Revelation is God's Word addressed to the human being and so speaks of God in relation to the person and the world. Revelation can therefore only be fully understood, proclaimed and lived through an encounter with the world and its conceptions. To understand the evolution of human consciousness and the creation of the soul, we look to the sources of revelation (scripture and tradition) in dialogue with secular anthropology. The latter's paradigm of development and growth is not foreign to the former's understanding of conversion and growth in grace . The image of God, which characterises the human person, is shown to be an emergent likeness, which is created and drawn to its fullness by God. This accounts for Pius XII' s insistence that the soul is created immediately by God, who is responsible for the physical dynamics that bring forth consciousness and the personal dynamics that empower the human soul to develop. / Philosophy Practical andSystematic Theology / M.Th (Systematic Theology)

Thesis (DTh)--Stellenbosch University, 2005 / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The purpose of this research was to determine what the influence of the God-image of parishioners within the Korean Presbyterian Church is on their faith and ability to come to terms meaningfully with the crisis of suffering. With the view to making a pastoral diagnosis and the process of assessment, a pastoral hermeneutics was applied. The basic hypothesis implemented is that inappropriate God-images, exacerbated by the religious-cultural context of the Presbyterian Church in Korea, play an important role in the parishioners' inability to come to terms meaningfully with crises and suffering. In this respect, it was found that Shamanism, Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, amongst others, profile the dominant religious paradigm that functions among members. This cultural context gives rise to a concept of God that applies the theological presupposition of an almighty, fearful supreme being who controls and is in command of everything - even death. In this regard, the concepts of punishment and judgment play a decisive role. Within theodicy, God is viewed as the ultimate cause of evil. Thus, a merciless God (Ch 'unbeol) is the inevitable cause of suffering. The research found that, in Korea, theodicy relates to the monotheistic concept of a "supreme god" (HanunumIHananim), as well as the punitive component in the category of omnipotence (Ch 'unbeoIIChunneung). Because of a causal paradigm (scheme of cause and effect), manipulation is a strong factor in the Koreans' concept of faith and coping with suffering. This gives rise to a form of "pathology of faith": the manipulation of God with the view to material and health benefits. This hampers maturity in faith. In order to understand the theological concepts of judgment and power, we present the exegesis of relevant biblical texts with the view to the development of a theology of compassion. In this respect, we discuss the theological theories of four theologians, that is the existential concept of a theology of the cross (Luther); the ontological-trinitarian concept of a theology of the cross (Moltmann); the dialectic-emotional pain theology of Kitamori; and Louw's pastoralhermeneutic understanding of the cross within the framework of his promissio-therapy. This study suggests a paradigm shift away from a punitive judgmental paradigm to a sensitive compassionate paradigm. This implies a radical transformation from a hierarchical concept of power to power as a category of sympathy and identification that demonstrates God's compassion in suffering. