Stephen Charnock (1628-1680) is arguably remembered for his importance, at the zenith of Puritan or English Reformed scholastic divinity, in terms of the doctrine of God’s existence and attributes. He also contributed to Reformed orthodox or Puritan theology through his writings on the knowledge of God, the doctrine of regeneration, Christology, and the atonement. He wrote all these work in the midst of the theological turbulence of the later seventeenth century, with the underlying purpose of defending the inseparability of theological system and piety. His work, with its eclectic acceptance of medieval scholastic intellectual tradition as a tool, plays a significant role in the development of an historical phase of trinitarian and federal theology. However, The Existence and Attributes of God as Charnock’s magnum opus has been unexplored in terms of its view of the full doctrine of God in its trinitarian and covenantal dimensions. This is despite the fact that the Puritan concept of the divine attributes is the very doctrinal area in which the theological loci are concentrated into “a system” associated with the pursuit of piety in the period of high orthodoxy. This lack of a comprehensive overview concerning the Reformed orthodox system has brought about a misunderstanding of his theology. Charnock’s work has been regarded, even in recent scholarship, as the product of a mere scholastic rationalism. William Perkins (1558-1602) is undoubtedly the “father” of the doctrine of God in the early Puritan or Reformed orthodox period. Although misunderstandings concerning his scholastic Puritan theology and its trinitarian system and piety have been successfully rectified by other previous researchers, a confirmation of it through an investigation of his idea of God’s attributes is necessary in our study. This is in order to prove the identity of Charnock’s doctrine of God with the Puritan Reformed orthodox theological system allowing, of course, for the development of the historical and theological context between these two periods. In particular, Charnock’s understanding of the theological prolegomena, Scriptural foundations, and God’s existence and attributes is dealt with in this current study in comparison with Perkins’ work. Charnock’s work has been viewed in terms of a continuity between the early and high orthodox doctrine of God within the flow of English Puritan thought. During this examination, giving particular attention to Charnock’s treatise The Existence and Attributes of God, we have attempted to resolve the question of whether the past interpretation of Charnock’s theology or doctrine of God as a rigid speculative doctrinal formulation of Protestant scholasticism beyond Scripture is reasonable or not.

<p> The purpose of this study is to analyze the sense of valuation that members of the younger Vietnamese generation receive from church leadership and the effect of this perception of valuation on the church&rsquo;s retention of the younger generation. The motivation for this study arose out of an intergenerational conflict which has existed for some years between the first and second generations of Vietnamese church leaders and members. The researcher proposed that merging potential leaders of the younger Vietnamese generation into church leadership would increase retention of the younger generation in the Vietnamese churches. In order to test this hypothesis, a survey was created and filled out by three groups of second generation Vietnamese: Group A consisted of those who have remained in the Vietnamese Church; Group B included those who had once attended a Vietnamese Church, but have left and are now attending a non-Vietnamese Church; and Group C was comprised of those who once attended a Vietnamese Church, but now are not attending any church. Thus, the participant groups included one &ldquo;retained&rdquo; group and two &ldquo;un-retained&rdquo; groups. The seven-question survey was designed to evaluate seven possible issues related to retention, each touching in some way upon the Second Generation&rsquo;s sense of valuation by the First Generation. The researcher tabulated and analyzed the differences in the responses between the three groups. The results of the study show that valuation of the younger Vietnamese by the first generation is an essential component for making disciples and retaining and developing future leaders within the immigrant Vietnamese church community. </p>

No description available.

The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has forgotten its soul by disregarding the beauty that is intrinsic to its theology and mission. By diagnosing the problem of soul within the history of the Disciples of Christ and identifying the kind of beauty that is intrinsic to this tradition, I move towards a reconstruction of a Disciples theology of beauty that will help address this problem of soul for the present-day Disciples churches.

No description available.

This thesis consists of an investigation of a prophetic work and its place in the greater concepts of prophecy and apocalyptic. The different dimensions of the term 'apocalyptic' are explored: literature, world-view and theological movement. These aspects are utilized to frame a definition. There is demonstration of different theories of prophecy's transition to apocalyptic, how these theories each partially illuminate the processes at work within post-exilic Judaism, and how they contribute to an understanding of the origin, sociological setting and essential characteristics of apocalyptic. The divergence within the apocalytic movement is documented, necessitating the rejection of the notion of direct development from any one post-exilic theological tradition.

Thesis (M. Div.)--Acadia University, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.A.(Th.))--Acadia University, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.A.(Th.))--Acadia University, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

<p> The purpose of writing <i>An Evaluation of the Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Course at Community Alliance Church, Butler, Pennsylvania</i> was to measure the efficacy of the course to improve emotional maturity on participants.</p><p>