Journal articles on the topic 'Dispensational Theology'

Dispensational and covenantal theology are two distinct systems that are frequently used to understand Scripture. The relationship of these theological systems to children and family life is reviewed. A brief survey was mailed to 30 covenantal churches and 30 dispensational churches. Covenantal theology was associated with greater frequency of dedication/baptism, family worship, larger family size, and second-generation missionary families than dispensational theology, though not all differences were statistically significant. No differences were found with respect to children's behavior problems or social skills. Sampling problems, methodological limitations and further research needs are discussed.

This article surveys both Wesleyan Holiness and Finished Work Pentecostal interpretations of the Gog and Magog biblical texts (Ezekiel 38–39 and Rev. 20.7–10), examines the theology of these interpretations (observing the influence of dispensational eschatology), and evaluates how such theology affects Pentecostal mission, ethics, and politics. As dispensationalism dominated Pentecostal eschatology, readings of these texts reflected eager anticipation of the coming annihilation of God’s enemies in the Gog and Magog war or wars. Celebration of violence against those nations considered ‘doomed to divine destruction’ altered missional, ethical, and political perspectives toward these nations and peoples, contradicting the following values of early Pentecostals: (1) embrace of pacifism, (2) expectation for Christ’s imminent return, and (3) evangelistic zeal for all nations. This article demonstrates the dangers of dispensational eschatology and calls for the articulation of hopeful eschatologies that align more copacetically with Pentecostal values.

There is a tendency for many commentator of the New Testament to interpret the text with a topical approach. This approach is relevant for research in the field of Christian theology. The problem is, the topical approach has a tendency to ignore the unity of the elements of the book. Therefore, we need a model of topical interpretation that is perfected with the unity of the theology of the book. The topic of the theological meaning of the word "rest" has attracted the attention of interpreters recently. These topics are the small sections that make up the theology of the book of Hebrews as a whole. This article presents three analyzes (textual, contextual and intertextual) as an approach to finding the theological meaning of the word "rest" in Hebrews 4:1-14. The author considers the book of Hebrews as the final form to find the meaning of the word "rest" in the theological context of the book of Hebrews. The author tries to synchronize the three approaches in finding the progressive meaning of the word "cessation" in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. The results of research through these three approaches have shown an increase in the meaning of the word "rest" from the context of the Old and New Testaments. Finally, this article can support the theory of progressive revelation that dispensational evangelicals have long believed.Ada kecenderungan penafsir kitab Perjanjian Baru menafsirkan teks dengan pendekatan topikal. Pendekatan ini relevan bagi penelitian pada bidang teologi Kristen. Masalahnya, pendekatan topikal memiliki kecenderungan mengabaikan kesatuan unsur-unsur kitab. Oleh karena itu, diperlukan suatu model penafsiran topikal yang disempurnakan dengan kesatuan teologi kitab. Topik tentang makna teologi kata “perhentian” menarik perhatian para penafsir pada akhir-akhir ini. Topik tersebut merupakan bagian kecil yang membangun teologi kitab Ibrani secara keseluruhan. Artikel ini memaparkan tiga analisa (tekstual, kontekstual dan intertekstual) sebagai pendekatan untuk menemukan makna teologi kata “Perhentian” dalam kitab Ibrani 4:1-14. Penulis mempertimbangkan kitab Ibrani sebagai bentuk akhir untuk menemukan makna kata “perhentian” dalam konteks teologi kitab Ibrani. Penulis berusaha melakukan sinkronisasi tiga pendekatan tersebut dalam menemukan progresifitas makna kata “Perhentian” baik dalam kitab Perjanjian Lama maupun kitab Perjanjian Baru. Hasil penelitian melalui tiga pendekatan tersebut telah menampilkan adanya peningkatan makna kata “Perhentian” dari konteks Perjanjian Lama dan Perjanjian Baru. Akhirnya, artikel ini dapat mendukung teori pewahyuan progresif yang selama ini diyakini oleh kaum injili dispensasi.

