Summaries in Afrikaans and English / Text in Afrikaans / Die tema van hierdie studie toon die kerkbegrip van Cyprianus aan as 'n spanning tussen die kerk as instituut en die kerk van die Gees. Hoofstuk een skets die invloed van Tertullianus as leermeester op Cyprianus. Tertullianus se kerkbegrip getuig self van spanning wat die produk is van 'n verandering van lidmaatskap vanaf die Katolieke kerk na die Montaniste. Tertullianus se kerkbegrip word vanuit twee perspektiewe belig. Eerstens vanuit 'n Katolieke, met 'n fokus op die fundering van die ware kerk en die mag van die kerk om sondes te kan vergewe. Tweedens vanuit 'n Montanistiese, wat die def iniering van die ware kerk en die mag van die kerk om sondes te kan vergewe eksklusief geestelik begrond. Hoofstuk twee skets die milieu waarbinne Cyprianus gearbei het. Dit sluit in 'n biografie van Cyprianus en die Afrika-religie en bevolking. Tweedens word die Europese invloed op Cyprianus se kerkbegrip aangedui. Die invloed van die Romeinse staatkundige model kan duidelik waargeneem word. Die grootste invloed was egter die Roomse kerklike model, weens die dinamika van die Roomse kerk. Hoofstuk drie skets die ekklesiologie van Cyprianus. Die spanning tussen die kerk as 'n instituut en die kerk van die Gees word aangedui deur 'n bespreking van die episkopaat; die betekenis van die biskop; Cyprianus se gesagsbegrip en sy perspektief op die primaat. Cyprianus se Bybelse verbintenis, sowel as die twee historiese lyne, naamlik die Pauliniese lyn en die Petruslyn, plaas sy uitspraak salus extra ecclesiam non est in perspektief. Cyprianus se kerkbegrip is primer 'n ekklesiologie van die Gees. In sy strewe na die eenheid van die kerk vind hy die kerk as instituut egter onontbeerlik. Spanning onstaan in sy poging om 'n sintese tussen die twee te vorm. / The theme of this study reveals the tension to be found between the church as institution and the church of the Spirit, in the ecclesiology of Cyprian. Chapter one shows the influence which Tertullian, as tutor, exerted on Cyprian. The ecclesiology of Tertullian also reveals the tension which is produced by the change of membership from Catholicism to Montanism. Tertullian's ecclesiology is highlighted from two different perspectives. Firstly from a Catholic view, with the focus on the fundamentals of the true church, and the authority and power of the church to forgive sins. Secondly, a Montanist view is proposed, which defines the true church, and the power it yields in forgiving sins, as being exclusively spiritual in nature. Chapter two describes the environment in which Cyprian worked. This includes a biography of Cyprian, as well as the African religion and people. Secondly the European influence is shown on Cyprian's ecclesiology. The influence exerted by the Roman state model is also clearly seen. The major influence though, was exercised by the Roman church model, on account of the dynamics of the Roman church. Chapter three describes Cyprian's ecclesiology. The tension between the church as institute and the church of the Spirit is revealed in a discussion on the episcopacy; the significance of the bishop; Cyprian's view on authority and his perspective on the primacy. Cyprian's biblical connection, as well as the two historical lines, namely the Pauline and Petrine lines, put his salus extra ecclesiam non est pronouncement in perspective. ecclesiology the unity of Cyprian's view is primarily that of a of the Spirit. In his striving towards the church though, he finds the church as institute to be indispensable. Tension develops in his endeavor to form a synthesis between the two. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D. Th.

