Abstract:
The Apocalypse of John: The power of God's patience. John B. Thompson relates power primarily to institutions, which embody the aims of a specific social structure. However, human actions will either endorse this social structure and empower its institutions or undermine them. The Apocalypse of John attempts to use its prophetic authority to undermine the power of the institutions of the Roman Empire and of its social structure by challenging the communities to withdraw their support from these and to continue this project in their own prophetic mission to all nations. The Apocalypse challenges the symbolic universe of the Roman Empire (an important element in their social structure) and the power of its institutions with an alternative symbolic universe rooted in the Old Testament traditions of God as the creator. In this symbolic universe the throne of God with God’s judgement is the institution where true power is situated and which will bring the work of creation to its fulfilment. The Empire is revealed as embodying the aims of Satan, who alienates people from God and so destroys God’s creation. The communities are called upon to act according to the aims inspired by the alternative symbolic universe as lived out by Jesus (hence the emphasis on the ‘works’ and the reminder to ’persevere in doing the works of Jesus‘[2:26]). The power of God’s judgement is not yet fully experienced because in God’s patience it is delayed in order to give the opportunity to the communities and all nations to bring their ‘works’ in tune with the aims of creation and so to undermine and ‘overcome’ the power of the Empire and Satan. God’s imminent judgement is meant as the vibrant guarantee of the success of creation, of the value of the ‘works of Jesus’ and of the uselessness of the ‘works of Satan’. Although the faithful may appear as powerless victims they are in fact ‘agents’ of God’s creation.

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Abstract:
Human freedom and the Christian faith. In this article, it is examined whether there is room for human freedom in a Christian perspective. Augustine’s and Luther’s views are illuminating in order to clarify this matter. The way they deal with the idea of predestination is an important issue. According to Augustine, man is, to a certain degree, able to grasp the way in which God governs man; this idea is not present in Luther’s thoughts. Their notions of ‘freedom’ differ considerably as well; here, too, Augustine has more confidence in human reason than Luther does. However, it is difficult for both Luther and Augustine to defend a notion of human freedom and at the same time maintain God’s foreknowledge. Still, even irrespective of that, human freedom is something which cannot easily be demonstrated. For both Christians and non-believers, the issue of human freedom remains an unresolved problem.

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Abstract:
Considering the overt or sublime connections biblical scholars increasingly indicate between biblical texts and empires, this contribution engages the need for the theorisation of empire beyond material depiction. It is suggested that empire is primarily of conceptual nature and a negotiated notion, a constantly constructed entity by both the powerful and the subjugated, to which the concomitant responses of subversion and attraction to empire attest. The discussion is primarily related to the first-century CE context, arguing also that postcolonial analysis provides a useful approach to deal with (at least, some of) the complexities of such research.

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