Chapter 1 introduces the dissertation’s thesis and highlights its methodology. This dissertation argues that the divine design for suffering in Christ-followers is to decrease self-rule through mortification, increase God’s rule through engendering spiritual maturity, with both of these functions serving the ultimate purpose of God glorifying himself in the individual lives of his covenant people. This chapter also sets the argument within the contemporary context of biblical counseling. Chapter 2 explores the first major element of the thesis, that God designs suffering to decrease self-rule in his covenant people through mortification. This theme is traced through the lamenting psalmists, the Suffering King’s attack on self-rule via the cross, and Jesus’ imperative to self-denial. Chapter 3 argues the second major element of the thesis, that God designs suffering to increase his rule in his covenant people by engendering the blessings consistent with spiritual maturity. This thought is developed by examining the spiritual maturity suffering produced in the lamenting psalmists and Jesus. Six New Testament passages are examined which indicate suffering is instrumental in engendering spiritual maturity in the Christ-follower. Chapter 4 demonstrates the third major thesis element that suffering that the ultimate purpose of suffering in Christ-followers is to glorify God. This conclusion is reached by examining the lamenting psalmists glorification of God, Jesus glorifying the Father in his sufferings, Christ-followers’ glorification of Christ through suffering, and how God glorifies himself when suffering ceases. Chapter 5 defends the dissertation thesis against the challenges forwarded by open theism. The main arguments focus on open theism’s contention that no divine design for suffering exists and suffering is purposeless. The last section critiques the implications open theistic beliefs has on trusting God, Christ and the gospel, prayer, and eternal hope. Chapter 6 proposes that the cognitions, affections, and volitions of the heart are each mortified of their unchristlikenesses, conformed to Christlikeness, both for the glory of God through suffering. The last section is directed to biblical counselors to give indicators of self-rule in sufferers and to suggest how they may minister to all the suffering heart’s functions. Chapter 7 concludes the dissertation by giving a summary of its arguments, suggestions for further research, and some concluding thoughts.

This thesis explores the relationship between theology and laughter. It adopts the Superiority theory, confirmed through biblical and theological analyses. Chapter 1 discusses recent theologies of humor and outlines the occasion for the present one. Chapter 2 begins with an historical review of the church's attitude towards laughter and discusses humor's relationship to major areas of theology. Chapter 3 traces the development of the Superiority Theory and contends that much of our laughter is the ridiculing of a butt. Laughter performs a didactic function when it enforces a moral perspective by mocking deviants. Chapter 4 combs Scripture to confirm the theory. Chapter 5 observes that because of competing perspectives, laughter must have an eschatological dimension. It concludes that Heaven will contain the sounds of joy and triumph, defeat and derision. Chapter 6 discusses the implications for a postmodern context and makes application by affirming the role of humor in preaching. / This item is only available to students and faculty of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. If you are not associated with SBTS, this dissertation may be purchased from <a href="http://disexpress.umi.com/dxweb">http://disexpress.umi.com/dxweb</a> or downloaded through ProQuest's Dissertation and Theses database if your institution subscribes to that service.

張大衛. / Thesis submitted in: May 2009. / Thesis (M.Div.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 36-39). / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Zhang Dawei. / 文章摘要 --- p.II / Chapter 1. --- 引言 --- p.1 / Chapter 2. --- 網上教會模式 --- p.4 / Chapter 2.1 --- 「第二人生」（Second Life)虛擬世界教會 --- p.4 / Chapter 2.2 --- 網誌空間新興教會（emerging church blogosphere) --- p.7 / Chapter 2.3 --- 網上聖餐和洗禮 --- p.8 / Chapter 2.4 --- 現場錄像直播模式 --- p.8 / Chapter 2.5 --- "社交網絡服務(SNS, social networking service)教會網站" --- p.9 / Chapter 2.6 --- 小結 --- p.11 / Chapter 3. --- 網上教會研究 --- p.13 / Chapter 3.1 --- 互聯網與社會變遷 --- p.13 / Chapter 3.2 --- 網絡空間(cyberspace)的虛與實 --- p.14 / Chapter 3.3 --- 靈性空間（spiritual space ) --- p.15 / Chapter 3.4 --- 身份建構(identity construction) --- p.18 / Chapter 3.5 --- 虛擬社群(virtual community) --- p.20 / Chapter 3.6 --- 網上信徒群體（Christian community online) --- p.20 / Chapter 3.7 --- 禮儀(ritual) --- p.22 / Chapter 4. --- 虛擬與真實 --- p.24 / Chapter 4.1 --- 取代與補足 --- p.24 / Chapter 4.2 --- 教會事工與虛擬網絡 --- p.25 / Chapter 4.3 --- 由上而下的網絡空間 --- p.27 / Chapter 4.4 --- 網絡空間與神學 --- p.28 / Chapter 4.5 --- 文化神學（theology of culture) --- p.29 / Chapter 4.6 --- 文化性神學(cultural theology) --- p.31 / Chapter 4.7 --- 有形教會（visible church )與無形教會（invisible church ) --- p.32 / Chapter 4.8 --- 從身體與靈魂看虛擬真實（virtual reality) --- p.33 / Chapter 4.9 --- 聖靈與網上教會 --- p.33 / Chapter 5. --- 結論 --- p.34 / 參考書目 --- p.36