No one studying the impact of Evangelicalism’s most successful cultural products could doubt their mass-market appeal both within and beyond the ‘conservative revolution’ of contemporary America. With concerns to fashion the spirituality of their readers, the Left Behind novels (1995–2007) represent the ‘first outlines of a fully commercialised, fully mediatised Christian blockbuster culture’. The series dramatizes the end-time expectations of a popular evangelical system of eschatological thinking, known as dispensational pre-millennialism. This system maintains that Christ could return imminently to ‘rapture’ true believers to heaven; that this rapture will be followed by a catastrophic seven-year period known as the ‘Great Tribulation’, in which the Antichrist will rise to power to persecute those who, despite being ‘left behind’, have converted to evangelical faith; and that the tribulation will end with the ‘glorious appearing’ of Christ, the last judgement and the inauguration of a thousand-year reign of peace known as the millennium. Despite the complexity of its theology, the series has sold over sixty-five million copies since the publication of their eponymous debut novel in 1995, and has been identified as the best-selling fiction series in American literary history. After 1998, successive instalments in the series topped the New York Times best-seller lists. The seventh novel in the series, The Indwelling (2000), topped the best-seller lists of the New York Times, Publishers Weekly, Wall Street Journal and USA Today.

Despite formulating an alternative reading of redemptive history, the Scofield Reference Bible was unable to finally repudiate the theology of biblical covenants which had previously dominated Reformed thought. Scofield’s manipulation of the covenants stood in tension with his theology of dispensations, and accounts for many of the most important innovations in the system of his thought. This article seeks to balance the neglect of Scofield’s covenant theology.

AbstractIn the wake of studies showing that medieval intellectual production, far from confining itself to distinct faculties or disciplines, resulted from a constant circulation of knowledge, this paper analyzes the relations between theology and law through the controversial case of the dispensation from the vow of chastity, between ca. 1215 and ca. 1315. Focusing on the different aspects of the compelling power of the vow, the possibility to make up for it or to change it and the papal power of dispensation in spite of the particular dignity of the vow and the decretal forbiding any dispensation from it, the reflexion of canonists and theologians shows the interweaving of their disciplines, the changes of some individual positions and the absence of expected solidarities.

AbstractWhile Shiʿi Islam and its imperial expressions were known in the Deccan sultanates from the sixteenth century and expressed in court-sponsored production of theology, it was only in the eighteenth century that Shiʿi political theology emerged in North India in the new state of Awadh. In this paper, I argue that one can discern in the theology of Sayyid Dildar ʿAli Nasirabadi (d. 1820) a clear attempt at forging a new Shiʿi theological dispensation to bolster the state, based upon a tripartite attack on three rival approaches to faith and politics: Akhbarism, Sufism, and the Sunni rationalism of Farangi Mahall. A careful examination of these textual practices within the Awadhi context demonstrates one example of how Indian thinkers responded to the decline of Mughal power and articulated alternative epistemologies in vernacular contexts before the advent of the British Empire.

Comparative philosophical studies can seek to fit some Eastern patterns of thought into the general philosophical framework, or, on the contrary, to improve understanding of Western ones through the view “from abroad”. I try to hit both marks by means of establishing, firstly, the parallels between Indian versions of theodicy and the Hellenic and Christian ones, then by defining to which of five types of Western theodicy the Advaita-Vedānta and Nyāya versions belong and, thirdly, by considering the meaning of the fact that some varieties of Western theodicy, like the explanation of evil by free will and Divine dispensation aiming at the improvement of man, have Indian counterparts while others lack them. Some considerations concerning the remainders of primordial monotheisms (“an argument from theodicy”) under the thick layers of other religious world-outlooks are also offered to the reader at the end of the article.

