Thesis (M. Th.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 1984. / Bibliography: p. [124]-133.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Western Seminary, Portland, OR, 2006. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 199-207).

This dissertation examines the use made of the Myers Briggs Type Indicator in the pastoral work of Anglican Clergy. The practical theological focus of the study is reflection on praxis. Various theories of pastoral work are discussed. The history and development of the MBTI is given as well as the Jungian background to it. A qualitative research, grounded theory approach, is utilised. Interviews of 14 Anglican clergy generate the data for the research. The research questions are: "Why do Anglican clergy use the MBTI?"; "How do Anglican clergy use the MBTI?" The research findings show that Anglican clergy use the MBTI for the purpose of personal growth, clergy self-care, and understanding relationships. Anglican clergy attend workshops which encourage the application of MBTI insights in pastoral work. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M.Th. (Practical Theology)

[pt] A presente dissertação intitulada: O Metodismo na Cidade do Rio de Janeiro. Uma abordagem teológico-pastoral a partir do pensamento eclesiológico de Dietrich Bonhoeffer foi desenvolvida estimulada pela realidade que o quadro sócio-religioso brasileiro reflete no metodismo carioca. Seu objetivo é abordar, em perspectiva pastoral, a atual situação em que o metodismo mantém sua presença na cidade do Rio de Janeiro, considerando as influências neopentecostais que recebe pela via do movimento carismático. O alcance desse objetivo é realizado através da análise do metodismo na cidade do Rio de Janeiro à luz da eclesiologia do teólogo alemão Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945). Em sua eclesiologia são evidenciadas três importantes dimensões: koinonia, cristocentrismo e diaconia que definem um modelo eclesial com contornos pastorais aplicáveis ao estudo pretendido. / [en] This dissertation was developed base on the reality that the Brazilian social and religion overview reflects on the Rio de Janeiro City Methodism. It objects to make a pastoral approach of current situation of the Methodism in the city of Rio de Janeiro considering the neopentecostal’s influences which are brought by the charismatic movement. This intent is done by the analysis of the Methodism in the city of Rio de Janeiro in light of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s ecclesiology. Three dimensions are pointed out in his ecclesiology: koinonia, Christ-centrism and diacony which define a ecclesial model with applicable pastoral aspects to the present study.

M.Litt. et Phil. / The importance of the Trinity cannot be overemphasised in the matter of salvation. We cannot talk about a salvation if we cannot talk about a Trinity. Paul thinks of salvation only in trinitarian categories. For the purpose of this treatise, we call it a Soteriological Trinity. Paul takes the soteriological trinity as a matter of fact because he ascribes deity to both Christ and the Holy Spirit without denying his monotheistic background or beliefs. For Paul, God's dealing with people in the world is to call a people for his own name. These are called the People of God, and is identified with the Body of Christ and the Temple of the Holy Spirit, the Church. The Holy Spirit is instrumental in constituting this People, or Body, or Temple. Because of the death and resurrection of Christ, and the gift of the promised Holy Spirit, this People is defined as an eschatological community, and salvation is an eschatological event. Through these events, the future and the kingdom is present in the here and now ("already"), while there is still a "not yet" aspect to that future. This society, the Church, is therefore a reflection of the Divine Trinity. They reflect God's unity, love, grace, kingdom and more in this world. Because the community of believers is a Spirit-instituted, Spirit-sealed, Spirit-quickened, Spirit-initiated, Spirit-controlled and Spirit-endowed community, they characterise the New Age, which is the age of the New Covenant and the age of the Spirit. That means that our obedience to God is internally motivated rather than by external codes or requirements of law. The Church is, really then, the beneficiaries of God's grace, thus making them a charismatic community. Salvation is by God's grace. Sanctification is by God's grace. Security is ours by God's grace. In fact for Paul, the whole of the Christian life is a matter of God's grace. He calls it "the riches of the glory of God's grace" (Eph. 1:7). Grace is the antithesis of the Law. Paul's own experience of Christ and the Spirit, changed his whole understanding of God, the People of God, and the Law. God was now understood as a trinity; the People of God now consisted of both Jews and Gentiles; and the Law, though holy and good, was weak through the flesh, and unable to bring salvation. In fact, the Law brought death and bondage, rather than life and liberty. The Spirit of life and liberty set us free from the law of sin and death. The Spirit, life and liberty are then gifts of grace. We now have to live as free, not using our freedom as a 'cloak of maliciousness', but to bring honour to God. Freedom was for Paul the mark of sonship, and bondage of slavery. We are sons and not slaves. Through the Spirit we were made sons of God, and are being fashioned after the image of the true Son of God. All of the Spirit's operations in the Church, are to this end. Whether to give us life, or to place us in Christ's Body, or to unite believers to Christ and to each other, or to give gifts for the building up of the saints and for the work of the ministry, or to lead and control us, or to have us bear spiritual fruit, a to reveal to us the mysteries of God, it is so that the Body and the individual believer be conformed to Christ's likeness. All these operations are done in conjunction with the Father and the Son. The Kingdom of God is for Paul the final goal of the relationship between the Spirit, Christ and the People of God. So that God's righteousness and rule be the culmination of it all. The Kingdom of God is nevertheless a present reality, in that righteousness, peace and joy are already the experience of the Church. Yet, the future of the believers' participation in the Kingdom, is guaranteed by their participation with the Holy Spirit in the present. Through this present participation with the Spirit, are we guaranteed of the future bodily resurrection, inheritance and eternal life. Our participation in the "firstfruits" guarantees our participation in the "harvest". When the Holy Spirit is involved in the world, he is involved with the task of the Kingdom; the calling of those who will be the People for God's Name. The Holy Spirit makes the Word understandable and appropriate for salvation through the Gospel. He gives life which opens them up for his work in them to bring about their identification with Christ, the Lord and King. The Holy Spirit is the key to true spirituality and Christ-likeness. The Holy Spirit is the key to the future.

