The thesis investigates the life after death (hereafter LAD) beliefs of members of my Congregational church via in-depth semi-structured interviews. Complementary criteria of critical reflection and visible effect on behaviour are used to identify these views as ‘ordinary theology’. It is argued that the disclosed ‘ordinary eschatology’ provides a valuable commentary on both the current theological norm of protestant Christian tradition and contemporary academic debate. Ordinary theologians can be considered as Spirit signal processors for the church: a claim based on a view of continuing revelation, the changing living tradition of the church, and the nature of doctrine as ‘regulative principle’. Protestant doctrine and funeral liturgy is not entirely clear about LAD, so this is supplemented with a particular view of ‘life after LAD’ to provide a comparative ‘norm’. The present data shows a significant disjunction with this norm in several key areas. Ordinary eschatology does not envisage a physical afterlife or final re-embodiment of the dead: the afterlife is an immediate soul-spirit existence. Jesus’ resurrection is not regarded as directly relevant to the nature of human afterlife but rather was to confirm his person and message. These ordinary theologians are deeply sceptical of scholarly and ecclesial authority, and their attitudes suggest a failure on the part of church and academy to convey the results of academic scholarship. Ordinary eschatology challenges the contemporary theological trend of denying a substantial soul, and questions some interpretations of key biblical texts concerning LAD. These ordinary theologians also frequently report experiences of supernatural phenomena: continuing contact with the known dead is especially important. The listening process used to disclose this ordinary theology has great benefit and could be applied in other congregations and contexts. There is an identified desire among these ordinary theologians for LAD to become a more common and routine topic of church conversation.

The dissertation seeks to offer a theological interpretation of Proverbs which simultaneously does justice to the results of historical and philological research; to the Christian theological tradition; and to the context of contemporary secular society. The opening chapter will investigate the history of Proverbs’ theological interpretation in the last two hundred years. For 19th century interpretation a major theological and ethical challenge was that Proverbs bases its motivational system on the reader’s self-interest. The same phenomenon has not been considered problematic in more recent scholarship because, it has been claimed, if Proverbs is understood in the context of ‘creation theology’ then this explains its apparent selfishness and also helps to clarify its relationship to other biblical texts. However, it will be argued that ‘creation theology’ in itself does not solve all theological problems in Proverbs’ interpretation. It will be also argued that Proverbs offers a plurality of themes among which creation is only one, and from which the interpreter can choose according to his or her interests and aims. The second chapter will describe the methodology of the dissertation. Most theological interpretations in the last two hundred years have reconstructed Proverbs’ theology in view to its historical setting. However, little attention has been paid to the hermeneutical questions concerning Proverbs’ recontextualisation and to the wider theological tradition of the religious communities that consider it as their Scripture. A canonical approach can incorporate these concerns, too. The third chapter will discuss the problem of self-interest. This will be investigated in the framework of Thomas Aquinas’s eudaemonistic theological ethics. The fourth chapter will discuss Proverb’s secular appearance. Besides sociological descriptions of the ‘secular,’ several strands of the wider Christian theological tradition will be utilized to handle this phenomenon theologically.

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God’s creative activity in the beginning is important to Paul. Yet Paul’s care for and interpretation of it is often unrecognized, occasionally denied, typically left underdeveloped, and sometimes interpreted wrongly. This thesis approaches Paul as an interpreter of his sacred scriptural texts concerning creation. It compares his reading of creation in 1 and 2 Corinthians and Romans with those more detailed treatments of the same texts by Philo of Alexandria in his commentary on Genesis 1-2, De Opificio Mundi. The central thesis is this: Paul’s interpretation of creation, like Philo’s in his commentary, contains three interwoven aspects: the beginning of the world, the beginning of humanity, and God’s intentions before the beginning. Chapter 1, “Before the Beginning?,” explores Philo’s view that God’s pre-creational plan involves an architectural blueprint of the universe which enables goodness and beauty and Paul’s view that it involves a crucified Christ and a glory to which God-lovers are redeemed through conformity with this Christ’s image. There we will demonstrate that for Paul, as for Philo, the Before both affects and is affected by his reading of Genesis’ creation texts. Chapter 2, “The Beginning of the World,” establishes how Philo and Paul consider the ontological nature of heaven, earth, and their inhabitants to be beautiful and glorious due to perfect accord with God’s word, intentions, and desires—i.e., an implicit Before. Chapter 3, “The Beginning of Humanity,” investigates how Philo and Paul set the more particular creation of humanity within the larger context of the creation of the world, and how recognizing this aids in our own interpretation of some often misunderstood aspects of their views of Adam. God’s pre-creational “purpose” and “desire” is also an integral aspect of both interpreters’ treatments of the creation of humanity. Paul, like Philo, displays three tightly woven strands within his interpretation of the Beginning.

