Thesis (doctoral)--Universität, Salzburg, 2004/2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 270-296).

Thesis (Th. M.)--Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, 1987. / Bibliography: leaves 78-79.

It is our purpose in this dissertation to discuss some of the major phases of St. Paul's teaching concerning the consummation of the ages of history. So far as we can understand his thinking on the subject, he held to the Biblical presentation of history as constituting basically two ages: the present age and the age to come.

One of the distinctive features of the Fourth Gospel is the emphasis placed on the divine name (ὄνομα). The name occurs eight times (5.43; 10.25; 12.13, 28; 17.6, 11-12, 26), in key passages and in striking expressions such as “I have made known your name” (17.6) and “your name, which you gave me” (17.11). This thesis uses historical-critical methodology in a close reading of the Fourth Gospel to determine why John is so attracted to the name category. It is argued that, for John, the divine name was fundamentally an eschatological category with a built-in duality or “associative” significance, which he derives primarily from his reading of Isaiah. It is plausible that Isaiah was the primary impetus for John’s interest in the divine name, because name language is bound up with the “I am” expression and glory language in Isaiah— both of which more clearly underlie John’s “I am” sayings and glory motif. Furthermore, the significance of the name in Isaiah as the object of eschatological expectation (Isa 52.6), and as a concept by which God is associated with his Servant, attracted John to the name category as ideal for his nuanced presentation of Jesus. In John’s use of the name category, it is possible to distinguish the question of significance from that of referent, meaning, and function. This, in turn, facilitates a clear evaluation of possible catalysts for John’s name concept. It is demonstrated that a variety of Jewish and Christian background influences contributed to John’s name concept at the level of referent, meaning, and function. However, the eschatological and associative significance of the name in the Fourth Gospel is particularly indebted to the name concept in Isaiah. This is significant, in part, because Isaiah places such emphasis on the exclusivity of God. It may be that a zeal for God’s exclusivity had generated accusations against the community of believers known to John, that, by their allegiance to Jesus, they were guilty of blaspheming the name in particular. The name was, perhaps, a “flashpoint” for the community, and the text of Isaiah a key battle-ground for defining fidelity to God, and the identity of the people of God. By associating Jesus with the divine name, John legitimates the allegiance of believers to Jesus in the face of Jewish opposition, as well as comforts those who were troubled by the continued absence of Jesus, with the point that they were yet identified by the divine name (17.11), and that eschatological revelation of the name promised in Isaiah was extended to their own time as well (17.26b).

Text in Afrikaans / This thesis attempts to explore the relationship between eschatology and mission. This is done in the context of three ecumenical mission conferences held from 1910 to 1938. In the first chapter an overview is given of a number of the most important eschatological models, as well as an evaluation of these models to explore the author's own viewpoint. The broad eschatological lines through the ages are then followed and the relationship between eschatology and mission is indicated in a few important areas, namely the involvement of the church in social questions, unity in the church and the Christian hope. In the second chapter the mission conferences held in New York (1900) and Edinburgh (1910), which both occurred at a time of great optimism in the church, are discussed. At that time mission was especially seen as the salvation of the soul. In the third chapter the meeting held in Jerusalem in 1928, which took place in a time of great uncertainty for the church, is discussed. Here emphasis was laid upon the social task of the church. In chapter four mission in the shadow of the Second World War is discussed, concentrating on the meeting held at Tambaram (1938). During this meeting eschatology played an important role. There was a greater balance between the salvation of the soul and the salvation of the body. Church unity and a living hope also played an important role amongst the delegates. In the fifth chapter some conclusions are drawn for the church in general, while a few principles are indicated regarding eschatology and mission specifically for the Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk (Dutch Reformed Church). / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D. Th. (Sendingwetenskap)

