Journal articles on the topic 'Spiritual warfare - Biblical teaching'

The term ‘spiritual warfare’, referring to the Christian’s battle with evil spirits, was popularized by the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement and is the predominant language used in contemporary Christianity to describe encounters with evil spirits. This paper reviews the prevalence of military metaphors in popular and scholarly writings, and examines the problems associated with warfare language from linguistic, biblical, theological and psycho-social perspectives. I suggest that ‘spiritual warfare’ has become a dead metaphor: its metaphorical insights have been lost and other metaphors are neglected. Therefore renewed attention to metaphor theory is needed along with alternative language with which to discuss demonology and deliverance. I conclude with suggestions for supplementary metaphors/models, including cleansing, setting boundaries on evil, appropriating divine authority, and using light/dark imagery.

Abstrak Pada era modernisasi saat ini bannyak orang yang menganut paham rasionalisme sehingga banyak orang mengkesampingkan hal-hal yang bersifat rohani oleh sebab itu jurnal ini menguraikan akan realita peperangan rohani menurut efesus 6:12 agar para gerejaNya menyadari bahwa peperangan rohani itu bukanlah dongeng tapi bagian dari kehidupan kristen yang mesti dilakukan supaya tidak terjebak dalam tipu muslihat iblis dan mengalami kehidupan yang berkemenangan di dalam Tuhan Yesus. Metode yang digunakan dengan deskriptif kualitatif, pendekatannya melalui kajian biblika yaitu eksegesis (mengerti makna teks) dan analisa teks alkitab sesuai konteks yang ada. Kata Kunci: Realita, Peperangan, Rohani, Efesus 6:12. AbstractIn the current era of modernization, many people adhere to rationalism, so many people put aside spiritual things, therefore this journal describes the reality of spiritual warfare according to Ephesians 6:12 so that His churches realize that spiritual warfare is not a fairy tale but a part of life. Christians must do so they don't fall into the tricks of the devil and experience a victorious life in the Lord Jesus. The method used is descriptive qualitative, the approach is through biblical studies, namely exegesis (understanding the meaning of the text) and analysis of biblical texts according to the existing context. Keywords: Reality, War, Spiritual, Ephesians 6:12.

Those wanting to form members of Generation Z into mature disciples must overcome the challenges presented by their shared generational traits. This article summarizes the biblical teaching on spiritual maturity, documents a division within Generation Z between “engaged” and “churched” Christians, synthesizes current research on Generation Z to identify traits that could hinder discipleship efforts, and uses the biblical traits of spiritual maturity to offer guidance in addressing those challenges.

After clarifying background assumptions, I proceed to a description of the soul as the source and coordinating principle of the individual life, referring to classical and biblical sources. The soul is presented as distinct from the person, but the entity that makes the person and life one person and life. The psychological reality of sin is seen in the incapacitation of the soul to coordinate the whole person, internally and externally. The gospel word and the Spirit of God bring new life to persons “dead in sin,” and make it possible for them to become active in spiritual growth by utilizing disciplines such as solitude, silence, fasting, and scripture memorization. The effect of these on progression toward wholeness is discussed, and the importance of psychological research and teaching on spiritual formation through spiritual disciplines is emphasized.

This article considers the subject of spiritual warfare led by monks as the “sol­diers” of Christ. Author of the article analyzed two John Chrysostom’ homilies (69 and 70) from the series Homily on the Gospel according to St. Matthew. First, he emphasizes the important role of the monasticism in the life and thought of John Chrysostom already from the beginning of his literary activity. Then, on the basis of sources, he shows the monks as a “spiritual army” of Christ, who are stay­ing at the hermitage instead of at a military camp, and instead of arms have ascetic practices. This spiritual army of Christ refers more splendid victory than the crack troops of the Roman Empire army, because the battle with the demons is far more difficult than fighting with people. In the final part of the article pointed out the profile of pastoral teaching of John Chrysostom, who encouraged all Christians to take spiritual warfare as the monks.

Western Christianity is in decline. There is little belief in a supernatural kingdom of evil. Satan's chief weapon is to convince the world that he does not exist. Science has believed him. The result is that mental health workers are unable to recognize or treat demon possession when it occurs. To recognize demon possession a person must possess the ability to discern the spirits, and have diagnostic criteria that allow positive diagnosis. This reaction examines the equivocal position taken by Page (1989) and responds by pointing out that we cannot equivocate in our approach to the activities of Satan and his minions. We have marshalled evidence from excellent biblical scholars that we are involved in spiritual warfare, and if equipped to fight it we must do battle. Christian counselors are the only mental health workers appropriately equipped for this warfare.

The article systematises the metaphors ascribed by Origen (185-253/254) to the well-known female characters of the Old Testament utilising the method of allegorical exegesis of the text of Scripture. Females appearing on the pages of the historical books of Bible are – according to the Alexandrian – allegories of hu­man virtues or defects. They embody the spiritual warfare between the spirit and the body, between the mind and the feelings. In the collective sense they symbo­lize the synagogue or the church chosen from the Gentiles, and in the individual sense – the human soul in its relation to God. Origen refers to the telling names of women, translating them and embedding into the spiritual context often giving the several different allegorical meanings to the same biblical person. Despite the often-quoted in his writings beliefs characteristic to the ancient world, procla­iming that the woman is a symbol of bodily feelings and the man – a symbol of the intellectual abilities, majority of allegorical interpretations relating to the Old Testament women indicates a personification of the virtues worthy of imitation. This phenomenon is conditioned with the meaning of the names of those persons and the role attributed to them by the biblical authors, but Origen’s interpretations are original and based on his own concept of spiritual life. They deny opinions of misogyny of Origen and the early Christian writers in general.

Moral injury emerged within clinical psychology and related fields to refer to a non-physical wound (psychological and emotional pain and its effects) that results from the violation (by oneself or others) of a person’s deepest moral beliefs (about oneself, others, or the world). Originally conceived in the context of warfare, the notion has now expanded to include the morally damaging impact of various non-war-related experiences and circumstances. Since its inception, moral injury has been an intersectional and cross-disciplinary term and significant work has appeared in psychology, philosophy, medicine, spiritual/pastoral care, chaplaincy, and theology. Since 2015, biblical scholarship has engaged moral injury along two primary trajectories: 1) creative re-readings of biblical stories and characters informed by insights from moral injury; and 2) explorations of the postwar rituals and symbolic practices found in biblical texts and how they might connect to the felt needs of morally injured persons. These trajectories suggest that the engagement between the Bible and moral injury generates a two-way conversation in which moral injury can serve as a heuristic that brings new meanings out of biblical texts, and the critical study of biblical texts can contribute to the attempts to understand, identify, and heal moral injury.

Educators, philosophers, and theologians have long concerned themselves with the process of critical thinking. John Dewey’s writings, specifically How We Think, cast a long shadow in both secular and religious educational contexts. Can the Christian educator employ Dewey’s framework for reflective thinking in a useful manner without subscribing to his naturalistic underpinnings? This article evaluates Dewey’s reflective thinking process and suggests potential applications to Christian growth and maturity. First, biblical components must replace the deficiencies in Dewey’s epistemology. Next, the article examines the mandate for and role of critical thinking in the life of the mature Christian through the lens of Paul’s letter to the church in Rome. Finally, a clear connection between Paul’s teaching and Dewey’s process will be presented.

AbstractIn the present climate of debate surrounding United States immigration, both legal and illegal, the call to be neighbour and to exercise hospitality that echoes throughout the biblical tradition provides valid and unequivocal dimensions of a Christian spirituality within the horizon of the immigration discussion. This article traces the development of such a spirituality beginning with the Jewish scriptures, the ministry of Jesus in the gospels and Catholic social teaching. It concludes with a spirituality rooted in the American memory that offers promise and hope and proclaims the best of the American spirit.

Below, 15 books are reviewed, presented in the following general order: foundations, children/family ministry, youth ministry, adult ministry, teaching-learning process, leadership/administration, and spirituality/spiritual formation—although reviews may not appear for each area. We invite readers to consider reviewing a book for CEJ. Guidelines are available in downloadable documents at www.biola.edu/cej . A list of each area and responsible editors appears after the last review. In this addition, we express appreciation to Dr. Norma Hedin and her team for compiling the excellent textbook review section in the area of foundations of Christian educational ministry.

This article examines a model of formation within higher education that is committed to educationally based spiritual formation, desiring to see students formed as people who love God and neighbor, devoting their lives to redemptive labor in the world. Deeply influenced by the evolving relationship between the department, the institution, and the broader evangelical culture, the Christian Formation and Ministry department of Wheaton College seeks to equip students with the theological and theoretical foundation, the personal maturity of character and faith, and the practical ministry skills necessary to lead and participate in the formational and caring mission of the church in the world. Wheaton College’s unique approach to teaching spiritual formation and soul care in both their undergraduate and graduate programs is examined through a historical context of the department, a liberal arts and learning-centered approach to education that includes biblical foundations, philosophical framework, pedagogy, and teaching curriculum and assessment.

