2,399 research outputs found
Reverend Gerald Derstine
No full textEvangelist Reverend Gerald Derstine outside his church, Christian Retreat, on Upper Manatee River Road. He is the author of "Following the Fire" and "Fire over Israel"
The Christian Right and US Foreign Policy in the Twenty-first Century
Get PDFThe thesis discusses the role of the Christian Right in the US foreign policy decision making process. The research revealed that the Christian Right has long been fascinated with some international issues in general and US foreign policy in particular. The Christian Right’s interest in international issues increased markedly during years of the George W. Bush presidency. It successfully widened its activities from domestic social conservative issues to foreign policy issues by participating in, articulating and lobbying for its religious version of American foreign policy. In assessing the role of the Christian Right in US foreign policy making, this dissertation examines three aspects of US foreign policy, namely Israel, international religious freedom and global humanitarianism. Based on these aspects, the Christian Right is seen as skilled in framing and defining issues. The Christian Right seems effective in selecting and prioritizing international issues that have a reasonable chance of being selected by foreign policy decision makers, especially in Congress. Moreover, the Christian Right has shown its maturity in seeking engagement and cooperation with other organizations, secular and religious, in order to advance its international goals. Finally, in pursuing and conveying its international agenda, the Christian Right has adopted a more moderate and less overtly religious approach. Instead of using its traditional religious rhetoric, the Christian Right has successfully projected its foreign policy preferences into the conventional realist discourse of American foreign policy that is largely based on the objective of national interest and national security. Nevertheless, this study does not, in any way, conclude that the Christian Right was able to influence or determine the direction of US foreign policy and its outcomes; however, it does suggest that the Christian Right did contribute and have an impact on the formulation of some US foreign policy. As such, the research contends that the role of the Christian Right is similar to other interest group lobbies and that its perceived influence on US foreign policy should not be exaggerated. Finally, the research suggests that the emergence of the Christian Right as an actor in asserting its global agenda through US foreign policy can possibly provide an example of how religious beliefs and values can become a potential source of “soft power”. Together with the “climate of opinion” of the American public during the Bush administration, the “soft power” at domestic level could serve as a valuable new explanatory variable in understanding how the US foreign policy was formulated in the early 21st century
John Piper: The Making of a Christian Hedonist
Get PDFJOHN PIPER: THE MAKING OF
A CHRISTIAN HEDONIST
Justin Gerald Taylor, Ph.D.
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2015
Chair: Dr. Michael A. G. Haykin
This dissertation on noted pastor and author John Piper (1946- ) constitutes an early effort in the field of intellectual biography, tracing four key influences--in roughly chronological order--upon Piper's life and theology. Those with primary influence in Piper's formative years were his parents, William S. H. Piper (1919-2007) and Ruth Mohn Piper (1918-1974), who exhibited a unique combination of joyful fundamentalism. Piper's next major influence was C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), discovered during his undergraduate studies at Wheaton College, who introduced him to romantic rationalism. Piper's first teacher at Fuller Seminary was Daniel P. Fuller (1925- ), a hermeneutics professor who planted the seeds of Christian hedonism and who gave him a love for exegetical biblicism. It was during these seminary days and into his time of doctoral study that Piper discovered Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), whose affectional Calvinism would go on to shape Piper's theology more than anyone else. Piper's three primary venues of ministerial vocation--teaching, preaching, and writing--are all examined to reveal the ways in which each of these influencers played various roles in Piper's development of Christian hedonism and his distinct contribution to a theology of the Christian life. The dissertation concludes with two applications of the foregoing analysis, exploring how Piper uses Scripture and how he appropriates church history for pastoral ends. Also included is a comprehensive bibliography of Piper's published works (1971-2015)
A Christian social ethic for Singapore with reference to the works of Ronald H. Preston
Get PDFThis thesis proposes a contextual Christian social ethic for a plural Singapore where Christianity, as a late arrival in East and Southeast Asia, is still regarded by most Asians as a foreign religion, mainly because of its association with past colonial exploits and present Euro-North American value-systems. Our thesis begins with an historical overview of Singapore from its founding as a British colony to its present position as an independent prosperous republic. Drawing on two failed attempts at Christian social engagement in post- colonial Singapore as examples, we argue against uncritical adoption of any social ethical model which is not culture-sensitive to the peculiar contextual concerns of that city-state. We show that an appropriate and credible Christian social ethic for Singapore can be found, not so much in Liberation Theologies or Ecclesiological Ethics, though they have rightly attracted a lot of attention in recent years, but rather in the social theology of Ronald. Preston and the tradition he represents. Preston's social theology, informed very much by a doctrine of creation, recognises God's grace at work in the life of all people and social structures. It encourages and facilitates constructive Christian social engagement in the political arena and the economic sphere where Christians, as members of overlapping communities, live and work with people of other faiths and those with no religious affiliation. When critically adapted and appropriately supplemented by other theological and philosophical materials in areas where we find deficiencies, Preston's social theology provides the congenial theological resources which can be used to frame a contextual Christian social ethic to meet the multi-faceted challenges of a plural, post-colonial Singapore
The Book of Daniel and manticism: a critical assessment of the view that the Book of Daniel derives from a mantic tradition
No full textThis dissertation examines the consensus view that is based on Hans-Peter
Müller's 1969 and 1972 articles: Daniel was a mantic wise man in the Mesopotamian
ASA
court, and this was the self-understanding or aspiration of the maskilim of Dan 11:33, 35,
12:3, 10, who wrote the book. Chapter 1 reviews the arguments that make the mantic connection and Chapter 2 concludes that a direct connection with the Danes of Aqht, Ezek, and Jub, and with the angel in 1 Enoch should be rejected. There is evidence that the
tradition of a priest in Ezra 8: 2 and Neh 10: 7, and found also in the superscription to
the Old Greek of Bel, and 4 Ezra 12:10-11, and suggested the name.
