<p> The movie Dogville (2003) provides viewers with a rare and provocative twist on differences between on the one hand the rigorous, Old Testament Jehovah, characterized by rules, and by rewards or punishments in this life, and on the other hand the loving, forgiving Christ and God of the New Testament and later Christianity who are characterized by forgiveness, and by rewards or punishments in an eternal afterlife. The movie, especially its ending, challenges the forgiving nature of the New Testament God and Christ, and makes a case that the Old Testament, rigorous Jehovah is more appropriate, at least for humans who respect themselves as responsible grown-ups. Earlier than these two views of God and man, and still alive and kicking, is a third view, the "Heroic." God is irrelevant here, either as a source of rules or as a source of forgiveness and redemption. Rather, man generates his own meaning by accepting his fate and struggling to do the best he can; this life is all there is and the struggle, i.e. living it is the only meaning. The three views can be seen on a continuum with the Heroic on one end and the forgiving Christ on the other, and the rigorous Jehovah in between and closer to the heroic than to the forgiving. The Dogville point of view, preferring a rigorous God to a forgiving one, is very rarely found in literature (the Grand Inquisitor episode in The Brothers Karamazov is similar to some extent) but both the Heroic and the forgiving Christian views appear everywhere, in all kinds of non-fiction, and either explicitly or as metaphors or parables in fiction. The Heroic view is taken here to include not only classic Greek and Roman heroic writings (e..g. those of Homer and Virgil) but also more modern schools of thought including Nietzsche, the existentialists, and other "God is dead" points of view. The paucity of the first view in literature is mirrored by the small number of its followers: all self-identifying Jews are less than 0.5% of the world's population and the orthodox are a minority within that. In stark contrast, about one-third of individuals world-wide self-identify as Christian. Followers of the Heroic view, roughly measured by self-identifying atheists and perhaps including agnostics, are between 15 and 20 percent of the population of the USA. Focusing on the United States, the data show that the number of adherents of each of the two extremes of an expanded continuum, i.e. the Heroic view on one hand and the born-again Protestant version of the forgiving view on the other, has been growing while the numbers of followers of everything in the middle, i.e. Judaism (excluding its New Age, non-religious variants), Roman Catholicism, and mainstream Protestantism have been declining. The waxing and waning of these different views are evaluated in the lights of literature, philosophy, psychology, marketing, and the idea that ideas ("memes" as coined, described and popularized by Richard Dawkins) evolve, endure or disappear according to the Darwinian principle of natural selection. The conclusion is that there are important, long-term reasons for the observed trend, and that therefore both born-again Protestantism and atheism are likely to continue to take market share from their competitors in the middle.</p>

<p> The analysis in this thesis is centered around a technical examination which I conducted based on the Pseudo-Clementine research of Bernhard Rehm, Georg Strecker, H. U. Meijboom and F. Stanley Jones along with the inquiry of Brenda Dean Schildgen regarding the reception of the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament. The first goal is to revise the Markan Pseudo-Clementine correlations of Rehm, Strecker and Meijboom. The second goal is to present a more correct and accessible list of Markan correlations for future research of the reception of scripture into the Pseudo-Clementines. The third goal is to determine which author or authors of the Pseudo-Clementines used the Gospel of Mark and to what purpose. The most important goal is to further the scholarly research on the reception of the Gospel of Mark. It is my hope that this research prompts scholars in the future to search more thoroughly for the reception of Mark in the PseudoClementines.</p>

Texte remanié de: Diss.--Fachgebiet Alte Geschichte--Berlin--Technische Universität, 1989. / Bibliogr. p. 151-159. Index.

<p> Hans Urs von Balthasar was one of the most prominent Roman Catholic theologians of the twentieth century and has inspired a thriving ecosystem of secondary scholarship, with impassioned critics and determined defenders churning out a steady stream of scholarship as expansive as Balthasar&rsquo;s own massive body of work. This wealth of secondary scholarship is not, however, without a penumbral character. Due to the controversies that have&mdash;not without reason&mdash;plagued Balthasarian studies, it is often more akin to a war-strewn battleground than a lively and productive dialogue in various areas. By engaging with the work of Gilles Emery and Thomas Joseph White, this thesis explores the ways in which overly rigid interpretations&mdash;due to what I call readerly rigidity&mdash;can impede an attempt to productively read and present (and critique) Balthasar&rsquo;s theology. The goal herein is not to counter their critiques, but rather to challenge how those critiques are made.</p>

