Undergraduate Projects/Long Essays
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Item Jesus the Giver of Life and the Hope of Resurrection In John's Gospel: It’s Relevance To the 'Sick' Today.(Tangaza University College, 2006) Otieno, Oyugi JacobPeople have been engaged in rhetoric questions like; what is the meaning of Life? Is there life beyond this earthly life? In every day life you hear people lament about life: Life is hard, Life is boring, and very few people would admit that they enjoy 4fr. When I was first introduced to the Gospel of John as a student of Theology, I was captivated by the optimism of the evangelist. This drew my attention to have interest in the theme of life in John's Gospel. Unlike the synoptic Gospels that postpone the gift of life in future, John brings the fact that life is to be lived and enjoyed here and now. When I was doing my pastoral work in Kadem Parish' I was so moved by the many sick people who used to come to the dispensary. I realized that besides the medication given, they lacked someone to give them pastoral guidance. I took it upon myself to do this task, to talk and share with them despite their conditions I would wind up my sharing with the word of God. We would read the word of God and especially John's Gospel where Jesus says: "I am the Life and the Resurrection."2 We would offer our petitions to God and leave for home. For the two months duration I was there, the nature of the faith that the patients had acquired was an unimaginable. I left the Parish to go back to School convinced that what people need is the assurance of their lives in Jesus. This experience is what motivated me to choose on the theme of Life in John's Gospel in relation to the sick. It beats all doubt that the whole of the Bible is concerned with life, but it is in the fourth Gospel that the notion of life comes prominently to the fore. It is the gospel of life. It significantly begins and ends with the declaration of the life-giving mission of Jesus as the Son of God. 3 John assures us, in his gospel, that Jesus gives life here and now. All one needs is to have faith. This paper intends to impart into the reader's mind the precious gift of life that Jesus gives. Even though many times we feel God is far away in our sufferings or sickness, one thing this study will help us understand is the presence of God in our lives all the time. A believer who trusts in Jesus has life in abundance, either in this life or the life after. What we need to do is to have faith. In overview, the theme of life in John's Gospel can be categorized into three main divisions: Chapters 1 - 6, could be entitled 'Announcement of Life.' Here Jesus proclaims the gift of Life under various images and symbols; new wine, new birth, living water, bread of life among others. Chapters 7 - 12, the heading could be 'Life Refused by the World' Jesus is opposed by the leaders of the people and there are plans to kill him. Jesus' death will bring life to all (Jn. 12, 31-36). In chapters 13 - 21, we could talk of 'Life given to those who believe." This part is a dramatic presentation of Jesus death and resurrection as the source of life for all (in. 20, 31).Item Inculturation from a Scriptural Perspective(Tangaza University College, 1998-02) Nampota, PaulThis essay is a reflection on the issue of inculturation. It is good to keep in mind that inculturation has always been in the heart of the church, right from the beginning. Of the many examples available to show how seriously the Church has taken this issue of inculturation, I have picked two: (I) the Church of the Apostles whose story we read in Luke-Acts; and (2) the Church of Africa. Also, there is considerable weight given the issue of inculturation at Tangaza College, where I am presenting this essay as a partial fulfillment of the degree Bachelor of Arts and Religious Studies awarded by the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA). This stimulated my interest in the subject, and I began reading more on this topic. While reading, I came to realize that there is a development of theology called "Theology of Inculturation.' This theology attempts to reflect inculturation in the areas of Liturgy, Christ°logy, Christian Anthropology, only to mention a few. So far I have not seen any literature which reflects on inculturation as seen from a Biblical perspective. All the same, I learned much from Fr. Nicholas Foggliaco.' Fr. Lacomara2 also reflects in his classes how inculturation has been used in the development of Israel's faith in the One God. From them I learned that there are many other ways we can use Scripture to reflect on the issue of inculturation. Encouraged by what they taught me, I thought it wise to reflect on my own about a topic of inculturation to see what other themes I could uncover in Scripture. Since Scripture is a wide field, I limited myself to the New Testament, and even more specifically, to the Book of Luke-Acts. Hence this essay reflects "Inculturation in the light of Luke-Acts." In the first chapter, I define inculturation. Also, I tried to see how we can talk about inculturation today, when things change so fast and cultures are changing. And if we can rightly speak of inculturation at all, who are to be involved in these efforts in our Church of Africa today. The second chapter has three parts, following the divisions of Luke's Gospel: The Infancy Narrative, The Ministry, and The Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus. Through this process, I have come to reflect about the 'Incarnation as a divine step to inculturation.' The second chapter shows further that inculturation is "letting our daily lives be transformed by the Gospel and giving of a new expression to the Gospel in our daily lives.'3 In this attempt, Luke the Evangelist has been my resource theologian. I reflected on the theme of inculturation in the story of Jesus that Luke presents in the Gospel and the birth and development of the Church in the Book of Acts. Hence the outline of the second chapter is as follows: * Incarnation as a divine step to inculturation. This is the main theme of the chapter. * Theology of inculturation in the Book of Luke-Acts. Focusing on Luke as a theologian of inculturation in addition to being a historian and apologist of the Christian faith. * And through the stages mentioned above: infancy, ministry, and passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the essay reaches its goal in exemplifying Incarnation as a divine step to inculturation. The third chapter concentrates on how the Church has carried out the divine plan to save all humankind by adopting inculturation as a vessel for communicating this salvation to the people of the nations. Outstanding in this work of saving humanity is the Holy Spirit who is the key agent of inculturation. Through the human instruments of Peter, Paul, Bamabas, and other disciples, the Spirit communicated the saving message of God to the Gentiles and enabled them to accept this message as their Good News. This has all been possible by the use of inculturation. In the conclusion I have tried to draw together and show how the Church of Africa continues the same story of Jesus and the Church of the Apostles in the furthering of salvation to the people of Africa through inculturation under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Hence this essay's title, "Inculturation from a Scriptural Perspective." The Bible translation used for quotations in this essay is: The Catholic Study Bible, edited by Donald Senior, printed by the Oxford Press, New York, 1990.