[Greek words romanized in title and description] This dissertation defends the thesis that the Pauline phrase, pistis Christou ("faith of Christ" [Rom 3:22,26; Gal 2:16, 20; 3:22; Phil 3:9; Eph 3:12]), in its various contexts, is best translated as "faith in Christ" (objective genitive) and not "faith/faithfulness of Christ" (subjective genitive). Chapter 1 surveys the history of the debate from 1795 to the present. Chapter 2 gives an overview of the use of pistis ("faith") in the LXX and the rest of the NT corpus outside of Paul's letters. It is argued that the LXX usage of pistis supports the subjective genitive interpretation, but the NT usage argues for the objective genitive interpretation. Chapter 3 investigates the use of "faith" in the writings of the apostolic fathers. The research shows that the fathers use pistis along the lines of NT writers and the evidence from their writings also supports our thesis concerning the pistis Christou phrase in Paul. Chapter 4 addresses the nature of the genitive case, Paul's use of the genitives Christou, kuriou, and Theou. Also in chapter 4, the main arguments made in defense of the Subjective genitive interpretation are summarized and evaluated. Chapters 5-7 are exegetical in nature and make up the core of this dissertation. Arguments are made from the context of each letter in which the pistis Christou phrase appears (Romans, Galatians, and Philippians). First, the meaning of pistis Christou is sought in its immediate context and the results evaluated in light of the broader context of each letter. We found that in all these instances, the reading "faith in Christ" for pistis Christou is the more probable reading in context. Chapter 8 summarizes the results of this investigation and evaluates the thesis proposed in this dissertation. Appendices 1-4 cover topics such as (1) why the debate is limited to the subjective and objective genitives (appendix 1), (2) examples of subjective and objective genitives in the NT (appendix 2), (3) pistis in the rest of Paul's letters (appendix 3), and (4) pistis Christou in Ephesians 3:12 (appendix 4). / 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.

This thesis aims to compare the words and governing ethical pattern of thought in the catalogue of virtues and vice in Colossians 3:5, 8, 12-17 to Greco-Roman and Jewish texts that are antecedent to, or contemporaneous with the writings of the apostle Paul and the Epistle to the Colossians. In carrying out this study, I will interact with and critique the arguments of scholars who have proposed that Paul and the author of Colossians are operating from a Stoic, Cynic or Aristotelian governing ethical pattern of thought. I will demonstrate that such positions are called into question in light of the lack of both central Greco-Roman ethical terms, and the lack of essential ethical concepts in both the generally agreed upon genuine Pauline epistles and in the Epistle to the Colossians in particular. Lastly, I will combine the results of the comparative studies of Colossians and the Greco-Roman and Jewish sources with an exegesis of Colossians in order to propose that: (i) the ethical terms of Colossians - while incidentally and peripherally influenced by the various Hellenistic ethical schools of thought - are most directly influenced by words found in the texts of the Jewish traditions, (ii) several of the ethical terms used by the author of Colossians are largely absent from and certainly uncommon in the Greco-Roman sources surveyed but widely attested in the Jewish sources, and that (iii) the author of Colossians presents his ethical material through an inherited binary format derived from the Jewish Two Ways tradition that is driven by a governing pattern of thought which focuses on Christlike transformation through the enactment and reception of cruciform love.

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1 Von Nächstenliebe zu Menschenliebe Zusammenfassung Die vorliegende Diplom-Arbeit ist dem Hauptthema der jüdisch-christlichen Ethik gewidmet, und zwar dem Thema der Nächstenliebe, ihrer Reichweite und Bedeutung. Der Ausgangspunkt der ganzen Arbeit ist der Auftrag "die Nächsten zu lieben" (Lv 19,18), der im Rahmen einer isolierten Moral der sakralen Gemeinschaft gleichgerade mit ihrer Rückseite (mit den Aufträgen im Dt 13 einen Götzendienst oder einen Fluch dem Gott mit Tod zu strafen) angesehen wird. Die supranatural gegründete Nächstenliebe, die von der Gottesliebe zu Menschen und von der Menschenliebe zum Gott abgeleitet ist, bezieht sich verständlich nur auf die Gottesfürchtige, die Gott und sein Gesetz aus ganzem Herz miteinander lieben. Nur diese bilden den Kreis von "Nächsten", wobei alle gottlose zu "Feinden" (einschliesslich der Blutsverwandten) gerechnet werden. Die Entstehung solcher Moral versteht man unter der Bedingungen ehemaligen Religiös- Territorialkonflikten. Im Weiteren beobachtet Autor anhand der religiösen Schriften einen Übergang zur allgemeinen Menschenliebe. Dabei wird reflektiert, dass Auftauchen von der Gedanke der universal begriffenen Menschenliebe mit der katastrophalen geschichtlichen Ereignissen Israels korreliert. Diese Ereignisse (vorallem die Eroberungen von Jerusalem, der...

