Text in English / Oruuano is an Independent Church in Namibia founded in 1955 because of members of the Herero community breaking away from the Rhenish Mission Church. Oruuano has the same doctrinal position as the Evangelical Lutheran Churches. In all church services it uses the standard Lutheran liturgical forms and the Otjiherero Lutheran hymnal. Belief in the ancestors is strong among the Herero. It is centred around the holy fire that is found between the main house of the head man and the cattle's kraal. The church does not acknowledge the ancestors, but it allows its members to venerate their ancestors outside the church. The church's approach is that of tacit consent. This dissertation discusses this approach and concludes that Oruuano cannot remain silent on the ancestors any longer. Time has come to deal with it theologically, showing the supremacy of Christ, while integrating Herero traditional practices and spirituality with the worship and practice of Oruuano. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M.Th. (Missiology)

Ancestor worship is conceived by some to be an outdated primitive custom with no relevance to modern society. However, this study shows that ancestor worship is still alive and well in numerous cultures and countries around the globe and that it is still practised in different forms today. This study focuses on the phenomenon of ancestor worship in Africa, Japan and Korea and specifically deals with the challenges it has posed to Christian missionaries in these contexts. Furthermore, this study examines the strategies which the Roman Catholic Church, the Protestant Church and Independent Churches have adopted to deal with this problem and the apparent mismatch with Christian theology. Therefore, the analysis of the phenomenon of ancestor worship is situated in the socio-cultural and religious paradigms of each of these countries and is examined in theological, missiological and Biblical terms. Most notably, the thesis attempts to determine whether or not ancestor worship can be considered to be a purely social and cultural phenomenon which carries certain ethical responsibilities in these cultures and whether or not it is congruent with Christian theology. This study has attempted to prove that in spite of the socio-cultural dimensions of ancestor worship and its rituals (with their ensuing ethical responsibilities in the cosmologies of these nations) it is still essentially worship. It is contended that ancestor worship is fundamentally a form of idolatry and contrary to the teachings of the Bible and is therefore does not articulate with Christian theology. The fundamental premise underlying the study is the ultimate authority of the Bible as the inspired word of God. This is a qualitative study which attempts to explore the phenomenon and rituals of ancestor worship on numerous levels. In each case the theological contributions of scholars in the field are evaluated and explored and ultimately benchmarked against the Biblical evidence. In the African context it is necessary therefore to look at African Christology and the attempts of scholars to contextualise the gospel in African terms. As such the continuity and discontinuity between traditional religion and the Bible is explored and the dangers of syncretism are addressed. The ultimate goal was to suggest a suitable approach for the Church to deal with the challenges which ancestor worship poses in these specific contexts. The study will motivate and argue for contextualisation as an appropriate mission principle in this regard. This takes into consideration the social responsibility which missionaries have towards the people to whom they introduce the gospel. The reason is that the close bond which exists between identity, culture and religion is acknowledged. If the religion or cultural practises are rejected because it does not comply with the Gospel’s requirements, then missionaries need to be sensitive to the void which they may create in the identity of the people and take appropriate steps to ameliorate the problem and avoid syncretism. / Thesis (PhD (Science of Religion and Missiology))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Science of Religion and Missiology / unrestricted

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the African and the Ancient Near Eastern tradition with regard to the ancestral consultation. 1 Samuel 28:3-25 was used as a point of departure. This text was used because it is the only text in the Hebrew Bible that shows the act of consulting the dead except those texts explicitly condemning the act. The study was divided into five chapters. Chapter 1 focused on the introduction and the research problem. Chapter 2 focused on the study of 1 Samuel 28:3-25 and this was done via and intratextual and intertextual analysis. The intratextual analysis of 1 Samuel 28:3-25 focused on the interrelatedness of the text on its literally level. This was done by means of a morphological, syntactical and structural analysis. The intertextual analysis focused on 1 Samuel 28:3-25 in relation with other texts in the Hebrew Bible, especially with reference to the practice of ancestral consultation. In Chapter 3 the main focus was on the Ancient Near Eastern tradition with regard to ancestral consultation and thus focused upon extratextual material. In this chapter, Mesopotamian and Israelite cultural practices were mainly considered. Customs relating to the act of consulting the dead were studied. It included funerary customs, death and mourning rites, the place and role of the dead in society. The study concluded that the act of ancestral consultation in the Ancient Near East was part of their religion. In Ancient Israel, however, it was prohibited by Yahwistic religion. Chapter 4 focused on ancestral consultation in African tradition. In this chapter, personal knowledge and experience were also important. Ancestral consultation in Africa is still a living tradition. The role of the ancestors was studied and also the role that the living have in relation to their ancestors. In this chapter the role of Christianity in Africa played pivotal role because Christianity shaped African religion of today. It is clear from the study that African Christianity still pays tribute to their dead relatives as they are believed to be closer to God. Both Christians and those who practice traditional religion agree on the role of the ancestors. In Chapter 5 the researcher brought together the information in Chapters 1 to 4. In that sense it can be regarded as the climax of the investigation into ancestral consultation as an ancient and modern cultural and religious practice. This chapter contains a comparison between African and Ancient Near Eastern tradition regarding ancestral consultation. The chapter indicates that there is a lot to compare between the two traditions, but one needs to consider the differences in time, religious perceptions, geography, economic and political background of the two traditions. This should especially be considered in evaluating the Ancient Near Eastern tradition because it is in the “archive”; we can only read and learn about it with reference to available sources, while African tradition is an existing one. In Chapter 6 the researcher summarised the main findings of the study with special reference to the research problem as discussed in the first chapter. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Ancient Languages / unrestricted

My diploma thesis deals with a question of when and where it is possible to seek for origins of columns, questions like why were Our Lady, Trinity and Saints' columns built in Europe and what was the cause of plaque epidemic and its results in Europe are answered. The main part of my diploma thesis focuses on places where these sculptures are situated. The zone is defined by the formal Hradec Králové division and by the town Rychnov nad Kněžnou. The author of this diploma thesis compares his knowledge with works of other authors. In the supplement, the columns are depicted including the map of their placement in Hradec Králové District and in Rychnov nad Kněžnou.

