 demonstrates that Warren's purpose-driven hermeneutic is based on his understanding of the purpose of the Bible. In particular, Warren's doctrine of the Bible, his Bible study methodology, and his emphasis on the essential nature of application to the task of Bible interpretation are addressed. Chapter 3 examines Warren's preaching as a source for evaluating his hermeneutic. This chapter gives an explanation of his verse-with-verse methodology and how he uses Scripture to develop sermon series, individual messages, and the preaching points within his messages. Chapter 4 addresses Warren's hermeneutic as it is revealed in his writings and conferences. The chapter focuses on The Purpose Driven Church and its associated conference and materials, The Purpose Driven Life and the various Bible studies associated with the "40 Days of Purpose," and Warren's other books. Chapter 5 is devoted to Warren's use of translations and paraphrases as key to understanding his hermeneutic. An overall list of translations and paraphrases used by Warren is given along with a statistical analysis of the frequency of translation usage in his various works. A final chapter offers a conclusion to the study. An evaluation of overall trends, strengths, and weakness of Warren's purpose-driven hermeneutic is included. This chapter also gives a summary of the conclusions that the research has supported and an examination of some implications of Warren's hermeneutic to the greater field of church growth preaching. / This item is only available to students and faculty of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. If you are not associated with SBTS, this dissertation may be purchased from <a href="http://disexpress.umi.com/dxweb">http://disexpress.umi.com/dxweb</a> or downloaded through ProQuest's Dissertation and Theses database if your institution subscribes to that service.

Thesis advisor: James F. Keenan / I have titled this thesis “A hermeneutical approach to natural law,” and I want to investigate the making of moral theology in accounting for the contributions of the natural sciences. Thinking in terms of the theological and scientific discourses, one realizes that both render distinct interpretations of nature, and natural law arguments emerge from these interpretations in the sphere of ethics. Thus, a hermeneutics of the scientific activity and of moral reasoning delineates a major field of the dialogue between faith and reason. / Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

This thesis offers an interpretation of how eight male primary school teachers experience touch between themselves and their pupils/students. Despite the positive benefits of touch and evidence suggesting that appropriate forms of touch should be encouraged, the many meanings, interpretations and reactions to touch potentially complicate the ways in which people react. The potential for touch to enhance human well-being is therefore often diminished. The taboo surrounding touch is particularly evident in the school environment where limited research has been undertaken. This study gives voice to male teachers as they share their experiences in an era when the risks associated with physical contact between teachers and pupils are increasing. Hermeneutic phenomenology was used to explore and gain deeper understanding of the meaning of touch in education through interpreting the day to day experiences of male primary school teachers in New Zealand. Narrative interviews were interpreted and described thematically. The themes: ‘being careful, cautious and visible’, ‘worrying about misinterpretation’, ‘feeling sad’ and ‘battling with boundaries’, revealed a complex array of tensions that contributed to the findings. Male primary school teachers are constantly aware of the risk they take when interacting with students. They experience tensions and conflict when deciding where and how they will touch children and whether this will be misinterpreted by others. Consideration of the ways in which people respond to this complex and sensitive subject is necessary so that male teachers feel able to use positive and appropriate forms of touch without fear of suspicion and reprisal.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1982. / Vita. Bibliography: leaves 231-238.

The subject of this project is Cotton Mather's relationship to science. As a minister, Mather's desire to harmonize science with religion is an excellent medium for understanding the effects of the early Enlightenment upon traditional views of Scripture. Through "Biblia Americana" and The Christian Philosopher, I evaluate Mather's effort to relate Newtonian science to the six creative days as recorded in Genesis 1. Chapter One evaluates Mather's support for the scientific theories of Isaac Newton and his reception to natural philosophers who advocate Newton's theories. Chapter Two highlights Mather's treatment of the dominant cosmogonies preceding Isaac Newton. The Conclusion returns the reader to Mather's principal occupation as a minister and the limits of science as informed by his theological mind. Through an exploration of Cotton Mather's views on science, a more comprehensive understanding of this significant early American and the ideological assumptions shaping his place in American history is realized.

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This study is motivated by my own experience as a Motswana Pentecostal woman who inhabits patriarchal spaces of both the Setswana cultures and the Pentecostal church. It highlights the status of women in Botswana society and the Pentecostal church. The study seeks to construct a Pentecostal feminist hermeneutic through a contextual reading of selected texts from Luke-Acts with Pentecostal women in Botswana. The Pentecostal movement is growing exponentially throughout the world, especially in Africa. Botswana is not an exception. Studies on Pentecostalism indicate that the overwhelming membership of the Pentecostal churches is female, yet the teaching and leadership are largely male dominated. Further, women are marginalised within the Pentecostal spaces through Pentecostal hermeneutics. This is ironic because the contemporary Pentecostal church traces its origins to the Pentecost narrative in Acts 2 and their theologies emerge from Luke-Acts. On the face of it, Acts 2 and Luke-Acts encourages egalitarian existence between men and women. This means that Pentecostal beliefs and doctrines are supposed to be inherently inclusive and yet accusations of gender exclusion are often levelled against Pentecostalism. Therefore, one of the other aims of this study is to explore how Pentecostal hermeneutics advances gender exclusion, and how that is contrary to the theologies that Acts 2:1-47 embody. Using narrative and feminist hermeneutical principles, the study engages with Acts 1-2 in order to establish the importance of using this text to construct a liberating Pentecostal hermeneutic. Further, Acts 1-2 are situated within the larger context of Luke-Acts and women. In order to gain insights from Pentecostal men and women about the status of women in the church and home, Pentecostal hermeneutics, and Luke-Acts, qualitative data collection methods were employed. These are focus groups, in depth interviews, participant observation and the Contextual Bible study (CBS). The data from the different research contexts is used throughout the chapters so that there is no specific chapter on data analysis. The data is filtered through feminist theoretical framework of analysis. The research sample consists of 51 Pentecostal women and 3 pastors from two different churches located in Molepolole, Gaborone and Mogobane. The ages of the women range from 17-73. The literacy levels also differ; some have never attended formal schools while some had diplomas and degrees in different disciplines. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2012.

This study is positioned in a context where the ideologies of communities, creeds and genders are marked in violent ways on women’s bodies. It is also located in a context where Christian women, by and large, internalize their subordinate status as Godordained and accept the violence perpetrated on them as normal and natural. In such a context, the christological understanding of Jesus as the “Suffering Servant” serves to reinforce the submissive, docile and subordinate position of women and legitimize the various forms of suffering that are inscribed on them as normal and even as ways to salvation. This study analyses the experiences of women who, in the midst of oppressive regimes, structures and forces, have refused to accept the inscriptions of gender, power and violence thrust on them. They have created an alternate way of speaking with their bodies in order to challenge gender stereotypes, oppressive powers and the denial of life and subjectivity imposed on them and their communities. Using the analysis of women’s resisting bodies, this study argues for an interpretation of christology that is centered on the motifs of struggle, resistance and protest, as evidenced in women’s resisting bodies and in the story of Jesus. Women’s resisting bodies and Jesus’ resistance are paralleled to reconstruct christology as resistance and protest and the resurrection as the continued and ongoing struggle for life amidst continued violence and oppression. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2010.