Thesis (Th. M.)--Regent College, 2006. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 198-204).

Thesis (M.A.)--Fuller Theological Seminary, 1987. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 266-272) and index.

Thesis (Th. M.)--Regent College, 2006. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 198-204).

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This dissertation begins with the problem that local church leaders, Sunday school teachers and adult youth leaders do not have a holistic understanding of what youth ministry is or how to start with youth ministry. And there is a wide gap between adults and the youth because they do not have enough information about today’s youth. Youth ministry has been viewed as something separate from the main church. But the inclusive congregational approach is that youth ministry is part of a comprehensive congregational ministry with a differentiated and focused way, to, with and through youth as an integral part of the church. This dissertation looks into the literature on theories of child development, today’s youth, family, mentoring, and confirmation to understand youth in the church. Church leaders and teachers need enough information about the youth and must be aware of the youth’s developmental needs. Especially church leaders and teachers must work with the parents of the youth to focus on strong Christian education to connect the generations. They have to respond to the youth’s crucial questions and issues of today. Then the youth can find what God intends them to become. This research focused on 73 church leaders and teachers in 11 WEMI (World Evangelical Mission International) churches in South Africa. A high percentage of the respondents understood the concept of youth ministry. But their main problem or difficulty remained the lack of training to understand youth and the biblical text. The results of empirical research presented the actual condition of youth ministry in WEMI churches in South Africa. The churches have to prepare intentional and strategic training for teachers to get enough information about today’s youth, teaching and communication skill, leadership development, counselling and knowledge of the Bible. When the church leaders and teachers are equipped and trained for God’s work, the youth ministry will be built up strongly in the local church, and the youth will find themselves as the body of Christ. / Dissertation (MA Theol)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Practical Theology / unrestricted

L’apparition de l’image du Mongol dans les peintures italiennes est un phénomène particulier et marginal aux XIIIe et XIVe siècles. Notre thèse s’interroge et analyse comment les artistes représentent cette nouvelle image de l’autre, si étrangère et siimpensable, et considère la formation et la transformation des images dans différents contextes. L’image du Mongol s’inscrit dans l’histoire transculturelle qui correspond à la période de la Pax Mongolica s’étendant entre 1250 et 1350. Après la conquête mongole, l’Empire mongol construisit une période de paix dans le vaste territoire de l’Eurasie. L’autorité mongole fit un grand effort pour faciliter les routes commerciales, elle construisit un réseau de routes qui permit aux marchands, ambassadeurs et missionnaires de circuler facilement entre l’Europe et l’Asie. A partir de ce moment, les figures mongoles, comme image d’altérité, pénètrent, d’une manière anachronique, dans les narrations évangéliques, comme l’Adoration des mages, la Crucifixion, la Pentecôte et la Résurrection. Elles ne jouent pas toujours un rôle péjoratif, mais changent leur image selon les contextes et les moments : elles ont été représentées comme Gog et Magog à la fin des temps, soldat partageant la tunique du Christ, spectateur et témoin devant le martyr et la Crucifixion, et rois orientaux adorant l’enfant Jésus. Tout cela constitue, dans une certaine mesure, une image oscillatoire qui crée une tension entre la terreur et l’espoir. Notre thèse tente de penser cette complexité du contexte dans la représentation de la figure mongole et dans ce processus, de démontrer comment l’image donne, à son tour, une visibilité des mentalités de la fin du Moyen Âge. / The appearance of Mongol images in Italian paintings is a particular and marginal phenomenon in the late 13th and 14th centuries. My thesis examines and analyses how artists represent this new image of the Other, so foreign and so unthinkable, and considers the formation and transformation of images in different contexts. The Mongol image inscribed in a transcultural history corresponds to the period of the Pax Mongolica between 1250 and 1350. After the Mongol conquest, the Mongol Empire built a period of peace in the vast territory of the Eurasia. The Mongolian authority made a great effort to facilitate the trade routes, and built a network of roads that allowed merchants, ambassadors and missionaries to circulate easily between Europe and Asia. From this moment, the Mongol image, as an image of otherness, penetrates into evangelical narrations in an anachronistic way, such as the Adoration of the Magi, the Crucifixion, Pentecost and the Resurrection. The role of Mongol is not univocally negative. It changes according to the moments and contexts: they were represented as Gog and Magog at the end of time; as soldier dividing the tunic of Christ; as spectator and witness watching the crucifixion or martyrdom scenes; as oriental kings worshiping the newborn Christ-child. All of this constitute, to some extent, an oscillating image that creates a tension between terror and hope. My thesis aims to consider the complexity of the context in the representation of the Mongol image and to demonstrate how, in this process, the image gives, in turn, a visibility of the mentalities of the end of the Middle Ages.

