Magister Theologiae - MTh / A number of biblical scholars have observed that the Bible has been used by dominant groups in certain societies to justify and condone discrimination and oppression. Slavery, colonialism and apartheid are often cited as examples of racial oppression based on particular understandings of the Bible. Some biblical scholars have pointed to the fact that theologians who work in contexts of racially liberated societies, such as South Africa, are slow in recognizing the injustices caused by gender discrimination. Instead, male privilege continues to be upheld particularly through the Biblical justification of male headship. The popularity of the 'Mighty Men' Conference is a case in point as it encourages men to take their supposedly rightful, "God-given" place as prophet, priest and king in marriage and family relationships. The emerging popularity of male-headship theology thwarts whatever gains have been made in the areas of gender justice and equality in various spheres of society, including the church. Headship theology often goes unquestioned because it is supported by particular interpretation/understanding of biblical texts which are quoted out of context to support and justify male dominance. For example, Luke 7: 36-50 is often interpreted in showing the "sinful" woman as one who needs forgiveness.

Esta dissertação se propõe a apresentar e discutir aspectos da revisão de uma tradução bíblica protestante, a saber, a de João Ferreira de Almeida na versão Revista e Atualizada (RA). Embora Almeida tenha traduzido a Bíblia pela primeira vez no século XVII, seu texto ainda é muito apreciado pelos leitores dos países lusófonos e continua a ser usado nas igrejas até os nossos dias. No Brasil, uma das versões mais lidas é a RA, de 1959, a primeira adaptação do texto de Almeida para o português brasileiro. Em novembro de 2017, a Sociedade Bíblica do Brasil publicou a Nova Almeida Atualizada, que é fruto de um trabalho de atualização dessa tão conhecida versão. O projeto de revisão desse texto, objeto do nosso estudo, é a primeira grande atualização da RA, que já havia recebido alguns ajustes pontuais em 1993. O objetivo é descrever a dinâmica adotada pela comissão designada para empreender o trabalho de revisão e seus critérios e pressupostos de tradução, marcados pelo intento de tornar um texto tão tradicional, como Almeida, mais contemporâneo, inteligível e acessível aos leitores de hoje. Uma das características importantes descritas é o diálogo com as igrejas, o que influenciou decisivamente os rumos da revisão. / This dissertation intends to present and discuss aspects of the revision of a Protestant biblical translation, the João Ferreira de Almeida\'s translation in the Revista e Atualizada version (called RA). Although Almeida translated the Bible for the first time in the 17th century, his text is still very much appreciated by readers in Portuguese-speaking countries and it continues to be used in churches to this day. In Brazil, one of the most widely read is the RA version of 1959, the first adaptation of Almeida\'s text to Brazilian Portuguese. In November 2017, the Bible Society of Brazil published the Nova Almeida Atualizada, which is the fruit of a work to update this well-known version. The project to revise this text, the object of our study, is the first major update of the RA, which had already received some punctual adjustments in 1993. The purpose is to describe the dynamics adopted by the designated committee which undertook the revision work and its criteria and translation presuppositions, marked by the attempt to make a text as traditional as Almeida more contemporary, intelligible and accessible to today\'s readers. One of the important characteristics described is the dialogue with the churches, which decisively influenced the direction of the revision.

This study discloses the responsibility of social work for the Swedish welfare state respective deacons in the Swedish protestant church, which roll the Swedish protestant church have in the existent welfare and also if deacons experience any expectations and how these expectations in that case are expressed.The aim of this study was to investigate the relationbetween deacons working within the Swedish protestant church and social work, as it appears for professional deacons. The method of investigating the questions raised by the aim of this study has been qualitative analysis of answers derived from six deacons working in different workplaces. The data derived from these interviews was then analysed through the theory of Gösta Esping-Andersen about welfare states and also through background research and earlier science research about the social work within the Swedish protestant church and other social work. The result of the study show that the welfare state in Sweden has the comprehensive responsibility for the citizens. Deacons working within the Swedish protestant church does not have the same responsibility. Instead deacons usually provided the supplementary social work as regarding existential questions. Different conditions, for example laws and regulations is something that is different regarding the social work that deacons and other authorities in the society performs. Our study also shows that sometimes when the official welfare is insufficient the deacons partly can fill up for this. The deacons in our study experience that there are high expectations from the people in society regarding the social work that deacons performs. There are also expectations from other performers of social work in the welfare as well as from the church itself, although these look a little bit different and are not as clear and explicit. The problem with the expectations is that they are not always realistic which depends on relatively bad knowledge about the social work the deacons perform. When the social work that deacons perform is within the church characterized by Christian ethos a result can be that in meeting with other social work a tension arise which leads to challenges for the different performers of social work.

