Jonah's Prayer is a choral work for solo tenor, a mixed choir of not fewer than 30 members, two pianos and a few percussion instruments to be played by choir members. The piece lasts about 13 minutes; it is a work intended for church choir use but could be performed in other venues as well.

My thesis should combine all three specializations of my study, art education, civics and pedagogic. The objective of my work is creating an author{\crq}s book of Bible stories for children. The main idea is to approach Bible to atheists, or more precisely to unbelieving children. I entitled the theoretic part of the thesis Bible {--} What For? I explain there, why also an atheist should know Bible. I examine Bible from various points of view. I search the importance of Bible for different groups of people (believing, not believing, children, artists...), I think out the relation Bible {--} art, I write also about Bible in education. One chapter is about some sayings, names and other things, which come from Bible and we use them in common language. Also my personal experience with Bible has its place in my thesis. In the last chapter I describe the procedure of work on the practical part. In the practical part of the thesis I targeted the Old Testament. I retelled some stories from the Old Testament, so as they are suitable for children. Those stories I accompanied with a collection of ilustrations. They are made by lino {--} cutting. The collection contains 19 whole-page pictures, 5 half-page pictures, 3 little pictures and the book-jacket). I put my texts and ilustrations together to a book. The final design of the book is also a part of my thesis. I entitled this book of stories First Step to Bible.

This diploma thesis Christianity in Primary Education is focused on Christianity (namely holidays and saints, Bible stories and basics of Christianity) in primary teaching. The area of Christianity in Czech public education is analysed on the basis of informations which are contained in curricular documents and textbooks. The results are compare with some other European states. The semi-structured interviews allowed to examine more in detail the influence of teachers and their attitudes in connection with teaching about Christianity. The response to these interviews is the activity file which is possible to use as a teaching tool.

Chronological Bible storying generally assumes a universality of the story teller's theological perspective in selecting and shaping Bible stories interculturally. This paper argues against this approach and proposes a method of crafting contextualized Bible stories which resonate with the worldview of a receptor culture. The influence of the theological and cultural presuppositions of the story teller is reduced through the utilization of the receptor culture's worldview assumptions - those values and beliefs through which the impact of scripture is experienced. The empirical research consisted of observing the responses of Sindhi Muslim men to a reading of John 13:1-10 and then interviewing them to generate cultural expressions which revealed a relationship between their culture and the scripture passage. Analysis of the data disclosed themes which have scriptural referents and can be used as the basis for selecting and crafting Bible stories that resonate with worldview assumptions. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M. Th. (Missiology)

KYNCLOVÁ, Dana. Biblical Stories in Hagiotherapy and Pastoral Care. Praha, 2013. Master's thesis. Charles University. Faculty of Education. Department of Psychology. Supervisor M. Kucera. Keywords: pastoral care, hagiotherapy, Christianity, integrated approach, psychology, theology, spirituality, religion, psychotherapy, Bible, Bible stories, exegesis, existential psychotherapy This thesis deals with the relationship of hagiotherapy and pastoral care on the basis of their approach to work with motifs from biblical stories. The theoretical framework of the study are various findings on the relationship of psychology and theology and their application disciplines of psychotherapy and pastoral care from a clear definition of the boundaries of both disciplines to their integration. Due to the default assumption that personality is composed of bio-psycho-social-spiritual needs, an integrative model has the potential to meet human needs in this wholeness. Hagiotherapy, as a direction of existential psychotherapy using Bible stories as a therapeutic tool, is close in nature to pastoral care and this fact gave rise to the research project. The aim of the research is to determine how hagiotherapy and pastoral care work with the motifs of biblical stories and whether it is possible to find similarities in...

The diploma thesis The Bible and Its Adaptations for Children addresses the question of the quality of children's Biblical adaptations. It aims to compile a comprehensive set of criteria based on relevant literature which children's adaptations should meet. These criteria should become a practical tool for primary school teachers to make it easier for them to select quality stories for their lessons. The entire first chapter is devoted to the Bible and should serve as a general knowledge base of the book. The second chapter describes children's literature in terms of its specifics and psychological characteristics of young readers. A special place in this chapter belongs to myth (as one of the essential biblical genres) and the Bible itself, and the examination of their place in children's literature. The chapter on children's literature also includes a section the aim of which is to explain the role of illustration in children's books and to remind us of its crucial position in children's literature. The following chapter deals with the term adaptation, first from the general literary point of view, and then it focuses on the child recipient and the peculiarities of adapting the Bible. At the end of this chapter, the planned set of criteria is created on the bases of the previous theoretical part...

