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)

Factual accounts of revenants – the risen dead – seized the medieval imagination in the early eleventh century, and were recorded by serious historians and ecclesiastics as true. They then began to appear in secular imaginative literature and art, growing progressively more elaborate and frightening throughout the Middle Ages whilst retaining many of the religious overtones expressed overtly in the ecclesiastic tales. By the early modern and modern period, the tales were removed from any overt religious context and were told as purely imaginative literature. The academic half of this thesis explores the influence on the tales of the Christian doctrine of resurrection and the cult of the body of Christ and of the saints, then traces the migration of those tales into imaginative literature from the Middle Ages to the present. It identifies key motifs from the medieval chronicles and imaginative literature that continue to appear in modern stories, and explores the extent to which Christian eschatology altered perceptions of the dead and why, in an increasingly secular context, fascination with such tales continued into modern literature, what part fear of death played throughout this period, and how that fear was expressed, first in an ecclesiastical context, then in imaginative literature through horror stories. The creative half of my thesis is a literary fiction novel updating a medieval revenant tale, the Legend of the Three Living and the Three Dead, to twenty-first century New England.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 145-149) / In this dissertation the author reflects on the absence and presence of God within Christianity. This is accomplished through engaging and seeking to understand key conversations following the Copernican Revolution and the-death-of God . The goal is to understand and model how it is that Christianity defines itself as a faith tied to knowing God and yet is appraised by many as a religion characterized by God's conspicuous silence, absence and death. These are 'God after God' conversations understood to include contributions from philosophers, Essentialists, and Christians following the-death-of God. With these 'God after God' conversations are tied to the institutional expression of Christianity and the diversification of and within religion during the modern era. It is with this in mind that the conjunction and disjunction between Christianity as religion, spirituality, and mysticism can perhaps enable a post-institutional expression of Christianity as the practice of the relational presence of God. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M. Th. (Christian Spirituality)

In broad terms, this thesis is a study of what Protestant theologians in early modern England taught regarding the interdependence between physical health and spirituality. More precisely, it examines the specific and complex doctrines taught regarding health-related issues in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and evaluates the consistency of these messages over time. A component of the controversial Protestant-science hypothesis introduced in the early twentieth century is that advancements in science were driven by the Protestant ethic of needing to control nature and every aspect therein. This thesis challenges this notion. Within the context of health, sickness and death, the doctrine of providence evident in Protestant soteriology emphasised complete submission to God's sovereign will. Rather, this overriding doctrine negated the need to assume any control. Moreover, this thesis affirms that the directives theologians delivered governing physical health remained consistent across this span, despite radical changes taking place in medicine during the same period. This consistency shows the stability and strength of this message. Each chapter offers a comprehensive analysis on what Protestant theologians taught regarding the health of the body as well as the soul. The inclusion of more than one hundred seventy sermons and religious treatises by as many as one hundred twenty different authors spanning more than two hundred years laid a fertile groundwork for this study. The result of this work provides an extensive survey of theological teachings from these religious writers over a large span of time.

This dissertation makes an attempt to scientifically investigate Erich Sauer's theology of salvation history for the first time. Sauer grew up in a vital missionary context in the setting of the Open Brethren fellowship and the Alliance Bible School in Berlin. He studied history, philology and theology at the Humboldt University in Berlin, with the goal of promoting missions. Because of an acute eye ailment he was forced to discontinue his studies. He was invited to Wiedenest, where he found his life's work in the Bible School, which had moved in 1919. Here he worked for almost forty years as a teacher and a writer and travelling unceasingly to preach, lecture and hold biblical seminars on the topic of salvation history and missions. His theology, which is indebted to the theory of revelation history, was influenced by federal theology, theology of salvation history and the scientific, exegetic theology of German theological positivism. Sauer derives the authority of Scripture from history and develops a complex, salvation historical model, which is characterised by the classic structure of protology, soteriology and eschatology. His pre-millennial character is not dispensationally restricted, but has, rather, its own independent formation, that allows for the universal dimensions of God's completion act, without supporting a universal redemption theory. Through the high rating that he gives the position of the ecclesia in salvation history, Sauer has achieved a programmatic missions concept, which sees a missions-oriented church within every local church. With this paradigmatic theory, Sauer contributed to a revival of missions in German Brethren congregations, in conjunction with his professional colleague Schrupp. / Christian Spirituality, Church Hist and Missiology / D.Th.