The Kyrgyz are a Mongolian, Turkic ethno-linguistic people group. The political and social changes of the post-soviet times have led to a great religious openness among the Kyrgyz. Within one decade the nunber of Kyrgyz Christians has grown from few dozens to over 3000. The intention of this work was to analyze the conversion process of the Kyrgyz converts to Christianity and to apply the results to further missiological activity. The religious background of the Kyrgyz, which is heavily influenced by Folk Islam, was presented in the first chapter of the paper. In the second chapter, interviews collected from Kyrgyz Christians were evaluated. The third chapter summarizes the most important findings of the work and makes them applicable for missionary work. The precise knowledge of the religious background of the Kyrgyz and intercultural communication that it is based upon it can essentially dismantle barriers for the acceptance of the gospel. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M. Th. (Missiology)

Le contexte culturel du continent africain est marqué par la prégnance des ancêtres. C’est pourquoi la théologie de l’inculturation de la foi a pensé devoir s’approprier la thématique de l’ancêtre afin de rapatrier sa signification symbolique au service de la foi chrétienne. Mais, par-delà une mise en rapport informelle entre le Christ et l’ancêtre, l’inculturation de la foi a évolué vers la formalité spéculative d’une ancestralisation du Christ. En cela, la théologie du Christ-Ancêtre nous place devant un procédé périlleux de subsomption logique qui introduit et risque d’absorber le Novum du Christ dans les catégories et genres antérieurs de la culture de réception. L’ancestralisme n’est pas une réalité simplement africaine ; il traverse la Bible et d’autres cultures comme celle de la Rome antique et de la Chine ancienne. Par-delà la causalité exemplaire de l’ancêtre que la mémoire du passé suffit à fonder métaphysiquement, la théologie chrétienne ne peut pas lui reconnaître une causalité efficiente. En juste foi chrétienne, c’est l’efficience du Ressuscité qui bouleverse tout le régime d’efficience salvifique antérieur à la nouveauté chrétienne. Le Christ n’est pas un Ancêtre, il est l’Eschaton. / The cultural context of the african continent is marked by the pregnancy of the ancestors.That is why the theology of the inculturation of the faith thought of having to appropriate the theme of the ancestor to repatriate its symbolic meaning in the service of the christian faith. But beyond an informal putting in report between the Christ and the ancestor, the inculturation of the faith evolved towards the speculative formality of an ancestralisation of the Christ. In that respect, the theology of Christ-Ancestor places us in front of a precarious process of logical subsumption which introduces and risks to absorb the Novum of Christ in the categories and the previous kinds of the culture of reception. The ancestralism is not only african reality; it crosses the Bible and the other cultures as that of ancient Rome and ancient China. Beyond the exemplary causality of the ancestor which the memory of past is enough to establish metaphysically, the christian theology cannot recognize it an efficient causality. In christian faith, it is the efficiency of the Resuscitated that upsets all the category of salvific efficiency previous to the Christian novelty. Christ is not an Ancestor, he is Eschaton.

The Kyrgyz are a Mongolian, Turkic ethno-linguistic people group. The political and social changes of the post-soviet times have led to a great religious openness among the Kyrgyz. Within one decade the nunber of Kyrgyz Christians has grown from few dozens to over 3000. The intention of this work was to analyze the conversion process of the Kyrgyz converts to Christianity and to apply the results to further missiological activity. The religious background of the Kyrgyz, which is heavily influenced by Folk Islam, was presented in the first chapter of the paper. In the second chapter, interviews collected from Kyrgyz Christians were evaluated. The third chapter summarizes the most important findings of the work and makes them applicable for missionary work. The precise knowledge of the religious background of the Kyrgyz and intercultural communication that it is based upon it can essentially dismantle barriers for the acceptance of the gospel. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M. Th. (Missiology)

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St. John 12:24, used by Dostoyevskij as an epigraph to his last and highly acclaimed novel BpaTbJI KapaMa30BbI (The Brothers Karamazov), served as an inspiration for Andre Gide. The title of the latter's contentious autobiography Si le grain ne meurt (If it die ... ), is part of the same biblical verse. The significance of Dostoyevskij's epigraph and Gide's title are critically examined with regard to ideologies expressed in their literary works. Analogies and contrasts are scrutinised: considerable similarities but more discrepancies are discerned. Intense crises in Dostoyevskij's life led to an upward movement, reflected in his oeuvre, reaching out toward Christ's message as revealed by St. John 12:24. On the other hand, Gide started his career imbued with the above message, but gradually he deviated from it and died an atheist. His fascination with Dostoyevskij prompted him to write a profound biography on the great Russian, containing a perceptive article on The Brothers Karamazov when this novel was still practically unknown in the West. Dostoyevskij's pre-eminence as ideological author, psychologist, philosopher and artist is highlighted while Gide is disclosed as the moralistic immoralist of his time. The thesis suggested here is that Dostoyevskij's ideology of self-abnegation in order to be regenerated into eternal life challenged Gide to reject this concept. Therein lies his paradoxical "adaptation". The purpose is to uncover the religious perceptions in Dostoyevskij's four major novels, to establish that his fictional characters, though never used as mouthpieces for the author, represent his universal philosophy and transmit the author's quest for truth to the reader, and finally to examine Gide's reaction to Dostoyevskij's influence / Classics & Modern European Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (Russian)