Одной из центральных тем эсхатологии св. ап. Павла является учение о «теле душевном» и «теле духовном», изучению которого посвящены труды многих русских библеистов. Обновление и преображение человеческого духа по образу Христа неизбежно изменяет и тело человеческое, которое по воскресении становится нетленным, духовным, подобным Телу Христа при Его преображении. Истина воскресения Христова безусловно непреложна и обязательна для всего обновлённого человечества, и потому вполне правомерен вопрос о модификации посмертного состояния человека. Богословие ап. Павла даёт возможность предположить, что душа человека, оставляя земное тело, уносит с собой орган, который образовала себе в течение земной жизни. Именно поэтому становится возможным индивидуальное существование умерших, через их физическое преображение и восстание человеческой природы. Материальное воскресение человека гарантирует связь его настоящего бытия с будущим по всем свойствам и становится возможным только благодаря вторичному творческому акту божественного вмешательства извне. One of the central issues of St. Paul's eschatology is the teaching about «natural body» and «spiritual body» which many Russian biblical scholars' writings are devoted to. Renewal and transfiguration of human spirit in the image of Christ inevitably changes human body that after the Resurrection becomes imperishable, spiritual, similar to Christ's body in his transfiguration. The truth of Christ's Resurrection is absolutely immutable and mandatory to the whole renewed humanity and therefore the question of the modification of postmortem human's state is quite fair. The St Paul's theology lets us suppose that human's soul leaving the terrestrial body carries with it an organ that it has formed during the earthly life. That's exactly why the individual existence of the dead becomes possible through their corporal transfiguration and uprising of the human nature. The material human's Resurrection guarantees the connection between their present and future being with all the characteristics and becomes possible only thanks to the secondary creative act of divine intervention from the outside.

The soul in the ascetic teaching of Aphrahat was understood as being the el­ement which gave life to the body. Properly nurtured it guaranteed the ascetic a moral development. This role of the soul as the foundation of life influenced his outlook on morality and sensuality. The answer to the biblical „living soul” was in his Demonstrations. This implied a spiritual energy, which every person is born with, which is eternal and adorned with a sen­sitivity of thought. Death embraced both the body and the soul, except that, for the „living soul”, it was equated with sleep. Analysing the anthropological ter­minology exposed a strong influence of biblical concepts. The Semitic character of this Persian’s anthropology created problems in the precise indication of the semantic bounds of these ideas. The search was not limited only to seeking out the exclusive character of individual human attributes, but also to try to discover their association and interdependence. From the anthropologi­cal material of ascetic teaching in the Demonstrations emerges a vision of a man integrated, in whom the corporal is subjected to the spirit and the external signs (speech and conduct) are in harmony with the internal (thought and feelings).

<p>The article reveals the Christian meaning of the story <em>Christ Visits a Peasant</em> by Nikolay&nbsp;Leskov. Intended for children&rsquo;s reading, the story is unique in its ability to open new semantic horizons, which makes the work interesting for readers of any age. The plot-forming motif &ldquo;to descend in order to ascend&rdquo; can be interpreted as a motif of spiritual rebirth (or healing). The hero-narrator reproduces the story of the main character&rsquo;s spiritual struggle, the meaning of which is revealed in the context of the Christian teaching about the spiritual dispensation. The story forms a system of Christian motives (sin, forgiveness, the return of the prodigal son, meeting with God, the heart, etc.), indicated by precise instructions and allusions to biblical stories, images and symbols. In the motif complex of Leskov&rsquo;s story, the traditional Christmas and Yuletide prose motifs of miracle, teaching, threshold, meeting, guest, path, and home are organic. Creating the image of Christ, the writer reveals his divine properties with the help of numerous symbols: &ldquo;white hand&rdquo;, &ldquo;the divine fate&rdquo;, light, Cup, candle, Christmas cribs, monastery, etc. In the context of Christian content, everyday motives of family, friendship, reading, generations, etc., everyday events (building a house, celebrating the Nativity of Christ, reading books, traveling, etc.) acquire symbolic meaning. In the everyday life of the characters, spiritual reality manifests itself. Leskov teaches his reader to see the spiritual world behind habitual everyday phenomena, events, and relationships.</p>

The New Testament Epistle of Titus was written by Paul. He writes this letter to instruct Titus in regard to overseeing the believers in Crete. There are lots of things Titus must know and do to help these believers. The people in Crete are fairly new believers and they need to be organized into local churches. Titus’ responsibility is to appoint leadership in the churches and to ground the believers in sound doctrine. Spiritually qualified elders and doctrinally grounded believers will greatly promote spiritual unity in the local churches. The biblical teaching would provide the necessary components for biblical conflict resolution in the future. Paul writes Titus as his representative in Crete to aid the churches on a prophylactic way against Jewish false teachers by appointing those in leadership who are able tio manage God’s household well and stand against the false teachers, and by exhorting all believers to excel in good works so tha they might reach those outside of the church with the gospel.

Tirakat is an important part in Javanese culture. It points to a spiritual path in a sense of a method of a spiritual practice. The ways of tirakat have been an element of the culture for centuries. It is for this situation that evangelizing and nurturing newly non-Christian Javanese converted have been a challenge for Adventist ministry. This research attempts to seek an answer of the church which is expected to find some strategies for nurturing the members from Javanese culture background. The new converts are isolated from their background and stay in a new culture in the church. Consequently, some of the new members cannot survive in the new culture, custom, and rituals. This study addresses the issue of contextualized tirakat form to spiritual formation as a part of discipling new members in the local church. An analysis of both theological-biblical and cultural practice indicates that some elements of the tirakat ritual are strongly correlated with the Christian spiritual formation. The tirakat form can be contextualized in the spiritual formation form to experience spiritual growth. By giving a new meaning and modified form the believers are able to keep the tirakat ritual based on the Scriptures teaching. An evaluation of tirakat practice found some positive elements which can be continued to the form of Christian formation. However, the negative aspects need functional substitutes or discontinued. Through the worldview transformation the tirakat form as spiritual formation activity will lead the Javanese congregation to have good spiritual growth, strong faith, and ability to involve in the church mission and ministry. Keywords: tirakat; discipleship; spiritual formation; Javanese congregation

Throughout the New Testament, we find exhortations to imitate or follow in the steps of Christ, Paul and even some other godly people. In the Epistle to the Philippians, we find this exhortation to imitate incorporated into a Pauline theology of progressive sanctification. Sanctification in Philippians is portrayed as a conforming to Christ through the knowledge of Him, which comes through tripartite means of the Word of God (the Apostolic teaching), the internal work of God’s Spirit and the imitation of Christ, the Apostle Paul and other godly examples. We will aim at forming a biblical theology of sanctification through imitation restricted in our analysis to the Epistle of Philippians. First part of the article reviews the teaching of sanctification in Philippians, with an emphasis on passages where Paul directly addresses this issue: Philippians 1:9-11, 27-29; 2:12-16; 3:1-15. Second part of the article introduces us to biblical teaching on imitation, and then it reviews a downward spiral of imitation: imitating Christ (Phil. 2:5), imitating Paul (Phil. 3:17a; 4:9) and imitating Paul’s faithful imitators (Phil. 3:17b). In the conclusion, we will see that imitation of Christ and His faithful imitators is a means of progressive sanctification that is both important and often neglected, both by those who should serve as primary examples of godliness (spiritual leaders) and those who need to learn by imitating.

The witness of the Scriptures and of virtually every human culture suggests that one of the most pivotal and thus crucial dimensions of human formation, and thus spiritual formation, is the intergenerational dynamic: older men with younger men; older women passing on the faith to younger women. One generation encouraging, blessing and transmitting wisdom to the next generation. And yet, it is often observed that this is a missing dimension of congregational life–that congregations are increasing stratified along generational lines. Thus this essay will make the case that the church is a liturgical, catechetical and missional community and that faith formation, in Christian community, will happen through the interplay of the generations in worship, teaching/learning and service. And that therefore congregations would be wise to be more attentive to how they foster intergenerational connections, rather than inadvertently or intentionally create generational divides in the church. Also, it is important to stress that a critical part of congregational life is that of equipping older men and women to be a means of grace to their younger counterparts. The essay will draw on the Biblical references to intergenerational formation, the insights of contemporary social-psychology and the observations of the author regarding contemporary congregational life.

Reader response theory, the broad range of literary perspectives which place emphasis upon the role of readers and their responses to texts, has contributed important insights to biblical hermeneutics and to pedagogy in literature education. Yet reader response theory does not appear, as yet, to have had as significant an influence as it might upon the way we teach individuals to read and respond to that most important of texts, the Bible. It is proposed in this article that Rosenblatt's transactional theory of the literary work offers valuable insights that can be applied to both the reading of the Bible and also how it can be taught in a range of contexts, in Christian and state schools, as well as in churches. Consequently, pedagogy informed by Rosenblatt's reader response theory may offer us a biblical use of the Bible as it can foster the spiritual development of readers by enabling them to engage with Scripture at a deeply personal level. It is suggested that Bible teaching must be responsive to the individual and to society but must, most of all, be responsive to the Holy Spirit.

A well-organized Sunday School can be the right means for the church to educate children in their spiritual growth so that one day they become a beautiful future for the church and the nation. Church participation through Sunday School teachers is an important part of the spiritual formation of children to instill fear of God. Researchers used Deuteronomy 31: 9-13 which is considered to be one of the important biblical foundations to be studied with the aim of being able to develop as a strategic foundation by Sunday School teachers in teaching the fear of God to children. The method used in this study is a literature review of the biblical text in Deuteronomy 31: 9-13 which is elaborated using lexical and grammatical analysis. From the analysis of the text of Deuteronomy 31: 9-13, three main parts can be found, namely: facing God's presence; listening to God's Word; and learning to fear God which will be the basic strategy(conceptual) of the Sunday School teachers when teaching the fear of the Lord.AbstrakSekolah Minggu yang terselenggara dan terorganisir dengan efektif dan baik dapat menjadi sarana yang tepat bagi gereja untuk mendidik anak-anak dalam pertumbuhan rohaninya sehingga kelak mereka menjadi masa depan yang indah bagi gereja dan bangsa. Partisipasi gereja melalui para guru Sekolah Minggu merupakan bagian yang penting dalam pembentukan kerohanian anak untuk dapat menanamkan takut akan Tuhan. Peneliti menggunakan Ulangan 31:9-13 yang dianggap merupakan salah satu landasan biblika yang penting untuk diteliti dengan tujuan dapat dikembangkan sebagai sebuah landasan strategi oleh para guru Sekolah Minggu dalam mengajarkan takut akan Tuhan pada anak-anak. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah kajian pustaka dari teks Alkitab dalam Ulangan 31:9-13 yang dielaborasi menggunakan analisa leksikal dan gramatikal. Dari hasil analisis teks Ulangan 31:9-13, dapat ditemukan tiga bagian utama, yakni: menghadap hadirat Tuhan; mendengarkan Firman Tuhan; belajar takut akan Tuhan, yang akan dijadikan landasan (konseptual) strategi guru Sekolah Minggu dalam mengajarkan takut akan Tuhan.

