Bibliography: pages 123-136. / Using a historical materialist model of the rural-urban dialectic, this study is an analysis of the rural-urban articulation in Palestine c. 1200-1020 B.C.E., with particular reference to the aetiology of the conflict between the Israelite tribes and the Canaanites and Philistines. The model of the rural-urban dialectic which is developed in this thesis, posits that the relations between rural societies and urban societies in the ancient Near East were essentially antagonistic. Urban centers were sites of consumption rather than production. They were parasitic upon their rural hinterlands, extracting the produce of the village peasantry by means of enforced tributary relations. This extortion of the surplus product generated the conflict between the inhabitants of the rural areas and the city-dwellers. The resistance to such oppression by the peasantry engendered the class struggle in the ancient Near East, which took the form of conflict between the tribute exacting class, located in the cities, and the agrarian peasant class, located in the villages. The major thesis of this study is that the relations between the Israelite tribes and the Canaanites and Philistines can best be explained in terms of the rural-urban dialectic, which means that the conflict between the Israelite tribes and their urban neighbours was a manifestation of the antagonistic relations between rural and urban societies in the ancient Near East. The Canaanite and the Philistine societies were urban societies which existed as such by virtue of their ability to maintain tribute-extracting relations with the peasantry of their rural hinterlands. The Israelites, a tribal peasant society, were subject to this form of oppression to the extent to which they came under the orbit of Canaanite or Philistine power. The aetiology of the sustained conflict which pre-monarchic Israel experienced with the Canaanites and the Philistines lay in the relations of production imposed on them - relations which belong to the economic base of society - rather than in the realm of the superstructure, which includes the religious, political and ethnic aspects of a society. This conflict was expressed in religious, political and even ethnic terms, but had its source in the economic relations that existed between rural and urban societies in the ancient Near East.

Bibliography: pages 272-292. / The central theme of this doctoral thesis is the Attitude of the Anglican Church of Uganda to the New Religious Movements and in particular to the Bacwezi-Bashomi in south-western Uganda, 1960-1995. Since the 1960's Uganda has been witnessing a wave of new religious movements stressing healing and exorcism and to date are attracting a large following. Although the literature on these movements is still scanty with no attempt having been made in the area of academics, the researcher investigated this topic at some considerable length (assisted by six research assistants) using primary and secondary sources a task he has carried out with a sense of satisfaction. In the area of scholarship, he has published articles in Occasional Research Papers - Makerere University (Volume 14); African Journal of Theology (1991): 54-62; Asian Journal of Theology (1991): 136-148 and African Journal of Evangelical theology (1993): 18-40. Currently, he is a lecturer at Makerere University. This thesis is developed in six chapters with intent to establish whether the Bacwezi-Bashomi Movement is a challenge to Christianity or its followers are from the Roman Catholic Church or it is a pseudo-religious group or an independent church. It highlights that apart from the Balokole (born again Christians), abazukufu (the reawakened Christians), Pentecostal preachers and the charismatic renewal believers; many Christians who hardly take their faith and baptismal calling seriously claim that Christianity has failed to provide solutions to their chaotic existence, economic and socio-religious issues, hence the rush to these new religious movements and in particular to the Bacwezi-Bashomi. Defection is caused by the inability to grasp seriously the biblical teachings and the failure to get down-to-earth philosophical explanations. The study then discusses the historical growth of the Movement, highlights the attitudes of the mainline churches and concludes with recommendations and vision of the Anglican Church in Uganda. Now, the mainline churches are urged to foster the Christian faith that addresses the contemporary issues which engulf the indigenous people; to take the traditional healing and the indigenous medicine seriously; and to enhance a fruitful dialogue with the new religious movements, nominal Christians, abalokole and the followers of the Bacwezi-Bashomi Movement leading to mutual respect and understanding. Lastly, owing to the scarcity of in-depth academic studies, there is a need for serious research by church historians, sociologists, missiologists and pastors, hence the justification for this thesis.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 249-292). / Recently, a number of scholars (Bilezikian, 1977; Hooker, 1991; Botha, 1993; Shiner, 2003; Dewey, 2004; Fast, 2005; Byrskog, 2006; Holland, 2007) have alluded to, or highlighted, the dramatic nature of, and the performative possibilities in, the Gospel of Mark. Their comments and explorations are appropriated as the basis for engaging in a theoretical work that seeks to establish both why and how the Gospel of Mark may be read as a dramatic text, and, consequently, to suggest a manner in which to dramatize this account of the Gospel of Mark. The task is undertaken with Michel Foucault and Aristotle as the guides, and, significantly, with Foucault as the interpretive guide to the processes of forming Aristotle's treatise on drama. It endeavours, first, to emphasise the physically inscriptive power of texts (why the Gospel of Mark may be performative); second, to demonstrate the diverse and complex processes which form the specific discourse of the Poetics by Aristotle, and to foreground some of its central interpretive protocols (how the Gospel of Mark may be read as a drama); and, finally, informed by the body-power of texts and employing certain of the Aristotelian protocols, to venture an approach to the Gospel of Mark as an Aristotelian tragedy, and one that may possess a contemporary relevance.

