Auckland Park Theological Seminary Degrees and Programs/ Courses

• The basics of historiography
• Cultural history
• The history of early Christianity
• The history of the sub-apostolic age of the church
• The church in the second century Roman Empire
• Heresies and schisms in the second century

CH102 (7 credits)

• The Church in the Christian Empire
• The formation of the Creed
• The Church Fathers
• The Middle Ages
• Christendom: the foundations of a society
• Christendom: expansion, Challenge and Defence

CH201 (8 credits)

• Why study church history?
• Music in the church
• Divine healing
• Theological developments
• The history of the Bible
• Church, State and apartheid

CH202 (8 credits)

• South African church history
• Modern church history
• Martin Luther
• The Renaissance to the Reformation
• The Pentecostal movement in America
• Pentecostal theology

CH301 (9 credits)

• Pentecostal movements
• Charismatic movements
• The American Holiness schism
• A theological analysis of the Pentecostal movement

CH302 (9 credits)

• The Azusa street revival
• John G Lake
• Pentecost in Africa
• Christian resistance to apartheid

DOGMATICS AND ETHICS (60 credits)

DG101 (9 credits)

• The quest for truth
• Man’s reply to God’s voice
• Dogmatics
• Origin of the Bible
• Inspiration and the Word of God
• Understanding God’s Word
• Interpreting the Bible
• Knowledge regarding God
• The concept of God
• The virtues of God

DG102 (9 credits)

• Jesus as God-Man
• Revelation of the incarnate Word
• Christ’s way of salvation
• Man as image of God
• Spirit, soul and body
• Doctrine concerning man

DG201 (10 credits)

• The doctrine of sin
• The covenant
• The election
• Salvation
• Calling
• Faith
• Repentance
• Regeneration, justification and adoption
• Divorce and remarriage

DG202 (10 credits)

• The Kingdom of God
• Ecclesiology
• Sacraments and baptism
• Holy Communion
• Cohabitation

DG301 (11 credits)

• Doctrine of creation
• Events in creation
• Science and the purpose of creation
• Angelology
• Demonology
• Marriage

DG303 (11 credits)

• Baptism in the Holy Spirit
• God’s miraculous deeds
• Spiritual gifts
• Ministries
• Sanctification
• Cloning

MISSIOLOGY (48 credits)

MS101 (7 credits)

• Evangelism
• Biblical foundation for evangelism
• Salvation as doctrine and experience
• Christian missions
• Missiology as a science and as a mission
• Old and New Testament missions theology
• Historical and contemporary mission models
• God’s nature and missions
• A wider crisis in missions
• A pluriverse of missiology
• The development of demonology in Jewish thought
• The Bible and missions
• Jesus and missions
• Success of the early Christian mission
• Failures of the early Christian mission

MS102 (7 credits)

• Missionary pioneers
• The Apostolic Faith Mission of SA
• The African concept of God
• African primal religions
• Evangelism

MS201 (8 credits)

• The great commission
• A constructive understanding of evangelism
• Practising forgiveness and solidarity with the poor
• Mission in Kingdom perspective
• Creation stewardship
• The spirit-world
• The African spirit-world
• The role of the Holy Spirit in missions
• A holistic approach to missions

MS202 (8 credits)

• Salvation: a missionary paradigm in Luke and Acts
• Paul’s missionary paradigm and strategy
• The Church as an eschatological community
• Different models for evangelism
• Church planting models
• A holistic evangelism strategy
• The Judea Harvest strategy
• Engaging the spirit-world in evangelism
• The challenges of a missionary

MS301 (9 credits)

• Missions in a post-modern world
• Developments in missions
• Evangelicalism
• Congregational mega trends
• An ecumenical missionary paradigm
• Globalisation of missions

MS302 (9 credits)

• Missions and Charles Villa-Vic
• God and culture
• Christianity and culture
• The spirit world: before and during the New Testament
• The spirit-world: the African context
• Other religions:
• Hinduism
• Islam
• The New Age Movement
• Zoroastrianism
• African Independent Churches
• Missions as contextualisation and enculturation

NEW TESTAMENT THEOLOGY (50 credits)

NT101 (8 credits)

INTRODUCTION TO THE CONTEXT AND WORLD OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

• What is the New Testament?
• The many worlds of the New Testament
• The intertestamental period
• Greek Philosophy
• Mystery religions
• Jewish sects
• Dead Sea scroll
• The Roman government

CRITICAL ISSUES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

• The synoptic problem
• The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke

NEW TESTAMENT THEOLOGY

• Basic structures and content
• The conceptual setting of the new testament
• Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels
• Jesus in the Gospel of John

HERMENEUTICS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

• Introduction to hermeneutics
• General hermeneutics

NT102 (8 credits)

CRITICAL ISSUES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

• The preparation of Christ
• The acts of the Apostles and the content of Acts
• Paul and his world
• Letters in the New Testament
• The letters to Galatians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians and 1 & 2 Corinthians

THEOLOGY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

• The gospel according to Paul
• Surprised by hope
• Who is Jesus in the New Testament?
• Salvation
• The importance of growth
• How should believers live?

