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Articles 1 - 20 of 20
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
The Parable As Mirror: An Examination Of The Use Of Parables In The Works Of Kierkegaard, Russell Hamer
The Parable As Mirror: An Examination Of The Use Of Parables In The Works Of Kierkegaard, Russell Hamer
Dissertations (1934 -)
This dissertation focuses on an exploration of the use of parables in the works of Soren Kierkegaard. While some work has been done on Kierkegaard’s poetic style, very little attention has been paid to his metaphors, despite their prevalent use in his works. Much of the scholarship instead treats his parables as mere examples of philosophical concepts. In this work, I argue that Kierkegaard’s parables function primarily to cause the reader to see him or herself truly. The parables work like mirrors, reflecting our true selves back onto ourself. In this way, the parables prompt Kierkegaard’s readers to overcome the …
Exodus As New Creation, Israel As Foundling: Stories In The History Of An Idea, Christopher Evangelos John Brenna
Exodus As New Creation, Israel As Foundling: Stories In The History Of An Idea, Christopher Evangelos John Brenna
Dissertations (1934 -)
This study surveys the development of two literary phenomena in early Jewish and Christian tradition. The first is the birth story of a portentous child, exemplified by the birth stories of Moses, Noah, Melchizedek, and Jesus in biblical and Second Temple period literature. The second is the mythical expansion of the exodus tradition, which interprets the crossing of the Red Sea as a recreation of the people of Israel. I examine the appropriation of these two phenomena in the late antique Hellenistic story, Joseph and Aseneth. I contend that (1) the early Jewish birth story paradigm is influenced by the …
Image And Virtue In Ambrose Of Milan, Andrew Miles Harmon
Image And Virtue In Ambrose Of Milan, Andrew Miles Harmon
Dissertations (1934 -)
This dissertation analyzes Ambrose of Milan’s trinitarian theology and doctrine of human action and argues that a visual logic—that works disclose nature—animates both. Ambrose’s trinitarian theology, on the one hand, trades in scriptural proofs that emphasize the tangible works (opera) of the Son as relevatory of his divinity and indicative of his shared, invisible power with the Father. While Ambrose differs from his Latin and Greek predecessors, he takes up controverted texts in his Christological reflection, many of which are borrowed from anti-monarchian and anti-homoian debates in the several generations prior. To show Ambrose’s consonance with the pre- and pro- …
A God Worth Worshiping: Toward A Critical Race Theology, Duane Terrence Loynes Sr.
A God Worth Worshiping: Toward A Critical Race Theology, Duane Terrence Loynes Sr.
Dissertations (1934 -)
Theologian James Cone has declared that White supremacy is the American Church’s greatest, original, and most persistent sin. Although the Church has engaged in numerous attempts to remedy racism, theology still seems to witness to a God that stands relatively unopposed to the status quo of racial injustice and marginalization. This dissertation begins with the claim that Christian theology still operates from the normativity of whiteness. I will argue that, although the Church has made admirable progress with regard to racial justice, the attempts have been at the surface: the underlying structural logic of White supremacy remains intact. My thesis …
The Two Goats: A Christian Yom Kippur Soteriology, Richard Barry
The Two Goats: A Christian Yom Kippur Soteriology, Richard Barry
Dissertations (1934 -)
This dissertation draws on recent historical-critical research into ancient Jewish temple theology, the priestly book of Leviticus, and especially the Yom Kippur liturgy of Leviticus 16, to develop a more paradoxical interpretation of Christ’s saving work for modern Christian systematic theology. Prompted by the pioneering research of Jacob Milgrom, there has been a surge in sympathetic interpretations of the priestly theological tradition, which has inspired fresh interpretations of the Levitical Day of Atonement. I argue that an adequate Christian theory of atonement must be attentive to both the overall “landscape” of Jewish biblical thought, and to the specific rhythm of …
The First Thing Andrew Did' [John 1:41]: Readers As Witnesses In The Fourth Gospel, Mark L. Trump
The First Thing Andrew Did' [John 1:41]: Readers As Witnesses In The Fourth Gospel, Mark L. Trump
Dissertations (1934 -)
In 1996, Robert F. Kysar identified one of the leading issues that would form scholarly debate regarding the Fourth Gospel for decades to come: whether the Fourth Gospel is designed to strengthen and affirm the faith of those inside a Johannine community (a sectarian document/community) or to bring to faith those who were not yet part of that community (an evangelistic tract/missionary community). The sectarian position, often connected to the work of J. Louis Martyn, Raymond E. Brown, and Wayne A. Meeks, has become the received tradition in Johannine studies. Increasingly, others have called into question not only the results …