The present study consists of a comparison of the impact of the Christ-event on the existence of the elect in Colossians and 1 Peter. As such it is a study in the theological anthropology of two significant New Testament texts. The main argument of this thesis is that Colossians and 1 Peter contain distinctive emphases in their understanding of: the σάρξ (“flesh”) of the elect (anthropology), the temporal axis of salvation (eschatology), the extent to which the elect participate in the “heavenly” sphere (cosmology), and the means to live rightly (agency). Because a NT author’s beliefs prior to faith in Christ reflect a particular cognitive environment formed by the author’s historical setting and cultural milieu, setting the author’s views in the context of Early Jewish texts throws fresh light on his thought-world and understanding of the new existence. I argue that many of the features distinguishing Colossians from 1 Peter stem from the possibility that Colossians reflects the thought-world of 4QInstruction and 1 Peter that of the Hodayot. The thesis has the following structure. Chapter 1 explains the reasoning for comparing Colossians and 1 Peter by showing their manifold similarities with one another including their respective Christologies which undergird their remarkably similar paraenetical material. The question is raised why, if the epistles end up offering almost identical paraenesis, they have such distinctive theological patterns of thought. Chapter 2 is an overview of scholarship demonstrating that this question has not been adequately answered. This is due partly to an emphasis on the recipient context and to reading each respective author’s theology primarily as a response to the Sitz im Leben of the recipients. The overview will also demonstrate that both authors draw from the HB and EJL to interpret the impact of the Christ-event, but do so with distinctive language, emphases, and metaphors. Chapter 3 will analyze 1 Peter’s understanding of the new existence locating it within the author’s worldview in which suffering is a significant aspect of being God’s ‘end of days’ people. Chapter 4 will explore the Hodayot and demonstrate the manifold ways in which it provides antecedents to ideas identified in 1 Peter. Chapter 5 will analyze the worldview of the author of Colossians and his understanding of the new existence including his emphasis on the elect as possessing the “mystery” of God. Chapter 6 will explore 4QInstruction and demonstrate the manifold ways in which it provides antecedents to ideas identified in Colossians. Chapter 7 will conclude the thesis drawing the threads together and summarizing the distinctive emphases of Colossians and 1 Peter in their respective understandings of the new existence and the means to live rightly.

