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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Doctrinal Liberation theology'
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1
Joseph, Abraham Sampathkumar. "Distinctives of Dalit theology, liberation theology in India." Online full text .pdf document, available to Fuller patrons only, 1998. http://www.tren.com.
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Roxas, Tomas M. "A biblical evaluation of soteriology in Filipino liberation theology." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 1987. http://www.tren.com.
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Muli, Alfred. "The contribution of African theological reflection to the quest for emancipation." Online full text .pdf document, available to Fuller patrons only, 2003. http://www.tren.com.
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Carlson, Gary A. "An analysis of revolutionary Latin American liberation theology." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 1991. http://www.tren.com.
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Lee, Hong Jei. "The comparative study of the Christology in Latin American liberation theology and Korean Minjung theology." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 1990. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/2397/.
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This dissertation is fundamentally concerned with the comparative study of Christology in latin American liberation theology and Korean minjung theology. To meet this task the Christology of the former is examined in relation to that of the latter. The study is divided into three parts. Part one contains chapter I through to III. Chapter I is a presentation of liberation theology's motive which takes the suffering people in the current socio-economic political situation as the starting point for a politics-oriented Christology. Chapter II shows the detailed analysis of liberation theology's methodology which is definitely grounded in the principles of the social sciences. Chapter III consists of seeking to interpret Jesus, his words and deeds in the light of the Latin American conditions. Part two, which constitutes chapter IV through to VI, will try to examine a way of thinking about minjung theology within the same categories which we concentrate on the development of liberation theology and its Christological implication in part one, because the clarification between them is necessary for the purpose of this thesis. It may help to solve some of the suspicion whether the label minjung theology is practically synonymous with the label liberation theology in creating a new and appropriate mode of an adequate Christology for answering to the vital needs of the poor and oppressed today. In this observation, have liberation theology and minjung theology anything to say to each other? It is natural for the Christian church to look to them for light on the question. In this desire, part three in chapter VII through to X begins a comparative and critical discussion of the motive, methodologies and Christological implications of the two theologies.
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Gahamya, Emmanuel. "A critique of Canaan Banana's theology." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 1990. http://www.tren.com.
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Puigbó, Juan A. "El concepto de teología de la historia en los escritos teológicos de Ignacio Ellacuría." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 2003. http://www.tren.com.
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Thomson, John Bromilow. "The ecclesiology of Stanley Hauerwas as a distinctively Christian theology of liberation (1970-2000)." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2001. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/11192/.
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Of all the concepts that informed what is often called the Enlightenment Project, liberation is arguably central. Nevertheless the experience of the past 200 years has raised serious questions about the character of this liberation and its pathology. In particular, the place of Christian theology in sustaining, concepts of freedom appears to have been marginalised in much post- Enlightenment thought, a challenge of particular significance to theologians and ethicists. Stanley Hauerwas represents one response to the manifestation of the Enlightenment Project in the United States, a response which, I believe, can be described as a distinctive theology of liberation chiefly from the Enlightenment legacy. This approach involves the integration of theology and ethics in the practices of a people whose identity is correlative to the particular narrative which they embody as that diachronic and synchronic, international community called Church. It also reflects an ambivalence about metaphysics and idealism and a preference for demonstrative, ecclesially mediated, truthful living. Yet the credibility of Hauerwas' ecclesiology as a genuinely Christian politics of liberation depends upon whether Hauerwas can not only identify the limitations of post-Enlightenment liberalism, but transcend them in a way that demonstrates the truthful character of the Christian narrative he believes to be embodied in this community called church. In order to determine whether Hauerwas' Project is a genuinely Christian theology of liberation from the Enlightenment legacy, we shall need to gauge the architecture of that project in chapter 1. Then, in chapter 2, we shall locate him in the wider post-Enlightenment debate, before doing the same in terms of the theological debate in chapter 3. This will bring us into conversation with his use of narrative and story as heuristic tools to resource the character of this ecclesiology in chapter 4, before our attempt, in chapter 5, to explore whether his ecclesial politics represent a distinctively Christian expression of liberty.