Although a figure of many interests, Don Mattera remains one of the least studied figures in South African scholarship. This study combines two primary concerns. The first revolves around an imperative for a comprehensive study of Don Mattera. Linked to the first concern is the second, which is the challenge to find a method and a theoretical approach to read Mattera. In addition to being a poet of note, writer and journalist, Mattera is also known as a resilient activist and one of the critical voices in the Black Consciousness Movement of South Africa. Yet, the little that is written on him is either limited to his role in youth gangs, even though he eschewed the life of gangsterism as far back as the mid-1950s, or studied within the context of black South African writing in English. Hence, he is relegated to what is termed 'literature of protest’. There is to date hardly any substantive writing on Mattera and his attachment to Islam despite the fact that he encountered Islam in the 1970s and considers his conversion (to Islam) one of the most significant milestones in his life. The interest expressed in Don Mattera in this study, therefore, is not limited to Mattera the poet and writer only; it also looks at Mattera as a black Muslim subject. The decision to read Mattera in this extended sense presented a theoretical challenge and informed the second concern and problem addressed in this study. Given Mattera’s complexity and range of interests, the question of which method and theoretical approach is ideal for a comprehensive reading of him remained a challenge. In the end, after considering several disciplinary and methodological options, black/Africana existential thought and philosophy as a method and theoretical anchor was selected. This is because black/Africana existential thought and philosophy understood as 'an intertextually embedded discursive practice’ facilitates a comprehensive reading and study on Don Mattera. Informed by a critical engagement with the data of this study, which consists of Mattera’s poetry, fiction and public discourse where Mattera is read alongside Malcolm X, the perceived proclivity of black/Africana existential thought (and philosophy) to privilege a hermeneutic of struggle proved inadequate. The hypothesis presented in this study is that inasmuch as Mattera has been read through the lenses of struggle and protest, such a reading, and by inference, hermeneutic, fosters epistemic closure. For not only does it fail to earnestly consider categories such as Islam as a critical discursive concern within black/Africana existential thought and philosophy, it also, entrenches fossilised notions of black subjectivity and sense of self and being. As a reversal to the hermeneutic of struggle, this dissertation posits an alternative reading in a hermeneutic of transcendence. A hermeneutic of transcendence is attentive to Mattera’s complex sense of self, identity and subjectivity that extends beyond his literary output. Transcendence as used in this study connotes a double meaning that captures both the Sartrean sense of intersubjective transcendence, as well as Levinasian sense of transcendence as a gesture towards the beyond and metaphysical. I argue that a hermeneutic of transcendence provides a better reading of Don Mattera than the hermeneutic of struggle and protest.

