This thesis aims to do what the poem Job 28 is trying to do in the Book of Job, which is to focus on prescribed biblical wisdom practice in order to ‘bring wisdom back down to earth’ within a discussion concerning divine justice (Job 22-31). Chapter 1 introduces what a “wisdom reading” is and why it is necessary. Chapters 2-5 of this thesis give a close reading of Job 28:1-28 and includes an intentional dialogue between how the words, phrase, and theological concepts are used in the poem and in the main three bible wisdom texts (Job, Proverbs and Qoheleth). Chapter 6 discusses the implications of reading Job 28 in light of its biblical wisdom tradition. Job 28 speaks of a hidden wisdom, but it is not obvious how this prescribed wisdom (“fear of God and avoiding evil”) is connected to divine justice until the poem is read within the of context of the three main biblical wisdom books (Job, Proverbs, Qoheleth). A close reading of Job 28:1-1 and 12-28 within the context of the biblical wisdom tradition, challenges the reader to redefine what the book of Job is saying about wisdom in ethical terms and, therefore, also provokes a redefinition of the divine gaze upon the earth in terms of divine justice. In this thesis, we shall see how wisdom and divine justice are both rooted in earthly matters. It is only when viewed as “down-to-earth” matters that we see that they are related to each other in sapiential literature, especially in Job 28. If ‘wisdom’ is understood as proper conduct on earth (avoiding evil action, Job 28:28b) prompted by an understanding that God gazes on this earth he created (fear of the Lord, Job 28:28a), then divine justice is to be understood as divine regulation of that proper conduct and attitude.

This thesis analyses a diversity of Christian understandings of the Kingdom of God in relation to the church’s mission for social justice. Its central argument is that the Christian praxis of the eschatological reality of the Kingdom is the church’s alternative to philosophical and ethical theories for social justice. Through an in-depth analysis and evaluation of previous scholarship, this study examines secular philosophical and ethical theories of both ancient and modern times as means of transforming the systemic injustices of society, and affirms their inadequacy to attain the highest good for humanity without a true knowledge of the justice of the sovereign God. Through a hermeneutic approach to the biblical material, the study finds the fundamental concept of God’s justice in narrative and thematic form throughout the Bible. God is the source of love, power, righteousness and justice, and practising justice is a divine mandate for believers. Critical analysis of the diversified concept of the Kingdom of God finds that each view of eschatology, whether premillennialism, postmillennialism, or amillennialism, has its unique characteristics and insights, but without a comprehensive, coherent and integrative conceptual framework for the Kingdom, any one view of eschatology poses difficulties and jeopardizes the advancement of the Gospel of the Kingdom. The study finds that the two-kingdom doctrine of Luther and Calvin, together with Barth’s doctrine of Law and Gospel, support an understanding of the universal Lordship of Christ over both the church (the spiritual realm) and the world (the civil realm), that Ladd’s ‘inaugurated eschatology’ appropriately synthesises the views of ‘consistent eschatology’ and ‘realized eschatology’ as ‘one redemptive event in two parts’, and that E. Stanley Jones’ ‘total Kingdom’ concept effectively summarises God’s comprehensive plan for human life. For the last century, however, the evangelical church has been preoccupied with an overemphasis on individual pietistic experience, vertical relationship with God, personal conversion and over-reaction to the social gospel movement. The relative non-participation of the evangelical church in action for social justice evidences an uneasy conscience; their narrow interpretation of the Kingdom of God has resulted in the church’s withdrawing from social involvement as well as obscuring the horizontal relationship between humanity and creation. The study concludes that Christianity is not an abstract concept but is concerned with the eschatological hope of the Kingdom of God and with its embodiment through the church on earth, which implies the formation of a renewed socio-political reality. The church is thus the prototype of the Kingdom of God, with a mandate to display God’s justice as the divine redemptive plan that will culminate in the restoration of the communion of all humanity in God. In seeking a balance between this concept of the Kingdom and the church’s mission of evangelism and social justice, the study finds that there is a need to call the evangelical church to incarnate the Word of God in proclamation and action – an integrated mission of evangelism and social justice. / Thesis (PhD (Ethics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus in association with Greenwich School of Theology, U.K., 2013.