The main objective of this study is to determine the media image of dispensation and liturgy mediated during the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland. The paper is based on interdisciplinary methodology, which combines elements of practical theology (the see–judge–act paradigm) and a communication and media studies approach (media content analysis, critical discourse analysis). The time range of the analysed media discourse is between 12 and 18 March 2020, which was the first week after issuing government restrictions towards liturgy and the Church’s response to that: granting the dispensation and supporting the mediatisation of liturgy. The material for the discourse analysis includes online editions of 20 Polish press titles. It occurs that the general attitude of the media towards dispensation and liturgy mediated was positive, but some media tended to present the topics according to their editorial policies. The paper also formulates a theological reflection: although liturgy mediated as a permanent solution could be challenging to accept, it allowed worshippers to experience the liturgy in times of isolation. It is, therefore, an expression of the Church’s concern for the health and lives of the faithful, although not entirely in line with the official and long-standing position of the Church towards the mediatisation of the liturgy.

AbstractThis article gives a brief life history of Winsome Munro, who was born in South Africa in 1925 and who was ahead of her time in many respects. She was a feminist long before it became the order of the day, she studied theology and was ordained as a minister when it was still a male dominated domain, and fought for a new dispensation in South Africa long before anyone had ever heard of the new South Africa. She spent 26 years in exile in the United States of America because of her political convictions. There she retired in 1991 as a professor of New Testament. She died in 1994 shortly after she participated in the first general election in South Africa.

Origen and Austine might be thought to represent opposite extremes in Pauline exegesis. In working out his characteristic understanding of Pauline theology Augustine developed emphases which were different from those of Origen. In his early works of Pauline exegesis of 394–6 a central point for Augustine is the relationship between works of the law and grace. Origen’s Commentary on Romans develops many Pauline themes, but he takes a more historical approach than Augustine, and a prominent emphasis for him is the relationship between Jews and Gentiles in the divine dispensation. Augustine is an independent thinker, who digests his reading and does not plagiarise. It is not always easy to identify his use of earlier writers. The example to be discussed in the following paper is of particular interest, since it gives us the opportunity of seeing Augustine’s reaction to Origen on the central point of justification by faith at a period just before the outbreak of the Pelagian controversy.

The Bible is the word of God that needs to be understood by all those who already have Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. This is called a Christian. It is different from people who are Christians as a 'religion'. Christians are obliged to study the Bible as a basic truth in order to know God's will from time to time. On the other hand, Bible learners often experience confusion problems, when understanding the continuity of the contents from Genesis to Revelation. Are there interrelations? Or it is just a fragmented story with different intentions.There are appropriate methods in avoiding confusion when doing this learning process. This method has been understood since the beginning of the century which then became popular throughout the world in the 19th century, with the term Dispensationalism.Dispensation is a period of time during which humans are tested in the perspective of obedience to a specific revelation of God's will. Theologically, the word dispensation means a religious system that is understood as a divine provision or as a sign of progressive revelation that expresses the changing needs of an individual nation or time period. Dispensationalism views the world as a household run or worked by God.Dispensation theology is often misunderstood by theologians, without wanting to study it carefully, where is the oddity? This discussion will show that Dispensationalism is as a sharp knife for understanding the Bible as a whole. Abstrak Alkitab itu firman Allah yang perlu dipahami oleh semua orang yang telah memiliki Yesus sebagai Tuhan dan Juruselamatnya secara pribadi. Ini disebut orang Kristen. Beda dengan orang yang beragama Kristen. Orang Kristen itu hukumnya wajib, untuk mempelajari Alkitab, sebagai dasar kebenaran dalam rangka mengetahui kehendak Allah dari zaman ke zaman.Di sisi lain, para pembelajar Alkitab sering mengalami kendala kebingungan, saat memahami kesinambungan dari isi Kitab Kejadian hingga Kitab Wahyu. Apakah ada saling keterkaitannya? Ataukah hanya kisah yang terpotong-potong dengan maksud yang berbeda-beda.Ada metode yang tepat guna dalam menghindarkan diri dari kebingungan saat melakukan proses pembelajaran ini. Metode ini telah dipahami sejak abad permulaan yang kemudian mulai populer ke seluruh dunia pada abad 19, dengan istilah Dispensasionalisme.Dispensasi merupakan suatu periode waktu di mana pada masa itu manusia diuji di dalam perspektif ketaatan kepada suatu wahyu spesifik dari kehendak Allah. Secara teologis kata dispensasi berarti sistem religius yang dipahami sebagai suatu ketetapan ilahi atau sebagai penunjuk cara pewahyuan secara progresif yang mengekspresikan perubahan kebutuhan bangsa secara individu atau periode waktu. Dispensasionalisme memandang dunia sebagai rumah tangga yang dijalankan atau dikerjakan oleh Allah.Teologi Dispensasi sering disalahmengerti oleh para teolog, tanpa mau mempelajari terlebih dahulu dengan teliti, di mana letak kejanggalannya? Pembahasan ini akan menunjukkan bahwa Dispensasionalisme merupakan pisau yang tajam untuk memahami Alkitab secara utuh.

