Browsing by Author "Pitchers, Alrah Llewellyn Major."

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A comparative study of Robert Schuller's concept of human self-esteem in relation to specific aspects of the doctrine of sanctification in neo-orthodoxy.
(1989) Marais, Louis James.; Pitchers, Alrah Llewellyn Major.
Abstract not available.
A critical examination of the Christology of Hans Küng.
(1993) Pitchers, Alrah Llewellyn Major.; Prozesky, Martin Herman.
Abstract available in pdf file.
A critique of Jay E. Adams' theology from a pneumatological viewpoint within Calvinistic theology.
(1995) Wagner, Errol Royden.; Pitchers, Alrah Llewellyn Major.
Jay E Adams, who is Dean of the institute of Pastoral Studies and Director of Advanced Studies at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, has developed what he regards to be a distinctly biblical model of counselling. He calls his method nouthetic counselling. This term is derived from the Greek verb noutheteo, to admonish and the related noun, nouthesia, admonition. Adams has developed his counselling model against a background of a move to return the task of counselling and care to the church. Although it was traditionally accepted that the task of helping people with their personal problems, and particularly behaviour change, was the ministry of the church, through the increasing influence of the psychological sciences, this role was steadily usurped. Instead of turning to the church with their personal problems, people began to look even more to secular psychologists for assistance. In response to this, there was an attempt, from the late nineteen twenties, to integrate the findings of the psychological sciences with theology. These first attempts came from the more theologically liberal sectors of the church. Evangelicals, initially viewed this move with scepticism. However, over the past twenty to twenty-five years, there has been a substantial move towards an interfacing of theology and psychology among evangelicals. One evangelical who has been an opponent of any sort of integration has been Jay Adams. He is vehemently opposed to integrating psychology and theology. Adams rejects the findings of the psychological sciences. What sets nouthetic counselling apart is Adams' insistence that counselling is the distinct domain of Christians. On this basis he insists that counselling be the work of ordained pastors and not the work of psychologists and psychiatrists. Adams maintains that his theory of counselling is biblical. However, in this dissertation we attempt to show that nouthetic counselling is inadequate in two important respects. In the first place, it is maintained that Adams has an unbiblical understanding of human nature. We will show that Adams has ignored the inner, the deeper aspects of human nature, and in particular the serious effects of sin on the will of man. Because Adams has not understood human nature and human pathology, we believe the solution he proposes is inadequate in that he concentrates on outward behaviour. He assumes that outward behaviour change leads to deeper, inward change. In the second place, it will be argued that Adams has a limited understanding of the Holy Spirit's role in the process of behaviour change. Central to nouthetic counselling, is the place Adams claims to give to the Holy Spirit. He insists that the Holy Spirit is the counsellor, par excellence. He is adamant that nouthetic counselling focuses on radical behaviour change and that is what the Holy Spirit is concerned with. Adams equates nouthetic counselling with the application of the process of sanctification. It is Adams' understanding of the role of the Holy Spirit in counselling and behaviour change that is the main focus of this dissertation. In this connection we examine and evaluate Adams' theory of counselling from a pneumatological viewpoint within the context of Calvinistic theology. Nouthetic counselling is analysed with reference to Adams' understanding of the place of the Holy Spirit in the process of behaviour change. We have attempted to prove that Adams is inadequate because his counselling lacks a pneumatological dimension. What we mean is that Adams has a very limited understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit. Adams insists that the holy Spirit play the central role in the process of behaviour change. However, from a practical point of view, it is the Bible that has the central place. Adams believes that the Holy Spirit works through the Bible to bring a person to faith and to change that person. For Adams, then, the Bible is absolutely crucial. The Holy Spirit is mediated to the individual through the Bible. In other words, Adams places the Bible between the individual and the Holy Spirit. We will show that Adams imprisons the holy spirit in the Bible. He ignores the direct working of the Holy Spirit in the individual and the important part played by other means of grace in the process of change. We have attempted to show that as a result, Adams' counselling is individualistic and problem centred. What Adams needs is a corrective. This corrective is to understand that the Holy Spirit is not limited to the Bible. Although it is accepted that the Holy Spirit works through the Bible, an important means of grace to cause change is the community of believers. It is as people are brought by the Holy Spirit into community they experience radical change. This change comes through the mutual ministry of caring and love in that community. We believe this is the dimension that is missing not only from nouthetic counselling, but, largely, from most other models of counselling. It is argued that a truly biblical model of counselling takes seriously the place of the community of believers in the process of behaviour change. We have built on insights of Reformed theologians like Hendrikus Berkhof and George Hendry to develop a pneumatological corrective looking at the relationship of the Holy Spirit to the church, the individual and the kingdom. This is a corrective that we believe Adams needs to be truly biblical.
