The interpretation of the letter to the Hebrews made a distinctive contribution to doctrinal construction, polemical controversy, and evolution of scripture-critical technique in the early modern period. This was because many of its themes and passages were considered significant to contemporary theological debates. Hebrews therefore offers an important case study for biblical reception history. This thesis adopts a diachronic approach, highlighting the priorities and worries of English Hebrews exegetes between the reigns of Edward VI and Charles II, and asks how these shifts catalysed hermeneutical advances towards higher biblical criticism. Calvin interpreted Hebrews' theology of sacrifice as an antidote to Catholic christology, soteriology, and beliefs about the mass. His thinking was adopted by Elizabethan Protestant readers, popularised through public documents like the Reformation Bibles (chapter one), and analysed in detail by sermons and lectures (chapter two). The reception of Hebrews also illustrates established historiography about the break-down of Reformed hegemony in England. Chapter three demonstrates how the use of the epistle by anti-puritans clashed with the censored Reformed exegete William Jones. Scholars of the seventeenth century have largely ignored how Hebrews' latent supersessionism promoted innovation in Church and society. Chapter four explores the way in which civil war Socinians expounded Christ's priesthood in terms of heavenly expiation, while radicals seized on the epistle's potential to support their vision of politico-religious liberation. Initially the Reformed countered by defending the trinity and Chalcedonian christology, as shown from mid-century exegesis in chapter five. However, two writers realised the underlying challenge of supersessionism and wrote Hebrews commentaries which served as systematic rebuttals. William Gouge deployed typology and Ramism to rebind the two dispensations (chapter six), and John Owen revised received expressions of the covenant in order to permit more development within God's plan while retaining unity of purpose before and after Jesus (chapter seven).

Text in German; abstract in German and English / Diese Studie untersucht die Gerichts- und Heilsverkündigung innerhalb des Lukasevangeliums, um herauszufinden, wie der Zusammenhang von Heil und Gericht dargestellt wird, welche Vorstellung von Gericht und Heil der ideale Rezipient gewinnen sollte und mit welcher Funktion bzw. Zielsetzung diese Aussagen gebraucht werden. Sind Heil und Gericht dabei zwei Seiten der gleichen Medaille oder liegen unterschiedliche Konzepte vor, die nicht wesentlich miteinander verknüpft sind? Dazu werden zentrale Texte des Lukasevangeliums, in denen sowohl eine Gerichts- als auch eine Heilsperspektive vermittelt werden, mit Hilfe der narrativen Exegese analysiert. Dem detaillierten Vergleich folgt eine Zusammenfassung der lukanischen Darstellung von Heil und Gericht. Die Studie endet mit einer kritischen Diskussion über die Auswirkungen auf die christliche Verkündigung in unserer Zeit. / This study examines the understanding of salvation and judgement in Luke’s Gospel. How is the correlation between salvation and judgement described, which perception should the ideal recipients gain, and for which function or intention are these statements used? Are salvation and judgement two sides of one coin or are they different concepts which are not linked? For this purpose, key texts which address both salvation and judgement are analysed by applying narrative- critical methodology. A detailed comparison is followed by a summary of the Lukan portrayal of salvation and judgement. The dissertation closes with a critical discussion of the implications for Christian proclamation in our day and age. / Biblical and Ancient studies / M. Th. (New Testament)

The upsurge of religious movements and independent churches in the Global South is bringing a new twist to world economic development not anticipated by many theologians and social scientists. With a syncretic soteriology geared toward the liberation of the whole person, religious movements and independent churches of the south are preaching to their adherents, mostly the poor and the marginalized, a message of faith in an omnipotent and compassionate God who is concerned for their weal and woes and who offers them an assured and holistic salvation. By placing their faith in God, the poor and marginalized people are discovering their true selves and are saved/liberated. This assured salvation (certitudo salutis), which is a total liberation of the physical and spiritual world, becomes, in turn, the motivational energy for capital development. The Zion Christian Church (ZCC) soteriological predicament stands at this juncture. Through processes of syncretization and purification, ZCC has managed to deconstruct the European/North American and African Traditional Religions soteriologies to construct a pure soteriology that is relevant to the socio context of its adherents. ZCC deconstructs these soteriologies by broadening, for example, the classic Christian soteriogical theory of Christus Victor in her notion of sin, death and the devil and the African traditional soteriological notion of uBuntu and spirit-power. The purity, or holistic salvation, generated out of these processes serves as grounds for identity and economic empowerment of its adherents. With a holistic salvation that centers on healing, personal integrity and spiritual power, ZCC members have been able to achieve considerable success in the labour market by becoming an army of potential employees. They have also distinguished themselves in their work ethic, where they are seen as hardworking, disciplined, obedient and sober. Empowering its adherents economically through a religious soteriology, the ZCC has become an example of a trend that is shaping the Global South and is reviving the interest of social scientists and theologians to further investigate the impact of religious and theological formulations on the economic conduct of individuals. / Theology / D. Th. (Theological Ethics)

