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This dissertation is a statement concerning Calvin's view of God and Calvin's view of grace, as they appear in the sermons. Contrary to the opinion of Barth and others, to the effect that for Calvin Christ is the mere executor of the Father's inscrutable and symmetrical decrees, we assert that the requirements of the pastoral situation led Calvin to give much more place to election than to reprobation. Predestination for Calvin was essentially election, because the God we know in Jesus Christ is precisely the electing God through whose free grace undeserving sinners are granted faith and perseverance leading to salvation. The nature of God as sovereign mercy, known through Christ, is the focus of Calvin's doctrine of grace. For Calvin the preacher, reprobation's functional status is less one of a fixed decree than of a dark possibility for those who do not respond in faith to the preaching of the Gospel.

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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS) has established educational programs throughout the world. The aim of these programs is to help students in gaining and understanding and personal witness of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ while they pursue secular studies. This project is an online resource, a handbook of instruction, designed for LDS religious educators across the globe to access and interact with, so as to facilitate teaching in the LDS classroom. Produced in Net Objects Fusion 3.0 this multimedia handbook makes use of text, graphics, and other information to teach and provide quality material and perspective for the LDS volunteer seminary teacher. This project is best viewed using Netscape Communicator 4.0 on a minimum 17 inch monitor. The online resource for teachers is offered with the following purposes in mind: (i) to inspire teachers to more effective and powerful teaching in the LDS classroom (ii) to help teachers understand the principles around quality religious instruction (iii) to guide teachers in the application of these principles so that quality religious instruction is assured (iv) to help teachers develop quality teaching skills for religious instruction / 1 computer optical disc ; 4 3/4 in + abstract.

One of the outstanding scholars of his time, Sayyid Haydar Amuli (719-787/1319-1385) played an important role in the development of Shii 'Irfan, a tradition which traces its roots back to the Prophet Muhammad and the Imams. He gave his attention to the subject at a time when the Shia Islam began to develop its characteristic set of doctrines through the efforts of 'Allama Hilli and his son Fakhr al-Muhaqqiqin in Iran and Iraq. / Sayyid Haydar lived at a time of great political and social upheaval. This thesis places Amuli within this context and describes his life in some detail. Moreover, a number of problems surrounding the corpus of his writings are resolved by a complete listing of his works. / Finally, we provide an overview of his doctrines, most especially his ideas concerning the people of sharia, tariqa and haqiqa. Amuli puts great effort into reconciling these three groups, although he consistently maintains a mystical approach in his works. While Amuli accepts Ibn 'Arabis metaphysical doctrines he criticizes his teachings on walaya and Imama. This thesis deals with the issue of Imama from the point of view of Amuli in detail.

<p>The Seventh-day Adventist Church in South Africa was planted towards the end of the 19th century. Within less than forty years after its inception, a separate Coloured department developed. This was not to be the last organizational development impacting upon the Coloured community within the Church. The problem that this study will seek to address is: &ldquo / What factors contributed to the different organizational phases that the predominantly &lsquo / coloured&rsquo / section of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in South Africa underwent between 1887 and 1997?&rdquo / It will examine particularly the role and impact of racism on the various organizational phases.</p>

