This dissertation justifies the contention that culture contributes to the theological task in an ancillary way to Scripture. Chapter 1 introduces the primary issues. Chapter two interacts with two existing models of theology and culture, which respectively suggest that the theological task transcends and embraces culture. Chapter 2 also introduces a third way, that the theological task should employ culture. Chapter 3 justifies this thesis by demonstrating that culture is inherently a theologically meaningful text for three reasons: (1) God purposed for culture to be an expression of the imago Dei that stages truth in cultural form; (2) Post-Fall culture-producing image-bearers are enriched with truth content via general revelation; and (3) God graciously restrains post- Fall culture-producing image-bearers from being as sinful as they could be and God graciously enables humanity to retain positive epistemological value. Chapter 4 clarifies the worldview orientation antithesis that limits culture's value; though the antithesis limits culture's value in the theological task it does not eliminate it. Chapter 5 summarizes the conclusions set forth in this dissertation and briefly recounts several examples of individuals who model these conclusions rightly and wrongly.

Thesis (Th. M.)--Western Seminary, Portland, Or., 2000. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 190-197).

With the rise of extremist fundamentalist groups, such as ISIS, it is important to note similar happenings in other traditions. This thesis traces the interpretive tradition of the Book of Revelation, from its composition in 90 C.E. through the dispensationalist usage of it by John Nelson Darby in the 19th century, and how its modern use by American Christian fundamentalist groups leads to rhetorical violence, including feelings of marginalization and societal targeting, and creation of insider/outsider dynamics with those outside the tradition. While rhetorical violence—language and behaviors that harm others and that occur so regularly that they often become routinized and habitual—does not directly involve killing and enacting of physical violence, it can lead to it. This thesis concludes that the instances of rhetorical violence occurring in mainstream American Christian fundamentalism, such as in Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins’ Left Behind series and the author’s ethnographic case study of a church in Bowling Green, Kentucky, are problematic because of the possibility for physical violence.

In this thesis, I analyse four novels by Cormac McCarthy through the lens of Apocalypse theory. Looking at his later, south-western, novels Blood Meridian, All the Pretty Horses, No Country for Old Men and The Road, I examine to what extent they respond to biblical and secular apocalyptic ideologies and narrative tropes. Particular attention is paid to the distinction between biblical apocalypse and secular, or nihilistic, apocalypse. The former draws its framework from the Book of Revelation, and entails a war between Heaven and Hell, the rule of the Anti-Christ and God’s final judgement. Although cataclysmic, a biblical apocalypse also promises worldly renewal through the descent of New Jerusalem. Thus, the end of the world was a desirable, rather than dreaded, event. However, as the world moved into the twentieth century, and we saw modernity give birth to weapons of global destruction, apocalyptic attitudes became pessimistic. The belief that God would save the world from corruption quickly gave way to an entropic end, in which human civilisation will simply collapse into nothingness. I consider McCarthy’s south-west fiction within these opposing apocalyptic ideas, and demonstrate how the four novels build a line of history that begins with Blood Meridian’s Manifest Destiny and ends with The Road’s nuclear bomb. I argue that McCarthy explores both biblical and nihilistic apocalyptic modes before combining them in The Road, which I argue offers a new apocalyptic mode: renewal and salvation without God. Within this context, I argue against common interpretations of McCarthy as a completely nihilistic writer with no vested anthropological concerns. Through these four novels, I instead suggest he negotiates between biblical and nihilistic apocalyptic modes before coming to the conclusion, in The Road, that hope exists.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the nature and role of the relation which exists between the revelation of God to man, and ethics. Within Protestant Christianity two major schools of thought are involved in active debate over the issue. We have selected Reinhold Niebuhr of the neo-orthodox wing and Carl F. H. Henry as the evangelical spokesman, in view of comparing their concepts of revelation to their ethics. / We proceed by asking whether the ethical systems of both Niebuhr and Henry are dependent, interdependent, or independent in relation to revelation. We find the answer by observing the parallel movement of differences in the form and content of revelation with the differences in the form and content of their ethics. We discover dependence. / Furthermore, we consider the ways in which the revealed content is related to ethics. Thus we measure the relevance of revelation to ethics and discover again the same relatedness and dependence.

Thesis (Th. M.)--Calvin Theological Seminary, 2005. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 158-162).

Thesis (Ph.D.(Church History and Polity))--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 291-312).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1998. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [206]-211).

Thesis (M.A.)--Liberty University Honors Program, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Th. M.)--Western Seminary, Portland, Or., 2000. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 190-197).