Univ., Diss. u.d.T.: Diederichs-Gottschalk, Dietrich: Die protestantischen Schriftaltäre des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts in Nordwestdeutschland in der Grafschaft Ostfriesland und im Harlingerland, im Erzstift und in der Stadt Bremen sowie den stadtbremischen Territorien, mit je einem Exkurs in die Grafschaft Oldenburg und in das Fürstentum Lüneburg--Göttingen, 2004.

Thesis (doctoral--Technische Universität Karlsruhe, 2006). / Includes bibliographical references (p. 324-329) and indexes.

Magister Artium - MA / This study is situated in the field of Practical Theology with specific reference to empirical studies on the God-images that lay people operate with in their daily lives. It is often observed in the discourse on theology and development that the images people hold of God reflect a sense of power or powerlessness but may also influence the way lay people respond to their social environment. This applies irrespective of religious or denominational affiliation, age group, gender, occupation or socio-economic standing. In particular, this study focusses on two congregations, namely St Dominic’s Anglican Church and the Pentecostal Protestant Church, both located in Hanover Park. These are selected because they represent diverging theological traditions that may or may not shape people’s God-images. The assumption is that whether people see God as law-giver and law-enforcer, a strict judge, an advisor, an advocate, a close friend, a problem-solver or dispenser of goods and services, that this would make a significant difference to how people view themselves in relation to their world. Whilst this interest in understanding the types of God-images and the influence these God-images might have on particular groupings of people is not new, the interest in God-images is new within the field of practical theology (Counted 2015; Hoffman 2005; Lawrence 1997). The God Image Scale that was developed by Richard T. Lawrence (1997), is used in this study. Lawrence (1997:214) a Roman Catholic priest, who served as a pastor at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Baltimore Maryland, developed two instruments namely the God-Image Inventory (GII) and the God Image Scales (GIS). Whilst the GII is used within clinical and pastoral counselling, the GIS has been more widely used in empirical studies in the field of religious psychology and, especially in North America, on the ways in which images of God function amongst specific groups of people. These instruments have not been widely used in the African or the South African contexts although Africa is widely regarded as “notoriously religious”. Such findings on God-images may be significant for Christian education in violence-ridden communities, not only in Hanover Park. The significance of this study on God-images within a specific community context is tied to the complexities of attempting to measure the quality of an individual’s God- image across different denominations, religious beliefs, religious practices and religious educational frameworks. Of equal importance is the need to distinguish between the influence that different doctrinal teachings and religious practices have on the formation of God-images and God-concepts. Whilst people who are social beings learn from their contexts, are influenced by their experiences and make choices based on intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors, the corpus of God-image literature recognises the pivotal role and influence that one’s God-image have on religious knowledge, attitudes and behaviours within any given context.

Summaries in Afrikaans and English / Die Pinkster Protestante Kerk (PPK) is deel van die wereldwye Pinksterbeweging en het op I 0 Oktober 1958 ontstaan uit die Apostoliese Geloofsending (AGS), die grootste Pinksterkerk in Suid-Afrika. Verskeie redes kan toegedig word vir die ontstaan. Eerstens was daar die doelbewuste poging van die AGS om die struikelblokke uit die weg te ruim ten einde as kerk deur die Nederduitse Gereformeerde kerk erken te word. 'n Tweede hoofrede was die party-politieke bedrywighede van pastoor Gerrie Wessels, 'n lid van die Uitvoerende Raad van die AGS. Die skrywer toon aan hoedat rassisme en Apartheid beslag gekry het in die ekklesiologie en missiologie van die PPK. Daar is tans vier aparte outonome rassekerke. Rassisme is die hoof oorsaak vir 'n onverenigde kerk. Deur die loop van die kerk se geskiedenis was daar vyf konstitusionele opsette ten einde eenheid te laat realiseer, maar sender veel sukses. 'n Sesde konstitusionele opset, een PPK, word tans beding. / The Pentecostal Protestant Church (PPC) is part of the worldwide Pentecostal Movement and originated from the Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM), the largest Pentecostal Church in South Afiica, on October 10, 1958. There are various reasons that contributed to the birth of the church. Firstly, the AFM removed on purpose the obstacles that stood in the way in order to be acknowledge as a church by the Dutch Reformed Church. The party-political involvement of pastor Gerrie Wessels, an Executive Council member of the AFM, was the second main reason. The writer indicates how racism and Apartheid took root in the ecclesiology and missiology of the PPC. At the moment there are four separate outonomous race churches. The main reason for a not united church is racism. The church had five different constitutions in the course of her history in an attempt to bring forth unity, but without success. A six constitutional design for one PPC is currently being negotiated. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M. Th. (Sendingwetenskap)

