Architectural study deals with the design of a new synagogue in Frýdku-Místku, located on the site of the original synagogue from 19th centruy, which was burnt by fanaticized Germans in 1939 and then demolished. Nowadays, it is an undeveloped area without any historical significant. There are other functions beside the building of synagogue – mikveh (ritual bath) and its access tunnel, the jewish community administration and kosher restaurant with two shops. The design concept works with the symbolish of the Star of David, triangles‘ intersection. The synagogue depicts the Mount Sinai, where the Ten Commandments were received.

This study discusses true and false conversions and the use of the Ten Commandments in evangelism, viewed from the starting point of a Christian ethical perspective. The use of the Ten Commandments in Evangelism is affirmed by Jesus Himself and also by Jesus’ apostles after His ascension to heaven. The validity of the Ten Commandments is eternal. The modern evangelist has been caught by the snares of Satan with regards to the Ten Commandments. The power of the Ten Commandments in evoking a true sense of sin is being undermined by a sly plan of Satan that causes enmity between the Law and grace. It has basically brought about two schools of thought: those who use the Ten Commandments, and those who reject it. Those who use the Ten Commandments, however, run the risk of using the law in an illegitimate way, and this is termed as “legalism”. On the other hand, those who reject the Ten Commandments are guilty of “Antinomianism”, that literally means “anti-law”. Consequently, all the underlying principles, which God had laid down for the use of the Ten Commandments, are being blatantly disregarded. Instead, the workings and efficacy of the Ten Commandments are exclusively replaced by love and grace. False conversions are the result in both cases. Satan achieves his goal. In opposition to this is the legitimate use of the Ten Commandments as the only means of preventing false conversions. God designed the Ten Commandments in such a way as to firstly reveal His holiness as the only standard that a sinner must meet. As the standard requires absolute holiness and perfection, it brings about a sense of sin. This is because no person can fulfill the standard. Without a true sense of sin, no person can be saved. Within the framework of the Ten Commandments, evidence of the person’s love towards God is comprised through the upholding of the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments cannot save anyone, but if the person loves Jesus, they will keep His commandments; a sign of true conversion. The goal of this study was to determine whether any guidelines can be composed to help Evangelists prevent or minimize false conversions, in a Biblically justified manner. The research indicates that without the use of the Ten Commandments during evangelism, many false conversions will ensue. The conclusion of this research is that false conversions can be prevented or minimized through the legitimate use of the Ten Commandments during evangelism. / Thesis (PhD (Ethics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012

The thesis consists of two main parts. The first part focuses on the ethical values in the Old and New Testament. At the beginning basic concepts are defined, that are essential for the thesis and are related to ethics and moral evaluation. The first part centres on the important events that shaped society and that come from The Bible (Creation, The Ten Commandments, God's contracts with the nation of Israel, the life of Jesus Christ, the parables, The Sermon on the Mount and The Lord's Prayer). The thesis also compares these values with the philosophy of Socrates and then with the approach, that Jan Amos Comenius offered in his work. The second part analyzes views of Christian ethical values today : whether there is a need to know these values, why we should strive for their observance, whether they are current and whether people (Christians and atheists ) honor and follow them. On the basis of the second section I conclude, that our culture is formed under the strong influence of Christianity, these values are still held and are considered important for the functioning of human relationships and society. Although it may seem that these values are not held today, they are still an ideal within our culture and people are trying to achieve them in their lifes.

This study discusses true and false conversions and the use of the Ten Commandments in evangelism, viewed from the starting point of a Christian ethical perspective. The use of the Ten Commandments in Evangelism is affirmed by Jesus Himself and also by Jesus’ apostles after His ascension to heaven. The validity of the Ten Commandments is eternal. The modern evangelist has been caught by the snares of Satan with regards to the Ten Commandments. The power of the Ten Commandments in evoking a true sense of sin is being undermined by a sly plan of Satan that causes enmity between the Law and grace. It has basically brought about two schools of thought: those who use the Ten Commandments, and those who reject it. Those who use the Ten Commandments, however, run the risk of using the law in an illegitimate way, and this is termed as “legalism”. On the other hand, those who reject the Ten Commandments are guilty of “Antinomianism”, that literally means “anti-law”. Consequently, all the underlying principles, which God had laid down for the use of the Ten Commandments, are being blatantly disregarded. Instead, the workings and efficacy of the Ten Commandments are exclusively replaced by love and grace. False conversions are the result in both cases. Satan achieves his goal. In opposition to this is the legitimate use of the Ten Commandments as the only means of preventing false conversions. God designed the Ten Commandments in such a way as to firstly reveal His holiness as the only standard that a sinner must meet. As the standard requires absolute holiness and perfection, it brings about a sense of sin. This is because no person can fulfill the standard. Without a true sense of sin, no person can be saved. Within the framework of the Ten Commandments, evidence of the person’s love towards God is comprised through the upholding of the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments cannot save anyone, but if the person loves Jesus, they will keep His commandments; a sign of true conversion. The goal of this study was to determine whether any guidelines can be composed to help Evangelists prevent or minimize false conversions, in a Biblically justified manner. The research indicates that without the use of the Ten Commandments during evangelism, many false conversions will ensue. The conclusion of this research is that false conversions can be prevented or minimized through the legitimate use of the Ten Commandments during evangelism. / Thesis (PhD (Ethics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012

