Pedagogues analysing the role of theology in pedagogical sciences often see theology as the basis for making moral recommendations derived primarily from the Revelation contained in the Bible. This approach minimises the relevance of biblical sciences to pedagogy while narrowing the perspective of its research areas. Biblical exegesis is now revealing a number of issues of great importance for contemporary pedagogy. One of these is the dynamics of the educational relationship, especially the
mutual influence and role of the educator and the student in the educational process. The main focus of this article’s analysis is the Gospel story of the calling of Levi (Matthew) and Jesus’ subsequent meal with sinners and tax collectors. The interpretative possibilities of this story, or rather of the one sentence linking the calling with the description of the meal (Mark 2:15), will be presented in the light of contemporary possibilities of biblical exegesis. The results of biblical studies do not conclusively resolve the question of whether, after the calling, the disciple followed the Master or the Master followed the disciple. This issue may be a symbolic exemplification of the problem of the subjectivity of the educator and the student in their educational relationship. The article deals with the meta-theoretical issue of pedagogy, demonstrating new possibilities for the use of biblical teachings in pedagogy. The aim of the study is to show close links between the dilemmas of contemporary biblical exegesis and issues of education. Sources for the analyses carried out include publications in the field of biblical exegesis as well as monographs and articles from the field of general pedagogy (concerning interdisciplinary research as well as the language of pedagogy) and Christian pedagogy.
This study aims to examine Proverbs 12:24–28 considering the increasing rates of femicide in Nigeria. Various approaches have been employed to address the issue of femicide in the country. Numerous girls and women have been killed by their intimate partners and spouses, with this alarming trend appearing to escalate between 2024 and 2025. Scholars have examined this issue from sociological, legal and political perspectives; however, the problem continues to worsen. This study approaches femicide from a religious perspective, drawing themes from wisdom literature, particularly from the book of Proverbs. Literary analysis was used to analyse data obtained from the Bible, biblical commentaries, real-time examples from newspapers and gazettes, complemented by relevant academic literature. The aphorisms in Proverbs 12:24–28 address themes of diligence, hard work, anxiety, good companionship and longevity. Three primary themes emerged from the analysis: (1) industriousness; (2) interpersonal approach and managing pressure; and (3) friendship dynamics. The pericope also emphasises the importance for women to exercise caution regarding the types of relationships they enter. Based on these findings, recommendations are presented and discussed.
Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The study shows that laziness, anxiety, a lack of contentment, harsh words and bad friends are aphorisms in Proverbs 12:24–28 that are liable for the increasing femicide in Nigeria. The Old Testament and practical theology were implicated in this study.
This article employs the notions of exclusivism and inclusivism to categorise the responses of prospective Islamic religion teachers towards various Islamic religious sects. Despite the prevalent criticism surrounding the perceived oversimplification and a lack of insight provided by the two typologies, we have found them to be valuable tools for elucidating the phenomena under investigation. Quantitative data were collected from 154 respondents using questionnaires containing multiple-choice questions. Data frequency, cross-tabulation and gamma values are statistical techniques employed to analyse and characterise data and ascertain the nature of their associations or dependencies. This study provides evidence indicating that a significant proportion of prospective Islamic religious teachers had a worldview characterised by exclusivity. Their exclusivist stance is seen in their acknowledgment of sects that deviate from their own, such as Wahhabism, Shia, and those engaging in non-scriptural forms of worship. Some individuals agree with the designation of heretical being attributed to those who adhere to distinct religious worship customs. Moreover, these individuals perceive contentious theological assertions, such as those made by Sheikh Panji Gumilang, as warped, misguided and beyond redemption.
Contribution: This study implies the need to review and reconstruct higher education curricula to prepare prospective Islamic religion teachers who are moderate, tolerant, inclusive, and uphold human rights.