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This dissertation seeks to theologically analyze three prominent church planter profiles. Chapter 1 explains the need for such a study by giving consideration to the place of church planting in the Great Commission and the importance of leadership within church planting. Chapter 2 provides a historical overview of assessments in a variety of fields that led to the inclusion of assessments within church planting. This chapter also introduces the three profiles as well as some lessons learned from the use of profiles in assessment. Chapter 3 introduces the first area of theological analysis. The chapter discusses the pastoral qualifications outlined in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. Considerable attention is also given to apostles and the role of apostles in church planting. Chapter 4 provides an overview of the nature of the church. For a church planter to lead a church, he needs to understand the nature of the organization he is seeking to lead. The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of the church that can be used to analyze the profiles in terms of their understanding of the church. Chapter 5, building upon the previous two chapters, is the theological analysis of the three profiles. The analysis of the profiles follows the content of the previous three chapters and examines the three profiles according to the nature of the church, which also surfaced the concern of the leader's relationship with God, the character issues raised in the Pastoral Epistles, and the role of apostles in church planting. Chapter 6 provides concise answers to the research questions which guided the dissertation. The chapter also offers suggestions about changes to church planter assessments in light of the analysis. Additional suggestions are offered also with respect to potential areas of further study related to church planter assessments.

Scanned copy of Culpepper's dissertation which is now in the public domain. Scanned as part of our digitization on demand service.

<p>This dissertation begins a conversation between "apocalyptic" interpretations of the Apostle Paul and the contemporary revival in "virtue ethics." It argues that the human actor's place in Pauline theology has long been captive to theological concerns foreign to Paul and that we can discern in Paul a classical account of human action that Alasdair MacIntyre's work helps to recover. Such an account of agency helps ground an apocalyptic reading of Paul by recovering the centrality of the church and its day-to-day Christic practices, specifically, but not exclusively, the Eucharist. To demonstrate this we first offer a critique of some contemporary accounts of agency in Paul in light of MacIntyre's work. Three exegetical chapters then establish a "MacIntyrian" re-reading of central parts of the letter to the Romans. A concluding chapter offers theological syntheses and prospects for future research.</p> / Dissertation

Many theological institutions have adopted online educational formats. Proponents of online formats in theological education have typically given pragmatic justifications for the use of online formats while the most vocal detractors of online formats base their objections on theological concerns. This thesis gives a greater theological foundation for the use of online formats in theological education by demonstrating that Paul believed that Christian formation could be effected from a distance via the epistle. Specifically, this thesis shows that Paul held beliefs about the capability of the epistle to act as a personal proxy. Paul therefore displays an educational strategy that utilizes the strengths of both face-to-face education and distance education via the epistle while compensating for weaknesses in each format. Paul's practice would suggest that theological institutions might have the opportunity to do the same: take stock of the strengths and weaknesses of both face-to-face and online formats, utilize the strengths of each, and compensate for the weaknesses of each.

. . . believe in God, believe also in me . . . --John 14.1 "Authoring Authority" analyzes the ways texts function to generate social cohesion while at the same time advancing the power interests of their authors. The study is a comparative, critical, and interdisciplinary/transdisciplinary excavation of the religion-making efforts of the first-century Christian Apostle Paul and the nineteenth-century Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith. This comparison defamiliarizes and recharacterizes the heroes and origin-stories of the dominant (and my own) tradition to force important questions about scholarly perspectives, interests and deferences (protection, exceptionalization), self-reflexivity, and politics. The project's critical orientation deploys insights and models from a range of disciplines to "read" these texts, not for exegetical purposes, but for what they signify and how they function in nascent social formations. The texts of these men were presented as if their contents were other than the products of embedded social actors (e.g. "it really is God's word" 1 Thes 2.13) contending for limited resources such as discursive authority and social power. These charismatic narrators harnessed the authority of pre-existing texts and traditions and integrated them with contemporary perspectives and sentiment. Their texts and performances offered a contingent construal of reality as ultimate reality--which served the power needs of their authors and the existential needs of their communities of subscribers. The dissertation begins with the articulation of an analytical framework appropriate for the critical and comparative academic study of religion. Chapter two contextualizes the lives of these men within cultural settings that provided motivation, made available vocational training and, ultimately provisioned social opportunities for them as adept charismatics. Chapter three directly illuminates the range of techniques embedded in texts, both implicit and explicit, of claiming power and developing a following. The final chapter wrestles with the functional role of deception in social formation and human life.