The work deals with exegetic-ethical analysis of sexual motives in the Pentateuch. It aims to analyse as well as to systematize the issue of human sexuality in the Five Books of Moses, and to create a compact illustration of the problem. The major part of the work includes an analysis of sexual motives in significant legal regulations - the Ten Commandments, the Covenant Code, the Holiness Code and the Deuteronomic Code. However, the other parts of the Pentateuch must not be left out of consideration and are covered in a separate chapter. The final part tries to synthesize the obtained findings and evaluate systematically the basic sexual questions appearing in the Five Books of Moses.

This paper focuses on the possibilities of religious-pedagogy developing moral actions of the mentally handicapped mainly through the Ten Commandments. The theoretical part defines the basic terminology, divisions and specifications of special pedagogy, psychopedia, didactics of mental retardation, religious pedagogy, didactics of ethic education and Christian moral. The practical part deals with methodical procedures of religious education compiled into a didactic project, specifically didactic applications. The basics origin from the Ten Commandments as characterized in KKC. With regards to development psychology, didactics of mental retardation and the evaluation of the didactic project, the most suitable possibilities of religious-pedagogy developing moral actions seems to be the religious pedagogy of integrated education of Franz Kett and Esther Kaufmann.

Due to the lack of comparative studies referring to so-called values among the Jewish and Christian faith, the following study examines various interpretations of the Decalogue in the Hebrew Bible. These expositions originate from the Roman Catholic, Jewish and Reformed Evangelical tradition. Since the Ten Commandments have been considered influential in several traditions, this study attempts to identify their authority, purpose and status based on the writings of three different theologians. The analysis does not take the whole tradition itself into account, but seeks to discover diverse perspectives, in order to promote a nuanced result. Hence, the results neither speak for the entire denomination nor its believers. Furthermore, the approach of the study is an analysis of ideas, a commonly used method regarding statements of all kind, principally political and religious commentaries. The method endeavors to describe in order to supply further information not explicitly mentioned by the material itself. Thus, the analysis proceeds from theoretical perspectives such as the Euthyphro dialogue, Biblical hermeneutics and covenant. The theologians agree that morality originates from God because of God’s will. Yet there is disagreement regarding its purpose among all three authors. The Roman Catholic and Jewish author emphasize the covenant as a reason to honor the Ten Commandments and have a liberal approach combined with a historical-critical perspective of the Bible, whereas the Reformed Evangelical author expresses a conservative view, equating the Bible with the actual word of God. The Decalogue enjoys a higher status among the Christian authors, although the Roman Catholic author values the Golden Rule significantly more. The issue regarding whether the Decalogue ought to be treated as being above every other law remains unclear based on the material, but is highly more focused than other commandments in the Hebrew Bible. Definitively the study identifies uniting differences from a wide range of beliefs in the theological area.

The aim of this study is to highlight the significance of the prohibition of making any image of God as found in the second commandment of the Decalogue in Exodus 20:4-6 with its inner-biblical interpretations in Exodus 32:1-6 and in Isaiah 40:18-20. This study has discussed the close connection between the prohibition of making any image of God in the second commandment of the Decalogue, the idea of Yahweh’s incomparability in the introduction and the command to worship God only in the first commandment. God’s incomparability prevents Israel from worshipping any other god by making images of them or making any image of God. The ‘construct of the introduction and the first two commandments of the Decalogue’ serves as a linchpin concept in our understanding of the prohibition of making any image of God. The aniconism matriculated in the second commandment of the Decalogue in Exodus 20:4-6 in relation with the introduction and the first commandment in Exodus 20:2-3 forms the basis for the prohibition of making any image of God from the Sinai event onwards. This construct in Exodus 20:2-6 is shared with Exodus 32:1-6 and Isaiah 40:18-20. There an inner-biblical interpretation of the aniconism of the second commandment of the Decalogue in Exodus 20:4-6 in reaction with the introduction and the first commandment in Exodus 20:2-3 explicates and applies the meaning of the command in a new situation. Chapter 1 deals with the statement of the problem and the hypothesis of this study, its methodology, theological rationale, and the aim of this study. Chapter 2 discusses that the prohibition of making any image of God in the second commandment of the Decalogue in Exodus 20:4-6 is important, not only as a phenomenon in the Pentateuch, but also as the provenance of aniconism in the rest of Old Testament. Exodus 20:4-6 can be considered as the explicit traceable provenance of the prohibition of making any image of God in the Pentateuch and the rest of Old Testament. The ‘introduction and first two commandments of the Decaologue construct’ provides a framework within which the meaning of the prohibition of making any image of God in the second commandment can be understood in the context of the introduction of the Decalogue in Exodus and the first commandment of the Decalogue. The second commandment of the Decalogue is sometimes backed up by only the first commandment of the Decalogue and sometimes by both of them. The origin of the second commandment of the Decalogue in Exodus 20:4-6 as the prohibition of making any image of God whether it comes from the early or later stages of Israel’s history is discussed with the discussion on the arrangement of the Decalogue in the Sinai pericope (Ex 19:1-24:11) and the relation between the two Decalogues in Exodus 20:2-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21. The sharp differences of opinions on the provenance of the prohibition in the second commandment of the Decalogue in Exodus 20:4-6 is dealt with. This study supposes that the dating of the prohibition on making any image of God of the Decalogue should be attributed to Moses’ time as stated in the text of the Pentateuch. Chapter 3 deals with one key Pentateuchal text for the prohibition of making any image of God, Exodus 32:1-6, as an example that the second commandment represents the prohibition on making any image of God in relation with the introduction and the first commandment of the Decalogue proclaiming God’s incomparability, which is called ‘the introduction and the first two commandments of the Decalogue construct’ in this study. Exodus 32:1-6 is regarded to be an interpretation of the prohibition of making any image of God in the second commandment of the Decalogue in Exodus 20:4-6. Chapter 4 deals with Isaiah 40:18-20, which forbids idol-fabrication and the worship of an image of God in its relation with the proclamation of God’s incomparability, as well as with the worship of other gods and their images. This chapter deals with the similarity of the negative attitude toward worship of God through images found in the legal and prophetical parts of the Hebrew Bible. Theologically speaking, Isaiah’s message is in line with the Pentateuch, and flows from the office of the prophet as a plenipotentiary of God to condemn the transgression of the covenantal law. This similarity of the idea between them is seen in respect of its linguistic aspects. Considering the rules of the nature of analogies between texts, there can be seen a correlation between the introduction and first two commandments of the Decalogue in Exodus 20:2-6 and the passage dealing with the incomparability of God and the idol-fabrication in Isaiah 40:18-20. The final chapter summarizes the flow of the argument in this thesis dealing with three phenomena of aniconism in the Old Testament and suggests the conclusion of this thesis based on the result of the exegetical and thematic study on the three passages. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Old Testament Studies / unrestricted

