The dissertation is a biographical ethnography of an individual, ordinary musician and Mamelodi township dweller, Lesiba Samuel Kadiaka (*1962) in South Africa. It is based largely on fieldwork totalling more than 12 months conducted in five periods over six years between 2006 and 2011. It examines the possibilities of studying an average (rather than 'leading') musician ethnographically and their implications and consequences for wider ethnomusicological and South African music research. It makes a practical contribution to the wider debate about the relationship between individual, social, and cultural structures, and breaks new ground in its focus on the previously little known music and practices of Mr. Kadiaka's church, the Zion Christian Church. The research consisted mainly of ethnographic observations of various kinds of musical activities in which Mr. L. S. Kadiaka was involved in as a solo musician (songwriter and song singer) and as a member of the ZCC, on the one hand, and of deep interviews over the time span of six years, on the other. It consists of a biographical part dealing with his narratives about childhood in rural Ga-Mphahlele and his later life in Mamelodi township. Iconographic historical sources of a private nature are use too. The second part describes in three large...

Regional community in southern Africa has been limited to the region’s states. As a result, deeper notions of community emanating from non-state actors, particularly transnational social movements, continue to be ignored. In an attempt to transcend state centrism, this thesis highlights alternative forms of regional community by exploring the Zion Christian Church (ZCC), one of southern Africa’s biggest and fastest growing cross-border movements. The ZCC is a potential agent for developing regional community from the bottom-up, driving a people-oriented regional integration approach in southern Africa. The ZCC, with its extensive following among the region’s poor, offers a compelling example of a grassroots and truly bottom-up approach to regional community. This thesis explores the possibility of the ZCC as a model of alternative community and identity centred on people’s daily experiences and grounded in a shared history and solidarity. It seeks to highlight the significance of transnational movements like the ZCC to policy makers in the region and it argues that grassroots communities are marching ahead of SADC member states and politicians in the area of integration. There exists a transnational cooperation amongst followers of the ZCC and other grassroots communities across the region and this cooperation transcends the traditional notion of state sovereignty, thereby highlighting deeper notions of what it means to be a community at regional level.

African teacher of rhetoric Arnobius of Sicca, who lived at the turn of the 3rd and 4th century, is one of the less known Christian authors. He is the author of Christian apology written in Latin called Adversus nationes. His statement attracted particular interest of philologists and historians of antiquity, because it contains large amounts of mythological material. The aim of this work is to introduce Arnobius not only as a crucial source of pagan theology, but also as an important Christian witness of the complicated religious - political situation of Christianity in the time before the Milan Edict, particularly at the time of Diocletian's persecution of Christians. Given the need to work with original texts includes this thesis also the first Czech translation of Arnobiusʼ apology.

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This study encompasses an anthropological investigation of healing practices in the Zion Christian Church with reference to the Marabastad congregation in Pretoria (Tshwane), South Africa. The Zion Christian Church functions as an extremely successful healing ministry, and can thus be characterised as a spirit-type African Initiated Church, a type known to attract members through healing activities. The concepts of ill-health, health, healing and curing are crucial to understanding the church’s role, as all activities at the Zion Christian Church revolve around the attainment of absolute health. The embedded nature of healing in the church is explored through an analysis of the spatial and material aspects of the church’s healing practices, including codes of conduct, roles of participants, religious services, and intangible and tangible instruments of healing. The study is further contextualised against the broader history of the emergence and growth of African Initiated Churches from the late 19th century onwards / Anthropology & Archaeology / M.A. (Anthropology)

This study encompasses an anthropological investigation of healing practices in the Zion Christian Church with reference to the Marabastad congregation in Pretoria (Tshwane), South Africa. The Zion Christian Church functions as an extremely successful healing ministry, and can thus be characterised as a spirit-type African Initiated Church, a type known to attract members through healing activities. The concepts of ill-health, health, healing and curing are crucial to understanding the church’s role, as all activities at the Zion Christian Church revolve around the attainment of absolute health. The embedded nature of healing in the church is explored through an analysis of the spatial and material aspects of the church’s healing practices, including codes of conduct, roles of participants, religious services, and intangible and tangible instruments of healing. The study is further contextualised against the broader history of the emergence and growth of African Initiated Churches from the late 19th century onwards / Anthropology and Archaeology / M. A. (Anthropology)

