Degree of Baccalaureate in Theology

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://192.168.4.170:4000/handle/20.500.12342/183

Welcome to Degree of Baccalaureate in Theology collection

Browse

Has files: YesSubject: search.filters.subject.Jesus

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Jesus The Initiator and The Eminent Partner In Interreligious Dialogue: The Bold Encounter with The Samaritan Woman (John 4: 1-42)
    (Tangaza University College, 2004) Rathappilly, John Binu
    The world today includes various kinds of pluralism: ethnic, cultural, ideological, and religious. No country can claim today to be homogeneous, that is, consisting of just one race, one ethnic group, one culture, one language and one religion. People move and settle in different countries and continents for economic, political and cultural reasons. We are living in a pluralistic and cross-cultural world. Meeting people of different religions is a daily experience of many Christians in various parts of the world. Our world is pluralistic and there is no single culture, ideology, and religion that bind all people together because there is no community that lives in isolation. Disagreements among people are a leading evil in our society. The eradication of these diversities between people from different religions communities should be the task of each religion. We must seek religious harmony between different religious groups. Through mutual respect and interreligious dialogue, one religion can walk hand in hand with other belief to attain this goal. Interreligious dialogue is today unavoidable. It is a cross-cultural duty for which we must suitably prepare. If interreligious dialogue will be a real dialogue it must start from within the self It must begin with my questioning my beliefs and myself before I am able to understand other religious traditions and rituals. One must accept the challenge of a change, a conversion, and the risk of contradicting the traditional patterns before entering into an interreligious dialogue. Pope John Paul IT urges the faithful in cultivating respectful, peaceful, and harmonious relations with people of all religions. Furthermore, the Pope underlines the fact that a genuine dialogue is rooted in respect for the dignity of human person. Ignorance is one of the major causes of conflicts and tensions in many interreligious communities. Lack of information about other religions lead to suspicion and misinterpretation of the action and rituals that they perform as part of their religion. Fighting against ignorance is very important in the society to avoid tension and suspicion. The parties in dialogue are pilgrims on the way to discover God, the absolute truth. We engage in interreligious dialogue to learn and to know the differences so as to live with them amicably. Interreligious dialogue is initiated with an intellectual curiosity and enthusiasm for learning new things. It is a path which leads to us to a new world of religions. Interreligious dialogue affirmed strongly the universal salvific will of God which through the Holy Spirit offers to every person the possibility of salvation (D.S. 22). Interreligious dialogue becomes a concern only when people belonging to different religions live together as one community. In this paper I would like to highlight some methods and attitude which one should hold when he enter in to an interreligious dialogue. I am attempting to study some of the attitudes and approaches found in the dialogue of Jesus with the Samaritan woman. Jesus, in the Gospel of John, is our model for this task. We will have a critique on the dialogue between Jesus and Samaritan woman. From this dialogue we will derive our principles to help us in interreligious dialogue. The main aim is to see Jesus as the initiator and the eminent partner in the dialogue that can be an interreligious dialogue. In the dialogue we meet three important phases namely the Samaritans, Jews and the Jesus himself Therefore I have divided this paper into four chapters with a general introduction and a general conclusion. The first chapter is a study on historical and religious understanding of Samaritans. The history of the Samaritans indicates to us the importance of Jesus' intervention in Samaria and how Jesus deals with a person who does not only belong to another religious beliefs but also culture. We also will uncover the historicity of the Samaritans as a religious group who had their own tradition, culture, temple and worship. The second chapter is an attempt to discover the historicity, cultural and religious background of Jewish people. It is important to study the culture and history in order to understand why there was hostility between Jews and Samaritans. This will also contribute to the appreciation of the dialogue between Jesus and Samarian woman in the Gospel of St. John (4:1-42). These first two chapters will help to evaluate the dialogue from a historical critical method. Third chapter is more relevant and close to the theme of the paper. This chapter deals with interreligious dialogue and its nature, purpose, principles, and some valid methods for a true and fruitful dialogue. This knowledge will help us to look at Jesus and Samaritan woman in the dialogue in the Gospel of John and consequently as evaluate the approaches and attitudes of Jesus and woman. At the end of this chapter, I will come up with a conclusion that there is hostility between Samaritans and Jews, which lasted for centuries, and there is need for a dialogue and Jesus is starting this discourse. The fourth of this paper is basically the exegesis of the Gospel of John 4:1-42. I will try to examine the attitudes and approaches of Jesus and Samaritan woman during their dialogue. Twill look at the starting point of this dialogue; overcoming the cultural and religious barriers and gender biases; the way Jesus leading the woman to a deeper level of dialogue; sharing their views with other partner; respect and freedom in the dialogue with a critical eye.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Jesus First-Born Son: Priest and Messiah
