International audience ; The General Prologue of the wycliffite Bible has rarely been studied in its political dimension. Nevertheless, the study of its relation with the themes of translation and access to knowledge allows to better mesure the socio-political impact of the last one, fundamental. ; Le prologue général de la Bible wycliffite a rarement été étudié dans sa dimension politique. Sa mise en relation avec les thèmes de la traduction et de l'accès à la connaissance, permet pourtant de mieux mesurer l'impact socio-politique de cette dernière, fondamental.
International audience ; The General Prologue of the wycliffite Bible has rarely been studied in its political dimension. Nevertheless, the study of its relation with the themes of translation and access to knowledge allows to better mesure the socio-political impact of the last one, fundamental. ; Le prologue général de la Bible wycliffite a rarement été étudié dans sa dimension politique. Sa mise en relation avec les thèmes de la traduction et de l'accès à la connaissance, permet pourtant de mieux mesurer l'impact socio-politique de cette dernière, fondamental.
This thesis explores the ways in which African filmmakers have historically addressed Christianity and the Bible on the continent. It begins with the premise that on the African continent, marked political films (Mazierska) are embedded in transnational dynamics involving movements of economic and symbolic capital, ideas, discourses and multiple publics. Within these movements, questions of identity, and questions, of the cultural, political or religious are explored in conversation and encounter with Others. With this premise in mind, I ask how the films address Christianity and interpret the Bible; how they frame the religious in relation specific historical, cultural and political contexts; and what are the potential implications of the transnational dynamics and circulation of films. Although much research has focused on the representation of religions in African video and screen media especially in the 2000s, surprisingly little has been dedicated to earlier cinematic expressions and political cinema. To contribute to the history of the cinematic treatment of religion on the continent, four fictional films were chosen as case-studies: La Chapelle, (The Chapel, dir. Jean-Michel Tchissoukou, 1980, Republic of Congo), Au Nom du Christ (In the Name of Christ, dir. Roger Gnoan M'Bala, 1993, Côte d'Ivoire), La Génèse (Genesis, dir. Cheick Oumar Sissoko, 1999, Mali) and Son of Man (dir. Mark Dornford-May, 2006, South-Africa). The analyses reveal that filmmakers have portrayed and interpreted the presence of Christianity and the Bible in relation to legacies of colonialism and decolonisation. Their attitudes narrate the presence of Christianity and the Bible in terms of resistance, suspicion, negotiation, and appropriation. In doing so they oscillate between distancing from and rapprochement with developments in African Christianity and theology. The films' narratives and aesthetics reflect tensions around the creation of discourses of African authenticity, but also around religious modernity. The political framing roots the contextualisation of biblical narratives in social and historical analyses that strive to provide responses to local instances of oppressions as well as a platform for a more universalist reading addressed to global publics. Finally, the films contribute to the construction of African religious realities and imageries and to the broader image of Africa.
In this concise book, Robert Krieg recasts the soteriological insights of the Bible in psychological-existential terms, i.e., by reflecting on salvation as God's gift of one's personal wholeness. Jesus' parable about the person who finds "treasure hidden in a field" (Matt 13:44) constitutes the backbone of Krieg's interpretation: God creates us as "treasures buried in the field" and thus discovering our true selves is the only way toward the "accomplishment" of God's salus in our lives. Salvation thus comprehended involves both being released by God from whatever prevents or resists our maturation into the whole person whom God intends, and the completion of our personal existence through union with God in eternal life.
A large number of translators have translated the Qur'an from Arabic into English. However, most of their translations fall short of carrying out the mission successfully. Most of these translations favor the rigid style and archaic vocabulary to preserve the rhythm of the source text. The main argument of this study is that Arthur Arberry's translation of the Qur'an, The Koran Interpreted, is comparable to Luther's translationof the Bible in the sense that both of them target the reader of the translating language. Unlike other translators of the Qur'an, Arberry avoided the archaic language, verse structure, the rhythms of the original in favor of producing a target language text that reflects the meaning of the Qur'an in simple and direct English which makes it readable for all kinds of readers. The First Section of this paper is an introduction to the translation of sacred texts in general. The Second Section discusses Martin Luther's Bible translation, within a short historical overview the Bible translation, and his views of the Qur'an and why he was interested in translating the Qur'an. The Third Section surveys the Qur'an translations and explains how political or sectarian affiliations may affect the interpretation of the Qur'an. This leads the study to the conclusion that the best Qur'an translation so far, according to assessments by some critics, is Arberry's translation. Section Four is a discussion of Aberry's translation and a comparison of his translation methodology with that of Luther. This section also includes some examples from other studies that exemplify how Arberry's translation is readable by all because it is done with the aim of being accessible by all English language readers.