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doel van die navorsing was om vas te stel wat die invloed van lidmate binne die Koreaanse Presbiteriaanse Kerk se Godsvoorstelling is op hul geloof en vermoe om die krisis van Iyding sinvol te verwerk. Met die oog op die maak van 'n pastorale diagnose en die asseseringsproses, is van 'n pastorale hermeneutiek gebruik gemaak. Die basiese hipotese waarmee gewerk is, is dat ontoepaslike Godsvoorstellings, versterk deur die religieus - kulturele konteks van die Presbiteriaanse Kerk in Korea, 'n belangrike rol speel in die onverrnoe van lidmate om krisisse en lyding sinvol te verwerk. In die verband is gevind dat die dominante, religieuse paradigma wat by lidmate funksioneer, gevoed word deur, onder andere, Shamanisme, Konfusianisme, Taoisme en Boeddhisme. Hierdie kulturele konteks gee aanleiding tot 'n Godsverstaan wat werk met die teologiese vooronderstelling van 'n almagtige, vrees-inboesemende opperwese wat alles beheer en kontroleer - selfs die dood. In die verband speel die konsepte van straf en oordeel 'n deurslaggewende rol. Binne teodisee word God gesien as die uiteindelike oorsaak van die kwaad. Lyding is dan 'n noodwendige, kousale gevolg van 'n genadelose God (Ch 'unbeol). Die navorsing bevind dat teodisee in Korea verbind moet word met die monoteistiese verstaan van 'n "oppergod" iHanunum/Hananim), asook die strafkomponent in die almagskategorie (Ch'unbeol/Chunneungi. Vanwee 'n kousale paradigma (oorsaak-gevolg skema) is 'n manipulasie 'n sterk faktor in Koreane se geloofsverstaan en verwerking van lyding. Dit gee aanleiding tot 'n vorm van "geloofspatologie": die manipulering van God met die oog op materiele en gesondheidsvoordele. Die ontwikkeling van geloofsvolwassenheid word hierdeur gerem. Ten einde die teologiese konsepte van oordeel en mag te verstaan, word relevante Bybeltekste eksegeties aan die orde gestel met die oog op die ontwikkeling van 'n teologie van medelye. In die verband word vier teoloe se teologiese teoriee krities bespreek, te wete die eksistensiele verstaan van 'n kruisteologie (Luther); die ontologies -trinitariese verstaan van 'n kruisteologie (Moltmann); die dialekties -emosionele pynteologie van Kitamori; en Louw se pastoraalhermeneutiese verstaan van die kruis binne die raamwerk van sy promissioterapie. Die studie stel voor 'n paradigmaskuif weg van 'n verdoemende oordeelsparadigma na 'n sensitiewe paradigma van medelye. Die implikasie is 'n radikale transformasie vanaf 'n hierargiese verstaan van mag na mag as 'n simpatieke, identifikasie-kategorie wat God se medelye in lyding demonstreer.

Thesis (MTh)--Stellenbosch University, 2000 / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This proposal focuses on the quest for appropriate God-images which can be used to represent God in a given pastoral situation within an African context. It identifies the challenge that confronts the African people as they try to find what can be accepted within the African culture to express their experience of God. The study argues that pastoral care and cross-cultural communication are faced with a twofold problem: the problem of accommodation (continuity) and rejection (discontinuity). It has been observed that the problem of accommodation and rejection is an integral feature of a theological problem of continuity and discontinuity in cross-cultural communication. The problem of accommodation and rejection has been described in this study as: the challenge African people confront in trying to express their experience of God in a given pastoral situation, while at the same time being aware of what is not acceptable and appropriate to the content of the Christian faith. The basic working assumption undertaken by this research, states that appropriate God-images are those which represent God and create an experience of meaning and significance in any kind of circumstance faced by His people. We will presuppose further that appropriate God-images are those which are not going to conflict with a theological interpretation of the Godhuman encounter in a given pastoral care situation. In order to clarify these basic assumptions, the study has undertaken to work with a Hermeneutical model. A hermeneutical model will help us to identify the underlying factors of an African cosmology and anthropology which, according to this study, influences the way African people formulate their God-images. It will be argued further that unless we understand what influences the way African people formulate God-images, we will not comprehend the depth of the problem of accommodation and rejection in an African context. The research proposal wishes to emphasize that the African quest for appropriate God-images is a pastoral problem. Pastoral ministry has a challenge of providing a pastoral diagnosis of God-images which people can identify with. Pastoral ministry should make use of metaphors and symbols common to African people in order to facilitate their quest for appropriate Godimages. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie voorlegging fokus op die soeke na gepaste voorstellings van God wat gebruik kan word in In gegewe pasorale situasie binne In Afrika-konteks met die oog op die effektiewe kommunikasie van die evangelie en die vorming van lidmate se geloofsvolwassenheid. Die kemvraagstuk is die probleem van inkulturasie met in agneming van die invloed van In Afrika-spiritualiteit en kosmologie op Godsvoorstellinge. Die studie voer aan dat pastorale sorg en interkulturele kommunikasie voor In tweeledige probleem te staan kom: die probleem van akkommodasie (kontinuiteit) en verwerping (diskontinuiteit). Daar is vasgestel dat die probleem van akkommodasie en verwerping In wesenlike kenmerk is van die teologiese vraagstuk van kontinuiteit en diskontinuiteit. Die probleem van akkommodasie en verwerping is in hierdie studie beskryf as: die uitdaging waarvoor die mense van Afrika te staan kom wanneer hulle probeer uitdrukking gee aan hul belewing van God in In gegewe pastorale situasie, terwyl hulle tegelyk ook bewus is van wat, volgens die inhoud van die Christelike geloof, nie aanvaarbaar en gepas is nie. Die grondliggende hipotese waaruit hierdie navorsmg voortvloei is dat gepaste voorstellings van God die is wat God op so In wyse weergee dat dit sin verskaf aan mense se daaglikse belewing en ervaring. In Verdere veronderstelling is dat gepaste voorstellings van God die is wat nie bots met In teologiese interpretasie van die ontmoeting tussen God en mens binne In konkrete situasie wat kultureel geprofileer is nie. Om hierdie grondliggende aanname te beredeneer, is daar in hierdie studie besluit om met In Hermeneutiese model te werk. Die veronderstelling is dat In hermeneutiese model ons kan help om die onderliggende faktore van In Afrika-kosmologie en antropologie te identifiseer wat In invloed het op daardie Godsvoorstellinge wat iets reflekteer van die eiesoortigheid van In Afrika-spiritualiteit. In Dergelike pastorale hermeneutiek is nodig met die oog op lydingspastoraat binne In Afrikakonteks. Die navorsingsvoorstel wil beklemtoon dat die Afrika-soeke na gepaste voorstellings van God In pastorale probleem is. Vandaar die noodsaak om met die oog op In pastorale diagnose in pastorale. terapie, aandag te gee aan kriteria wat die vraagstuk van inkulturasie in die pastorale bediening kan aanspreek. Die navorsing voorsien om op hierdie wyse uitdrukking te gee aan die vraagstuk van metaforiese teologie binne In Afrikakonteks.

This thesis deals with the topic of human liberty as it was developed in The Great Catechism by St. Gregory of Nyssa. It is concerned with the importance and role of liberty in the particular periods of the history of salvation (creation, fall and redemption) and with the relation between liberty and other important themes of Gregory's work: man as the image of God and as a creature composed of soul and body; the human's fall and the turn from the real good (which is God) towards evil; new life acquired from Christ's resurrection and the adoption of this new life through baptism and the Eucharist. The man was created for life in freedom; life oriented towards the real good: the God. The man cannot be really free without this orientation towards God, but on the other hand this orientation cannot exist without freedom either. God gave man the life and after the fall he returns it to him, but the acceptance and the shape of this life is at all times dependent on the man's decision. The man, as a created being, is someone who changes all the time. And it is just because he can again and again decide about these never-ending changes of himself, that he can have in his power not only his deeds, but also himself: he is his own master, as God is.