Summaries in Afrikaans and English / Die Pinkster Protestante Kerk (PPK) is deel van die wereldwye Pinksterbeweging en het op I 0 Oktober 1958 ontstaan uit die Apostoliese Geloofsending (AGS), die grootste Pinksterkerk in Suid-Afrika. Verskeie redes kan toegedig word vir die ontstaan. Eerstens was daar die doelbewuste poging van die AGS om die struikelblokke uit die weg te ruim ten einde as kerk deur die Nederduitse Gereformeerde kerk erken te word. 'n Tweede hoofrede was die party-politieke bedrywighede van pastoor Gerrie Wessels, 'n lid van die Uitvoerende Raad van die AGS. Die skrywer toon aan hoedat rassisme en Apartheid beslag gekry het in die ekklesiologie en missiologie van die PPK. Daar is tans vier aparte outonome rassekerke. Rassisme is die hoof oorsaak vir 'n onverenigde kerk. Deur die loop van die kerk se geskiedenis was daar vyf konstitusionele opsette ten einde eenheid te laat realiseer, maar sender veel sukses. 'n Sesde konstitusionele opset, een PPK, word tans beding. / The Pentecostal Protestant Church (PPC) is part of the worldwide Pentecostal Movement and originated from the Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM), the largest Pentecostal Church in South Afiica, on October 10, 1958. There are various reasons that contributed to the birth of the church. Firstly, the AFM removed on purpose the obstacles that stood in the way in order to be acknowledge as a church by the Dutch Reformed Church. The party-political involvement of pastor Gerrie Wessels, an Executive Council member of the AFM, was the second main reason. The writer indicates how racism and Apartheid took root in the ecclesiology and missiology of the PPC. At the moment there are four separate outonomous race churches. The main reason for a not united church is racism. The church had five different constitutions in the course of her history in an attempt to bring forth unity, but without success. A six constitutional design for one PPC is currently being negotiated. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M. Th. (Sendingwetenskap)

The purpose of this study is to make the Protestant church workers more efficient in their use of music in religious work by giving them a clear conception of the kind of music to be used and by suggesting detailed plans and methods by which desirable results may be secured in the use of church music. Ideal standards have their place, but here it is proposed to be matter-of-fact, practical and concrete, and to secure immediate results with the average church member and choir singer as the final criterion in every phase of the work. The purpose is not to emphasize high ideals but to instruct and inspire all those who have leadership in the service of church music, that they may be able here to provide the greatest religious helpfulness that the use of music can bring the souls to whom they minister.

Extensive church building programmes and the relocation of existing churches were important features of Protestant congregational life in industrializing cities across Britain and North America. In Montreal, building booms in the 1860s, 70s, and 80s led many congregations to abandon their old churches in the centre of the city and rebuild on a grander scale 'uptown', closer to the residential neighbourhoods to which their wealthier members were moving. In the early twentieth century, when a new phase of growth engulfed the city, many of the same congregations again faced the dilemma of whether or not to move. Whereas the earlier period was characterized by a strong evangelical consensus, the subsequent period was associated with wider-ranging theological and social debates: the context of decision-making had changed. / For each period, I explore the impact of building decisions on 'domestic' ministries to church members and on the 'public' ministries that congregations carried out in the environs of their churches and in working-class neighbourhoods. In doing so, I draw on a variety of methodological approaches and on local sources that have not previously been synthesized. A database containing temporal and spatial information for every Protestant church built in Montreal between 1760 and 1914 was also constructed for this project. Case studies of six 'uptown' congregations, and of a downtown neighbourhood that was a popular mission field, are carried out. Investigation of documentary sources such as church minute books and correspondence is complemented by cartographic and sociological analyses of church membership using city directories, tax rolls, censuses, and the recently completed Montreal l'Avenir du Passe historical geo-database. A systematic sampling of local newspapers and denominational records brings to life the many congregational controversies and dilemmas that spilled over into the public sphere during a time of dramatic urban, social, and theological change. / A range of external factors, both material and spiritual, affected the choices that were made. I show how investment in religious edifices during the original phase of church moves, as well as the heightened social exclusivity that these moves generated, made it more challenging for the next generation to adapt their religious institutions to the needs of the twentieth-century city. Congregations simultaneously had to deal with a number of ongoing tensions: the logic of institutional maintenance versus the logic of mission, competition versus cooperation amongst Protestant institutions, and the dynamic between capitalist materialism and Christianity. Unless these tensions were skilfully negotiated by church leaders, they threatened to destroy either the viability or the integrity of religious institutions.