Purpose A reluctance of social studies teachers to address religious matters prevents students from understanding the intersection of two important American institutions: slavery and Christianity. The continuing importance of religion in American life and the tension centered around race relations in this country make instruction in the connections between these two institutions invaluable. Evidence for the rich spiritual experience of enslaved African Americans is both ample and easily accessed; conversely, the misuse of Christianity by the oppressors and the biblical support for abolition commonly referenced during that period can be easily explored. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach In addition to these historical matters, modern results of the intersection of slavery and religion prove beneficial for study. While slavery itself is an irredeemable wound on American history, one that has repercussions even to this day, the encouraging impact of Christianity in the lives of enslaved African American and their progeny is worth noting. Findings Finally, this topic lends itself to progressive and engaging learning activities that are cooperative, project-based and authentic. Originality/value The teaching of history, which wrongly has a reputation for being lifeless and dull, can be improved and energized with this content of two topics still vital in America today: race and religion.

This investigation into the clinical utility of six contemporary depression instruments establishes a foundation for a theologically informed validity subtype. Redemptive validity is defined as the effectiveness of an assessment instrument that samples behavior or attitudes to provide insight into wise living in conformity with the reality and truth of Scripture as creatures growing in dependence on the Creator. Ancient biblical wisdom argues that helping those with heavy hearts requires compassion, understanding, reflective words, and effective strategies (Prov. 25:20). Clinical settings can assess for depression using technology in as little as 74 seconds with remarkable criterion validity. Do such findings reflect Christian values and worldview? Will results sharpen perception of the faith aspects of a heavy heart in a manner consistent with Scriptural teaching? Depression symptoms may indicate spiritual heart health as a downcast emotional state connected to religious affections (Prov. 13:12). Building upon standard psychometric review, this utility survey displays how mental health clinicians can explore measures through the theological notion of redemptive validity to serve both the mental health needs and spiritual formation interests of clients committed to growth in their Christian lives.

John Paul II's encyclical, Fides et Ratio, describes a profound and causal connection between the teaching of modem Western philosophy and contemporary spiritual dilemmas. The Pope argues persuasively that modem philosophy has led modern man to a loss of faith in the nobility of human reason and the possible existence of meaningful human truths. Modem political philosophers wanted to bring the divine law of revealed Scripture into service of modem philosophic principles of the autonomy of human reason and freedom. John Locke sought to reorganize family life in accordance with such modem principles. Locke clearly modified Biblical teaching to allow for more liberty for the autonomous individual in his imagined liberal democratic society of the future. John Paul II is among those who urge Christians in the West to examine our present social disintegration in light of the foundational ideas that have formed modem liberal societies. We must understand how these ideas have contributed to our present social problems, and determine how to chart the best course for liberal democracy in the new Millennium.

The article analyzes the semantic functions of the Old Testament and New Testament texts in the story Polosa (Stripe), a landmark for the literature of the final stage of Russian classical realism, written by Lydia Nelidova, whose work has not yet been the subject of special study. The relevance of the research is defined by the rather high role of Nelidova’s creative activity in the literary process of the last decades of the 19th century. Biblical references, quotations, reminiscences, allusions and paraphrases, which determine the sequence of the text that creates the semantic field of the work, perform the dominant ideological and aesthetic function in creating the story as a “non-trivial new text.” Nelidova’s innovation is based on the active use of Dostoevsky’s literary traditions (orientation toward the idea of “finding a person in a person” and the “living life” constant). As a “semantic whole,” Nelidova’s story is organized by the internal dialogue of three concepts of “life.” One of them is based on the Christian teaching, the other on an appeal to science, and the third – on the idea of life as an all-dominating objective force. The author's moral and aesthetic position, which confirms the biblical concept of life, is objectified in the logic of semantic actualization of the gospel truths associated with the interpretations of the eternal theme of the struggle between good and evil, ways of human salvation, overcoming the sin of thoughts, pride and selfishness. The artistic historicism of the story, manifested in the coverage of the social contradictions of the post-reform Russia, sanctions the author’s intentionality associated with the assertion of universal human spiritual, moral and humanistic ideals. Formation of meaning at the level of the author’s intentionality and at the level of meaning generation is carried out by activating the intertextual, hypertextual and contextual functionality of biblical pretexts and traditions of Orthodox Christian culture. It is implemented in the process of illuminating conflicts of time and characters' psychological disclosure. Intertextual reminiscences and quotes from biblical texts, the works of Christian ascetic writers and patristic sources aim to form the semantic core of the main character’s narrative and implement the principle of intersemantization of meanings enshrined in sacred texts. Thanks to these texts, they manifest in the thoughts of a character seeking a way out of spiritual and moral impasse. The author's artistic experience stimulated the formation of the Dostoevsky school in the literature of the last decades of the 19th century. The author's quote-based thinking anticipates the narrative strategies that will become characteristic of the artistic discourse of subsequent historical and literary eras.

In histories of the formation of the Christian biblical canon, the thirty-ninthFestal Letterof Athanasius of Alexandria, written for Easter 367, holds a justifiably prominent place. Not only is this letter the earliest extant Christian document to list precisely the twenty-seven books that eventually formed the generally accepted canon of the New Testament, but Athanasius is also the first Christian author known to have applied the term “canonized” (κανονιςόμενα) specifically to the books that made up his Old and New Testaments. Athanasius's canon is explicitly closed: “In these books alone,” the bishop declares, “the teaching of piety is proclaimed. ‘Let no one add to or subtract from them’ (LXX Deut 12:32).” The significance of this document goes beyond these formal and terminological issues, however, for the extant fragments of the letter provide a glimpse into the social and political factors that accompanied the attempted formation of a closed canon of the Bible in one ancient Christian setting. Christianity in fourthcentury Egypt was characterized by diverse and conflicting modes of social identity and spiritual formation: study groups led by charismatic teachers, Melitian communities centered around the veneration of martyrs, and the emerging structure of imperial orthodoxy headed by Athanasius all presented themselves as legitimate expressions of Christian piety. Within this complex setting, the formation of a biblical canon with a proper mode of interpretation was an important step in the formation of an official catholic church in Egypt with its parish-centered spirituality.

Augustine, Jerome, Bede, Gregory, Smaragdus and Haymo, the exegetical authorities acknowledged by Ælfric in the Latin preface to the Catholic Homilies, frequently used etymologies as one of their techniques for penetrating the words of the biblical text in order to arrive at their spiritual essence. To the modern student of language their interpretations often seem arbitrary, even bizarre, but the idea that there was an intimate connection between the signifying name and the person, place or thing signified was well established within the scriptural canon and was extended and confirmed by the cumulative authority of the exegetes themselves. It was Isidore of Seville, in his Etymologies, who provided the most systematic definition of this tradition of etymologizing. As he explained it, it was a method for determining the true essence of the thing designated by the process of penetrating its appellation, since all things and all activities which were named ‘secundum naturam’ (as opposed to those arbitrarily named ‘secundum placitum’) were designated by those words which had etymologies enshrining the very quality or idea so designated. Given this definition, with its underlying philosophical and linguistic assumptions, it is easy to understand why etymologies were exploited in Christian exegesis and teaching. It was accepted that biblical names were in the category ‘secundum naturam’ since they were God-given or at least divinely sanctioned, and the rationale and method of their penetration had the advantage of harmonizing closely with the general interpretative process that was employed.

There is no way to state the impact of Dr. R. C. Sproul adequately. The impact on people could perhaps be measured, but the immeasurable spiritual impact that R. C.’s teaching has had on so many can only be quantified by the Lord himself. Its vast reach will always remain incalculable to us. No one has had more influence on students coming to Westminster Theological Seminary than R. C. Sproul. Whenever I ask a student why he has come to Westminster to study, almost invariably R. C.’s teaching will be a significant part of the story. His ability to persuade people of the biblical logic of Reformed theology was without equal. His passion for defending the Christian faith was palpable in almost every word he spoke. As we mourn his loss and extend our prayers to his family, we praise our Savior for R. C.’s life and ministry. It has been a privilege to live in a time when that ministry has had an effect over a number of decades. Surely such times are rare, because such gifts, passions, and abilities are so rarely distributed to just one person. As he peers now on the holiness of God in Christ, we rejoice that R. C.’s life-long passion has finally been realized. Soli Deo gloria.

This is a study of warfare fought in the name of God by Jews, Christians, andMuslims from biblical until modem times. The book is impressive in its scopeand in the wide range of authorities consulted; the author has gone out of hisway to be neutral and impartial. In his introduction, for example, Partner recognizesthat "less than half a century ago, unconscious of their own arroganceand inaccuracy. Westerners used to write confidently about something theycalled the Arab mind" (p. xix). The book's critical apparatus is nearly perfect:there is a glossary, a chronological table, and an index; and, in addition to ashort bibliography with the notes to each chapter, there is a brief reading list ondifferent topics. This means that students will find the book easy to use.Having said this, readers should be warned that, like most academicresearch, the general tone is dogmatically secular and cynical about spiritualmotives. Although the author criticizes the prejudices of earlier historians, hehimself speaks of Islam as "a program of conquest" and states that "Muslimsset themselves almost from the outset the task of Islamizing the whole worldby force of arms" (p. 38). Despite his remarks on the greater jihad, referring tothe inner spiritual struggle against evil, there is little recognition of Islam as aspiritual message; he says that Muhammad ''came to warn, perhaps also to conquer"(p. 42). Indeed, the striving denoted by the verb jahada is primarily spiritualor moral as in the admonition to the Prophet: "Strive hard against thedeniers of the truth and the hypocrites" (9:73). Other passages indicate that theQur'an itself is the instrument with which believers must strive against unbelievers(25:52; 66:9). As Seyyed Hossein Nasr says, concerning the concept ofjihad, "Its translation into 'holy war,' combined with the erroneous notion ofIslam prevalent in the West as the 'religion of the sword,' has helped to eclipseits inner and spiritual significance."1 All external forms of struggle, such asfighting ignorance and injustice, are incomplete without the inner struggle, andthe result of that struggle will be peace and love: "Repel evil with that whichis better. Then he between whom and thee there was enmity will become asthough he had always been a bosom friend" (41:34) ...

