Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This study entails a constructive contribution towards a contemporary reinterpretation, within the Akan context, of the classic Christian notion of Christ's person and work as Mediator between God and humanity. Specifically, I endeavour to reinterpret aspects of the Christian confession of faith as formulated by the Council of Chalcedon (451) that, Jesus Christ is “truly God” (vere Deus) as well as “truly human”(vere homo). I build on the notion that the relationship between these two claims may also be understood in terms of the one "person" and the two "natures" of Jesus Christ. The work of Christ is reinterpreted from this perspective. The thesis is divided into two main parts. The first part, which covers the first four chapters, entail reviews of some of the dominant African Christologies - with particular reference to divine conqueror and ancestor Christologies. In these chapters, the adequacy of the mentioned Christologies is assessed with reference to the Nicene/Chalcedonian confessional definition concerning the person of Christ. The conclusion reached is that these Christologies do not adequately express the person of Christ as truly divine as well as truly human as defined by the first four ecumenical councils. As a result, these Christologies also express the work of Christ, particularly his atonement in a less adequate way. / South Africa

The journey towards healing and transformation in Africa is a continual process, which calls all sectors of society to continually commit towards creating avenues of healing. Rituals have been identified and introduced as a guiding framework for the study as they are widely accepted as a strategy to provide healing and transformation. The study assumes that these rituals can be used as vehicles to tell our stories in order to recreate a community of hope. As such the study has attempted to establish this relationship and assess if these rituals of atonement can be used creatively by the church to bring healing and transformation. In order to elucidate the inherent similarities between biblical and African concepts of atonement the study used theological and exegetical tools to analyse these concepts. The study established that the rituals of the Day of Atonement described in Leviticus 16 have certain similarities with some African rituals of atonement and reconciliation. The Leviticus rituals of atonement provide deep ethical and theological foundations that can positively inform the work of reconciliation in our social, economic, religious and political scene in Africa. The study then concludes that a constructive use of the Bible and the concept of atonement in the Old Testament will benefit Africa in its endeavour to bring about reconciliation. However, in the background lies the assumption that the relationship between Africa and the Bible is not an innocent one. It is then recommended that our approach towards the Bible embraces and treats with sensitivity the fact that the same Bible has been used previously in Africa to shape ideologies like apartheid and liberation ideologies and as well as demonising some of the traditional African cultures and religious expressions. Nevertheless, both the biblical and African views of life indicate that the primary goal of rituals is a community of peace, friendship, purity and creative harmony. In view of the resemblances between the Day of Atonement rituals and the African rituals that have been explored we can safely use the Bible in order to contribute to the continual work of reconciliation in Southern Africa. / Dissertation (MA (Biblical and Religious Studies))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Biblical and Religious Studies / Unrestricted

Nineteenth-century British authors, in particular, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, and Jane Austen, often turned to orphaned children as a means to drive the plot of their novels. While struggles such as displacement were often accurately depicted, the abovementioned authors and their contemporaries often glossed over or completely disregarded the trauma and psychological implications felt by these orphans. As psychology gained prominence as a discipline through the works of Sigmund Freud and others, modern British literature saw a shift in its consideration of orphans and, additionally, emotionally absent mothers. This thesis will examine three modern British novels; Ian McEwan’s Atonement, Kate Atkinson’s Behind the Scenes at the Museum, and Graham Swift’s Waterland with respect to their exploration of the psychological and possible traumatic impact of their protagonists lives in a variety of disrupted family dynamics.

Alexander Campbell, a contemporary of Joseph Smith, was the first to publish a critique of the Book of Mormon after actually having read it. Among other allegations, he arraigned that Joseph Smith wrote the book to resolve, with a voice of prophecy, theological issues contemporary to its publication. This study undertakes to examine Campbell's charge with regard to atonement doctrine. To assess the statement, this study first identifies the controversies about atonement doctrine in the years prior to the publication of the Book of Mormon, in the Northeastern region of the United States. It then compares the teachings inherent to those controversies to Book of Mormon atonement doctrine. This study concludes that the doctrine in the Book of Mormon does appear to resolve some of the controversies surrounding the doctrine of the atonement in the time and place relative to its publication. However, on other important points of controversy, it does not resolve the issues. Furthermore, as it expounds atonement doctrine, it combines concepts in ways not germane to its environment. It does not fit any model of soteriology that was prevalent in the time period and place of its original publication.