    (Tangaza University College, 2006) Ekpenyong, Gregory Gabriel
    Faith, a supernatural gift of God is the only means for practical union with God. A union that has to be real, reciprocal, communicative and of mutual lcnowledge. This is all we experience in the revelation of the divine plan of salvation. As such, Jesus the first-born son, priest and messiah fulfils all these and concretises our relationship with God. Meanwhile, this divine sonship has to be historically revealed and experienced in the history of humanity through Israel. For Israel to claim sonship, history and theology had to merge. The election of Israel as son therefore starts with the promise of progeny and prosperity to Abraham who through faith is found righteous and blameless before God. Isaac the apparent fulfilment of this promise bridges the hope of inheritance but introduces the historical right of the first-born son and a dimension of future hope. With this, the promise that resides in blessing grows from the personal to the national blessing. This national blessing finds concrete expression in the formal constitution of Israel as first-born Son of God through the Sinai covenant events. In the covenant, Israel is adopted and given a mode of relation with God. This covenantal relation brings Israel to understand her special intimacy and consecration to God. Hence, the establishment of institutions like the priesthood. As sons therefore, Israel comes to understand her place as mediator. All the historical and theological understanding of Israel as mediators and servants of God simply prefigure the ultimate end of history in the person of Jesus Christ who fulfils all the promises of God and ushers in a new promise of inheritance in the kingdom of God. The mediating role of Christ unveils the distinction between his unique sonship and Israel's adopted sonship. The uniqueness of Christ's sonship connotes a revelation that affirms his being the eternal object of God's love. He mediates this love to humanity, as the baptism experience will show. As a revealer, he shares and reveals the Father's glory. This means that being the unique son, he sees, knows and reveals the nature of God, which finds its traces in the Exodus experience. Being son, Jesus reestablishes the grounds for inheritance and the relations required for it in the historical and cultural context. This is our priest and messiah. This project tries to establish a unity in the history of salvation following the revelation of historical events situated in the culture and tradition of Israel. So doing, it shall see the nuances of the term "First-Born Son" to place the fact that Jesus' salvific acts are within the ambience of human traditional, historical and cultural understanding. Through it, we shall appreciate the "Son-Servant" role of Christ, which culminates in his proclamation as Messiah after the glory of the resurrection.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The Temptations of Jesus And the Tempter In the Gospel of Matthew
    (Tangaza University College, 2003) Ranzenberger, Pablo Cirujeda
    The temptations of Jesus and the action of an adversary to God, be it called Satan, the devil, or the tempter, have, in the past, inspired many a research work, as well as movies, novels, pious legends, and stirred up the imagination about mythical beasts and creatures who approach human beings with all kinds of evil intentions. Matthew's gospel partly contains this legendary vocabulary. It is not, though, a tale about good and evil, but a carefully constructed account about Jesus, the Son of God, his suffering during his public life among his fellow people, and the way he has overcome death once for all. Matthew proclaims the early Christian kerygma throughout his Gospel account: Jesus suffered, died and rose from death. And all those who believe in him, through faith, may share in the eternal life he has attained for all. And what is faith? As we will see, faith is obedience to God our Father. Obedience to do what? The answer to these and other questions is found in this long essay. But I am not going to advance anything else in this introduction, apart from saying that Satan, the tempter, has many faces, but none of them is the face of a monstrous beast. Rather, his aspect is rather decent, and so are his proposals. This essay is primarily a biblical and exegetical research paper I have used the English Revised Standard Version of the Bible, and occasionally the Greek New Testament, in the way they have come down to us today. I do not attempt to carry out any formal textual criticism on the texts used, but will nevertheless use some elements of form, source and redaction criticism. I take for granted that the