The thesis of this study is to argue that the term “office” and its meaning, as found in the New Testament, cannot be applied without reserve to the understanding of office in the present-day institutionalised church. The focus of this study is on the Dutch Reformed Church in Africa, officially named the Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk van Afrika. For the past few decades, the Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk van Afrika, gave much consideration to the view it holds of “office”. It is nonetheless still necessary to obtain more clarity on the matter insofar as it pertains to the meaning and practical execution of ministry. In this regard, almost every theological discipline can contribute towards obtaining such clarity. From a Biblical and Reformed perspective, the logical place to look for the answer would be in the documentation of both the New Testament and the early church of the second and third centuries CE. This study investigates the origin of “office”, as well as the intention of office as found in the New Testament and writings of the early church. The use of the term “office” and its meaning, as found in the New Testament, would not be appropriate for an understanding of office in the present-day church, as it would amount to an anachronistic use of what early Christians called “ministry”. When explained from a kerygmatic perspective, ministries in the New Testament can only serve as a guideline for the understanding and intention of office in the present-day church. The development of “office” is explained particularly in terms of the development of the concept of “elder” from early Judaism until the times of the church of the second and third century CE. This development is illustrated against the background of the group of Jesus followers surrounding the historical Jesus, the Pauline and deutero-Pauline epistles, including the Pastoral Epistles, as well as the early church. A basic assumption of this study is that the understanding of office and church cannot be separated from one another. Therefore, the development of office is explained against the background of the developing institutionalisation of the earliest church. As the church increasingly began to have a character of institutionalisation, the understanding of office developed within more fixed structures. This study illustrates that Paul’s view of the church, ministries, kerygma and charismata, is of central importance for the understanding of the New Testament’s intention of ministries. / Dissertation (MA(Teologie))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / New Testament Studies / unrestricted

The thesis Religious Life In South Bohemia In The Period of 1948-1989 deals with the issue of limitations of Catholic religious life from the Czechoslovak state. Due to the fact that after the February 1948 the Communist goverment begun to publish "new canon laws" and started targeted restrictions in the church life, it influenced countless life stories of believers. By using the method of oral history, studying achival sources of South Bohemian Regional National Committee and history literature, in my thesis I was trying to approach at least some aspects of that time in the lives of seven witnesses comprising four catholic priest and three laymen. Keywords: catholic church, policy, religion, oral history, canon laws, communism

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From earliest times Christians have differed among themselves concerning their understanding and practice of baptism. In the early church of the third and fourth centuries there was a remarkable variety of baptismal practices within the 'One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church', including infant baptism, believers' baptism, delayed baptism, emergency baptism and death-bed baptism. In subsequent centuriest diversity of baptismal views and practices was greatly restricted by ecclesiastical and civil repression. In more recent times increasing religious freedom and the growing fragmentation of 'Christendom' have resulted in various baptismal practices developing, usually associated with certain traditions and denominations. Today, three major baptismal traditions can be identified: Catholic, Reformed and Baptistt each with their own particular insights, strengths and weaknesses. Something of a theological stalemate has been arrived at today in the arena of polemical debate for one particular baptismal position. The visible unity of Christians with one another in the world is intimately linked to their divine calling to be a witness to the saving, healing and reconciling work of God in Christ. The ability of Churches to incorporate legitimate diversity within an authentic unity is vital to their ministry in and to a broken and alienated world. Many differences of baptismal understanding and practice constitute just such a legitimate diversity. In any Christian hierarchy of truths the imperatives of lovet reconciliation and unity must rank higher than matters of baptismal rites and doctrines. To allow baptismal differences, therefore, to divide Christians from one another constitutes a failure of Christian love. Empirical research has revealed a widespread and strong desire for a unity that could transcend baptismal differences. The ideal has already been implemented within a number of individual congregations and in a few denominations and found to be workable. The challenge remains to the wider Christian community to allow genuine freedom of conscience in baptismal matters within one united Christian fellowship. / Philosophy, Practical & Systematic Theology / D. Th. (Systematic Theology)