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This dissertation examines the theology of C.S. Lewis in light of the writings of Athanasius, Augustine, and Anselm. Specifically, it looks at the role that justice and mercy play in each of these theologian’s understanding of the atonement. It proceeds on the basis that Lewis does in fact have a specific, robust, and coherent understanding of the atonement, and that his theological anthropology and his understanding of sanctification are an outworking of his understanding of the atonement. Chapter 1 lays out Lewis’ theological orientation and his method. Chapter 2 engages with Athanasius, Augustine, and Anselm on the atonement, and it lays out the particular concepts that were crucial in their understanding of the atonement, namely the justice and mercy of God. It outlines the fundamental concepts that we find in seedling form in Athanasius and Augustine and that were brought to full fruition in Anselm. It also argues that Anselm’s satisfaction theory is best understood as grounded in the nature of God, rather than in Anselm’s feudal, Medieval context. Chapter 3 examines Lewis on the atonement, and it traces the concepts that Lewis uses to describe and explain Christ’s death and resurrection. While Lewis does not adhere to any one doctrine or understanding of the atonement, there is a common thread that unites the various pictures that he takes to be true representations of the atonement. Fundamentally, for Lewis, the atonement is about the restitution of proper order that was disrupted in the Fall. Chapter 3 examines which theories of the atonement Lewis accepts and which he rejects. It also traces his understanding of the atonement to his understanding of the nature of God, relying on the concept of justitia defined as proper order, which has its source in the nature of God himself. In so doing, it aims to show that Lewis’ later understanding of the atonement is fundamentally Anselmian. Chapter 4 engages with Lewis’ theological anthropology and his understanding of sanctification, focusing on the process of “good infection” and how Lewis envisions the spread of the new life made available after Christ’s act of atonement. Sanctification, for Lewis, like the atonement, is also fundamentally about proper order. This plays out in his theological anthropology largely in terms of humility and obedience to God. Finally, chapter 5 addresses Narnia specifically and traces the concepts of justitia and proper order throughout the series and aims to show that, by focusing on proper order, we can see how the series hangs together as a whole theologically as an outworking of Lewis’ understanding of the atonement. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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)

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)

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<p>The concept of distorting the line between fiction and reality appears to be one of the main themes in Ian McEwan’s <em>Atonement </em>(2001) as well as in Joe Wright’s screen adaptation of the novel, released in 2007. With the focus on the main character Briony Tallis this essay explores the influence that literature and fiction have on her, how they bring her to blur the line between them and reality and, to a lesser extent, the different ways in which the novel and its screen adaptation address this issue. Briony is first introduced as an author, underlining the importance that imagination holds for her, and it is this overactive imagination that causes her to misinterpret real events and thus accuse Robbie Turner for a crime he did not commit. To redeem herself Briony turns to fiction in an attempt to re-write the past; by blurring the line between fiction and reality, as defined by the restrictions of her novel, Briony gives Robbie and Cecilia a future within the pages of her book. The literary motifs and symbols, that are present within her novel, enhance the influence fiction and literature have on her. This is also emphasized by her characters’ relationship with literature, their use of literary works, and their characters.  Briony, the character, strives to become Briony the author, thus emphasizing the importance that literature holds for her. Because Briony is trapped within the boundaries of her own imagination she has, in writing her novel, managed to hold Robbie and Cecilia captive in her imaginative world. Thus, finally achieving what she has been striving to do for during the greater part of her life: Briony, the author, can atone for the terrible ordeals that she caused decades previously.</p>