L’Ancien Testament ne contient pas de terme équivalent à celui de foi. Sa conception de la foi est la réaction de l’homme devant Dieu. L’exégèse actuelle se demande si l’origine de foi chez Paul revêt une signification hébraïque ou grecque, ou si foi n’est pas un vocable chrétien. Cette thèse étudie ce chapitre central pour la conception de la foi. Paul écrit Romains pour résoudre la désunion entre croyants Juifs et croyants non juifs à Rome. Le premier chapitre valorise la compréhension de la foi paulinienne dans le débat actuel. Le deuxième chapitre examine la conception de la foi dans Rm 1-3 où la justice de Dieu ne peut être obtenue par la Loi mais seulement par la foi dans l’Evangile. La conséquence radicale du monothéisme juif, Dieu est un, est que Dieu est le Dieu de tous ; ce qui permet de résoudre le conflit entre Juifs et non juifs croyants en réinterprétant l’identité chrétienne. Le troisième chapitre est l’étude exégétique de ce chapitre exclusivement théologique. Qu’a trouvé Abraham selon la chair ? Il a trouvé la justice avant d’être circoncis, justice associée à une promesse de descendance. En conclusion : la conception paulinienne de la foi et celle de l’Ancien Testament sont équivalentes : seul le Dieu unique justifie mais la conception paulinienne fait référence au Christ ; Paul revisite le récit sur Abraham à la lumière de sa foi au seul Dieu, et non plus par sa justification par les oeuvres. Paul, à la lumière de l’événement Christ, considère Abraham comme l’ancêtre de tous les croyants. Il donne une identité à la communauté naissante et l’appelle à l’union (Rm 15, 5) dans la foi ; le Dieu unique est maintenant identifié par son action en Jésus Christ. / There is no equivalent word that covers the meaning of faith in the Old Testament. It is the reaction of man to the action of God. Current exegesis has analyzed the background of faith in Paul to see if it has a Hebraic or Greek meaning or is a new word of Christianity. The dissertation studies this decisive chapter. Paul wrote Romans to end the conflict between two rival communities in Rome: Jewish believers and non-Jewish believers. The first chapter studies the Pauline interpretation of faith in the current debate. The second chapter deals with the faith concept in Rom 1-3. Paul states that God’s justice cannot be obtained by the Law but only by faith in God’s salvific power in Christ. According to Jewish monotheism, the radical consequence is that God is the God of Jews and non-Jews. To say that God is one enables Paul to solve the conflict between Jews and non-Jews by a new interpretation of Christian identity. The third chapter is the exegetical study of the most theological chapter. What has Abraham found according to the flesh? He has found justice before circumcision, a justice linked to the promise of an offspring. To conclude: the Pauline conception of faith and the Old Testament conception are similar: God alone justifies but for Paul, faith refers to Christ. Paul revisits the story of Abraham in the light of his faith in the one God and no longer through his justification by the works of Mosaic Law. Thus Abraham is considered as the ancestor of all believers, Jewish and non-Jewish. The new community is granted an identity and is called to agree with one another (Rom 15, 5) in faith. The one God is now identified by his action in Jesus Christ.