It aims at contributing to the formation of a proper theology of work for modern world, through critical reflection on the two dominant theological approaches to human work after the Reformation. Modern theology of work originated from Luther and Calvin' s interpretation towards ℓvocation', an idea which had a long history in Christian theological tradition. However, this theological understanding of human work became inadequate when facing the structural alienation of work in modern capitalist society. Against this background, a paradigm shift in the area of theology of work happened in the 20th century's Christian theology. The new approach that views human work as cooperatio Dei stresses one-sidely the theological significance of human work and at the same time fails to highlight the distinctively Christian virtues which are required in the human work. / This research is intended to emphasize another dimension of work, that is, work as "gift", a concept inherent to the Reformers' ethics of work. This approach affirms both accepting work as a gift from God and practicing it as the "gift giving" towards other people. It also emphasizes the virtues and the proper mode of work as such. This approach does not mean to totally negate the understanding of human work as cooperatio Dei, but it maintains that the approach of cooperatio Dei should be supplemented and balanced by the understanding of work as gift. / This thesis offers a theological inquiry into the meaning of human work, especially the one in the domain of economy. / 高喆. / Adviser: Pan-chin Lai. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 72-01, Section: A, page: . / Thesis (doctoral)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 190-201). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Gao Zhe.

杜敏玲. / "2009年6月". / "2009 nian 6 yue". / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [78]-82). / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Du Minling. / 摘要 --- p.i / 鳴謝 --- p.ii / 目錄 --- p.iii / 序言 --- p.1 / Chapter 第一章 --- 核心家庭的歷史發展 --- p.4 / Chapter 1. --- 家庭形態的發展 --- p.4 / Chapter 2. --- 核心家庭是理想家庭的唯一典範 --- p.9 / Chapter 3. --- 小結 --- p.14 / Chapter 第二章 --- 家庭論述與規訓 --- p.15 / Chapter 1. --- 家庭論述規範下的非核心家庭 ´ؤ 以《家庭暴力條例》修訂爲案例 --- p.15 / Chapter 2. --- 家庭論述的規範 --- p.19 / Chapter 3. --- 家庭作爲家庭價値 --- p.22 / Chapter 第三章 --- 唯一抑或多元 ´ؤ 基督教信仰下的家庭 --- p.25 / Chapter 1. --- 家庭制度與家庭關係 --- p.25 / Chapter 2. --- 父權支配與獨身社群 --- p.28 / Chapter 3. --- ´ؤ夫一妻的保障與一生一世的壓迫 --- p.29 / Chapter 4. --- 婚姻關係與獨身恩賜 --- p.30 / Chapter 5. --- 男女分工抑或彼此配搭 --- p.31 / Chapter 6. --- 父權中心與女性主義 --- p.32 / Chapter 7. --- 小結 --- p.33 / 結語 ´ؤ 由排他至共融 --- p.34 / 附錄一 婚外情論述 --- p.35 / 參考書目 --- p.78

Abstract not available

My dissertation presents a survey of theories of violence in contemporary theological discourse. I consider four positions that represent a range of current trends within theology: Girardian anthropology, the radical orthodoxy movement, liberation theology, and feminist theology. / Rene Girard creates a scientific model of violence as a universal scapegoating mechanism at the origin of all human culture, which he posits as knowledge gained through the revelation of Jesus Christ. A key figure in the radical orthodoxy school, John Milbank, recovers Augustine's theology of history as a narrative of the ontological priority of peace in an attempt to discipline human desire away from its fascination with violence. Latin American theologians argue a similar priority of the peace and justice of the kingdom of God in their rhetoric of revolutionary violence as a defense of a poor majority oppressed by the structural violence of the state. Three feminist theologians, Carter Heyward, Rita Nakashima Brock, and Susan Thistlethwaite, construct an essentialist eros untroubled by violence in order to denounce the abuses of patriarchal sexual violence. / These contemporary theologians structure their discussions of violence as a speculative problem within categorical distinctions of good and evil. Their ordered theological systems exclude real negativity, not only from God as a totality of good, but also from humans. Within these theodicies, violence becomes unrepresentable in terms of damage to bodies. / I analyze the work of Georges Bataille, a philosopher of religion, as a critical counterpoint to these theories of violence. Bataille's practice of a mysticism of violence disturbs theological assumptions of humanness as intrinsically good and extends the notion of the sacred to include abject flesh and its violence. / Bataille's work provides resources for a "poetics of reality," a way for Christian theologians to express negativity---undecidability, ambiguity, disorder, pain, violence, bodily disintegration, death---as part of their religious imagination rather than perceiving it as an external threat to ordered theological systems. A poetics of reality is a practice of attention that lives deeply in human instability and human yearning for God.