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Browne, Herman Beseah. "Theological anthropology a dialectic study of the African and liberation traditions /." London : Avon Books, 1996. http://catalog.hathitrust.org/api/volumes/oclc/39299396.html.
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Silva, Gotay Samuel. "EL pensamiento cristiano revolucionario en América Latina y el Caribe implicaciones de la teología de la liberación para la sociología de la religión /." Río Piedras, P.R. : Ediciones Huracán, 1989. http://books.google.com/books?id=AxjkAAAAMAAJ.
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Miller, Russell E. "The doctrine of rest in Hebrews 3-4 and its implications for liberation theology's use of the Exodus." Online full text .pdf document, available to Fuller patrons only, 2004. http://www.tren.com.
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Tennant, Matthew Aaron. "The existential dimension of the liberation theology of Juan Luis Segundo." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2014. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:6bcc14cd-db9a-4109-9ae9-a7e5ac5ec3f3.
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Juan Luis Segundo (1925-1996) was a Uruguayan Jesuit priest who, I argue, based his liberation theology on his understanding of existentialism. The major contribution of this thesis is the exploration of unknown and unexplored sources in Segundo's work. These sources support my thesis of his basis in existentialism and are corroborated by his mature theology. This thesis is significant because the connection between existentialism and liberation theology has been widely overlooked. My starting point is Segundo's 1948 book, in which he combines existentialism with personalism and develops a transcendental method grounded in love and inter-subjectivity. The following three chapters develop my argument through his engagement with four existentialist thinkers: Berdyaev, Sartre and Camus, and Heidegger. Chapter 3 demonstrates how Segundo follows Berdyaev's primacy of freedom, which allows for human creativity, but Segundo takes it as a "quality of the will" and relates freedom to love. Berdyaev influences Segundo's preference for a methodology yielding consistent growth rather than a systematic approach to theology. Chapter 4 shows how Sartre's and Camus' understanding of freedom and limits influenced Segundo's sense that a person's lived reality must be the starting point for theological reflection (e.g. the hermeneutic circle). In chapter 5, I use an unpublished manuscript to show how Segundo uses the place of tradition in the Christian church and the role of tradition in Heidegger's phenomenological analysis of Dasein in order to build his theology of "liberative human seeking and divine revelation". In the final two chapters, I draw the new sources together with two of Segundo's widely read books: Faith and Ideologies (1982) in chapter 6 and The Liberation of Theology (1975) in chapter 7. In chapter 6, the transcendental method he first wrote about in 1948 returns and he addresses materialism and personalism. Chapter 7 serves as my conclusion and uses Segundo's hermeneutic circle as the fullest manifestation of my argument.
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Pemberton, Charlie Samuel Christie. "Charity, homelessness, and the doctrine of creation." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2016. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/charity-homelessness-and-the-doctrine-of-creation(a0e80de6-557b-4f48-8f6b-8837beff4971).html.
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This thesis explores Gustavo Gutiérrez‟s and John Milbank‟s articulations of the doctrine of creation, with a view to developing a criterion that can be used to inform our understanding and evaluation of Christian charities that address homelessness and operate in contemporary British civil society. Milbank and Gutiérrez‟s works both ask questions of the peace or life that can be instituted through charitable practices. They also develop, from the doctrine of creation, their own theological accounts of social and political orders, normative anthropologies, and accounts of the interpersonal. For both Milbank and Gutiérrez, the doctrine of creation maintains a paradox: the internality and externality of the created world in relation to God. Part One of this thesis explores these respective accounts of charity and creation, noting the strengths and limitations of each position. Part One ends with a qualified endorsement of Gutiérrez‟s theology and defends the utility of the criterion he deploys in his work to judge the task of theology and praxis of the church: integral liberation. The second part of this thesis progresses in three steps. First, I put forward a theological methodology which is attentive to the logic of theo-political language and our current neoliberal socio-political order. I argue that it is prudent to think of political theology as a counter-hegemonic discourse, and in dialogue with Ernesto Laclau and Chantel Mouffe, Francis Schüssler Fiorenza