<p>The theologies of St. Augustine and John Howard Yoder are, if at all treated together, typically contrasted. This negative juxtaposition is in so small part due to the very different reputations of each theologian on the question of violence. This dissertation demonstrates that the standard contrast between the theopolitical visions of Yoder and Augustine is mistaken. An introduction portrays the cumulative work of the chapters as the unfolding of a question about the contemporary reception of Augustine and Yoder: Might John Howard Yoder's "pacifism of the messianic community" be received as a radical form of Augustinianism? The dissertation consists of four chapters, each dealing with some aspect of Yoder's or Augustine's thought which, under closer examination, reveals an interesting line of convergence with the thought of the other. The politics of historical interpretation, the challenge of interiority, the aims of historicism, and the nature of "the political" are taken up in succession. An affirmative answer to the overarching question is suggested, but the more important task is to render the question salient for contemporary theologians and ethicists.</p> / Dissertation

Den här uppsatsen diskuterar John Howard Yoders teologiskt motiverade sexuella våld, med hjälp av queerteologen Marcella Althaus-Reid och den feministiska teologen Mary Daly, och även andra teologiska perspektiv. Särskilt fokus läggs på hur en teologi för syndarens upprättelse och försoning riskerar att osynliggöra skadade och sårbara personer, hur en idealiserad bild av församlingen riskerar att skada den personliga omdömesförmågan, och hur ett profetiskt motiverat gränsöverskridande riskerar att legitimera våld. / This thesis aims to discuss the theologically motivated sexual violence of John Howard Yoder, in the light of the writings of queer theologian Marcella Althaus-Reid and also feminist theologian Mary Daly, and others. Attention is put on how the hurt persons might be left out of a theology for redemption of the sinner, how an idealized view of the congregation risk hurting the personal capacity for judgement, and on how a prophetic calling to cross boundaries might end up protecting transgressive violence.

This thesis is a critical analysis of the theology and ethics of dispensationalist Christian Zionism in America. Chapter One introduces the thesis and its method, which draws constructively from history, sociology, and anthropology while remaining substantively theological. Chapter Two describes dispensationalism's origins in nineteenth-century Britain and its dissemination and development in America. Chapter Three moves from broad, historical description to the contemporary and particular through an introduction to Faith Bible Chapel (FBC), an American Christian Zionist congregation. This description arises from an academic term spent at FBC observing congregational life and conducting extensive interviews, as well as fieldwork undertaken in FBC's "adopted settlement" in the West Bank, including interviews with Israeli settlers about partnerships with American Christians. The remaining chapters move to more explicitly doctrinal analysis. Chapters Four through Six are shaped by William Cavanaugh's concept of 'theopolitics' (Theopolitical Imagination, 2002): a disciplined, community-gathering common imagination of time and space. Through the exploration of a key historical text (The Scofield Reference Bible, 1917) and its continuing legacies in the life and thought of FBC, these chapters examine the theopolitics of dispensationalist Christian Zionism, demonstrating that it is a complex system of convictions and practices in which the disciplines of biblicism and biblical literalism form an eschatology which subordinates ecclesiology and Christology, nurturing an imagination of the roles of Christ and the church in time and space which sever social ethics from necessary Christological and ecclesiological sources. John Howard Yoder's work is used to bring this system into relief, and to establish that eschatology per se is not inimical to Christian social ethics. Chapter Seven concludes the thesis with a summary of its findings, as well as a discussion of the positive functions of apocalyptic in Christian social ethics, pointing toward the possibility of alternative ecclesial enactments of apocalyptic theopolitics.

Religious Studies is making possible a scholarly study of many aspects of human religious traditions and practices, but the field has yet to articulate fully the ability of such study to affect the creation of new approaches to intractable social and political problems. Many of these problems have as their basis religious justifications, yet the rigor of academic thought has only barely begun to clarify the underlying religious reasoning. Through this essay I intend to provide clarity to some of the underlying religious justifications for war and violence by examining the religious writings of two widely recognized theologians that firmly oppose war and violence, John Howard Yoder and Mohandas Gandhi. The result is an examination on the utility of using religious ideas as sources of insights and strategies for addressing social and political issues such as war and violence.

<p>One of the focuses of John Howard Yoder's theology is Christian nonviolence. From the teaching and example of Jesus, who dealt with the evil in the world and defeated it through obedience to the will of God to the point of dying on the cross, Yoder derives the normative Christian stance of nonviolence. It is expressed in the life of the disciples in their suffering with Christ the hostility of the world as bearers of the kingdom cause and in their living out the suffering servanthood in place of dominion. For Yoder, subordination is how Christ's model of servanthood is carried out into the concreteness of family life, and it is most extensively explored in his essay, "Revolutionary Subordination," in The Politics of Jesus.</p><p>This dissertation is an attempt to read household codes in the New Testament, especially Col. 3:18-4:1, together with Yoder, with a special emphasis on the husband/wife relation. Due to an exceptionally controversial character of Yoder's essay, it seeks to understand his main points, while identifying the elements that have caused strong opposition. The fact that these Haustafel texts have been historically abused to legitimate oppression and exploitation of persons poses a warning in one's endeavor to interpret them. Particularly telling is Americans' experience around slavery during and after the Civil War. The conflicting interpretations of the Bible between the proslavery camp and the abolitionists leave us in a hard place in addressing the issue of women's status in the household and in society.</p><p>Through examining key debates on the Haustafeln in the biblical scholarship focused on James Crouch and David Balch; two alternative views on the subject in theological ethics - Yoder and Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza - and further discussions of their views aided by theologians such as Gordon Kaufman, Alasdair MacIntyre, and Jeffrey Stout, this study addresses issues found in Yoder and Schüssler Fiorenza. It concludes that Yoder's undue reliance on David Schroeder and his refutation of Martin Dibelius have led him to overlook the preexisting schema that was adopted and Christianized by the early church, and that he fails to name patriarchy a sin. Schüssler Fiorenza's problems are found in the areas of the biblical canon, tradition and democracy. The relevance of the slavery debates to this study is revisited through discussions of Mark Knoll and Dale Martin, and Yoder's nonviolent kingdom ethic is compared to Paul Ramsey's just war theory and backed up by Rowan Williams, Bernd Wannenwetsch, and Sarah Coakley.</p> / Dissertation