AbstractThe majority of Chinese Christians can be considered to be theologically conservative. One distinctive feature of conservative theology is Biblicism, according to which Scripture occupies a central role. The Reformation principle of sola scriptura legitimises this conservative stance and calls for a stern application of this principle. As Biblicists, they are discontented with the ‘unbiblical’ practices and ministries of missionaries. On the other hand, missionaries have put forward the Union Version translation project on the basis of the principle of sola scriptura. This article investigates how Watchman Nee (1903–72) and Wang Mingdao (1900–91) were discursively influenced by the missionaries’ Union Version Bible translation project through their different understandings of sola scriptura. For missionaries, sola scriptura required the translation of a faithful and popular Chinese Bible, and Mandarin was deemed an appropriate language for the task. While Nee and Wang did not appreciate the missionary enterprise, for sola scriptura they valued the Chinese Union Version as an outstanding and up-to-date translation of the Scripture. For Nee and Wang, sola scriptura was not only a translation principle, but also a principle underpinning religious life. Conservative Christians’ devotional practice emphasises the memorising of biblical texts and verbalising them throughout the day. This practice resulted in the Union Version, which is written in eloquent modern Chinese, becoming an integral part of Chinese Christian practice rather than a mere translation. Though Nee and Wang accused missionaries of having betrayed the Reformation principle, they were still under its influence thanks to the Chinese Union Version Bible. Also, their teaching on biblical reading had similarities with the medieval monastic practice of lectio divina. In this sense, the Chinese Union Version Bible reveals an interesting integration of Chinese conservative Christian faith, missionary enterprise, sola scriptura, and a monastic style of spiritual practice within the Chinese Church.

Purpose of the research. This research paper focuses on the models of creating a feedback loop as a narrative technique implemented in the following biblical narrations: the story of king David in 2 Samuel, king Manasseh in 2 Chronicles, prophet Jonah in Jonah from the Old Testament. The paper aims at identifying narrative mechanisms and linguistic means of creating a feedback loop in English biblical discourse. Methods. The methodology of the feedback loop reconstruction integrates: narrative analysis and contextual-interpretive analysis to show axiological meanings of the ecologically charged biblical narrations; elements of syntactic analysis in order to determine cause and effect relations between events and actions, or axiological changes in the participants’ behavior; structural analysis and semantic analysis – to distinguish the models of creating a feedback loop according to the criterion of their complexity. Results. The feedback loop as a narrative technique in English biblical discourse reflects the didactic stages of teaching man by God and man’s responsibility for his environment. Explicitly marked causal relations outlining ecological imbalance in ecologically charged biblical narrations are manifested by means of gradation, syntactic parallelism, polysyndeton, and repetition. The narrative technique of creating a feedback loop in English biblical discourse is represented by three models. With regard to the number of the participants involved in the information transmission, three models of feedback loop can be singled out: the model of a simple feedback loop, the model of extended feedback loop (there is an additional turn), and the model of complex feedback loop (there is a mediator). Conclusions. This narrative technique entails the modification of the whole model of relations (presented in the stories of king David in 2 Samuel, king Manasseh in 2 Chronicles, and prophet Jonah in Jonah from the Old Testament), as it depends on the participants’ values and behavior alterations, as well as spiritual changes in worldview and lifestyle of a man or the whole society. Key words: Bible, biblical narrations, discourse, ecological values, feedback loop. Мета. У статті розглядаються моделі формування петлі зворотного зв’язку як наративного прийому, реалізованого у біблійних нараціях Старого Завіту про царя Давида з Другої книги Самуїла, про царя Манасію з Другої книги хронік, про пророка Йону з однойменної книги. Мета дослідження полягає у з’ясуванні наративних механізмів та лінгвальних засобів формування петлі зворотного зв’язку в англомовному біблійному дискурсі. Методи. Під час реконструювання етапів формування петлі зворотного зв’язку залучалися: наративний і контекстуально-інтерпретаційний аналіз для виведення ціннісних смислів оповіді; елементи синтаксичного аналізу з метою з’ясування причинно-наслідкових або умовно-наслідкових зв’язків між подіями, вчинками, ціннісними змінами у поведінці учасників подій та структурно-змістовий аналіз для розмежування моделей петлі зворотного зв’язку за критерієм їх складності. Результати. Петля зворотного зв’язку як наративний прийом, властивий англомовному біблійному дискурсу, відобра-жає проходження людиною етапів повчання від Господа і, відповідно, усвідомлення відповідальності щодо свого існування у навколишньому світі. Експліцитно марковані причинно-наслідкові відношення, що актуалізують причини або наслідки порушення екологічної рівноваги, реалізуються за допомогою стилістичних прийомів градації, синтаксичного паралелізму, полісиндетону, повтору. З огляду на кількість задіяних учасників у передачі інформації наративна техніка формування петлі зворотного зв’язку в англомовному біблійному дискурсі представлена трьома моделями: простої петлі зворотного зв’язку, розширеної петлі зворотного зв’язку (з’являється додатковий її виток) або складної петлі зворотного зв’язку (залучається додатковий посередник, що маркується появою нового витка-відгалуження). Висновки дослідження. Зазначена наративна техніка передбачає модифікацію всієї моделі відносин, оскільки залежить від того, як змінюються цінності і поведінка залучених до неї учасників, як відбуваються духовні зміни у світосприйнятті і способі життя людини або усього суспільства. Ключові слова: Біблія, біблійні нарації, дискурс, екологічні цінності, петля зворотного зв’язку.

This article deals with manual labour in the life of monks as taught by St. Augustine in his treatise De opere monachorum. It describes the social context of the theme with particular reference to the situation in monastic communities of Carthage. Many monks in St. Augustine’s time were against manual labour. The article presents the structure of the Saint’s argumentation. St. Augustine clearly was in favour of the manual work of monks -and indirectly also of that of all Christians. The article analyses his exegesis of two Biblical texts (Mt 6:25-34 and 2Thess 3:10) that explain the need and beauty of work for daily spiritual growth. This is shown primarily on the basis of the teaching and example of the Apostle St. Paul, who was employed in various ways. Then the position of St. Augustine is discussed, according to whom the working monk gains the means of his support, cooperates with the Creator and continues His creative achievement. Work that allows the monk to attain some profit in temporal life and maintains the neces­sary equilibrium between the needs of the body and soul is shown above all to be a means for the attaining of the reward of eternal life. The monk, however, may be dispensed of manual labour, in part or even totally, in view of pastoral ministry, which plays a primary role in his vocation and mission.

In the nineteenth century Britainunderwent a period of immense religious doubt and spiritual instability, prompted in part by German biblical criticism, the development of advanced geological and evolutionary ideas forwarded by men such as Charles Lyell and Charles Darwin, and the crisis in faith demonstrated by many high profile Church members, particularly John Henry Newman's conversion to Catholicism in 1845. In tracing the development of this religious disbelief, historian Owen Chadwick comments that “mid-Victorian England asked itself the question, for the first time in popular understanding, is Christian faith true?” (Victorian Church: Part I1). Noting the impact of the 1859 publication of Darwin'sOrigin of Speciesand the multi-authored collectionEssays and Reviewsin 1860, Chadwick further posits that “part of the traditional teaching of the Christian churches was being proved, little by little, to be untrue” (Victorian Church: Part I88). As the theological debate over the truth of the Bible intensified so did the question of how to reach, preach, and convert the urbanized and empowered working and middle classes. Indicative of this debate was the immense popularity of the Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon, who was commonly referred to as the “Prince of Preachers.” Spurgeon exploded onto the religious scene in the mid-1850s and his theatrical and expressive form of oratory polarized mid-Victorian society as to the proper, most effective mode of preaching. In print culture, the emergence of the religious periodicalGood Words, with its unique fusion of spiritual and secular material contributed by authors from an array of denominations, demonstrated a concurrent re-evaluation within the religious press of the evolving methods of disseminating religious discourse. The 1864 serialization of Ellen Wood'sOswald CrayinGood Wordsemphasizes the magazine's interest in combining and synthesizing religious and popular material as a means of revitalizing interest in religious sentiment. In 1860 Wood's novelEast Lynnewas critically categorized as one of the first sensation novels of the 1860s, a decade in which “sensational” became the modifier of the age. Wood, alongside Wilkie Collins and Mary Elizabeth Braddon, was subsequently referred to as one of the original creators of sensation fiction, a genre frequently denigrated as scandalous and immoral.Oswald Cray, however, sits snugly among the sermons, parables, and social mission essays that fill the pages ofGood Words.