present final redaction of Matthew's gospel is shaped for his audience best, and therefore I will use it for my analysis. but without questioning its final editing. In my research I have come across excellent exegetical commentaries on the temptation narrative in Matthew, and I am aware that there is nothing I can add in this essay to what has already been written. Nevertheless, by compiling these materials and further venturing into some applications which can be drawn from the present study, I do hope that some clear insights into the nature of the Son of God and his mission may be eained, even if it is only for my own better understanding. I will also try to present some practical applications based on the results of this mainly exegetical study. These applications will be a result more of my own reflection since there is not much material available on the pastoral consequences of the exegesis. Nevertheless, I understand that drawing pastoral applications is also part of the aims of literary criticism, since I understand that through the study of the final form of a bible text we can bring it closer to our present pastoral context.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Discipleship (A Series of Retreat Conferences)
    (Tangaza University College, 2006-01-31) Maloba, Charles
    The term disciple-mathetai is rather broad. It includes 'apostles,' the twelve,' [c.f. Mt 10:1; 11:1; 13:10, 14:15.22.29, Lk 6:40, 19:161, 'The multitude' or 'the crowd' that trails Jesus, Lk 6:13.17, 19:37 etc. Discipleship is an offer and invitation which Jesus makes to any persons and everyone he chooses; apostles Mk1:16-20 or otherwise Lk 9; 23 and the responses by those called/chosen/invited. Discipleship is an act of God, miracle by divine grace; c.f. Gen 18:14, Zech 8:5-8. A person receives a call to discipleship only in obedience and surrender c.f. Mk 1:16-20, 2:14-17, 3:23-29 Acts 9:1-22. Discipleship and following of God involves whole nation- Israel is called and chosen, groups-apostles, special groups-singers of temple liturgy c.f. IChron. 25:8, families-Simon Peter and his brother James, individuals- Judas Iscariot. Part of this discipleship is follow me, walk after me. This goes on to explain relationship between realities of higher and lower orders, teacher-pupil expressing deference and service of the taught to the teacher or leader-follower indicating loyalty and service of the latter to the former, Jesus-disciple relationship. The new discipleship demands understanding like which Jesus himself shows to his disciples. It is inspired by Jesus and demanded by him. This new discipleship does not fit with the usual rabbinic phenomena prevalent then. Let us have a glimpse of how it is in comparison with the new discipleship that Jesus brings: Jesus calls each person to discipleship. In his time he called groups, individuals- the rich young ruler. And he calls you and me today. The disciple is a person called by God- Jesus to be with him and to be sent our [vertical and horizontal dimensions]. Jesus does not have a specific age which he prefers. Each age is preferable for discipleship. He calls young people as well as older people. He calls different people to different ministries in the church and the world. Jesus calls some people to a very specific ministry in the church and others to very specific professions/ ministries in the secular world. This retreat wants to speak to hearts about discipleship both for lay young people and candidates for religious life and ministry. Retreats are special moments to reach out to people. They can be powerful, life changing events for young people. They have proved to be effective in evangelizing and community building. A retreat provides an environment go grapple with faith issues and learning ways to pray and live. People have opportunities to share their faith stories and build relationship of trust. A retreat can awaken in young people the sense that they have a central place in the church. It assists the young people to discover that the church needs their gifts ad talents and calls them to fuller participation. Again a retreat is a chance for everyone to have lots of fun- a chance to help the young people realize that they do not need computer games, televisions or recreational drugs to have fun. Fun is encouraged in retreats whichever topic may be. The first three conferences are directed to a group of lay young people and how they respond to the discipleship of Jesus amidst all their giftedness and temptations. And the second series of retreat conferences are directed to a group of candidates for religious life. The young people who join religious life think that discipleship waits till they make their final profession and get ordained to the ministry. The two conferences want to show them that discipleship begins immediately a person is called by Jesus. Most young people hold to the fact that discipleship is a reserve for the older people. We want to tell them that it is not necessarily so and that young people are disciples of Jesus. It is time after high school, college, or university, early in employment, jobless etc. They are still grappling with proper self-identity, testing their values, developing character, deciding who they are. This retreat will try to translate the message of Christ into action for everyday living. We need also to encourage them to take what they have learned and live it.