Landmarkism was a sectarian view of Baptist church history and practice. It arose in the mid-eighteenth century and was a dominant force in the first half-century of the life of the Southern Baptist Convention, America’s largest Protestant denomination. J. R. Graves was its chief architect, promoter, and apologist. He initiated or helped propagate controversies which shaped Southern Baptist life and practice. His influence spread Landmarkism throughout the Southern Baptist Convention through religious periodicals, books, and educational materials. Key Landmark figures in the seminaries and churches also promoted these views. After over fifty years of significant impact the influence of Landmarkism seemed to diminish eventually fading from sight. Many observers of Southern Baptist life relegated it to a movement of historical interest but no current impact. In an effort to examine this assumption, research was conducted which explored certain theological positions of Graves, other Landmarkers, and sects claimed as the true church by the promoters of Baptist church succession. Further research focused on the Landmark influence leading up to the American Civil War (1861-1865) and the spread of Landmarkism after the death of Graves (1893) until the close of the twentieth century. The research revealed significant theological inconsistencies which were heretofore unexamined critically and often ignored by promoters of the Landmark view as long as the view of the Baptist Church and its history was within Landmark definitions. A mass of vituperative rhetoric in defense of slavery from Landmark authors was uncovered. It was also found that significant percentages of Southern Baptists still hold some key Landmark beliefs. The persistence of these beliefs is tied to Landmarkers in key positions within the Southern Baptist Convention and the influence of local pastors with Landmark views. Landmarkism is a term the average Southern Baptist cannot define. Landmark beliefs, however, are still present, but many view them merely as Baptist doctrine and history. The research concluded that Landmarkism is far from a forgotten piece of Southern Baptist history. Its influence, impact, and grip are very visible in some Southern Baptist beliefs and practices. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D.Th. (Church History)

Title in German and English, text in German, abstract and keywords in English / This thesis deals primarily with the questions: Is Israel constantly chosen by God or have the devine promises gone over to the chuch? Are jews to be saved without the sacrifice of Christ? Should jews be missionised as gentiles alike? To give responses, the followings steps are worked out: At first an overview on the israelological models that have been opined during church- history is presented. Secondly church-documents are analyzed in spite of their missiological content. Thirdly an exegesis of Romans 9-11 is offered. Following this, those of the church-documents, whose israelology is closest to the witness of scripture, are presented. Finally a conclusion is offered, which states, that jews are constantly chosen, but not to be saved in another manner as gentiles. Therefore the church is continually obliged to bear the Gospel also to Israel. Jews and gentiles alike are to be saved by nothing but the blood of Jesus. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M. Th. (Missiology)

This thesis reassesses the evidence surrounding Edward Irving’s controversial teaching about the doctrine of the incarnation. Irving was a controversial figure in his own day and his legacy has been contested ever since he was dismissed from the ministry of the Church of Scotland for teaching that Christ had a ‘fallen’ human nature. This thesis re-examines the emergence and significance of Irving’s teaching. It evaluates the scholarly consensus that his distinctive Christology was a stable feature of his thought and argues the case that his thinking in this area did change significantly. Methodologically, this thesis draws on some aspects of Quentin Skinner’s work in the importance of context (Chapter Two) to understand Irving as he really was, rather than in terms of his later significance. In the light of this, Irving’s biography is examined in Chapter Three, before moving into a discussion of the influential part played by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in Irving’s intellectual development (Chapter Four). The second half of the thesis then moves on to consider the development of Irving’s Christology and the questions surrounding its provenance and development (Chapters Five and Six). Finally, in Chapter Seven, possible sources of explanation for Irving’s distinctive ideas about the Incarnation are exhibited and assessed. The argument of this thesis is that Edward Irving developed an account of the Incarnation that was essentially novel, in response to the Romantic ideas that he had derived from Coleridge. In accordance with Coleridge’s assessment, it is argued that this derivation was rendered more complex by Irving’s incomplete apprehension of Coleridge’s underlying philosophy. Nonetheless, it is argued that Edward Irving’s teaching presented a Romantic version of Christ, and that this distinctive conception owes more to the times in which Irving lived than to the theological tradition to which he claimed adherence.