The writings of Maximus the Greek (Maxim Grek) devoted to refutation of mantic astrology which proceeded in Moscow Rus in the second quarter of the 16 th century are analyzed. A conclusion is made that the opposition of two dominant pursuits predetermined the semantics of the antiastrological discourse: those were disproval of the ‘Hellenic’ teaching of star- gazers and affirmation of the force of Divine Providence, which granted the freedom of will to the Man (“the absolute rule of the Man”). Maximus the Greek based his polemic on the systemic relationship between the historic experience and the spiritual meaning. The morphology of the anti-astrological discourse embraces such stable elements of narration as the history of star-gazing, the image of fortune (”the wheel of luck”), the fates of Biblical and historical heroes, and a quotation from the song of Prophet Anna (the First Book of the Kings, 2: 7–8). The function of these units of meaning in the writings of different periods by Maximus the Greek, the forms of their presentation, the contextuality, the meaning of verbal communication, and the accents chosen became the part of the theoretical system of the polemic discourse and allowed identification of the stages of formation of the author’s code in the writings of Maximus the Greek. Maximus the Greek names the Romans and the Germans (Nikolay Bulev) to be the main culprits who initiated the spread of mantic astrology in Russia. Whereas in his earlier epistles, the learned monk from Mount Athos presents the history of formation of the pernicious teaching based on series of ethnonyms, in his later writings he pointed to Egypt and Assyria as the countries of the origin of star-gazing. Orthodox Rus is opposed to them. Movement from ethnography to geography made the scene of the anti-astrological expression more definitive. The representative series of mini-stories about the fates of the famous Biblical and historic heroes, whose feats were predetermined by the Divine Providence, served as a strong argument in the critique of star-gazing, and each name became symbolical in the sign system of the agonistic discourse of Maximus the Greek. The quotation from the song of Prophet Anna (the First Book of the Kings, 2: 7–8) should be recognized as the leading through motif of the antiastrological text. Its functioning in the writings of the learned monk allows us to describe the praxis of the discourse. The process of modification of its semantics reflected development of the author’s intention in the history of formation of the theme variety of Maximus the Greek and of the author’s manuscript code (Iosaf’s Collection of Writings) in general.

Objective: The objective of this qualitative pilot study was to identify opportunities and challenges Christian public health training programs experience when it comes to equipping public health students to work within Christian health mission organizations. Methods: A sample of seven out of seventeen (41 percent response rate) Christian public health institutions from North America, Asia, and Africa completed an online survey. Thematic analysis was conducted to identify major themes in the following areas: values specific to a Christian worldview, competencies focused on integrating a Christian worldview, challenges to integrating a Christian worldview, and training available to students interested in Christian health missions. Results: Values focused on Christ-like humility in serving God and others, discipleship, respecting human dignity in the image of God, and collaborative community partnership. More than half of respondents identified the interrelationship between culture, religion, spirituality, and health as the primary competency integrating a Christian worldview. Global health was identified as a second competency followed by understanding the history and philosophy behind global health and missions. Identified challenges include faith of students and faculty, limited availability of Christian public health textbooks, and secularization of concepts such as poverty and development. Conclusion: The holistic nature of public health is conducive to integrating a Christian worldview into program content. The results show that Christian public health institutions have biblical values and integrate a Christian worldview in understanding the interrelationship between culture, religion, spirituality and health primarily through a global health lens. Programs experience significant challenges to embedding a Christian perspective into other content areas. Opportunities for integrating competencies with a Christian worldview include offering a certificate in global health/development ministry, teaching methods for engaging individuals and groups in holistic health discussions, and incorporating spiritual metrics and instruments into program evaluation courses to measure the influence of faith, hope, and discipleship alongside physical and social health metrics.

<p>The purpose of this paper is to discuss a Christian teacher’s calling in response to the great commission of Jesus Christ in building character in digital era. The main task of a teacher in the context of Christian education is to assist students in knowing God in Jesus Christ and being like Christ in their daily lives. Christian teachers become co-workers with God in conveying the values of His kingdom in a digital era that is filled with individualism, selfishness, and self-righteousness, all of which lead to the loss of love. The teaching that is delivered by Christian teachers can bring students to God’s truth which will affect students’ character, intellect, and spirituality. These not only help students but can also be used to serve and help other people to face the challenges of this digital era.</p><p class="abstrak">BAHASA INDONESIA ABSTRAK: Tulisan ini bertujuan untuk membahas panggilan guru Kristen sebagai wujud amanat agung Yesus Kristus dalam penanaman nilai pada era digital. Tugas utama seorang guru dalam konteks pendidikan Kristen adalah membantu para siswa untuk belajar mengenal Allah di dalam Yesus Kristus dan melalui firmanNya. Mereka dapat menjadi serupa dengan Kristus dalam kehidupan sehari-hari. Oleh sebab itu penting sekali mahasiswa menangkap panggilanNya sebagai Guru Kristen, karena dengan demikian akan menjadi rekan sekerja Allah dalam menyampaikan nilai-nilai kerajaanNya di era digital yang sarat dengan egoisme, mementingkan diri sendiri, bahkan merasa diri benar, sehingga kasih menjadi pudar. Dengan demikian, pengajaran yang disampaikan guru Kristen akan membawa para siswa memiliki nilai-nilai kebenaran yang justru kembali kepadaTuhan dan berpusat kepada Kristus, yang berdampak kepada pertumbuhan karakter intelektual, spiritual, intelegensi tidak hanya menjadi kebanggaan sendiri melainkan dipakai untuk melayani dan menolong orang lain dalam menghadapi era digital ini.</p>

AbstractStudy of Barth's doctrine of angels has languished, and the time is ripe for a thorough reassessment. While any full account will centre on the magisterial theology of angels in the Church Dogmatics, much can be gained from a close, contextually informed reading of the earlier treatment of angels in the Göttingen dogmatics lectures. These lectures are shaped by a twofold procedural commitment: Barth's presentation is ordered, on one hand, to a recognisably modern conception of the logical content of Christian preaching; and it conforms, on the other hand, to a doctrinal sequence recommended by the dogmatic textbooks of the classical Reformed tradition. A tension between these two aspects becomes visible in Barth's handling of the doctrine of angels – a tract of teaching by which he is visibly unsettled. Barth accordingly attends with particular care to two fundamental modern objections to the doctrine – namely that it involves a superfluous reduplication of anthropological themes and that it has no independent doctrinal standing. The first objection exploits the observation that the doctrine of angels traditionally stands in close proximity to the doctrine of the human creature; the second follows from the claim that Christian preaching, and the dogmatic theology which serves it, attends strictly to the relationship between God and humanity, realised and revealed in the gospel. Barth's attempts to respond to these criticisms, and so to draw out the necessity and the proper dogmatic status of the doctrine of angels, are traced in detail. Angels and demons, conceived as real spiritual forces, are ineluctable features of the situation within which human moral agency is exercised. And angels are ingredients in, though not central to, the scriptural depiction of the relationship between God and humanity. Barth's elaboration of the positive features of Protestant scholastic angelology is summarised, and the motivating impulses and constructive potential of his theology of angels are briefly noted: Barth's exposition may be read as a complex exercise in theological self-differentiation; a recommendation of a distinctive style of biblical reasoning; and a creative contribution to the revitalisation of a culture of Christian witness.

На русский язык переведён фрагмент из «Книги совершенства» - пространного аскетического трактата восточносирийского автора VII века Мартирия-Сахдоны, епископа Церкви Востока. Он известен как руководитель монахов и видный духовный писатель. Примечателен он главным образом тем, что пошёл на разрыв с Церковью Востока,когда стал учить об одной ипостаси Христа, за что и был лишён сана и предан анафеме. «Книга совершенства» сохранилась не менее, чем в двух рукописях, древнейшая из которых - Argent.4116 - происходит из синайского монастыря Неопалимой купины (Бет-Мар-Моше) и датируется 837 г. В 1960-х гг. «Книга совершенства» была опубликована вместе с прочими известными сочинениями Мартирия-Сахдоны, тогда же был опубликован их французский перевод. Христологическое учение Мартирия-Сахдоны, с давних пор и до сего времени привлекающее внимание исследователей, содержится, главным образом, в приводимом ниже фрагменте «Книги совершенства». Помимо вопросов христологии, в нем изложено учение о Святой Троице, всеобщем Воскресении и Страшном Суде, а также сказано о взаимосвязи веры и нравственности. Перевод снабжён словарёмосновных терминов и подстрочным комментарием, в котором указаны источники, главным образом, библейских цитат, а также даны пояснения к переводу. This is a translation from Syriac into Russian of a fragment of the «Book of Perfection», a large ascetic treatise. The author of the book, Martyrius-Sahdona, a bishop in the Church of the East, is a 7th century East-Syrian writer. He is known as a teacher of monks and famous spiritual author. He is especially distinguished by his controversy with the Church of the East, after he begun to teach about one hypostasis of the Christ. For this reason, he was disgowned and anathematized. The «Book of Perfection» is preserved in at least two manuscripts, the earliest of which originates from the Beth-Mar-Moshe Monastery of Mount Sinai and is dated by 837 AC (Argent. 4116). In the 1960s the «Book of Perfection» was published along with some other known Sahdona’s writings. At the same time corresponding translations into French were issued. The christological teaching of Sahdona, which has been attracting attention of researchers from the earliest times hitherto, is mainly contained in the present fragment of the «Book of Perfection». Besides christological aspects, it also contains doctrines of the Trinity, of the universal resurrection, and of the Last Judgement, along with considerations on the relationship between faith and morality. The introduction presents brief biographic and literary information and outlines the main subjects of the fragment. The translation is supplemented with a glossary of the main terms and a commentary indicating sources of citations in the text (foremost biblical) and explaining the translation.

Abstract The abstract for your paper is included below. This will appear online only. Looking back on the Edwardian suffrage campaign, the militant suffragette Annie Kenney thought it ‘more like a religious revival than a political movement’. Its language and iconography were steeped in Christian imagery, yet the religious arguments for enfranchisement have rarely received close attention. This article shows how campaigners grappled with patriarchal readings of Genesis, St Paul and the traditions of the Church to construct a Christian case for equality. It focuses, in particular, on the Church League for Women’s Suffrage, an Anglican organisation boasting nearly 6,000 members by 1914. Inspired by the incarnational theology of Charles Gore, the League recruited over 500 clergy and eight bishops, convinced that enfranchisement was not merely compatible with, but actively demanded by, the teaching of Christ. Activists preached sermons, wrote pamphlets and debated theology in the religious press, establishing a powerful theological case for reform. Using the League as a case-study, the article explores the wider relationship between gender ideology and religious thought, at a time when Christianity was the central referent of British culture. Interrogating the religious roots of ‘militancy’, it shows how the conception of suffragism as a spiritual struggle collapsed any easy distinction between ‘religion’ and ‘politics’, establishing prayer, worship and Biblical exegesis as weapons of political warfare. The churches, it is concluded, did not simply respond to changing ideas about sex and gender; they were themselves sites of new thinking about the roles of men and women, forming one of the many tributaries that fed the flood-tide of feminist thought.