This thesis analyses a diversity of Christian understandings of the Kingdom of God in relation to the church’s mission for social justice. Its central argument is that the Christian praxis of the eschatological reality of the Kingdom is the church’s alternative to philosophical and ethical theories for social justice. Through an in-depth analysis and evaluation of previous scholarship, this study examines secular philosophical and ethical theories of both ancient and modern times as means of transforming the systemic injustices of society, and affirms their inadequacy to attain the highest good for humanity without a true knowledge of the justice of the sovereign God. Through a hermeneutic approach to the biblical material, the study finds the fundamental concept of God’s justice in narrative and thematic form throughout the Bible. God is the source of love, power, righteousness and justice, and practising justice is a divine mandate for believers. Critical analysis of the diversified concept of the Kingdom of God finds that each view of eschatology, whether premillennialism, postmillennialism, or amillennialism, has its unique characteristics and insights, but without a comprehensive, coherent and integrative conceptual framework for the Kingdom, any one view of eschatology poses difficulties and jeopardizes the advancement of the Gospel of the Kingdom. The study finds that the two-kingdom doctrine of Luther and Calvin, together with Barth’s doctrine of Law and Gospel, support an understanding of the universal Lordship of Christ over both the church (the spiritual realm) and the world (the civil realm), that Ladd’s ‘inaugurated eschatology’ appropriately synthesises the views of ‘consistent eschatology’ and ‘realized eschatology’ as ‘one redemptive event in two parts’, and that E. Stanley Jones’ ‘total Kingdom’ concept effectively summarises God’s comprehensive plan for human life. For the last century, however, the evangelical church has been preoccupied with an overemphasis on individual pietistic experience, vertical relationship with God, personal conversion and over-reaction to the social gospel movement. The relative non-participation of the evangelical church in action for social justice evidences an uneasy conscience; their narrow interpretation of the Kingdom of God has resulted in the church’s withdrawing from social involvement as well as obscuring the horizontal relationship between humanity and creation. The study concludes that Christianity is not an abstract concept but is concerned with the eschatological hope of the Kingdom of God and with its embodiment through the church on earth, which implies the formation of a renewed socio-political reality. The church is thus the prototype of the Kingdom of God, with a mandate to display God’s justice as the divine redemptive plan that will culminate in the restoration of the communion of all humanity in God. In seeking a balance between this concept of the Kingdom and the church’s mission of evangelism and social justice, the study finds that there is a need to call the evangelical church to incarnate the Word of God in proclamation and action – an integrated mission of evangelism and social justice. / Thesis (PhD (Ethics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus in association with Greenwich School of Theology, U.K., 2013.

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Ce travail a pour objectif d’étudier certaines représentations – écrites et imagées – des exécutions capitales en France, dans la seconde moitié du XVIe siècle et les premières décennies du XVIIe siècle. Ces exécutions sont nombreuses à une époque marquée par d’importants troubles politiques et religieux. Elles ont lieu en place publique, se veulent édifiantes et exemplaires pour les spectateurs, et affirment l’autorité du souverain, qui restaure l’ordre dans le royaume.Cette étude s’organise autour des trois figures fondamentales de la punition : le roi, le peuple et le condamné. La punition entretient toujours un lien très étroit avec l’autorité qui châtie. Nous verrons que les réflexions de Foucault autour du supplice se vérifient dans certaines sources, mais que les écrits et les images ne font pas obligatoirement de ce spectacle une affirmation de l’autorité royale, ni de la justice divine, parfois problématiques. Dans les sources écrites, les spectateurs réagissent souvent à l’exécution capitale et il arrive que les auteurs expliquent les violences populaires dans un cadre extra-judiciaire, comme une tentative de rétablir l'ordre et la justice. Le condamné, lui, est à la fois « acteur » du supplice à travers son comportement sur l’échafaud et « victime ». Ce travail, qui envisage des contextes politiques et religieux différents et compare des sources très diverses, entend montrer que la littérature et l’iconographie construisent une image complexe du spectacle de l’exécution capitale, en particulier à travers les motifs de l’ordre et du désordre qui les traversent. / Our thesis focuses on the representations – textual as well as illustrated – of capital punishments in France, during the second half of the 16th century and the first decades of the 17th century. This period, marked by significant political and religious troubles, saw a large number of public executions, aimed to be edifying and admonitory examples for the audience and to assert the sovereign’s authority to restore order in the realm. This study is centered around the three crucial characters of the punishment: the king, the public and the convicted person. The punishment is always closely linked to the authority which chastises. We’ll see that Foucault’s thoughts about capital punishment are relevant for some sources, but that the writings and the images do not necessarily present this spectacle as an assertion of royal authority, nor of divine justice, sometimes problematical. In the written sources, the audience often react to the execution and authors also attempt to re-establish justice and order during the descriptions of violent popular actions. As for the convicted, they are both “actors” of the executions, through their behaviour on the scaffold, and “victims”. Some traits appear in the convicted’s representations, considering their sex, their age, the religious beliefs of the authors and the different types of texts and images where the convicted are depicted. This study, which considers different political and religious situations and compares very diverse sources, aims to show that literature and images give a complex image of capital punishments’ spectacle, especially through the motifs of order and disorder.

Scholarship has tended to depict John Owen as a “Reformed catholic” attempting a synthesis of Reformed principles with a largely Thomist doctrine of God. In this thesis, I argue that this depiction risks losing sight of those aspects of Owen's doctrine of God that are intended to support a distinctly Protestant account of the economy of grace. By an examination of the principles of divine government, I argue that Owen employs the theme of God's “dominion” in order to establish the freedom and gratuity of God's grace, and to resist theologies that might otherwise use the doctrine of creation to structure and norm God's government of creatures. In chapter one, I argue against prevailing readings of Owen's thought that his theology of the divine will is, in fact, “voluntarist” in nature, prioritizing God's will over his intellect in the determination of the divine decree. I show that Owen regards God's absolute dominion as an entailment of his ontological priority over creatures. Chapters two and three examine the character of God's dominion over creatures in virtue of their “two-fold dependence” upon him as both Creator and Lawgiver. Chapter four takes up Owen's theology of God's remunerative justice in the context of his covenant theology. I show here that his doctrine of divine dominion underwrites his critique of merit-theology and attempts to establish the gratuity of that supernatural end to which humans are destined. Finally, in chapter five, I examine the principles of God's mercy, expressed in the work of redemption, where I demonstrate how Owen's conception of divine dominion underwrites the freedom of God in election and his account of particular redemption.