M.Litt. et Phil. / The role of the Spirit in the Eschatological Ethics of Revelation was a topic that has given me Great Joy to learn in the book of Revelation the role of the Spirit, Eschatology and Ethics. In this book I have discovered the plan of Salvation which was laid before the foundation of the World in a very clear manner. God, The Master of the universe, revealed to John the final story of this world's history, at the Isles of Patmos. The Trinity is well explained and even their duties as the God Head. God The Father, God The Son and God The Holy Ghost of which my dissertation is looking at the office or the role of the Spirit in the Second Coming of Christ. From Genesis to Malachi, it is God the Father who revealed himself to mankind, and from Matthew to Acts 1 : 8., It is God the Son who came in person to reveal God the Father and from Acts 1:9 to Revelation it is God the Holy Spirit who will teach us all that God the son could not finish teaching us. The Script is divided into Five Chapters which are the orientation into the book of Revelation, the theology and the ethics of the book of Revelation, the Eschatological Ethics in Revelation, the Holy Spirit in Revelation and the role of the Spirit and the Eschatological Ethics of Revelation, which is the theme of this script. Then we have the conclusion of the script. There are very few books written on Revelation and let alone on the Spirit but I have tried to outline the role of the spirit in this great book of the Bible and I hope to research further on some issues that are hard in Revelation. It is the book that summarises the history of the World Kingdoms in only 22 Chapters and I have limited mine to only Five Chapters. The Spirit has played the greatest role in Revelation because according to plan it is the time for it to play its role. The last events of this world will be shocking, the devil is angry. In the book of Revelation God calls Himself as the King of kings and Lord of Lords. He is the Almighty God. All creation own their existence to Him. It was one book of the Bible I did not like reading, but the research has helped me to develop some liking for the book. It is the book for our modern generation and unlike the book of Daniel which was to be put away until the end times, this one is to be read and a blessing is pronounce to the one who will read the book. We need to read this book very much and books that are in context should be written about the book. The few books that have been written on Revelation are not all very relevant. They miss the point. Most of them need well researched books to make clear the mysteries that are in Revelation and the Bible explains itself even in other books of the Bible which can also be used to explain the book of Revelation. The book of Daniel even though its in the old Testament, it has a lot in common with the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation opens for the reading of the book of Daniel in the old Testament and for one to understand Revelation well, one needs to read the book of Daniel together with Revelation. The beasts in Daniel are the beasts in Revelation. Even though some people would want to divide the old and the new Testament, they are the same and they interpret each other very well. The new testament has a lot of old testament quotations. I am trying to correct some misinterpretation of some verses found in the Book of Revelation and It will be good for any one who will read this script to read it carefully and critically because in the field of learning we learn by making mistakes and your input will be appreciated. In Revelation the devil is being given the last warning and all those that need life are called to come out of Babylon the Mother of all Harlots because if we do not come out of her and keep the commandments of God, then we will drink of the wrath of God which will be poured without a mixture for all those that worship the beast and its image.

There have been long debates in academic circles as to what constitutes the “heart” of Pauline theology. The traditional view, according to Fee (1994:11), is the one fostered by the Reformers and perpetuated by generations of Protestants, that “justification by faith” is the key to Paul’s theology. This view emphasises Christ’s historical act of redemption and its appropriation by the believer through faith. The inadequacy of such a view should be apparent to anyone carefully reading Paul’s letters. Not only does it focus on one metaphor of salvation to the exclusion of others, but, such a focus fails to throw the net broadly enough to capture all of Paul’s theological concerns. It would therefore, seem impossible to understand Pauline theology, without firstly beginning with salvation in Christ, and further to this, with eschatology and the Holy Spirit as the essential framework. It is within this framework that the process of sonship and adoption as related to the new covenant are unveiled to the believer. Without denying the presence of other determining factors, Christology, and eschatology especially, shape the framework of Paul’s pneumatology. One cannot doubt that the death and resurrection of Christ, in their eschatological significance, control Paul’s teaching on the work of the Spirit within the lives of believers. It could be said that the Spirit stands near the centre of things for Paul, as part of the fundamental core of his understanding of the Gospel. It is within this theological framework of the Spirit that Paul expresses his key ideas concerning the new covenant and sonship. One might say then, that membership in God’s family, is defined in terms of the Spirit. “You are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, assuming that the Spirit of God does indeed dwell in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, that person does not belong to Him” (Rom 8:9). One could say that in eschatological terms, the Spirit of God is the beginning of the process of salvation, which will culminate in the believer taking possession of his inheritance in the future age. It could be stated as a function of the Spirit in the believer’s present that is only meaningful in relation to the future. Not only does the indwelling Spirit serve as the divine pledge of a future bodily resurrection, but guarantees it. To give the reader further ideas as to what drives this thesis, the following urgencies are spelt out: • Crucial to the experience of the Spirit, was the early Church’s self-understanding as “thoroughly eschatological” in the “already/not yet” sense. • At the heart of this new understanding was their perception of themselves as the newly constituted people of God. The goal of salvation in Christ, the core of Pauline theology, was that God should create “a people for his name”. • Although persons’ individually become members of the family of God, the goal is not to simply prepare them for heaven, but to create a people, who by the power of the Spirit, live out the life of the future (the life of God Himself) in this present age. One final point needs to be clarified before one embarks on the enterprise of writing a theology of Paul as it relates to the title of this thesis. In the movement and dialogue of Paul’s theologising, his letter to the Romans is a relatively fixed feature (Dunn, 1998:25). It was written to a Church that was not his own founding. It was written at the end of a major phase of Paul’s missionary work (Rom 15:18-24), which included most of the other undisputed letters. It was written under probably the most congenial circumstances of his mission, with time for careful reflection and composition and, above all, it was clearly intended to set out and defend his own mature understanding of the Gospel (Rom 1:16-17) as he had thus far proclaimed it. In short, Romans is still far removed from a dogmatic or systematic treatise on theology, but it nevertheless is the most sustained and reflective statement of Paul’s theology by Paul himself. Romans provides Christians with an example of the way Paul himself chose to order the sequence of themes in his theology. If one wishes to grasp at (as attempted in this thesis) and dialogue with the mature theology of Paul, one cannot do better than to take Romans as a kind of template on which to construct one’s own statement of Paul’s theology. A theology of Paul that sets out to describe and discuss the Holy Spirit and sonship, is surely headed in the right direction, if one constantly references Romans as prompter and plumb-line throughout. / Prof. J.A. du Rand