Includes bibliography. / This dissertation is a study of Christian fundamentalism in South Africa looking at its character, history, major influences, development, resilience and resurgence. The study focuses on the Plymouth Brethren who thrived among the coloured communities of the Cape in the early decades of the twentieth century. The Brethren provide more than a useful case study on a subject which is complex and multifaceted, because their influence has been significant in the rise of fundamentalism in this country as has been the case in North America and Europe. This influence arises from their distinctives: dispensationalist millenarianism, literalist hermeneutics, ecclesiastical separatism, and their lay- based governance structure.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 182-192). / This dissertation applies Rene Girard's theory of the scapegoat mechanism to prove that Ali ibn Abu Talib appears in Shi'ite traditions as an innocent victim. The aim is to investigate Girard's substantial body of work to determine whether Ali was a scapegoat and a victim of a conspiracy within his community. Girard's theory is founded in mimetic desire, where he incorporated external and internal mediation to form an analysis of mimetic rivalry. Using various texts to develop his theory and support his concepts, he investigated Aristotle, Plato, Stendhal, Proust, Shakespeare and Freud. He developed his theory from the interaction between friends to the incorporation of an object of desire to form the 'French triangle'. He moved from investigating this 'triangle' in personal relationships to conspiracies and subsequently to communities with regard to primitive religions. It was in the discovery of the sacred victim that Girard recognized the purpose of myth, that it concealed the role of the persecutors and that it silenced the victim. Girard then transferred his deductions to analyzing the Bible, where he identified ways in which the text gave the victim a voice. He maintains that only Jesus supported a non-violent position and embraced positive mimetic desire in the form of imitating the love of God. In reviewing Ali's life, one discovers that it reveals Girard's concepts of mimetic rivalry, conspiracy and collective violence. There is the historical Ali and the divine Imam Ali. These two positions can be reconciled by following a constitutive reductionist method for the purpose of analysis in applying the scapegoat mechanism theory. Reductionism is useful and necessary for this study. While the historical Ali reveals a victim, the divine Ali takes responsibility for his own death. The historical and the divine reveal two perspectives in relating Ali's story, one from the victim's perspective and the other from the perspective of the persecutors. However, with respect to the scapegoat mechanism, Shi'ite traditions about Ali, inclusive of historical, popular, or ghulat traditions, show that Jesus was not the only victim to reveal his innocence and embrace non-violence for positive mimesis. Rather, Ali goes further in rejecting materialism to avoid envy, encouraging his community to witness his poverty. Without the distraction of material things, Ali could demonstrate God's love. While Girard claimed that Christianity, particularly the gospels, revealed the victim's innocence in Jesus Christ, Ali brings forth a similar message of imitating the love of God. Like Jesus, he revealed that God was a loving and forgiving God; he was not an angry God that demanded sacrifice.

This thesis explores Frantz Fanon's engagement with religion, and its impact on his theories of race and racism. As a cultural theorist and political activist with strong Marxian-humanist sympathies, Fanon asserted that, as an irrational force, religion anaesthetised the oppressed and inhibited the recovery of the black self. In this study I draw on critical and analytical work in the fields of religion, African studies, and postcolonial theory to interrogate the significance of the black body in the production of his aesthetic of transformation. To understand Fanon's engagements with religion I examine the social and political contexts of his native Martinique and his adopted Algeria, both countries which are defined by strict social and religious hierarchies. Through this focus on his engagement with Christianity, Islam and indigenous traditions in both Martinique and Algeria I argue that, while Fanon was ambivalent about the usefulness of religion in the anti-colonial struggle and the recovery of the black self, he nonetheless came to recognise the role of religion in producing narratives of the sacred that would cohere and motivate the colonized in their struggle against racist oppression. Finally, I argue that Fanon circumvents his ambivalence towards religion by elevating the significance of the enslaved and colonized body, as a sacred instrument of revolt and recovery. This thesis concludes that it is only through the production of such narratives of the sacred that Fanon is able to expel religion from the recovery of the black self and the inauguration of the new nation, while retaining traces of the sacred in his aesthetic of transformation.