The article attempts to establish that prosperity gospel is rooted in the faulty interpretation of several biblical passages. The prosperity gospel portrays wealth and riches as a covenant and the fulfilment of the divine promise of God to his people. The basic teaching of the prosperity gospel is that God wants believers to get rich or healthy, but he cannot bless them unless they first send money known as ‘seed-faith’ to their spiritual leader or pastor who tells them about the plan. This approach was popularised by the American televangelist Oral Roberts in Tulsa Oklahoma in the United States of America (USA). It has now spread to other parts of the world, including Africa. This article investigates the teaching of this theology whilst attempting to offer a biblical foundation of Christian giving for the work of God.

The study was about an Assessment of the Challenges facing Single Mothers on their Spiritual Growth in the Seventh Day Adventist Church. The objective was to establish the biblical and theological foundations for single mothers on their spiritual growth in the Seventh Dy Adventist Church. The Marxist Theory of Feminism was used. The study was conducted in Kisii County which is in Western Kenya. The target population in the study included 5 Churches within the Nyanchwa Station, South Kenya Conference. The researcher employed a census sampling method from the 5 churches with a sample population of 105 participants. The main instruments of data collection for the study were questionnaires, focused group discussions, and oral interviews. The study established the biblical and theological foundations for single mothers by referencing single mothers in the Bible. The study recommended that all aspects of inclusivity, acceptance and being welcome need to be accorded to all Christians, regardless of their marital status; The Church in Africa could borrow a leaf from the Church in the West in practicing the doctrine and social teaching of the church, about accepting members as they come; and Pastoral Councils and Christians in leadership need to be on the front line in practicing inclusiveness and acceptance of every Christian. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0780/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

This article investigates the biblical motivation that is given for the secular idea of the so-called spiritual law of attraction to become part of Christian doctrine. In 2010 Pastor At Boshoff of the Christian Revival Church (CRC) preached two sermons on the law of attraction in which he claimed it as a powerful principle in the Word of God. According to him this biblical �law� provides human beings with physical manifestations of their thoughts and words. The idea to create one�s own favourable future through the law of attraction flows from a New Age worldview and is similar to the positive confession doctrine taught by popular Word of Faith teachers. Boshoff�s claim regarding the law of attraction cannot be deduced from the key Scripture passages he uses, which reflects an unfounded use of Scripture to promote this idea.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The article challenges the secular infiltration of the Law of Attraction in the church. This is important since the so-called Law of Attraction was preached by Pastor A. Boshoff of the CRC. Many of his listeners embrace his teaching although it reflects a poor exposition and application of Scripture.

The farming communities in the Christiana district with a population of close to 21 000 residents struggled with issues including poverty, unemployment, financial problems, alcoholism, occultism and Satanism and family issues such as father absence, fatherlessness and single parenting. An intervention that included training and equipping of fathers, who were farm workers from the local faith community, was necessary and crucial. Farm workers (faith communities) responded to the need for a biblical fatherhood programme. Human fatherhood should be recognised and given serious consideration because it gave an anticipation of who God the Father is. If human fatherhood did not exist, then all truth and knowledge about God the Father would be void and insignificant. Fatherhood today is an element of broken families and perhaps the most threatened element in the world. The aim of this article was to lessen the social issue of father absence through the implementation of the Biblical Fatherhood Programme. The programme has a biblical nature to solve social ills within communities. The programme was developed from a practical-theological study on fatherhood, with the primary reason to train and equip participants with fatherhood knowledge. This article presents a reflective and community engagement strategy, based on the author’s reflection of items that arose when a biblical fatherhood programme was presented to farm workers in the Christiana district of South Africa. Reflection as a methodology enabled researchers and practitioners to theorise from their own practice, improving and developing their work. Reflection was a turning back onto ‘a self’ where the researcher was the observer of the scenario. Reflection was also a significant and mental activity for researchers to use in their work with participants. The results and this article presented the reflective, rather than empirical findings of the programme implementation. The training intervention was presented in a narrative form and based on research about the essence of fatherhood. This was conceptualised from biblical truth and perspective. Participants showed immense interest in the programme and the Bible. Their theological views concerning the Bible for answers were crucial to their problems and situations. Participants’ spiritual life was pivotal to enjoy healthy relationships with God.Contribution: The programme contributed monumentally to the lives of participants. It was impossible for participants to live their lives without the Bible. The Bible is not just an authoritative source of teaching, but it speaks of human fatherhood and serves as a guideline to enunciate the care of God the Father.

Beginnings are usually regarded as either hard or energizing times that set our inner world in motion. However, there is a beginning that is more important for humanity than any other: the origin of human life and of the world. The knowledge of our origin and the mystery concerning the beginning of the world have been the most intriguing and most engaging issues since man became aware of their own physical and spiritual existence. For many centuries, it was the duty of religion to provide humanity with a teaching about their origin and the foundation of human dignity. However, the 18th and 19th centuries were critical in the treatment of the biblical creation stories in Europe. The debate between misinterpreted creation myth accounts and scientific theories led to a sharpening confrontation between religion and science, but it also divided the believers and resulted in the birth of new theories. Emanuel Swedenborg, an influential theologist of the period, wrote detailed commentaries and genuine tractates related to the topic that influenced the ideology and art of William Blake, a versatile and ingenious artist and thinker of the era, whose influence is still significant today. The aim of this study is to highlight the parallels and contrasts between Blake’s Genesis myth and Swedenborg’s teachings, mainly through the unusual pairing of The [First] Book of Urizen and The Last Judgment, to show the connection between Swedenborg’s unorthodox views and Blake’s ideas about the creation of man and the world.

This article examines Paul’s teaching on the uniqueness and supremacy of Christ and its implications for Christianity in Africa. The approach is analytical or qualitative. The historical-critical method and contextual tools are used in the interpretation of the biblical text. The study reveals that Christianity in Africa shares similar threats of heresy to that of the Church at Colossae which, of course, holds implications for Christianity in Africa such as: that Christ must be a living reality in one’s life without which he/she is not worth being classified as a Christian, that the one professing to be a Christian must not only be rooted in Christ but must be built up in Him as well, that Christians in Africa should realize that when believers are part of the body of which Christ is the head, there is no need to fear or manipulate any other spiritual beings, that subjugated powers cannot harm the person who is in Christ for their ultimate overthrow in the future is assured, that Christians in Africa have no cause to pay homage to any lesser supernatural beings, that Christians are not to follow ceremonies, rituals, initiations and restrictions in order to be saved, that Christians in Africa must not obtain secret or acquire an exoteric knowledge in order to be saved or be liberated from the clutches of evil powers, and that they should shun combining aspects of several religions given that they have everything since they have Christ. This, therefore, spells the need to take Christian discipleship very seriously in African Churches.

Nahashon Ngare Rukenya (1930–1996) was initially a Mau-Mau leader during Kenya’s war of independence (1952–60). Mau-Mau rebels were a militant group that waged guerrilla warfare against British colonialism in Kenya; and was largely seen as anti-Christian, anti-Anglican and anti-Presbyterian. As political advisor to the Mau-Mau, especially in their military offensives, Ngare Rukenya was once waylaid by the colonial forces, captured and detained. His turning point as Mau-Mau leader came when a Christian sect called the Moral Re-Armament (MRA)—founded by an American missionary Dr Frank Buchman in 1938—visited various detention camps to deliver counselling and teaching services. In particular, the MRA taught about the equality of all humans as children of God. They preached peace and reconciliation amongst all people living in colonial Kenya, while using biblical references to support their theological and ecclesiastical positions. After listening to their argumentation—while at Athi River detention camp—Ngare Rukenya’s politics of “land and Freedom” (wiyathi na ithaka—the core theme in Mau-Mau politics), changed to peace, reconciliation and resettlement of post-war Kenya. It re-energised his lay Anglican Church leadership, a church seen as pro-colonialism; hence hated by the local populace. This article sets out to unveil the problem in reference to Ngare Rukenya: How did the MRA influence socio-political discourses and eventually play its role in post Mau-Mau war reconstruction in Kenya (1959–1970)? The article is set on the premise that without Ngare Rukenya’s contribution regarding peace, reconciliation and resettlement, Central Kenya (as epicentre of Mau-Mau rebel activities) would have experienced civil war after colonialism in 1963. Ngare Rukenya and the MRA represent a major turning point in the Kenyan ecclesiastical history. The materials in this presentation are largely gathered through oral interviews, archival researches and limited consultation of published works.

