The topic of my study is: The Christian witness in the context of poverty, with special reference to South African Charismatic Evangelicals. The big challenge that I am addressing is the endemic poverty that is facing our entire nation. The issue of the Christian’s response to poverty needs to be addressed adequately. In this case, particularly, the focus is on the response of the Charismatic Evangelical Church to the plight of the poor. Poverty is more than just a theoretical theological question. Poverty is about existential problems faced by real people in their struggle for freedom from powerlessness and marginalization. Therefore, I seek to reflect on the many human faces of poverty in South Africa, highlighting the causes of poverty and the unique experiences of the poor. I am also exploring the theological foundations of the Church and its witness amongst the poor. Reading through the Scriptures one discovers the foundational principles that are imperative in defining the Church’s mission, ministry and message. This is followed by a theological reflection on key aspects of poverty eradication in the 20th Century. This includes a reflection on relief, development, transformation and sustainability. These concepts have all influenced various responses of Christians in dealing with the issue of poverty in their witness. Poverty should not continue unabated in the Christian community, the very people who received the commission to minister to the poor in their suffering from the Lord Jesus Himself. Throughout the centuries, the Church was challenged to minister to the poor in distress. The challenge has not disappeared. In our time, in our country, also in the circles of Charismatic Evangelical Christians, we are called to respond to the cry of the poor. Thus, in this study I present a brief background to the Charismatic Evangelicals in South Africa, looking at their fundamental teachings and theology, and the development of their missiological thinking when facing the realities of poverty. This is followed by their practical responses to poverty, based on a report on interviews that have been conducted with various leaders within the Charismatic Evangelical Church, which often has been accused of being apolitical and socially irrelevant. Finally, I reflect on the conclusions that I have drawn on how the Charismatic Evangelical Churches have reconceptualized their Christian Witness amongst the poor. I examine the manner in which they have pursued an empowering ministry in poor communities, and how they have consolidated their theological and practical positions in their ministry to eradicate poverty. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Science of Religion and Missiology / unrestricted

This study’s focus is Jesus’ significant representation of the kingdom of God utilizable for mission today – a topic of importance for contemporary Christianity’s sustainable reaction to a globalizing world. Christianity should not have to be a spectator to globalization but one of its agents, one of the forces at work by extending interconnection between peoples, shared ideas and promoted social, political and cultural links. How should Christian churches conceive of their mission within the context of a globalizing world? It is remarkable that after two millennia of Jesus’ life, ‘mission in the kingdom of God’ is still of great importance for human life on earth. Indeed, contemporary secularists might not commend religion with the custody of such a fundamental burden of responsibility. Yet, considering the times we live in, a foundation of sustainable values for earth are inescapably important. Nevertheless, from what foundational values does Christianity draw to bear witness of the divine in a secular age? When considering all the factors mentioned, what foundational ethics and virtues of Christianity that we bear witness to are still believable in a secular age? The purpose of this study is not to provide a complete response to the question of mission of the church in a globalizing world, but to establish a framework within which answers may be sought. The study is informed from a variety of disciplines such as politics, cultural theory and politics, which are not the usual fields of New Testament Studies. Therefore, this study presents itself in five chapters informing one another. Chapter 1 addresses the issues that surface from current missional reaction and the broader implications that globalization has on changing social and institutional realities and the churches’ response to it. Chapter 2 identifies indispensable characteristics of the early twentieth century Social Gospel movement to implement those values as essential building blocks in globalized mission. In Chapter 3 investigates the potential use of Postcolonial Theory for categorizing postcolonial characteristics of marginalization, oppression, neo-imperialism and neocolonialism. Chapter 4 applies the outcomes of Chapter 1 through 3 with which Richard Horsley’s proposed perspective on Jesus’ mission in Roman Palestine as the ‘renewal of Israel’ is considered to discern about the first century world and the implications it has for the third millennium. The Christian faith, among others, has marginalizing practices derived from centuries old traditions and biased interpretations of Scripture. We see examples of it strewn over two millennia. Chapter 5 concludes this cursory study by summarizing the valuable and constructive characteristics in mission, globalization, postcolonial studies and the Social Gospel. These characteristics can inform the Christian faith in its responsibility of living, and letting others participate, through ‘mission’, in the kingdom of God. Because if we do not, what is still believable today about the significant life of Jesus? / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / tm2015 / New Testament Studies / PhD / Unrestricted