Living Within The Sacred Tension: Paradox And Its Significance For Christian Existence In The Thought Of Søren Kierkegaard, Matthew Thomas Nowachek
Living Within The Sacred Tension: Paradox And Its Significance For Christian Existence In The Thought Of Søren Kierkegaard, Matthew Thomas Nowachek
Dissertations (1934 -)
This dissertation presents an in-depth investigation into the notion of paradox and its significance for Christian existence in the thought of the Danish philosopher and theologian Søren Kierkegaard. The primary aim of the study is to explore and to develop various expressions of paradox in Kierkegaard’s authorship in order to demonstrate the manner by which Kierkegaard employs paradox as a means of challenging his Christendom contemporaries to exist as authentic Christians, and more specifically to enter into the existential state I am identifying in this project as living within the sacred tension. With this aim in mind, I begin with …
Truly Human, Fully Divine: The Kenotic Christ Of Thomas Aquinas, Gregorio Montejo
Truly Human, Fully Divine: The Kenotic Christ Of Thomas Aquinas, Gregorio Montejo
Dissertations (1934 -)
Thomas Aquinas’ mature Christology, developed primarily during his second and final Parisian residency in the years 1269 to 1273 is notable for—among other things—its increasing focus on explicating and defending the full humanity of the incarnate Son. In several important works that Thomas undertook during this period, particularly the Tertia Pars of the Summa Theologiae, and Quaestio Disputata De unione Verbi Incarnati, an early Christian hymn preserved in Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians, 2:6-11, with its emphasis on the Son’s kenosis or ‘self-emptying,” the assumption of a human nature whereby the pre-existent Word comes to subsist in the “form of …
Ite, Missa Est! A Missional Liturgical Ecclesiology, Eugene Richard Schlesinger
Ite, Missa Est! A Missional Liturgical Ecclesiology, Eugene Richard Schlesinger
Dissertations (1934 -)
Since the latter half of the twentieth-century, a great many churches and ecclesial communities have agreed that the basic contours of what is called an ecclesiology of communion represents their own self-understanding. Communion ecclesiology centers upon a vision of the church as sharing together in the life of God, with ecclesiastical apparatus such as office, liturgy, and sacraments seen as facilitating this communion. Understood in this light, communion ecclesiology represents a movement away from overly juridical accounts of the church and toward a more organic conception of the church. For nearly the same time frame, a parallel missiological consensus has …
The Secular Transformation Of Pride And Humility In The Moral Philosophy Of David Hume, Kirstin April Carlson Mcpherson
The Secular Transformation Of Pride And Humility In The Moral Philosophy Of David Hume, Kirstin April Carlson Mcpherson
Dissertations (1934 -)
In this dissertation I examine Hume’s secular re-definition and re-evaluation of the traditional Christian understanding of pride and humility as part of his project to establish a fully secular account of ethics and to undermine what he thought to be the harmful aspects of religious morality. Christians traditionally have seen humility, understood as receptivity to God, to be crucial for individual and social flourishing, and pride as the root of individual and social disorder. By contrast, Hume, who conceives of pride and humility immanently in terms of our self-appraisals, sees pride as a key virtue that serves as the ultimate …
No Sympathy For The Devil: The Significance Of Demons In John Chrysostom's Soteriology, Samantha Lynn Miller
No Sympathy For The Devil: The Significance Of Demons In John Chrysostom's Soteriology, Samantha Lynn Miller
Dissertations (1934 -)
This dissertation is a study of John Chrysostom’s demonology as it relates to his theological anthropology and soteriology. Demons run rampant in Chrysostom's thought, though few scholars have taken note of this. Studies of Chrysostom often focus on his exegetical practices, his asceticism, or his social vision and morality. Indeed, many scholars dismiss Chrysostom as unsophisticated and therefore of little value in the landscape of fourth-century theology. In analyzing Chrysostom’s demonology, we see that Chrysostom’s thought is complex and worth further consideration. One cannot treat demons in Chrysostom’s work without treating other theological topics as well. When Chrysostom discusses demons …
The Economic Trinity: Communion With The Triune God In A Market Economy, David Glenn Butner Jr.