Eschatology and the political order : a comparative study of Moltmann and Augustine's "City of God".
(1985) Moss, Rodney Leslie.; Pitchers, Alrah Llewellyn Major.; Krige, Willem Adolph.
Moltmann's political theology and Augustine's City of God provide a suitable eschatological basis for a critical approach to the political order. Though separated in time by one thousand five hundred years, a comparative study of their respective approaches to the world makes for a credible critique of final political solution. Eschatology is the key to their analyses of society. Partial realities are evaluated from the fullness of truth unveiled in the eschaton. Augustine's City of God sought to counter the anti-Christian propaganda occasioned by the impending fall of the Roman Empire. Augustine's apologia provides for a church freed from a necessary dependence upon the secular and political milieu. Thus any social theory is provisional and haphazardous. However, Augustine has no constructive social criticism. The Christian is a stranger in a disordered, fallen, earthly city. The social manifestations of sin are not clearly identified for they do not affect man's eternal destiny. So Augustine left the world disordered without a constructive divine redemptive plan that would be partially anticipated within the saeculum. His weakness lay in identifying the "negative" within society with the fall. Moltmann's political theology, however, identifies the "negative" with the Cross. The crucified Jesus reveals what is wrong with the world. He identifies the sinful, Godforsaken forces within creation. The "promise" of God is validated within history in the event of the Resurrection, that is, the anticipation within time of the eschaton towards which history is moving. Although the Resurrection is the eschatological event within history, "creative acts" that are the "negation of the negative" (the "negative" is identified by the Cross) are anticipations of the eschaton. These "creative acts" open up the "closed systems" of the world. Thus history is not a return to the "golden age" of the beginning but an "opening up" to the "promise". This promise is contradicted within the "closed systems" of history by the crucified One. Yet, it is confirmed and anticipated in the resurrection of Jesus. The eschatological nature of Moltmann's theology lays stress on both the distinctiveness of the Christian faith and its relevance as a solution to the problem of "unfree" creation. Eschatological faith is distrustful of any "final solution"; for Moltmann, political theology destroys the idols of contemporary and future society. Society absolutizes partial solutions and thus retards the creative transformation of the world. Moltmann speaks of five "vicious circles of death" that he identifies with political oppression, economic inequality, cultural discrimination, ecological death and personal apathy. In the spirit of Christ and by the believer's missionary outreach, the progressive transformation of the world is achieved. The eschaton is God's gift anticipated within history in the resurrected Christ and foreshadowed by progressive "creative acts" that overcome the "vicious circles of death". Both Moltmann and Augustine's City of God permitted no final secular solution. The secular political order is assessed from beyond not merely from within. Augustine assesses almost exclusively from beyond; Moltmann both from beyond and within. In this respect they provide a valuable critical corrective to the dogmatism of final political solutions.
God and suffering : a study in the theology of Jurgen Moltmann.
(1988) Gray, James Michael.; Pitchers, Alrah Llewellyn Major.