and Gutiérrez, I explore and endorse political theology as spiral in character. I go on to extend Laclau and Mouffe‟s analysis of neoliberalism by developing and defending the hypothesis: 'charities are dual'. By engaging with the work of Frank Prochaska, this section argues that charities are both religious and political, as well as being both internal and external to the state apparatus. Furthermore, I contend that charities constitute and ameliorate the social exclusion attributed to homelessness, and that selfless giving, under the current circumstances, is internal to a process of volunteer self-making. By attending to the dualities of homelessness charities, this part of the thesis sets charities in their current context and proposes an elective affinity between current charitable practices and the hegemony of neoliberalism. At the end of the thesis, I return to the doctrine of creation and ask how attention to this doctrinal locus can help us to move homelessness charities beyond their dependence on the existence of homeless people, and their embeddedness in our current neoliberal arrangement. I argue that charities, and civil society more broadly, have an important role to play in envisioning and establishing a theo-politics of common life. To do so, I contend that we need to articulate a robust account of the role of the state, must defend human rights, nurture egalitarian and non-hierarchical charitable practices, be attentive to what the homeless can teach charities and volunteers about our current order, and reform aspects of charitable law. In each of these cases, I defend a paradoxical politics of integral liberation. In summary, this thesis aims to make an original contribution to the growing body of literature that explores homelessness and theology by coordinating the paradox of creation, the duality of charity, and the double truths of neoliberalism.
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Scheuren, Acevedo Sonia M. "The Opposition to Latin American Liberation Theology and the Transformation of Christianity, 1960-1990." FIU Digital Commons, 2016. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/2454.
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This thesis aims to explore the political, social and religious opposition to Liberation Theology in Latin America during the 1960s to 1990s, and the transformation of Christianity. During this period, most Latin American countries underwent social struggles and political repression in which opposition and persecution arose from dictatorial and military governments who labeled those committed to the poor as communists. Liberation Theology emerged as an ecclesial and theological trend committed to the poor, in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s in Latin America. This thesis traces the origins, development, expansion and repression of Liberation Theology. This work maintains that under the Cold War context and the National Security Doctrine, Liberation Theology became a target of political repression because its commitment with the poor placed it as subversive and communist. This research reveals how it was repressed with violence and the promotion of counteracting religious groups, leading to changes in Christianity.
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O'Rourke, James Colin Daly. "Globalization or liberation theology? : an examination of the presuppositions and motives underlying the efforts toward globalization." Thesis, McGill University, 1995. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=23730.
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This thesis will critically examine the project on globalization as articulated by the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada (ATS) in an effort to uncover the presuppositions and motivations that underlie the project, and to situate them historically and with reference to current North American trends in education and politics. It will argue that the project, as it has been described and defined, comes out of the ethos of Protestant liberalism, particularly as this is embodied in missiology and the 19th century Social Gospel Movement, and that this liberal foundation has been influenced since the 1960's in North America by the Civil Rights Movement, the Women's Movement and the more recent concern related to minorities and North American pluralism. Although lip service is paid to evangelism, ecumenism and interreligious dialogue, the globalization agenda is expressed in terms of social ethics, predominantly justice or liberation theology.
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O’Neil, Sean S. "Thinking in the Spirit: The Emergence of Latin American Pentecostal Scholars and Their Theology of Social Concern." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2003. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1070640885.
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Henry, James Daryn. "The Freedom of God: A Study in the Pneumatology of Robert Jenson." Thesis, Boston College, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:107101.