Chapter 3 concludes that the portrayal of the court diviners in Dan 1-6 is wholly
negative and includes both the diviners, and the essence of the professions, i. e., the
ability to interpret a divine revelation. The critique is conveyed through the story line,
explicit criticisms, irony, and humour. Chapter 4 concludes that Daniel, the interpreter
of dreams and the writing on the wall, is distinguished from every other character and role. In the final form of Dan, Daniel as the divinely assisted each time he interprets, just as when he receives help from an interpreting angel in Dan 7-12.
Chapter 5 demonstrates that the portrayal of Daniel as the divinely assisted
interpreter makes sense of the reinterpretation of old prophecies against the Assyrians
as prophecies against Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Hab 2:2-4 and Isa 52-53 were also
understood as predictions about the maskilim themselves. Comparisons are then made
with the Teacher of Righteousness, the writers of the Hodayot, and with three Essenes
portrayed by Josephus. These too were portrayed as divinely assisted interpreters
A theological critique of Christian education, with special reference to developments in Northern Ireland since 1944
Get PDFThe perspective adopted in this thesis is that of a Northern Irish Catholic Christian, a teacher by profession. The field is that of the theology of education. The thesis has three principal aims; firstly, to provide a justification for a confident Christian education in an increasingly secular and agnostic world; secondly, to evaluate the development and present status of Christian education in Northern Ireland in the light of its sectarian history and current situation of community conflict; thirdly, to consider the remit of Christian education and its role in promoting societal harmony. The thesis consists of eight chapters. Its overall design may be discerned in a general introduction and seven other chapters of which four engage the issue of Christian education in the Northern Ireland context. Of the other three, one chapter criticizes analytical philosophy and positivist influences in contemporary liberal education, especially where these have affected conceptions of religious education. The second attempts a validation of Christian education, and in addition promotes Christian apologetics as both a viable and needed response to relativistic agnosticism. The third consists of the conclusions to be drawn. The scope of the thesis embraces considerations of the assumptions and values of Christian education; the nature of religious education; theistic belief the Christian tradition, the nature of confessionalism; Northern Ireland confessionalism; the influence of ideologies; the separate schools system; the question of integrated education; the historical background to the divided communities; the challenge of the great Christian imperatives of love and forgiveness in respect of community reconciliation and of implementing a Christian education fully alive to its responsibilities. The penultimate chapter confronts practical issues and suggests models and approaches in Christian education with outreach towards reconciliation
Reviving an ancient-modern quarrel : a critique of Derrida's reading of Plato and Platoism
Get PDFThis thesis begins from an analysis of Derrida's specific readings of Plato and
Platonism, identifying there a modernist bias, which interprets these metaphysical
systems as if they were coextensive with Cartesian rationalism. Against Derrida, I
argue for a repositioning of Plato and Platonism in the context of an ancient-modern
quarrel. In replacing Descartes's "clarity and distinctness" with a pre-modern
emphasis on "faith" (pistis), I am seeking to challenge Derrida's diagnosis of a
perplexity or impasse (aporia) which cannot be overcome by philosophy. With
specific reference to the Meno and the Phaedrus, one can locate a three-tiered
Platonic dialectic beginning with an assertion of knowledge, followed by a necessary
deconstruction of this knowledge with, thirdly, a tentative reconstruction of
philosophy based on faith rather than knowing. In later chapters, I examine this
dialectic as it is developed in the Neo- and Christian- Platonist traditions, particularly
through the work of Plotinus, Boethius and Augustine.
