Scripture, Spirituality And Society Research Centre
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Item An Evaluation of the Traditional SDA Understanding of the Identity of 'The Rest of Her Seed' in Revelation 12:17(2015-12-01) Turner, Mark AllenSeventh-day Adventist scholars have long identified the ‘rest of her seed’ of Revelation 12:17 with the Seventh-day Adventist Church. This identification is based on the understanding that ‘the rest of her seed’ are an ‘end-time remnant’ that appears in history after AD 1798, keeps the seventh-day Sabbath and possesses the prophetic gift. This study has two aims: (1) to undertake an objective contextual examination of the identity of ‘the rest of her seed’; and (2) to evaluate the assertion made by Seventh-day Adventists that their movement is to be identified with ‘the rest of her seed’. In Chapter One the traditional Seventh-day Adventist understanding of ‘the rest of her seed is examined and the four theological premises upon which the Seventh-day Adventist Church has made its assertion are identified and articulated. In Chapter Two consideration is given to five key contextual features that make possible a sound identification of ‘the rest of her seed’. It is argued that ‘the rest of her seed’ are believers from the entire Christian era who are faithful to the Old and New Testament Scriptures, identified elsewhere in Revelation as ‘the saints.’ In Chapter Three the four theological premises upon which the Seventh-day Adventist Church has made its assertion are examined. It is shown that these premises are not supported by the context, and therefore that ‘the rest of her seed’ in Revelation 12:17 cannot be limited in its meaning to a reference to the Seventh-day Adventist movement. This study concludes with a discussion of the implications of these conclusions for both Seventh-day Adventist self-understanding, and the Seventh-day Adventist understanding of Revelation.
Item Functional Structures in the Local Seventh-day Adventist Church in Australia and New Zealand: A Paradigm for Renewal(2004-08-01) Pratt, BrendanContents:
The place of structure in the life of the local church
Functionality: the relationship between structure and church health
Determining what makes a structure functional
An historical account of church structure
The development of local church structure
Sociological considerations that shape church structure
Organisational theory and church structure
A brief history of structural renewal in the Adventist church
The current state of structural renewal in the local Adventist church
Case studies of functional structures in local Adventist churches
Principles that underlie a new paradigm for facilitating functional structures
Applying the principles of functional structures
Ensuring the structure remains
Item Participative Leadership in the Toronto Seventh-day Adventist Church(1985-11-01) Oliver, BarryProblem: Respect for an authoritarian style of leadership in the church has diminished. Due to societal and cultural changes church members are seeking greater participation in the decision making processes in the church. It was the purpose of this project to investigate the response of the pastor and church board toward education in principles determining participative leadership, and assess commitment to implementation of such a leadership style in the church.
Method: A series of four seminars was conducted in which Biblical and organisational determinants of participative leadership were discussed. There were twenty members on the board, although not all attended regularly. Shifts in perception were measured by instruments conducted at the beginning and end of the seminar series.
Results: Although the group was small, measurement indicated that the seminar series successfully increased perception of the nature of participative leadership, its advantages, its basis in the New Testament, and the relationship of various organisational principles to successful participative leadership in the church.
The commitment to implementation of a participative style of leadership was high at the conclusion of the series.
Conclusion: The project demonstrated the viability of an educative process in motivating the church board toward acceptance of its leadership role in the church. Board members can be educated to maximise the contribution of every church member in the decision-making processes of the church.
Item Publish or Perish: A Study of the Role of Print in the Adventist Community(2004-06-01) Manners, BruceDespite the proliferation of various forms of media, print remains a popular choice for communication among voluntary, nonprofit organisations. The Seventh-day Adventist Church, with its print-rich heritage and a continuing print emphasis, proves ideal for a study of print in these kinds of organisations. Because of its emphasis on voluntary organisations, this study of print differs from most, which tend to investigate print within commercial mass media.
This study of the Adventist Church underscores the various ways print comes to embody the life and character of the organisation producing it. It shows that the major influences brought to bear upon print come from those who have been given authority within the church. During times of crisis or change, Adventist print tends to emphasise traditional beliefs and positions, with the strength of the response dependent on the perceived threat to the church. Print is found to aid in the development of a sense of community within a group, but thir is dependent both on the print maintaining the core values of the group and the attitudes brought by members to its media. As the Adventist Church has grown and become more complex, there has been an attempt to position its print to the middle ground. This draws criticism from members outside the middle ground, particularly among those who could be called conservative Adventists.
This thesis presents its findings with reference to the Seventh-day Adventist Church, but the principles are relevant to a broader context, that of print within voluntary, nonprofit organisations. The salient findings are presented to encompass this broader context.
Item Religious Coping Strategies and the Role of the Local Minister in Supporting Church Members Facing Negative Life Events: Australian Seventh-day Adventist Church Members' use and Perceptions of the Effectiveness of Various Religious Coping Strategies and Types of Pastoral Support(2010-10-14) Fry, Kelly PetaCoping is at the core of life. For religious people, religious coping also plays a significant part in the potential outcome of a crisis. Firstly, this study determined the type of religious coping methods adopted by Australian Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church members and the actions of the local minister in supporting them during times of negative life events. Secondly, the research explored SDA church members’ perceptions of the effectiveness of various religious coping methods and pastoral support during these times of crisis. A mixed method design was adopted in this study, encompassing both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Data were collected in a singlephase process from 206 church members across 9 churches. The instrument used to determine the respective religious coping methods adopted by the participants was adapted from Kenneth Pargament’s RCOPE instrument. It was found that SDA church members use a combination of Positive and Negative Religious Coping Methods: with Positive Coping methods that seek a connection with God often being the most effective, while negative coping methods that attribute blame to God and/or others being less effective in dealing with negative life events. An individual’s age, income and the severity of the negative life event they experienced, influenced the type of Religious Coping methods they adopted. This research indicated that pastors within the SDA Church provide substantial and much appreciated support to their members. But there were some areas/dimensions that needed additional attention. This was V particularly so in the relational dimension; with a perceived need in terms of more acceptance, a less judgmental attitude and some basic counseling skills. This study found that church members need to feel a positive connection with God and the church before they are able to begin to successfully deal with negative life events. It is, however, only when church members have established these connections with God that they are able to also readily accept support from God and the church community.