Dutch text with Dutch and English summaries / The main question is whether prophecy is still possible in our time. Reformed theology taught for centuries that with the closing of the canon prophecy came to an end. Prophecy since then was equated with the proclamation of the Word of God. Is such a viewpoint correct? Is the church not obliged to test any prophecy against given meaningful biblical criteria? In the forties of the 20th century the Reformed minister A.A. Leenhouts had a prophecy which he reckoned would have shone light on the world around him. He repeatedly asked for the prophecy to be tested which in fact did not happen. Leenhouts finally found himself outside the Reformed church. In this study it is firstly investigated whether prophecy is still possible after the conclusion of the biblical canon, secondly, how the prophecies people receive are to be tested, and thirdly what are the criteria we have to employ regarding the phenomenon of prophecy. In this regard the prophecy of Leenhouts is also scrutinised and tested. During this study I encountered within Reformed theology an increasing number of theologians who regard prophecy still possible after the conclusion of the canon. Amongst them is professor E. van Niekerk from South Africa. The Dutch Rev W. Smouter is suprisingly close to his views. In this study it is investigated who Leenhouts was, in which situation he received his prophecy, how these words fitted into his time and what the reaction of others was on his prophecy. Before the prophecy of Leenhouts is tested his prophecy is materially compared to the views of others, especially in regard to the nation of Israel and the return of Christ. His views are also compared with representatives of the Reformed tradition, the Enlightenment and Dispensationalism. Leenhouts prophecy is also tested with the criteria the General Synod of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands has devised for prophecy. Besides, we add the following criteria: whether the prophecy of Leenhouts throws new light on the Bible and whether in Van Niekerk’s view God’s Spirit is really busy writing a Third Testament in cooperation with us in the present era. / De grote vraag is nu of er nog profetie mogelijk is in onze tijd. De Gereformeerde theologie heeft eeuwen geleerd dat met het sluiten van de Kanon, de gave van profetie ten einde is. Profetie zou nu zijn de verkondiging van Gods Woord. Klopt dit en is de kerk niet verplicht een profetie te toetsen aan de daarvoor gegeven bijbelse criteria? In de veertiger jaren van de 20e eeuw kreeg de Gereformeerde dominee A.A. Leenhouts een profetie over dingen die volgens hem licht wierpen over de wereld en de situatie van zijn dagen. Deze predikant heeft vaak gevraagd om zijn profetie te toetsen. Dat is niet gebeurd en tenslotte is de man buiten het kerkverband geraakt. In deze studie wordt allereerst nagegaan of er na het sluiten van de Kanon nog profetie mogelijk is. In de tweede plaats hoe een ontvangen profetie getoetst kan worden en in de derde plaats wat de criteria zijn om zo'n profetie te toetsen. Tevens wordt de profetie van Leenhouts besproken en getoetst. Tijdens deze studie ontmoette ik binnen de eigen Gereformeerde theologie een groeiend aantal theologen, dat na het sluiten van de Kanon nog w£l profetie mogelijk achten. Tot hen behoort wel heel speciaal Professor E. van Niekerk uit Zuid-Afrika. Verrassend nauw sluit hierbij aan de Nederlandse Ds. W. Smouter. In deze studie bekijken we eerst wie Leenhouts was, in wat voor situatie hij zijn profetie ontving, hoe deze woorden pasten in zijn tijd en hoe de reactie van anderen er op was, Voordat we de profetie van Leenhouts daarop gaan toetsen, vergelijken we zijn profetie inhoudelijk met de zienswijzen van anderen, speciaal met het oog op Israel en de wederkomst. We vergelijken hem verder met vertegenwoordigers van de Gereformeerde traditie, de kring van de Verlichting en de Bedelingenleer. Daarna toetsen we de profetie van Leenhouts aan de hand van de door de Generale Synode van de Gereformeerde Kerken in Nederland hiervoor aangereikte criteria. Tevens voegen we de criteria toe: of de profetie van Leenhouts echt nieuw licht op de Bijbel werpt 6n of Gods Gees in samewerking met ons naar de zienswijze van Van Niekerk op dit moment echt een Derde Testament aan het schrijven is. / Systematic Theology & Theological Ethics / D. Th.(Systematic Theology)