This study examined the issues of the interpretation, transmission and appropriation of the doctrine of justification by faith alone within the context of the Lutheran Church in Nigeria, Gongola Diocese. Using contextualization as my main tool in this exploration, I argue that intercultural communication holds the key to unlocking how effectively and appropriately these three engagements with theology are executed within the context of this study. The Lutheran church and indeed most Protestant denominations assert that justification by faith alone is the cardinal doctrine of Christianity. Scholars are however concerned that there is great level of ignorance among members and misappropriation of justification by faith alone in the lives of members of these denominations. Many reasons were advanced as being responsible for this, some of which include: its absence from the preaching agenda of Protestant pulpits, and inadequate teaching from the church, its clergy and theological educators. Other reasons are its failure to be shown to be clearly applicable to lived experiences of the people in their contemporary challenges. The message of justification by faith alone has not been adequately translated into people's social, and religious-cultural world views. The LCCN as an institution subscribes to Luther's teachings as expressed in his writings and taught by the Lutheran Church globally. However, the LCCN is faced with the problem of how to transmit the meaning of justification by faith alone to its members. This study therefore sought to investigate the underlying factors for this development. The question that the study wished to answer was: How does the interpretation of justification by faith alone by the Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria (as an institution) enhance its understanding and appropriation by members and serves as a guide in this study? In attempting to answer this question three theories were used as framework with which to test the church's interpretation of this doctrine. These theories are: 1) gospel and culture in dialogue; 2) translatability, and 3) contextual theological education programmes for the training of both clergy and laity. This is an empirical qualitative study and was structured into eight chapters. Participants in this study were categorized into five groups: church leaders, seminary lecturers, clergy, seminary students, and lay members. Through in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with participants, relevant data was generated and analysed manually. The study found that the LCCN's interpretation of justification by faith alone is detached from the religious and cultural world view of its members; this has in turn created a conflict in how it is understood and appropriated in their lived experiences. The message of justification by faith (the gospel) has not been allowed to engage in dialogue with the culture of the people, rather culture is perceived as evil or something to be avoided. Thus, I argue that this failure on the part of the missionaries and the indigenous leadership of the LCCN to employ intercultural communication in transmitting the message of justification by faith alone is the major cause of the problem. Most of the participants including the leaders of the church acknowledged that the church, the seminary and the clergy have not been faithful in transmitting the appropriate message of justification by faith alone. The conclusion of this study therefore, is that the LCCN's interpretation of justification by faith alone does not enhance its understanding and appropriation by members. This thesis proposes that the Lunguda practice of ntsandah provides an entry point for a proper informed interpretation of justification by faith alone. For this to be possible, the gospel and culture must engage in dialogue through viable a contextual theological education programme for the training of both clergy and the laity. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2012.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church in South Africa was planted towards the end of the 19th century. Within less than forty years after its inception, a separate Coloured department developed. This was not to be the last organizational development impacting upon the Coloured community within the Church. The problem that this study will seek to address is: "What factors contributed to the different organizational phases that the predominantly 'coloured' section of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in South Africa underwent between 1887 and 1997?" It will examine particularly the role and impact of racism on the various organizational phases. / Philosophiae Doctor - PhD

Chapter Five finally argues that Bouyer's construal of the Church's principal actions (liturgical celebration, evangelical witness, and the total life of prayer and Christian discipleship) is consistent with his christological and trinitarian horizon, and that these ecclesial actions respond most appropriately to the divine initiative manifested in the Word and Wisdom.

The subject of this dissertation is Richard Hooker's defence of the royal headship of the church in the final book of his treatise Of the Lawes of Ecclesiasticall Politie. His treatment of this political question is remarkable for its depth of theological analysis. Hooker approaches the issue of the royal headship from three main theological angles: first, from the standpoint of the crucial distinction of Reformation soteriology between the so-called 'Two Realms' or 'Two Kingdoms'; secondly, according to the categories and distinctions of basic systematic doctrine, notably Chalcedonian Christology and Trinitarian dogma; and thirdly, he applies the magisterial reformers' test of ecclesiological orthodoxy. Modern students of Hooker's political thought have been very reluctant to bridge the gulf between the theological and political realms of his discourse. As a result, the theological matrix of Hooker's doctrine of the Royal Supremacy has been quite neglected. The erection of such a bridge is indispensable to our understanding of the alien mentalite which underlies this important Elizabethan controversy. We shall attempt to demonstrate that Hooker's employment of theological argument in defence of the Royal Supremacy was central to his ultimate apologetic purpose. He wrote the Lawes with a view to 'resolving the consciences' of the Disciplinarian-Puritan critics of the Elizabethan Settlement. He sought to convince these opponents by the most compelling mode of argument they knew - theological argument - that the royal headship was wholly consistent with the cardinal principles of the ecclesiology and political theory of the magisterial Reformation. In the first chapter there is a consideration of the methodological difficulties of modern Hooker scholarship. This is followed by an examination of Hooker's apologetic intention and a division of the chief theological elements of the controversy over the Royal Supremacy. Chapter two explores the soteriological foundations of Hooker's doctrine of the Two Realms and Two Regiments as well as his relation to the authority of the magisterial reformation. Chapter three examines Hooker's ecclesiology as the pivotal link between his soteriological 'first principles' and his political theory. Finally, in chapter four, the considerations of the previous chapters will be applied directly to the interpretation of Hooker's theology of the royal headship as presented by him in Book VIII of the Lawes.