ABSTRACT The contribution is connected to earlier research by the author (Reichsbund und Interim. Die Verfassungs- und Religionspolitik Karls V. und der Reichstag von Augsburg 1547/48, Köln, Wien 1971) and takes it farther by means of the critical incorporation of editions and discussions that have appeared more recently. The focus of the study is upon the history of the rise of the Interim within the framework of the religious politics of Charles V during 1547-48, which because of the extraordinarily difficult state of the sources has only been partially clarified. More far-reaching historical aspects of theology, by contrast, are only summarily treated. The most important results of the essay are as follows: 1. The Interim that Charles V carried through the Diet of Augsburg was an attempt at a temporary settlement between the religious parties in Germany expiring definitely after the Council of Trent would have solved all controversial items. The unity of the church within the Empire was thereby to be preserved or achieved again, and at the same time the outward peace in Germany assured. Charles V wished to see guaranteed the essentials of the Roman Church - whatever might pertain to them. Nevertheless, the Interim made substantial concessions to the Protestants, in teaching just as in ceremonies and ecclesiastical order (the marriage of priests, lay reception of the chalice). Thus, the Interim stood in close continuity with the religious politics of Charles V after 1530. In contrast, the specifically new aspects of the imperial politics of religion consisted above all of the close unity between this attempted settlement between the religious parties and the effort at intra-ecclesiastical reform. This tie informed the first draft of the Interim late in 1547 and showed itself finally in the proximity of the Interim and the Formula reformationis of June 1548. To this may be added the high personal engagement that the Emperor was able to bring to bear as a result of his enormously increased political authority after the Schmalkaldic War. Yet Charles V tried very effectively to restrict as much as possible outward awareness, especially in the publicity surrounding the Imperial Diet, of the dominant influence that he exerted on the shaping of the Interim. That seems initially surprising but had its good reasons: above all, the Emperor strove to counter the reproach that he attempted to be an authoritarian universal monarch, at the expense of the imperial estates - and also at the expense of Pope and council. 2. The Interim politics of Charles V. was severely contested from the beginning, and not only among the religious parties at the Imperial Diet, but also at court among the closest advisors of the Emperor. Above all, Pedro de Soto, the confessor of Charles V, pleaded for an unyielding Counter-Reformation course for the imperial politics of religion, while Nicolas Perrenot de Granvelle, the foremost advisor of the Emperor, represented an ecclesiastically mediating and at the same time more pragmatic position. The controversy was fundamental; it remained virulent throughout the imperial Diet, and left personal bitterness in its wake. Charles V finally made an end to the strife in August 1548, when he dismissed his confessor. The decisions in religious politics made by the Emperor continued to arise out of these conflicts. This could well explain the fundamental decision that the Emperor took in rejecting the uncompromising anti-Reformation draft of his first Interim commission in December 1547 and the appointment of a new commission under the leadership of the Bishop of Naumburg, Julius Pflug, who was inclined toward a conciliatory theological position. The Interim policy of Charles V was far more filled with tension than it appears in most historical presentations. 3. Conditioned by the strongly political - not only ecclesiastical - tensions between Charles V and Pope Paul III, in 1547-48 the Emperor completely excluded the Pope and his representative at the imperial court from all negotiations over the Imterim, and in general over religion, at the imperial Diet of Augsburg. Even the originally anticipated confirmation of the Interim by the Pope seemed from early in 1548 to be dispensable. Nonetheless Charles V made a vigorous effort to bind the Pope to his Interim policies. Above all the demand of the Emperor that the Pope send legates or nuncios to Germany who could be helpful in the inner reform of the church - who were empowered to grant dispensations for the marriage of priests, for giving the chalice to the laity, and for moderating the privations of Lent - was virtually a papal legitimation of the concessions to the Protestants made by the Interim, and simultaneously a recognition of the membership of the Protestants, under the terms of the Interim, to the Roman Church. As a matter of fact, Paul III initially acquiesced to the imperial demand but postponed complying until long after the adjournment of the Diet at the end of June 1548; in September of the same year, he finally gave the faculties of dispensation such restrictive wording that this must have appeared completely unacceptable to the Protestants. Thus, from an early date an important part of Charles V’s Interim politics became, and remained, unattainable.