This project develops a feminist Christology by affirming the female body as a hermeneutical lens for Christological reflection. Utilizing the work of feminist theorists Luce Irigaray and Bracha Ettinger, I develop what I term a “matrixial Christology.” In response to feminist contentions regarding the androcentric nature of Christian soteriology, I argue that by interpreting the incarnation of the Word through the lens of the matrixial—the inherently feminine physical and psychic space of the womb—an inclusive and generative landscape for theological reflection emerges. Understanding the union of divine and human natures through the matrixial holds potential to reimagine other key doctrines, including the Trinity, ecclesiology, and eschatology. This dissertation revisits documents from the Councils of Nicaea (325 A.D.), Ephesus (431 A.D.), and Chalcedon (451 A.D.), as well as theologians of antiquity such as Irenaeus, Athanasius, Cyril of Alexander, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Maximus the Confessor, among others, to provide feminist critique and excavate these works for their liberative potential. Feminist scholarship also contributes to this critical constructive work, including authors such as Elizabeth Johnson, Tina Beattie, Mary Daly, Rosemary Radford Ruether, and Ada María Isasi-Díaz. I argue that recovering Mary’s role in the incarnation allows for a reinterpretation of key doctrines in the Christian tradition and lays the groundwork for a feminine divine horizon in which women are able to more fully locate themselves in Christian soteriological discourse. Women’s theoretical and theological scholarship is placed in dialogue with ancient texts in order to consider the liberative potential of Christological discourse and to develop a robustly feminine symbolic for divine imagination utilizing Mariology as a primary foundation. The project begins by considering the implications of Mary and Christ’s matrixial maternal-prenatal relation for divine-human relations, then continues by exploring how Mary’s matrixial relation with Christ affects our understanding of his life and crucifixion. The project culminates in an examination of how Mary represents the possibility of resurrection for women traditionally excluded or demonized in the church. By reimagining Mary’s role in the Christian story, new avenues for female liberation and flourishing in the ekklesia might be realized. / 2023-11-30T00:00:00Z

In this thesis, I take a closer look at the meaning of life from an eschatological point of view. More precisely, the question at hand is whether and in what sense the existence of Hell would impact the meaning of life. The thesis primarily makes use of Joshua Seachris’s theories on what ‘the meaning of life’ denotes, dividing ‘meaning’ up into the subcategories of ‘intelligibility’, ‘purpose’, and ‘significance’. Three different answers to the research question are proposed, which crystallizes three different positions: Hell-optimism, which denotes the view that the existence of Hell would contribute to the meaning of life; Hell-neutralism, which denotes the view that the existence of Hell would have no effect on the meaning of life; and Hell-pessimism, which denotes the view that the existence of Hell would detract from the meaning of life. Arguments are given for each position, most appropriated from the broader meaning of life-discourse. On the basis of the evaluation of each argument, Hell-pessimism is considered the most probable of the three.

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