The purpose of this thesis is to study the development of the theme of contentment in the book of Ecclesiastes and the relationship of this theme to the themes of death and the role of God. Qoheleth’s autobiography (Eccl 1:12–2:26) serves as a lens to read and interpret his teaching on contentment throughout the book of Ecclesiastes. The theme of death informs and permeates Qoheleth’s teaching and sets the stage for his exhortations of contentment. The brevity of human life and death as the natural end of life create an urgency to live every moment with vigor and zeal, especially when the possibility of the afterlife is uncertain. According to Qoheleth, the presence and active involvement of God in the existence of humanity brings meaning and fulfillment to life. Even though human beings cannot comprehend the activities of the inscrutable God, they should find contentment and satisfaction in the allotment that God bestows on them as his gift. Qoheleth’s autobiography plays a significant role in his teaching. Qoheleth utilizes the genre of royal autobiography to convey his message throughout the book of Ecclesiastes and to connect his personal experiences and observations with his teaching on contentment in the face of death. Qoheleth teaches that contentment is an attitude that enables people to embrace life as a gift from God which may include both good and bad circumstances. Contentment empowers people to be fully engaged in every living moment in the face of death and the inscrutability of God. Life is full of contradictions and incongruities. This is why it is essential, Qoheleth admonishes, to develop an attitude of contentment which enables a person to find satisfaction in work and accept the allotment given by God. He promotes the need to give up attempts to comprehend God and his actions, and advocates the need to lead a life of generosity and hospitality, table fellowship and meaningful labour, the good life which pleases God.

This dissertation explores the potential for utilizing Jurgen Habermas’ Theory of Communicative Action (TCA) as a hermeneutical method in biblical studies—in this case—Johannine agency and mission. The thesis is developed by means of TCA and four “contextual anchor points.” These components of critical and literary theory are used in a sequential argument to examine the thesis: The Johannine community was portrayed by John as divine communicative action to the world. After a brief introduction, chapter two discusses TCA, differentiating its relevant aspects from those unsuitable. An examination of the intertextual interface between John and his readership is performed in chapter three. Chapter four analyzes John’s call for unity in the face of cosmic brokenness and division over Jesus. Though John portrays a closed κόσμος, opposed to its creator, he demonstrates openness, showing interest in gathering exiles. Unity is for the sake of the world (13:35; 17:21, 23). Chapter four discusses the possibility that the AD 70 loss of the temple was John’s motivation for communicative action to his fellow “Jews.” Chapter five examines re-creation. Humanity separated from its creator was incapable of communicative reason. Jesus therefore served as God’s communicative act and Tatwort (deed-word, sign) to set it free. Chapter six concerns the mediatorial role of the παράκλητος. Central to John’s eschatology was the continued presence of Messiah through the Spirit. The παράκλητος was the communicative glue of the Johannine community, mediating communicative action to the world. Chapter seven concludes the study, demonstrating the community was a provocateur of life and judgment, gathering those who responded to communicative action and relinquishing others to judgment. The community’s oneness served as a Tatwort (deed-word) to the κόσμος. Their words and deed-words served as divine communicative action to re-create the world.

The dissertation analyses Spirit-reception in Luke-Acts with respect to timing, mechanism, and manifestation. Its narrow focus excludes questions regarding Spirit-reception’s theological significance. It employs three primary tools: narrative progression/sequential reading, presupposition pools/entity representations (ERs), and focalization. By beginning with Jesus’ baptism where Spirit experience is joined to the prayer aspect of the baptismal ceremony and observing Jesus’ Luke 11:13 teaching on prayer, one arrives at Acts 2:38-39 with an ER in which Spirit experience is not separated from baptism, but linked with the prayer element of the unitary baptismal ceremony. Acts 2 focalizes dissociative xenolalia and creates a programmatic expectation that all initiates will experience it. Acts 2 does not depict new converts receiving the Spirit and thereby leaves a narrative gap which the reader must fill with information from Jesus’ baptism. Acts 8 adds to this information by providing Luke’s first depiction of new converts receiving the Spirit and showing the facilitation mechanisms used, prayer and handlaying by gifted individuals. Luke stated neither that this procedure was exceptional nor that it was standard. He simply presented a solution to the problem of the Spirit failing to come. Saul’s conversion clarifies that non-apostles can be gifted to facilitate the Spirit. Cornelius’ house adds the concept of the Spirit being given during a gifted individual’s preaching ministry and shows early church leaders using Pentecost as a standard of comparison. The cumulative nature of presupposition pools/ERs means that the last Spirit-reception scene (Acts 19) must be viewed in the light of all the accumulated Spirit-reception scenes, the total ER.