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Thesis advisor: Roberto GoizuetaThis dissertation presents a study in the Christian systematic theology of Robert W. Jenson on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. In doing so, this work seeks to contribute descriptively to Jenson scholarship in the theological academy, to understanding, clarifying and interpreting his role in the contemporary theological scene, while, as itself operating in the discipline of systematic theology, this work also seeks to constructively augment our understanding of the experience of the Holy Spirit in the Church, reckoning with the significance of this theological locus for a number of prominent movements in the current thought and practice of world Christianity. Part I and Part II of this work engage in an exegesis of the content of Jenson’s pneumatology. Here I advance the interpretation that Jenson’s pneumatology can be meaningfully and beneficially coalesced under—without being merely reduced to—the theme of “freedom” or “liberation.” This integrating motif becomes evident as Jenson’s pneumatology is unfolded across a number of other traditional doctrinal loci and interweaved with a number of other ecumenical concerns, examining both the “work” of the Spirit in the world (first part) and the divine “person” of the Spirit (second part). Part III, then, ventures a constructive evaluation and reception of Jenson’s distinctive pneumatological proposals by way of dialectical encounter with three horizons: those of (1) early Christian pneumatology, (2) twentieth century trinitarian theology and (3) liberation theological discourse and praxis. Through this dialectical engagement, I interrogate a number of aspects of Jenson’s divine ontology and theological infrastructure, insofar as they relate to the uniqueness of his pneumatological proposals. With a re-calibration of some of those theological judgments, I argue that certain insights of Jenson’s notion of the Spirit as eternal, personal Freedom in God, as the Unsurpassed One and as the movement of divine self-constitution from the End of Divine Life merit retrieval. This characterization of the person of the Spirit as one of “freedom” or “liberation,” for the believer, for creation, and for God, forges a pneumatological reconstruction of divine transcendence, similarly to what classical theology had done for the persons of the Father and the Son. Such an achievement, I suggest, offers one viable interpretation of the unique role of the Spirit that mediates between traditional-classical trinitarian ontology and the lived experience of the Spirit currently being exhibited, perceived and theorized in various aspects of global theology and leading areas of theological research
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2016
Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Theology
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Swanson, Kj. "A liberative imagination : reconsidering the fiction of Charlotte Brontë in light of feminist theology." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/11051.
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This thesis seeks to show the ways in which Charlotte Brontë's fiction anticipates the concerns of contemporary feminist theology. Whilst Charlotte Brontë's novels have held a place of honor in feminist literary criticism for decades, there has been a critical tendency to associate the proto-feminism of Brontë's narratives with a rejection of Christianity—namely, that Brontë's heroines achieve their personal, social and spiritual emancipation by throwing off the shackles of a patriarchal Church Establishment. And although recent scholarly interest in Victorian Christianity has led to frequent interpretations that regard Brontë's texts as upholding a Christian worldview, in many such cases, the theology asserted in those interpretations arguably undermines the liberative impulse of the narratives. In both cases, the religious and romantic plots of Brontë's novels are viewed as incompatible. This thesis suggests that by reading Brontë's fiction in light of an interdisciplinary perspective that interweaves feminist and theological concerns, the narrative journeys of Brontë's heroines might be read as affirming both Christian faith and female empowerment. Specifically, this thesis will examine the ways in which feminist theologians have identified the need for Christian doctrines of sin and grace to be articulated in a manner that better reflects women's experiences. By exploring the interrelationship between women's writing and women's faith, particularly as it relates to the literary origins of feminist theology and Brontë's position within the nineteenth-century female publishing boom, Brontë's liberative imagination for female flourishing can be re-examined. As will be argued, when considered from the vantage point of feminist theology, 'Jane Eyre', 'Shirley', and 'Villette' portray women's need to experience grace as self-construction and interdependence rather than self-denial and subjugation.
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McGeoch, Graham Gerald. "Liberating Ecumenism : an ecclesiological dialogue with the Final Report of the Special Commission on Orthodox participation in the World Council of Churches." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2015. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/6466/.