This work draws from history, theology, and political philosophy to address the question of whether it is possible to democratize the polity of the RC Church. Its historical part investigates two hypotheses. First, neither exegesis nor history warrants the absolute necessity for church unity of the political function of ἐπισκοπή: and much less do they provide sufficient evidence for upholding that such a function should be fulfilled exclusively or even only primarily by means of a top-down monarchical hierarchy. Second, in structuring their own faith community, Christians throughout history have adopted and at times critically adapted insights as well as structures from political philosophy and the human polity respectively. Next, it examines the few central insights political philosophy has advanced concerning the socio-ethical conditions for the individual’s cooperation in the common action of a group to be responsible. Particular attention is paid to the principle of subsidiarity which, it is argued, entails a precise understanding of ‘delegation’, as something justified only and exclusively with regard to decisions which the individual or lower levels deem beyond their capacity to make responsibly, because they lack either the relevant knowledge or the resources to implement them. The important implication is that the division between what can be decided autonomously and what should be decided by delegation must be determined by the delegating individual or group and not by the higher levels: it is only the former, in effect, who has the responsibility to decide on the appropriateness and extent of the delegation. The result is an original understanding of democracy’s distinctiveness as consisting in its enabling and fostering the rationality and responsibility of the delegation of authority, rather than exclusively or even primarily in the number of people to whom ultimate decisional power has been freely, intelligently, and responsibly delegated. The final section assesses the compatibility of those political insights with the ecclesial constitution on the basis of the scriptural and traditional evidence concerning the structural aspect of the Christian community. It highlights the potential hospitality of Christian ecclesiology to key insights of democratic political philosophy. This work improves on the current state of ecclesiological research in two main ways. The first contribution is to supply a broad historical mapping of the symbiosis between the Christian and the human polities, as well as ecclesiology and political philosophy, complementary to the many already existing specific case-studies. At the theoretical level the work blends a variety of arguments developed in different domains, and thus also bridges several bodies of literature. To analyse the distinctiveness of the Christian community, it builds on traditional theological insights concerning the distinctiveness of the Christian individual qua Christian, as well as on political insights into the formation and development of community and of the cooperation it serves. In so doing the work links two related but—currently at least, although not in the past—largely disconnected literatures: that on ecclesiology, and that on political philosophy. The genuine insights the latter has developed throughout history retain a lasting significance which Christians in general and ecclesiologists in particular ignore at their own risk. This work is an initial attempt to suggest concretely why the traditional symbiosis between those two disciplines is still valid and can bear fruit toward the solution of their shared problems.

This study is intended to be a contribution to current discussions centered around Biblical hermeneutics. In structure, it takes its lead from the series begun in 1955, Beitrage zur Geschichte der Neutestamentlichen Exegese, edited by Oscar Cullmann et al. The thesis attempts to present a description of the opinions of major Biblical interpreters on the passage contained in Paul's Epistle to the Romans 8:12-17. These six verses have been chosen because of their breadth of reference to central Pauline concepts, and because of their concern for the theme, 'Life in the Spirit'. The interpreters of this passage are considered in the thesis in chronological order, beginning with Origen, the first theologian to write a commentary on Romans, and concluding with Continental and English-speaking theologians writing just before the close of World War I. Because of the impossibility of reporting on every exegete who has written on this passage in Romans, a number o± criteria are established in the Introduction, and with these criteria in mind, the selection of documents and interpreters has been carried out. Also to be found in the Introduction are twenty-two exegetical problems posed by the writer; insofar as possible, each of the documents examined la analyzed with these questions in mind. The thesis attempts to point out major shifts both in conclusions relating to the problems posed in the Introduction, and in the hermeneutical principles governing exegetes writing at different stages in the Church's history. The major divisions of the paper are: Greek Patristic Exegesis, Latin Patristic Exegesis, The Middle Ages, The Age of the Reformation, The Post-Reformation Era, and The Modern Era. A final brief chapter of concluding observations contains some insights on the history of interpretation as a whole, and attempts to summarize values which New Testament scholars can hope to gain from such an historical study.