My thesis examines relations among practitioners of various religions, especially Christians and Jews, during the era when Jesus’ project went from being a Galilean sect, to a persecuted minority, to religio licita status, and eventually to imperial favor, all happening between the first century resurrection of Jesus and the fourth century rise of Constantine. There is an abiding image of the Church in wider public consciousness that it is unwittingly and in some cases antagonistically exclusionist. This is not a late-developing image. I trace it to the period that the church developed into a formal organization with the establishment of canons and creeds defined by Church councils. This notion is so pervasive that an historical retrospective of Christianity of any period, from the sect that became a movement, to the Reformation, to the present day’s multiple Christian iterations, is framed by the late Patristic era. The conflicts and solutions reached in that period provided enduring definition to the Church while silencing dissent. I refer here to such actions as the destruction of books and letters and the banishment of bishops. Before there emerged the urgent perceived need for doctrinal uniformity, the presence of Christianity provided a resilient non-militant opponent to and an increasing intellectual critique of all religious traditions, including that of the official gods that were seen to hold the empire together. When glaringly manifest cleavages in the empire persisted, the Emperor Constantine sought to use the church to help bring political unity. He called for church councils, starting with Nicaea in 325 CE that took no account for churches outside the Roman Empire, and many within, even though councils were called “Ecumenical.” The presumption that the church was fully representative without asking for permission from a broader field of constituents is just that: a presumption. This thesis studies the ancient world of Christianity’s growth to explore whether, in that age of new and untested toleration, there was a more advisable way of responding to the invitation to the political table. The answer to this can help us formulate, and perhaps revise, some of our conduct today, especially for Christians who obtain a voice in powerful places. / Christian Spirituality, Church History & Missiology / D. Th. (Church History)

This thesis analyses four different aspects of devotional life at one of England's largest and wealthiest medieval cathedrals between the years 1092 and 1235. Each of these is associated with the remembrance of the dead. It is an area of religious practice that was subject to momentous change over the course of the period. These changes would have a profound effect on the organization of Christian worship for centuries to come. The thesis assesses how contrasting approaches to the practice of remembrance were able to enhance and shape the composition of the church, and explores what they reveal about the distinctive fellowship of a secular cathedral.

