General information

• Study points: 3.00
• Language: English
• Category: Lectures
• Duration: 26.0 hours 
• Periodicity: Taught every three years (2012-2013, 2015-2016, ...)
• POC: POC Theology and Religious Studies

Taught by

Lemmelijn Bénédicte

Aims

Knowledge:

• An adequate understanding of the relationship between Old Testament prophetic literature and the New Testament/Christianity.
  
• Knowledge of the central themes from the Prophetic Books.
  Skills: 
  
  
• To develop exegetical strategies for reading and interpreting texts from the Prophetic Literature, on the basis of a representative selection of central texts.
  
• To get acquainted with methods and materials for doing independent exegetical research into the Prophetic Literature as a grown literary complex.
  
• Learning to solve textual, linguistic and literary problems, paying attention to both the contextuality and the theological meaning and function of the Prophetic Literature.
  Attitude: 
  
  
• To acquire a critical attitude towards the ‘use’ of prophetic Old Testament texts in Christian thought.

Content

As messengers of God the Old Testament prophets play a double role. They are both critics and visionaries. As critics they reveal how and why Israel has turned away from its task and specificity. They confront the actual reality with the sublime ideals of the past and unmask the present as its opposite. As visionaries they announce, in the name of God, a future which surpasses and transcends the actual reality. As critics, the prophets are ‘protestants’: they fight the error that everything is good as it is and that it should stay the way it is. They are a mouthpiece of God’s dream of history, by which they both put the temporal strength of the powerful and the weakness of the powerless into perspective. They are God’s provocation, in every aspect of social and religious life. As such, they are persecuted, mocked and treated as outcasts. Only when history affirms their message spoken in the name of God, they are esteemed. First, some important general questions with respect to Old Testament Prophetic Literature are introduced. It concerns e.g. terminology, true and false prophecy, prophecy in the Ancient Near East, prophets as diviners and magicians, prophets and the expectation of a messiah. Thereafter, in order to be able to value the place and function of Old Testament prophets in the overall Jewish-Christian tradition and to illustrate their double task both as critics and visionaries, exemplary central texts from the so-called ‘major’ and ‘minor’ prophets will be read and commented. Moreover, special attention will be drawn to pericopes that have played an important role in the New Testament and the Christian tradition.

Course Material

A reader, as well as a basic bibliography, will be put at the student's disposal.

Course activities

To attend the lectures, take notes, stimulating the reflection of the fellow students by formulating critical remarks, and to acquire insight in the studied issues by way of accomplishing  reading assignments.

General information

• Study points: 3.00
• Language: English
• Category: Lectures
• Duration: 26.0 hours 
• Periodicity: Taught every three years (2012-2013, 2015-2016, ...)
• POC: POC Theology and Religious Studies

Taught by

Bieringer Reimund

Aims

• The students acquire an overview of the Pauline churches and the main theological themes of the Pauline letters.
• The students learn exegetical reading strategies that are adequate for the interpretation of Pauline texts.
• The students acquaint themselves with some of the important exegetical studies in the field of Pauline studies.
• The students familiarize themselves with the scientific exegetical tools and learn to use them for the interpretation of Pauline texts.
• The students learn to deal responsibly with the relationship between the biblical text and their present situation (in the perspective of their own culture).

Content

• Introductory Issues (hermeneutics, methodology, chronology)
• Paul and Judaism (Rom 9-11) 
• Paulus and the Greek world
• The Christian community as Body of Christ (1 Cor 12)
• Offices and ministries in the Pauline churches (Rom 16 et al.) 
• Conflict and reconciliation between apostle and community (2 Cor) 
• Man and Woman (1 Cor 7; 11 and 14; Gal 3:28)
• The God of Israel according to Paul (1 Cor 8:4-6)
• Jesus Christ, Son of God (life, death and resurrection; justification and reconciliation) (Phil 2:6-11; 1 Cor 15; 2 Cor 5:1-10.14-21; Rom 3:21-26; Gal 2:11-4:7) 
• The Holy Spirit 
• The expectation of the Second Coming (1 Thess 4-5) 
• Hope for glory (Rom 5 and 8) 
• The Canticle of Love (1 Cor 13) 
• Social ethics (Rom 12-13; 1 Cor 1-6; 1 Cor 7:21; Philemon) 
• Sexual ethics (1 Cor 7) 
• Deutero-Pauline Letters Pastoral letters.

Course Material

 
Required 

• study materials, also found on Toledo
• J.D.G. Dunn, The Theology of Paul the Apostle, Grand Rapids MI - Cambridge, Eerdmans, 1998 (selected parts).
• N. Elliott, Liberating Paul: The Justice of God and the Politics of the Apostle (The Bible and Liberation Series), Maryknoll NY, Orbis, 1994 (selected parts).

• G. Bornkamm, Paulus (Urban-Taschenbücher, 119), Stuttgart et al., Kohlhammer, (4)1979, ET: Paul, trans. by D.M.G. Stalker, Minneapolis MN, Fortress, 1995.
• R.N. Longenecker (ed.), The Road From Damascus: The Impact of Paul's Conversion on His Life, Thought and Ministry, Grand Rapids MI - Cambridge, Eerdmans, 1997.

Course activities

Regular class attendance; critical interation with course material; weekly well-described assignments geared to learning methodology and the use of exegetical tools; making use of Toledo; look up sources in the library and learn to use them.

Evaluation description

Examination type:
    oral with written preparation
When?: final examination during examination period
Evaluation type:
    Closed book

Explanation

More precise information will be given in class.