Although ecumenical dialogue has highlighted many commonalities between Protestants, Catholics, and Orthodox, many issues still remain contentious. One often recurring suspicion is that the Protestant idea of sola scriptura inevitably leads to an individualistic religiosity, neglecting the importance of the divinely guided Christian tradition and Christian church teaching for understanding the Bible. In this article, I relate this critique to the idea of “epistemic egoism”, as defined by Linda Zagzebski, and develop an alternative Protestant social epistemology based on tradition as the “democracy of the dead”, error-corrected by sola scriptura. I test this Protestant theological epistemology against two recent criticisms: (1) the “Conciliar Argument Against Protestantism” (CAAP), arguing that Protestantism fails to provide consistent criteria for valuing conciliar authority as a guide to biblical interpretation, and (2) the “Scriptural Argument Against Dogmatic Protestantism”, arguing that sola scriptura, when understood in light of theological disagreement, ultimately becomes self-refuting in the absence of properly guiding theological authority. I argue, however, that sola scriptura is compatible with assigning an important epistemic role to both tradition and community, and that Protestant principles of theological reasoning can be defended further using recent theories in social epistemology.
Among the fundamental issues in the theology of religions is the issue of knowing the relationship between God and man. Understanding this relationship will have a significant impact on theology. The development of Christian theology in various periods has been subject to this theological understanding of the relationship between God and man. This article seeks to analyze this relationship based on Vatican II documents. It seems that in the modern era, the theological transformation of which caused God to be defined as a subservient deity and human being to be given originality, prompted the Church to present a redefinition of the relationship between God and man in Vatican II. Regarding the achievements of this research, it should be mentioned that according to Vatican II, God is a transcendent God. Jesus Christ is also a supernatural being who is the link between God the Father and man. Therefore, man cannot take the place of God. Also, from the point of view of this council, man is the noblest of God's creations and he is the head of all the creatures of the earth, at the same time, he needs revelation to understand God and religion. Therefore, the Second Vatican documents have explained the relationship between the revelation, the church and the Bible as the key elements of the relationship between God and man, which tells of God's transcendence towards man.
Modern medical research shows that art aesthetic plays a positive role in healing and relieving people’s stress, improving mental health and improving social adaptability. Based on the aesthetic experience of visitors, this article conducts an empirical study on the aesthetic experience of the Long March Memorial Museum in Ninghua County, Fujian province, by means of survey data questionnaire (SD) and in-depth interview. Firstly, to conduct a questionnaire survey to understand the psychological characteristics of visitors’ aesthetic experience. Secondly, the combination of in-depth interviews and the aesthetic differences of public art psychological analysis. Thirdly, to clarify the relationship between public art aesthetics and psychological healing. By constructing a model of the relationship between public art aesthetics and psychological healing, it puts forward five ways of psychological healing, such as enhancing aesthetic experience, arousing life interest, enriching cultural and artistic knowledge, shaping individual psychology and relieving emotional pressure.
Contribution: Public art aesthetics is not only influenced by the politics, culture, customs and lifestyles of society but also has a close relationship with religious beliefs. This article attempts to explain the relationship between public art aesthetics and psychological healing from the dimension of cognitive psychology and proposes a path for public art aesthetics to promote psychological healing, so as to enrich and expand the connotation of traditional aesthetic thought and further deepen the study of religious art in psychological healing, aiming to provide useful ideas and references for promoting the all-round development of human beings.
When the Taiping insurgents overran the ancient Chinese capital of Nanjing in 1853, the barely two-year-old Christianity-inspired armed uprising appeared to be unstoppable, controlling a large area of Southern China south of the Yangtze River. One of the urgent tasks for the leader of this new “Heavenly Kingdom of Peace” ( Taiping Tianguo), the self-proclaimed second son of God, Hong Xiu Quan, was to match his Taiping ideology with the teachings of the Bible—an important source of his inspiration and authority. Two official translations of the Bible were subsequently published by the Taipings, in which much alteration was done in order to promote Hong's brand of theology and beliefs and to remove stories of potential embarrassment for the regime. This article examines some of the major cases of rewriting found in the two Taiping editions, and provides possible reasons for the heavy-handed tampering with the biblical texts.