The years 1870 to 1920 saw an extraordinary efflorescence of English historical writing, dominated by historians who were committed members of the Church of England, many of them in holy orders. At a time when both history and religion were central to cultural life, when history was becoming a modern academic discipline, and when the relationship between Christianity and advanced knowledge was under unprecedented scrutiny, this was a phenomenon of considerable intellectual significance. To understand why this came about, it is necessary to understand the intellectual and institutional conditions in the Church of England at the time. The Oxford Movement and the rise of incarnational theology had drawn Anglicans in ever greater numbers towards the study of the past. At the same time, it was still widely held that the Church of England should be a ‘learned church’: it therefore encouraged scholarship, sacred and secular, amongst its laity and clergy. The result was to produce historians who approached the past with a new set of priorities. The history of the English nation and its constitution was rewritten to show that the church – and especially the medieval church – was the originator and guarantor of modern nationality and liberty. Attitudes to the Reformation shifted from the celebratory to the sceptical, or even the downright hostile. Economic historians even came to see the Reformation as a social revolution – as the origin of modern poverty or capitalism. New and distinctive ideas about progress and divine providence were developed and articulated. Most of all, an examination of Anglican historical scholarship shows the continued vitality of the Church of England and the limitations to the idea that intellectual life was secularised over the course of the nineteenth century. Instead, historiography continued to be shaped by Anglican thought and institutions at this critical stage in its development.

No description available.

Thesis (MTh (Old and New Testament))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / This paper undertakes a detailed study of Matt 6:19-34 for the specific purpose of accounting for the unique context and content of the material/financial ethic being articulated here by Jesus. The passage, made up of four pericopes, is located within the first of the five discourses of Jesus recorded in Matthew’s Gospel in which Jesus evidently articulates the ethical standards required of the children of the emerging Kingdom of God. The need for such a study stems from an understanding that the passage, indeed the Sermon as a whole, has been treated by traditional scholarship in a somewhat distanced and abstract manner i.e. it has been read without adequate cognisance being taken of the particular socio-linguistic and socio-historical context in which it was originally formulated and articulated. Relatively recent social-scientific and socio-historical New Testament scholarship, however, has provided a specific set of interpretive tools that enable a modern reader to make a far more dynamic and context-sensitive interpretation possible. Accordingly, this paper undertakes a socio-rhetorical analysis of Matt 6:19-34, together with a social-scientific and socio-historic/financial/religious analysis of the eastern Mediterranean world of late Second Temple times. Together these interpretive tools shed new light on the text and provide the opportunity for re-reading that text in a way that, hopefully, more closely articulates the ethic as an original audience might have heard it. Specifically, the use of these interpretive tools provide insights into why it was that Jesus explicitly prohibited worry, some six times in the passage, amongst the children of the Kingdom concerning the provision of their food, drink and clothing i.e. the tools provide something of an explanation for both the rhetorical force of the ethic and the underlying realities that gave rise to its formulation in the first place. These insights are then applied in an attempt at formulating a dynamically equivalent ethic that might be appropriated and applied by present day children of the Kingdom reading the passage today.