This article highlights the history of Jehovah's Witnesses as a Christian religion in Ukraine from its occurrence on the territory of Ukraine in the early 20th century to the present day. The response of the Witnesses to the massive attempts of the Nazi and Soviet regimes to marginalize and suppress their religious manifestations is described separately. In particular, the biblical nature and confessional content of one of the fundamental teachings of the Witnesses – neutrality – is analyzed and explained. It includes the information about what it means and what it does not mean for believers. This makes it possible to better understand the current display of the neutrality of the denomination members when it comes to compliance with certain requirements of the local government. The growth statistics of the denomination members throughout history are given, which indicate the failed attempts of the totalitarian governments repressive system to eradicate the faith in the controlled territories. For the first time, information is published from the memoirs of Witnesses who tried to obtain state registration in 1949 when under the communist regime and the reaction of the government officials to believers’ attempts to be recognized by the state and society. There is a link between the recognition of the state through state registration and the increase of confessional activity, by which the Witnesses actually disprove the myths and labels produced and imposed on society by totalitarian regimes for decades. Emphasis is placed on the Witnesses’ current activities, which gives an idea of their attitude towards Ukrainian society and their role in strengthening and affirming Christian values among fellow citizens. Their publishing activity, evangelization work, religious and family values, public worship, educational programs, charitable and social work, attitude to representatives of other religions are analyzed. The view of health care is particularly examined. It describes the principles of a reasonable balance that Witnesses follow between the right to make informed treatment choices (including the refusal to use blood) and the attitude toward life and health as one of the highest human values. The significant contribution of Jehovah's Witnesses to the development of alternative nonblood treatments in world medicine is acknowledged. Therein are recorded the conclusions from numerous religious studies of Ukrainian and European institutions regarding the social and pedagogical value of materials published and distributed by Jehovah's Witnesses through their periodicals and official online resources. The involvement of Jehovah's Witnesses in providing charitable assistance to civilians during the conflict in Donbas is highlighted. The activities of Jehovah's Witnesses in the context of their attitude to the culture, history, and traditions of the local people are considered. In particular, the part of the tourist program for fellow believers, who come from abroad to join in the ministry or assemblies, is to get familiar with Ukrainian monuments and the historical heritage. Witnesses publish and distribute Bible publications in 14 languages spoken by small indigenous communities in Ukraine. The social significance of biblical teaching, which is meant to meet the spiritual needs of Ukrainians with hearing and visual impairments as well as those who currently remain in places of correctional centers is outlined. For the first time, significant decisions of higher courts in Ukraine and other countries regarding Jehovah's Witnesses are considered. In recent years, the issues of military service and the right for alternative (non-military) service have been considered in higher domestic and foreign courts; denomination’s compliance with the requirements for the provision of state subsidies guaranteed to recognized religions; the right to build and use their places of worship, and proper assessment of religious hate crimes against Jehovah's Witnesses by law enforcement agencies. The decisions of the courts in the above-mentioned cases show that states consider Jehovah's Witnesses to be a recognized religion with the right to exercise freedom of conscience and religion.

