No abstract available. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1989.

Suffering will always remain one of the main challenges to the Christian faith since it calls into question the reality of God. Moltmann does not shy away from this challenge and although he limits his response to moral and political suffering he confronts the problem recognizing the moral force of the arguments of protest atheism. His initial reaction, however, is to offer a thorough critique of classical theism which, in his opinion, creates more problems for the Christian faith than it resolves. A revolution in our understanding of God is necessary before theology can meaningfully address the question of suffering. Taking the cross of Christ as his starting point Moltmann rebuilds his doctrine of God by asking how we are to understand the presence of God in the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. The cross is a statement about God before it is an assurance of salvation addressed to man. Only by speaking in trinitarian terms can we make any sense of the cross-event. It is an inner-trinitarian event of suffering, abandonment and death in which the being of God is opened up to the history of the suffering of the world. God is a suffering God. He is present in suffering and suffering is present in God. In communion with him suffering man finds the divine solidarity and experiences, in turn, solidarity with God in his own suffering. This mutual solidarity in suffering thrusts man into practical actions designed to overcome suffering in the world. The suffering God is the decisive Christian argument against suffering. However, Moltmann's perspective is not without problems. In replacing Greek with Hegelian metaphysics, he steps beyond the limits of scripture. At points he appears to dissolve God into history. If not guilty of patripassionism in the classical sense, he comes close to it. He has been labelled "tritheistic" and in some instances leaves the impression of an inhuman God. Moltmann's suffering God is unable to sustain an adequate soteriology. Without a christology of pre-existence the incarnation and kenosis of the Son must be reinterpreted. God cannot, therefore, be said to be a God who has taken upon himself the suffering of humanity. Despite its inadequacies Moltmann's thought has pointed the way forward for future discussion of the relation between God and suffering. He has highlighted the importance of history, the centrality of christology and the challenge of discipleship. Much remains dark to the human mind, but he who is the Light of the world beckons us forward to think and walk in that Light. / Thesis (M.Theol.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1988.

The title of this thesis is:- "Biblical hermeneutics and exegesis as criteria for assessing diagnostic variables in diagnostic theology". This thesis is concerned with the role, place and influence of the Bible in the context of diagnostic theology. Diagnostic theology is the scientific-theological investigation into a parishioner's problems in order to arrive at a spiritual diagnosis and direct the individual to the appropriate form of spiritual, clinical or psychological help. The major emphasis has been placed on the use of the Bible in the counselling situation. This has direct bearing on the three scholars whose work is examined, namely Anton Boisen, Paul Pruyser, and Seward Hiltner. The greater emphasis of this work has been placed on the writings of Seward Hiltner. He devised and used a set of diagnostic variables which brought into sharp focus the possibility of assessing the parishioner as a personality in a situation, also taking into account the individual's spiritual resources or coping mechanisms. Furthermore, this thesis investigates the use of these three variables under the categories of biblical theology, doctrinal theology and didactic theology. Moreover this investigation has drawn conclusions in the form of a derivative exegesis which has issued forth in an answering theology or hermeneutic. Finally, this work deals with critical inquiry in the context of the Christian faith which makes it relevant to the situation in the modern Western world. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1989.

