Two of our graduating Th.M. students will be presenting their thesis on 20 April 2009, Monday. 

Presentation 1

Speaker: Aaron Chan H. Y.

Title: An Evaluation of Christopher Wright’s and Waldermar Janzen’s Paradigmatic Approaches to Old Testament Ethics

Description:

Reading the Old Testament for the purpose of ethics and morality has proven to be a complex and difficult task. Even though there is growing interest in the studies of Old Testament ethics, resulting in a proliferation of approaches to doing Old Testament ethics, it seems that a widely agreed upon approach is still far from reach. Often, approaches are modified, discarded or employed without careful in-depth analyses and critiques. Furthermore, postmodern thinking has often eliminated the need or, even, the desire for careful evaluations of different approaches. The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the viability of the paradigmatic approaches of Christopher Wright and Waldemar Janzen through a comparative analysis of the two. This study will demonstrate the extent to which the paradigmatic approach is viable, and which form of the approach is likely to yield the best results when applied to the Old Testament. This thesis concludes that a paradigmatic approach to OT ethics is a positive way forward as long as one is cognizant of its potential weaknesses that will be pointed out when we examine Wright and Janzen in detail.

Date: 20 April 2009

Time: 10.00am

Venue: Conference Room @ Blk 1 Level 1, Singapore Bible College

Fee: Free admission 

Presentation 2

Speaker: Dany Christopher

Title: God’s Promised Consolation and Its Herald: The Appropriation of Isaiah 40:1-5 in Luke 1-3

Description:

This study is an attempt to understand the appropriation of Isaiah 40:1-5 in Luke 1-3. To achieve such objective, special attention will be given to the numerous allusions in Luke 1-3 and the narrative development of Luke 1-3. The findings in this study show that Isaiah 40:1-5 significantly

influence the theology and literary structure of Luke 1-3. Theologically, the Isaiah passage ties together the role of John the Baptist with the role of Jesus within God’s promise of eschatological consolation and restoration. Literarily, allusions to Isaiah 40:1-5 are placed strategically and progressively, finding their climax in Luke 3.

Date: 20 April 2009

Time: 11.00am

Venue: Conference Room @ Blk 1 Level 1, Singapore Bible College.

Fee: Free admission