This thesis addresses the research question: Is Schein’s theory useful for understanding the values of Christian organisations? The research method used is a case study of ‘Across’. Across is a Christian mission organisation working in South Sudan, which was founded in 1972 after the Addis Ababa Agreement brought to an end the First Sudanese Civil War (1955-1972). Schein’s theory of organisational culture states that ‘the essence of a group's culture is its pattern of shared, basic taken-for-granted assumptions’. In this thesis these ‘basic assumptions’ are referred to by using the term organisational values. According to Schein organisational values manifest themselves at the level of ‘observable artifacts’ and ‘shared espoused values’. Schein then sees that the task of the researcher is to ‘decipher’ these two elements so as to identify the actual, underlying organisational values. After reflecting theologically on the appropriateness of using such a theory in a Christian context the research method then leads to a two stage process being followed. Firstly, to analyse the organisational values of Across from the founding of Across in 1972 until 2005, when the Second Sudanese Civil War (1983-2005) came to an end. The steps in this first stage of the process are to identify the actual organisational values of Across, to look at the factors that caused these values to emerge in Across, and then to track how significant an influence these organisational values were on the organisational behaviour of Across. The Across organisational values identified and selected for study can be summarised in the terms: partnering; integrating (integral mission); focusing on ‘the South’, and identifying with the Sudanese. The second stage in the process is to evaluate how useful Schein’s theory has been in understanding Across, and to assess whether Schein’s theory would therefore be useful in understanding other Christian organisations. The conclusion of this research is that Schein’s theory of organisational culture is useful in understanding the values of Christian organisations, and that this understanding can enable the leaders of Christian organisations to lead more effectively.

Sefer Tehillim or the book of Psalms translated into Punjabi language is the most accustomed, read, sung, recited and memorized part of Scriptures by the body of Christ in Pakistan. Firstly, this thesis aims to explore the fascinating history behind the making of these Psalms, the life of Rev. Dr. Imam-ud-Din Shahbaz who translated them in versified form, key factors behind their popularity, and elements that hindered their preparation. Secondly, selected Psalms are analyzed in order to examine the overall translation quality of these Psalms and how meaning in the original has been conveyed in the Punjabi translation. An attempt has been made to draw attention to the linguistic barriers in the Punjabi translation that hinders the acquisition of a clear comprehension for both urban and rural Punjabi speakers. Thirdly, although the Psalms in Punjabi are much cherished by Punjabi Christians in Pakistan, value for a poetical translation of the Psalms for Muslim brethren in the Islamic context of Pakistan and bridge-building factors in the book of Psalms have been highlighted. Finally, sociolinguistic issues facing the Punjabi Christians in Pakistan, their attitude towards their mother-tongue and its likely effect on the continuation of the Psalms in Punjabi and of the availability of Scripture in Punjabi are discussed. The thrust of this thesis is to esteem the shared heritage of the Pakistani Christians, the Psalms in Punjabi commonly known as the Punjabi Zaburs.

A religious belief in verbal inspiration gave the Christian Bible its sacred text status within the matrix of the Church. The lower, or textual criticism, first practised outside the sanction of the Church by Erasmus and developed further by non-Trinitarians initially, offered the first significant direct challenge to this belief in the early modern period. This, the dissertation argues, was the proper beginning, phenomenologically speaking, of the process of desacralization. Moreover, it is argued that the desacralizing role of the lower criticism was further manifested when it was discovered that certain theologically significant passages, perceived by those in the Erasmian school to have resulted from later interpolation into the text of Scripture, illegitimately lent support to dogmas such as the Trinity, the deity of Christ and the virgin birth. The practice of lower criticism set in motion, well before the arrival of the higher criticism, a rather significant awakening of a historical consciousness about the developmental stages of the N. T. text, which in later recensions reflected a more full-blown orthodox expression of christological themes. The role that the lower criticism played in introducing this historical consciousness has not been readily acknowledged by either historians or practitioners of the discipline of lower criticism. The dissertation argues that this is because of an ideological framing of the historical details of the discipline in development. This ideological component and the historical circumstances prompting it are brought into relief revealing why two schools arose during the English Enlightenment and carried on into the Victorian era, responding to the data of text criticism in two directions: one interpreting the data as affecting dogma, the other interpreting the data as not affecting dogma. In answering why this came about the dissertation helps to explain how the quest for the historical text culminated in the quest for the historical Jesus