The Preface examines the concept of life in the Old Testament which is discovered to be centred firmly on this world; special reference is made to life in the Wisdom Literature. Death at the end of a long and full life was accepted with resignation. Despite the paucity of references to death and the underworld in the Old Testament, there are passages which contain references to the mythology of death. The first chapter provides a background by reviewing the relevant aspects of the mythology of death in Egypt, Mesopotamia and Canaan. Chapter 2 lists the names for the underworld in the Old Testament end considers the mythological allusions which contain references to the location and characteristics of the underworld. Chapter 3 discusses the dwellers in the underworld. The words rp'um in the Ugaritic texts and rp'm in Phoenician inscriptions are surveyed as a background to rephaim in the Old Testament, The practices of necromancy and tomb-offerings are considered and it is concluded that while popular practice condoned them, official religion condemned them. In the fourth chapter the relation between the world ocean and the nether world is set out. As in the rest of the Ancient Near East the underworld was represented as lying in the depths of the ocean at the foot of the pillars which supported the earth. The deceased had to traverse this ocean on his way to the underworld. Chapter 5 deals with the concept of Sheol as a monster with gaping jaws and an insatiable appetite. This figure owes its ultimate origin to the Ugaritic god of death, Mot, whose ravenous appetite was proverbial. The sixth chapter surveys the personifications of death as a hunter, a shepherd and a robber. The powers of the underworld such as Abaddon, Sheol, Death the King of Terrors and the First-born of Death are discussed. In conclusion, it is observed that the mythological allusions are fragmented and moribund, serving, for the most part, a literary purpose within the context of the Old Testament. Death was an experience which meant the cessation of all life.

The aim of my thesis is to destabilise the persistently pessimistic framing of Eve as a highly negative symbol of femininity within Western culture by engaging with marginal, and even heretical interpretations that focus on more positive or sympathetic aspects of her character. My objective is to question the myth that orthodox, popular readings represent the 'true' meaning of Genesis 2-4, and to explore the possibility that previously ignored or muted rewritings of Eve, which emphasise her knowledge or her motherhood, are in fact equally 'valid' interpretations of the biblical text. By staging analytical and dialogic encounters between the biblical Eve and re-writings of her story, particularly those that help to challenge the interpretative status quo, my thesis re-frames the first woman using three key themes from her story: sin, knowledge, and life. Employing a method of ideological reception criticism, I consider how and why the image of Eve as a dangerous temptress has gained considerably more cultural currency than the equally viable pictures of her as a subversive wise woman or as a mourning mother. To conclude, I argue that Eve is neither an entirely negative nor entirely positive figure, but rather that her characterisation, both biblically and in reception, is ambiguous and multivalent. My thesis thus offers a re-evaluation of the meanings and the myths of Eve, deconstructing the dominance of her cultural incarnation as a predominantly flawed female, and reconstructing a more nuanced and balanced presentation of the first woman's role in the Bible and in her afterlives.

This dissertation argues that weekly Sabbath rest is a creation ordinance supported by both biblical-theological and historical evidence, and has ecclesial and personal implications. Furthermore, this dissertation is proposing a mediating position between traditional sabbatarian and non-sabbatarian positions. Historically, the sabbatarians have argued for Sabbath rest being a creation ordinance and non-sabbatarians have argued the opposite. This proposal offers a third option that grounds weekly rest in creation (showing some similarities with sabbatarians), but also highlights the radical transformation of rest found in Christ (showing some similarity with non-sabbatarians while avoiding their idea that fulfillment in Christ exhausts the biblical instruction about weekly rest). This mediating position will allow for avoiding both the legalistic tendencies of traditional sabbatarian theology and the antinomian tendencies that can be found in some non-sabbatarian positions. For the purposes of this dissertation, a creation ordinance is defined as a normative, but not uniformly observed, universal pattern, exceptions to which must fulfill and contribute to the pattern’s fulfillment, moreover, the pattern must be confirmed, not negated or abrogated, by later biblical revelation.