Fra tugtemester til skolemester: Om forskelle mellem Luther og Grundtvig[From Castigator to Schoolmaster: On Differences between Luther and Grundtvig]By Ove KorsgaardIs Grundtvig’s thinking to be perceived as a genuine appropriation and continuation of Luther’s? Or is it rather to be perceived as a renegotiation of Luther’s thought? Regin Prenter, Christian Thodberg and Svend Bjerg maintain three different positions on the question of the relationship between Luther’s and Grundtvig’s theological thinking. With Prenter, a tight connection is tied. With Thodberg it is “both...and”. With Bjerg there is a marked distance between Luther’s and Grundtvig’s theology. In this article a more conceptual-historical viewpoint is adopted which demonstrates that they used the concepts “nation” and “folk” with differing significations.Luther does not use the word “nation” in its modem signification. According to Liah Greenfield: “he did not take the step that connected the separation from Rome to the definition of the polity as a people.The ‘German nation’, for Luther, had none but the conciliar meaning of the princes and nobility of the Empire, and in this sense he used it in An den christlichen Adel deutscher Nation.” Grundtvig on the other hand used the word “nation” in its modem signification, that is to say, he made an inseparable connection between the concepts “nation” and “folk”. And he is surely the person who, in Denmark, has exercised the greatest influence in linking these two concepts.Before “nation” and “folk” became synonymous concepts, the word “folk” signified kinship and household. The societal whole was comprised, so to speak, of a certain number of households. Each household had as its supreme authority a householder who exercised English Summaries / danske resuméer power over his “folk”. The master tailor exercised power over the journeymen and apprentices who, together with children and other family members, belonged in the household. The combined households of a land were subordinate to a father of the land and belonged in his house, for example the Oldenburg House, the Habsburg House and so on. The supreme lord was the Lord God and all the houses within a society belonged in the final instance to his house. Individual freedom was no part of Luther’s political programme.His guardianship-society {formyndersamfund) was built not upon individual, responsible members of society but upon a fellowship between superiors and subordinates. The household constituted that social space within which a connection was forged between the individual and the Christian state. That Luther espoused political guardianship {formynderskab) as the best principle of governance is not remarkable. Everyone, more or less, did so at that time. The epochmaking and revolutionary thing about Luther was that he dispensed with the pope as religious guardian.But the sharp distinction which Luther drew between spiritual and secular governance is not, as is often alleged today, a distinction between State and Church but only between the State and “the Church Invisible”. In a continuation of Augustine, Luther in fact distinguished between two Churches, the invisible and the visible. The Church has both an outward, institutional and predominantly worldly side and an inward, invisible and predominantly spiritual side. As an incorporate member of the State one is obligated to be a member of the visible Church, that is to say the Church as an institution. Membership of the visible Church, however, grants no certainty of salvation. The visible Church cannot dispose over the relationship between the individual and God. Therefore membership of the visible Church is not enough to secure salvation. Faith is necessary. And faith is a personal and existential matter. With the doctrine of public polity, there is thus created a spiritual free-space. The formation of the individual’s morality and character, on the other hand, was placed under the aegis of secular government.Grundtvig grew up in a society whose world view was characterized by Luther’s thinking on calling and station. Lutherdom encompassed not only the obvious foundation in faith with respect to the Church but also the foundation in morality with respect to the State. However, Grundtvig himself was engaged in