<p> This study argues that Lesslie Newbigin&rsquo;s doctrine of Scripture is best seen when viewed through the lens of his theology of missionary encounter. For this point to be made, two important aspects of Newbigin&rsquo;s thought must be systematized and related to each another. First, it will be shown that Newbigin has a theology of missionary encounter. Second, Newbigin&rsquo;s theology of missionary encounter will be shown to function as a lens to view his theology in general and his doctrine of Scripture in particular. Chapter 1 explains the research topic and the limits of the thesis. Chapter 2 shows the presence of Newbigin&rsquo;s theological ambition that led to his theology of missionary encounter. Chapter 3 reveals the formative role that Newbigin&rsquo;s theology of missionary encounter had on his theological method and theological project as a whole. Chapter 4 builds upon the previous two chapters by using Newbigin&rsquo;s theology of missionary encounter as a lens to view his doctrine of Scripture. Chapter 5 considers what the nature of Newbigin&rsquo;s theology reveals about Newbigin as a theologian.</p><p> Chapter 1, &ldquo;Introducing The Research Topic,&rdquo; introduces Lesslie Newbigin and the thesis of this research. The purpose of this chapter is to provide the reader with the research focus, understanding of key concepts, and the delimits of the issues involved. First, attention is given to understanding the place of this dissertation within the literature and the personal journey that led to the writing of this dissertation. This chapter will highlight the importance of the topic by explaining the ways it contributes to the field of Newbigin studies as well as the discipline of theology in general.</p><p> Chapter 2 is an overview of Newbigin&rsquo;s life and work. This chapter demonstrates the presence of Newbigin&rsquo;s theological ambition to engage in a missionary encounter that resulted in his theology of missionary encounter. By examining Newbigin&rsquo;s missionary theology, this chapter outlines the development of Newbigin&rsquo;s theological ambition throughout his life. It is shown that his ambition to engage in a missionary encounter reached maturity later in his life as he articulated his theology of missionary encounter. At its core, Newbigin&rsquo;s theology of missionary encounter is aimed at helping the Church recover the gospel, indwell the biblical story, and challenge the axioms of the culture with the axioms of the Bible in order to live as a faithful witness. The missionary encounter, this challenging of competing stories, takes place within the individual lives of members in a local congregation. </p><p> In order to show that Newbigin&rsquo;s theology of missionary encounter best mediates his doctrine of scripture, consideration must be given to understanding the form and function of his theology as a whole. Chapter 3, &ldquo;Newbigin&rsquo;s Theological Method,&rdquo; explores the structure of Newbigin&rsquo;s theology. After surveying the structure of Newbigin&rsquo;s theological method as a whole, the focus of this chapter narrows on a series of unpublished articles which Newbigin thought of as a sort of Dogmatics of his thought. The contextual nature of Newbigin&rsquo;s theology makes it clear that a robust understanding of what Newbigin believed about anything must be understood in relation to his desire to bring the gospel story to bear on the cultural story. The intended point is that Newbigin&rsquo;s theology of missionary encounter has a permeating presence throughout the form and function of his theology as a whole.</p><p> Chapter 4, &ldquo;Systematizing Newbigin&rsquo;s Doctrine of Scripture,&rdquo; presents a systematization of Newbigin&rsquo;s doctrine of Scripture with the help of his theology of missionary encounter. Building upon the previous two chapters, this chapter utilizes Newbigin&rsquo;s theology of missionary encounter as a lens through which his doctrine of Scripture can be understood. The clarity of Newbigin&rsquo;s doctrine of Scripture emerges as his theology refracted through the lens of his theology of missionary encounter. Newbigin&rsquo;s doctrine of Scripture is presented in one summary sentence followed by seven categorical statements which are intended to exegete the summary sentence. Observing Newbigin&rsquo;s missionary encounter between gospel and culture provides the proper lens for seeing what Newbigin believed about Scripture. </p><p> Chapter 5, &ldquo;Newbigin&rsquo;s Public and Prophetic Theology,&rdquo; raises the question about what the nature of Newbigin&rsquo;s theology reveals about Newbigin as a theologian. This chapter provides a concluding summary of the research involved and clears some paths for future research. While demonstrating the usefulness of Newbigin as a dialogue partner this chapter provides some cautions for appropriating Newbigin&rsquo;s thought uncritically. Combining these different levels of analysis highlights the central role of Newbigin&rsquo;s theology of missionary encounter in his theology.</p>

Dissertation (BCS (Hons)--Communication Studies) -- AUT University, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references. Also held in print (v, 67 leaves : ill. ; 30 cm.) in City Campus Theses Collection (T 659.104582 GOU)

<p> In this thesis I examine various statements relating to the Jain lay community in the early &Sacute;vet&amacr;mbara texts. My approach is deliberately and consistently historical. The earliest extant &Sacute;vet&amacr;mbara writing presents an almost exclusively negative view of all non-mendicants. In the context of competition with other religious groups to gain the respect and material support of members of the general population, the &Sacute;vet&amacr;mbara mendicants began to compose positive statements about a lay community. Instead of interpreting the key terms and formulations in these early statements anachronistically on the basis of the later and systematized account of lay Jain religiosity, I attempt to trace how the idea of lay Jainism and its distinctive practices gradually came into being. The more familiar account that is often taken as the basis for understanding earlier sources in fact emerges as the end product of this long history.</p><p> This historical reconstruction poses numerous challenges. There is little reliable historical scholarship to draw from in carrying out this investigation. In the absence of a widely accepted account of the formation of the &Sacute;vet&amacr;mbara canon, the dates of the canonical sources that I examine remain uncertain. I argue that by focusing on key passages relating to the Jain lay community it is possible to establish a relative chronology for the composition of some of these passages and for the compilation of some of the texts in which they appear. We can thus observe development in the strategies employed by the mendicants as part of their effort to establish and maintain relations with a community of householders who respected and regularly supported them. What I offer here is a preliminary but important step toward writing a critical and comprehensive history of lay Jainism. More broadly, scholars of monastic religious traditions may be interested in this account of how one group of ascetics in ancient India garnered lay support and developed a role for non-monastic members of the community.</p>

Inaug.-diss.--Leipzig. / Autobiographical sketch. References: p. [73]-74.

Inaug.-diss.--Leipzig. / Autobiographical sketch. Bibliography: p. [73]-74.

<p>The plethora of contrary doctrines pertaining to salvation, among the variety of religions in the world today, creates a problem for the sincere investigator who seeks to find out if there is such a thing as salvation and, if there is, how to be saved. These contrary doctrines are problematic to the degree that the sincere investigator is unable to evaluate the probability of some of these doctrines over others. In order to aid the sincere investigator with this problem, I explore methods for evaluating doctrines that purport to affect one?s salvation.