The Economic Trinity: Communion With The Triune God In A Market Economy, David Glenn Butner Jr.
Dissertations (1934 -)
Many theological approaches to economics claim that the market economy can help develop an economic agent in virtue, while others argue that market economies undermine virtue, impede authentic spirituality, or result in injustice. Similarly, experimental and behavioral economists have identified market constructions that influence economic agents in terms of their motivations, perceptions, actions, and self-understanding in positive or negative ways. This dissertation theologically analyzes these two bodies of literature under the conviction that any redemptively significant development that an economic agent undergoes in the economy must be attributed to God’s grace. This project develops a Reformed and trinitarian theology of …
Primeval History According To Paul: "In Adam" And "In Christ" In Romans, Timothy A. Gabrielson
Primeval History According To Paul: "In Adam" And "In Christ" In Romans, Timothy A. Gabrielson
Dissertations (1934 -)
Paul’s comparison of Adam and Christ in Rom 5:12–21 is among the most influential doctrines in the Bible and Christian theology. Often it has been used to summarize God’s purposes in creation and redemption, from humanity’s “fall” in Adam to its restoration in Christ. In the past several decades, however, it has increasingly been seen as provisional and functional because the Jewish writings used to support it have now been dated after the apostle’s lifetime. This study retrieves the traditional position, but does so by appeal to different corpora of Jewish texts, those that are prior or contemporary to Paul. …
Scripture In History: A Systematic Theology Of The Christian Bible, Joseph K. Gordon
Scripture In History: A Systematic Theology Of The Christian Bible, Joseph K. Gordon
Dissertations (1934 -)
This work utilizes advances in philosophical hermeneutics, the historical study of Christian Scripture, and traditional theological resources to articulate a systematic theology of the Christian Bible. Chapter one introduces the challenges of the contemporary ecclesial and academic situations of Christian Scripture and invokes and explains a functional notion of systematic theology as a resource for meeting those challenges. Chapter two examines the use of the rule of faith by Irenaeus, Origen, and Augustine to locate the emergence of Christian Scripture within the faith of early Christian churches. It shows that structured, intelligible Christian belief and thought are developing and operative …
Didymus The Blind, Origen, And The Trinity, Kellen Plaxco
Didymus The Blind, Origen, And The Trinity, Kellen Plaxco
Dissertations (1934 -)
This dissertation reconstructs Didymus the Blind’s theology in On the Holy Spirit as a pro-Nicene response to Origen’s theology of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The study begins by setting Origen’s speculation into a broad framework of schemes of emanation in Christianity and Platonism. I provide an account of Origen’s grammar of participation, which orders the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in a hierarchical series of causes. I show how Origen’s grammar of participation draws on the philosophy of Numenius of Apamea, and I argue that Origen uses his grammar of participation to oppose monarchian theologies that identify the …
Gary Dorrien, Stanley Hauerwas, Rowan Williams, And The Theological Transformation Of Sovereignties, David Wade Horstkoetter
Gary Dorrien, Stanley Hauerwas, Rowan Williams, And The Theological Transformation Of Sovereignties, David Wade Horstkoetter
Dissertations (1934 -)
Christianity’s political voice in US society is often situated within a simplistic binary of social justice versus faithfulness. Gary Dorrien and Stanley Hauerwas, respectively, represent the two sides of the binary in their work. Although the justice-faithfulness narrative is an important point of disagreement, it has also created a categorical impasse that does not reflect the full depth and complexity of either Dorrien’s or Hauerwas’s work. Their concerns for both justice and faithfulness differ only in part because of their different responses to liberalism and liberal theology. Under all those issues are rival accounts of relational truth that indicate divergent …
