Religious and cultural discourses shape relationships/marriages. The constructed nature of relationships/marriages opens the possibility for alternative relational realities. Positioning relationships/marriages in alternative discourses assisted the couples to construct a preferred relationship narrative. Three couples embarked on this feminist participatory action research journey - a couple from the Jehovah's Witnesses tradition,' a couple from the Dutch Reformed Church and a couple from a Gay Refonned Church. Conversations with the participating couples deconstructed their relationships. It also enabled the couples to co-author alternative, preferred realities of their relationships/marriages and to provide rich descriptions of these. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Pastoral Therapy)

The genre affiliation is a postmodern study: Virtual Reality (VR) becomes a comprehensive concept, in the face of modernism's illusion, when rhetoric validates all discourses. All is VR. The study is in three sections with an overall introduction and conclusion: the first section introduces VR in its postmodern setting, the second section establishes the postmodern timeless/spaceless paradigm of HyperReality in which all Hermeneutics are being done from, the last section draws the paradigm into the Creatio Ex Nihilio discourse of the Scriptures. The proposed theological model is an intratextual theological model, however when YAHWEH precedes language then all discourses become intratextually part of the Biblical discourse. Human creativity is a metaphorical journey; the Fall was the outset of two languages, one in the presence of YAHWEH, while the other one void of this presence led to a nihilistic abstract constellation. Sin in VR is the unbiblical appropriation of this constellation. / Thesis (M.Th.)

The 'postmodern challenge' is increasingly felt in the 'end of modernity' to which Gianni Vattimo refers. The West and the world has hitherto been dominated by what Andrew Gamble characterises as the Modern or Western Ideology. But the validity of that worldview and its associated ways of thinking, going back to the 'Enlightenment' and beyond, has come to be radically questioned. It is within this context that the work and thought of CS Lewis is examined. Although Lewis is generally recognised, and regarded himself, as conservative and even reactionary, there is a paradoxical quality to his conservatism, the elements of which coexist with features which might be regarded as liberal and as radically socialist respectively. Similarly, his commitment to the religious and cultural tradition of Western Europe co-exists with a vehement anticolonialism. A paradoxical association of postmodermism with 'premodernity' has been widely noted in Buddhism and, by Derrida, in Eastern Christian theology. This thesis seeks to demonstrate that a paradoxical postmodernism is evident in the thought of Lewis. One source suggested for this is his interest in Eastern Christianity. Another is identified as the influence on Lewis of the opposition of Romanticism to 'Enlightenment' modernity. But Lewis's own engagement with modernity is also shown to be significant. Two broad trends in postmodernism are discussed. The affinities of Lewis's thought with the nihilistic tradition of postmodernism, going back to Nietzsche, is traced with regard to issues such as rationalism, science, the autonomy of the subject, and authorship. But the ambivalent relationship of Lewis to spiritually-oriented, affirmative postmodernism, and particularly Rudolf Steiner's Anthroposophy, is also analysed. The crucial role of Scholasticism in the development of Western thought is investigated in a comparison of Steiner's views with the Christian position of Lewis. It is concluded that there are grounds to regard Lewis as. 'prophet of postmodernism', and he is compared with Nietzsche and Pope John-Paul II in this regard. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D. Th. (Church History)

The present work examines the crossroads of social transformation from the contextual standpoint of the "Second World" - a political and socioeconomic term descriptively pointing to the unique location of the Former Eastern-European Block countries - in between worlds. The work involves in a dialogue some of the major trends within the contemporary Eastern-European philosophical environment: dichotomized between Neo-Marxism and Neo-Freudianism on the one hand, and Postmodernism on the other. While examining the most significant elements between the dialectical paradigms for social change of the above theories (and their ethical foundations), the text strives towards a theological paradigmatic formulation for an authentic social transformation that draws its dialectical content and passion from the hopeful eschatological vision of Christ and the Kingdom as an embodiment of the Christian alternative for human emancipation and liberation. In light of this, the work attempts to establish the following thesis: the radical Christian praxis of the eschatological reality of the Kingdom in light of the Cross is the Church’s alternative to contemporary philosophies and initiatives for social transformation. This praxis affirms the revolutionary, history-shaping force which makes Christianity relevant to the problems of Modernity and Postmodernity through its self-identification with the Crucified God. It marks the moment of conception of an authentic, liberating, life giving, transforming hope as a source of humanization and redemption of social order. Christianity is concerned with the birth and formation of a new socio-political reality - the Kingdom of God, and its embodiment on earth (through the Holy Spirit) in a new ethnos: the Church, the Body of Christ, the communion of the saints. Therefore, it is the Church's calling and obligation to exemplify the reality of the Kingdom, being a living extension of the living Christ and thus, the incarnation of the eschatological future of the world and its hopeful horizon in the midst of the present. Recognizing the vital need for a relevant Christian response to the spiritual demands of the Post-modern human being and his/her desacralized, pluralistic socio­ political context, the work concludes with a conceptual outline offering a strategy for the Church in the Postmodern setting. / Philosophy, Practical & Systematic Theology / D.Th. (Theological Ethics)