In Romans, Paul quotes OT texts to argue for the covenant inclusion of the Gentiles. Two important quotations, from a hermeneutical standpoint, are Hos 2:23 (2:25 LXX) and 1:10 (2:1 LXX) in Rom 9:25-26, which are presented here as a case study for testing the relevance of Hans-Georg Gadamer’s hermeneutic for biblical studies. Paul’s quotations are thought-provoking because there seem to be difficulties reconciling the quoted texts’ original agenda with his own at the time of writing. The oracles were originally used to argue for the inclusion of rebellious Israel, not Gentiles as Paul argues. Thus, the issue of competing agendas becomes quickly apparent. Past scholarship has addressed this issue in various ways with little consensus being reached. This thesis utilizes Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics as a clarifying way forward. Despite the significance and relevance of his work, Gadamer has not influenced biblical scholarship as deeply as one might have expected. The most significant contribution this thesis makes, therefore, is to bring Gadamer’s hermeneutic to bear upon the issue of biblical intertextuality as evidenced in the use of Hosea in Romans. Part One introduces the issues and surveys the ways some scholars have sought to understand them (chapter 1). A Gadamerian approach is proposed as a way forward (chapter 2). Part Two outlines Gadamer’s philosophy, which includes a sketch of his scholarly context (chapters 3-4). Part Three revisits the intertextual intricacies in key parts of Romans through the lens of a Gadamerian hermeneutic. Relevant motifs that shape Paul’s and Hosea’s horizons are identified and traced, lending insight to Rom 9:25-26. This is aided by an examination of key texts from the CD and Pesharim (chapters 5-6). Conclusions are then synthesized, bringing clarity to Rom 9:25-26 (chapter 7). Finally, a summary is given, and areas for future enquiry are proposed (chapter 8).

This thesis proposes that Gunton's work on ontology is best understood if they are supported by a reconsideration of the concept of space that is used by him but is not as fully worked out in his work as much as other terms such as "relation" and "otherness." It develops with the arguments that Gunton's ontology has an element that can be best understood with the help of the concept of space (chapter 1); that most problems attributed to Gunton by his critics are problems resulting from their particular approaches, rather than residing in Gunton's work itself (chapter 2 and 3); that Gunton's use of the Cappadocians is truer to the thrust of their works than his critics' (chapter 4); that "spatiality" will better serve Gunton's purpose as his third transcendental than "relationality" (chapter 5); that the notion of "the three" which is not fully accounted in Gunton corresponds well with the notion of "spatiality" being suggested in this study, the latter encompassing both relation and otherness and the former encompassing both the one and the many (chapter 6); that the "one" language used of God in the Bible is better understood in an nominal than a numerical sense, corresponding to the notion of "the three" discussed in the previous chapter (chapter 7); and that the God of the Old Testament is the same God as the God of the NT in that they are "God" or "One" (God of all) who is both one and many, both general and particular, both given and shaped, rather than the former representing the oneness or unity of God and the latter the threeness or diversity of God, with the conclusion that the ontology of being as space is more fundamental and so more widely applicable than the ontology of being as communion of persons (chapter 8).

Participation is a notion found frequently in contemporary (especially ecumenical) theology and while some attention has been given to the notion in terms of its scriptural grounding in terms such as koinonia, little work has been done recently on the theological and historical development of the concept in the Christian tradition. Because the term predates Christian theology in a philosophically significant way, discussion has often turned on the issue of how far the term has been applied appropriately to the Christian context, what degree of originality the term carries within the context of Christian doctrine and what dangers there are in reverting to its usages in Classical philosophy. This thesis seeks to move this discussion on, tracing the development of the notion of 'participation' from Plato to the present-day, not by way of an exhaustive historical survey, but by way of particular theologians whose (not always fully conscious) use of the term participation develops and clarifies an understanding of that term and which flags up some of the theological strengths and weaknesses of using such a notion. Consideration of participation demands that a whole host of inter-related theological issues are addressed and this leads in the course of this study to reflection on a number of key issues in Christian theology such as otherness, relationship, freedom, causality and 'sharing in the life of God'. While a definitive, problem-free account of participation remains to be realised, the thesis explores an understanding of participation in terms of an entering into the relations of the Trinitarian persons in a manner appropriate to human creatureliness. Some of the main challenges which confront those theologians seeking to formulate a doctrine of participation in the late twentieth century in this way are illustrated and tentative proposals for ways forward are offered.

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