‘Simul sanctification' is a transformational program for sanctification derived from Karl Barth's radical appropriation of Luther's dictum simul iustus et peccator. Barth's simul establishes the Christological link of the Second Adam with every human being. From this emerges what I contend is a ‘Chalcedonian anthropology' built on a double-duality: the original Chalcedonian formulation gives rise to a second duality revealed within Christ's one human person—the duality of a true, iustus humanity and a corrupt, peccator humanity. In order to appreciate the benefits regarding Barth's Spirit-charged epistemological program for sanctification and conversion, it will be imperative to elucidate the comprehensive nature of Barth's actualism as a way of establishing Barth's view of humanity's dynamic and free iustitia in Christ. Central to assessing the threat of the peccatum determination will be an examination of Barth's theology of the cross, especially in regards to his single subject economy derived from the person of ‘Jesus Christ and him crucified.' Through Barth's assessment of the cross I exposit the similarities and the differences between Chalcedonian Christology and ‘Chalcedonian anthropology;' the latter duality is proven by resurrection revelation to be ultimately provisional in nature. From here I probe Barth's position regarding the annulment of the simul as well as its beginning. By investigating Barth's doctrine of creation I argue that Barth's simul is reflective of the original antithesis between God and nothingness, the darkness under which Christ first placed himself so that humans would know both his solidarity in the darkness and his victory over it. Christians continue to dwell in the overlap of the simul's two mutually exclusive determinations, but by looking through Barth's simul to our true, created and redeemed humanity in Christ we are equipped to interpret our lives and the world around us most hopefully.

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Through his personal spiritual growth process and Jesus’ teachings and life, Paul became acutely aware of the vast differences between Prophetic Judaism and the Mystical Traditions in relation to the Temple Cult and Temple-ism in general. Paul’s own “history of religion” centred on Abraham’s Covenant as the first and preferred, unmediated, spiritual and universal model, against Moses’ priestly mediated cultic system designed basically for Jews. Therefore, Paul follows Jesus teachings and mission to “rip the dividing curtain” of the Jerusalem Temple (Heb 6:19, 20); so that all nations can be reconciled to God (Eph 2:11-18). Jesus re-negotiated “a new and better covenant” of God’s mercy through repentance to all. Cultic “regulations” and Jewishness as being a special “religious”, covenantal “qualification” is now outdated and rather were now dangerous myths in Paul’s new religion. Paul knew that bridging concepts and new interpretations of metaphors will have to be part of the transition. God did not need a final special blood cultic sacrifice; to the contrary, only some people needed one so that they can make the mental transition from a cultic religion to a spiritual and personal religion.To Paul, God was the unknown Father and the Essence of all creation and Jesus-Christ was their leader and master or lord. In the mystical sense however, “Christ” represented the real Spiritual essence of mankind; the image of God in mankind. The core of Paul’s soteriology is his growth and participational aspects which constitutes the salvation process and are closely linked. The salvific process starts in the first phase with conversion from cultic Temple-ism and weaning from cultic and ethnic “laws” through the teaching of, and participation in, the spiritual growth process of the “physical” Jesus while the Spirit within us is awakening. The latter heralds the start of the “second” mature spiritual phase of the resurrected and vindicated Christ; sensitising our conscience as our moral identity and source of internal motivation from the real Self; one lives intuitively from loving-kindness; you honour this Gift in your earthly vessel with a fitting response to life. The behavioural element is central and an absolute necessity in the salvific process and he never views it as being secondary. Christianity will have to revise simplistic “faith” to salvation dogmas and broaden its functional scope by again honouring the second personal and authentic spiritual growth phase to be able to manifest a better Kingdom with the aid of Human Beings. / Systematic Theology and Theological Ethics / D.Th. (Systematic Theology)

