Ph. D.--Union theological seminary in Virginia, 1997. / Bibliogr. p. 169-209.

Diss.--Katholisch-Theologische Fakultät--Freiburg (Schweiz)--Universität, 1998. Titre de soutenance : Gebrochene Konzepte : der Weg der galiläischen Frauen und die Vorstellungen von Nachfolge und Besitzverzicht im Lukasevangelium. / Bibliogr. p. 285-307. Index.

Proefschrift--Universiteit Utrecht, 1993. / Mention parallèle de titre ou de responsabilité : YHWH is de echtgenoot van zijn volk : analyse van een bijbelse metafoor met speciale aandacht voor vertalen. Résumé en néerlandais.

Thesis (S.T.M.)--Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 184-197).

Preaching remains central to the Evangelical Church tradition. This research examined whether the style of preaching in one such church could usefully be transitioned into another style which might be more widely helpful for congregants. Analysis of this church’s archives suggested a preaching pattern that tended towards a single style, often in ‘points’ and ‘sub-points’ irrespective of the literary genres of the biblical text preached upon. The style primarily conveyed information to the listeners and in varying degrees offered ‘application’ to their lives. The aim of the research was to examine whether a focus on the narrative of the Bible, from individual texts to the biblical meta-narrative, and setting this within the congregational life narratives, would offer a better and more varied style of preaching. The proposed preaching style emphasises engagement with the text rather than primarily offering information about it. Richard Osmer’s reflective cycle was adopted as the methodological framework for this thesis. The research was conducted within the church community and was largely a qualitative inquiry. Congregants reflected on past and present preaching, and on a series of sermons preached in a narrative style. The congregational research was then examined in the light of established homiletic literature. The main findings were a positive response to the new style, and unexpectedly that there was an interest in congregants being directly involved in sermons through interjections, particularly in offering life illustrations that relate to what the preacher is saying. This moves away from a preacher and hearer framework to that of the sermon being a shared event. As a result of the research a preaching model called ‘threefold narrativity’ is proposed in the thesis. This model allows for variations of the style of individual sermons within the model, and a means by which a preacher may monitor the balance of sermons is offered. Ways of implementing change in order to utilise this model were then considered, and a final meta-reflection of the process is made.

The subject of this dissertation is the biblical Cherubim. The Cherubim are mentioned in a fairly small number of texts in the Hebrew Bible; nevertheless, they are described in quite diverse ways. For instance, one distinctive feature is their outward appearance, which is portrayed in radically different ways in several books of the Bible. Do these distinctions merely reflect the varied views of the biblical authors, or, from the perspective of the entire biblical canon, does this variety and mutability reveal an essential feature of their nature? My hypothesis is that there is, in fact, a certain nucleus of biblical notions about the Cherubim. I demonstrate that, although various biblical writers represent the specific characteristics of the outward appearances of the Cherubim in their own ways, these differences testify, essentially, to the dynamic, changeable nature of the Cherubim. By employing the canon of texts collected in the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, this dissertation argues that changeability is, in fact, the central biblical image of the Cherubim. The critical method employed in this work is canonical criticism developed by Brevard Childs. To illustrate a canonical approach in action, I look at the different biblical appearances of the Cherubim, drawing both positive and negative inferences about the function, role, and nature of these creatures as understood by individual biblical writers in conversation with their larger cultural, religious, and literary contexts. At the same time, I compare and contrast these specific instances against the background of the entirety and variety of biblical appearances. If one connects these depictions of the Cherubim with other biblical accounts, the following conclusions can be reached. First of all, the Cherubim appear as agents and therefore are real creatures. Second, the apparent changeability of their countenance indicates that they are spiritual creatures. Third, they possess a great degree of perfection; they are in direct proximity to God's glory and, consequently, are somehow involved in it. On the basis of these traits, the Hebrew Bible views the Cherubim as a special class, as angels sui generis.