This thesis provides an examination into the primary features in the theology of one of the turn of the century's leading evangelical theologians, Stanley J. Grenz. It begins by establishing the controversial nature of Grenz's project within evangelical theology, and how his aims were misread by a number of evangelical scholars. It then argues that the primary feature in his writings was the doctrine of the Trinity, giving shape to his methodology, theology, and ethical engagement. Accordingly, this thesis identifies the most significant features he adopted and adapted from Wolfhart Pannenberg, whose influence on Grenz is readily seen. These features include not only how Grenz derived particular methodological aspects from Pannenberg (chap. 2), but also those related to the shape of his trinitarian theology itself (chap. 3). Next, while realizing that Grenz's new-found emphasis on a trinitarian project was not placed on a tabula rasa, a wider account of his trinitarian background is considered (chap. 4), as is the particular developmental shape of his doctrine of the Trinity itself (chap. 5). Following this, an examination is made into how Grenz accessed this doctrine of the Trinity, through the imago Dei concept, informed by a theological hermeneutic, theological exegesis, and weaved through the traditional systematic loci (chap. 6). Finally, the shape of his trinitarian ethical work is considered in light of the overall coherence of his body of writings, both in its early form as a Christian ethic as well as in the test-cases that were part of his engagement (chap. 7). This is followed by a summary of the reception of Grenz's project, which is deemed consistent with his aims of being both a distinctly evangelical and trinitarian theologian.

This thesis is an ethnography of Rastafari childhood in the former Cape Province, South Africa, through the eyes of both parents and children. If children are a ‘muted group’, then what are the identity formation implications for “double-muted” groups, the children of ethnic minorities whose voices are not heard? Rasta parents’ experience of the struggle, ie. the opposition to apartheid, has shaped the Rastafari chant of ‘equal rights’ and ‘justice’ into a distinctly South African form of protest and resistance. Their childhood experiences have resulted in a desire to provide a better life for their children, using Rastafari as a vehicle. This is expressed in a continuation of the struggle that was started during apartheid, in the Rasta ideology children grow up learning. The Rasta child has become a contested body in this struggle. The South African Government, through policy, has a mandate to protect the child, and legislature exists to do so in accordance with international law. However, as child-raising differs phenomenally from culture to culture, these goals on the part of the State start infringing upon the rights and freedoms of minorities to raise their children according to their own cultural goals. This study examines the tension between Rastafari and government with regards to child raising, specifically looking at the following main points of contestation: public health, public schools and policy/legislation; in order to examine how Rasta children negotiate their identity in the face of these conflicting messages and struggles. Their identity can be influenced by three main groups, the Rasta family they grow up in; school; and multi-media. What these children choose to accept or reject in their worldview is moderated by their own agency. This study shows that this tension results in a new generation of Rastafari children, who are strongly grounded in an identity as Rastafari and take pride in this identity. It also illustrates how Rastafari are impacting on and changing government policy through resistance. Their successes in challenging the state on the grounds of multiculturalism and religious freedom, has helped in the attainment of a sense of dignity.

'Direct experience of God' is a term frequently used by theologians without adequate clarification regarding its meaning. The understanding thereof has become increasingly complicated by the process of secularization. In the 1960's, it was repeatedly asserted that modern people could not have direct experiences of God, albeit that one could still live by faith and by commitment to the way of Jesus in a world in which, it was asserted, "God is dead". This claim, although long predominant, has been challenged by the upsurge of interest in mysticism, both Eastern and Western, and the burgeoning of Pentecostalism and the Charismatic movement, in which circles direct experience of God was frequently claimed. If direct experience of God is something natural to humanity, interpretation of it will vary in exactly the same way as interpretation of all other human experiences. This could be a possible reason for it being so very poorly integrated into everyday life, resulting in the loss of meaning and value.

The poetic effectiveness of Milton's God is a fundamental critical issue in Paradise Lost, and the thesis addresses this concern by first surveying the various representations of God contained in the Hebrew scriptures. To speak of the biblical God, one must first understand the tremendous diversity o f his portrayals: he meets with some people in human form, and with others as a voice, a light, or an awesome presence. Milton's God shares less with the God o f Genesis than he does with the God of the prophets; yet Milton's representation demonstrates that though Eden will be lost, God will continue to manifest himself to those who seek his face. The cosmology of the epic reveals both the immensity o f creation and the intimacy o f its Creator, since the entire world is filled with the glory o f God, and yet the garden where Adam and Eve live is an archetypal sanctuary and their bower a type of Inner Temple. Milton's justification o f God's ways rests upon the timelessness of God; events that appear anachronistic at first are used to establish a context that looks beyond the strict limits of human time. On the one hand, the Incarnation, Resurrection, and Apocalypse are separate events that have not yet come to pass; but on the other hand, Milton shows how these events are simultaneously present and completed in God's presence. From God's throne, we participate in a cosmic perspective where the categories of past, present, and future are compressed into one time: we are before and beyond time. Such a transcendent perspective engenders a powerful truth: before Adam and Eve have been tempted, God's grace and mercy have found them out and they have been restored. Though Eden must be lost, the paradise of God's presence will remain. Adam and Eve will fall and the legacy of their rash act will be paradoxically for all time, but not forever. God will restore his people and wipe away their tears, and, in the context of Milton's depiction of God, that time of redemption is now. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

