Living in an Eschatological Anticipation: An Exegetical Study of 1 Thessalonians 4:1―5:11 from Ghanaian Perspectives

Abstract

The eschatological teaching concerning Christ‘s return in the writings of Paul has over the years attracted scholarly attention worldwide. In Ghana, the rise of Pentecostalism and the popularization of apocalyptic expectation stimulated the discourse on eschatolo-gy as evidenced in sermons, songs, and street preaching. However, it appears little atten-tion is given to the eschatological teaching with regards to social and moral transfor-mation. Against this background, the thesis investigates the eschatological anticipation of contemporary Ghanaian Christians through an exegetical study of 1 Thess. 4:1—5:11. It analyses Paul‘s teaching in the passage and establishes the relevance of its appropriation for the socio-cultural context of Ghana. It further explores the relationship between es-chatology and moral and ethical behaviour while anticipating Christ‘s return. The study employed contemporary rhetorical criticism for the exegetical analysis to un-derstand Paul‘s strategies in communicating the eschatological motif. It analysed the compositional structural elements of the text and the rhetorical features to underscore what Paul intended to communicate to his readers. Furthermore using the Contextual Bi-ble Study model, the text was read with ‗ordinary readers‘ to explore its relevance for individual and social transformation. The study established that the text is part of a parenetic letter written to encourage and console the grieving Christian community distressed about they delayed Parousia. It con-tended that the eschatological teaching is a message of motivation and encouragement to persevere in faith, while offering an emotional context to appeal to moral and ethical pu-rity, faithfulness and mutual love in eschatological anticipation. The Contextual Bible Study revealed that some Ghanaian Christians perceive Paul‘s teaching as a call to a dai-ly life of preparation, a time to live in hope. Others, on the other hand, see the life in an- ticipation as living in holiness as God‘s nature requires. The Study concludes that by ap-propriating the eschatological teaching, values such as perseverance, endurance, com-mitment, faithfulness, and accountability are developed which together lead to individual and societal transformation as they await the imminent return of Christ. The thesis recommends an in-depth study of the cultural understanding of death and af-terlife in different Ghanaian cultures as a foundation of the contextualization of Christian eschatology.