Suffering will always remain one of the main challenges to the Christian faith since it calls into question the reality of God. Moltmann does not shy away from this challenge and although he limits his response to moral and political suffering he confronts the problem recognizing the moral force of the arguments of protest atheism. His initial reaction, however, is to offer a thorough critique of classical theism which, in his opinion, creates more problems for the Christian faith than it resolves. A revolution in our understanding of God is necessary before theology can meaningfully address the question of suffering. Taking the cross of Christ as his starting point Moltmann rebuilds his doctrine of God by asking how we are to understand the presence of God in the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. The cross is a statement about God before it is an assurance of salvation addressed to man. Only by speaking in trinitarian terms can we make any sense of the cross-event. It is an inner-trinitarian event of suffering, abandonment and death in which the being of God is opened up to the history of the suffering of the world. God is a suffering God. He is present in suffering and suffering is present in God. In communion with him suffering man finds the divine solidarity and experiences, in turn, solidarity with God in his own suffering. This mutual solidarity in suffering thrusts man into practical actions designed to overcome suffering in the world. The suffering God is the decisive Christian argument against suffering. However, Moltmann's perspective is not without problems. In replacing Greek with Hegelian metaphysics, he steps beyond the limits of scripture. At points he appears to dissolve God into history. If not guilty of patripassionism in the classical sense, he comes close to it. He has been labelled "tritheistic" and in some instances leaves the impression of an inhuman God. Moltmann's suffering God is unable to sustain an adequate soteriology. Without a christology of pre-existence the incarnation and kenosis of the Son must be reinterpreted. God cannot, therefore, be said to be a God who has taken upon himself the suffering of humanity. Despite its inadequacies Moltmann's thought has pointed the way forward for future discussion of the relation between God and suffering. He has highlighted the importance of history, the centrality of christology and the challenge of discipleship. Much remains dark to the human mind, but he who is the Light of the world beckons us forward to think and walk in that Light.
Intimations of a pneumatology in the dogmatic studies of G.C. Berkouwer.
(1985) Johnson, John Newton.; Pitchers, Alrah Llewellyn Major.; Krige, Willem Adolph.
G.C. Berkouwer is one of the foremost representatives of the Reformed theological tradition in Europe. His Studies in Dogmatics is a formidable body of work which ranges over the larger part of all Christian doctrine. A lacuna which has however been perceived is the absence of a specific work on the Holy Spirit and consequently, a developed pneumatology. What is evident though, is that Berkouwer's theology is highly trinitarian and that in every saving and gracious action of the Godhead, he demonstrates the life and activity of all the persons of the triune God. Seen from this perspective, the person and work of the Holy Spirit permeates the whole corpus of Berkouwer's writing. Berkouwer is always an authentic and orthodox representative of his own ecclesial tradition as well: commonly a tradition which in keeping with the best of Reformed church genius, has tended to be notable more for its developed Christology than for its pneumatology. Berkouwer's contribution is that he is able to expand and extrapolate on this same tradition without ever deviating from its fundamental teaching. In so doing he has enriched many of its values with new perspectives on the Holy Spirit's active role in salvation. The primary reason why his dogmatical studies have a pertinence for the present is because of the growing influence of other more extreme schools of thought on the flanks of Christianity. There is an active sociopolitical brand of theology on the one extreme that in turn is more than offset by an enthusiastic pentecostal groundswell on the other. In the face of often strident appeals for attention from these wings, Berkouwer counters with an orthodox and highly scholarly analysis of scripture and the traditional doctrinal position of the church. The pneumatology that emerges from his teaching demonstrates the gracious and constant outworking of God in the individual, the church, and the universe. A foundation is laid for encountering and receiving this comprehensive teaching in all its aspects especially in the preached word. The Spirit's activity is especially affirmed in the sanctification of man and in the inspiration of the scriptures. His divine creativity is constantly active not just in the church and its sacraments, but also in His anticipatory work for the future consummation. Whenever Berkouwer has not fully expanded any doctrine, he has nonetheless invariably given sufficient pointers for others to follow and build upon. There remains such that can still be utilized and explored in his writings about the Holy Spirit.
A relevant praxis in applied ecclesiology for the evangelical church in South Africa.
(1993) Hack, W. Ernest.; Heuer, Neville Anthony Charles.; Pitchers, Alrah Llewellyn Major.