The Difference of Conversion examines theologically the possibilities for a religious minority group to maintain its own corporate identity while contributing as a member of the greater society. The research centers on the Swedish Baptist denomination, Örebromissionen, and focuses on its youth ministry. The research material is the weekly newspaper Missionsbaneret. This examination is twofold: part one is a historical analysis, and the second, a Diaspora-theological analysis that results in the development of a Diaspora ecclesiology. The historical analysis is influenced by a discursive approach and emphasize two areas of focus; what makes something visible, or problematic, and which steering techniques that are used. The study covers three different periods – 1930s, 1950s and 1980s. The research shows that it has been a great challenge for Örebromissionen to maintain a corporate identity in Sweden, both during the Folk Church period as well as in the Folkhemmet period. The examination suggests that this depends on two coexisting processes; first, the understanding of personal conversion primarily as an emotional, datable, and complete experience within the denomination and secondly the strong emphasis of a shared identity in society. The theological analysis begins with a description of the late Mennonite theologian John Howard Yoder’s Diaspora theology. Using Diaspora-theological analysis shows that the strong emphasis of a shared identity in Swedish society has changed the theology concerning personal conversion in relationship to moral values; where once conversion preceded moral change to later when moral development preceded conversion. This shift in understanding was brought about by new practices introduced in Youth Ministry. In conclusion it is suggested that a Diaspora ecclesiology that both wants to maintain a corporate identity as well as to contribute to a good society must emphasize a multi-cultural society, accentuate the individual as a part of a specific religious social body, and understand the religious corporate identity borders as porous, and therefore constantly re-negotiated.

Denna uppsats undersöker exegetikens roll i John Howard Yoders, Walter Winks och Stanley Hauerwas tolkning av Matt 5:38-48. Uppsatsens syfte nås genom att dels göra en exegetisk analys av Matt 5:38-48 i dess litterära och historiska kontext och att sedan studera utvald litteratur av de tre författarna och sedan jämföra deras material. Uppsatsen visar att alla tre författare menar att texten manar till en pacifistisk livshållning. Skillnaden mellan de tre ligger i att Hauerwas och Yoder väljer att förankra denna etik genom att läsa Matteusevangeliet som helhet medan Wink väljer att göra en ingående analys av vår aktuella text och istället söka efter textens ursprungliga historiska kontext. Genom att Yoder och Hauerwas väljer

This thesis examines three students of Karl Barth’s work, all of whom articulate Christian theologies of Israel and Judaism under the influence of his thought and thus the wording of the title, after him. The three theologians are Paul M. van Buren (1924-1998), John Howard Yoder (1927-1997), and Robert Jenson (1930-2017). All three studied with or were supervised by Barth during the 1950s. Later, each of them would make significant contributions to post-Holocaust theologies of Israel and Judaism. In this thesis, I seek to elucidate the conceptual relationship between these two elements—each theologian’s early engagement with Barth and their later contributions to post-Holocaust theology—and argue that by examining the former, one can better understand the theological bases for the latter. I begin with an analysis of Barth’s doctrine of Israel. Barth claims that Israel and rabbinic Judaism are eternally determined to be witnesses to God’s own self-determination in Jesus Christ to be the God whose mercy rules in God’s judgment. A close comparative reading of van Buren, Yoder, and Jenson then follows. I begin by outlining the ways these three theologians appropriate and depart from Barth during or shortly after their time studying with him. I then trace the way each theologian’s early appropriation of and departure from Barth relates fundamentally to the development of their theologies of Israel and Judaism. My analysis reveals that each of the three critique Barth’s doctrine of God’s self-determination as the pre-determination of the identity of Israel and Judaism to be witnesses of Jesus Christ. This common critique enables each of the three to articulate a more positive account of Israel’s and rabbinic Judaism’s witness. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This thesis examines three students of Karl Barth’s work, all of whom articulate Christian theologies of Israel and Judaism under the influence of his thought and thus the wording of the title, after him. Paul M. van Buren, John Howard Yoder, and Robert Jenson studied with or were supervised by Barth in the 1950s. Each of them would later make significant contributions to post-Holocaust theologies of Israel and Judaism. In this thesis, I seek to elucidate the conceptual relationship between these two elements—each theologian’s early engagement with Barth and their later contributions to post-Holocaust theology. My analysis reveals that these three theologians all critique Barth’s doctrine of God’s self-determination as the pre-determination of the identity of Israel and Judaism to be witnesses of God’s judgment. This critique enables each of the three to articulate a more positive account of Israel’s and rabbinic Judaism’s witness.

博士(神学) / Doctor of Theology / 同志社大学 / Doshisha University