The megachurch and the missional church are on-going global phenomena. Under the premise that the church has to be missional, this dissertation analyses and describes if a megachurch can be missional in both theoretical and practical ways from a Korean perspective. The megachurch is not simply a very large church in membership or size of its building. It, by the influence of interaction of socio-cultural, historical and theological backgrounds, has its own missiological and ecclesiological perspectives. The megachurch understands that the growth of an individual church is the expansion of the kingdom of God, so that the church must be functional and structural to fulfil the church growth efficiently. Thus, it is a powerful tendency that can be found not only in large size churches, but from all churches trying to achieve by all means the quantitative growth of the church and world evangelisation, through the power and material obtained from growth. The Korean megachurches represented by the Poongsunghan Church obviously display the characteristics of this tendency. The missional church is not simply a mission-driven church sending many missionaries to other countries. It believes that all churches are sent to the world by God who wants to reconcile the whole universe to Him, so that the church has to restore its missional essence to participate in the mission of God wherever it is as the early church did. Thus, the missional church is a reforming movement to witness to God’s rule by recovering its apostolic nature. The characteristics of the movement is clearly activating in the Bundang Woori Church, one of the Korean missional churches. In this line of research, any churches that are not resisting the megachurch tendency cannot be missional. The Korean church, which is in crisis being marginalised from society, has to join the missional movement. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / tm2015 / Science of Religion and Missiology / MA / Unrestricted

To Be As A Children? Exegesy Of Mk 10:13-16 The study deals with the exegesis of the pericope of the Gospel of Mark (Mk 10:13-16), generally known under the title The Little Children and Jesus. A part of the work is dedicated to the text of the pericope, not only from the point of view of its Czech translation, but also with consideration of the Greek text through which we strive to understand the original message of the author and its perception by the then recipients as well as the contemporary ones. To grasp the studied text better, it is perceived in the immediate context of the Transjordan passage of the Second Gospel, as well as in the broader context of the entire Gospel of Mark. Mark's text and his compositions are also compared with the parallel texts of synoptic gospels whose authors used Mark's original as a background. Two separate chapters are dedicated to the analysis of two crucial terms of Jesus's statement in the fifteenth verse: children - as the ancient and postmodern interpretations may differ significantly - and the kingdom of God, which is the core of the pericope, as well as the entire Mark's narration of Jesus's earthly preaching. The purpose of the work is to interpret the story and to understand, in depth, Jesus's statement: "Anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God...

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Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-27T13:48:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MARIA JOSE CARDOSO.pdf: 768659 bytes, checksum: 0246805567d2cef159025ef1c50e774b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-08-08 / The present research has as an objective to go further in the knowing of the liberating praxis of Jesus, based on two passages: Lc 4 14- 21 and Mt 9, 35-38. The Good News brought by Jesus consists mainly on the announcement of the kingdom of God here on earth, whose instauration happens in a special way, by inclusion/promotion of the poor and marginalized of society. In this context, can see that Jesus was profoundly moved by the Jewish spirituality centered on it Abba (Father), with whom he maintained bonds of intimate connection and harmony (verticality), as well as by the manifestation of pity and compassion for everyone that in any way or for any reason, found themselves on the margin of society (horizontality). Therefore, knowing the liberating praxis of Jesus, while having the gospels as a starting point, is a prior condition to the living of an authentic Christian spirituality today, which includes a special attention to the poor and marginalized, as well as the relativization of material assets in favor of the values of God s kingdom, which may give life in abundance. Thus, defend the premises that the start of an authentic Christian spirituality must be founded on the liberating praxis of Jesus which encompasses the connection with the transcendent as well as the relationship with people; this is how we really evidence the conquest of the values of God s kingdom taught by Jesus. / A presente pesquisa tem como objetivo aprofundar o conhecimento acerca da práxis libertadora de Jesus a partir de duas perícopes: Lc 4,14-21 e Mt 9,35-38. A Boa Nova trazida por Jesus consiste principalmente no anúncio do Reino de Deus aqui na terra, cuja instauração acontece de modo especial por meio da inclusão/promoção dos pobres e marginalizados da sociedade. Nesse contexto, percebe-se que Jesus foi profundamente movido pela espiritualidade judaica, centrada no seu Abbá (Pai), com quem mantinha laços de íntima ligação e sintonia (verticalidade), bem como pela manifestação da misericórdia e compaixão (horizontalidade) para com todas as pessoas que de alguma forma ou por algum motivo encontravam-se à margem da sociedade. Portanto, conhecer a práxis libertadora de Jesus, tendo como ponto de partida os Evangelhos, torna-se prérequisito para a vivência de uma autêntica espiritualidade cristã hoje, o que inclui uma atenção especial para os pobres e marginalizados, bem como a relativização dos bens materiais em prol dos valores do Reino de Deus, que podem dar vida em abundância. Dessa forma, defende-se a premissa de que o despontar de uma autêntica espiritualidade cristã deve estar fundamentada na práxis libertadora de Jesus, que engloba tanto a ligação com o transcendente, como também a relacionalidade com as pessoas, lugar este, onde se evidencia realmente a concretude dos valores do Reino de Deus ensinados por Jesus.

