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Preliminaries
The Cappadocian Fathers came to the notion of Perichoresis in the process of their theological reflection and debate in response to the questions on the nature and position of Jesus Christ as well as his relation to God the Father. The focus of the questions that wereimposed on the church opened up an opportunity for the development of Christian doctrines. The Christian faith is a belief in the Triune God who was not discovered, but who revealed Himself as such. The revelation is based on certain historical events that were recorded. Pannenberg (1968:21) enunciated this question; ‘does Christology have primarily to do with the Jesus of that past time or with the Jesus proclaimed today’? In other words the question deals with Jesus of faith and of history; Jesus who was proclaimed at the Nicene Council and the one that was on the cross. In answering this question Pannenberg (1968:21) said ‘the Jesus proclaimed today is none other than the one who lived at that time in Palestine and was crucified under Pilate’.
Second Temple Judaism
Another reference to this period is ‘postexilic’ Judaism. The explanation by Grabbe (2010:3) is that this period may be marked from the Persian period (539-331 BC) until the rise of Roman rule (63 BC). During this period there was a set of writings known as ‘the Apocrypha’. Most of these writings can be found in the Roman and Orthodox canons (Grabbe, 2010:33). Sometimes they are known as Deutero-Canonical books which consist out of 1 Baruch,1 Ben Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), 1 Esdras, 4 Ezra, Judith, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Tobit, Wisdom of Solomon as well as parts of Daniel and Esther. From these documents there were the socalled Messianic expectations. The expectation was held within ancient Jewish monotheism. According to Hurtado (1988:17) this is the phenomena in ancient Jewish tradition that in all likelihood assisted the first Christians in framing the earliest understanding of the position of the exalted Christ. The Messianic expectations arose in a form of speculative divine agency.
The Cappadocians and the future of Pneumatology
Beeley (2010:108) gives preference to Gregory of Nazianzus. He claims that he stands out as the premier theologian of the Spirit in the fourth century and as one of the main authorities in all of Christian Tradition. Beeley views Basil as more Trinitarian and ascetically more robust than both the Gregory’s. He judges Gregory of Nyssa’s pneumatology as having been diminished due to his Platonist metaphysics and spirituality. As stated above when one engages with Cappadocian pneumatology, and Beeley (2010:108) recommends, it is best to µstart with Gregory of Nazianzus and to complement that with ‘harmonious’ elements from Basil and Gregory of Nyssa. Beeley (2010:108) also notes that the Nicene/Constantinopolitan Creed affirms that the Holy Spirit be worshipped and glorified with the Father and the Son, but it was silent on Him being God, or of one being, consubstantial with the Father. Therefore, Beeley’s view is that the language of the Creed reflects the doctrine of Basil and Gregory of Nyssa more than that of Gregory of Nazianzus or that of Athanasius.
AIC and the tools of ATR in Worship
Although it has been suggested that in the ATR there is a practice to worship the ancestors by Africans, the study accept that not all accept the claim. There may be a counter claim that says Africa do have a credible and substantiated life-affirming historical aspect of God’s revelation in human history, which may not be recorded but expressed orally. It is not the position of this study to dispute the revelation of God in ATR but to question the continuation of the ATR within the context of Christianity. This paper accept that ATR is a religions just like Islam, Hindu, Judaism, and that they may be worshipping the same God as Christianity but not through Jesus Christ and for that reason they cannot be Christian in worship and in teaching. The study shall now focus on the worship and objects of worship within the ATR. There is still the ritual of sacrificial offering, what is the implication of the continuation within the church in the presence of Jesus Christ?
Towards an Ontology of Otherness
Zizioulas (2006:13) begins the discussion of the ontology of otherness by saying, ‘the theme of otherness is a fundamental aspect of theology. The other in an individual is what makes that individual to be unique’. God created each human being to be so unique that no one is a copy of another. That is what Zizioulas (2006) calls freedom. According to Zizioulas (2006:13) ‘being other and being free in an ontological sense, that is, in the sense of being free to be
CHAPTER 1: SETTING THE STAGE 1.1 Preliminaries
1.1.1 Research Problem
1.1.2 Research Statement
1.1.3 Challenges
1.1.4 Hypotheses
1.1.5 Theoretical Framework
1.1.6 The importance of this research
1.1.7 Research Methodology
1.1.8 Delimitation
CHAPTER TWO: SOME CAPPADOCIAN CONTOURS 2.1 The Nicene and Constantinopolitan Creeds and the Shema
2.1.1 What Happened at Nicaea
2.1.2 Pre-Nicene Creed
2.1.3 Divine agency in Ancient Jewish Monotheism
2.1.4 Second Temple Judaism
2.1.5 Divine Agency Speculation
CHAPTER 3:REFLECTION ON THE CAPPADOCIAN FATHERS AS A LINK TOWARDS ATR
3.1 Reflections on the theology of the Cappadocian Fathers
3.1.1 The Cappadocians and the future of Pneumatology
3.1.2 The Union of God and Man in Jesus Christ
3.1.3 Problems with Perichoresis
3.1.4 Nature-Perichoresis
3.1.5 The role of Philosophy
3.1.6 On the Anthropological Consequences
CHAPTER 4: ONE BODY BUT MANY MEMBERS
4.1 AIC and the tools of ATR in Worship
4.1.1 Sacrifices and offerings
4.1.2 Ancestral ritual
4.1.3 The Biblical basis and means of Worship
4.2 Defining Koinonia
