Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Ephesians 4'

Uma análise exegético-teológica do tema da unidade da igreja a partir do texto de Efésios 4.1-6. Primeiramente, são observadas as feições do rosto do texto, pela análise textual, literária e formal do texto grego. Em seguida, pergunta-se pelos pés do texto, nos quais são tratadas as questões da historicidade do texto, o seu problema de fontes externas e a possibilidade de análise a partir das marcas históricas do texto em si. Num terceiro momento, é observado o coração do texto pelas análises de conteúdo e teológica. E, por fim, procura-se ver por meio dos olhos do texto e enxergar contextos e realidades para a sua atualização. A descoberta central está na caraterística da unidade da igreja como realidade escatológica da manifestação da unidade de Deus dentro do mundo. Essa unidade possui tripla ancoragem: na vocação feita por parte de Deus; na realidade da unidade e unicidade do próprio Deus - Pai, Filho e Espírito Santo; e na meta escatológica da unidade do cosmo em Deus.
An exegetical-theological analysis of the theme of unity of the church from the text of Ephesians 4:1-6. First, are observed facial features of the text, from the textual analysis, literary and formal Greek text. Then we question by the feet of the text, which addresses the questions of the historicity of the text, the problem of its external sources and the possibility of analysis from the historical marks of the text itself. In the third step, the heart of the text is observed by analysis of content and theology. Finally we seek to see through the eyes of the text and see realities and contexts for your updates. The central finding is characteristic of the unity of the church as a eschatological reality of the manifestation of the unity og God in the world. This unit has triple anchoring: the call made ​​by God; the reality of unity and oneness of God Himself - Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and the eschatological goal of the unity of the cosmos in God.

The aim of this study is to determine the meaning of spiritual maturity in Ephesians 4:1-16 and use it as a critical standard to evaluate the spiritual maturity of the Church in a specific context in Tanzania. To achieve this aim, a method of Rhetorical Criticism appropriate for interpreting Ephesians 4:1-16 was developed and, accordingly, the communicative function of Ephesians 4:1-16 in the Epistle determined. Ephesians 4:13 was then interpreted, to obtain the meaning of spiritual maturity. A self-administered questionnaire was developed, pre-tested and distributed to a sample of Church leaders in the Arusha, Babati and Kilimanjaro Deaneries of the Anglican Diocese of Mount Kilimanjaro. The data from the 79 questionnaires returned were analysed using the SPSS. The meaning of spiritual maturity in Ephesians 4:1-16 and the understanding and level of spiritual maturity of the leadership of the Anglican Church in Tanzania were compared. The following are some of the highlights of the results and conclusions of the study: First, Paul's main purpose in Ephesians is for Christians to understand that they have a new identity and to exhort them to celebrate it (Eph 1 - 3); in response, they are to live a life that is commensurate with that identity as an expression of their gratitude to God for it (Eph 4:17 -6:20); but in order to be able to live as they are exhorted, they need to be growing towards spiritual maturity (Eph 4:1-16). Second, spiritual maturity is a final destination intended for all Christians, who are progressively becoming one body that befits Christ as its Head. Its indicators include stability and constancy in the truth, ability to discern error and reject or correct it, and ability and orientation to speak the truth in love. As a result of the Church growing towards ultimate spiritual maturity, unity increasingly becomes a reality, implying that it is spiritual maturity that brings about unity of all, not the other way round. And third, in several of the dimensions of spiritual maturity, the Church leadership's understanding is not in agreement with Ephesians 4:1-16. That is by no means to say the Church leadership does not agree with the portion of Scripture on anything. For example, in consonance with the position of Ephesians 4:13, the Church leadership generally acknowledges the necessity of human effort to strive towards spiritual maturity and the necessity of systematic and authentic biblical teaching for the attainment of spiritual maturity. This is significant, since without such acknowledgement, investing towards spiritual maturity in terms of time, finances and training is highly unlikely. However, whereas the corporate essence of spiritual maturity in Ephesians 4:13 projects an expectation of increasing oneness of the body, the Church leadership understands the corporate essence of spiritual maturity as the abilities and constancy of all Christians to be able to stand on their own, individually, thus missing the corporate essence of spiritual maturity according to the text. Furthermore, from the text, the primary means of attaining spiritual maturity is the participation of all Christians as started off and continuously equipped and guided by the ministers Christ appointed and gave to the Church as gifts. In contradistinction, a majority of the Church leaders understands the Baptism and Confirmation rites to be the primary means of attaining spiritual maturity. The Church leadership also understands that spiritual maturity becomes complete when people accept Christ as their Lord and Saviour. With such understanding, the leadership of the Church would be handicapped, at least would not be motivated, with regard to developing effective spiritual growth programmes for their Church. Also, Ephesians 4:13-16 presents spiritual maturity as absolutely necessary and lack of it as a dangerous state for the Church to be in, but the Church leaders' understanding of the necessity of spiritual maturity reflects lack of awareness about, or an indifference to, or naiveté about the fact that a Church lacking spiritual maturity would likely succumb to the machinations of false teachers and other forces of error, who are resolved to deceive, mislead and destroy. The implications of these findings for the work of the Anglican Church in Tanzania are identified and presented. The main contributions of this thesis include the particular approach to interpreting Ephesians in general and Ephesians 4:1-16 in particular as well as the method of Rhetorical Criticism developed for that purpose, articulation of the concept of spiritual maturity from the interpretation of Ephesians 4:13, and the determination of the spiritual maturity of the Church in a specific context. Church leaders of the Anglican Church in Tanzania, decision-makers in Church work generally, Christian education planners, and New Testament scholars should find this contribution particularly beneficial.
Thesis (Ph.D. (New Testament))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