Thesis (DLitt)--Stellenbosch University, 2003. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In this dissertation I attempt to open up new perspectives on the literary qualities and the unity of Augustine's Confessions by reading the work in the light of the context within which it first functioned. Part 1, Prolegomena, consists of a survey of secondary literature (in chapter 1) that focuses on research on the literary characteristics of the work, followed by a theoretical exploration of the two aspects that constitute the focus of this study, the genre and the audience of the Confessions. Chapter 2.1 examines how the literary practices and generic conventions of late Antiquity should inform our reading of the work. This is achieved through a discussion of the implications of genre analysis in general (2.1.1), followed by an examination of the conventions of the ancient protreptic genre (2.1.2), a look at the parallels between the Confessions and three of its literary antecedents and between the Confessions and Augustine's Contra Academicos (2.1.3), and an evaluation of the perspectives offered on the unity of the work by this procedure (2.1.4). Chapter 2.2 starts with a discussion of the concept of intended audience (2.2.1) and proceeds to provide the background needed to follow the arguments on the specific segment of Augustine's audience that I consider here, the Manicheans (2.2.2). Part 2 of the dissertation consists of the analyses of selected passages but attempts at the same time to give an accurate account of how genre and intended audience are embodied in the text as a whole. In chapter 3 I show that Augustine's meditation on Ps 4 in the central section of the Confessions (9.4.8-11) is a protreptic that targets a Manichean audience (3.1) through Augustine's identification with this audience (3.2) and the prevalent use of Manichean terminology and categories (3.3). In chapter 4 I analyse in a more systematic way the expression of protreptic purpose through various devices throughout the Confessions: foreshadowing in the opening paragraph (4.1), the use of a shifting persona (4.2), allusion to Matt 7:7 (4.3), and the theme of the protreptic power of reading and listening (4.5). I evaluate how pervasive the expression of protreptic intent is (4.4) and end with an examination of the protreptic-paraenetic purpose of the first section of the allegorical exposition of the creation story in book 13 (4.6). Chapter 5 examines the degree to which the Manicheans are targeted by the text as a whole as an important segment of its intended audience. I examine the use of the theme of friendship to evoke Augustine's erstwhile Manichean friendships and the history of failed communication with this group (5.1), the role Augustine intends curiositas to play in coaxing the Manicheans into reading yet another attempt to convert them (5.2), and once again how pervasive the concerns with a Manichean audience is (5.3). I conclude this chapter, like the previous one, with an analysis of the last section of the allegory in book 13, where I discern towards the end an intensification of indications that Augustine is preoccupied with his Manichean audience (5.4). / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie proefskrif probeer om nuwe perspektief te bied op die literêre eienskappe en die eenheid van Augustinus se Confessiones deur die werk te lees in die lig van die konteks waarbinne dit aanvanklik gefunksioneer het. Deel 1, Prolegomena, is In oorsig oor die sekondêre literatuur (in hoofstuk 1) wat fokus op studies van die literêre tegnieke in die werk, gevolg deur In teoretiese verkenning van die twee aspekte wat die fokuspunt van die studie vorm, naamlik die genre en die gehoor van die Confessiones. Hoofstuk 2 ondersoek hoe literêre praktyke en genre-verwante konvensies van die laat Antieke die lees van die werk behoort te beïnvloed. Dit word gedoen aan die hand van In bespreking van die implikasies van genre-analise in die algemeen (2.1.1), gevolg deur In oorsig oor die konvensies van die antieke protreptiese genre (2.1.2), In bespreking van die paraIIele tussen die Confessiones en drie literêre voorlopers daarvan asook tussen die Confessiones en Augustinus se Contra Academicos (2.1.3) en In evaluering van die perspektiewe wat hierdie werkwyse bied op die eenheid van die werk (2.1.4). Hoofstuk 2.2 behels In bespreking van die konsep teikengehoor (2.2.1), gevolg deur In opsomming van die agtergrondinligting wat nodig is om die argumente oor die spesifieke segment van Augustinus se gehoor wat hier oorweeg word (die Manicheërs), te volg (2.2.2). Deel 2 van die proefskrif bestaan uit die analises van geselekteerde passasies maar probeer terselfdertyd om In getroue weergawe te bied van hoe genre en gehoor in die teks as geheel beliggaam word. Hoofstuk 3 toon dat Augustinus se oordenking van Ps 4 in die sentrale gedeelte van die Confessiones (9.4.8-11) In protreptiese werk gerig op In Manichese gehoor is (3.1). Augustinus vereenslewig hom met sy teikengehoor (3.2) en gebruik deurgaans Manichese terminologie en kategorieë (3.3). Hoofstuk 4 ondersoek hoe die protreptiese doelwit in die Confessiones uitgedruk word deur die gebruik van verskeie tegnieke: voorafskaduing in die aanvangsparagraaf (4.1), die gebruik van In verskuiwende persona (4.2), verwysing na Matt 7:7 (4.3) en die tema van die protreptiese uitwerking van lees en luister (4.5). Ek evalueer hoe verteenwoordigend ten opsigte van die geheel die uitdrukking van die protreptiese doelwit is (4.4) en sluit met In analise van die protrepties-paranetiese funksie van die eerste deel van die allegoriese interpretasie van die skeppingsverhaal in boek 13 (4.6). Hoofstuk 5 ondersoek die mate waarin die teks as geheel die Manicheërs as die teikengehoor van die werk aandui. Dit toon hoe Augustinus die tema van vriendskap gebruik om sy vroeëre Manichese vriendskappe op te roep en verwys na die geskiedenis van onsuksesvolle kommunikasie met hierdie groep (5.1); dit toon hoe curiositas 'n rol speel om die Manicheërs oor te haalom nog 'n poging om hulle te bekeer te lees (5.2) asook hoe verteenwoordigend ten opsigte van die geheel die bemoeienis met 'n Manichese gehoor is (5.3). Die hoofstuk sluit af, soos die vorige een, met 'n analise (nou van die tweede deel) van die allegorie in boek 13, met klem op die sterker wordende aanduidings dat Augustinus hier 'n Manichese gehoor in die oog het (5.4).