HERMENEUTICS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

• Textual criticism
• The Canon of the New Testament

NT201 (8 credits) CRITICAL ISSUES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

• Colossians
• Philemon
• Philippians
• Ephesians
• 1 & 2 Timothy
• Titus

NEW TESTAMENT THEOLOGY

• Sanctification
• The Christian life
• What is the Church?
• The corporate life of the believer
• The mission, tasks and activities of the Church
• The Church’s relationship to society
• Paradise
• Myths about God’s existence

HERMENEUTICS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

• New Testament word analysis
• Sociology and the New Testament

NT202 (8 credits) CRITICAL ISSUES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

• Hebrews
• James
• 1 & 2 Peter

THEOLOGY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

• The general Epistles
• Hebrews, James and 1 & 2 Peter
• The story of Easter
• What the world is waiting for
• Jesus, heaven and the new creation
• When He appears

HERMENEUTICS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

• Myths about God and science
• The function of the Old Testament in the New Testament

NT301 (9 credits) CRITICAL ISSUES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

• The Johannine Epistles ( 1, 2 & 3 John, and Jude)
• Revelation

NEW TESTAMENT THEOLOGY

• The letters of John
• The letter of Jude
• The Revelation of John
• The Apocalyptic reader
• The end
• Myths about angels

NT302 ( 9 credits) CRITICAL ISSUES IN TE NEW TESTAMENT

• The phases of early Christianity: AD 30-70
• The phases of early Christianity: AD 70-95
• Emerging Christian Orthodoxy
• The Gnostic Empire
• New Age: The return of ancient Gnosticism

THEOLOGY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

• The New Testament and God

HERMENEUTICS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

• The theory of interpreting the New Testament
• New Testament exegesis: theory and practise
• New Testament Greek grammatical analysis
• Principles of exegesis
• Exegesis of Pauline texts

OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY (50 credits)

OT101 (8 credits)

• What is the Bible? How to understand what you read
• The authority of the Old Testament
• The inspiration of the Old Testament
• The stories of the Old Testament
• The Bible books: Genesis to Esther
• The wisdom literature

OT102 (8 credits)

• The Bible books: Song of Songs to Malachi

OT201 (8 credits)

• The need for Old Testament hermeneutics
• Rules for hermeneutics: Prose
• Rules for hermeneutics: Poetry
• Genre analysis: Narrative
• Genre analysis: Poetry
• Genre analysis: Wisdom
• Genre analysis: Prophecy
• Genre analysis: Apocalyptic
• How to read the Bible: Sentences
• How to read the Bible: Paragraphs
• How to read the Bible: Discourses
• What we bring to the text
• The historical-cultural context
• The literary context
• Levels of meaning
• Current Pentecostal hermeneutical concerns
• A contemporary Pentecostal hermeneutical strategy

OT202 (8 credits)

• The transmission of the Hebrew text
• The Samaritan and the Aramaic witnesses to the Old Testament
• The Greek, Syrian, Latin and other ancient witnesses to the Old Testament
• The Patriarchal period
• The Monarchy period
• The father and the mother
• The host, the stranger and the virgin
• The priest and the slave
• The means of existence: farming, animal-husbandry and water
• The means of existence: fats, crafts, travel, transport and trade
• Culture and the expressive life
• Religious institutions

OT301 (9 credits)

• Preaching the Old Testament
• The value of Hebrew for preaching the Old Testament
• Hebrew: tools of the trade for preaching the Old Testament
• Preaching from the Law and Prophets
• Preaching Old Testament narratives
• Characterisation
• Environmental issues
• The big idea
• Shaping the sermon
• The art of shaping a narrative sermon
• Approaching and interpreting the Psalms
• Preaching the Psalms
• Preaching lament and praise poetry
• Preaching wisdom literature and the Song of Songs
• Preaching apocalyptic texts
• Preaching difficult texts
• Preaching hard texts of the Old Testament

OT302 (9 credits)

• Approaches to Old Testament theology
• Israel’s practise of testimony
• Testimony in verbal sentences
• Testimony in adjectives
• Testimony in nouns
• YAWEH fully uttered
• Cross-examining Israel’s core testimony
• The hiddenness of YAWEH
• YAWEH and negativity
• The theological angle to Old Testament ethics
• The economic angle to Old Testament ethics
• The social angle to Old Testament ethics

PRACTICAL THEOLOGY (90 credits)

PT101 (16 credits)

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY (1 credit)

• Introduction to research methodology
• Referencing techniques
• Report writing

INTRODUCTION TO PRACTICAL THEOLOGY (3 credits)

• What is theology?
• What is practical theology?
• Theory and praxis
• Practical theology as a science
• The actions of communications
• A theory for congregational functioning
• Empirical evaluation

HOMILETICS (3 credits)

• The importance of preaching
• Biblical terms for preaching
• The preacher and the message
• The composition of the sermon
• A Pentecostal approach to preaching