Moltmann's political theology and Augustine's City of God provide a suitable eschatological basis for a critical approach to the political order. Though separated in time by one thousand five hundred years, a comparative study of their respective approaches to the world makes for a credible critique of final political solution. Eschatology is the key to their analyses of society. Partial realities are evaluated from the fullness of truth unveiled in the eschaton. Augustine's City of God sought to counter the anti-Christian propaganda occasioned by the impending fall of the Roman Empire. Augustine's apologia provides for a church freed from a necessary dependence upon the secular and political milieu. Thus any social theory is provisional and haphazardous. However, Augustine has no constructive social criticism. The Christian is a stranger in a disordered, fallen, earthly city. The social manifestations of sin are not clearly identified for they do not affect man's eternal destiny. So Augustine left the world disordered without a constructive divine redemptive plan that would be partially anticipated within the saeculum. His weakness lay in identifying the "negative" within society with the fall. Moltmann's political theology, however, identifies the "negative" with the Cross. The crucified Jesus reveals what is wrong with the world. He identifies the sinful, Godforsaken forces within creation. The "promise" of God is validated within history in the event of the Resurrection, that is, the anticipation within time of the eschaton towards which history is moving. Although the Resurrection is the eschatological event within history, "creative acts" that are the "negation of the negative" (the "negative" is identified by the Cross) are anticipations of the eschaton. These "creative acts" open up the "closed systems" of the world. Thus history is not a return to the "golden age" of the beginning but an "opening up" to the "promise". This promise is contradicted within the "closed systems" of history by the crucified One. Yet, it is confirmed and anticipated in the resurrection of Jesus. The eschatological nature of Moltmann's theology lays stress on both the distinctiveness of the Christian faith and its relevance as a solution to the problem of "unfree" creation. Eschatological faith is distrustful of any "final solution"; for Moltmann, political theology destroys the idols of contemporary and future society. Society absolutizes partial solutions and thus retards the creative transformation of the world. Moltmann speaks of five "vicious circles of death" that he identifies with political oppression, economic inequality, cultural discrimination, ecological death and personal apathy. In the spirit of Christ and by the believer's missionary outreach, the progressive transformation of the world is achieved. The eschaton is God's gift anticipated within history in the resurrected Christ and foreshadowed by progressive "creative acts" that overcome the "vicious circles of death". Both Moltmann and Augustine's City of God permitted no final secular solution. The secular political order is assessed from beyond not merely from within. Augustine assesses almost exclusively from beyond; Moltmann both from beyond and within. In this respect they provide a valuable critical corrective to the dogmatism of final political solutions. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1985.

The interest for this dissertation arose in an empirical context where the researcher was confronted with some problems widows experienced. Primarily, the research has been done for these widows. This was research into especially the socio-cultural conventions of first century Palestine (Chapter 3); the notion of widow in the Old Testament (Chapter 4); an interpretation of 1 Timothy 5: 1-16 (Chapter 5); and the interpretation of widows in the context of the theology of 'God the Saviour'. For this purpose and in these contexts, a theory of 'symbolic interactionism' within the larger ambit of social-scientific research has been developed and illustrated and used to various degrees. This was to meet the challenge to contribute to theory development in our current theological context of transformation. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1998.

This study on the development of Methodism in Natal with particular reference to the Indian mission records the most significant events in the history of the mission from its inception in 1862 until its dissolution as the 'Indian Mission' in 1972. This study indicates that the growth in the initial period was substantial and this must be attributed to Revd Ralph Stott and his son Revd Simon Horner Stott who were appointed by the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society to pioneer the mission. Equally significant is the role played by Indian pioneers who in no small way aided the development and consolidated the Indian Mission. Among them was Mr John Choonoo, a catechist who having served with the Church Missionary Society for some fifteen years in Mauritius came to Natal in 1881. Revd Theophiluis Subrahmanyam, a Brahmin converted to Christianity came from Madras, India and served the mission between 1908-1911. Mr John Thomas, who later became an ordained Methodist minister, arrived in Natal in 1883 and pioneered the Indian mission in Pietermaritzburg. In addition the mission was fortunate in having a dedicated group of lay Indian members who rendered unstinting service to the mission. The period that followed the pioneering phase reveals that once a worshipping community had been established, numerical growth became less important and concentration shifted to nurturing new converts. In the first half of this century the emphasis of the Indian Mission was on the planting of the various churches while in the second half development took place in newly proclaimed. Indian townships created through the implementation of the Group Areas Act. This study reveals that the Indian Mission pioneered Indian education in Natal and was responsible for the erection of some sixteen schools. In addition the churches of the Indian mission led in creating non-racial circuits and thus proved that such circuits can function effectively. The Indian mission played a key role in breaking down racial barriers and eliminating racial prejudices in this way. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1993.