The title of this thesis serves as a summary of its major emphases. Its first concern is to help churches become relevant. Sadly, some churches have become irrelevant, because they do not reflect the church of the Bible. This thesis points out that when we take careful note of what the Scriptures teach about church life, and then diligently apply these teachings to a particular church, we will find such a church becoming relevant within its own cultural milieu. Because this study aspires to be relevant, it is at the same time a praxis. It is an expression of the practical outworkings of the theology of church life as taught by the Bible. In other words, it is an applied ecclesiology, because it extracts from the tenets of Practical Theology those aspects of church life needed to bring about quantity and quality growth in local church situations. This thesis focuses its attention upon the Evangelical Church in South Africa, a group of twenty-six churches, ministering mainly to the Indian people living in Natal and the Transvaal. After delineating the broad dimensions of church life taught by the Bible, it advocates and amplifies eight all-encompassing principles which the Evangelical Church in South Africa needs to apply to its local churches if it wishes to grow both numerically and spiritually. In fact, we may safely conclude that these principles are universally applicable to any church, and will lead to significant spiritual growth when they are diligently applied in various church settings.
Some possible solutions to the problems of nouthetic counselling within the context of the church and society.
(1989) Wagner, Errol Royden.; Pitchers, Alrah Llewellyn Major.
In recent years there has been much debate amongst evangelical Christians involved in pastoral counselling and care surrounding attempts to produce a biblical model of counselling. Related to this debate has been the question of whether the psychological sciences have a place in Christian counselling or not. Currently one of the most prominent evangelicals involved in this debate is Jay E. Adams, Dean of the Institute of Pastoral Studies and Director of Advanced Studies at Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia. Adams has developed what he regards to be a distinctively biblical method of counselling. He calls his method Nouthetic counselling. This term is derived from the Greek verb Noutheteo, to admonish and the related noun, Nouthesia, admonition. Adams has sought to develop a counselling model that is not only comprehensive but one which is based on the Bible alone. For this reason Adams insists that the psychological sciences are not necessary in Christian counselling for in the Bible the counsellor will find all he needs to assist people with problems. To promote the principles of Nouthetic counselling, Adams has written many books and publications and has also established The Christian and Counseling and Education Foundation, which publishes The Journal of Pastoral Practice. As a consequence, Nouthetic counselling has developed into an influential movement in the United States and even in South Africa. Not everyone has accepted the counselling principles espoused by Adams. Nouthetic counselling theory has become the subject of much criticism, not only from the more liberal Christian counsellors, but also from those who would share Adams' commitment to the authority of the Bible. The main areas of criticism are, Adams' rejection of the psychological sciences, the dangers of biblicism, his neglect of the psychological aspects of human nature and consequently his simplistic approach to pathology and his confrontational approach to counselling. Adams' rejection of the findings of the psychological sciences and his neglect of the psychological aspects of human nature have resulted in serious limitations in the application of Nouthetic counselling methodology to complex problems. At this point, Adams is out of step with evangelical theology, which, on the basis of the doctrines of General Revelation and Common Grace, recognises the validity of the findings of science. Furthermore, in his attempt to develop a comprehensive, one model approach to counselling, Adams has overlooked the complexity of human nature. Adams' concern for a biblically based counselling model and the stress he lays on the importance of the spiritual dimensions of counselling have been a major contribution to the development of pastoral counselling and care in the evangelical sector of the church. Whilst recognising the need for a biblically based counselling approach, recognition must also be given to the insights of the psychological sciences and the need for a multi-modelled approach to counselling.
Supercessionism and engraftment : a theological understanding of the relationship between Church and Synagogue.
(1995) Kenton, Marc Bruce.; Pitchers, Alrah Llewellyn Major.