The goal of this research is to define the intent for Christian moving-image media narratives in terms of Prophetic Imagination and to develop and describe the characteristics of a new biblically based genre for Christian moving-image media that incorporates intent, content, style, and form. The story of Jonah and the related message as ironic vision, in combination with a particular didactic narrative form (edutainment), creates a medium with a Prophetic Imagination result. This medium, which is at the same time the message, is termed Jonahre. This new genre proposes a fresh Christian purpose and possibility for using the moving-image media to tell stories. In terms of the paradigm of Prophetic Imagination, the challenge for Christian moving-image media is to establish a biblically based alternative consciousness in society that results in the invitation to live a Lifestyle of the Believer in and contrary to the lifestyle of the dominant culture. Christians find themselves in a paradigm somewhat similar to the ancient Israelites in exile, as Christianity and its message have become de-centralized by the popular culture in a dominant postmodern world with a secular worldview. The task thus of preaching, telling stories and communicating the Christian message through moving-image media is to subvert these dominant ideologies through a God-given message. This message should carry a transformative revelatory purpose to glorify God and establish a biblical Christian outlook on life and the world that goes beyond merely a Christian veneer. Producers of narratives with a Christian worldview can no longer depend on simply using secular formats to convey Christian messages, as is currently often done with moving-image media. Instead, both content and form must be biblically based and have the same intent and purpose. This demands a new format for Christian moving-image narratives that aims at laying claim to the icons that dominate the secular “empire” so that they may be conscripted for the purpose of establishing a Christian worldview among the inhabitants with an empire consciousness. For the development of this new genre, the narrative of the book of Jonah as model of biblical storytelling is examined by means of socio-rhetorical criticism and communication theory. The communication as rich tapestry of interwoven textual textures is considered to find the basis for elements of a Prophetic Imagination narrative that educates in Biblical truth while entertaining the dominant cultural audience through an ironical, didactic style. / Prof. J.H. Coetzee

Historically, clinical spiritual care and education (or clinical pastoral education, CPE) has focused on pastoral formation, pastoral competence/conversation, pastoral understanding, and interpersonal dynamics. With the rise in holistic education in adult education this research sought to understand how students’ spirituality is affected by the CPE process. The primary research question was: Does CPE affect the spiritual lives and formation of its students? And if it does, how? A secondary research question was: Does CPE affect students’ connection to the god(s)/higher power/divine entity of their understanding? And if it does, how? First, the researcher developed a qualitative survey that allowed participants to self-define their spirituality and provide open-ended descriptions on how CPE affected their spiritual formation, or not. The survey was published with ACPE, Inc. and 17 participants answered. The data was analyzed through thematic coding and five themes emerged: Changes in Relationality, Things That Came Out of Struggle, Changes in Spiritual Beliefs & Spiritual Practices, Importance of Essential Elements in CPE, Things that Came Out of Struggling Related to Divinity. My assessment of the results of the themes is that CPE has been implicitly addressing the spiritual needs and spiritual formation of its students. Therefore, my recommendation is for Educators to find ways to make the implicit explicit thus enhancing what is already present in the curriculum.

The thesis "Psychological and Spiritual Guide through Middle-Age Crisis" contains a synthesis of knowledge about middle-age crisis from the interdisciplinary point of view of psychology and spiritual theology in its first part. The fundamental opinion declares that middle-age crisis is not something to be suffered through but, in spite of all its demands, it is an opportunity and challenge for fuller and more authentic life, for maturation of a man and for getting closer to oneself and to God. In the second part of the thesis, knowledge and procedures of psychotherapy, crisis intervention and pastoral theology are used to concretize and extend the conclusions of the first part in a more practical way; hence, the paper can be used as a guide for those who are undergoing this period of life or those who want to accompany someone else on this way. The thesis is intended primarily, but not exclusively, to Christians who lack education in the psychosocial area and who is middle-age crisis a personal topic of themselves or of people around them for-be it their relatives or friends, or, in case of pastoral workers, clients in their professional care. This work is rather singular in the Czech language due to its conception, scope and synthesis of its starting points as well as their elaboration. Keywords...