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Yale University, 1992. / Fourteen unnumbered p. containing figures 1-25 have not been filmed at the request of the author. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 222-227).

Chronological Bible storying generally assumes a universality of the story teller's theological perspective in selecting and shaping Bible stories interculturally. This paper argues against this approach and proposes a method of crafting contextualized Bible stories which resonate with the worldview of a receptor culture. The influence of the theological and cultural presuppositions of the story teller is reduced through the utilization of the receptor culture's worldview assumptions - those values and beliefs through which the impact of scripture is experienced. The empirical research consisted of observing the responses of Sindhi Muslim men to a reading of John 13:1-10 and then interviewing them to generate cultural expressions which revealed a relationship between their culture and the scripture passage. Analysis of the data disclosed themes which have scriptural referents and can be used as the basis for selecting and crafting Bible stories that resonate with worldview assumptions. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M. Th. (Missiology)

This study identifies a theological trajectory of first generation “believers” – those who allow the biblical text to speak authoritatively into their lives – within the Sindhi community of Pakistan. A passage from a contemporary translation of the New Testament in the Sindhi language – Luke 15:11-32, Jesus’ Parable of the Two Lost Sons – was presented in interview settings to discover how Sindhis express their faith as they consider the message of the parable. Culture texts generated by believers are compared to those generated by “traditional” Muslim Sindhis who do not accept the Bible as authoritative. Twenty–eight people identified as Sindhi believers were interviewed as well as twenty traditional Sindhi Muslims. Similarities and contrasts between the two groups are used to discover how the theological praxis of the believers is being impacted and how they are adjusting their view of God as they engage scripture. The description of theological trajectories that diverge from accepted traditional convictions is referred to as “mapping.” Six themes were identified from the interviews that are important for both groups while demonstrating distinct contrasts and similarities. The themes are (1) God is compassionate/kind/merciful/loving beyond our imagination, (2) God forgives his servants who repent, (3) Concepts of rewards, punishment and the fear of God, (4) The relationship of human beings with God (child versus servant), (5) Issues of justice, honor and status, and (6) The importance of obedience to God. An evaluation of the six themes revealed one overarching trajectory: a shift from a dominant master–servant view of the Divine–human relationship to a father–child paradigm. The research affirms that the shift to a biblically shaped view of God is not disconnected from previous beliefs, but is based on and shaped by a priori assumptions held by members of society. Commitment to the Bible as God’s word speaking authoritatively to believers creates a shift or trajectory of faith so that current perspectives, symbols and metaphors of God are being reformed and reconfirmed through the believers’ interaction with the Sindhi translation of scripture. / Christian Spirituality, Church History & Missiology / D. Th. (Missiology)

Thesis (MPhil(Visual Arts. Illustration))--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / This thesis is a critical analysis of Afrikaans illustrated children’s Bibles as cultural texts in Afrikaner nationalist discourse. Christian Calvinism was a distinct signifier in Afrikaner nationalism and served as an instrument in the construction of Afrikaner national identity. I propose in this study that Afrikaans children’s Bibles encoded the principles of Afrikaner nationalism and were used as didactic tools for the configuration of an exclusive national consciousness. A potential pitfall in the analysis of Afrikaans children’s Bibles as nationalist texts is the fact that these books were translated from Dutch or English into Afrikaans. However, the act of translating the Bible, ‘the Word of God’, into Afrikaans served to confirm the ‘totem’ of Afrikaner Christian-Nationalism. The appropriation of the Bible re-contextualized the ‘Holy Scriptures’, placing them within the milieu of Afrikaner national identity and consciousness: language and religion thus became interrelated catalysts in the social construction of Afrikaner national consciousness. Finally, my own reinvention of the Afrikaans picture Bible – in opposition to conventional illustrated children’s Bibles – is put forward and discussed as a postmodern text that encodes a radically different post-Apartheid conception of identity.