LITURGY (3 credits)

• Historical developments Liturgical principles

PASTORAL CARE AND COUNSELLING (5 credits)

• Pastoral care
• Introduction to pastoral counselling
• Theology of counselling
• The counsellor
• The counselling process
• Morals, values and ethics in counselling

SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT (1 credit)

• Spiritual disciplines

PT102 (14 credits) CHRISTIAN EDUCATION: FAMILY MINISTRY (4 credits)

• Building faith at home
• Defining perspectives
• Innovative ways to build an effective family
• Supporting and encouraging parents

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION: YOUTH MINISTRY (4 credits)

• The developmental stages of the young person
• The philosophies behind youth and youth ministry
• The purpose of the Church and youth movements
• Church and youth ministry
• Methods in youth ministry
• Youth leader and leadership development
• Management skills
• Team building
• Group dynamics

ENTREPRENEURSHIP (4 credits)

• Who and what is an entrepreneur
• Self-exploration
• Vision, mission and value statements
• Freedom, responsibility and accountability
• Time management

CHURCH LEADERSHIP (2 credits)

• Leading by serving
• Humility
• Waiting on God
• Being a follower
• Seeking greatness
• Taking risks
• Power through serving
• Equipping others for service
• Team building and serving

PT201 (14 credits)

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY (2 credits)

• Community research
• Ethnography
• Writing skills
• Research method for practical theology
• Research project

HOMILETICS (4 credits)

• Historical-grammatical exegesis
• Preaching: a Pentecostal approach
• Preaching with purpose

LITURGY (4 credits)

• Preaching and celebration as therapeutic events
• Liturgical elements
• The “Our Father” prayer

PASTORAL CARE AND COUNSELLING (4 credits)

• Counselling skills
• Marital counselling issues
• Family counselling issues
• The elderly
• Multi-cultural counselling

PT202 (16 credits)

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT (4 credits)

• The local church as a primary development agent
• Community development initiatives and poverty reduction
• Principles and practices of transformational development
• Envisioning, equipping and mobilising churches

CHURCH LEADERSHIP (2 credits)

• Leadership
• Servanthood
• Leadership qualities

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION: YOUTH MINISTRY (4 credits)

• Youth ministry: infancy to adolescence
• Understanding the youth culture
• Singing and movement
• Building cross-cultural relationships
• Ecumenical and inter-denominational co-operation

ENTREPRENEURSHIP (4 credits)

• Social entrepreneurship
• Relationships
• Focussing on people and clients
• Social involvement
• Sustainable social development

CHURCH GOVERNANCE (2 credits)

• For AFM of SA ministry candidates:
• The Constitution of the AFM of SA
• The National Financial Policy of the AFM of SA
• Administration of justice within the AFM of SA
• For non-AFM of SA ministry candidates
• Employment issues
• Taxation
• Non-profit organisations
• Marriage officers
• Promotion of Access to the Information Act
• Protecting your organisation

PT301 (14 credits)

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY (2 credits)

• The research project
• Research script

COMMUNITY MINISTRIES: ORPHANS AND VULNERABLE

CHILDREN (5 credits)

• Orphans and vulnerable children
• Supporting older care givers
• Education
• Health and nutrition
• Psychological support
• Social inclusion
• Economic strength
• The Church and HIV/AIDS

CHURCH LEADERSHIP (3 credits)

• Vision
• Spiritual leadership
• Personal leadership

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION: YOUTH MINISTRY (4 credits)

• Personal issues and youth ministry
• Adolescence
• Young adulthood

PT302 (16 credits)

HOMILETICS (3 credits)

• The preaching ministry
• Narrative preaching
• Post-modern preaching
• Preaching: a Pentecostal approach

LITURGY (3 credits)

• Conducting various Church services
• Baptism
• Communion
• Healing and deliverance services
• Liturgical perspectives on the approach to God

PASTORAL CARE AND COUNSELLING (6 credits)

• Child abuse
• Marriage counselling

ENTREPRENEURSHIP (4 credits)

• Business ethics
• Identifying business opportunities
• Taking a business opportunity to a bullet-proof idea
• A business plan

BIBLICAL LANGUAGES

To qualify for the degree, a learner must complete ONE of the two biblical languages. The two languages are one year courses, and learners must, therefor, register for both the first and the second semester.

A student may enrol for both the languages if they so wish.

GREEK

GR101 (7 credits)

• Write and pronounce the Greek alphabet and Greek words
• Greek grammar
• Greek vocabulary
• Translation from and to Greek

GR102 (7 credits)

• Greek grammar
• Greek vocabulary
• Translations from and to Greek

HEBREW

HEB101 (7 credits)

• The Hebrew alphabet
• Scribal practise
• Hebrew grammar
• Hebrew vocabulary
• Translations from and to Hebrew

HEB102 (7 credits)

• Hebrew grammar
• Hebrew vocabulary
• Translations from and to Hebrew