Undergraduate Projects/Long Essays

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    Holy Spirit in Luke - Acts
    (Tangaza University College, 2004) Rajasekara, Amila Christy
    The Holy Spirit is the promise of the Father through his Son Jesus Christ to all the believers, but often forgotten by them in their daily lives. In comparison to the Father and the Son the Holy Spirit has been rather neglected. The notion of the Holy Spirit itself is vague in its usage. It is difficult to give a clear cut definition to it and some find no proper vocabulary to explain it. The Holy Spirit is the divine principle. !Through him God acts in us and in the whole of creation. The presence of this divine principle is evident in God's words and deeds. It exists in the life of the holy people in the Old Testament. It continues to be present in the New Testament, most specially. in the life of Jesus. Its presence was evident in the Church from its very beginning. Its dynamic reality appears in individual members and in the Church at large. The New Testament makes a numerous references to the I loly Spirit. In his Gospel and in the Acts of the Apostles, Luke has presented the Holy Spirit as a great initiator. In the Gospel, the Spirit acts as God's creative power and as the Spirit of prophecy. Today, it is the same Spirit who guides the Church as a community and its individual members. The Spirit works in and through individuals in order to bring the community to its fulfilment. This dynamic presence of the Spirit is the foundation of the Catholic Charismatic Movement. The Christians involved in this movement witness to the world that the Holy Spirit is alive and active among us today. He continues to guide us through his unfailing gifts that Ile has granted us during our Baptism. This thesis demonstrates the actRe presence of the Holy Spirit as it is presented in the Gospel of Luke and Acts of the Apostles. It also shows the Spirit existence in the Catholic Charismatic Mcwement. For the better understanding of this research paper. we have divided it into three chapters. The first chapter examines the role of the I loly Spirit in the Gospel of Luke. It is done according to the four major themes: Spirit and Prophecy, holy Spirit as the Creative Power of God, the Spirit and Prayer and the Holy Spirit and Witness. In the second chapter, we deal with the Holy Spirit in the Acts of the Apostles. We investigate there, the same major themes as we have done it in the Gospel. In the concluding chapter, the centre of attention is mainly on how we may apply today what we have discovered in the first two chapters. Therefore, in the beginning of the chapter there is a short history of the Catholic Charismatic Movement. In this way, we demonstrate that the Holy Spirit is still actively present in the community of the Church and in the individuals as the principle divine force. In order to achieve the above objectives and materialize the theoretical framework, we have mainly followed library based research work, whereby the relevant material on the topic of the thesis has been collected from the available printed sources.
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    The African Family: A Comparative Approach To The Trinity
    (Tangaza University College, 2001-02) Awity Sheith Oluoch, Maurice
    The doctrine of the Trinity is central to the Christian revelation. In fact the confession of one God in three persons is rightly regarded as proper and specific to Christian faith and revelation. This Trinitarian confession is and will always remain a mystery, a problem that believers have to contend with. Through the ages, theologians of various cultural milieus have given different interpretations to the Trinity. These theologians have used analogies and theoretical categories that helped their contemporaries to understand and appreciate the mystery of the Trinity. It is the contention of this essay that an African understanding of the mystery of the Trinity cannot rely on categories and models that are not close to their own reality. The study like the one we are taking is focused on using a category and model close to the African cultures. There are several images used to depict the Trinity. In this work we have taken the family as an appropriate image. The approach is in line with the AMECEA Bishops and the Synod of 1995 proposal; the 'Church as Family of God'. This theological 'discovery' was provoked by the need for a better and integral understanding of the Church and the Christian faith in general. In this paper the focus is to show how the African model of the Family helps in understanding the Trinity.
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    The Mission Renews the Church
    (Tangaza University College, 1999-02) Francesco, Pierli
    When I realise especially through prayer and a deepened reflection that we are the Church of Christ, the Church which is a gift, grace, and chance. We will easy realise also that we have to take care for the Church in order to make her more and more the community living for Christ and for others. The expression given above enlightens us that to be the Church of Christ is also a task which must be fulfilled. A logic consequence of its acceptance will be a reflection over the mystery of the Church missions. Our task is to take care of the Church we belong to and make it a community of joy. We must discover the Christian enthusiasm in our spiritual life, enthusiasm in giving witness. Our task is the co-operation with the grace of the Holy Spirit who leads the Church and makes her always new and holy. Our task is to do that the Bride Christ that is our Church be always beautiful and Christ could find her constant delight. We live in a time when the Pastor of the Universal Church, John Paul II, points out for us the tasks of a new evangelization. He calls us to the renewal of the Spirit, what will allow us to show again to the world the unchangeable truth of the Gospel as the only truth about God and people. The renewal which is always needed in the Church has one of its sources in its mission calls and task. Our openness for those who are not aware of the greatness of the gift given to the human race, which is the Church, is finally turned towards ourselves, makes new our Christianity and strengthens us in faith which opens our hearts for sisters and brothers. And it is why I chose this topic. I was born and grew up in Poland, I know the reality of Polish Church, but now I'm in Africa and I see many challenges, not only for myself but for the whole Universal Church. In this paper I would like to present the brief history of Polish missionary activity, participation of Poles in the evanngelization. Polish Church is a part of the Global Church, a part of the mission which is the continuation of the mission of Christ, guided by the Holy Spirit. I will try to support this with the teaching of the Church and suggest some ideas that our mission would be effective, and may renew the Church.
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    Remembering the Creator Spirit in the State of Ecological Crisis
    (Tangaza University College, 2011) Khanesh, Antony
    The creation accounts of the Book of Genesis presents to us a cosmos that is created out of chaos and presents a picture of it as orderly and balanced (Gen. 1:25). Genesis also shows us that human beings and animals were living in a state of harmony and communion. God assigned the entire living world to the stewardship of humanity and commanded human beings to care for nature (Gen. 1:28).The entrance of sin into the world due to human disobedience to the will of God resulted in the rapture of this communion and brought about disharmony, suffering and death in the world. From then on the power of sin has occupied the central stage of history and human beings have plundered the resources of the earth to satisfy their greed and selfish motives. And the consequence of such selfishness is what we see in our days as the environmental crisis and ecological deterioration. It is the result of humanity's forgetfulness of the Creator Spirit and Its indwelling presence in the cosmos. In this paper my attempt is to point out the relationship that exists between the created world and the Creator Spirit. The first chapter begins with the definition of ecology and the ecosystem. From the basic understanding of these two fundamental terms an analysis of the problem of ecological deterioration follows, and here a proper description of the problem is presented. The second and most important point in the first chapter is the exploration of the causes of the environmental crisis. There are a number of causes that are dealt with in this paper, and they are mainly anthropological, theological and pneumatological. Effort has been made to point out the root of the crisis as spiritual, and in this regard the concern has been to point out that it is the humanity's greed, provoked by the element of sin, that makes it to forget the divine spirit who indwells the 1 cosmos and gives life to all and sustains them in communion. The crisis is because we do not recognize our place in the universe of God's creatures. The second chapter deals with the Holy Spirit in its relation to creation. Attempt has been made to rediscover the role of Spirit in Creation and to identify the Spirit as the Breath of life and as God's active and vital presence in the universe. The divine spirit is presented as the new beginner, the principle of communion, the healer of ecological wounds, the one who heals, sanctifies and restores creation to its original form of harmony.