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Author: search.filters.author.Asumang, Annang

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    THE FORMATION OF THE DISCIPLES AS AGENTS OF DIVINE POWER AND REVELATION: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE GOSPELS ACCORDING TO MARK AND JOHN
    (South African Theological Seminary, 2010-04) Asumang, Annang
    With the overall task of explaining Christian origins in mind, this dissertation describes, analyzes and compares how the formation of the disciples of Jesus is depicted by the Gospels of Mark and John. It assumes the Gospel genre to be biographical and defines ―formation as the dialectical processes of interactions between Jesus and the disciples as His agents. A model that is based on the depictions of the divine-human interactions in the OT and literature of Second Temple Judaism is first developed for the analyses. This model is then piloted and fine-tuned in the first chapters of Mark and John in order to set the parameters for the study. With the aid of a narrative-theological method, the discipleship characters in both Gospels are identified, and the purposes of their formation, as well as the processes and events involved in their interactions with Jesus are separately analyzed and then compared to establish a number of hypotheses. These hypotheses are then validated by examining how both Evangelists narrate the feeding of the five thousand and the anointing of Jesus. The dissertation identifies that both Gospels characterize the foundational group of disciples as much wider than those explicitly labelled as ―disciple. This foundational group was multiform, and made up of people of different socio-cultural and religious backgrounds, ethnicities, gender and social classes. In both Gospels, the purpose of their formation was to make them into agents of divine power and revelation. Mark emphasizes their formation as agents of divine power, whereas John complements this by emphasizing their formation as agents of divine revelation. Though the key formational activities, events and processes highlighted by either Evangelist differ; they nevertheless complement each other, and thus a global portrait of the formation of the disciples is attained. In both Gospels, hospitality features as a central formational phenomenon, both literally and metaphorically. While Mark emphasizes hospitality as a discipleship ethic, John underlines it as a Christological phenomenon. Several peculiar emphases in John also complement the Markan feature of the frequent failures of the disciples. The Passion and resurrection of Jesus is established as key to the formation of the disciples, but in a proleptic fashion.
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    The Tabernacle as a Heuristic Device in the Interpretation of the Christology of the Epistle to the Hebrews.
    (South African Theological Seminary Johannesburg, South Africa) Asumang, Annang; Domeris, William R.; Domeris, William R.
    ABSTRACT: The Christological argument of the epistle to the Hebrews is presented as a series of comparisons and contrasts of Jesus the Son of God and our eternal High Priest, with the angels, Moses, Joshua and Aaron. There is no consensus among Biblical scholars regarding the reasons for these comparisons. Suggestions have ranged from the author’s polemical or rhetorical strategy to dissuade faltering Jewish Christians from defecting back to Judaism, to a pastoral strategy of expounding the glorious honour of Christ in order to encourage suffering and persecuted believers. Examination of the expositions of the epistle shows that each of these comparisons is framed in a space or place. Some of these spaces are real physical places; others are metaphorical, utopian or virtual spaces. Jesus is compared to the angels first in heaven, and then in the world. He is compared to Moses and Joshua in the house of God and to Aaron in the Holy of Holies. Using sociological and literary theories in Spatiality to examine the expositions, this thesis will demonstrate, that the author of Hebrews has organized his argument based on these a priori spaces, that the comparisons are a reflection of the contested nature of spaces and that they exhibit elements of territoriality and hierarchy of personalities based on power and knowledge. The pattern of arrangement of the spaces in the epistle, together with the nature of the theological and figurative argument in each space also indicate that the author uses the spatiality of the Pentateuchal wilderness camp and tabernacle as a typological heuristic device in structuring the exposition. By comparing the expositions of Hebrews with its exhortations through this lens, the thesis will also show, that the author uses the typology of the wilderness tabernacle as his primary vehicle to channel his pastoral teaching aimed at addressing the problems of social liminality and spiritual malaise of the congregation. The implications of this approach for understanding the epistle’s argument and a modern application of the theology of the wilderness tabernacle are also briefly discussed.
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