Professional Dissertations DMin

Date of Award

1992

Document Type

Project Report

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry

College

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

Program

Doctor of Ministry DMin

First Advisor

Richard M. Davidson

Second Advisor

C. Raymond Holmes

Third Advisor

Atilio R. Dupertuis

Abstract

The purpose of this project was to develop and undergraduate college course in Biblical Theology. Part One establishes a theoretical background by exploring the biblical and theological foundations.

Chapter 1 states the purpose, justification, and limitations of the project. Chapter 2 begins with a historical review of the discipline. Following J. Gabler's definition, Biblical Theology became a purely historical and descriptive discipline which delineates the theological views of the biblical writings and the communities of their origin, explaining "what it meant" in biblical times. This brought an emphasis on diversity and development within the Scripture.

The discipline split into separate Old Testament and New Testament Theologies, which later were succeeded by studies of the religion of ancient Israel and the early church. This occurred mainly because historical criticism regarded the biblical text as data from which to reconstruct history, and looked not so much at the text as through the test to the history which lies behind it.

Chapter 3 defines Biblical theology as an ordered study of the understanding of the revelation of God that (1) has as its source the entire canonical Scriptures, (2) is limited to the Scriptures, and (3) is based on its final Christian form. The relationship to Exegesis and Systematic Theology is also explored.

Chapter 4 considers methodology. Theologians are classified as using systematic, historical and thematic approaches. A book-by-book approach is proposed and the reason for this approach we presented. Various "centers" are discussed and the cosmic conflict between God and Satan is proposed as an orientation point for the whole Bible.

Part Two is a practical development of the course. Chapter 5 contains the course objectives, requirements, and basic course outline. Chapter 6 consists of Study Guide Questions for each Bible book, which are intended for students' home study in preparation for the class. Some examples of interpretation of the Pentateuch are given in Chapter 7. Chapter 8 consists of a theoretical and practical summary and conclusions reached in this study and in the teaching of the course.

Subject Area

Theology--Methodology, Theology--Study and teaching

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/dmin/162/

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