The family (reality and imagery) as a hermeneutical prodedure for interpreting the Gospels within the socio-cultural context of the ancient Mediterranean world : an African social-descriptive approach

The study of the family in the classical period is gaining momentum and continues to engage amongst others, biblical scholars. This mounting interest by biblical critics is indicative of the fact that the family as reality and imagery could be a hermeneutical procedure and methodology through which the Gospels and other New Testament texts and message could be interpreted. The researcher has chosen the Roman, Jewish, African and New Testament families to substantiate this assertion. The contribution of the social-scientific scholars to an understanding of how the family could be utilised as a paradigm in biblical criticism, is the first aspect to be stated and discussed. Their major thrust as far as the family is concerned is that the New Testament is both a reflection of and a response to the social and cultural setting in which the text was produced. Therefore, meanings explicit and implicit in the text are determined by the social and cultural systems inhabited by both authors and intended readers. The researcher goes beyond the contribution of the Western and North American scholars by postulating what he calls the African social-descriptive approach. It is an attempt to appropriate the results of the social-scientific biblical critics from an African perspective. It is therefore, contended that the concept and experience of the African family is closer to the narratological symbolic world of the Gospels during the Graeco-Roman era. As a result, the New Testament message can be proclaimed and interpreted in the context of the cultural milieu already experienced in Africa. Concerning the Roman and Jewish families, it is asserted that when Christianity entered these cultures, a negotiation of meaning was necessary. To the Romans the Christian faith was to a large extent presented in a language of something valued by the Romans, the family. Whatever the obstacles in other respects to accepting the new religion, the Romans would find the Christian symbolism of the family recognisable and intellectually comprehensible. They would therefore, understand something new, Christianity by means of something old, the family. The Jewish tradition was also indelibly interwoven into family life. Although at that time the Gentile converts were welcomed, Palestine Judaism remained fundamentally an ethnic tradition fostering a conception and praxis of religion, which was bound up with Jewish ethnic identity. The family symbolism in the Gospels had much affinity with the Old Testament. For instance, God as the Father had converted Israel from a barren couple (Abraham and Sarah) and adopted them as his own. The New Testament message of the church as a family consisting of those redeemed and born in God's family was not to be new to the Jews. The New Testament perspectives of family is also discussed by referring to the synoptic gospels and John. These New Testament writers use many analogies to describe the nature and identity of the church. One of the most common analogies was that Jesus came and altered the existing conceptions and experience of family ties. Those he called his disciples, the propagators of the post-Easter faith subordinated their natural family ties in order for them to be with Him and to be engaged in his mission for the sake of the gospel. They obeyed Jesus, even at the cost of household based security and identity - the family. In line with the New Testament family, the African family values are brought to the fore. The two are compared and contrasted. The areas of convergence are indicative of the fact that the New Testament could be appropriated in an African family context. There are also differences. These dissimilarities illustrate that the New Testament can impact the family values in compliance with the biblical text and message. The research closes with a suggestion that at the threshold of the new millennium, where the family institution is tremendously under stress, the New Testament family is an ideal model.Thesis (PhD (NT Studies))--University of Pretoria, 2007.New Testament Studiesunrestricte

Church’s response towards orphans and vulnerable children as a result of HIV AIDS : a theological biblical perspective

By its very nature the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) should invoke response and challenge from all sectors of society, including the church and the academia (theological practitioners). However, in the early years of HIV and AIDS, more or less 30 years ago, the church has been apathetic in its response and engagement with issues relating to HIV and AIDS. Due to the fact that the HIvirus and the AIDS disease raises moral, ethical, gender, cultural, sexual and spiritual matters, it took a considerable long time for the church to become involved. In theological practice the response and involvement in HIV and AIDS matters was also initially characterised by theological impotency. This article therefore, provides a philosophical, theological and biblical basis and reflection to the church especially, in Africa, to effectively respond to the plight, crisis and scourge of HIV and AIDS and its impact to orphans and other vulnerable children (OVC). The effects and repercussions of this pandemic are everywhere glaring, especially in developing nations. This worldwide epidemiology of HIV and AIDS has evoked resources from many national governments (particularly in developing countries), the United Nations bodies, Non-Profit Organisations, etcetra. Indeed, the bone-chilling statistics emanate from the World Health Organisation, AIDS conferences and newspaper articles The latest statistics on people infected with HIV and people living with AIDS, including the OVC, sends shock waves throughout the world. The apathetic and largely disengagement by the church towards the OVC, paucity and dearth of theological publications in current times on this subject and topic indicate that the church in Africa needs to come to terms with her theological and biblical mandate to care for the OVC. This article therefore provides a synopsis and survey of how God’s people (Israel in the Old Testament and the Church in the New Testament) were commanded by God to care for OVC. Based on the biblical text, the contemporary church in Africa should break the vicious and dangerous cycle of silence, apathy and disengagement and start alleviating the plight of OVC.http://www.ve.org.zanf201