[pt] Um dos pontos de maior interesse para as missiologias católica e protestante nas últimas décadas tem sido o estudo e aplicação da ordem de fazer discípulos prevista em Mateus 28,19. Tal convergência aponta para o discipulado missionário performado por todo batizado como esperança de renovado fôlego para a difusão da fé cristã neste desafiador início de milênio. Ao partir de um olhar criterioso da realidade, o Documento de Aparecida consagrou o método pastoral Venham e verão como síntese única do método cristão (DAp 244), o qual implica que a fé seja vivenciada, testemunhada e transmitida em meio a relações interpessoais. Entre as principais marcas da sociedade líquido-moderna que incidem sobre o indivíduo estão a fragilidade dos vínculos humanos e a busca por pessoas que modelem como enfrentar e superar os desafios da existência. Esses dados apontam para a amizade discipuladora, inspirada na maneira como Jesus e as igrejas apostólicas fizeram discípulos e intencionada por discípulos missionários, como caminho propício à evangelização efetiva nos dias atuais. Tal caminho deve, contudo, condicionar-se a certos limites, de modo a se conciliar com a vida comunitária da Igreja e preservar os aspectos de liberdade e gratuidade que marcam a genuína amizade. Para tal conclusão, a pesquisa explora o levantamento bibliográfico dos documentos missiológicos católicos mais recentes e dos textos protestantes a partir do chamado Movimento Moderno de Discipulado, ocorrido na segunda metade do século XX. / [en] One of the greatest matters of interest in recent decades for Catholic and Protestant missiologies has been the study of disciple making and its praxis (cf. Matthew 28,19). This convergence points to the missionary nature of discipleship for baptized persons as a hopeful renewal for the spread of the Christian faith in a challenging beginning of this millennium. Starting from a careful look of reality, the Document of Aparecida exalted the pastoral method Come and you will see as the unique synthesis of the Christian method (DAp 244). Such marks imply the experience, witness and transmission of the Christian faith through interpersonal relationships. Among the principal traits of the liquid-modern society affecting the individual are the fragility of human bonds and the search for those who can model how to face and overcome existential challenges. These data points to friendshipbased discipleship inspired by the way that Jesus and the apostolic churches made disciples and intended by missionary disciples as a conducive path to contemporary effective evangelization. However, there are limits to preserve the Church s communal life and genuine friendship s aspects of freedom and gratitude. To this end, this research offers a bibliographical survey of the more recent Catholic and Protestant missiological documents texts from the so-called Modern Discipleship Movement that took place in the second half of the twentieth century.

The pastoral visitation practice of Continuing Witness Training (CWT) is theoretically intended to cooperate with God to lead individuals to Christian conversion, but reconciles fewer individuals to God than anticipated. This empirical theological study of Praxis 1 analyzed the visited individuals' (1) perception of care-concern by the visitors, (2) post-visit positive mood, (3) satisfaction with the visit, (4) sense of God's presence in the visit, and (5) decision to pray to establish a relationship with Jesus Christ. in association with (a) the amount of the CWT presentation given, (b) the length of the visit, and (c) prior religious involvement. Greater amounts of the CWT presentation given resulted in greater satisfaction and greater conversion prayer. Longer pastoral visits resulted in greater satisfaction among females and males, in greater conversion prayer in females, and in higher post-visit positive mood in males. Lower prior religious involvement resulted in greater amounts of the CWT model presentation being given to females, and in greater conversion prayer in males. Although 60% of Individuals visited reported no or minimal religious involvement, the complete CWT presentation was given to only 19%, and a substantial portion of CWT was given to an additional 17%. Among this 36% of those visited who received the CWT presentation, 55% decided to pray to establish a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. This situational analysis identified four praxis problems: ( 1) inconsistent application of the CWT model with unchurched individuals, (2) dissatisfaction among 25% of individuals visited, (3) lack of sense of God's presence in the visit reported by 23% of individuals visited, and (4) 31% of those visited being outside the stated unchurched target population for CWT visits. These praxis problems and related findings in the descriplive theological research were addressed by formulating a revised practical theology upon which to base Praxis 2. This revised theology of evangelism incorporated a multi-modal model of pastoral role-fulfillment (inYolving ketygma, didache, and paraklesis) as an agogic situation of primary initiation of a person into the kingdom of God, by proposing multiple contacts within a pastoral theology of care and counseling. / Practical Theology / Th. D. (Practical Theology)