O presente artigo é uma versão reescrita e ligeiramente ampliada da conferência proferida em 17 de setembro de 2020 na abertura do Webinário “Leituras de Peter Berger”. A partir de uma apreciação situada, particular e interessada, ofereço uma explanação comentada de sua obra mais longeva: Perspectivas Sociológicas, uma visão humanística, oferecendo exemplos de sua utilização em sala de aula em turmas de graduação em ciências sociais, além de conexões com outras abordagens teóricas.
Cuestiones Teológicas Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana
La última década de este siglo ha estado caracterizada en nuestro medio eclesial por un esfuerzo rico y continuado de personas y entidades interesadas, en diferentes formas, por preocupaciones teológicas, cuya intención última es marcadamente pastoral. Existe una conciencia común entre nosotros que revela el deseo de construir una iglesia viva y adulta, conciencia en la que han ejercido un influjo decisivo, como era de esperar, acontecimientos tan importantes como el Concilio Vaticano II y la II Reunión de la Conferencia Episcopal Latinoamericana, esta última realizada precisamente en Medellín. Un proyecto ya lejano acariciado en este medio, el de la organización de un clima teológico de nivel académico, comenzó a adquirir carácter de institución. (...)
This article addresses the challenge to the church in the struggle against poverty amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. It starts by giving an overview of the enormity of poverty in a post-apartheid South Africa. It also indicates how the pandemic has enlarged the problem to extreme proportions. After looking at poverty through the lens of the Bible, the article attempts to define poverty as different forms of deprivation on the one hand and inequality on the other hand. In South Africa, deprivation and inequality are the two sides of the same coin, which serve as important indicators for the local church in the struggle against poverty. This article thirdly refers to the history of the church to describe how the church, as an agent of change, is called to react to the challenge of poverty. The fourth part of the article introduces the action plan that was developed by the South African Council of Churches through Local Ecumenical Action Networks. This serves as an example of how different churches can work together in communities in the struggle against poverty in a holistic way. The article concludes with the emphasis that the struggle against poverty in South Africa is an ongoing struggle that has been accentuated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Contribution: This article examines the devastating effect that the COVID-19 pandemic has on communities in South Africa with specfic reference to poverty. The focus is on how the church as agent of change is in the perfect position to rise to this challenge to make a difference by means of Local Ecumenical Area Networks.
Wajidi Sayadi, Elmansyah Elmansyah, Zaenuddin H. Prasojo
et al.
Some people think that various acts of terrorism are always related to Islam as it is a doctrine which is identical to war with all its derivative forms. It will appear to be incompatible if we trace the example of the Prophet Muhammad SAW, written in Ṣahīh Bukhāri’s ḥadīths. This research aimed to uncover the meaning of Jiḥād in Islam as stated in the ḥadīths of the Prophet Muhammad in the book Ṣahīh Bukhāri, the work of the distinguished ḥadīth scholar named Muhammad bin Ismail bin Ibrahim bin al-Mugirah al-Bukhāri (Imam Bukhāri). This interpretation is expected to be a guide for Muslims in the Jiḥād itself, and it could provide accurate information for researchers about Islam, making it possible for scientists to change the stigmatic perspective of terrorism related to Islam. The researchers used a descriptive method by discussing the philosophical meaning of Matan (content) of ḥadīth contained in the book Ṣahīh Bukhāri about Jiḥād. It was concluded in this research that the term Jiḥād does not mean war. It means the effort in the path of Allah, doing Jiḥād against lust, serving the parents, reconciling the parties in conflict, keeping of the promise, supporting old widows, supporting neglected children and the poor, doing hajj Mabrur, and so forth. Jiḥād could also be defined in the context of social welfare, such as in education and economics, which support the framework of bringing about prosperity on earth.
