This dissertation proposes and analyzes the integration of doctrine and expository preaching for the twenty-first century. Chapter 1 traces the recent history of doctrinal preaching and expository preaching. Problems related to postmodernism, the New Homiletic, and the changes within contemporary evangelicalism also receive treatment. Chapter 2 defines and blends the definitions of expository preaching and doctrinal preaching. These definitions form the basis for defining doctrinal expository preaching. Several doctrinal prerequisites of an expositor conclude this section. Chapter 3 examines the biblical basis for doctrinal exposition. The semantic domain for preaching and the Bible's practitioners of doctrinal exposition support this basis. Chapter 4 incorporates the disciplines of biblical and systematic theology for the task of theological interpretation. Moreover, principles for theological exegesis of literary genres prepare the expositor for the homiletical process. The chapter concludes with steps in the doctrinal expository sermon process as well as with two valid approaches for implementing doctrinal exposition. Chapter 5 covers postmodern issues of truth, entertainment, language, image, and story. Also, the subject of applying doctrine is discussed. Observations of valuable doctrines for contemporary evangelicalism end this section. Chapter 6 describes many practicalities of doctrinal exposition. A summary concludes the work. This study argues for the need to integrate doctrine and expository preaching for the twenty-first century. Furthermore, this work proposes doctrinal exposition distinctively, biblically, theologically, and practically. In order for preachers to declare the whole counsel of God, sermons must employ doctrinal exposition. / This item is only available to students and faculty of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. If you are not associated with SBTS, this dissertation may be purchased from <a href="http://disexpress.umi.com/dxweb">http://disexpress.umi.com/dxweb</a> or downloaded through ProQuest's Dissertation and Theses database if your institution subscribes to that service.

This dissertation evaluates the historiography, methodology, exegesis, and theological conclusions of pneumatological inclusivists and their doctrine of salvation, and then offers a biblical and theological defense of soteriological exclusivism based on the relationship between the Son and the Spirit. Chapter 1 defines the categories of exclusivism, inclusivism, and pluralism. Attention is given to those inclusivists who ground their inclusivist proposals in a work of the Holy Spirit in world religions apart from Gospel proclamation. Chapter 2 summarizes the work of non-evangelical inclusivists in the area of theology of religions, with particular attention given to those theologians who focus their work on the person and ministry of the Holy Spirit. Chapter 3 summarizes the work of evangelical pneumatological inclusivists, focusing on the efforts of Clark Pinnock and Amos Yong. Chapter 4 evaluates the historiography of pneumatological inclusivists. The chapter contends that any appeals to the theology of Irenaeus or a rejection of the Fifoque clause to bolster support for pneumatological inclusivism are tendentious. Chapter 5 evaluates the theological method of pneumatological inclusivists. The chapter argues that systematic theological conclusions must be based upon solid exegesis and biblical theology. The Bible presents the Spirit as working to glorify the Son. Theological method ought to reflect this priority, that is, it must be Christocentric. Chapter 6 presents a theology of the Son and the Spirit. It is demonstrated that from the beginning of redemptive history, prior to and during the incarnation, the Spirit worked toward and for the glorification of the Son. During the present church age, the Spirit works to glorify Christ. Chapter 7 summarizes the dissertation and highlights areas of contribution and significance. / This item is only available to students and faculty of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. If you are not associated with SBTS, this dissertation may be purchased from <a href="http://disexpress.umi.com/dxweb">http://disexpress.umi.com/dxweb</a> or downloaded through ProQuest's Dissertation and Theses database if your institution subscribes to that service.