La présente thèse, intitulée «L’incarnation du Verbe de Dieu comme œuvre du salut chez Athanase d’Alexandrie» met en évidence un sujet qui a une connotation très forte pour l’histoire du christianisme et des pensées religieuses en général, à savoir l’action salvatrice du Fils de Dieu en faveur de l’homme, avec toutes les conséquences qui en résultent. Athanase a une conception assez originale sur la nature de l’homme, qu’il conçoit comme un être corruptible, issu du néant, mais destiné pourtant à une vie éternelle par la participation de Dieu, celui qui possède la vraie vie et qui lui communique cette vie si celui-ci reste en communion avec Dieu. Pour qu’il puisse réaliser cette relation très personnelle, Dieu l’a créé selon son image, le Logos-même et l’a doté de l’esprit, l’esprit qui lui permettait d’élever toujours sa pensée vers le monde intelligible et de voir Dieu selon l’image duquel il a été fait. A cause de son insouciance et de la tromperie du démon l’homme n’a pas réussi à garder la pureté de son esprit, pureté qui lui garantissait la contemplation de l’Image, s’est retourné par le péché vers les choses sensibles et a commencé à se contempler lui-même. Ainsi la séparation de Dieu, sa source de vie, renvoie l’homme à sa condition initiale de créature sortie du néant. Mais Dieu, dans son amour infini, n’a pas voulu laisser l’homme dans cet état déplorable et a envoyé dans le monde son propre Verbe pour qu’en sa qualité d’Image de Dieu, il renouvelle l’homme fait selon l’image et qu’en assumant une humanité réelle, il le libère du péché et de la mort par sa mort et sa résurrection. Pourtant l’œuvre salvatrice accomplie par l’incarnation du Verbe ne se limite pas seulement à une restauration de l’homme dans son état initial, mais suppose quelque chose de plus, à savoir une union si étroite de l’humanité et de la divinité dans la personne du Christ, de telle sorte que la nature humaine-même est rendue perméable à la divinité. Cette œuvre réalisée dans la personne du Christ se prolonge dans tous les hommes, grâce à leur parenté et incorporation en Christ. C’est ainsi que l’auteur conclut par sa célèbre phrase: «Dieu s’est fait homme pour que l’homme soit fait dieu», un dieu non par nature, mais par grâce. / This thesis, entitled “The incarnation of the Word of God as work of salvation in Athanasius of Alexandria” emphasizes a topic that has very strong connotations in the history of Christianity and religious thoughts in general, namely the liberating action of the Son of God for man, with all the consequences that will result. Athanasius’ thinking of human nature is, in some degree, original. For him, the human being is a corruptible one, as originated in nothingness, but destined to an eternal life through the participation of God, who possesses the true life and who communicates it to him, if he remains in communion with God. To achieve this personal relationship, God created him after his image, the Logos himself, and endowed him with spirit, which enabled him to raise always his thought to the intelligible world and to see God in whose image he was made. Because of his recklessness and deceit of the devil, man failed to keep the purity of his spirit, purity that ensured his contemplation of the Image, he turned through sin to sensible things and began to contemplate himself. Thus, the separation from God, the source of his life, makes the man returning to his original condition as creature out of nothing. But God in his infinite love would not leave man in this deplorable state and sent into the world his own Word to renew, as Image of God, the man made after this Image and, by assuming a true humanity, deliver him from sin and death by his death and his resurrection. Yet the saving work accomplished by the incarnation of the Word is not limited only to a restoration of man to his original condition, but requires something more, namely a union so close of humanity and divinity in the person of Christ, so that the human nature itself is made permeable to the deity. This work accomplished in the Christ’ person extends to all men, through their similarity and their incorporation into Christ. Thus the author concludes by his famous phrase: “God became man so that man is made god”, a god, not by nature but by grace.

This study uses a postcolonial feminist analysis to show how a biblical text (1 Cor 11:1-16), because of its patriarchal and imperial background, excludes women from the image of God. It demonstrates how this text has been taken up, developed and appropriated to support the subordination of women throughout the Christian tradition from the Church Fathers to the reformers and right up to the present day postcolonial Kenyan Church context. While this text has been used for a long time to oppress women, this study argues that a critical reading of the text from a postcolonial feminist perspective shows that gender disparity exists in this and in other gender-biased Pauline and post-Pauline texts because they were based on the existing patriarchal and imperial structures, which subordinated women to men. Further the study demonstrates that the texts have continued to subordinate women to men throughout the history of Christian tradition. Most churches, such as the Anglican Church, express belief in the Scriptures. Yet such churches like the Anglican Church of Kenya, which seemingly supports gender equality through its gender inclusive article in its Constitution, does not offer guidance about how such texts are to be read and appropriated by Christians. The study offers a method to fill this gap. It is hoped that the academy and the church will avail themselves of this method in their reading practices of the Bible. It takes into account the history of gender and imperial biases in the construction of texts such as 1 Cor 11:1-16 that exclude women from the image of God. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.