Thesis--Boston University. / Purpose.-What eschatological doctrine is discernible among the presuppositions of the Compiler of the Gospel According to Matthew? The enigma of this Gospel, seen in the emergence of strongly universal overtones from the most Jewish, the most anti-Gentile, and the most apocalyptic of the gospels, leads to the primary question of this dissertation. The dissertation is a study of the editorial methods.--additions, deletions, emendations, and arrangements of materials--employed by the Compiler, as well as of the materials which are peculiar to this Gospel. The purpose of the study is to determine if the Compiler's work was conditioned by a particular eschatological perspective. [TRUNCATED]

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University / Resurrection, as characterized by Paul, attains its clearest significance when viewed in the context of all his letters, rather than through the lens of two or three more prominent verses. Its meaning lies at the basis of all of Paul's thinking, giving to life a fullness and purpose. Without the doctrine of resurrection Pauline theology is substanceless, a barren theory, wandering athirst in the desert of human hope. Seen at the heart of his thinking, resurrection becomes the central strand which uniquely links the various strains of his thought into a unified whole. Before his Damascus road experience Paul ranks as a Pharisee of the first order, especially in his zeal to trample on foreign elements of thought. The irradiance of a new day, the light of the life and love of Jesus, dawned in Paul's thought as he journeyed from Jerusalem to Damascus. A man of intrinsic goodness, misdirected as it sometimes may have been, Paul traversed the barren sands o:f arid law, Judaism grom stale because of its essential lack of inwardness. In the conflict of a choice between the old and the new, Paul awakened to the essential ethic of Christianity. His own regeneration in this period demonstrated to him the need :for universal human regeneration [TRUNCATED]

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The scholarly discussion of the patriarchal narratives, initiated by Wellhausen in terms of the particularity of the religion of Israel, was given a new direction by Gunkel, who interpreted them in relation to a wider international culture. Gunkel focussed attention on the literary aspect of the patriarchal narratives and considered the theology in them to be the work of later, pious collectors and not an integral part of the narratives themselves. Alt, by examining the tradition-history of patriarchal religion, emphasized the importance of the theme of promise in the patriarchal narratives in relation to the cultural transition of the early pre-Israelite tribes from a nomadic culture to the sedentary culture of Canaan. Alt's thesis has been developed further from at least three different points of view: (i) Tradition history (Noth, Jepsen, Seebass and Hoftijzer), (ii) Literary formation (von Rad and Rost), and (iii) Pre-Israelite religion (Eissfeldt, Maag and Engnell). Bright, representing the American archaeological school (Albright and Wright), emphasizes the historicity of the patriarchs but does not sufficiently take into account the tradition-history of the patriarchal narratives and thus does not give much attention to the theme of promise in the patriarchal narratives. A new element is introduced into the discussion of the theme of 'promise' in the works of Zimraerli and Westermann. Zimmerli observes the five fold use of the root in Gen. 12, 1-3 and points out that here an unhistorical idea is historicized by the Yahwist. Westermann elaborates further upon this theme and emphasizes that the theme of promise has developed out of an original blessing-concept in the patriarchal narratives. An exegetical survey of the promise-blessing passages in the patriarchal narratives with a view to understanding their form and content, leads to two important conclusions: (a) There is a regular promise pattern in the patriarchal narratives in the form of 'command - promise - blessing'. These three elements represent three features of the religions and cultures in relation to which Israelite religion developed, namely, the nomadic religion of the 'gods of the fathers', the Canaanite El-religion and the Sinai-Exodus Yahwism. This promise pattern is very prominent in the Yahwist, but the element of blessing is either omitted or transformed by the Elohist because of his less enthusiastic attitude towards Canaan, its culture and religion. This promise pattern is also employed by P. (b) Promise and blessing are given in at least four different contexts: (i) strife, (ii) death of the father, (iii) marriage, and (iv) journey. Promise and blessing, given in these contexts are joined together to form a comprehensive promise complex, which is repeated again and again in the patriarchal narratives, although some of the promises do not correspond to the situation of need or tension narrated in the story. The development of the theme of promise in the patriarchal narratives may be understood in terms of the cultural transition of the pre-Israelite tribes from a nomadic culture to a sedentary culture, and a corresponding transition from a religion in which God is related to a people, to a religion in which God is bound to a place, Nomadic religion is a religion of promise, while the religion of a sedentary people is associated with the idea of blessing. Both of these religions had positive elements and also their own limitations. A combination of these two with Yahwism, a religion associated with divine, command, led to a lessening of limitations in the three of them and to a development of their positive ideas, in the present patriarchal narratives. The theme of promise could also be regarded as developing within the historical circumstances of Israel in the periods during which J, E and P are thought to have been written, that is the Davidic-Solomonic period, the reign of Rehoboam I and the Exile. Faced with the problems relating to cultural confrontation, these writers went back to the patriarchal traditions and reinterpreted them for their contemporaries, because they looked upon the patriarchal traditions as the first experience of the people of God in their encounter with other religions and cultures. These different authors have left their marks upon the theology of the patriarchal narratives. The three main elements of the promise pattern 'command - promise - blessing', have influenced each other and have thereby developed a new understanding of the God of Israel.