This study examined how aesthetic leadership behaviors relate to or express leaders’ personal cohesion of inner self. The hypothesis asserted that (a) leaders who were exposed to prolonged/profound trauma and did not work through this trauma may retreat their identity into their leadership role, attempting to epitomize the ideals of their movement to escape from the pain; (b) once their identity is confined to the pursuit of embodying their movement’s values, these leaders may feel compelled to sacrifice everything including intimacy, rest, and health, for the prototypical ideals, and live in a constant state of hyper-arousal (fight or flight) and social constriction (Schick, 2011); (c) in this state, leaders may be capable of abnormally high performance outputs with expansive, lasting impact—but this performance may be indicative of brokenness and disintegration from oneself; and (d) leaders’ personal coherence will be observable in their aesthetic actions. For disintegrated traumatized leaders, the fracture was hypothesized to be aesthetically expressed in hyper-prototypicality as a leader, with simultaneously observable difficulty in maintaining healthy self. In a companion study, a hybrid hermeneutical personal narrative approach was utilized to analyze the parallel texts of Testament (Francis, 1226) and the Life of St. Francis (Thomas of Celano, 1246) to examine the inner cohesion of Saint Francis of Assisi, as well as the parallel texts of This is That (Semple McPherson, 1923) and Aimee Semple McPherson and the Resurrection of Christian America (Sutton, 2007) in the examination of Sister Aimee Semple McPherson’s cohesion of self. The study demonstrated that research of a leader’s inner person requires study of multidimensional aesthetic exchanges rather than aesthetic action alone. Role development in the family also shaped leaders’ understanding of calling and expectations. Additionally, aesthetically expressed disintegration of core identity appears to have triggered the embrace of ministry lifestyles that sustained hyper-arousal. Finally, four variables emerged as the primary causal factors in the disintegration of both leaders’ personhood: (a) intense/overbearing parental influence, (b) overwhelming desire to have widespread impact, (c) skewed understanding of God or personal application of the gospel, and (d) lack of capacity to process trauma—variables that leaders in numerous contexts may experience.

This study attempts to demonstrate that the most probable interpretation of the descent of Christ in Eph. 4: 7-11 involves a descent of Christ as the Spirit who distributes gifts to his church subsequent to the ascent of Eph. 4: 8. The investigation begins with a history of the interpretation of Eph. 4: 7-11. Most modern interpreters favour either a descent to the under- world (or the grave) between Christ's death and resurrection or a descent from heaven to earth at the incarnation. Textual and grammatical problems relevant to the proposed exegesis are also discussed. A major portion of the study deals with the ascent-descent imagery associating Ps. 68: 19 (quoted in Eph. 4: 8) and Moses as found in Tg Psalms and the rabbinic literature. The author of Ephesians, had he been aware of these traditions associating Psalm 68 with Moses, would have been predisposed to think in terms of a subsequent descent, because Moses' ascent of Mt Sinai to receive the Torah was followed by his descent to distribute it as 'gifts' to men. Although it is clear that both Tg Psalms and the rabbinic literature are later than Ephesians, there is evidence from a number of early sources that such Moses-traditions were in circulation prior to the first century CE. The association of these traditions with Ps. 68: 19 as employed by the author of Ephesians appears to exist through the connection of Moses' ascent of Sinai to receive the Torah with the celebration of the Jewish feast of Pentecost on the one hand, and the Christian use of Psalm 68 in connection with Pentecost (described in Acts 2) on the other. Ps. 68: 19 was already understood to refer to the ascent of Christ and the gift of the Spirit in a layer of tradition older than Ephesians. Familiarity with the Moses-traditions connected with an ascent and descent of Sinai would have suggested a subsequent descent. Thus the author's innovation did not lie in the use of the psalm in a christological sense, nor in the introduction of a subsequent descent of Christ inferred from the ascent mentioned in Ps. 68: 19. The contribution of the author of Ephesians consisted in his identification of the ascended Christ as the Spirit who descended to distribute gifts to his church. Such an interpretation offers the best explanation of the passage in light of the evidence linking Moses-traditions of a heavenly ascent at Sinai with Pentecost and Psalm 68.