Bøger af Lovewell Mwansa

Seminar paper from the year 2022 in the subject Theology - Biblical Theology, , language: English, abstract: Stephen Robinson states that the term 'Gnostic' comes from the Greek word for knowledge (gnosis). Fundamental to Gnosticism was the belief that the principle of knowledge is the principle of salvation, and that it is impossible for a man to be saved in ignorance. Personal revelation was crucial. The knowledge necessary for salvation consisted, according to many Gnostic writings, of higher teachings and ordinances taught by Jesus and his disciples and transmitted in oral traditions which were most often too secret and sacred to be written down or to be discussed with any who were not worthy of them. On those occasions when they were written down, they appear to have been closely held and committed to writing only in an effort to preserve them for future generations. Although orthodox Christianity has emphatically denied that any such esoteric teachings ever existed, Gnosticism insisted not only that they were an important part of earliest Christianity, but also that they were the most important part. Even if Gnosticism has been known to scholars in a less complete form with the aid of the writings of the church fathers and by an occasional manuscript, usually it has been treated as a form of devious Christianity having only secondary significance. The discovery of the Nag Hammadi library has reemphasized the fact that Gnosticism was the church and not merely the heretic fringe of the universal church.According to Michael Kaler, Gnosticism was a religious movement which denigrated this cosmos and awaited a saviour figure who would rescue the gnostic believers from it, and the Valentinianism is regarded to be one of the two main branches of Gnosticism, along with Sethianism, so that insofar as the Apocalypse of Paul is Valentinian, it is also gnostic by default.

Seminar paper from the year 2022 in the subject Theology - Biblical Theology, grade: A, , language: English, abstract: According to John W. Drane, in his Journal, "Gnosticism and the New Testament 2", John writes asserting that over the last seventy years or so, three considerations have been taken up in dealing with the question of Gnosticism and the New Testament referred to as 'The classical theory', 'Pre-Christian Gnosticism' and 'A simultaneous development'. The classical theory terming 'Gnosticism as a Christian heresy'. The Church Fathers engaged in the fight to keep the Catholic Church of the early centuries free from heresy, assuming that the catholic faith was the original form of Christianity and any departure must have come in later, which could have been based on a perversion of orthodox Christian belief. From aforesaid, it was self-evident that Gnosticism was based on catholic Christianity, and constituted a deviation from the true faith. From the time of the Fathers until the rise of scientific biblical criticism towards the close of the nineteenth century, interpreters had more or less claimed that Gnosticism was a perversion of the true Christian gospel, beginning sometime in the second century AD, and that a fairly clear line of development could be tracked from those elements of Docetic teaching opposed in such New Testament writings as 1 John to the developed Gnostic heresies. The arrival of a scientific approach to biblical history dealt what must be considered as a death-blow to this theory of Gnostic origins, though it was not without a counter-attack that this was accomplished.

Academic Paper from the year 2022 in the subject Theology - Biblical Theology, grade: A, , course: Ph. DGS, language: English, abstract: The paper deals with the Systematic Appraisal of codex XI. It gives an an in-depth appraisal of Codex Xi in relation to the New Testament.Charles W. Hedrick writes, Codex XI was among the groups of codices possessed by the antiquities dealer Phocion J. Tano during 1946 to 48. It was kept at the Department of Antiquities in 1949, taken to the Coptic Museum on 9th June 1952, made national property by court action in 1956, and assigned the inventory number 10547 in the year of 1959. Jean Doresse and Togo Mina numbered it IV in 1949, Henri-Charles Puech numbered it VI in 1950, Doresse numbered it VIII in 1958 and Martin Krause numbered it XI in 1962 and James M. Robinson in 1968. In May and June 1961 it was preserved in 80 plexiglass containers by Victor Girgis after consulting Pahor Labib and Martin Krause. Pictures were taken in part by R. Herzog for Krause at that time and again by photographers of the Center of Documentation for UNESCO in the year 1965. Fragments were set and photographs done at its four work meetings during 1970 to 72 and at the work meetings funded by the Smithsonian Institution through the sponsorship of the American Research Center in Egypt in 1974 to 75, under the supervision of the Technical Sub Committee of the International Committee for the Nag Hammadi Codices of the Arab Republic of Egypt and UNESCO. Codex XI is one of the most poorly conserved among the Nag Hammadi Codices. No relatively complete leaves survive except for three leaves (59/60, 61/62, 63/64), which are rebuilt from two to four fragments apiece, and mainly, only the lower fourth to three fourths survive intact, meaning that the page numbering to be expected at the top of the pages is lacking, with the exception of one fragment from a first hand with page numbers 19 to 20 at the center of the top margin.

Provocation to further study of the Gnotic Melchizedek homily on a broader level with widened participation from rural setup. The wider participation calls for a wider pool of knowledgeable suggestions. A book presented from a challenging perspective. Notable scholars and many academicians have contributed immensely to this subject but no one has dared to consider the ethical languages of Zambia in the formulation of their strategic approach to this tractate's dissemination.

Essay from the year 2022 in the subject Theology - Biblical Theology, grade: B, , course: Ph. DGS, language: English, abstract: According to the World History Encyclopedia, Gnosticism is the belief that human beings contain a piece of God, the highest good or a divine spark, within themselves, which has fallen from the immaterial world into the bodies of humans. All physical matter is subject to decay, rotting, and death. Those bodies and the material world, created by an inferior being, are therefore evil. Trapped in the material world, but ignorant of its status, the pieces of God require knowledge to inform them of their true status. That knowledge must come from outside the material world, and the agent who brings it is the savior or redeemer.

For centuries the church and individual Christians have tried to reach out with the gospel of Jesus Christ but more often than not the efforts have been in vain and it may continue until we come to an understanding of Demographic Strategic Evangelism and Missions and how this concept is important to the church, in order to reach out to all classes of people irrespective of color, gender, or age. This in turn will help the Pentecostal-Charismatic Church in Zambia and the Evangelism committees¿ to rightly apportion resources and ensure that the Evangelist knows his target group¿s need for effective delivery of the message and other physical resources for fruitful results. Further Evangelism occupied a central place in the gospel ministry of Jesus Christ and the Apostles. The church today ought to rightly divide the word of life within a biblical-theological context.