Several issues relating to homosexuality are being fervently debated in most denominations and in several newspapers in South Africa. Much of what the church is seeking to find is whether or not homosexual conduct is a sin. Within the church there are currently definite disagreements as to whether or not self-affirming homosexuals can be married in the church, ordained as ministers, teach Sunday School or be small group leaders. In recent times organisations such as the South African Christian Leadership Assembly (SACLA), and the Marriage Alliance of South Africa (MASA) had been formed to serve the church and society as a platform in the current debate on whether or not there needs to be a re-definition of marriage. The reason why these organisations are becoming involved in state business is because they believe that there is no law or state who invented marriage. It is the view of these organisations that same- sex marriage goes against the historic heterosexual understanding of marriage which is recognised from creation. In view of these matters this study seeks to actively take part in the present discussion concerning homosexuality and the Bible. It has been suggested that at the exegetical level Romans 1:26-27 contains little ambiguity in relation to the Bible and homosexuality, in that in Romans 1:26-27 Paul condemns homosexual conduct. However recent scholarly work done on this passage has indicated that perhaps on an exegetical level not enough research had been done on this passage to come to such a conclusion. At the heart of the matter are issues concerning the audience that Paul addresses and specific terms (para physin) Paul uses in Romans 1:26-27. In relation to the audience questions are being asked about the extensiveness of Paul’s knowledge on the social customs of the ancient Greek and Roman world. It is believed that Paul was in fact not addressing true homosexuals, those who are born such, but that he was condemning heterosexuals acting as homosexuals. As we will see within the resulting discussion of this study, a good understanding of the audience is integral to the interpretive process. In relation to the terms that Paul uses, and more specifically the term para physin, often interpreted ‘against nature’, it would seem that conventional understanding is that Paul states that homosexual conduct is that which goes against God’s given order. However in view of recent scholarly work there are suggestions which challenge the more conventional or conservative interpretations of the phrase para physin. This study will therefore delve into matters concerning ancient sexuality and in conjunction with this do a literal analysis of the text in question. As this study will also reveal there are several issues at stake within the current debate. Of these issues the most pertinent concerns the authority of the Bible and the difficult task of the church responding to modern culture. If Paul in Romans 1:26-27 indeed condemns homosexual conduct then where does it leave those who are in reality struggling with the nature of their orientation. Some would suggest that Paul is simply out-of date and that his comments are irrelevant to the modern situation. It has also been suggested that perhaps the concept of biblical authority be abandoned and replace with the idea of the Bible as “foundational document”. Although these issues are not dealt with at length in this paper they certainly serve as an addendum to this study. This paper seeks to merely take part in the present discussion for the purpose of findings God’s will in this matter. / Prof. J.A du Rand

No description available.

Thesis advisor: Matthew Monnig / Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2023. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

No description available.

Thesis advisor: Angela K. Harkins / Romans 5:12-21 has attracted a variety of complex interpretations. It has been read (1) as a theological treatise of original sin (Augustine); (2) as a textual support for the doctrine of justification by faith alone (Luther and the Reformers); and (3) as Paul’s discourse of cosmic powers of sin and death that hold people in bondage and God’s salvific intervention to liberate human beings from cosmic powers of sin and death (contemporary “apocalyptic” school). Three major problems have arisen from reading the passage through these lenses. First, the passage is studied with lack of proper attention to the Roman imperial context in which the text was produced. Second, sin and salvation are over-spiritualized and personalized such that these concepts are rarely applied to concrete contemporary socio-political issues that affect the lives of people today. The result is not only a disjuncture between theology and ethics, but also the disconnection between the Christian kerygma and sociopolitical realities. Third, the rhetorical function of the text for its immediate audience is often underexplored. The implication is that theologians speculate on the themes of sin and salvation in Rom 5:12-21 without paying adequate attention to the concrete ideologies and behaviors that Paul was challenging nor the practices he was calling his audience to embody as a way of counteracting the systemic sins and evils. This study offers an alternative reading of Adam-Christ antithesis in Rom 5:12-21 in light of Roman imperial domination and Paul’s apocalyptic anti-imperial discourse using two contemporary frameworks—empire and postcolonial criticism. Using these frameworks, I read the Adam-Christ antithetical discourse in Rom 5:12-21 as Paul’s critique of the realities of sin and death as embodied by the Roman imperial power. Paul engages in this critique by means of typological reflection on Adam and Christ—the two historical figures whose actions reveal two contrasting ways of being in the world that result either in death or life. Read against the background of Roman imperial domination in the first century CE, I argue that Paul’s personification of sin and death as forces of domination, enslavement, and death-dealing in Rom 5:12-21 can be understood as the way that colonized subjects, such as Paul, give coded expression to the multifaceted experiences of colonial domination, as well as the culture of death that were prevalent within the Roman Empire. In Rom 5:12-21, Paul invites his audience to embody Jesus’ obedience and justice as a way of countering the sinful praxes that he traced their root to Adam. In this way, Christ’s believers can participate in the new age that God inaugurates through the events of Christ and the divine Spirit. / Thesis (STD) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