[pt] A partir do Concílio Vaticano II muitos teólogos se dedicaram à tarefa de resgate do significado da revelação trinitária de Deus para a vida cristã. A teologia moral, em particular, recebeu diversas contribuições. De forma especial o desenvolvimento da Cristologia e da Pneumatologia contribuíram para a compreensão de novas implicações éticas do mistério de Deus. Por essa razão, o presente trabalho visa, em primeiro lugar, refletir sobre a importância da Trindade para a Moral Sexual. Nesse aspecto, uma rica possibilidade de renovação da Moral Sexual surge com a diversidade de modelos morais associados a cada pessoa trinitária, tais como o de imitação do Pai, o da filiação, o da fraternidade-sororidade, o da solicitude maternal, o da aliança, o de imitação e seguimento de Cristo, o da nova lei, o da vida no Espírito, o da santificação, etc. Em segundo lugar, considerando as principais encíclicas que tratam do tema da sexualidade, a saber, Arcanum Divinae Sapientiae (Leão XIII), Casti Connubii (Pio XI), Humanae Vitae (Paulo VI), Evangelium Vitae (João Paulo II) e Deus caritas est (Bento XVI), buscamos responder à questão da importância dada à Trindade pelos pontífices nesses documentos. Para isso, nos dedicamos a uma rigorosa análise da nomeação de Deus em cada uma das citadas encíclicas. Por fim, constatamos, que apesar dos significativos avanços, o discurso magisterial acerca da sexualidade ainda carece de uma articulação trinitária. E a partir dessa constatação, apresentamos algumas perspectivas que se abririam a uma moral sexual mais trinitariamente elaborada. / [en] Since the Council Vatican II many theologians devoted themselves to the task of redemption of the meaning of the Trinitarian revelation of God for Christian life. The moral theology, in individual, received several contributions. The development of Christology and Pneumatology has contributed to the understanding of new ethics implications about God’s mystery, in a special way. For this reason, the present work aims, first of all, to think about the importance of the Trinity for the Sexual Moral. In aspect, a rich possibility of renovation of the Sexual Moral appears with the diversity of moral models associated to each Trinitarian person, such as the imitation of the Father, the affiliation, the fraternity-sorority, the maternal care, the covenant, the imitation and fellowship with Christ, the new law, the life in the Spirit, the sanctification, etc. Second of all, finding the principal encyclicals that treat the subject of the sexuality, knowing, Arcanum Divinae Sapientiae (Lion XIII), Casti Connubii (Pio XI), Humanae Vitae (Paul VI), Evangelium Vitae (John Paul II) and Deus caritas est (Benedict XVI), we look to respond to the question of the importance given to the Trinity by the pontiffs in these documents. For that, we devote ourselves to a rigorous analysis of the God s nomination in each one of the quoted encyclicals. Finally, we note, that in spite of the significant advancements, the magisterial speech about the sexuality still lacks for a Trinitarian articulation. And from this observation, we present some perspectives that would open to a more elaborated Trinitarian Sexual Moral.

The author of the Book of James names four exemplars in the course of his work. These serve specific functions within their individual contexts in the composition; Abraham and Rahab as exemplars of a vital active faith, Job as an exemplar of steadfast endurance, and Elijah as an exemplar of effective prayer. This thesis explores the wider stories of the exemplars in the Hebrew Bible, traces their development in elements of early Jewish tradition, and compares the author’s use of the exemplars with that of other New Testament writers. It argues that, the author of the Book of James uses the exemplars collectively as a means to encourage his messianic audience to remain faithful to God in the trials of everyday life until the imminent Parousia of the Lord. The four exemplars share three characteristics that will aid the audience in their daily struggles: they were all tested to the limit, yet demonstrated their whole-hearted commitment to God by remaining faithful to him; they were all outsiders who rejected the wisdom (values) of the world and they all faced their life-defining trials reliant on God rather than on other human beings.

This work seeks to examine traditional Christian doctrines regarding life after death, from a pastoral perspective. The study explores new ways of interpreting the meaning in human identity, dis-innocence and forgiven-ness specifically as relating to the continuing evolution of Humankind, and offers a description of humankind as Homo sanctus. The thesis is built around three individual selected case examples of death and dying together with a constructed narrative of ‘problem dying’, and a group of five persons in a Fellowship of the Dying; it describes the development and praxis of new approaches to ministry in these areas. A number of new terms are introduced to better convey the substance of meanings. The study itself may be considered as offering significant new insight in two respects: 1. It engages with the idea that bio-death has teleological meaning within the evolution of Personhood in resurrection. 2. It offers the experiences of Christian pastoral ministry pro-actively engaging with dying as a pilgrimage into and through bio-death, in which every member of the immediate community of faith is pro-active in pilgrimage with the dying Person. The study draws on extensive cross-cultural and multi-faith experience in Britain and Africa.

The notion of prophecy is a Leitmotiv, both in Scripture and in the Church. However, the popular form of prophecy that is witnessed in the Church today is the charismatic prophecy manifestations in the Pentecostal- charismatic movement. Although the latter is now billed as the fastest growing Christian movement in church history, and has brought to the fore the biblical notion of the charisms of the Holy Spirit, the subject of charismatic prophecy has received limited attention in Pentecostal studies. There is therefore a gap in knowledge. The present study is an attempt to address the lacuna; it is an empirical-biblical investigation of the nature and significance of prophecy in the Pentecostal- charismatic experience. The study presents a particular thesis: that charismatic prophecy, as observed in Pentecostal- charismatic congregational settings in the African context, is sacramental in its nature and parakletic in its functional significance. Thus, the charismatic prophecy experience is viewed as an intense moment of a participatory interface between the divine Spirit and the human spirit in which the divine Spirit infuses the human conscious dimension with revelatory impulses. The experience is parakletic in the sense that it edifies, encourages, and comforts the church in congregational settings.

