Where is the Gospel, What Happened to Culture? The Reformed Church in Syria and Lebanon

2009 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 288-306
Author(s):  
Najeeb Awad
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Setting ◽  
American Missionaries ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Eastern Christianity ◽  
Reformed Church ◽  
Beliefs And Values ◽  
Gospel Message ◽  
Arabic Speaking ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThis paper is an attempt to address the question of gospel culture relationship from a Near Eastern perspective. Given the identity crisis challenge that the Reformed church of Syria and Lebanon is facing today, this paper discusses the following questions: is the gospel message, which is being enunciated by the Near Eastern Reformed ancestors of the American missionaries, applicable or not to the region's cultural and societal identity? Why are there features of conflict between the Reformed Near Eastern church's beliefs and values and the surrounding Christian cultural setting? Is this the responsibility of the missionaries or of the local, Arabic speaking Reformed church? These questions are answered by exposing two contemporary challenges that burden the Reformed church in the Near East. The first one is the relationship of the Reformed church to the theological and spiritual heritage of Eastern Christianity. And the second one is the relation of the Reformed ecclesial order, which is congregational and democratic in nature, to the Eastern ecclesial and social structure, which is hierarchical and autocratic in nature.

Missionaries, Anthropologists, and the Policies of the Dutch Reformed Church

1984 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 617-632 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian M. Du Toit
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Group Membership ◽  
Political Affiliation ◽  
Dutch Reformed ◽  
Historical Perspectives ◽  
Linguistic Group ◽  
Reformed Church ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Dutch Reformed Church

This article discusses the relationship of missionaries and anthropologists in South Africa. Due to such important factors as ethnicity, linguistic group membership, denominationalism, and party political affiliation, it is essential to present historical perspectives on these and related matters. The vocation of missionary is almost exclusively a white enterprise as is that of professional anthropologist. Blacks have however had significant influences in both realms and are today entering these vocations.

Urban and rural Arabic in Khūzistān

1973 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 533-553 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce Ingham
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Speech Patterns ◽  
The One ◽  
Arabic Speaking ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

It has been frequently noted by linguists and other observers that in many parts of the Arabic-speaking world, the speech patterns of any one region divide quite sharply into two groups—that of the towns on the one hand, and that of the surrounding countryside on the other. The following is an attempt to show the relationship of two dialects of Arabic spoken in the province of Khūzistān in Iran which can be considered to be representative of urban and rural groups within their area.

Ancient Near Eastern Law Collections and Legal Forms and Institutions

2019 ◽  
pp. 304-318
Author(s):  
Aaron Skaist
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Studies ◽  
Direct Contact ◽  
Biblical Law ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Logical Conclusion ◽  
Legal Forms ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

Comparative studies between biblical law and the ancient Near Eastern collections of laws began after the publication of the Laws of Hammurabi in 1902. Biblical law appears to have a relationship to cuneiform law. Literary dependence of one text on another text presupposes that the borrower and the source had direct contact with each other. When and where did the ancient Israelites have such contact with the Laws of Hammurabi? Two periods and places have been proposed that ostensibly fit the situation. Neither of the two examples often referred to by scholars as examples of the relationship of the Covenant Code to the laws of Hammurabi can be considered a translation of the Laws of Hammurabi by the Covenant Code. Although the protases are quite similar, they are not identical; and the apodoses which contain the penalties are different. A logical conclusion is that the penalties appearing in the Covenant Code reflect Israelite conceptions.

scholarly journals School Matters: The Contribution of Positive School Climate to Equal Educational Opportunities among Ethnocultural Minority Students

2020 ◽  
pp. 0044118X2097023
Author(s):  
Ruth Berkowitz
Keyword(s):  
School Climate ◽  
Minority Students ◽  
Educational Opportunities ◽  
Moderating Effects ◽  
Positive School Climate ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Arabic Speaking ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Equal Educational Opportunities

This study carefully examined compensating, mediating, and moderating effects of positive school climate on the relationship of socioeconomic status (SES) and achievement in a nationally representative sample of ethnocultural minority Arabic speaking students in Israel ( N = 21,873). Positive school climate was predominantly influential in schools with vulnerable ethnic groups and students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Narrower achievement gaps among students with different personal SES backgrounds were achieved in schools with positive climates. Results suggest improving school climate can increase students’ academic opportunities and offer special benefits for students from less advantaged backgrounds. Implications for research, practice, and policy are discussed.

scholarly journals Karl Barth’s understanding of Christian Baptism as a basis for a conversation on the praxis of Sacraments in the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa

2013 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rothney S. Tshaka ◽  
Tshepo Lephakga
Keyword(s):  
Southern Africa ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Initial Attempt ◽  
Church Dogmatics ◽  
Infant Baptism ◽  
Reformed Church ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Reformed Churches ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

This article is an initial attempt to bring the subject of baptism and to a lesser extent infant baptism in particular, as demonstrated in Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics, into a conversation with the practice of this phenomenon in African Reformed churches in South Africa, specifically the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (URCSA). Whilst the Roman Catholic and Reformed traditions regarding the sacraments differ significantly in the understanding of this subject, this article will examine Barth’s understanding of baptism. This is done by critically examining key themes in his Church Dogmatics. The praxis of the sacraments and especially that of baptism continue to be a praxis that is highly venerated in African Reformed theological circles. This is so because it is believed that symbolism continues to occupy centre stage in African Reformed churches. In a sense therefore it seems that the African Reformed Christian leans more towards a Roman Catholic understanding of this sacrament. Is that perhaps true? Essentially this conversation will explore the relationship of faith to baptism and how this impacts on infant baptism for instance.

The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Law

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
State Of The Art ◽  
Biblical Law ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
International Team ◽  
New Thinking ◽  
Art Analysis ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Law provides a state-of-the-art analysis of the major questions, principles, concepts, texts, and critical methodologies pertinent to biblical law. The thirty-three chapters, written by an international team of experts, deal with the concepts, significant texts, institutions, and procedures of biblical law; the intersection of law with religion, socio-economic circumstances, and politics; the relationship of biblical law with ancient Near Eastern and classical law; and the reinterpretation of biblical law in the emerging Jewish and Christian communities. The volume is intended to introduce non-specialists to the field as well as to stimulate new thinking among specialists.

The Relationship of Performance Goals, Personality, and Ability With Academic Achievements in Majority and Minority Groups of Bachelor-Degree Students

2020 ◽  
pp. 001312452097266
Author(s):  
Oz Guterman
Keyword(s):  
Minority Groups ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
Learning Goals ◽  
Performance Goals ◽  
Goal Theory ◽  
Academic Achievements ◽  
Arabic Speaking ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Matched Samples

Achievement goal theory is one of the major theories of the relationship between learners’ perception of learning processes and their academic achievements. The present research was focused on the relationship between learners’ goals and the academic achievements of Hebrew-speaking students, who belong to the majority group, and Arabic-speaking students, who belong to the minority group. The research also combined personality measures and measures of ability of the students, in order to better understand the relationships among the variables in the two groups. Matched samples of 104 students from each group were studied. The data were collected at the beginning of the second year of studies and the students were then monitored for 2 years. The findings indicate that among the Hebrew-speaking students, the level of performance goals was higher that among the Arabic-speaking students. In both groups, different learning goals contributed to the explained variance in final grades.

THE RELATIONSHIP OF BELIEFS AND VALUES

Zygon® ◽  
1969 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 274-280
Author(s):  
Edward Walter
Keyword(s):  
Beliefs And Values ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

scholarly journals The Learner’ Levels of Collocation Knowledge and Idiomatic Expressions: Exploring the Relationship of Acquisition of Two Items of Phraseology

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 39
Author(s):  
Thamer Alharthi
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Incidental Learning ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
Formulaic Sequences ◽  
Efl Context ◽  
Idiomatic Expressions ◽  
Authentic Classroom ◽  
Arabic Speaking ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

Whilst there is an ever growing bulk of research focused solely on either single word items or idioms (formulaic sequences as they are usually known) through explicit instruction, this article contributes towards a somewhat severely under-researched field in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context: the importance of incidental learning of collocation knowledge in comprehending idiomatic expressions within an authentic classroom setting in Saudi Arabia. To test this assertion, the study comprised a sample of 34 Arabic-speaking learners of English taking summer BA English courses. Learners’ familiarity of idiom was measured by a means of a background questionnaire which was administered at the beginning of the study. In addition, they were tested by examining the comprehension of the figurative meanings of 15 collocations and the non-compositionality meanings of 15 idiomatic expressions occurring in their EFL coursebook. Learners completed a cloze receptive task and an active recognition task in which each contained short texts composed of 15 collocations and 15 idiomatic expressions respectively. A closer examination of the data reveals that the learning of idiomatic expressions was significantly lower than that of collocations even when target idiomatic expressions were supplemented by contextualized information. It is argued that most learners’ attitudes towards the identification of idioms indicated that they are not familiar with multiword items such as idioms. Interestingly, the results demonstrated that the knowledge of collocations was effective in the learning of idioms. The article concludes by a thorough discussion of these results in relation to their pedagogical implications.

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