This investigation treats of the origin of the Doctrine of Immortality. Was it implicit in the teachings of the earliest Jewish Christians or a later addition to Christian thought? Part One, examines this teaching in relation to the thought, practices and institutions of the pre-Christian hellenised Jews in the light of the Zenon Papyri, Maccabees, Dead Sea Scrolls, Enoch, Pseudepigrapha, Josephus and other relevant sources. With the following results: (a) Highly advanced teachings on the Resurrection of the Body and Immortality of the Soul were conjoined by pre-Christian hellenised Jews. (b) The important separation of these doctrines first occurs in the controversies between the Pharisees and the Sadducees: the pre-Herodian Sadducees rejected the Pharisaic General Resurrection and Judgment, but affirmed a doctrine of Immortality and Translation of the Elect. Part Two, examines the Immortality-Resurrection Controversy as it emerged within the early Church and influenced the formulation of its two main Kerygmata, represented by the Immortality-Ascension Kerygma of the Urgemeinde; seen in the Urgemeinde traditions contained in the Gospels, particularly John and the Epistle to the Hebrews; and the Resurrection Kerygma of the Pauline Christians described in Acts and the Pauline Letters. A comparison discloses that: (a) The Urgemeinde interpreted pre-Christian Parousia expectations as already fulfilled in the Passion of Christ. Their Son of Man, Translation and Immortality Kerygma are closer to the eschatology of the pre-Herodian Sadducaic-Esaenes. (b) The Pauline Christians in their teachings on the Messianic Prophet and future Resurrection- Judgment , are shown to be closer to the basic Pharisaic eschatology; (c) Luke, unlike the other Evangelists, has sought to reconcile these differing Kerygmata which were both very much alive in his own day.(d) This Kerygmata Controversy was decisive in Paul's differences with the Urgemeinde. (e) The Fourth Gospel, although written later, discloses a unique continuity with the Urgemeinde Kerygma.

In this study Mormon theology has been brought to interact with the socio-scientific study of emotion. The expressed purpose of this dialogue has been to construct an introductory Latter-day Saint (or LDS) theology of emotion which is both canonically based and scientifically informed. Specifically, this examination has highlighted three widely accepted general outcomes which emerge from the socio-scientific study of emotion, namely the necessity of cognition for their emergence, the personal responsibility attached to their manifestation, and their instrumentality in facilitating various processes of human development and experience. In turn, both the basic theological structure of Mormonism and its unique canonical texts have been examined to determine the extent to which LDS theology is compatible with such a three-fold definition of emotion. As a result it was established that at this basic level of explanation science and Mormon theology undoubtedly share a common perspective. In reaching this conclusion unique LDS texts have been examined with specific reference to their description of six common emotions: hope, fear, joy, sorrow, love, and hate. For each of these emotional phenomena, which have further been classified into three separate groups of emotion types, the extensive report of textual evidence has consistently confirmed an implied presence of the outlined three-fold model of emotion. Furthermore, specific attention to the Mormon theology of Atonement and to its significant role for the LDS framing and regulating of emotions has enlarged this theological examination to include a wider exploration of such areas as epistemology, cosmology, soteriology, and anthropology of Mormonism. In this light, the theological and socio-scientific study of emotions in the LDS social/theological context may benefit from further academic research which could extend in the many possible directions of focus that have been suggested in the conclusion.

This thesis examines how convictions about gift and grace integrate with conceptions of agency and obedience for Paul and for his Jewish contemporaries. While post-Sanders scholarship has rightly noted the coexistence of grace and works in the Pauline and Jewish literature, it has failed to account for the diverse and sophisticated ways in which those two concepts can coexist. Following recent intertextual studies, this thesis argues that ancient Jews read descriptions of ‘heart-transformation’ in Deuteronomy 30, Jeremiah 31–32 and Ezekiel 36 as the solution to human ineptitude. Paul was no exception and his reading of those texts had a profound influence on his articulations of divine grace and human agency. On Paul’s complex understanding moral competence is dependent upon divine agency and divine and human agencies co-exist and coinhere in, but never outside of, Christ. Beyond advancing our understanding of the apostle’s agency dynamics, this thesis shows how Second Temple interpretations of texts that concern heart-transformation provide fruitful ways of comparing Paul and his contemporaries’ respective views regarding divine grace, human transformation, and humanity’s ability to obey God. While most Jews in this period did not set divine and human agency or grace and obedience in competition with one another, the precise forms grace took, the functions it performed, the spheres in which it operated, and the qualification for its receptions differed markedly and this would have contributed to vehement disagreements between Jews. Paul would not have been immune from such debates. While his views about grace and agency are not sui generis in every respect, he would have still appeared radical to most of his contemporaries.