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The thesis attempts to address Orthodox Church concerns about the Protestant nature and ethos of the ecumenical movement, as it is encountered in the World Council of Churches, by examining Orthodox theological contributions to ecclesiology. This preliminary work is undertaken, as a first step, to establish points of dialogue with the theology of liberation and wider critical theories, in the search for a liberating ecumenism. At the same time, and in a second step (to follow the epistemology of the theology of liberation), this Orthodox theology is placed in a critical dialogue with the theology of liberation in the search for liberating ecclesiological perspectives that can contribute to the movement in ecumenism. This uneasy dialogue helps to recover absent epistemologies from ongoing ecumenical dialogues by re-reading orthodoxies, both ecumenical and ecclesiological, from a liberationist paradigm, and sets ecclesiology within the wider framework of contributions from critical theory. This dialogue between Orthodox theology and the theology of liberation helps to construct an ecclesiology that liberates ecumenism by setting ecclesiology and the ecumenical movement in the wider context of social movements. This thesis calls the ecumenical movement to ‘another possible world’ influenced by people-centred ecclesiologies, which transgresses the canonical boundaries in the ecumenical movement. To be ecumenical implies an Orthodox content to ecclesiology, otherwise the ecumenical movement is open to charges of pan-Protestantism. It is by embracing Orthodoxy that the ecumenical movement can move beyond hegemonic colonial projects and find a liberating praxis. This thesis proposes a dialogue that reflects the structure of the Final Report of the Special Commission on Orthodox Participation in the World Council of Churches. However, it engages with Orthodox ecclesiology and ecumenical histories from the perspective of the theology of liberation in the search for a liberating ecumenism and proposes a praxis that develops movement in the ecumenical and the ecclesiological through developing an ecclesiology from different peripheries of the Church.
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Cardonha, José. "A Igreja Católica nos "Anos de Chumbo": resistência e deslegitimação do Estado autoritário brasileiro 1968-1974." Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, 2011. http://tede2.pucsp.br/handle/handle/2257.
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Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T20:20:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1
Jose Cardonha.pdf: 3960682 bytes, checksum: b0fe5200b55869d7e2fa5e0481fcfad1 (MD5)
Previous issue date: 2011-06-16Investigates the reaction of the progressive Catholics against the military dictatorship in Brazil mainly based on official and formerly classified documents currently available at Arquivo Público do Estado de São Paulo - APESP. This work demonstrates that the progressive sectors of the Catholic Church resisted against the authoritarian state and worked for its moral deligitimation in several ways: politically, with the condemnation of the systematic violation of the Human Rights; ideologically, with the exposition of the totalitarian tendency of the National Security Doctrine; and economically, with critics to a model that stimulated income concentration and social marginalization
A Igreja Católica nos Anos de Chumbo: Resistência e Deslegitimação do Estado Autoritário Brasileiro (1968/1974) é um trabalho de pesquisa e reflexão sobre a ação dos católicos progressistas contra a ditadura militar. A pesquisa sobre a memória da resistência católica foi realizada nos arquivos da repressão política. A análise pretende demonstrar que os setores progressistas da Igreja resistiram e deslegitimaram moralmente o Estado autoritário: no plano político, combatendo a violação sistemática dos Direitos Humanos: no plano ideológico, denunciando o caráter totalitário da Doutrina de Segurança Nacional; e no plano econômico: condenando o modelo concentrador de renda e gerador de marginalização social
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Bailie, John. "John Wesley - a theology of liberation." Diss., 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/2383.
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There is without doubt as much criticism of Liberation Theology as there is understanding regarding the need for a theology which seeks answers to the effectiveness of the Christian witness, against a background of mounting poverty, the oppression of woman and continued discrimination by one race against another, worldwide. Many scholars struggle with the revolutionary and often hostile nature and methodology of Liberation Theology.
This paper attempts to enter into a conversation between the theology of John Wesley and Liberation Theology. The theology of John Wesley had a tremendous impact on social, political and economic areas of the Eighteenth century England. It was in many ways a revolutionary theology.
This paper takes as a standpoint, the need for praxis with regard to Christian witness and therefore seeks to argue that there may be common ground between Wesleyan Theology and Liberation Theology.Systematic Theology and Theological Ethics
M.Th. (Systematic Teology)
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Nakah, Victor. "A comparison of African Evangelicalism with South African Black theology and Indian Dalit theology." Diss., 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/1549.
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Evangelicals have an unquestionable heritage for involvement in the world and its social problems and the Bible provides a basis for a liberative gospel. For the God of the Bible is not only a God of love and peace, but also of justice and he is therefore on the side of the poor, oppressed and suffering. he has given us a spirit of engagement with the world as salt and light and not escapism. As we give serious consideration to the challenges of liberation theologies, we need to hear the voice who calls his people in every age to go out into the lost and lonely world (as he did), in order to live and love, to witness and serve like him and for him and that is what African Evangelicalism is all about.Systematic Theology and Theological Ethics
M. Th. (Religious Studies)
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Bailie, John. "The impact of liberation theology on methodism in South Africa with regard to the doctrine of christian perfection." Thesis, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/2600.
