This study investigates the understanding of heresy and the heretic according to John of Damascus. For him, a heretic was any Christian who, by wilful choice, departs from the one orthodox tradition by adopting a personal opinion on the common faith which he intends to institute as sole truth. Our research is divided into two parts and aims to apply John of Damascus' understanding of the recurring identity of the Christian heretic and his behaviour. By using historical-theological, interdisciplinary and diachronical approaches, our research demonstrates that this Church Father, who is the `seal of the patristic era,' remains a relevant authority for our comprehension of heresy and the heretic. Through two case studies, namely, the Dutch Reformed Churches and Apartheid, and Kimbanguism, our study specifies, on the one hand how a distorted Christian confession contributed to the rise of Apartheid, with its attendant sense of a theocracy, predestination, election, supremacy, divine love and justice. Kimbanguism, on the other hand, represents a heresy against its will. It is an example of Christian leaders who abused their power to apply cultural elements that resulted in a dramatic misinterpretation of the Christian dogma of the Trinity. Finally, our study intends to apply the notions of wilful choice, obstinacy and fanaticism, libertine exegesis, personal opinion and orthodox tradition or common faith, to portray a heretic by using an interdisciplinary approach: theologically as a libertine-exegete, psychologically as a dogmatic and fanatic person, and sociologically as a negative cultural reformer. Thus, our analysis is both historical and theological, and clearly and substantially elucidates the heretical mind in modern times. Consequently, our inquiry may be summed up as follows. Firstly, heresy habitually comes from an existing text, doctrine or discipline; secondly, it concerns people who are originally Christians; thirdly, it demonstrates that a heretic may be a fervent and an educated Christian, a layman or a church leader, who, on the basis of wilful choice, interprets Biblical texts freely, with his personal exegesis and hermeneutics, and ultimately incorrectly. From this exegesis and hermeneutics he deduces and sustains a new doctrine that he defends with obstinacy and fanaticism. / Christian Spirituality, Church History & Missiology / D. Div. (Church History)

This study investigates the understanding of heresy and the heretic according to John of Damascus. For him, a heretic was any Christian who, by wilful choice, departs from the one orthodox tradition by adopting a personal opinion on the common faith which he intends to institute as sole truth. Our research is divided into two parts and aims to apply John of Damascus' understanding of the recurring identity of the Christian heretic and his behaviour. By using historical-theological, interdisciplinary and diachronical approaches, our research demonstrates that this Church Father, who is the `seal of the patristic era,' remains a relevant authority for our comprehension of heresy and the heretic. Through two case studies, namely, the Dutch Reformed Churches and Apartheid, and Kimbanguism, our study specifies, on the one hand how a distorted Christian confession contributed to the rise of Apartheid, with its attendant sense of a theocracy, predestination, election, supremacy, divine love and justice. Kimbanguism, on the other hand, represents a heresy against its will. It is an example of Christian leaders who abused their power to apply cultural elements that resulted in a dramatic misinterpretation of the Christian dogma of the Trinity. Finally, our study intends to apply the notions of wilful choice, obstinacy and fanaticism, libertine exegesis, personal opinion and orthodox tradition or common faith, to portray a heretic by using an interdisciplinary approach: theologically as a libertine-exegete, psychologically as a dogmatic and fanatic person, and sociologically as a negative cultural reformer. Thus, our analysis is both historical and theological, and clearly and substantially elucidates the heretical mind in modern times. Consequently, our inquiry may be summed up as follows. Firstly, heresy habitually comes from an existing text, doctrine or discipline; secondly, it concerns people who are originally Christians; thirdly, it demonstrates that a heretic may be a fervent and an educated Christian, a layman or a church leader, who, on the basis of wilful choice, interprets Biblical texts freely, with his personal exegesis and hermeneutics, and ultimately incorrectly. From this exegesis and hermeneutics he deduces and sustains a new doctrine that he defends with obstinacy and fanaticism. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D. Div. (Church History)

