Thesis (D. Min.)--Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, South Hamilton, MA, 2003. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 131-134).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, South Hamilton, MA, 2003. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 151-156).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, South Hamilton, MA, 2002. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 156-160).

Thesis (doctoral)--University of Hull, 1989. / BLDSC reference no.: DX95675.

Thesis (M. Div.)--Baptist Bible Graduate School of Theology, 2002. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 73-77).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 2002. / Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 142-146).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 2003. / Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 139-153).

Thesis (M.A.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 2002. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 99-109).

This dissertation is a case study of three feature films directed by Gan Xiao’er, a Chinese independent filmmaker. I argue that these films are set apart from other independent films in China because they center on the representations of Chinese Christianity in rural areas in the postsocialist era of China, which is a subject matter under-represented in mainstream media as well as independent cinema in China. Gan’s feature films have also illustrated the social and cultural problems during the Reform period, themes which have been avoided by mainstream media but featured in independent cinema. Gan’s films are also characterized by responses to social and cultural issues from a Christian perspective. I also argue that the representations of Christianity in Gan’s films are ambiguous as both the positive and negative sides of the religion are portrayed. Such portrayals have generated a critique from within Christianity, concerning the religion’s entanglement with the social, cultural and political forces in the postsocialist context. Moreover, the three feature films of Gan’s have not only illustrated the exterior of Chinese Christianity, including the religious institution and activities of Christians, but also formulated an in-depth investigation of the inner spiritual quest of Chinese villagers and Christians. / published_or_final_version / Literary and Cultural Studies / Master / Master of Arts

This thesis explores the notion of testimony as a theological concept. The task of this thesis is twofold: first, to analyze several exemplary instances of appropriating philosophical resources in the construction of the concept of testimony in biblical and theological writings, and to consider the aptness of these attempts in terms of the effects they produce when recounting the event of Jesus’ resurrection; second, using the dogmatic and systematic ideas of Karl Barth and Wolfhart Pannenberg, to explore the possible conceptual structure and substance apposite to a theological understanding of testimony. Accordingly, the argument put forward in this thesis is twofold. First, philosophies of witness tend to establish the existence of witness around the natural human capacity of memory, imagination and reflection. Divine agency in the constitution and continuous operation of witness is consistently missing from these models. Their infiltration into biblical studies and theology has resulted in a failure to generate a stable and perspicuous theological meaning of Jesus’ resurrection, and has brought about a circumvention of the event’s historicity. Second, Barth’s theological construal of testimony, in contrast to Pannenberg and the philosophical models sampled in this study, lays stress on the self-witness of the triune God as the ontological ground of human testimony. This ontology is repeatedly underscored by Barth as he explicates the reality, history and transmission of Christian witness. A theological understanding of Christian witness must begin with the selftestimony and agency of God, in contrast to an understanding that pitches testimony as an independent species of epistemology.