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ThesisThere is potential for a schism, within the Methodist Church of Southern Africa (MCSA) today, between Fundamentalist and Liberationist Methodists, who struggle to find common identity and vision. A question that needs examination is whether it is possible to develop an authentically, uniting Southern African Methodist Theology within the current Institutional structure of the MCSA. For this to become possible, some key areas of discussion are highlighted in this paper, such as the training of ministers and the MCSA as Institution. This paper attempts to enter into conversation between Fundamental and Liberation Methodism using the Doctrine of Christian Perfection, 'the Grand Depositum' of Methodism, as a point of reference and develop an epistemological framework based on Wesley’s 'quadrilateral' of Scripture, reason, experience and tradition. This paper takes as a standpoint the need for an authentically Southern African Methodist theology, which is both uniting and transformatory, in order for the MCSA to fulfil its vision of “A Christ Healed Africa for the Healing of Nations.”
Systematic theology and Theological Ethics
D. Th. (Systematic Testament)
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Gathogo, Julius Mutugi. "Liberation and reconstruction in the works of J N K Mugambi : a critical analysis in African theology." Thesis, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10413/151.
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This study builds on Jesse Mugambi's post-Cold War proposal for a paradigm shift, from liberation to reconstruction. Mugambi's line of reasoning is based upon his understanding of the post-Cold War period in Africa, and the need for a shift from the "dominant" paradigm of liberation, in articulating African theology, to reconstruction. The Cold War had divided Africa (and the rest of the world) into two ideological blocks, namely, the East Bloc nations (i.e., Warsaw Pact) vs. the nations in the West (NATO). With the destruction of the Berlin Wall, the end of western colonial rule in Africa, and the demise of apartheid, Mugambi prods that, there is a need to shift the theological emphasis from the Exodus motif to that of a Reconstructive motif. While the former motif was biblically modelled on Moses, and the Exodus from Egypt and the Journey to the Promised Land, the latter is biblically modelled on Nehemiah who led the Jews in the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem following their return from Exile after seventy years of Babylonian captivity. Thus Mugambi sets the stage for the debate in this study, by his proposal that the post-Cold War Africa should now shift its paradigm in theo-social discourses.Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2007.
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Van, der Water Desmond Peter. "The legacy of a prophetic moment : a socio-theological study of the reception and response to the Kairos Document amongst churches faith- communities and individuals in South Africa and within the international ecumenical community focussing on the English-speaking churches in South Africa with special reference to the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa." Thesis, 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/10413/10361.
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The Kairos Document ('KD' or 'Document') burst onto the socio-political and ecclesiastical scene in South Africa in 1985, presenting to churches, communities-of-faith and individuals the challenge of a decisive moment in the history of Christian opposition to Apartheid. The nature and extent of reactions and responses to the document exceeded the authors wildest
dreams and most optimistic of expectations. This study traces the contours and discerns the patterns of reactions against and resonances with the Document in South Africa and within the international ecumenical community. The main focus of this research, however, is on the propensity and capacity of the institutionalised churches - and in particular the English-speaking churches in South Africa - to respond positively and constructively to a prophetic challenge, such that which emanated from the KD and the subsequent Kairos movement. One of the English-speaking churches, the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa (UCCSA), is singled out in this thesis and subjected to an extended examination and analysis, relative to its response to the challenge of the Document. The main reason for this special reference to the UCCSA is that this church denomination had embarked on a major process of ecclesiastical and denominational transformation in its response to the challenge of Kairos. It is 'upon this process of transformation within the UCCSA that I seek to critically reflect and to draw some learnings from the prophetic legacy of the Document.