In the wake of the 2008 recession, the first mainstream challenges to the dominance of neoliberalism and its accompanying Bible in English political discourse have emerged in the 2010s. The referendum on EU membership brought to the fore grievances that had been building for decades, particularly in towns that have faced sharp industrial decline. One such town is Barrow-in-Furness. This article analyses interviews, discussions, and social media activity during the Referendum campaign and its aftermath in order to see what kinds of perceptions about the Bible and religion exist in Barrow and to compare them with assumptions about the Bible and religion in mainstream political discourse. There was minimal interest in the Bible and regular ridicule aimed at political claims of the Bible as the source of English or British values and identity. This partly coheres with some recent research on understandings of Christianity but it must also be understood in the context of the hatred towards political and economic authority in places like Barrow. Despite the minimal interest in the Bible and Christianity, their commonly constructed Other—Islam—was regularly seen as another source of threatening authority, a telling fear in a town with only 0.2% identifying as Muslim.
The following treatise is an analysis of conflict management within the Evangelical Bible Church of KwaZulu-Natal (EBC KZN). It focuses on the effectiveness of the management of conflict within the churches of EBC KZN. Over the years, many churches have avoided conflict and conflict management has never been a popular topic in the church. This may be because the church mostly relies on wisdom from God to handle conflict, with few attempts made to learn more about how to handle conflict effectively. A common approach is for the church to wait until conflict builds to a certain level before attempting to resolve it. Many conflicts have spiralled out of control by the time the church responds to issues. Thus, the church needs to address conflict proactively, rather than reactively. In order for the church to be more successful in resolving conflict, the leadership needs to take time to develop effective skills in conflict resolution. This is a proactive way of resolving conflict. This treatise explores the challenges pastors" face that inhibits their full potential to manage conflict. It describes the role of the pastors in the process of conflict management among the churches of EBC KZN, investigates the importance of effective conflict management in preventing further conflict, and explores ways of improving the skills of the pastors in conflict management. Like most churches, EBC KZN and its pastors have been called upon to deal with conflict disputes within local churches. Therefore, the researcher worked in partnership with seven pastors of EBC KZN using an analytical approach to explore the management of conflict among their churches. This study made use of qualitative methods of conducting interviews with the seven participants on conflict management in the church. The research revealed that conflict management in EBC KZN is ineffective because of a number of factors; including the lack of training of the pastors in conflict management and comprehensive church guidelines and policies to manage conflict. The researcher recommends that further research be done among the churches and for a proper policy of conflict management to be drawn up. ; Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, School of Governmental and Social Sciences, 2020
Postcolonialism and its distant cousin postmodernism have a lot to offer, especially as critique of our contemporary economic, political, religious and philosophical systems. Contemporary world-views and life-styles are intimately linked by the colonial-post-colonial divide. Such divide exists in almost all areas of life and is poignantly felt at the religious level, where human beings feel closest and most intimate to oneself.
It has become almost impossible to critique the concept of contextual exegesis of the Bible in Africa. Moreover, "relevance" in biblical interpretation is implicitly understood as the texts of the Bible affirming the current socio-political project(s) of a group with a current claim to power. Clearly, such hermeneutics are ideologically determined efforts at seeking legitimacy for these socio-political projects. Criticism of or alternatives to such efforts in biblical interpretation are regarded with severe suspicion. Building forth on previous studies, this paper analyses the ways in which, first, "apartheid" and now, "Africa", have functioned as such narcissistic hermeneutical keys. The critical religious and socio-political functions of the biblical texts are thus lost in this "political carnival" (J Ellul).
Citizenship Education has re-emerged as an important issue in Curriculum 2005. Closer scrutiny of this educational innovation reveals the existence of a number of problems. The aim of this article is, on the one hand, to sensitise policy-makers, curriculum developers and educational administrators who are involved in the drafting of a blueprint for Citizenship Education in public schools, to the need to take note of Reformational Christians' views on government, citizenship and society, and the quest for the socalled "school with the Bible"; and on the other, to assist Reformational Christian educators responsible for the teaching of Citizenship Education in public schools to teach it from a biblical perspective. To this end, this article intends the following: to explore some tenets of a Reformational Christian theology of state (like John Calvin's); to revisit the Reformational Christian doctrine of sphere sovereignty; and illustrate the practical implementation of Calvin's theology of state and the Reformational Christian doctrine of sphere sovereignty in Citizenship Education teaching in public schools.