麥炳坤 = The Christian church and the socialist movement in China : the responses and adjustments of the Chinese Christian intellectuals 1945-1954 / Mak Beng-kuan. / 論文(博士) -- 香港中文大學硏究院歷史學部, 1996. / 參考文献 : leaves [263]-300. / Mai Bingkun = The Christian church and the socialist movement in China : the responses and adjustments of the Chinese Christian intellectuals 1945-1954 / Mak Beng-kuan. / 導論 --- p.1 / Chapter 第一章 --- 內戰時期的中國基督敎會(1945-1949) --- p.19 / Chapter 第一節 --- 歷史背景：從勝利到失敗 --- p.19 / Chapter 一 --- 八年抗戰結束 / Chapter 二 --- 國共內戰爆發 / Chapter 三 --- 通貨急劇膨脹 / Chapter 四 --- 官吏貪污腐敗 / Chapter 五 --- 人心渴求安定 / Chapter 第二節 --- 宗敎政策：從條文到事實 --- p.23 / Chapter 一 --- 國民政府 / Chapter 二 --- 蘇維埃區 / Chapter 第三節 --- 敎會槪況：從紛亂到劃一（上） --- p.45 / Chapter 一 --- 敎會的危機 / Chapter 二 --- 敎會的恢復 / Chapter 三 --- 基督敎會與時代轉變 / 小結 / Chapter 第二章 --- 建國前後一一從統戰到改造 --- p.64 / Chapter 第一節 --- 知識分子政策 --- p.64 / Chapter 一 --- 名義與根源 / Chapter 二 --- 延安時代一一抗日統一戰線與吸收知識分子 / Chapter 三 --- 延安時代一一知識分子的敎育、改造與整風 / Chapter 四 --- 一九四九年前後的整頓、敎育與改造 / Chapter 五 --- 人民民主專政下的統戰與改造 / Chapter 第二節 --- 基督敎自由主義知識分子 --- p.89 / Chapter 一 --- 來自美國的自由主義思想 / Chapter 二 --- 中國基督敎自由主義知識分子 / Chapter 三 --- 從統戰到改造 / 小結 / Chapter 第三章 --- 從自由主義到新正統主義：神學家趙紫宸 --- p.109 / 引言 / Chapter 第一節 --- 一生神學敎育事業 --- p.111 / Chapter 一 --- 少年求學 / Chapter 二 --- 東吳時期 / Chapter 三 --- 燕京時期（一）：從自由主義到新正統主義 / Chapter 四 --- 燕京時期（二）：從矛盾到樂觀 / Chapter 五 --- 建國後的處境與適應 / 小結 / Chapter 第二節 --- 時代的信息 --- p.128 / Chapter 一 --- 早期的自由神學 / Chapter 二 --- 新正統主義與敎會觀 / Chapter 三 --- 敎會改革論與新中國：思想調適之路 / 小結 / Chapter 第四章 --- 從基督敎敎育到哲學硏究：敎育家韋卓民 --- p.160 / 引言中國基督敎高等敎育 / Chapter 第一節 --- 一生華大事業 --- p.164 / Chapter 一 --- 從文華書院到華中大學：從學生到校長 / Chapter 二 --- 巨變中的爭扎：從希望到失望 / Chapter 三 --- 思想改造與調適：哲學硏究與曠達人生 / 小結 / Chapter 第二節 --- 韋卓民思想 --- p.183 / Chapter 一 --- 基督敎信仰及其與中國文化之融匯 / Chapter 二 --- 敎育理論與實踐 / Chapter 三 --- 智慧之學的調適 / 小結 / Chapter 第五章 --- 從社會活動到三自運動：改革者吳耀宗 --- p.196 / 引言 / Chapter 第一節 --- 靑年會事業 --- p.198 / Chapter 一 --- 學生工作與社會服務 / Chapter 二 --- 出版工作 / Chapter 三 --- 統戰對象 / Chapter 第二節 --- 吳耀宗思想：從唯愛到革命 --- p.207 / Chapter 一 --- 基督敎思想 / Chapter 二 --- 社會革命思想 / 小結 / Chapter 第三節 --- 從意念到實踐：三自革新運動 --- p.221 / Chapter 一 --- 吳耀宗基督敎改造的意念 / Chapter 二 --- 吳耀宗領導的敎會改革：三自革新運動的興起 / Chapter 三 --- 五十年代敎會簡況：從紛亂到劃一（下） / 小結 / Chapter 第六章 --- 綜析：反應與調適 --- p.235 / Chapter 第一節 --- 理性與存在的決定 --- p.235 / Chapter 第二節 --- 統戰與改造對象 --- p.237 / Chapter 第三節 --- 共產主義及政敎關係 --- p.240 / Chapter 第四節 --- 基督與文化 --- p.243 / Chapter 第五節 --- 敎會改造與個人調適 --- p.247 / 總結論 / 附錄一：趙紫宸生平年表 --- p.253 / 附錄二 ：韋卓民生平年表 --- p.255 / 附錄三：吳耀宗生平年表 --- p.258 / 書目 --- p.263

楊衛華. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 468-475) / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Yang Weihua.