The purpose of this dissertation was to explore Paul's preaching of the significant theological themes in Ephesians in an attempt to establish a model of expository preaching for modern preachers. The study comprised five chapters. The introduction justified the investigation, explained and evaluated the New Homiletic, and summarized the history of the studies of Paul's preaching and Paul's use of the Old Testament in Ephesians. Chapter 2 examined Paul's preaching on the triune God against the Old Testament backdrop. God has provided the spiritual blessings of unity and reconciliation to humanity by the work of Christ's death and resurrection through the Holy Spirit. The investigation demonstrated that Paul's preaching of God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit reflects his eschatological perspective that believers have already experienced the salvation but they still anticipate its consummation. Chapter 3 surveyed Paul's preaching on the Christian life as a new creation primarily dealing with the latter three chapters. Paul's imperative messages, emphasizing on how newly created believers should live a Christian life in conformity of their calling, are grounded on his indicative messages, focusing on what God has done for humans through the sacrificial death and resurrection of Christ. In Paul's preaching there is no dichotomy between the internal work of the Holy Spirit for the believer's redemption and His external ethical exhortation for the believer's life. Paul's preaching of the believer's life also reflected an eschatological dimension. The believer has experienced an ultimate triumph over the evil powers in Christ, but the fruits of that victory have not yet been fully realized. Chapter 4 studied homiletical implications of Paul's preaching in Ephesians and proposed a model of expository preaching. First, expository preaching should be the indicative-grounded and the imperative-oriented. Second, expository preaching should be Christ-centered preaching, focusing on the redemptive work of the triune God in the canonical context. The conclusion summarized the main results of the investigation and suggested Paul's preaching in Ephesians and proposed a future direction for expository preaching. / 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.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-03T19:30:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 6 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Esta Dissertação se propõe a apresentar duas faces pouco exploradas de Luís da Câmara Cascudo pela historiografia, a de homem de fé e a de historiador católico. Na reconstituição da trajetória intelectual de Câmara Cascudo, destacamos as influências recebidas no ambiente familiar; a formação escolar na infância e a acadêmica na juventude; a constituição da família e a maturidade; a sua atuação como jornalista e como professor, para, então, nos dedicarmos, mais detidamente, na sua produção como historiador. Além de ter sido o historiador oficial da cidade do Natal e de ter produzido consagradas sínteses históricas sobre o seu Estado e sua cidade de origem, Câmara Cascudo foi membro do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico do Rio Grande do Norte e de todos os Institutos brasileiros, aspecto que abordamos a partir do debate historiográfico sobre o seu “provincianismo incurável”, da reflexão sobre a sua concepção de História e da análise sobre a versão de História do Brasil e do Rio Grande do Norte que difundiu atravé / This dissertation proposes to present two sides of Luís da Câmara Cascudo less explored by historiography, the one of a man of faith and the one of a catholic historian. In reconstitution of the intellectual path of Câmara Cascudo, we highlight the influences acquired in the familial environment; the school formation in his childhood and the academic in his youth; the constitution of the family and his adulthood; his deeds as a journalist and as a teacher, so we can, then, set about, more closely, his production as a historian. Besides having been the Official Historian of the city of Natal and having produced several established historical syntheses about his State and home city, Câmara Cascudo was a member of the Historical and Geographic Institute of Rio Grande do Norte and of all Brazilian Institutes, a fact we discuss from the historiographic debate about his “incurable provincialism”, from the reflection about his conception of History and from his analysis about the version of History of Brazil and Ri