One of the concerns of the modern Christian church and dissident groups is to ensure that the Church's fundamental doctrines, leadership, women's ministries and religious practices conform with the early apostolic church teachings. In this study the writer offers a comprehensive and detailed evaluation of the modern church in the light of the early church. The case of the modern Seventhday Adventist (SDA) Church in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and worldwide is examined and compared, basing its survey on numerous published and unpublished documents from a combined use of primary, secondary materials and individual statements. Setting the early history of the SDA Church within the religious context of nineteenth-century America, the writer describes how SDA doctrines, leadership, women's ministries and religious practices link with those beliefs and practices in the early apostolic church, showing whether the SDA Church has departed from the early apostolic church’s Biblical, timeless principles or not. Several pertinent issues however have stirred up as much controversy in recent years within the Adventist dissident groups as that of the women’s ministries in the church, the righteousness by faith doctrine, the monarchical leadership, and various religious practices. Nevertheless, in the light of the early apostolic teaching, some enlightenment has been achieved, and several critical accusations from dissident groups were illuminated and confirmed.The accusation regarding the deterioration of Biblical doctrines appears not to have been confirmed by the Biblical evaluation and the lifestyle of the SDA believers. Rather, concerning this issue, it is confirmed that in the DRC and worldwide, the SDA Church has not departed from the fundamental doctrines of the early Apostolic church. / Thesis (D. TH. (Church History))

Many African Independent Churches emerged during the colonial era in central Kenya and western Nigeria. At times they were opposed by government officials and missionaries. Most scholars have limited the field of enquiry to the flash-points of this encounter, thereby emphasizing the relationship at its most severe. This study questions current assumptions about the encounter which have derived from these studies, arguing that both government and missionary officials in Kenya and Nigeria exhibited a broader range of perspectives and responses to African Independent Churches. To characterize them as mainly hostile to African Independent Churches is inaccurate. This study also explores the various encounters between African Independent Churches and African politicians, clergymen, and local citizens. While some scholars have discussed the positive role of Africans in encouraging the growth of independent Christianity, this study will discuss the history in greater depth and complexity. The investigation will show the importance of understanding the encounter on both a local and national level, and the relationships between the two. It is taken for granted that European officials had authority over African leaders, but in regard to this topic many Africans possessed a largely unrecognized ability to influence and shape European perceptions of new religious movements. Finally, this thesis will discuss how African Independent Churches sometimes provoked negative responses from others through confrontational missionary methods, caustic rhetoric, intimidation and even violence. These three themes resurface throughout the history of the encounter and illustrate how current assumptions can be reinterpreted. This thesis suggests the necessity of expanding the primary scholarly focuses, as well as altering the language and basic assumptions of the previous histories of the encounter.

Thesis (D.Min.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 2008. / Appendix F has an image of The Nestorian Stele and the translation of the text. Includes abstract. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 125-132).

Lo studio ricostruisce le fasi dell’attività missionaria di padre Alfonso Vagnone in Cina, che si svolse tra il 1605 e il 1640. Il lavoro è organizzato in tre parti, suddivise in cinque capitoli: 1. Formazione giovanile di Vagnone e successiva attività di insegnamento presso il Collegio Braidense di Milano. In seguito, il gesuita ottenne il permesso di recarsi in missione in Cina e giunse a Nanchino nel 1605, dove, dopo aver imparato con impegno e dedizione la lingua cinese, incominciò con successo la sua opera di evangelizzazione. Nel 1616 egli subì una dura persecuzione e fu espulso da Nanchino. Dopo cinque anni di insegnamento della filosofia e teologia nel Collegio S. Paolo a Macao, nel 1624 rientrò nella Cina continentale, riprendendo la sua attività di evangelizzazione a Jiangzhou. Morì il aprile 1640. 2. Attività missionaria di padre Vagnone a Jiangzhou. Con l’aiuto di Tommaso Han Lin e Pietro Duan Gun, egli fu il promotore della diffusione del cristianesimo nello Shanxi (tanto da essere considerato l’apostolo dell’evangelizzazione di questa provincia). 3. Studio delle opere del gesuita e, in particolare, del pensiero pedagogico ed etico espresso in un suo testo intitolato Educazione della Gioventù. Il lavoro ha dunque cercato di mettere in luce gli aspetti più significativi della personalità scientifica, teologica, retorica, etica e missionaria di padre Alfonso Vagnone. / The study reconstructs the stages of the Chinese missionary activity of Father Alfonso Vagnone, which took place between 1605 and 1640. The paper is organized into three parts, divided into five chapters: 1. Training of young Vagnone and subsequent teaching at the Braidense College of Milan. Later, the Jesuit was allowed to go on a mission in China and came to Nanjing in 1605, where, after learning the Chinese language with commitment and dedication, successfully began its work of evangelization. In 1616 he suffered a severe persecution and was expelled from Nanjing. After five years of teaching philosophy and theology at the College of St. Paul in Macao, he returned in mainland China in 1624, resuming his work of evangelization in Jiangzhou. He died on April 9, 1640. 2. Vagnone missionary activity in Jiangzhou. With the help of Thomas Han Duan Lin and Peter Gun, he was the promoter of the spread of Christianity in Shanxi (he is considered the apostle of the evangelization of this province). 3. Study of the works of the Jesuit and, in particular, the pedagogical and ethical thinking expressed in his text Education of Youth. Therefore, the work highlights the most significant aspects of Father Alfonso Vagnone scientific, theological, rhetoric, ethics, and missionary personality.