序論では研究史を踏まえ、マイモニデスの時代の政治・社会的背景、彼の生涯と著作を概観し、中世ユダヤ思想における彼の思想の位置づけと影響関係を考察した上で『迷える者の手引き』読解の方法論を提示した。本論では「神の本質と属性」、「戒律と人間の自由意志」、「マイモニデスにおける神への道程」の三つを中心的テーマに据え、それらを副題の「神を知解することと人間の生き方との相関性」に結び付けて考察した。 / In the Introduction, based on the History of Maimonidean Study, I surveyed the position of Maimonides' thought and the influential relations among the Medieval Jewish Thought, and then, presented the methodology to read "the Guide of the Perplexed." In the main part, I set the following three subjects, i.e., 'the Essence of God and His Attributes,' 'God's Commandments and Man's Freedom of the Will,' and 'the Transitional Path to God in Maimonides,' to the central theme, and examined these three subjects by connecting with the subtitle, 'the Correlativity between Man's Comprehension of God and His Way of Life.' / 博士(一神教研究) / Doctor of Philosophy in Monotheistic Studies / 同志社大学 / Doshisha University

Text in English and Arabic / In pre-colonial Africa, the Southwestern Sahara which includes Mauritania, Mali and Senegal belonged to what was then referred to as the Sudan and extended from the Atlantic seaboard to the Red Sea. The advent of Islam and the Arabic language to West Africa in the 11th century heralded an intellectual marathon whose literary output still fascinates us today. At a time when Europe was emerging from the dark ages and Africa was for most Europeans a terra incognita, indigenous African scholars were composing treatises as diverse as mathematics, agriculture and the Islamic sciences. A twentieth century Mauritanian, Arabic monograph, Irshād al- Muqallidīn ʿinda ikhtilāf al-Mujtahidīn1, written circa 1910/1332, by a yet unknown Mauritanian jurist of the Mālikī School, Bāba bin al-Shaykh Sīdī al- Shinqīṭī al-Ntishā-ī (d.1920/1342), a member of the muchacclaimed Shinqīṭī fraternity of scholars, is a fine example of African literary accomplishment. This manuscript hereinafter referred to as the Irshād, is written within the legal framework of Islamic jurisprudence (usūl al-fiqh). A science that relies for the most part on the intellectual and interpretive competence of the independent jurist, or mujtahid, in the application of the methodologies employed in the extraction of legal norms from the primary sources of the sharīʿah. The subject matter of the Irshād deals with the question of juristic differences. Juristic differences invariably arise when a mujtahid exercises his academic freedom to clarify or resolve conundrums in the law and to postulate legal norms. Other independent jurists (mujtahidūn) may posit different legal norms because of the exercise of their individual interpretive skills. These differences, when they are deemed juristically irreconcilable, are called ikhtilāfāt (pl. of ikhtilāf). The author of the Irshād explores a corollary of the ikhtilāf narrative and posits the hypothesis that there ought not to be ikhtilāf in the sharīʿah. The proposed research will comprise an annotated translation of the monograph followed by a synopsis and commentary on its dominant themes. / Religious Studies and Arabic / D. Litt. et Phil. (Islamic Studies)