Vision narratives provide important evidence for the social and religious concerns of the society which records them, and are important sources for the mentalité of the period in which they are produced. This thesis provides an historical study of dream and vision narratives from the fourth to eighth centuries, with the hagiographic literature of Gaul and Merovingian Francia as its primary focus. During the period under review, there were important changes in the church's attitude towards the visionary experience. Whereas the fear of heterodoxy led early church Fathers to limit the spiritual authority of visions, by the sixth century in Gaul, dream and vision accounts were an important means by which churchmen could promote monastic and clerical ideals and their spiritual authority. Vision accounts were an important tool in the pastoral concerns of the clergy, enabling them to resolve or perpetuate disputes, smooth the process of Christianization, and provide imaged evidence of Christian doctrine. Dreams and visions confirmed the praesentia of saints at their tombs and at the site of their relics, and confirmed the role of the episcopate as their guardians and representatives. These issues are examined with special reference to the writings of Gregory of Tours in the sixth century. The effectiveness with which visions framed the deeds of the saints and conveyed impressions of spirituality is also examined over a broad sampling of Gallic and Merovingian hagiographic texts. The final chapter offers two case studies: the visionary experiences of St. Radegund of Poitiers, and St. Aldegund of Maubeuge.

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Submitted to the Faculty of Theology and Religion Studies in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Theology in the Department of Systematic Theology, Ethics and History of Christianity at the University of Zululand, 2005. / The title "A New Creation in Christ" served as the basis for the examination of the definitive theological and Biblical concepts of the doctrines of creation, humanity, sin and salvation. It integrated the foci of these doctrines, in constructing a paradigm for establishing what is meant by the dissertation title, 'a new creation in creation.' To understand a new creation theology requires a composite structuring of these interrelated doctrines, since no doctrine can be understood vacuously. Humanity was not created in an abstract or theoretical world, and neither were they placed in isolation from creation. Instead, they were very much a part of the created order, and were endowed with specific function or purpose. They interacted with a living world and were accorded the responsibility as its stewards. The consideration of the facets of the doctrine of creation enabled an understanding of humanity’s placement in creation, their purpose and how sin affected creation. This informs the doctrine of humanity in highlighting the biblical emphasis on humanity as the special creation of God. God created humanity in his image, and this image is an intrinsic and indispensable part of humanity's uniqueness and existence. The constitutional nature of humanity lies in its conditional unity of the whole person. Man is a unity of the physical, the psychological and the spiritual, all of which are purposed to enable him, in fulfilling the intentions of the Creator. The doctrine of sin clarified how sin affected the conditional unity of man i.e. the physical, the psychological and the spiritual dimensions. It further demonstrated the domino effect on creation. This precarious position which humanity found themselves in, required the intervention of God, through the incarnation of Christ Salvation is the free gift of God in Christ in dealing with the problem of sin, and the consequences thereof This free gift requires that a human being appropriate salvation in Jesus Christ, through the acceptance of him in faith and repentance. This background established a contextual understanding of a new creation in Christ. The definitive text for our discussion was Paul's statement in 2 Corinthians 5:17 "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come." Paul's statement incorporates two elements of salvation. "If anyone is in Christ" is suggestive of the first element, which is the subjective nature of salvation. This involves the believer's conversion through repentance and faith. The second element is the objective nature of salvation. This is suggested in the next part of the statement "he is a new creation", which is accomplished through the redemptive work of God in Christ. The resident implication of the reference 'a new creation in Christ', is the inauguration of a new humanity that has begun in Christ. A cyclic model for the practical outworking of a new creation theology has been advocated in a threefold consideration of person hood, community and discipleship.

Practical Theology / (M.Th Practical Theology))

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a thesis by Rachel Wai Man Chan. / Thesis (M.Div.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 50-54). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1 --- Origen's Apokatastasis --- p.3 / Clement: He indeed saves all --- p.3 / Origen: All will be subjected to God --- p.4 / Historical Background of Apokatastasis --- p.6 / Origen's Theological System --- p.7 / Chapter 2 --- Early Controversies --- p.9 / Accusations against Origen --- p.9 / The Condemnation of Origen in Council of Constantinople --- p.12 / The Theological Ideas awaiting discussions --- p.17 / Chapter 3 --- "Why was universal salvation marginalized by ""orthodoxy""?" --- p.18 / "The definition of ""orthodoxy'""" --- p.18 / Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus --- p.24 / The Influence of Augustine --- p.27 / Sola Fide --- p.32 / Chapter 4 --- Views of Modern Theologians --- p.36 / Conclusion --- p.44 / Appendix --- p.46 / Bibliography --- p.50

For the greater part of the history of the Christian Church the doctrines of baptism and predestination have been uneasy bed-fellows. At times, the former has gained the predominance and the latter has been relegated to the region of philosophical prolegomena to faith, having no immediate connection with the Christian life. In other periods, the doctrine of predestination has gained the ascendency and the importance of baptism has been minimized. Nevertheless, both these aspects of the Christian faith are strikingly present in the New Testament, and in no way do we find there premonitions of the tensions between them in the later history of the Church. Is this because of the unsystematic nature of the New Testament faith which evaded these difficulties through its own lack of order, or is there a deeper reason for the primitive harmony between these two aspects of Christian theology? [contined in text ...]

This thesis deals with theologies of the Resurrection in the twentieth century. We have chosen for study seven major theologians whose work reflects significant achievement in this area. We begin with a look at 'dialectical' theologians Karl Barth and Rudolf Bultmann and deal with their debate on the nature and meaning of the Resurrection. Because of their importance to theology they are dealt with extensively. From there we move on to the contemporary theologians of 'hope, ' Jürgen Moltmann and Wolfhart Pannenberg, before completing our research with a chapter on the Catholic theologians Karl Rahner, Edward Schillebeeckx, and Hans Küng. It was our purpose initially (and we hope we have been consistent throughout) to give a well-rounded purview, and thus a fairer criticism, of each theology. Yet into the research it seemed obvious that a consistent major concern of each theologian centered on how one comes to faith in such a unique event. It was certainly at the core of the Barth-Bultmann debate and remains crucial. Thus it may be stated that the concerns which receive the primacy in this work are those discussions in our theologies which deal with the nature of the Resurrection, its status as an event of history, and its ability to be proved and thus believed as other events of history are proved and believed. We ultimately conclude that the most satisfactory entry into faith in the Resurrection is through a juxtaposing of the work of Wolfhart Pannenberg and Hans Küng. The focus of the paper is changed in the second half of the Conclusion as we suggest what course studies on the Resurrection might take in the future. Here we find the perspective of Jewish New Testament theologian Pinchas Lapide to be most provocative and speculate on the possibilities that the Resurrection might hold for Jewish-Christian relations.