In May 1856 the EFS (the Swedish Evangelical Mission Society), influenced by the new evangelism-movement, was established as an “internal mission” within the Church of Sweden. During the same period the “new evangelism” revival movement established regional organizations in order to coordinate the movement in different parts of the country. These regional organizations consisted of the movement’s local mission societies in a province or part of a province of Sweden. This study will focus on democracy and theological identity in the EFS through an analysis of how the regional organizations acted, what role they played, how the EFS was influenced by them and how the EFS decided to establish its own regional organization. One result of the earlier tensions between the regional mission organizations and the EFS was the establishment of the independent organizations Mission Covenant Church of Sweden (Svenska Missionsförbundet) (1878-) and Mission Society of Bible faithful Friends (Missionssällskapet Bibeltrogna Vänner) (1911-). This investigation looks into 17 of 36 regional mission organizations that existed. The time frame of the investigation is from the establishment of the EFS in 1856 to the establishment of the regional structure of the EFS in 1922. The EFS changed over time. The change of society and wishes from the movement’s local mission societies and regional mission organizations were agents in this transformation. An important result of this research is that this transformation of the EFS proceeded at a slow pace and with the preservation of the EFS’s theological identity.

L’histoire de la mission évangélique américaine et de son influence sur la politique américaine au Moyen-Orient depuis le début du XIXe siècle demeure largement méconnue du grand public. Pourtant, les missionnaires ont fortement contribué à l’ouverture de leur pays au monde et à son positionnement comme acteur majeur de la scène internationale. Dans les provinces ottomanes, leurs apports en matière d’éducation, de santé, de culture et d’action sociale furent souvent plus significatifs que leurs résultats en matière d’évangélisation. En partant du postulat que l’influence des missions chrétiennes sur les choix politiques reste relative au cours de l’histoire, notre thèse entend distinguer la responsabilité des missionnaires et des leaders religieux du rôle joué par Washington dans l’apparition des crises et des conflits qui secouent le Moyen-Orient et le monde arabo-musulman. Elle examine les causes de l’échec à évangéliser massivement et à implanter les valeurs laïques et démocratiques. Elle souligne également les ambivalences et les divergences qui traversent le protestantisme américain, les attitudes, les représentations et les pratiques des évangéliques et du gouvernement américain à l’égard de l’islam, d’Israël, des nations arabes et musulmanes. / The history of the American Evangelical Mission and its influence on American policy in the Middle East, since the beginning of the nineteenth century, remains largely unknown to the general public. However, protestant missionaries have greatly contributed to the opening of their country to the world and to its status as a major player on the international scene. In the Ottoman provinces, their contributions to education, health, culture and social action were often more significant than their results in terms of evangelization. On the assumption that the influence of Christian missions on political choices remains relative in the course of history, our thesis seeks to distinguish the responsibility of missionaries from the political role played by Washington in the emergence of crises and conflicts that shake up the Middle East and the Arab-Muslim World. It examines the reasons for the failure of massive evangelization and implementation of democratic and secular values. It also highlights the ambivalences and divergences that cross American Protestantism, the attitudes, representations and practices of Evangelicals and American government towards Islam, Israel, the Arab and Muslim nations.

This thesis examines the missiological writings of Orlando E. Costas (1943-1987), particularly The Church and Its Mission: A Shattering Critique from the Third World (1974); Theology of the Crossroads in Contemporary Latin America (1976); Christ Outside the Gate (1982); and Liberating News: A Theology of Contextual Evangelization (1989). From the early 1970s until his death in 1987 he wrote over 130 articles and 12 books in both Spanish and English that addressed key missiological concerns. A careful reading of a selection of Costas's texts oriented around a hymn, a gospel song, a psalm, and a poem provides the shape of this thesis. This thesis argues that Costas formulated a Third World evangelical missiology. Chapter one investigates what Costas's autobiographical material expressed about his positions on conversion, Protestant evangelicalism, missiology, and those living on the ‘periphery' of life. Chapter two recognises his commitment to the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean in particular and the Third World in general. Chapter three explores Costas's analysis of the Latin American Protestant Church in a revolutionary situation in the continent and chapter four examines his survey and critical appraisal of Latin American liberation theology. Chapter five recognizes the pastoral shape of Costas's missiology. Chapter six explores his critical interaction with two more conservative evangelical missiological positions, the Church Growth Movement and Peter Beyerhaus and the Frankfurt Declaration, and chapter seven surveys the discussion within the international evangelical community regarding the relationship between evangelism and social responsibility. Chapter eight examines Costas's Liberating News as an expression of Third World evangelical missiology. Chapter nine considers the theological issue of penal substitutionary atonement and his missiology. The thesis concludes with an appraisal of the issues and contributions of Costas's Third World evangelical missiology to current missiological discussion.