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Constructing a Theology of Relational Life Through the Themes of Creation, Incarnation, and Re-Creation As an Alternative to Current Categories of Religions

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Constructing a Theology of Relational Life Through the Themes of Creation, Incarnation, and Re-Creation As an Alternative to Current Categories of Religions Andrews University Digital Commons @ Andrews University Dissertations Graduate Research 2019 Constructing a Theology of Relational Life Through the Themes of Creation, Incarnation, and Re-Creation as an Alternative to Current Categories of Religions Andrew Tompkins Andrews University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/dissertations Part of the Biblical Studies Commons, and the Missions and World Christianity Commons Recommended Citation Tompkins, Andrew, "Constructing a Theology of Relational Life Through the Themes of Creation, Incarnation, and Re-Creation as an Alternative to Current Categories of Religions" (2019). Dissertations. 1672. https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/dissertations/1672 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Research at Digital Commons @ Andrews University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Andrews University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ABSTRACT CONSTRUCTING A THEOLOGY OF RELATIONAL LIFE THROUGH THE THEMES OF CREATION, INCARNATION, AND RE-CREATION AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO CURRENT CATEGORIES OF RELIGIONS by Andrew Tompkins Advisor: Wagner Kuhn ABSTRACT OF GRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCH Dissertation Andrews University Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary Title: CONSTRUCTING A THEOLOGY OF RELATIONAL LIFE THROUGH THE THEMES OF CREATION, INCARNATION, AND RE-CREATION AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO CURRENT CATEGORIES OF RELIGIONS Name of researcher: Andrew Tompkins Name and degree of faculty chair: Wagner Kuhn, PhD Date completed: February 2019 This dissertation argues that current categories of religions are overly reliant on Western Enlightenment-based presuppositions and academic thinking that creates barriers in understanding God’s desire for all people to have abundant life. Many theologians and missiologists utilize these inherited categories without first subjecting them to the biblical canon. As a result, the theological and missiological discourse on religions is often grounded in extra-biblical presuppositions rooted primarily in an overly high view of human reason that do not accurately portray a biblical approach to relational life. These presuppositions do not accurately portray a biblical approach to relational life. I, therefore, compared and contrasted categories of religions as they have been developed with the description of relational life found in the biblical passages of Genesis 1-3, John 1:1-18, and Revelation 20-22, which I argue are theologically central to the biblical canon. The purpose of this dissertation is to deconstruct the categories of religions that have been inherited and used by theologians and missiologists. The categories of religions are meant to be wide ranging and include terms or terminology that scholars have used to describe large groups of people or ideologies such as: Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Islam, Christianity, animism, folk religions, tribal religions, atheism, Marxism, etc. In the space created by deconstructing the categories of religions a constructive theology of relational life rooted in the biblical themes of creation, Incarnation, and re-creation is developed. Relational life is terminology meant to be used in place of the terms culture and religion and signifies relationships between God and humanity and humanity with each other. This project utilizes an interdisciplinary approach to research. It involved surveying and critically engaging with current literature in a number of fields including historical studies of religion, anthropology, sociology, biblical studies, systematic theology, and missiology. This follows Veli-Matti Kärkäinnen and Kevin J. Vanhoozer’s methodological arguments in favor of an interdisciplinary approach to theology. By deconstructing the categories of religions three major implications for missiology and theology were discovered. The first implication is that in the development of the categories of religions, people were turned into objects and classified based on vague abstract concepts. The second implication is that the categories often were developed with racialized understandings of humanity. The third implication is that the development of the categories often was done in tandem with the development of the false teleological hope in the progress of human reason, with the categories serving to clarify where certain people fit on the scale of progress. While many philosophy of religion and history of religion scholars have recognized these problems they have struggled to develop meaningful solutions to the problems. This dissertation suggests that a solution for the implications is found in the Bible by contrasting the categories of religions with relational life as portrayed in the biblical canon themes of creation, Incarnation, and re-creation found in Genesis 1-3, John 1:1-18, and Revelation 20-22. From the study of these biblical passages it is then argued that a biblical understanding of relational life includes at least the following elements: work and rest, food and eating, language, human relationships and marriage, and clothing. These elements are rooted in the universal concepts that humanity is created in the Image of God, that God incarnated as Jesus to save humanity from sin and rebellion, and that God will re-create this Earth and live with humanity. These elements are, at the same time, more particular descriptors of humanity than the categories of religions and thus more reliable for understanding relational life. Therefore, it is better for theologians and missiologists to focus on the localized particularities of humanity in their diverse relational life as found in the biblical passages, rather than rely on categories of religions to develop meaningful theological and missiological concepts and engagements with relational life. It is then recommended that theologians and missiologists intentionally build relationships with people who live relationally in ways that are different from their own. As they do this they should intentionally turn to the Bible as the final arbitrating authority on ways of living, rather than categories of religions, in order to guide them in their relationships as well as their theological and missiological output. Andrews University Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary CONSTRUCTING A THEOLOGY OF RELATIONAL LIFE THROUGH THE THEMES OF CREATION, INCARNATION, AND RE-CREATION AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO CURRENT CATEGORIES OF RELIGIONS A Dissertation Proposal in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy by Andrew Tompkins February 2019 CONSTRUCTING A THEOLOGY OF RELATIONAL LIFE THROUGH THE THEMES OF CREATION, INCARNATION, AND RE-CREATION AS AN ALTERNATIVETO CURRENT CATEGORIES OF RELIGIONS A dissertation presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy by Andrew Tompkins APROVAL BY THE COMMITTEE: _______________________________ _______________________________ Faculty Advisor, Director of Ph.D/Th.D Program Wagner Kuhn Thomas Shepherd Professor of World Mission _______________________________ _______________________________ Richard Davidson, Dean, SDA Theological Seminary Professor of Old Testament Interpretation Jiří Moskala _______________________________ Ante Jeroncic, Associate Professor of Ethics and Theology _______________________________ Bruce L. Bauer, Professor of World Mission _______________________________ ______________________________ Daniel White-Hodge Date approved TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................ vii Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 1 Background to the Problem ........................................................................ 1 Statement of the Problem ............................................................................ 12 Purpose Statement ....................................................................................... 12 Definition of Terms..................................................................................... 12 Scope and Delimitations ............................................................................. 13 Methodology ............................................................................................... 14 2. CATEGORIES OF RELIGIONS AS THEY DEVELOPED FROM THE AGE OF DISCOVERY THROUGH THE TWENTIETH CENTURY .............. 17 The Age of Discovery: New People Lead to New Categories .................... 18 The Enlightenment and Its Influence on Categories of Religions .............. 24 Summary ..................................................................................................... 31 Categorizing Religions: Mid- to Late Nineteenth Century ......................... 32 Philology and the Tie of Language to Religion .................................... 35 Clarifying the Distinction between Religion and Culture..................... 37 Facets of the Study of Religion ............................................................. 40 Summarizing the Nineteenth Century ................................................... 54 Developments in the Twentieth Century ................................................... 55 Anthropology ........................................................................................ 56 Sociology .............................................................................................
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