reassessing this foundation. After 1825 he began to distinguish himself with quite Luther-critical viewpoints, which is connected with the fact that he himself became one of the leading contemporary spokesmen for the new viewpoint that it was not the dispensations of Lutheranism but the dispensations of the folk which should comprise the moral foundation of State and school.The shift from Lutherdom to ‘folkdom’ meant that after 1825 Grundtvig again and again pointed to errors in Luther and his disciples. Thus he tackled three central dogmas in Lutherdom. The first was fundamentalism in respect of Scripture. The second was fundamentalism in respect of sin. The third was Lutherdom’s fundamentalism in respect of the State. For Grundtvig, the alliance which Constantine the Great established in 325 between State and Church was nothing less than a great lapse into sin in the history of the Church. And this lapse Luther had not tackled. The process of transformation from Christian principality to democratic nation-state demanded a clarification of the relationship between religion, State and polity. What form of connection should there be established between individual, State and religion in a democracy? Should Christianity, which was deeply integrated in the state-structure of the absolute monarchy, continue to comprise the foundation for the State’s educational polity? Grundtvig drew a clear boundary between citizenship and religion and, according to the ecclesiastical-political premises of his day, advocated religious freedom, freedom to preach, and dissolution of parochial ties. In simplified terms one can say that Luther’s horizon was a world divided into religions, and these were subdivided into nations, while Grundtvig’s horizon was a world divided into nations, and these could be subdivided into various religious societies.A conceptual-historical viewpoint reveals that Luther and Grundtvig not only used the concepts “nation” and “folk” with differing significations: theologically, they also thought differently upon crucial points. These differences can be put into perspective by looking at Luther’s categories “law and gospel”, “householder and household” and “parents and children” set off against Grundtvig’s use of “the knot” as metaphor.According to Grundtvig, Luther did not go far enough in his understanding of the relationship between law and gospel. He did not manage to untie the “tight knot” [Haardeknuden]. Instead of, like Luther, regarding the law as castigator, Grundtvig spoke of “Moses as ‘schoolmaster’ for the whole world, who guides those desiring it to Jesus”. This shift in the view of the law - from castigator to schoolmaster - is a key to understanding Grundtvig’s thought.Grundtvig regarded the law as an “enlightenment of which one freely makes use according as one can and will”. Understood in Grundtvig’s English Summaries / danske resuméer terms, the law thus becomes a medium for folk-enlightenment. In other words, it is possible to untie the knot between the law and the gospel.The opening of the Gospel of John - In the beginning was the Logos - forms the basis of the whole of Grundtvig’s programme of enlightenment and exposition. Grundtvig distinguishes, however, between logos and dia-logos. Humankind does not have direct access to the logos of the great word, but must make do with the little word, the verity of which must be proved through dia-logos, that is, dialogue.For Grundtvig, “enlightenment” [Oplysning] is not an absolute, but a relative concept. The world cannot be overseen from a panoptic viewpoint, but necessarily has to be viewed with various eyes. The truth always emerges from out of the interplay between truths. Using a modem concept, one may say that for Gmndtvig enlightenment is a discursive concept, a concept open to argument. No one can boast of being in possession of the absolute tmth. We understand fragmentarily and in part. And such a process of understanding demands, according to Grundtvig, faith.[Editorial note: Danish tugtemester, as used in this context to refer to the Law, is not readily translatable into English. A tugtemester is one who enforces discipline by chastisement and castigation, whether a gaoler, a slavemaster, a disciplinarian pedagogue addicted to flogging or a rigorous moral tutor.]