Submitted by Maicon Juliano Schmidt (maicons) on 2015-03-23T19:39:52Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Walter Hagel Neto.pdf: 4450017 bytes, checksum: 2bc166e8d0d630746a222973393bcc5e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-23T19:39:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Walter Hagel Neto.pdf: 4450017 bytes, checksum: 2bc166e8d0d630746a222973393bcc5e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-01-31 / Nenhuma / Nesse trabalho foi realizada a análise das estratégias da construção da experiência da Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus (IURD), através de um estudo de caso, que incluiu um estudo etnográfico e pesquisa de campo, a fim de comprovar a correlação dessa organização com os conceitos de Design Estratégico e Design de Experiência. A pesquisa abrangeu diversos aspectos da experiência, tais como a plataforma experiencial, a interface entre o fiel e a marca, análise do ambiente e inovação. Nesse estudo foi identificado que a IURD é uma organização complexa, com estrutura empresarial capaz de identificar as necessidades dos seus usuários e transformá-las em um sistema-produto eficiente, capaz de manter e fidelizar o usuário. / This work describes the analysis of the strategies of building experience of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (IURD) through a case study conducted that included an ethnographic study and field research to demonstrate the correlation of the organization with the concepts of Strategic Design and Experience Design. The research included several aspects of the experience, such as experiential platform, the interface with the church-goer and the brand, innovation and environmental analysis. That study proved that the IURD is a complex organization, with corporate structure that is able to identify the needs of their users and turn them into an efficient product-system which is able to keep loyal users.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T20:39:11Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Bruna Anselmo Oliveira Balan.pdf: 1405704 bytes, checksum: eef093c4e30437a57eee06c89a5d1c7b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-10-16 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of persuasive iurdiano speech at a psychoanalytic reading. First, it described the history of Protestantism in Brazil, the origin and characteristics of the Pentecostal movement to get the understanding of neo-Pentecostalism, highlighting the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG) as the top of the movement and therefore of great expression and interest to this study. Later, he sought to examine ways to persuade through the study of rhetoric and the understanding of how it works basically the effective religious discourse. That being said, it was possible to look into the materials gathered from various media of the universe related to the UCKG for conducting a iurdiano religious speech content analysis in order to understand the persuasive process of each content. It was suggested a triad, later thought to the analysis of the material, which is entitled as systematic persuasion strategy, aimed at a more rational aspect of the analysis. Finally, a thorough psychoanalytic reading of the triad that led us to understand that persuasion has effectiveness because it touches on the emotions of people, in addition to addressing the importance of religious experience within groups, important device in understanding the proposed theme. The speech is addressed mainly to the helpless condition clearly spelled out by Freud, making the discussion extremely current to understand the effectiveness of persuasion in every speech and possible justifications for the accession of the individual to religious discourse / O objetivo deste estudo foi investigar a eficácia persuasiva do discurso iurdiano em uma leitura psicanalítica. Primeiramente, foi descrita a história do protestantismo no Brasil, a origem e características do movimento pentecostal para chegarmos à compreensão do neopentecostalismo, destacando a Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus (IURD) como sendo a principal desse movimento e, portanto, de grande expressão e interesse para o presente trabalho. Posteriormente, buscou-se analisar os meios para se persuadir através do estudo da retórica e o entendimento de como funciona, basicamente, o discurso religioso eficaz. Isso posto, foi possível