The aim of this thesis is to explore the “strange phenomenon” of the Intentional Christian Community Othona in Bradwell-on-Sea, Essex, Great Britain, founded in 1946 by Norman Motley, to cherish differences and diversity through reconciliation among nations that had been at war with each other. An old neglected chapel, St Peter-on-the-Wall, became the spiritual centre of this Community. A phenomenographic, auto-ethnographic and multi-dimensional research approach, designed to investigate and describe the Othona Community and its praxis and the researcher's involvement in it, is used for the empirical part of the thesis. The study seeks to discover a) the Lebenswelten ― or the world created by its life ― of the Othona Community, b) members'/participants' perception of the Community through interviews and Community literature, c) a way of understanding this “strange phenomenon” and its special charism with the help of an “endogenous theology”. This thesis shows that a two-fold encounter lies at the heart of the experience at Othona: encounter between a person and the “Other” (represented by the Stoep) and between a person and the “Wholly Other” (represented by the Chapel). Through examination of these encounters light is shed on the extraordinariness of Othona. The German term Heimat (a deeply spiritual home) is introduced here to encapsulate these “encounteral” experiences which induce a transformation of place and people alike. Theologically, the thesis claims that a combination of a Theology of Encounter and an understanding of Heimat can assist the appreciation of the Othona phenomenon as a Community of temporary withdrawal and restoration, where differences and a Kingdom model are experienced in narrative encounters on the margins by offering Heimat through belonging and significance.

This thesis is concerned with the role played by the Christian scholar ‘Ammār al-Baṣrī in theologizing in the Islamic milieu of the ‘Abbasids in the 9th century. His Kitāb al-Burhān, one of his only two surviving works, will therefore be thoroughly studied from two perspectives: the Islamic perspective as it is found in contemporary anti-Christian polemical texts; and the Christian perspective, through a comparison of ‘Ammār’s treatise with the works of Arab Christian theologians of his day. The present study aims at demonstrating the level of translatability of Christian theology into the Islamic intellectual milieu, as ‘Ammār al-Baṣrī saw it. It is therefore natural that we should examine Kitāb al-Burhān as an example of “contextualized” theology in Dār al-Islām. ‘Ammār’s Burhān stands a witness to the numerous attempts made by Arab Christians to reconcile their heritage (the world of Islam) with their inheritance (Christian theology). Such a reconciliation is essential for the future existence of Arab Christians, particularly in the Arab World.

This thesis uses a practical-theological methodology to explore the theology and spirituality of „spiritual warfare‟ that developed in the charismatic renewal from the 1960s. Beginning with a study of twelve charismatic Anglican pioneers, a detailed case study then explores spiritual warfare praxis in a charismatic Anglican congregation. The ensuing theological reflection focuses on the ontology of evil, through dialogue with Nigel Wright, Amos Yong, and Gregory Boyd, as well as Karl Barth and Walter Wink. The thesis argues for a positive ontology for evil powers, based on a charismatic hermeneutic of biblical texts; on the grounds that Jesus treated Satan and demons as real spiritual entities, the Pauline epistles refer to real evil spiritual powers in the heavenly realms, and charismatic experience supports this ontology. Such powers are in malevolent and wilful rebellion against God, deriving from a corrupted fallen angelic nature. A Trinitarian model of theological praxis is presented, focused on responding to the goodness of God in repentance; renewing faith in the believer‟s identity in Christ and His victory upon the cross; and resisting the devil in the power of the Spirit. This model emphasizes personal responsibility, helps bring freedom from fear, and re-connects with Anglican baptismal liturgy.

John of Damascus was an early eighth century theologian in the Jerusalem Patriarchate. His family supplied financial administrators in Syro-Palestine for most of the seventh century, who were involved in surrendering Damascus to the Arabs if not also to the Persians. They thrived in the sectarian environment under the Umayyads. Numerous Greek Lives paint John in legendary terms; however, these are late and unreliable. I deconstruct the Lives decoupling his timeline from Byzantine Iconoclasm, arguing that there is no evidence and good reason to think that he did not leave the Arab administration because of vexed piety, persecution or administrative language change. Rather, focusing on the chronicler's treatment of John's family, I argue that John left office for his own reasons. I propose that John was instrumental in a quid pro quo: cathedral for patriarchate negotiation. Consequently, the Arabs built the Damascus Mosque on the site of the cathedral church of St John the Baptist, and the (dyothelite) Chalcedonian party moved to Jerusalem, where they reestablished the Jerusalem Patriarchate. Thus, I argue the context of John's polemical works is Jerusalem and patriarchal policy. Further, I argue that John was commissioned to produce something like 'proto-school' texts in the context of debate in the Anastasis with internal Maronite and external West and East Syrian interlocutors. Then I look at one example of John's theological creativity to show how this context impinged on his theological program. John appropriates Maximus the Confessor's term perichoresis and reduces its scope to the Incarnation while moving it into the doctrine of God for the first time. I show that he does this for polemical reasons in order to contravene each of his interlocutors with a simple biblical rhetorical model providing Chalcedonian monks in debate with a simple formula against better educated foes. This thesis demonstrates that reading John out of context fails to appreciate his creative response to these local exigencies.