This study explores how Christian MLM in Lusaka-Zambia understand their sexual orientation and the imago Dei amidst the general teachings of the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia, Zambia Episcopal Conference and the Council of Churches in Zambia on same-sex orientation and the imago Dei. A plethora of literature about same-sex orientation and the imago Dei reveals that the heterosexism is generally regarded as the authentic image of God while same-sex orientation continues to be regarded as an affront to the image of God. Hence the need to merge the two terms “same-sex orientation” and “imago Dei” in order to deconstruct and reconstruct how sexuality and God are understood within prevailing theologies, using emerging theologies from Zambian Christian Men who Love other Men. This study is framed within postcolonial and queer theories. Focus group discussions were audio-taped and transcribed and field notes taken. Themes are determined, analyzed and interpreted using recurring and unanimously held incipient voices of Christian MLM. Study participants’ views bring to fore that they understand their sexual orientation as being inborn and that they are wonderfully and fearfully created in the image of God. They also view themselves as being the image of God since they love other men, thereby, exhibiting God’s qualities which are love, justice and mercy. The study also found that Christian MLM do not feel welcome in affluent churches, unlike in churches on the outskirts, due to anti-same-sex messages preached in affluent churches. Furthermore, the study discovered that the churches use the Biblical creation accounts to condemn the practice of same-sex orientation and regard persons of same-sex orientation as sinful, satanic and sick. The study concludes that Christian MLM are created in the image of God, and hence recommends revisiting the theology of complementarity and an inculcation of hermeneutics of love in understanding sexuality and God. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2013.

Thesis (M.A.P.S.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 72-74).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Covenant Theological Seminary, 2003. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 137-142).

Este trabalho nasceu da minha experiência clínica e da necessidade de melhor entendimento do que acontece no ambiente terapêutico e que afeta tanto o terapeuta quanto o paciente. A utilização do método psicanalítico justifica-se por firmar-se na investigação de processos psíquicos, o que auxilia no entendimento das relações transferenciais ocorridas entre o terapeuta e o paciente. Passaremos pela compreensão dos fenômenos transferência-contratransferência e sua trajetória histórica. Também se faz presente a discussão sobre a relacionalidade que existe entre terapeuta e paciente. O vínculo, tão importante para a percepção dos sinais apresentados pelo paciente, deve ser estabelecido nessa relação. O tripé psicanalítico, base de sustentação para o terapeuta, também é discutido e reafirmada a sua importância para a manutenção da saúde mental do terapeuta. Consideramos, também, a relacionalidade no âmbito teológico. O ser humano como ser criado por Deus para relacionar-se. A perda dessa relacionalidade natural e suas consequências nas relações humanas. Trataremos a maneira pela qual o ser humano pode restaurar essa relacionalidade perdida. Ao final será discutido a correspondência existente entre psicanálise e teologia. O terapeuta como ser criado possui a responsabilidade pelo cuidado do outro e também precisa de cuidados. A psicanálise e a teologia dialogam para auxiliá-lo nesse processo. / This paper was born from my clinical experience and from the need of a better comprehension of what happens in the therapeutic environment which affects the therapist as well as the patient. The use of the psychoanalytic methodology is justified because it is based on the investigation of psychic processes, which helps understand the transferencial relations which take place between the therapist and the patient. We will cover the comprehension of the transference-countertransference phenomena and their historical trajectory. Also present is the discussion about the relational nature which exists between the therapist and the patient. The connection, so important for the perception of the signs presented by the patient, must be established in this relation. The psychoanalytical tripod, the sustaining base for the therapist, is also discussed and its importance is reaffirmed for the maintenance of the mental health of the therapist. We also consider the relational nature in the theological ambience: the human being as a being created by God in order to relate; the loss of this natural relational nature and its consequences in human relations. We will deal with the way the human being can restore this lost relational nature. At the end, the correspondence which exists between psychoanalysis and theology will be discussed. The therapist as a created being has the responsibility for caring for the other and also needs to be cared for. Psychoanalysis and theology dialog to help this person in this process.