Contemporary sentiments both African and Western indicate the inadequacy of modern approaches to ethics and the failure of an individualistic ethics as a basis for public and private morality. Modern ethics is inadequate as a moral framework within which communities live their lives. As a result there is a need for a paradigm shift form this mainly individualistic and universalistic modern ways of doings ethics to a more communally oriented and contextual approach reminiscent of traditional African ethics. If we hope to have a more satisfactory moral framework than the current one we need to have a moral outlook that encompasses both the ethical code governing the individual i.e. personal ethics and the ethical code governing social groups and their conduct. And that framework will be something similar to the communal model that we see in traditional African communities such as the Basotho's. Such a moral framework made it possible for communities not only to be contextual in the way they approached personal conduct, but also communal. The current moral uncertainty accompanied by vicious moral individualism in places like Lesotho, seems to me to be the result of the introduction of an individualistic ethic to the Basotho way of life. Ethics as found among traditional Basotho communities was not just a matter of the individual alone, but also of the community within which the individual found his or her true identity. This co-responsibility and mutual inter-dependency for the moral life, something which modernism and the influence of liberal ideas is increasingly eroding from the contemporary life of Basotho, ensured that there was a moral centre through which people found their moral reference point. It ensured there was a moral thought and practice that was coherent enough to give both the individual and the community a moral base, an approved way of conduct with an implicit, but nevertheless clearly understandable rationale and justification. Such a communal approach to ethics made it possible for communities to have a recognizable moral character and it is only when communities are themselves moral that we can hope to have a moral society. So in order to help contemporary Basotho and indeed most Africans, from the pervasive self imposed moral bankruptcy and inconsistencies there is a need to revisit and rediscover that traditional ethos to see what lessons can be learned from it for the present. We need to look back to where we come from as Africans and only then are we going to be able to navigate our future correctly and authentically, and see what lessons of life and proper ways of conduct can we learn from our past, lessons which will be more in line with who we are as Africans in the context of contemporary modern way of living. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1997.

Abstract not available / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Durban-Westville, Durban, 1981.

Abstract available in pdf file.

The guarded mind-set with which this study was initially constructed , was influenced by the notion that all that could have been said on the subject of vicarious redemption within the Judeo-Christian belief system, has been produced through scholarly research on the theories, doctrinal positions, and systems of belief, around the constructs of redemption and vicarious redemption within the Judeo-Christian worldview. However this study is premised on the view that there is a noticeable gap in the body of scholarship around the critique of the Christian belief system, and in particular, one of its doctrinal pillars, that of vicarious redemption. This thesis argues that this gap is being confronted by the resurgence of new challenges to the proposition of redemption, as raised from within the New Atheist movement, in which the late British-American author and public figure, Christopher Hitchens became the central and leading figure. A theological critique of the construct and doctrine of vicarious redemption, as undertaken by Christopher Hitchens, forms the core academic focus of this study; which is conducted within a post-structural theoretical framework. The study, whilst examining the archaeology and architecture of the idea of vicarious redemption within the theological superstructure of Christendom and its founding doctrinal formations and theories, does represents an intentional step outside of the conventional trajectory of theological scholarship and analysis. In this latter regard, and alongside conventional literary resources on the subject, this study, has been inspired and informed by the convergence of, online New Media as a rich set of resource platforms for new research on this important subject. Given these new opportunities for research, alongside conventional research methods, this study captures the outright rejection, by Christopher Hitchens, of the doctrine of vicarious redemption; in what could be argued to represent a Kairos moment in biblical interpretation and criticism on the idea of redemption; a crucial and opportune moment in scholarly theological reflection, to which the special insights, hermeneutics and life and work of Christopher Hitchens has made an indelible contribution. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2013.