Search

Prayer is a major topic within Christian theology. The biblical text has various references to various recorded and reported prayers. In fact, references to prayer are found within the rich diversity of the various books, corpora and genres of Scripture. As can be expected, much has been written about prayer in the biblical text. However, a comprehensive Biblical Theology dealing with the concept of prayer in Scripture has not been published before, and this book intends to fill this gap, assuming that such an approach can provide a valuable contribution to the theological discourse on prayer and related concepts. This book aims to investigate prayer and its related elements – including worship, praise, thanksgiving, adoration, petition, intercession, lament and confession – in the Old Testament on a book-by-book or corpus-by-corpus basis. The investigation follows a Biblical Theological approach, reading the Old Testament on a book-by-book basis in its final form to uncover the Old Testament’s overarching theology of prayer, understanding the parts in relation to the whole. By doing this, the discrete nuances of the prayers of the different Old Testament books and corpora can be uncovered, letting the books and corpora speak for themselves. In addition, the advantage of this approach is that it provides findings that can benefit the modern Christian community and contribute to the practice of Reformed theology in Africa. This book is of significant value to scholars. It will inspire scholars to think about prayer and use the Bible as the major ‘prayer handbook’ in their spiritual lives.

Post-coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) realities are challenging leaders in all spheres of society in many ways. From the onset of the pandemic, leaders on every level were challenged to provide appropriate guidance in the face of new and adverse realities. From the micro level of local congregations to the macro level of national governments, leaders were required to provide the type of leadership that would not only address immediate obstacles but simultaneously be visionary in the face of uncertainties that became the hallmark of post-COVID-19 society. In this book, the authors reflect on leadership in a post-COVID-19 society from bibliological, practical, theological, missiological and ethical perspectives. Although the authors have the global village in mind, the focus leans towards the African context. The book aims to contribute meaningfully to a much-needed and re-imagined vision of leaders which fits post-COVID-19 societies.

Water will undoubtedly become an ever more crucial locus of academic reflection, as Christiana Peppard’s concern that “wars of the future will be fought over water, not oil” (2014) stresses. Increasing water shortages worldwide and global warming of water, in particular the salt water of the oceans, beg further reflection, from natural and agricultural sciences, the legal field, and also from theology. As a basic human right, water is also closely connected to peace and justice issues. This book is an interdisciplinary undertaking looking at water as a theological symbol in the fields of theology, natural and agricultural sciences, and law. Providing reflections from a variety of disciplines within theology, as well as from other disciplines such as natural sciences and law from the South African context, this book makes a valuable contribution to knowledge in this field.

Life is a primary theme in Scripture, expressed in the rich diversity of the various books, corpora and genres of Scripture. Much has been published on what Scripture teaches about life and death. To date, however, no comprehensive biblical theology in which the concept of life is traced throughout the different books and corpora of the Old and New Testament has been published. It is this lacuna that this book aims to fill, assuming that such an approach can provide a valuable contribution to the theological discourse on life and related concepts. The primary aim of this book is to give an indication of the different nuances of the concept of life in the various books and corpora of the Old and New Testament by providing the reader with a book-by-book overview of the concept of life in Scripture. The secondary aim is to give an indication of the overall use and function of the concept of life in the Old Testament, the New Testament, and Scripture as a whole. The latter is provided by using the findings of the book-by-book overview of the concept of life in Scripture to draw the lines together.

This publication deals with A Biblical Theology of Life based on the New Testament. It forms the second of a two volume publication on A Biblical Theology of Life. These two volumes trace the concept of life throughout Protestant canon, working with the final form of the biblical books in Hebrew (vol. 5) and Greek (vol. 6) Scripture. This is done by providing the reader with a book-by-book overview of this concept. This book concludes with a final chapter synthesising the findings of the respective investigations of the Old and New Testament corpora in order to provide a summative theological perspective of the development of the concept through Scripture. It is clear that life forms a central and continuous theme throughout the Biblical text. The theme begins with the living God that creates life, but is shortly followed by death that threatens life. Despite this threat, God sustains life and awakens life from death. The text concludes with the consummation depicting eternal life in the new heaven and earth. The biblical theological approach that has been taken entails a thematic approach as it investigates the concept of life, with contextual foci on what individual books of Scripture teach about life, joined diachronically with an investigation of the progressive use of the concept of life in Scripture, while providing a theology of Scripture as a whole investigating the concept of life in all sixty-six books of the Protestant canon.