A journey to healing is a story of women survivors of sexual abuse. Through narrative pastoral conversations a group or community of concern was formed that witnessed how these women managed to move by re-telling from problem-saturated dominant lifestories to rich alternative stories of survival. Post-modern practical theology formed the epistemological backdrop of this study with the focus on taking a prophetically, ethical and political stance. The group deconstructed patriarchal knowledge that has been dominant in constructing understanding of women. Deconstruction lead to the centralising of previously subjugated knowledge about themselves and made multiple identities and preferred realities possible. Feminist theology's liberating spirit contributed to this participator action research where women moved from being right to doing right. The monthly celebration teas hosted by the group were instrumental in the healing of other women who have experienced sexual violation. / Practical Theology / M.Th. (Pastoral Therapy)

This dissertation is concerned with pastoral care with men in the Anglican Church. It is grounded in the rapidly changing post-apartheid years in the East Rand region of South Africa. It seeks to explore through participatory action research the negative effects of patriarchy as a discourse of power and entitlement on the lives of men of differing cultures in South Africa as victims and perpetrators of abuse. It also seeks to explore ways of pastorally caring with men through the creation of participative care groups that enable personal stories of men to be told, invitations to responsibility for abuse made, and the negative effects of patriarchal cultural and theological discourse deconstructed, and alternate understandings of masculinity constructed and performed. The work is done from a contextual theology, pro-feminist perspective, and collaborating with postmodern philosophers Derrida and Foucault, the social anthropologist Bruner and the narrative therapists White, Epston and Jenkins. / Practical Theology / M. Th. (Practical Theology, Specialisation in Pastoral Therapy

This thesis examines the intellectual environment in which Pope John Paul II's thought operates, especially as it pertains to his writings on the truth. The pontiff's thinking faces open hostility toward Christianity, as exemplified by Friedrich Nietzsche and Michel Foucault. The pope's theology pays attention and builds links to modern thought through its positive engagement with phenomenology and personalism, as well as through its opposition to materialism. Despite these connections, this theology fails to fit well with (post)modern thinking, as it takes a wider view of things in two ways: (1) By offering a spiritual sense of things, it goes beyond thought and takes into account supernatural sources of knowledge, sources which are both a one-time event (the Resurrection of Jesus Christ) and part of the ongoing journey of the Christian community; (2) By boldly referring to traditional, outmoded language, as with the words obedience and humility, with the same level of reverence and fullness of their sense as they were used before the secular-feminist era condemned these virtues. The strange and unique qualities of John Paul II's thinking issues from these two practices. It also arises from his bold ability to engage with modern thought without becoming defensive and without hiding behind the Bible or Catholic piety, though he uses both of these generously. John Paul II offers a clear alternative to the chaos and confusion of post-Enlightenment thought, in both his thought's style and substance. The Holy Father's words cause us to reflect more deeply than those of modern or postmodern thinkers, and call us away from the relativism of Richard Rorty, Foucault, and so many others. The pope's thought succeeds in part because he takes a much wider vista of things, in that he digs more deeply into Western and Christian thought and that he enters this heritage as an inheritor rather than as a skeptical scientist-researcher as in Foucault's case. The pope's thought also succeeds because he assigns spiritual meaning to this journey of Christian and world people. In this sense, his thought is also radically inclusive. / Systematic Theology & Theological Ethics / D. Th. (Systematic Theology)