Item The Biblical "One Flesh" Theology of Marriage as Constituted in Genesis 2:24: An Exegetical Study of This Human-divine Covenant Pattern, Its New Testament Echoes, and Its Reception History Throughout Scripture(2011-11-01) Gehring, RenéThis thesis reports the results of a linguistic and theological investigation of the “one flesh” marriage union concept introduced in Genesis 2:24, and the history of its reception throughout the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament Scriptures, with special focus on its New Testament echoes in Mat. 19, Mar. 10, 1Co. 6 and Eph. 5. The aim was to discover whether this concept provides a fundamental, harmonious foundation for a biblical theology of marriage, and whether the “one flesh” union is, at least subliminally, present in the major marriage (and divorce) passages of the Scriptures.
Methods employed include, initially, detailed exegesis of Gen. 2:24, giving attention to linguistic and literary features of the passage in context. Reception history was then used to identify the primary passages in both the Hebrew Bible and New Testament impacted by the Gen. 2:24 “one flesh” marriage concept. These in turn were also subjected to detailed exegesis. The combined data emerging from the study of these passages was then examined from the perspective of biblical theology to determine whether a somewhat unified and harmonious biblical theology of the “one flesh” union can be reasonably constructed.
The thesis found that the “one flesh” union concept serves as the foundation for the biblical pattern of an ideal marriage. In addition, the “one flesh” union concept serves as a major foundation for several Hebrew Bible and New Testament passages outlining the ideal relationship between Yahweh and his people. Finally, the thesis concludes by presenting a new biblical framework for marriage, divorce and remarriage which deals in a fresh way with theological implications of concubinage, and issues of possible “biblical” grounds for permissible divorce and remarriage.
Item The Identity of the "I" in the "Confessions" of Jeremiah(1998-12-01) Thiele, David HerbertContents:
1. Introduction
2. The 'gattung' of the "confessions" of Jeremiah: lawsuits
3. The 'gattung' of the confessions: individual laments
4. Theological development in the confessions
5. The confessions in context
6. Summary and conclusion
Appendices:
1. Vocabulary distribution in the confessions
2. A note on two relevant issues in the Psalms.
Item The Impact of the Jewish Day of Atonement Upon the Thought of the New Testament(1973-01-01) Young, Norman H.The impact of the Jewish Day of Atonement upon the thought of the New Testament.
Item Tongues in Corinth - The Case for Human Languages: A Study of Corinthians 12-14(2010-12-01) Burton, LynnThis treatise supports the historical view that the tongues phenomenon in 1 Cor 14 is identical to that in Acts 2. Hence, it argues that the tongues referred to in 1 Corinthians are known human languages and not angel speech, riddles, ecstatic irrational utterances or groans. In addition, it contends that this gift was meant to be used for an evangelism that would build up the church. Nevertheless, the local tongues-speakers were abusing this gift by employing it to exalt self, even using it in public worship services where no one present knew the language. It is this abuse that Paul addresses throughout 1 Corinthians, not the phenomenon itself. When seen in this light, the difficult texts in this biblical passage become clear.
Item Trumpeting God's Mercy: A Socio-rhetorical Interpretation of the Seven Trumpets of Revelation(2010-01-01) de Waal, KayleSocio-rhetorical interpretation, as developed by Vernon Robbins, uses five textures, namely, inner texture, intertexture, social and cultural texture, ideological texture and sacred texture. My work introduces intratexture. These textures are used to analyse Rev 8.2-9.21 and 11.15- 18, which is identified as the focus text. Chapter 1 addresses the prior literature on the trumpets, analyses the dominant image of trumpet and introduces the interpretive analytic. Chapter 2 investigates inner texture to ascertain how words function as a means of communication. Chapter 3 concentrates on intertexture and intratexture which focuses on cultural intertexture. Constructs within this aspect of intertexture include allusions and echoes. A symbol marker establishes the intertextual relationship between the successor and precursor text. To facilitate whether the precursor text, initially identified by the symbol marker, is an allusion or echo, Richard Hays criteria are used. The allusions and echoes point to the enemies of God and his people in the Old Testament and the Second Temple literature. Echoes become very important in the exegetical enterprise. In chapter 4 I analyse the social and cultural texture, which is concerned with exploring the consequences of the communal and cultural location of the language of Revelation and the kind of world this language evokes. The construct of social marker engages and unravels the texts social and cultural features. The social markers point to spiritual and economic issues against the mythic backdrop of the cosmic conflict tradition. Chapter 5 investigates the ideological texture, which is concerned with systems of power and views of reality shared by individuals and groups. The ideological marker has distinctly ideological elements and reinforces and recasts the findings of the social markers. Chapter 6 examines the sacred texture, drawing together all the findings of the previous textures and developing insights on God, the cosmic conflict and the value of the markers. The core argument is that the cosmic conflict tradition, scripted out in the narrative world as a sharp social schism between the Roman empire and the authorial audience, allows this audience to make no accommodation to the dictates of Greco- Roman society.