Contribution: The number of terrorism cases in the name of Jiḥād lately is very detrimental to Muslims. Because of a lack of understanding of Jiḥād’s meaning, it is a broad sense apart from the war against infidels. This article calls on the importance of understanding Jiḥād, both for Muslims themselves and for people other than Islam. This article provides theological reasons for Jiḥād that can contribute to making peace in the world.
Few texts from the Hebrew Prophets present such a disconcerting ecological perspective as does Zephaniah 1:2–6. While the text itself receives only scant attention in resources dealing with ecological interpretations of the Bible, it nevertheless becomes clear that Nature plays a multifaceted role that the interpreter should not overlook. Consequently, this article aims to present an eco-critical rereading of the text based on the ecojustice principles of the Earth Bible, and Norman Habel’s tools for analysis — suspicion, identification, retrieval. Such a rereading further uncovers certain questions, problems, and challenges concerning the kinship between humans and Nature. Because it continuously works to avoid anthropocentrism and engages in dialogue with the natural sciences, the theocentric approach presents itself as a viable way to elucidate this complicated and often misrepresented relationship. Finally, the author suggests, by way of comparison, that a theocentric reading surpasses the traditional stewardship approach when it comes to an understanding and/or appropriation of the Zephaniah 1:2–6 in the contemporary context.
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.
Early Christian literature. Fathers of the Church, etc., Philosophy of religion. Psychology of religion. Religion in relation to other subjects
The biblical narratives were read as factual and also as fictional texts during their history of reception. The biblical texts permit that insofar, as they are poetic in a specific sense: Mainly their purpose is not to describe facts of history, but to make clear the meaning of the past for the presence. In this way the events leave their historical contexts and become exemplary and universal. By formulating textual worlds, which are in contrast to everyday life, the narratives of the bible are getting media of promise. Her truth does not primarily consist in their reference, but what the world of the text „shows“ their recipients.
The skopos of this new type of church Bible is: ‘How would the source texts of the Bible have sounded in Afrikaans in the context envisaged for its hypothesised first audience(s)?’ Fully acknowledging the complexities of language as a dynamic and complex system embedded in the culture and conceptual world of its speakers, as well as the wide range of frames that are involved in the process of Bible translation as a difficult form of secondary communication, this article addresses two of the challenges of this ambitious project. In the first section the incongruence between the world of the Old Testament and speakers of Afrikaans is treated. Examples are provided of instances where both the nature of difficult secondary intercultural communication as well as the subjective theories of the host audience constrains the ‘directness’ of the translation. In the second section, some of the challenges of distinguishing between the formal and functional features of Biblical Hebrew are dealt with. The article concludes that, although the notion ‘communicative clue’ provides a useful heuristic device to act as point of departure for negotiations on the construal of the meaning of the text in the source language and host language respectively, the notion has to be supplemented by insights from the fields of cultural anthropology, cognitive linguistics and linguistic typology. A better understanding of how meaning ‘works’ (e.g. how linguistic expressions act as windows into the conceptual worlds of speakers, how the meaning of expressions may shift and develop, as well as processes of grammaticalisation) provides members of a translation team with some criteria to make informed decisions when they negotiate how the meaning of specific Biblical Hebrew constructions are to be construed ‘directly’ in Afrikaans.
Keywords: Afrikaans Bibles; Bible translation; Biblical Hebrew; church Bible; code model; cognitive linguistics; cognitive semantics; communication model; communicative clue; direct translation; discourse marker; dynamic equivalent translation; functionalist tran
Early Christian scriptural interpretations are answers to various enquiries concerning the Bible. Origen and Augustine deal with such challenges to the biblical creation account in rather different ways: Whereas Origen resorts to allegorical interpretation Augustine’s intention is an explanation ad litteram. Their respective interpretations of the creation of the animals according to Gen 1 shows very well the discourses which form their readings of the Bible. Yet, they also imply different consequences for the relationship between humans and animals and even for (theological) anthropology.