Theo-Dramatic Ethics: A Balthasarian Approach To Moral Formation, Andrew John Kuzma
Theo-Dramatic Ethics: A Balthasarian Approach To Moral Formation, Andrew John Kuzma
Dissertations (1934 -)
What role does beauty play in our moral formation? What difference does the perception of beauty make to the way we live our lives? In order to answer these questions, I look to the twentieth-century Catholic theologian, Hans Urs von Balthasar. Relatively little has been written about Balthasar’s ethics. He is, perhaps, best known for his retrieval of beauty as a transcendental property of being. Balthasar, though, never set down an extended account of his ethics or moral theology. While he had no explicit ethic, he certainly thought that his theology could be lived. The Theo-Drama, for instance, discusses the …
The Mystical And Political Body: Christian Identity In The Theology Of Karl Rahner, Erin Kidd
The Mystical And Political Body: Christian Identity In The Theology Of Karl Rahner, Erin Kidd
Dissertations (1934 -)
Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner (1904-1984) is well known for initiating the turn to the subject in Catholic theology. The heart of Rahner’s theological reflection is the experience of God as encouraged by Ignatius of Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises. In questioning how the subject experiences God, Rahner develops a theological anthropology that attempts to elucidate the original unity of spirit and matter. As he argues, the human being is “spirit-in-world,”—the one who actualizes her transcendence in space and over time. While Rahner’s readers have been quick to draw out the implications of the subject as spirit, they have been less attentive to …
Models Of Conversion In American Evangelicalism: Jonathan Edwards, Charles Hodge And Old Princeton, And Charles Finney, Mark B. Chapman
Models Of Conversion In American Evangelicalism: Jonathan Edwards, Charles Hodge And Old Princeton, And Charles Finney, Mark B. Chapman
Dissertations (1934 -)
The most commonly referenced definition of evangelicalism, David Bebbington’s ‘quadrilateral,’ includes conversionism as one of four key definitive features, and most other definitions also reference conversion as characteristic of evangelicalism. This dissertation examines the adequacy of the use of conversion in such a defining role through a careful consideration of a variety of dimensions of conversion among three key representatives of evangelicalism: Jonathan Edwards, Charles Finney, and Old Princeton Seminary (as represented by its first professor, Archibald Alexander, and especially by his protégé Charles Hodge). One cannot talk about conversion as a key to evangelicalism without understanding what is meant …
Palliative Care's Sacramental And Liturgical Foundations: Healthcare Formed By Faith, Hope, And Love, Darren M. Henson
Palliative Care's Sacramental And Liturgical Foundations: Healthcare Formed By Faith, Hope, And Love, Darren M. Henson
Dissertations (1934 -)
Medical history identifies Dame Cicely Saunders as the founder of modern hospice and palliative care for the unique care she gave to the incurably and terminally ill. Less known is how her Christian faith, combined with her knowledge of medicine, influenced her vision. This work retrieves the Christian roots of palliative care and asserts that the practice of faith preserves the practice of medicine from succumbing to medicalized dying--a phenomenon that excessively relies on technology with the implied hope that it will ultimately conquer illnesses and even death. Efficiency and effectiveness ground modern medicine's epistemology. These concepts follow the philosophical …