This thesis investigates Luke’s portrayal of the subordination of John, the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth, to Jesus the Messiah in Luke 1–2. A detailed analysis of the opening-middleclosing textures of the Lukan text brings to the fore a clear structural juxtaposing and interweaving of the birth and infancy narratives of John and Jesus. The exercise provides the organising framework for the thesis. An in-depth sociorhetorical interpretation of these texts is then undertaken. The rhetography and rhetology of the infancy narrative of John are first explored in detail, beginning with the annunciation to Zechariah in 1:5–25, continuing with the account of his birth in 1:57–66, and closing with Zechariah’s resultant doxology in 1:67–80. A similar analysis is then undertaken of the infancy narrative of Jesus, beginning with the annunciation to Mary in Luke 1:26–38, continuing with the account of his birth and the angelic doxology and shepherds’ tribute in 2:1–21, and closing with his presentation at the temple in 2:22–40. This closing text portion is identified as the closing texture of Luke’s juxtaposing and weaving together of the two birth and infancy narratives. The process incorporates an analysis of the ideological texture, which emerges in Luke’s development of these two narratives. The ideological texture manifests primarily in the emergence of an asymmetrical honour-power relationship between John and Jesus. A range of rhetorical strategies are identified as used by Luke to enhance the ideological texture, which in turn emphasises the surpassing honour and power of Jesus over and against that of John, his forerunner. My thesis makes a contribution to Lukan research by clarifying Luke’s emergent ideological texture in the rhetoric of his two birth and infancy narratives. The use of the sociorhetorical interpretive analytic provides a thick description of the rhetoric of these two narratives, while engaging in conversation with cultural and scribal intertexture from the Jewish Scriptures and Second Temple Judaism. The dialogical nature of sociorhetorical interpretation enables a multidimensional interpretation of the texts.

Includes bibliographical references / The Pauline phrase, … "the god of this age", that occurs in 2 Cor 4:4 is unique in that it is not found in Greek literature preceding the writings of Paul. The majority of English versions of the Bible render the noun … using the lower case 'g' ("god"), but some are explicit, translating as "devil" and "Satan". Most modern commentaries on 2 Corinthians explain that the phrase is a clear reference to Satan, and argue that Paul's conceptualization of the devil and his views of "this age" grew out of categories used in Second Temple Judaism, especially apocalyptic literature. They also assert that the act of blinding people from seeing the light of the gospel can only be attributed to the enemy of God. This thesis is based on a socio-rhetorical interpretation of 2 Cor 4:1-6 and concludes that the phrase … refers to the supreme God of Judeo-Christian thought, in keeping with the referential value of … as frequently used in the Pauline corpus. It maintains that in this context Paul is responding to the peculiar problem of Jewish unbelief , and that he argues that in the same way that the "minds" of unbelieving Jews had been divinely "hardened" to the old covenant (3:14), so their "minds" had now been "blinded" to the gospel by the God of this age (4:4). The thesis is supported by a survey of the history of interpretation of 2 Cor 4:4, which shows that the modern preferred interpretation is relatively recent, predominating only over the past six centuries. Prior to the period of the Renaissance, most expositors of Paul preferred to interpret this phrase as a reference to God. The thesis is also based on a reconstruction of Paul's conceptualization of Satan in the light of Jewish speculations on evil, and furthermore undertakes a critical enquiry on the extent to which Paul was dependent on Jewish apocalypticism when he formulated the epithet "the God of this age"

Includes bibliographical references (p. 255-260). / The primary research question of this dissertation is: What was the particular form that Christendom took on at the Cape during the formative period of the Dutch East Indies Company (VOC) rule and how did it shape the Dutch Reformed Church as established church in this locale? This question was prompted by my hunch that the Dutch Reformed Church at the Cape and in the later South Africa has since VOC rule displayed signs of regarding itself as an important ecclesiastical partner in a Christian establishment. This was evidenced in the development of the Church2 into a quasi-established position (during British rule and thereafter), and the Volkskerk of the Afrikaner people and nationalism. In post-VOC times Christendom at the Cape Colony and in South Africa has also undergone various transformations. The answer to the primary research question can therefore contribute to our understanding of the contemporary character of Christendom in South Africa and the Church. A secondary research question is how the development of Christendom at the Cape can help us understand the phenomenon of Christendom itself. In order to answer these questions I embarked on a critical and comparative study of the concept of Christendom in various contexts and the position of the church within them - postChristian Europe, post-Vatican II Latin America, and post-1960's North America. In the light of this study an archival and theologically critical analysis was made of Christendom at the Cape, mainly from the vantage point of the Dutch Reformed Church. The findings were categorised under three headings: Church privilege; the control of state and culture over Church and gospel; and, the freedom of the Church. The primary research question yielded a picture of the Church as inheritor of, and involuntary partner in a Christendom that was the result of a colonial venture of capitalist upper middle class Dutch Reformed merchants. The Church imbibed the habit of being co-opted by the powers that be for the sake of material and social benefit and for the sake of promoting its evangelistic, diaconal, and educational charges. In the process it grew accustomed to compromise the integrity of its own faith and order and ultimately its public witness.