Introduction The first “Aquarius Festival” came together in Canberra, at the Australian National University, in the autumn of 1971 and was reprised in 1973 in the small rural town of Nimbin, in northern New South Wales. Both events reflected the Zeitgeist in what was, in some ways, an inchoate expression of the so-called “counterculture” (Roszak). Rather than attempting to analyse the counterculture as a discrete movement with a definable history, I enlist the theory of cultural memes to read the counter culture as a Dawkinsian cluster meme, with this paper offered as “testimonio”, a form of quasi-political memoir that views shifts in the culture through the lens of personal experience (Zimmerman, Yúdice). I track an evolving personal, “internal” topography and map its points of intersection with the radical social, political and cultural changes spawned by the “consciousness revolution” that was an integral part of the counterculture emerging in the 1970s. I focus particularly on the notion of “consciousness raising”, as a Dawkinsian memetic replicator, in the context of the idealistic notions of the much-heralded “New Age” of Aquarius, and propose that this meme has been a persistent feature of the evolution of the “meme cluster” known as the counterculture. Mimesis and the Counterculture Since evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins floated the notion of cultural memes as a template to account for the evolution of ideas within political cultures, a literature of commentary and criticism has emerged that debates the strengths and weaknesses of his proposed model and its application across a number of fields. I borrow the notion to trace the influence of a set of memes that clustered around the emergence of what writer Marilyn Ferguson called The Aquarian Conspiracy, in her 1980 book of that name. Ferguson’s text, subtitled Personal and Social Transformation in Our Time, was a controversial attempt to account for what was known as the “New Age” movement, with its late millennial focus on social and personal transformation. That focus leads me to approach the counterculture (a term first floated by Theodore Roszak) less as a definable historical movement and more as a cluster of aspirational tropes expressing a range of aspects or concerns, from the overt political activism through to experimental technologies for the transformation of consciousness, and all characterised by a critical interrogation of, and resistance to, conventional social norms (Ferguson’s “personal and social transformation”). With its more overtly “spiritual” focus, I read the “New Age” meme, then, as a sub-set of this “cluster meme”, the counterculture. In my reading, “New Age” and “counterculture” overlap, sharing persistent concerns and a broad enough tent to accommodate the serious—the combative political action of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), say, (see Elbaum)—to the light-hearted—the sport of frisbee for example (Stancil). The interrogation of conventional social and political norms inherited from previous generations was a prominent strategy across both movements. Rather than offering a sociological analysis or history of the ragbag counterculture, per se, my discussion here focuses in on the particular meme of “consciousness raising” within that broader set of cultural shifts, some of which were sustained in their own right, some dropping away, and many absorbed into the dominant mainstream culture. Dawkins use of the term “meme” was rooted in the Greek mimesis, to emphasise the replication of an idea by imitation, or copying. He likened the way ideas survive and change in human culture to the natural selection of genes in biological evolution. While the transmission of memes does not depend on a physical medium, such as the DNA of biology, they replicate with a greater or lesser degree of success by harnessing human social media in a kind of “infectivity”, it is argued, through “contagious” repetition among human populations. Dawkins proposed that just as biological organisms could be said to act as “hosts” for replicating genes, in the same way people and groups of people act as hosts for replicating memes. Even before Dawkins floated his term, French biologist Jacques Monod wrote that ideas have retained some of the properties of organisms. Like them, they tend to perpetuate their structure and to breed; they too can fuse, recombine, segregate their content; indeed they too can evolve, and in this evolution selection must surely play an important role. (165, emphasis mine) Ideas have power, in Monod’s analysis: “They interact with each other and with other mental forces in the same brain, in neighbouring brains, and thanks to global communication, in far distant, foreign brains” (Monod, cited in Gleick). Emblematic of the counterculture were various “New Age” phenomena such as psychedelic drugs, art and music, with the latter contributing the “Aquarius” meme, whose theme song came from the stage musical (and later, film) Hair, and particularly the lyric that runs: “This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius”. The Australian Aquarius Festivals of 1971 and 1973 explicitly invoked this meme in the way identified by Monod and the “Aquarius” meme resonated even in Australia. Problematising “Aquarius” As for the astrological accuracy of the “Age of Aquarius meme”, professional astrologers argue about its dating, and the qualities that supposedly characterise it. When I consulted with two prominent workers in this field for the preparation of this article, I was astonished to find their respective dating of the putative Age of Aquarius were centuries apart! What memes were being “hosted” here? According to the lyrics: When the moon is in the seventh house And Jupiter aligns with Mars Then peace will guide the planets And love will steer the stars. (Hair) My astrologer informants assert that the moon is actually in the seventh house twice every year, and that Jupiter aligns with Mars every two years. Yet we are still waiting for the outbreak of peace promised according to these astrological conditions. I am also informed that there’s no “real” astrological underpinning for the aspirations of the song’s lyrics, for an astrological “Age” is not determined by any planet but by constellations rising, they tell me. Most important, contrary to the aspirations embodied in the lyrics, peace was not guiding the planets and love was not about to “steer the stars”. For Mars is not the planet of love, apparently, but of war and conflict and, empowered with the expansiveness of Jupiter, it was the forceful aggression of a militaristic mind-set that actually prevailed as the “New Age” supposedly dawned. For the hippified summer of love had taken a nosedive with the tragic events at the Altamont speedway, near San Francisco in 1969, when biker gangs, enlisted to provide security for a concert performance by The Rolling Stones allegedly provoked violence, marring the event and contributing to a dawning disillusionment (for a useful coverage of the event and its historical context see Dalton). There was a lot of far-fetched poetic licence involved in this dreaming, then, but memes, according to Nikos Salingaros, are “greatly simplified versions of patterns”. “The simpler they are, the faster they can proliferate”, he writes, and the most successful memes “come with a great psychological appeal” (243, 260; emphasis mine). What could be retrieved from this inchoate idealism? Harmony and understanding Sympathy and trust abounding No more falsehoods or derisions Golden living dreams of visions Mystic crystal revelation And the mind’s true liberation Aquarius, Aquarius. (Hair) In what follows I want to focus on this notion: “mind’s true liberation” by tracing the evolution of this project of “liberating” the mind, reflected in my personal journey. Nimbin and Aquarius I had attended the first Aquarius Festival, which came together in Canberra, at the Australian National University, in the autumn of 1971. I travelled there from Perth, overland, in a Ford Transit van, among a raggedy band of tie-dyed hippie actors, styled as The Campus Guerilla Theatre Troupe, re-joining our long-lost sisters and brothers as visionary pioneers of the New Age of Aquarius. Our visions were fueled with a suitcase full of potent Sumatran “buddha sticks” and, contrary to Biblical prophesies, we tended to see—not “through a glass darkly” but—in psychedelic, pop-, and op-art explosions of colour. We could see energy, man! Two years later, I found myself at the next Aquarius event in Nimbin, too, but by that time I inhabited a totally different mind-zone, albeit one characterised by the familiar, intense idealism. In the interim, I had been arrested in 1971 while “tripping out” in Sydney on potent “acid”, or LSD (Lysergic acid diethylamide); had tried out political engagement at the Pram Factory Theatre in Melbourne; had camped out in protest at the flooding of Lake Pedder in the Tasmanian wilderness; met a young guru, started meditating, and joined “the ashram”—part of the movement known as the Divine Light Mission, which originated in India and was carried to the “West” (including Australia) by an enthusiastic and evangelical following of drug-toking drop-outs who had been swarming through India intent on escaping the dominant culture of the military-industrial complex and the horrors of the Vietnam War. Thus, by the time of the 1973 event in Nimbin, while other festival participants were foraging for “gold top” magic mushrooms in farmers’ fields, we devotees had put aside such chemical interventions in conscious awareness to dig latrines (our “service” project for the event) and we invited everyone to join us for “satsang” in the yellow, canvas-covered, geodesic dome, to attend to the message of peace. The liberation meme had shifted through a mutation that involved lifestyle-changing choices that were less about alternative approaches to sustainable agriculture and more about engaging directly with “mind’s true liberation”. Raising Consciousness What comes into focus here is the meme of “consciousness raising”, which became the persistent project within which I lived and worked and had my being for many years. Triggered initially by the ingestion of those psychedelic substances that led to my shocking encounter with the police, the project was carried forward into the more disciplined environs of my guru’s ashrams. However, before my encounter with sustained spiritual practice I had tried to work the shift within the parameters of an ostensibly political framework. “Consciousness raising” was a form of political activism borrowed from the political sphere. Originally generated by Mao Zedong in China during the revolutionary struggle to overthrow the vested colonial interests that were choking Chinese nationalism in the 1940s, to our “distant, foreign brains” (Monod), as Western revolutionary romantics, Chairman Mao and his Little Red Book were taken up, in a kind of international counterculture solidarity with revolutionaries everywhere. It must be admitted, this solidarity was a fairly superficial gesture. Back in China it might be construed as part of a crude totalitarian campaign to inculcate Marxist-Leninist political ideas among the peasant classes (see Compestine for a fictionalised account of traumatic times; Han Suyin’s long-form autobiography—an early example of testimonio as personal and political history—offers an unapologetic account of a struggle not usually construed as sympathetically by Western commentators). But the meme (and the processes) of consciousness raising were picked up by feminists in the United States in the late 1960s and into the 1970s (Brownmiller 21) and it was in this form I encountered it as an actor with the politically engaged theatre troupe, The Australian Performing Group, at Carlton’s Pram Factory Theatre in late 1971. The Performance Group I performed as a core member of the Group in 1971-72. Decisions as to which direction the Group should take were to be made as a collective, and the group veered towards anarchy. Most of the women were getting together outside of the confines of the Pram Factory to raise their consciousness within the Carlton Women’s Liberation Cell Group. While happy that the sexual revolution was reducing women’s sexual inhibitions, some of the men at the Factory were grumbling into their beer, disturbed that intimate details of their private lives—and their sexual performance—might be disclosed and raked over by a bunch of radical feminists. As they began to demand equal rights to orgasm in the bedroom, the women started to seek equal access within the performance group, too. They requested rehearsal time to stage the first production by the Women’s Theatre Group, newly formed under the umbrella of the wider collective. As all of the acknowledged writers in the Group so far were men—some of whom had not kept pace in consciousness raising—scripts tended to be viewed as part of a patriarchal plot, so Betty Can Jump was an improvised piece, with the performance material developed entirely by the cast in workshop-style rehearsals, under the direction of Kerry Dwyer (see Blundell, Zuber-Skerritt 21, plus various contributors at www.pramfactory.com/memoirsfolder/). I was the only male in the collective included in the cast. Several women would have been more comfortable if no mere male were involved at all. My gendered attitudes would scarcely have withstood a critical interrogation but, as my partner was active in launching the Women’s Electoral Lobby, I was given the benefit of the doubt. Director Kerry Dwyer liked my physicalised approach to performance (we were both inspired by the “poor theatre” of Jerzy Grotowski and the earlier surrealistic theories of Antonin Artaud), and I was cast to play all the male parts, whatever they would be. Memorable material came up in improvisation, much of which made it into the performances, but my personal favorite didn’t make the cut. It was a sprawling movement piece where I was “born” out of a symbolic mass of writhing female bodies. It was an arduous process and, after much heaving and huffing, I emerged from the birth canal stammering “SSSS … SSSS … SSMMMO-THER”! The radical reversioning of culturally authorised roles for women has inevitably, if more slowly, led to a re-thinking of the culturally approved and reinforced models of masculinity, too, once widely accepted as entirely biologically ordained rather than culturally constructed. But the possibility of a queer re-versioning of gender would be recognised only slowly. Liberation Meanwhile, Dennis Altman was emerging as an early spokesman for gay, or homosexual, liberation and he was invited to address the collective. Altman’s stirring book, Homosexual: Oppression and Liberation, had recently been published, but none of us had read it. Radical or not, the Group had shown little evidence of sensitivity to gender-queer issues. My own sexuality was very much “oppressed” rather than liberated and I would have been loath to use “queer” to describe myself. The term “homosexual” was fraught with pejorative, quasi-medical associations and, in a collective so divided across strict and sometimes hostile gender boundaries, deviant affiliations got short shrift. Dennis was unsure of his reception before this bunch of apparent “heteros”. Sitting at the rear of the meeting, I admired his courage. It took more self-acceptance than I could muster to confront the Group on this issue at the time. Somewhere in the back of my mind, “homosexuality” was still something I was supposed to “get over”, so I failed to respond to Altman’s implicit invitation to come out and join the party. The others saw me in relationship with a woman and whatever doubts they might have carried about the nature of my sexuality were tactfully suspended. Looking back, I am struck by the number of simultaneous poses I was trying to maintain: as an actor; as a practitioner of an Artaudian “theatre of cruelty”; as a politically committed activist; and as a “hetero”-sexual. My identity was an assemblage of entities posing as “I”; it was as if I were performing a self. Little gay boys are encouraged from an early age to hide their real impulses, not only from others—in the very closest circle, the family; at school; among one’s peers—but from themselves, too. The coercive effects of shaming usually fix the denial into place in our psyches before we have any intellectual (or political) resources to consider other options. Growing up trying to please, I hid my feelings. In my experience, it could be downright dangerous to resist the subtle and gross coercions that applied around gender normativity. The psychoanalyst D. W. Winnicott, of the British object-relations school, argues that when the environment does not support the developing personality and requires the person to sacrifice his or her own spontaneous needs to adapt to environmental demands, there is not even a resting-place for individual experience and the result is a failure in the primary narcissistic state to evolve an individual. The “individual” then develops as an extension of the shell rather than that of the core [...] What there is left of a core is hidden away and is difficult to find even in the most far-reaching analysis. The individual then exists by not being found. The true self is hidden, and what we have to deal with clinically is the complex false self whose function is to keep this true self hidden. (212) How to connect to that hidden core, then? “Mind’s true liberation...” Alienated from the performative version of selfhood, but still inspired by the promise of liberation, even in the “fuzzy” form for which my inchoate hunger yearned (sexual liberation? political liberation? mystical liberation?), I was left to seek out a more authentic basis for selfhood, one that didn’t send me spinning along the roller-coaster of psychedelic drugs, or lie to me with the nostrums of a toxic, most forms of which would deny me, as a sexual, moral and legal pariah, the comforts of those “anchorage points to the social matrix” identified by Soddy (cited in Mol 58). My spiritual inquiry was “counter” to these institutionalised models of religious culture. So, I began to read my way through a myriad of books on comparative religion. And to my surprise, rather than taking up with the religions of antique cultures, instead I encountered a very young guru, initially as presented in a simply drawn poster in the window of Melbourne’s only vegetarian restaurant (Shakahari, in Carlton). “Are you hungry and tired of reading recipe books?” asked the figure in the poster. I had little sense of where that hunger would lead me, but it seemed to promise a fulfilment in ways that the fractious politics of the APG offered little nourishment. So, while many of my peers in the cities chose to pursue direct political action, and others experimented with cooperative living in rural communes, I chose the communal lifestyle of the ashram. In these different forms, then, the conscious raising meme persisted when other challenges raised by the counterculture either faded or were absorbed in the mainstream. I finally came to realise that the intense disillusionment process I had been through (“dis-illusionment” as the stripping away of illusions) was the beginning of awakening, in effect a “spiritual initiation” into a new way of seeing myself and my “place” in the world. Buddhist teachers might encourage this very kind of stripping away of false notions as part of their teaching, so the aspiration towards the “true liberation” of the mind expressed in the Aquarian visioning might be—and in my case, actually has been and continues to be—fulfilled to a very real extent. Gurus and the entire turn towards Eastern mysticism were part of the New Age meme cluster prevailing during the early 1970s, but I was fortunate to connect with an enduring set of empirical practices that haven’t faded with the fashions of the counterculture. A good guitarist would never want to play in public without first tuning her instrument. In a similar way, it is now possible for me to tune my mind back to a deeper, more original source of being than the socially constructed sense of self, which had been so fraught with conflicts for me. I have discovered that before gender, and before sexuality, in fact, pulsing away behind the thicket of everyday associations, there is an original, unconditioned state of beingness, the awareness of which can be reclaimed through focused meditation practices, tested in a wide variety of “real world” settings. For quite a significant period of time I worked as an instructor in the method on behalf of my guru, or mentor, travelling through a dozen or so countries, and it was through this exposure that I was able to observe that the practices worked independently of culture and that “mind’s true liberation” was in many ways a de-programming of cultural indoctrinations (see Marsh, 2014, 2013, 2011 and 2007 for testimony of this process). In Japan, Zen roshi might challenge their students with the koan: “Show me your original face, before you were born!” While that might seem to be an absurd proposal, I am finding that there is a potential, if unexpected, liberation in following through such an inquiry. As “hokey” as the Aquarian meme-set might have been, it was a reflection of the idealistic hope that characterised the cluster of memes that aggregated within the counterculture, a yearning for healthier life choices than those offered by the toxicity of the military-industrial complex, the grossly exploitative effects of rampant Capitalism and a politics of cynicism and domination. The meme of the “true liberation” of the mind, then, promised by the heady lyrics of a 1970s hippie musical, has continued to bear fruit in ways that I could not have imagined. References Altman, Dennis. Homosexual Oppression and Liberation. Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1972. Blundell, Graeme. The Naked Truth: A Life in Parts. 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