debruçar sobre os materiais coletados de diversas mídias do universo relacionado à IURD para a realização de uma análise de conteúdo do discurso religioso iurdiano, a fim de depreendermos o processo persuasivo de cada conteúdo. Sugeriu-se uma tríade, pensada posteriormente à análise do material, que faz jus como estratégia de persuasão sistematizada, voltada a um aspecto mais racional da análise. Por último, uma leitura psicanalítica aprofundada da tríade que nos levou a compreender que a persuasão possui eficácia, porque toca nas emoções das pessoas, além de abordar a importância da experiência religiosa dentro dos grupos, dispositivo também importante na compreensão da temática proposta. O discurso se dirige, sobretudo, à condição de desamparo devidamente explicitada por Freud, tornando a discussão extremamente atual para se entender a eficácia da persuasão em cada discurso e possíveis justificativas para a adesão do indivíduo ao discurso religioso

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T14:27:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ivany Dantas Pimentel.pdf: 623770 bytes, checksum: 916aa559472354dec90a569b9e9dcb10 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-02-22 / The aim of this work is to show the life and the achievements of Jesus from Nazareth within the historical context of the society of his time, as a real person who assumes the human condition to insert the principles of the coming kingdom in the society, forging with his words and actions a new kind of existence based on brotherhood, solidarity, justice and, love. According to the synoptic tradition, Jesus has come to establish the kingdom of God not as a landlord of men over men, but as a landlord of service, a good news for the poor people who are the recipients of this kingdom. The idea of the kingdom of God, which is present in the beliefs of the people of Israel since its origins, becomes the center of Jesus activities and teachings, as described in the Gospels. Its approach permeates distinct periods of the History, nevertheless the rescue of its centrality will occur only after the Vatican Council II within the emergence of the liberation theology. In this period, the contributions of Latin American theologians stood out, mainly those of Jon Sobrino. The Liberation Theology aims the society´s commitment with a social transformation of the reality, based on the belief that it is possible to have a world where there is a place for everyone and the human dignity is preserved. The struggle for a fair world (without oppression and servitude) is a sign of the coming of the kingdom. In this sense, Jesus, the ultimate mediator of the Kingdom of God, brings within his message the offer of salvation to all humanity in all its dimensions. Jesus frees the mankind from the negative situations of ignorance, sin, suffering and death / Este trabalho tem como objetivo mostrar a vida e a atuação de Jesus de Nazaré no contexto histórico da sociedade de seu tempo, como um personagem real que assume a condição de criatura para introduzir nela os princípios do reino que se aproxima, forjando com seu exemplo e sua palavra um novo tipo de existência que se firma na fraternidade, na solidariedade, na justiça e no amor. Segundo a tradição sinótica, Jesus veio estabelecer o reino de Deus não como o senhorio de homens sobre homens, mas senhorio de serviço, uma boa notícia para os pobres que são os destinatários do reino. A idéia do reino de Deus, que faz parte das convicções do povo de Israel desde as suas origens, torna-se o centro da atuação e dos ensinamentos de Jesus narrados nos Evangelhos. Sua abordagem permeia os diferentes períodos da história, mas o resgate de sua centralidade ocorrerá somente após o Concílio Vaticano II com o surgimento da teologia da libertação. Nesse período, destacam-se as contribuições de teólogos latino-americanos, em especial as de Jon Sobrino. A Teologia da Libertação busca na sociedade o compromisso com a transformação social da realidade mediante a crença de que é possível a existência de um mundo onde há lugar para todos e a dignidade humana seja preservada. A luta por um mundo justo sem opressão nem servidão é um sinal da vinda do reino. Neste sentido Jesus, mediador definitivo do Reino de Deus traz em sua mensagem a oferta de salvação para toda a humanidade em todas as suas dimensões, libertando-a das situações negativas de ignorância, de pecado, de sofrimento e de morte