The stimulation of the modern transformation processes by the church and the opportunity this presents to industrial mission The church had reacted to both political and industrial change. Localised theology was the answer to a restricted political dispensation, and the final result was the application of liberation theology. The Kairos Document, the Evangelical Witness, the Belhar Confession and Church and Society express the different churches’ viewpoints about the apartheid regime. This contextual focus on the same political dispensation unleashed church influence during the establishment of a national democratic dispensation. The different efforts to deal with industrial change by means of church renewal have finally paved the way for the development of a new industrial mission, vision and approach. This has resulted in the forming of an interchurch industrial organisation, and far-reaching possibilities within the industrial environment.

In 2017, the Faculty of Theology celebrates its centenary at the University of Pretoria. Celebrating a centennial is as much as looking back as looking forward. In a changing world with changing paradigms how does one remain relevant? Different challenges and expectations presented to tertiary institutions of education in a new dispensation puts all concerned with higher education in South Africa under pressure. The question addressed in this article is how will a Faculty of Theology (in this case at the University of Pretoria) remain relevant to such an extent that it is continued to be viewed as desirable to have such a faculty present at a university, participating in the academic process and simultaneously continues to contribute to the well-being of the South African society. The author suggests the following guidelines for consideration. In order to remain relevant for the next couple of hundred years the Faculty of Theology should engage contextually with society, practise interdisciplinary Theology, engage in interreligious dialogue while still remaining connected to faith communities. A paradigm of post-foundationalism enables Theology to exercise Theology in a relevant and meaningful manner.

The societal changes introduced with the advent of the new political dispensation in South Africa in 1994 brought with them serious consequences for the different religions and for the academic disciplines devoted to the study of religion. This includes disciplines such as theology and religious studies, as well as those social sciences with an academic interest in religion as influential societal factor. The second part of the article presents a brief survey of the impact of these societal changes on religion, particularly the Christian religion, and the academic disciplines of theology, religious studies and the social sciences. An outline of the position and role of religion and the academic disciplines of theology, religious studies and the social sciences in the apartheid society from which South Africa is evolving, is used as point of departure in the first part of the article. The third part of the article ventures beyond mere description of the position and role of religion and the different academic disciplines involved with the study of religion. It aims to make out a case that in the New South Africa religion and academic disciplines exclusively devoted to the study of religion, such as theology, need the social sciences.

Reflections on 1 Corinthians 15:24-28 raise the question whether eschatology should be focused on Christ, or should rather be viewed theocentrically. A study of the mediatory reign of Christ clearly favours the notion of an intermediate kingdom, during which He will subjugate and destroy the “powers” and the enemies of the kingdom. Having achieved the final victory over death itself, the need for an intermediate rule of Christ no longer exists. However, the office of Mediator is unquestionably linked to Christ’s humanity. This again brings to the fore the question whether Christ will retain his human nature after the consummation of his kingdom. Although it remains an open question in Reformed theology whether Christ will relinquish his human nature at the end of this dispensation, it is argued that in the next dispensation He will no longer serve in the office of Mediator, but that He will reign as the Lamb of God in the stature of the eternal Son of God.

Depending on the Sitz im Leben of practical theologian, the issue of decolonisation will be a greater or lesser reality. For South Africans, decolonisation has become a part of their daily living. Decolonisation can be regarded as a second wave of liberation in the post-apartheid South Africa. Following on the first wave, or even the tsunami of transformation, is the urgent call for the decolonisation of colonial knowledge, structures and epistemologies that endured in the new dispensation. Squarely in the aim of decolonisation efforts are institutions of higher learning and by implication all disciplines taught there, including theology. The non-negotiability of the decolonisation of higher education is evident in the recurring violent protests and mass action, as expressed in different ‘#must-fall’ campaigns over the last few years. This article argues that the current decolonisation drive in South Africa is urging local practical theologians to make an important choice, namely to move ‘selfishly backward’ or ‘selflessly forward’. In other words, maintaining current practices or exploring alternatives in a new context. This choice is embedded in the reality that a significant number of practical theologians in South Africa are white males that may, from a decolonisation perspective, be deemed part of the colonisation legacy. Against this background, the article attempts to provide a reflective insider’s perspective on a challenge and opportunity this creates for practical theology.