The joy at the Last Judgement according to the Heidelberg Catechism Question 52

This article is a reworked version of a paper presented during the Heidelberg Catechism 450 Conference at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Pretoria, South Africa, October 28–29th, 2013.In this contribution, the author reflects on Question 52 of the Heidelberg Catechism where it asks: ‘What comfort is it to you that Christ “shall come to judge the living and the dead”?’ The author points out possible sources from which this formulation stems, that is, Articles 86 and 87 in John Calvin’s Catechism from 1545. God is described as a compassionate judge. Even more: the One who is the last judge, was also judged and had paid for our sins. In a dialectical fashion we discover a God who is just, but also merciful. The Reformed tradition did not follow a dead-end where it is taught that God shows us grace instead of righteousness. Had God proceeded in this way, he would only mean things well, but he would not make them well. The realisation of God being just and merciful leads to joy and repentance. The contribution ends with a discussion of the final separation of the just and evil.http://www.hts.org.zaam201

Theology disrupted : doing theology with children in African contexts

The thrust of this article is an attempt to respond to the question whether we can read and interpret the bible in Africa from the child theology vantage point. The author’s answer is in the affirmative in two ways: Firstly, it is that the majority of children in Africa are facing abuses of unprecedented proportions. Historically and traditionally, African scholars always read and interpreted the bible with African lenses. The African bible critic and exegete should be part of the church, the body of Christ which ought to be a lotus of healing. Theologising in the context of the crisis of the ‘child’ in Africa is fairly a new development and needs to be aggressively pursued. The second aspect of this author’s response is that when Christianity entered the Graeco-Roman as well the Jewish milieu, it used the family symbolism such as father, brothers, love, house of God, children of God, and so on. The New Testament authors therefore used family as reality and metaphor to proclaim the gospel. The African theologian, critic and exegete, is therefore in this article challenged to make a significant contribution using the African context in that, ‘… the African concept of child, family and community appears to be closer to ecclesiology than the Western concepts’.This article emanates from a consultation on ‘Child Theology’ in August 2015, co-hosted by the Centre of Contextual Ministry, Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria.http://www.hts.org.zaam2017Centre for Contextual Ministr

Karabo ya kereke mabapi le dit�hiwana le bana bao ba lego kotsing ka lebaka la HIV AIDS: Maikutlo a sedumedi sa ka pebeleng

<strong>The church�s response towards orphans and vulnerable children as a result of HIV AIDS: A theological biblical perspective</strong><br /> By its very nature the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) should invoke response and challenge from all sectors of society, including the church and the academia (theological practitioners). However, in the early years of HIV and AIDS, more or less 30 years ago, the church has been apathetic in its response and engagement with issues relating to HIV and AIDS. Due to the fact that the HIvirus and the AIDS disease raises moral, ethical, gender, cultural, sexual and spiritual matters, it took a considerable long time for the church to become involved. In theological practice the response and involvement in HIV and AIDS matters was also initially characterised by theological impotency.<p>This article therefore, provides a philosophical, theological and biblical basis and reflection to the church especially, in Africa, to effectively respond to the plight, crisis and scourge of HIV and AIDS and its impact to orphans and other vulnerable children (OVC). The effects and repercussions of this pandemic are everywhere glaring, especially in developing nations. This worldwide epidemiology of HIV and AIDS has evoked resources from many national governments (particularly in developing countries), the United Nations bodies, Non-Profit Organisations, etcetra. Indeed, the bone-chilling statistics emanate from the World Health Organisation, AIDS conferences and newspaper articles The latest statistics on people infected with HIV and people living with AIDS, including the OVC, sends shock waves throughout the world. The apathetic and largely disengagement by the church towards the OVC, paucity and dearth of theological publications in current times on this subject and topic indicate that the church in Africa needs to come to terms with her theological and biblical mandate to care for the OVC. This article therefore provides a synopsis and survey of how God�s people (Israel in the Old Testament and the Church in the New Testament) were commanded by God to care for OVC. Based on the biblical text, the contemporary church in Africa should break the vicious and dangerous cycle of silence, apathy and disengagement and start alleviating the plight of OVC.</p

Addendum: Theology disrupted: Doing theology with children in African contexts

No abstract available

The ancient Mediterranean values of honour and shame as a hermeneutical procedure: a social-scientific criticism in an African perspective

The life of modern people evolves around economics and all that goes with it, such as labour, production, consumption and possessions. These things do not only motivate many peoples' behaviour, but claim most of their energy and time. Therefore, the organising principle of life of people today is instrumental mastery - the individual's ability to control his or her environment, personal and impersonal, to attain a qualityorientated success: wealth, ownership, "good looks" proper grades, and all countable indications of success. But, in the first century Mediterranean world, economics was not the be-all and end-all. People worked primarily to conserve their status and not to gather possessions. Thus, the pivotal values of the first century Mediterranean world was honour and shame. This article looks at how social-scientific critics have attempted to show how the understanding of these values would lead to an understanding and interpretation of the New Testament. In this article the author approaches this paradigm from an African perspective. It is shown that the African interacts and transacts with the New Testament with his/her own value system in which these values are also encountered. This, therefore, makes the reading of the Bible in an African context possible.http://explore.up.ac.za/record=b152516