Atonement theories have great implications for the soteriological paradigms associated with them, but their significance has not always been recognized in the formulation of theological systems, the lack of dogmatic definition by ecumenical council encouraging diversification and isolation from other doctrinal loci. The strongest coherence between an atonement model and soteriology can be seen in the reformed tradition, and its theory of penal substitution has become the standard accepted by many non-reformed protestant groups, including classical pentecostalism. Tensions persist in the theological system of pentecostalism because of its pairing of penal substitution with the soteriological paradigm of its foundational symbol of faith, the full gospel of Jesus as savior, sanctifier, baptizer with the Spirit, healer, and coming king. This vision of salvation is broader than that of protestant orthodoxy, which through its atonement theory deleteriously separates the death of Christ from his work in life and strictly limits the subjects and nature of salvation, specifically to addressal of elect individuals’ sins. It is proposed that this tension within the pentecostal system be relieved not through a reduction of its soteriology but a retrieval of the Christus victor model, the atonement theory of the ancient and Eastern church. As reintroduced to the Western church by G. Aulén, this model interprets the saving work of Christ along two lines: recapitulation, the summing up and saving of humanity via the incarnation, and ransom, the deliverance of humanity from the hostile powers holding it in bondage. In a contemporary, pentecostal appropriation of this model, aid is taken from K. Barth’s concept of nothingness to partially demythologize the cosmic conflict of the Bible, and pentecostalism reinvigorates the Eastern paradigm of salvation as theosis or Christification via the expectation of the replication of Christ’s ministry in the Christian. The study shows Christus victor can give a more stable base for a broader soteriology that is concerned with the holistic renewal of the human person. To demonstrate the developed model’s vigor and applicability beyond pentecostalism, the study closes by bringing it into conversation with the concerns of three contemporary theological movements. / Philosophy & Systematic Theology / D. Th. (Systematic Theology)

Die Johannese geskrifte (Evangelie en Briewe) word veralgemenend binne die Christendom gelees en die uniekheidsbeklemtoninge ten opsigte van Jesus as enige Verlosser word ook so verstaan. Hierdie hoofsaaklik sosiaal-wetenskaplike ondersoek was gefokus op Johannes se aansprake ten opsigte van Jesus en is gedoen om bewus te maak van die sosiaal-kulturele onderbou van die geskrifte. As sodanig is dit bedoe! om heuristies in te werk ten einde bestaande hermeneuse beter te dien sodat die boodskap van die Nuwe Testament effektiewer oorgedra kan word. Dit is ook gepoog om bevindinge uit die studie deur te trek na die gesekulariseerde samelewing en pluralistiese religieuse standpunt wat te Iande bestaan. Die teksgedeeltes wat eksegeties ondersoek is, bevat die aspekte van aanvaarding of verwerping van Jesus as die unieke Godsagent wat ewige /ewe meedeel. Dit het geblyk dat die begrip in Johannes nie net op oneindigheid in die hiemamaals dui nie, maar veral op kwaliteit in die hede. Johannes se postulaat is dat Jesus konstant hierdie lewe meedeel aan hulle wat in Hom glo. Die vraag na relevansie van 'n religie uit Judaistiese oorsprong in 'n AfroWesterse samelewing en kultuur is vanuit die aspekte van kulturele relatiwisme en relatiwiteit hanteer. Dit word aanvaar dat die ingrype van God deur Jesus Christus binne die Israelitiese volksmilieu en Mediterreense kultuur plaasgevind het, maar dat dit wat Johannes aan sy lesers herbevestig het, vir aile mense relevant is. Jesus is die unieke Godsagent wat ewige lewe meedeel, wat, as sodanig, nie menslike sterflikheid negeer nie, maar dit transendeer. / The social-scientific research for this treatise concentrated on John's assertion of Jesus' uniqueness. The selected Scripture portions for exegesis contain the aspects of receiving or rejecting Him as God's Agent who bestows eternal life. Eternal lifo in John does not so much denote never ending life, but rather excellent quality of life in the present. The relevancy of a religion from a Judaistic origin in an Afro-Western cultural society was treated on the aspects of cultural relativism and cultural relativity. The conclusion accedes to the fact that God's interaction with man in the person of Jesus Christ took place within an Israelite national milieu and Mediterranean culture, but what John reasserted is relevant for all time- the life that Jesus bestows does not negate mortality, but transcends it. / New Testament / M. Th. (Nuwe Testament)