The UCCSA also happens to be the church denomination in which I have been nurtured in Christian faith, practice and ministry. The work, worship and witness of this church is therefore the primary frame of reference and ecclesiastical context in which my own prophetic consciousness has been awakened and shaped. I am, as such, acutely aware that my research on the responses to the KD by the UCCSA is being undertaken from the perspectives of an insider and that my passion for and commitment to the prophetic role of the Church makes me no neutral observer. It is my contention, however, that the above factors neither compromise nor diminish the academic credibility and ecumenical significance of this study. On the contrary, my strategic positioning within the UCCSA enables me to undertake such research from a privileged vantage point of first-hand
experience, readily accessible data and greater understanding which derives from such close proximity. Needless to say, I shall endeavour to be as rigorous and critical as possible in my appraisal of the UCCSA's response which, in the final analysis, is an integral part of my overall critique of the nature of the churches' responses to the prophetic challenge of the KD.Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1998.
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Methula, Dumisani Welcome. "Black Theology and the struggle for economic justice in the democratic South Africa." Diss., 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/18918.
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This study sets out to contribute to the expansive development of Systematic Theology and Black Theology, particularly in the struggle for economic justice in the democratic South Africa. The liberation of black people in South Africa and across the globe is the substantive reason for Black Theologies‘ existence and expression. The study‘s reflections on economic justice and Black Theology as sites of the intellectual focus and analysis is central to understanding the conditions of existence for the majority of South Africa‘s citizens, as well as understanding whether the fullness of life based on dignity and freedom as articulated in biblical witness, particularly John 10:10 is manifest for black people in South Africa. The study also seeks to identify, describe, analyse and understand the emancipatory theories and praxis, which entail a plethora of efforts they undertake to liberate themselves. Understanding and engendering the nexus of social practice and theological insights in the articulation of Black Theology as a particular expression of systematic theology, and drawing attention to the ethical foundations undergirding Black Theology, are important in demonstrating Black Theology‘s role and task as a multi-disciplinary discipline which encompass and engender dialogue within and between theory and praxis, and theology and ethics. This study thus suggests that since the locus of Black Theology and spirituality is embedded in the life, (ecclesial and missional) work (koinonia) and preaching (kerygma) of black churches, they have the requisite responsibility to engage in the efforts (spiritual and theological) in the struggle to finding solutions to the triple crises of unemployment, inequality and poverty which ravage the quality and dignity of life of the majority black people in post-apartheid South Africa. This study therefore concludes by asserting that, there are a variety of viable options and criteria relevant for facilitating economic justice in South Africa. These strategies include transformational distribution of land to the majority of South Africans, the implementation of heterodox economic policies which engender market and social justice values in the distribution of economic goods to all citizens. It also entails prioritization of the social justice agenda in economic planning and economic practice. In theological language, economic justice must involve the restoration of the dignity and the wellbeing of the majority of South Africans, who remain poor, marginalised and disillusioned. It also entails promoting justice as a central principle in correcting the remnants of apartheid injustices, which limit transformational justice which enables and facilitates equality, freedom and economic justice for all South African citizens.Philosophy, Practical & Systematic Theology
M. Th. (Systematic Theology)
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Chimhanda, Francisca Hildegardis. "An incarnational Christology set in the context of narratives of Shona women in present day Zimbabwe." Thesis, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/598.
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Implicit in the concepts Incarnation, narrative, Christology, Shona women of Zimbabwe today is
the God who acts in human history and in the contemporaneity and particularity of our being.
The Incarnation as the embodiment of God in the world entails seizing the kairos opportunity to
expand the view and to bear the burdens of responsibility. A theanthropocosmic Christology that
captures the Shona holistic world-view is explored. The acme for a relational Christology is the
imago Dei/Christi and the baptismal indicative and imperative. God is revealed in various
manifestations of creation. Human identity and dignity is the flipside of God's attributes.
Theanthropocosmic Christology as pluralistic, differential and radical brings about a dialectic
between the whole and its parts, the uniqueness of the individual, communal ontology and
epistemology, the local and the universal, orthodoxy and orthopraxis, Christology and
soteriology. God mediates in the contingency of particularity. Emphasis is on life-affirmation
rather than sex determination of Jesus as indicated by theologies of liberation and inculturation.
At the interface gender, ethnicity, class and creed, God transcends human limitedness and
artificial boundaries in creating catholic space and advocating all-embracing apostolic action.
Difference is appreciated for the richness it brings both to the individual and the community.