The contributory role Pastoral Letters play in Malawi’s democracy cannot be underestimated. Historically, Pastoral Letters have been the voice of the Malawian people, and these have forced authorities to accommodate social and political reforms. From colonialism, federations and independence to the birth and consolidation of democracy, Pastoral Letters have been issued by the Church to State authority demanding political change and improvement in governance issues. For instance, Pastoral Letters issued by the Church put pressure on the British to end colonialism in Malawi, and in 1992, Pastoral Letters hugely contributed to the dismantling of Dr Kamuzu Banda’s, and the Malawi Congress Party’s, three-decade autocratic rule. Even in the multiparty dispensation, which was ushered in during 1994, Pastoral Letters have provided checks and balances to government in the consolidation of democracy. Thus, Pastoral Letters represent the voice of the voiceless in every political dispensation. The article is informed by the Pauline Pastoral Letters’ conceptual framework. The main argument governing this article is that unless there is continuity in the issuing of Pastoral Letters by the Church in addressing specific challenges within a democracy, sustainability of democratic value will always be compromised and not realised.Interdisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This is an interdisciplinary article that touches on practical and public theology focusing on Church history and polity in assessing the role of Pastoral Letters in influencing the sustainability of democratic processes in a public square. The article contributes to a wider debate on the role the Church’s Pastoral Letters play in determining the sociopolitical landscape in Malawi. However, this is the only article written from a Pauline Pastoral Letters’ conceptual framework.

In whose ‘order’, ‘newness’ and ‘foundation’ is ecclesiology based in South Africa? The colonial legacy of pigmentocracy, the cultural domination and annihilation of the indigenous dispensation of black Africans, is not devoid of institutional structures of faith and their historical performance in South Africa. The church is one institution in South Africa that played a crucial role in perpetrating perversities of racial, economic and cultural exclusion with a fetish of its institutional character that is still pervasive and dangerously residual in post-1994 South Africa. By presenting a brief outline of the basics on ecclesiology, the article argues that things remain the same the more things seem to change if the methodological approach to ecclesiology circumvents the edifice and foundations on which the history of ecclesiology in South Africa is built. To unshackle the church, a Black Theology of liberation must begin from and debunk the foundations of models of ecclesiology that are conceived on perverse theological and ideologised forms of faith that have become residually hazardous in South Africa post-1994.

Diseases in human history are not just originating as a hit out of space. Some theologians contend that they must have originated with the human race. Apparently, it is inferred that they have come as a result of human disobedience to God in the Garden of Eden, or as a means of expression of his wrath. Other biblical perspectives ascribe disease to the work of the adversary or the Devil (Job 2:7), jealousy from others (Job 5:2) and self-indulgence (1 Sm 15:1–17, 16:14–15; 23, 1 Cor 10:1ff.). Stigmatisation of people with haemorrhaging condition (the issues of blood) in the biblical accounts of the old Jewish society compares well with stigmatisation of people living with HIV (PLH) in the current dispensation. It is needful to ask whether stigmatisation, discrimination and exclusion of the sick are a recent phenomenon. Landman observes that people with communicable diseases were separated from the rest of the congregation in the Old Testament dispensation. However, in the New Testament, a more charitable standpoint was anticipated because of the revolutionary stance of Jesus Christ in the Gospels. During his ministry, Jesus regarded the outcasts as integral members of the Jewish community. He in fact associated with and touched those who had dreadful diseases like leprosy (Mk 1:40–43, 2:1ff., Jn 8:1–9). Stigmatisation is associated with HIV in Nigeria and all over the world. However, the model of interaction set by Jesus with the Woman with the Issue of Blood in Mark’s narrative in the Gospel proposed a charitable standpoint which if adopted by the Nigerian society will go a long way in stemming the stigma associated with HIV. It is anticipated that these biblical indices will facilitate reduction, if not the eradication of stigma in the society. The text under study will be contextualised.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: In this article, the African reading of the Bible is brought to the fore using a liberating theology of Jesus in the context of the haemorrhaging woman, using this as a standard in ameliorating the stigma experience of PLH in the era of HIV and AIDS in Nigeria context. It is applicable to all fields of biblical study, social sciences and even health practitioners.