Le présent mémoire est constitué d'un volet créatif, mis en contexte par une introduction générale de l'approche autothéorique, puis une conclusion. Le volet créatif propose une approche autothéorique sur le thème du deuil, de la littérature et de l'enfance. Trois personnages - la mère décédée, le frère et la narratrice - prennent tour à tour la parole, reconstituant la vie de la narratrice, mais aussi les enjeux au sein de la famille. La première partie raconte la vie des personnages avant la mort de la mère, la seconde partie raconte le deuil. Les réflexions théoriques sont en italiques, disséminées dans le récit. Les parties en italiques représentent ainsi les introspections de l'autrice, ses diverses réflexions et interrogations sur son enfance, ses liens interfamiliaux et le deuil de sa mère. Les parties théoriques viennent notamment analyser la position de lectrice mais aussi d'autrice que porte la narratrice à travers ses réflexions sur la littérature. Ce mémoire permet ainsi de développer un texte autothéorique qui interroge l'approche autothéorique au Québec. / This paper consists of a creative component, contextualized by a general introduction to the autotheoritical approach, and a conclusion. The creative component proposes an autotheoretical approach on the theme of grief, literature and childhood. Three characters -- the deceased mother, the brother, and the narrator -- take turns speaking, reconstructing the narrator's life as well as the lives of the characters before the mother's death. The second part delves into the mourning process. The theoretical parts are in italics, scattered throughout the story. They represent the author's introspections, her various reflections, and questions about her childhood, her interfamily ties, and her mother's mourning. The theoretical parts analyze especially the reader's position and the author's position, both assumed by the narrator throughout her thoughts on literature. This paper allows us to develop an autotheoretical text that questions the autotheoretical approach in Quebec.

Abstract not available. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Durban-Westville, 2000.

No description available.

Malgré la longue et riche histoire des bandes dessinées, leur définition continue de stimuler le débat parmi les experts. Ces derniers ne parviennent toujours pas à s’entendre sur la composition d’une bande dessinée, certains choisissant de mettre l’emphase sur l’usage de phylactères ou de lignes de mouvement, tandis que d’autres insistent plutôt sur la présence d’éléments à la fois graphiques et narratifs. Une définition impeccable est peut-être improbable, mais un problème mérite toutefois d’être adressé: il s’agit bien sûr de la constante exclusion des romans graphiques sans texte. Cette catégorie d’œuvres est parfois mentionnée, mais se révèle plus souvent ignorée par les experts. En effet les définitions courantes persistent à représenter les bandes dessinées comme un indéniable mélange de texte et d’images. Ce mémoire cherche donc à démontrer la nécessité de définitions plus inclusives, afin d’incorporer les romans graphiques sans texte. D’abord, en explorant l’histoire du médium et le rôle du texte dans la création et la lecture des romans graphiques, nous réfuterons les idées préconçues qui ont apporté à l’élément textuel de la bande dessinée une allure de nécessité. Puis, à travers l’analyse des romans graphiques sans texte The Arrival de Shaun Tan et The System de Peter Kuper, nous rendrons évidente la nature facultative du texte dans le processus de création d’une histoire de bande dessinée. Finalement, avec le support d’exemples provenant des romans graphiques The System de Peter Kuper et Asterios Polyp de David Mazzucchelli, nous analyserons le rôle de l’image dans le développement de la complexité narrative d’une histoire de bande dessinée, afin de prouver qu’une image n’est pas intrinsèquement plus simpliste qu’un extrait de texte. Les romans graphiques sans texte méritent tout autant l’attention académique reçue par les bandes dessinées avec texte, et devraient ainsi être reconnus dans les définitions courantes du médium. / In spite of comics’ long and rich history, their definition remains today a significant source of contention in the field. Scholars cannot seem to agree on what constitutes comics, with some of them stressing the importance of conventions such as speech balloons or motion lines, and others focusingon the pictorial and narrative elements of the form. A perfect definition may be impossible, but one issue that needs tobe addressed is the current exclusion of wordless graphic novels. While occasionally acknowledged, these works remain mainly ignored, as most working definitions present comics as a combination of text and image. This thesis intends to show that there is a need for more inclusive definitions of the medium, in order to incorporate wordless graphic novels. By first exploring the wordless ancestry of the medium and the role of text in creating and reading graphic novels, this thesis refutes the foundationally baseless assumptions about the form that have made text so widely accepted as a defining element. Then, through an analysis of Shaun Tan’s The Arrival and Peter Kuper’s The System, both of which are wordless graphic novels, this thesis demonstrates the superfluous nature of text when it comes to narrative in this medium. Finally, through readings of Peter Kuper’s The System and David Mazzucchelli’s Asterios Polyp, the thesis considers the contribution of the image to the complexity of graphic novels with and without text, in order to prove that images are not more simplistic in nature than text. The case is thereby made that wordless novels are as worthy of academic attention as graphic novels with text, and deserve acknowledgement in definitions of the medium.