A critical survey of early Church history, the works of the Church Fathers and several councils of the Church reveals a consistent call for unity. Heresies, politic intrigue and struggles for governance have aggravated attempts to remain in the union. The insistence on unity and the persistence of the Church to unify reveals an ontological reality. While our knowledge of the Church can be given in epistemological terms, looking at the Church to discover its essence, what it means to be church, opens a different way of encountering the Church and, eventually, understanding the nature of the Church to be one. The transformations in the early Church as it spread to new cultures, the impact on the Church at the founding of “New Rome” by the Emperor Constantine, the changes brought about when Constantinople fell to the Ottomans in 1453 and the resulting birth of the Renaissance in the West with the beginning of the autocephaly Church in Russia and subsequent reunions, are especially rich in manifestations of unification among dissidence. This paper will focus on these particular moments. The concept of looking at the essence of the Church exposes us to an understanding of what the Church is as a universal presence. Stating that the Church has no physical dimension, that it is a unique congregation abiding solely by an actual historic document or defined only by written doctrines does not show us its full essence. Likewise, seeing the Church as defined by how it differs from another, exists in objection to another church or how it avoids affiliation with others, reveals a body that does not have a unifying essence and is lifeless. Looking closer at its essence as it is revealed over time, shows us a living Church that has repeatedly manifested unification as its particularly unique identity. This paper is a reflective look of the Church through the ages which presents to us a look into the essence of the Church. Primary and secondary sources are critically examined with an emphasis on ontological manifestations. The moments in history that are presented in this paper are especially revealing of the unifying nature of the Church in various settings. This paper has limitations though. While the deliberate historic selections may give extraneous interpretations, it is intended to reveal previously under-estimated treasures, and this topic will require being given greater context in any expanded study. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D. Th. (Church History)

My thesis examines relations among practitioners of various religions, especially Christians and Jews, during the era when Jesus’ project went from being a Galilean sect, to a persecuted minority, to religio licita status, and eventually to imperial favor, all happening between the first century resurrection of Jesus and the fourth century rise of Constantine. There is an abiding image of the Church in wider public consciousness that it is unwittingly and in some cases antagonistically exclusionist. This is not a late-developing image. I trace it to the period that the church developed into a formal organization with the establishment of canons and creeds defined by Church councils. This notion is so pervasive that an historical retrospective of Christianity of any period, from the sect that became a movement, to the Reformation, to the present day’s multiple Christian iterations, is framed by the late Patristic era. The conflicts and solutions reached in that period provided enduring definition to the Church while silencing dissent. I refer here to such actions as the destruction of books and letters and the banishment of bishops. Before there emerged the urgent perceived need for doctrinal uniformity, the presence of Christianity provided a resilient non-militant opponent to and an increasing intellectual critique of all religious traditions, including that of the official gods that were seen to hold the empire together. When glaringly manifest cleavages in the empire persisted, the Emperor Constantine sought to use the church to help bring political unity. He called for church councils, starting with Nicaea in 325 CE that took no account for churches outside the Roman Empire, and many within, even though councils were called “Ecumenical.” The presumption that the church was fully representative without asking for permission from a broader field of constituents is just that: a presumption. This thesis studies the ancient world of Christianity’s growth to explore whether, in that age of new and untested toleration, there was a more advisable way of responding to the invitation to the political table. The answer to this can help us formulate, and perhaps revise, some of our conduct today, especially for Christians who obtain a voice in powerful places. / Christian Spirituality, Church History & Missiology / D. Th. (Church History)

My thesis examines relations among practitioners of various religions, especially Christians and Jews, during the era when Jesus’ project went from being a Galilean sect, to a persecuted minority, to religio licita status, and eventually to imperial favor, all happening between the first century resurrection of Jesus and the fourth century rise of Constantine. There is an abiding image of the Church in wider public consciousness that it is unwittingly and in some cases antagonistically exclusionist. This is not a late-developing image. I trace it to the period that the church developed into a formal organization with the establishment of canons and creeds defined by Church councils. This notion is so pervasive that an historical retrospective of Christianity of any period, from the sect that became a movement, to the Reformation, to the present day’s multiple Christian iterations, is framed by the late Patristic era. The conflicts and solutions reached in that period provided enduring definition to the Church while silencing dissent. I refer here to such actions as the destruction of books and letters and the banishment of bishops. Before there emerged the urgent perceived need for doctrinal uniformity, the presence of Christianity provided a resilient non-militant opponent to and an increasing intellectual critique of all religious traditions, including that of the official gods that were seen to hold the empire together. When glaringly manifest cleavages in the empire persisted, the Emperor Constantine sought to use the church to help bring political unity. He called for church councils, starting with Nicaea in 325 CE that took no account for churches outside the Roman Empire, and many within, even though councils were called “Ecumenical.” The presumption that the church was fully representative without asking for permission from a broader field of constituents is just that: a presumption. This thesis studies the ancient world of Christianity’s growth to explore whether, in that age of new and untested toleration, there was a more advisable way of responding to the invitation to the political table. The answer to this can help us formulate, and perhaps revise, some of our conduct today, especially for Christians who obtain a voice in powerful places. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D. Th. (Church History)