This dissertation answers the following: "Why did Paul describe Jesus as hilasterion?" Throughout it, I have examined the questions of the "what" versus the "why": "What is the meaning of hilasterion (hilasterion)" versus "why has the death of Christ been metaphorised as hilasterion." Notwithstanding the uniformity among theologians that the meaning (the "what") of the text should occupy centre space, the enquiries of both Bible translators and Pauline scholars have yielded different meanings as far as iA.cronpwv is concerned. The question "why" shifts the project's focus from the meaning of the text to the performativity, which entails asking different questions. As a result, I have problematised "propitiation," "expiation" and "mercy-seat" as interpretational models for hilasterion, because these theological models neglect the rhetorical situation which leads to a misunderstanding of hilasterion. Consequently, applying the three-pronged rhetorical approaches to my text has enabled me to move the discussion away from a purely textual, away from the harmonization of "ideas," away from a traditional theological paradigm thinking only in terms of soteriology and the salvific to a paradigm where the rhetorical, to where the social-cultural and the religiopolitical contexts has been taken into consideration. Dispositio has acted as the foreground for impartiality that facilitated the accommodation of the non-Jews in the Abrahamic family which is hilasterion's performativity. I have argued that apostrophe in service of stasis theory had numerous Jewish fundamentals redefined, without which the notion of hilasterion would not have made sense. I have demonstrated how patron versus client relationship emerged in the depiction of hilasterion as a gift from God, evidence of his righteousness, and how riposte operated in dislodging the non-Jews from their social position and relocating them within the nation of God. The metaphorisation of Jesus' death and his portrayal as hilasterion had a number of tasks. It normalised a situation, it brought about an alternative situation into existence, it endorsed social solidarity, it brought about a different genealogy into effect, it sanctioned the construction of a "new and superior race," and ulitmatley it produced inclusivity of the non-Jews into the Jewish family since Jesus tremendously had high values then extreme value was assigned to the non-Jews. Thus, I have problematised decontextualised theologising, easy theologising (as "propitiation," "expiation," and " mercy-seat"), in order to demonstrate that a socio-rhetorical appraisal of hilasterion requires theologians to rethink the categories they operate with. / New Testament / M. Th. (New Testament)

While the Left Behind Corpus may be commended for being an effective tool for evangelism, the question arises of whether or not its themes engender a theology of extermination, indeed a creeping crusade; “creeping” in the sense of it being a movement of stealth and not one of high visibility – “crusade” in the sense of a militaristic movement, similar to that of the medieval crusades. I span my research across three artefacts in the LB Corpus in terms of its embedded interpretation, discourse and ideology; in fact three separate entities for explanatory purposes, but in effect they form a single entity of interaction and cross-production. I am therefore extending many niches of research and critical discourse to what I envisage as the wider context of the LB Corpus: its potential for social construction, and its enigmatic connections with other apocalyptic-driven and crusade-like movements. Based as it is on “consistent literalism,” the LB Corpus can only be countered by an exegetical approach that situates the foundational text for the Left Behind phenomenon, Revelation 7, in its historical setting, while taking cognisance of the particularities of early Christianity, with its Jewish heritage lived out in a Graeco-Roman environment. In offering an alternative reading, I take some cues from Vernon Robbins‟ socio-rhetorical approach and draw from perspectives of theorists across several disciplinary fields in pointing out anomalies in a consistent literalism driven interpretation of Revelation 7. / New Testament / Thesis (D.Litt. et Phil. (Biblical Studies))