BiAS 12 examines the phenomenon of prophets and prophecy in contemporary Zimbabwe. By applying insights from biblical studies and other approaches, the volume sheds light on how this contentious phenomenon has been discussed in the Zimbabwean context. The different chapters highlight the role of the Bible, gender, media, literature and other perspectives have influenced attitudes towards prophets and prophecy in Zimbabwe. While the phenomenon has been principally associated with the new wave of Pentecostalism, it remains critical to appreciate pre-existing attitudes towards prophets from African Initiated Churches (AICs), as well as traditional healers in African Indigenous Religions (AIRs). Contributors to this volume have explored the complexities that characterize prophets and prophecy. The volume is of interest to scholars in biblical studies, theology, religious studies, political science, anthropology, philosophy and other disciplines. General readers, church leaders and civil society activists will also find the chapters in this volume valuable.
In the Reformed Church in America, a denomination that embraces a fair amount of theological diversity and that values fellowship over doctrinal conformity, the fate of theological pronouncements by its General Synod is often ambiguous at best. Provocative and polarizing statements are unlikely to survive the centripetal force of General Synod's consensus-based politics. Any lingering doubt as to the community-building quality of a paper is likely to be resolved by synod's voting "to recommend the paper … to the congregations of the Reformed Church in America for study"—a recommendation that avoids outright rejection but falls well short of putting denominational weight behind the document. (Such reticence, of course, does not always prevent the document's partisans from citing it a few years down the road as the Reformed Church's "official" position.) This determination to "govern from the center" has its pastoral and institutional benefits. Attempts by study committees in sister denominations to seize the prophet's mantle by forwarding radical proposals to ecclesiastical assemblies have not always had happy results. For instance, the 1991 report to the PCUSA on "Presbyterians and Human Sexuality" may have so raised the temperature surrounding the issue as to set back the possibility of productive discussion by a decade or more. Although rejected resoundingly by the General Assembly (by a vote of 534 to 31 ), the report was widely distributed within the denomination and came to serve as a "sign of contradiction"—for some, as a goal of liberated and inclusive sexuality, for many others as a warning of the consequences of pitting contemporary cultural trends against the Scripture-based moral tradition of Christianity
The way Lycus conquers power over Thebes in Pseudo-Apollodorus' Library is marked by some elements that seem to refer to political institutions. His election as a polemarch may allude to events that took place in Boeotia in the fourth century B.C. This allusion represents a clear anachronism against the background of the mythographer's tales. The anachronism is related to the narrative development of the section to which it belongs: the reference to polemarchy, by stressing the difference between the legitimate sovereignty of the Cadmeians and the illegitimate sovereignty of Lycus, Zethus and Amphion, contributes to the compositional plan conceived by ps. Apollodorus, which consists of genealogical continuity. Therefore, the anachronism can be considered as the result of a choice of the author and reveals that the mythographers played also a role in the iteration between mythical time and historical past that we can find in their works. ; [it] Il racconto della conquista del potere a Tebe da parte di Lico, fornito dalla Biblioteca, presenta alcuni elementi che sembrano far riferimento a istituti propriamente politici. L'elezione a polemarco, in particolare, può alludere a eventi storici della Beozia di IV secolo a. C. Tale allusione rappresenta un chiaro anacronismo rispetto all'universo che fa da sfondo ai racconti del mitografo, ma, in questo caso, non risulta estranea allo sviluppo narrativo della sezione in cui si trova inserita. Evidenziando una differenza qualitativa tra la sovranità legittima dei Cadmei e quella illegittima di Lico, Zeto e Anfione, il riferimento alla polemarchia contribuisce al piano compositivo dello ps. Apollodoro, che si fonda sulla continuità genealogica. Per tale ragione, l'anacronismo può essere qui considerato il risultato di una scelta autoriale, che mostra come anche i mitografi abbiano giocato un ruolo nell'iterazione tra tempo mitico e passato storico che si riscontra all'interno delle loro opere.