Text in German / Am Beginn der Menschheit steht das von Gott erschaffene Paar, in der Postmo­ derne ist es das aufgeklarte, autonome Individuum. Eine Diskrepanz zwischen ursprunglicher Schopfungsintention und der postmodernen Lebenswelt wird deutlich. Denn Mann und Frau wurden auf eine ganzheitliche Lebensgemein­ schaft hin erschaffen, die nicht nur den trinitarischen Gott widerspiegeln soli, sondem fur einen gelingenden Lebensvollzug urn die konstitutive Notwendigkeit der Gebundenheit des GeschOpfes an seinen Schopfer weiss. Das Bewusst­ sein, dass der Mensch nur in dieser existentiellen Verankerung zum wahren Mann- oder Frausein befahigt wird, ist in der aufgeklarten Postmoderne, primar durch deren zentrales Merkmal, der Absolutsetzung von Freiheit, abhanden ge­ kommen. Erschwerend kommt die Ablehnung der (ontologischen) Sundhaftig­ keit hinzu, was nicht nur das Heilsgeschehen per se obsolet werden lasst,son­ dern zugleich die Wiederherstellung der Beziehung zu Gott als Quelle allen Le­ bens a priori verunmoglicht. Damit verschliesst sich das postmoderne Indivi­ duum aber gleichzeitig die Meglichkeit zur Annaherung an die Schopfungs­ intention von Beziehung und Abhangigkeit der Geschlechter durch die in Jesus erlangte,endgultige Oberwindung der Sunde und deren Konsequenzen. Das Wissen urn die Intention Gottes mit Mann und Frau ist deshalb so entscheidend, weil vom Vorhandensein eines schopfungsbedingt angelegten anthropologischen Grundskriptes ausgegangen wird, welches die Beziehung und Abhangigkeit der Geschlechter entscheidend pragt.1 Das Geschlechterver­ haltnis ist also nicht beliebig und Folgen los veranderbar, resp. den sozio-kul­ turellen Vorgaben und Erwartungen anpassbar, eben weil dessen Kern unver­ anderbar ist. Dem steht jedoch das postmoderne Verstandnis gegenuber, wel­ ches die Geschlechteridentitat des evolvierten Primaten als reine sozio-kulturel­ le Konstruktion und damit als beliebig modellier- und veranderbar versteht. Ge­ nau in dieser Diskrepanz zwischen unaufhebbarem anthropologischem Grund­ skript einerseits und der vermeintlich ganzlichen Beliebigkeit des Geschlechter­ verhaltnisses andererseits liegt ein zentraler Grund fOr die Heute stark Problem belasteten Ehen. At the beginning of humanity we find man and woman as a couple created by God; in post-modern society, however, this place is taken by the enlightened individual. The discrepancy is evident. Man and woman were created for a lifelong marriage which was not only to reflect the triune creator but which was anchored in the dependence on the creator as a constitutive necessity for building a solid, successful and lifelong marriage. This awareness of the fundamental necessity of God as the creator of man has been lost in post-modern society. Instead we find the claim for absolute freedom, linked to the negation of the ontological sinfulness of man. It is obvious that such negation makes the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ by which sin is finally overcome superfluous, rending the re-establishement of the relationship between God and man impossible. But it is by this grounding in God the creator and redeemer alone that man and woman will unterstand marriage in its originally intended depth and fullness. The present study has resulted in discerning a fundamental, God-given anthropological script which defines both relation and dependence of man and woman; this implies that these fundamental elements cannot be deliberately transformed and/or adapted to various socio-cultural norms and expectations. However, the post-modern understanding of gender presents itself in clear opposition to this creational view. Nowadays, gender identity is seen solely as a socio-cultural structure and therefore subject to unlimited changes and modifications. In this study, one main reason for the instability of marriages in postmodern society has been discerned in the discrepancy between the permanent anthropological basic script and the apparent variability of the relation and dependence between man and woman. The negation of God the creator and redeemer proves to be of equal importance, as it is only through and in him that the basic script for marriage can be realized in its originally intended allembracing dimension. / Systematic Theology and Theological Ethics / D. Th. (Systematic Theology)

Currently the world is in the midst of a major ecological crisis, of which climate change is a key element. It is contended that this ecological destruction is largely a result of the underlying values controlling ethics and the controlling instinct of the modern worldview, which has been dominant for the past three centuries. The most recent and still emerging worldview, postmodernism, is examined and contrasted as a rebuttal to the modernistic tendencies and ethics. Utilising Ecclesiastes 1: 1-18, the ethical themes that the author of Ecclesiastes used are explored and paralleled to similar views found in postmodernism. Together, these biblical and postmodern thoughts illustrate how a strong environmental ethic can be formed that counters the modernistic worldview of controlling creation. The outcome of this research is to integrate aspects of postmodern thought with the book of Ecclesiastes to present a theological ethical basis from which a Christian can view and act towards creation. / Systematic Theology & Theological Ethics / M.Th. (Theological Ethics)

Text in German / We live in a time of postmodern influence which proclaims that there are no absolute values and all opinions are equal. Consequently it is thought that no one can judge whether something is right or wrong. But, according to the Bible`s instructions, that is exactly what we should do. We shouldn’t conform to the world, but let God change our thinking and being. This is the only way to recognize right or wrong (Romans 12:2). As Christians we have been commissioned by Jesus to carry the gospel into all the world and to lead people to become his followers. For this reason we have to ask the question in this age of how the gospel can be made plausible in a postmodern context and how Christian values can be made understood. H-P Hempelmann has already dealt with such questions intensively. For this reason, this thesis will, among other things, examine his apologetic method. / Wir leben in einer Zeit postmoderner Einflüsse, in der dafür eingetreten wird, dass es keine absoluten Werte gibt und alle Meinungen gleichwertig sind. Dies hat zur Folge, dass angeblich keiner mehr beurteilen kann, ob etwas richtig oder falsch ist. Doch genau dies sollen wir nach den Anweisungen der Bibel tun. Wir sollen uns nicht der Welt anpassen, sondern unser Denken und Wesen von Gott verändern lassen. Nur auf diese Weise ist es möglich, zu erkennen, was richtig oder falsch ist (Röm 12,2). Als Christen haben wir von Jesus Christus den Auftrag erhalten, das Evangelium in alle Welt hinauszutragen und Menschen in seine Nachfolge zu führen. Aus diesem Grund stellt sich in der heutigen Zeit die Frage, wie das Evangelium im postmodernen Kontext plausibilisiert werden kann und wie christliche Werte verständlich gemacht werden können. Heinzpeter Hempelmann hat sich bereits sehr intensiv mit solchen Fragen auseinandergesetzt. Deshalb wird in dieser Arbeit u.a. sein apologetischer Ansatz überprüft. / Systematic Theology & Theological Ethics / M. Th. (Systematic Theology)