Hegemonic structures and borderless texts are view with suspicion as totalising grand~narratives
and exclusivist by using generic language. The kairos in dialogue with the Incarnation is seizing
the moment to expand the view and to share the burdens, joys and responsibility in a community
of equal discipleship.
In a hermeneutic of engagement and suspicion, prophetic witness is the hallmark of Christian
discipleship and of a Christology that culminates in liberative praxis. The Christology that
emerges from Shona women highlights a passionate appropriation that involves the head, gut,
womb and heart and underlies the circle symbolism. The circle is the acme of Shona hospitality
and togetherness in creative dialogue with the Trinitarian koinonia. The Shona Christological
designation Muponesi (Deliverer-Midwife) in dialogue with the Paschal Mystery motif captures
the God-human-cosmos relationship that gives a Christology caught up in the rhythms,
dynamism and drama of life.Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology
D.Th. (Systematic Theology)
28
Augustine, Daniela Christova. "At the crossroads of social transformation : an Eastern-European theological perspective." Thesis, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/655.
Full textAbstract:
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)
29
House, Sean David. "Pentecostal contributions to modern Christological thought: a synthesis with ecumenical views." Diss., 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/2042.
Full textAbstract:
Pentecostalism, which developed its essential character during the classical period of 1901-1916, has many significant contributions to make to modern theology. Often viewed as a type of fundamentalism, it is actually a theological tradition in its
own right that deserves consideration along with the other two major streams of
protestantism, conservative evangelicalism and more liberal ecumenical-mainline thought. Although it emphasizes the experience of the Holy Spirit, pentecostalism is highly Christocentric as is evidenced by its foundational symbol of faith, the fourfold gospel of Jesus as savior, healer, baptizer, and coming king. This work examines how
the pentecostal fourfold gospel, as a functional, from below Spirit Christology, anticipates and intersects with trends in twentieth century ecumenical theological thought. The result of the study is the articulation of a fuller, more holistic understanding of the work of Christ in salvation in the world today.Systematic Theology & Theological Ethics
M. Th. (Systematic Theology)
30
House, Sean David. "Theories of atonement and the development of soteriological paradigms : implications of a pentecostal appropriation of the Christus Victor model." Thesis, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/6539.
Full textAbstract:
Atonement theories have great implications for the soteriological paradigms
associated with them, but their significance has not always been recognized in the
formulation of theological systems, the lack of dogmatic definition by ecumenical
council encouraging diversification and isolation from other doctrinal loci. The
strongest coherence between an atonement model and soteriology can be seen in the
reformed tradition, and its theory of penal substitution has become the standard
accepted by many non-reformed protestant groups, including classical pentecostalism.
Tensions persist in the theological system of pentecostalism because of its pairing of
penal substitution with the soteriological paradigm of its foundational symbol of faith,
the full gospel of Jesus as savior, sanctifier, baptizer with the Spirit, healer, and
coming king. This vision of salvation is broader than that of protestant orthodoxy,
which through its atonement theory deleteriously separates the death of Christ from
his work in life and strictly limits the subjects and nature of salvation, specifically to
addressal of elect individuals’ sins. It is proposed that this tension within the
pentecostal system be relieved not through a reduction of its soteriology but a
retrieval of the Christus victor model, the atonement theory of the ancient and Eastern
church. As reintroduced to the Western church by G. Aulén, this model interprets the
saving work of Christ along two lines: recapitulation, the summing up and saving of
humanity via the incarnation, and ransom, the deliverance of humanity from the
hostile powers holding it in bondage. In a contemporary, pentecostal appropriation of
this model, aid is taken from K. Barth’s concept of nothingness to partially
demythologize the cosmic conflict of the Bible, and pentecostalism reinvigorates the
Eastern paradigm of salvation as theosis or Christification via the expectation of the
replication of Christ’s ministry in the Christian. The study shows Christus victor can
give a more stable base for a broader soteriology that is concerned with the holistic
renewal of the human person. To demonstrate the developed model’s vigor and
applicability beyond pentecostalism, the study closes by bringing it into conversation
with the concerns of three contemporary theological movements.Philosophy & Systematic Theology
D. Th. (Systematic Theology)