MTh Theses

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    Towards an Integration of the Nuba Tira Traditional Spiritual Leadership with the Biblical Leadership Principles of Nehemiah
    (South African Theological Seminary Johannesburg, South Africa) Angalo Alu, Fajak Avajani; Turaki, Yusufu
    This study is an integration of the Tira traditional spiritual leadership with Christianity by biblical application of the leadership principles of Nehemiah. This integration provides an integral tool for church leaders to use as they seek to relate Christianity to the traditional spiritual and political leaders of the Tira communities in Sudan. The integration of the Tira traditional spiritual leadership with that of Christianity was made possible by this research. Integration became necessary because both the traditional spiritual leadership and the religious system have profound influence upon the Tira Christians. The Tira traditional understanding of supernatural spiritual beings as the true representatives of God for the Tira people was found to hold the Tira communities in bondage and darkness as explained by the Bible. The barrier to the success of the mission of the church in Tira communities was actually the Tira traditional spiritual leadership. In Chapter 1, the historical background of the Nuba Tira was examined. Two books about the history of Sudan were valuable resources. Eratosthenes’ textbook from 200 B.C. gave a historical description of the word “Nuba” and how the term was used by different people to describe the black Sudanese. Another source that was used in this background study was a book written in 1819 by a Swiss explorer, Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, in which he defined the word “Nuba” as a term that denotes the black people of Sudan. In Chapter 2, the researcher used the method of faceEtoEface interviews with selected clan traditional spiritual leaders to find out the mechanism behind the traditional organization of the Tira, their religious worldview and their theological concepts that are represented by spiritual symbols. In Chapter 3, the research materials and data came from faceEtoEface interviews with the selected traditional spiritual leaders who were in charge of both spiritual and political affairs of their communities. 8Chapter 4 gave a brief Christian background in Tira land. Some select church elders who were around when the Western missionaries of the Sudan United Mission attempted to evangelize the Tira communities were interviewed. The other sources of information were the two books written by missionaries who worked among the Nuba tribes and other mission booklets and articles. Chapters 5 and 6 dealt with the exegetical study of Nehemiah’s leadership principles. The major source materials were the commentaries on the book of Nehemiah: Clinton 2003 and Hedges 2005. Additional materials on leadership were also used. The integration of Nehemiah’s leadership principles with the seven foundational traditional values of the Tira beliefs was the primary objective of the research. This thesis shows how it could be done by using both biblical and traditional principles.
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