Through his personal spiritual growth process and Jesus’ teachings and life, Paul became acutely aware of the vast differences between Prophetic Judaism and the Mystical Traditions in relation to the Temple Cult and Temple-ism in general. Paul’s own “history of religion” centred on Abraham’s Covenant as the first and preferred, unmediated, spiritual and universal model, against Moses’ priestly mediated cultic system designed basically for Jews. Therefore, Paul follows Jesus teachings and mission to “rip the dividing curtain” of the Jerusalem Temple (Heb 6:19, 20); so that all nations can be reconciled to God (Eph 2:11-18). Jesus re-negotiated “a new and better covenant” of God’s mercy through repentance to all. Cultic “regulations” and Jewishness as being a special “religious”, covenantal “qualification” is now outdated and rather were now dangerous myths in Paul’s new religion. Paul knew that bridging concepts and new interpretations of metaphors will have to be part of the transition. God did not need a final special blood cultic sacrifice; to the contrary, only some people needed one so that they can make the mental transition from a cultic religion to a spiritual and personal religion.To Paul, God was the unknown Father and the Essence of all creation and Jesus-Christ was their leader and master or lord. In the mystical sense however, “Christ” represented the real Spiritual essence of mankind; the image of God in mankind. The core of Paul’s soteriology is his growth and participational aspects which constitutes the salvation process and are closely linked. The salvific process starts in the first phase with conversion from cultic Temple-ism and weaning from cultic and ethnic “laws” through the teaching of, and participation in, the spiritual growth process of the “physical” Jesus while the Spirit within us is awakening. The latter heralds the start of the “second” mature spiritual phase of the resurrected and vindicated Christ; sensitising our conscience as our moral identity and source of internal motivation from the real Self; one lives intuitively from loving-kindness; you honour this Gift in your earthly vessel with a fitting response to life. The behavioural element is central and an absolute necessity in the salvific process and he never views it as being secondary. Christianity will have to revise simplistic “faith” to salvation dogmas and broaden its functional scope by again honouring the second personal and authentic spiritual growth phase to be able to manifest a better Kingdom with the aid of Human Beings. / Systematic Theology and Theological Ethics / D.Th. (Systematic Theology)

Atonement theories have great implications for the soteriological paradigms associated with them, but their significance has not always been recognized in the formulation of theological systems, the lack of dogmatic definition by ecumenical council encouraging diversification and isolation from other doctrinal loci. The strongest coherence between an atonement model and soteriology can be seen in the reformed tradition, and its theory of penal substitution has become the standard accepted by many non-reformed protestant groups, including classical pentecostalism. Tensions persist in the theological system of pentecostalism because of its pairing of penal substitution with the soteriological paradigm of its foundational symbol of faith, the full gospel of Jesus as savior, sanctifier, baptizer with the Spirit, healer, and coming king. This vision of salvation is broader than that of protestant orthodoxy, which through its atonement theory deleteriously separates the death of Christ from his work in life and strictly limits the subjects and nature of salvation, specifically to addressal of elect individuals’ sins. It is proposed that this tension within the pentecostal system be relieved not through a reduction of its soteriology but a retrieval of the Christus victor model, the atonement theory of the ancient and Eastern church. As reintroduced to the Western church by G. Aulén, this model interprets the saving work of Christ along two lines: recapitulation, the summing up and saving of humanity via the incarnation, and ransom, the deliverance of humanity from the hostile powers holding it in bondage. In a contemporary, pentecostal appropriation of this model, aid is taken from K. Barth’s concept of nothingness to partially demythologize the cosmic conflict of the Bible, and pentecostalism reinvigorates the Eastern paradigm of salvation as theosis or Christification via the expectation of the replication of Christ’s ministry in the Christian. The study shows Christus victor can give a more stable base for a broader soteriology that is concerned with the holistic renewal of the human person. To demonstrate the developed model’s vigor and applicability beyond pentecostalism, the study closes by bringing it into conversation with the concerns of three contemporary theological movements. / Philosophy and Systematic Theology / D. Th. (Systematic Theology)