On my interpretation, deconstruction remains at the second level of the Platonic
dialectic, that of impasse and perplexity (one of Derrida's most recent texts is in fact
entitled Aporias). Again with reference to an ancient-modern quarrel, it is my
contention that Derrida's unstinting stress on the "aporetic" is due to an overemphasis
of the Cartesian paradigm. Derrida identifies the exhaustion of what Deeley calls "the
classical modern paradigm" with the exhaustion of philosophy per se. But this
identification of philosophy with Cartesianism can be seriously challenged through a
renewed foregrounding of the premodern philosophical resources which Descartes
(and now Derrida) have sought to obscure
In search of a timeless God
No full textIn contemporary discussions it is often assumed that God cannot be timeless
if presentism is true, but that God can be timeless if four-dimensional eternalism is
true. I argue that the Christian God cannot be timeless on either ontology of time.
Contemporary atemporalists have not fully grasped the details of eternalism, nor
fleshed out the implications of eternalism for understanding the Christian doctrines of
creation, conservation, and incarnation. Once the details are developed, it can be
shown that eternalism is not compatible with divine timelessness. Instead, the
Christian God would be temporal as understood on eternalism. In order to
demonstrate this, I shall do the following in this thesis. In chapter 1 I shall lay out the
relevant desiderata and methods for assessing the doctrine of divine timelessness.
Chapter 2 will give an up-to-date discussion of the philosophy of time, and lay out the
theories that are needed to understand the doctrine of divine timelessness. Chapter 3
will articulate the traditional doctrine of divine timelessness and develop its
systematic connections to the doctrines of divine immutability and simplicity. Chapter
4 shall argue that the classical Christian theologians were committed to presentism. It
shall also argue that their commitment to presentism conflicts with their commitment
to divine timelessness and omniscience. In chapter 5 I shall argue that classical
Christian theology cannot reconcile divine timelessness with their doctrines of
creation and conservation. In chapter 6, it will be shown how four-dimensional
eternalism can help Christian theology solve some of these problems for divine
timelessness. However, it will also be argued that four-dimensional eternalism
conflicts with Christian theology, and that four-dimensional eternalism is not
compatible with divine timelessness. Chapter 7 offers a thorough examination of the
doctrine of the incarnation. It is argued that divine timelessness is not compatible with the incarnation
Recensiones Críticas
Get PDFKnight, George R. A Search for Identity: The Development of Seventh-day Adventist Beliefs (Miguel Ángel Núñez) pp. 189-192Muñiz Aguilar, Marga. Femenino plural: Las mujeres en la exégesis bíblica (Miguel Ángel Núñez) pp. 192-195Pöhler, Rolf J. Continuity and Change in Christian Doctrine: A Study of the Problem of Doctrinal Development (Sergio E. Becerra) pp. 195-198Pöhler, Rolf J. Continuity and Change in Adventist Teaching: A Case Study in Doctrinal Development (Sergio E. Becerra) pp. 195-198Schwemer, Daniel. Die Wettergottgestalten Mesopotamiens und Nordsyriens im Zeitalter der Keilschriftkulturen (Gerald A. Klingbeil) pp. 198-20
Christian praxis economic justice
Get PDFThe major aim of this thesis is to formulate the principles of economic justice and propose a just economic system which would critically guide Christian praxis in a secular pluralist society in general and Korea in particular. It is done through a critical dialogue with major Western and Latin American theologians and thinkers. First we have a brief historical overview of the socio-political condition in Korea and the Korean Protestant Church's response to show the importance of the question of economic justice for Korean Christians and the impasse in which they find themselves (Chapter 1). Our critical dialogue with the Western and Latin American thinkers starts with the consideration of the most fundamental issue of theological method (chapter 2). We establish our own theological method which involves the reciprocal relationship between theory and praxis at all levels of enquiry and the reciprocal interactions between philosophical, socio-analytic and hermeneutic mediations. After establishing the legitimacy of the notion of economic justice (chapter 3), we formulate our own principles of economic justice employing the philosophical method of hypothetical reflective equilibrium (chapter 4). We then propose democratic communitarianism as an alternative just economic system through a critical appropriation of the Marxist theory of exploitation and capitalist mainstream economics (chapter 5). We then elaborate theological views of the person, society (chapter 6) and the principles of economic justice underpinning the preceding discussions (chapter 7). Finally we return to our own context, Korea, to show the relevance of democratic communitarianism and its corresponding principles of economic justice (chapter 8)
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