The relationship between the church and the synagogue has always been complex. Both as religions and as traditions, Christianity and Judaism are related to each other in ways that make it difficult for them to be merely parallel phenomena. On the one hand, Christianity grew out of Judaism with a claim to the fulfilment thereof, and, on the other hand, in the history of ideas they are intertwined beyond disentanglement. Besides the simple fact that Jesus lived and died as a pious Jew, the church and the synagogue share a common scripture and use common language about God. During its history the church has not always known how to understand this close relationship with the synagogue. For the most part it tried to destroy the relationship, theologically and even at times physically. This attitude of theological anti-Judaism is called supercessionism. It understands the church as superior to the synagogue since the church is the heir of the promises of the Old Testament, especially as they are fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The question arose after the horror of Hitler's "Final Solution" whether the church's theological relationship with the synagogue expressed in supercessionism was connected in any way to racial anti-Semitism. For some theologians there was absolutely no link, but for others clearly so. Seeing more than a simple link between secular and sacred anti-Judaism, these theologians went one step further by showing that anti-Judaism had a basis in the church's New Testament. Thus it was impossible to preach the gospel without at the same time attacking Judaism. This paper attempts to show the connection between racial and theological anti-Judaism, by examining in some depth the church's teaching of supercessionism and showing how this teaching has contributed to racial anti-Semitism. This connection is made in order to suggest the need for a new model of relationship between church and synagogue, a model called engraftment, an image that expresses the church's and the synagogue's interrelatedness and equality. But our model, instead of rejecting the New Testament scripture as anti-Jewish, seeks to reinterpret it, especially the teaching of Paul, in order to use it as a basis for renewal.
Truth as anticipation : Moltmann and Popper on the concept of openness.
(1992) Moss, Rodney Leslie.; Pitchers, Alrah Llewellyn Major.
Theology and Science need dialogue since they are interdependent areas of human experience and enquiry. Each discipline needs to be open to the discoveries and insights of the other. Mutual agreement on fundamental issues is not a point of departure; we must rather ask whether what one discipline is doing can have any. relevance for the pursuits of the other? The theologian, Jurgen Moltmann, and the philosopher of science, Sir Karl Popper, find in "openness" a common methodology. By openness they mean that present realities are partial; that truth lies ahead anticipated within systems that "complexify" in evolutionary openness and transcendence. Moltmann sees the fullness of truth unveiled in the eschaton. The Resurrection of Jesus is the anticipation in time of the eschaton towards which history is moving. Within history, creative acts open up the closed systems of the world for they transform present reality. These closed systems are revealed by the Cross which identifies the negatives (political oppression, economic inequality, cultural and sexual discrimination, ecological abuse, personal apathy) within history. In the "negation of the negatives" such creative acts are real antcipations of the eschaton. However, the roots of openness in the world lie in creation. Creation in the beginning is a creation with open possibilities involving the evolution of complex open systems marked by growing indeterminacy of behaviour. These systems are in communication with the transcendent future into which they are evolving. This transcendent future is the trinitarian God: open to creation, to history and to man in suffering but creative love. The trinitarian life is identified with worldly processes through the openness of the Cross. The completion of the creative process lies in the kingdom of glory. Here there is participation of transcendent creation in the unlimited freedom of God. Evolutionary openness is the overall Popperian methodology. It pervades the entire spectrum of Popper's thought: from physics, through epistemology and social theory to biological and evolutionary theory. Critical rationalism is the bedrock of Popper's thought. The search for certainty becomes the enemy of truth, since rationalism rejects any dogmatism. Rather, rationalism means open critical discussion and experiential learning. For this reason Popper rejects induction and replaces it by the logico-deductive method. Here justification is replaced by falsification: knowledge is conjectural, constantly threatened by refutation and progressing to problems of increasing depth and complexity and hence to greater truth-likeness. Even animal evolution begins with a problem - the problem of survival. Human evolution, however, develops outside the human person. It is applied knowledge. With the development of human language, the self-conscious mind (World 2) emerges and with it the autonomous world of the products of the human mind, World 3. (World 1 is the physical world of nature). In these later developments something new emerges which can interact with the lower levels by a process of downward causation. A picture emerges of a creative, expanding, evolving, indeterminate universe. Indeterminism, itself, lies somewhere between perfect chance and perfect determinism. Lastly in his rejection of holism, historicism and utopianism, Popper has eschewed the collective and replaced the responsible individual at the social centre of his openness. The struggle for rational openness needs the individual response, the individual initiative and mutual critical discussion. This means that piecemeal social engineering is the practical model for the reform of the open evolutionary society. Moltmann and Popper both envisage an evolutionary struggle towards truth: truth is but anticipation. The growth of truth leads to increased complexity, greater openness and eventual transcendence. These insights may, indeed, aid the dialogue between theology and science.