Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Devil’S Advocate: The Relational Therapist As Jung’S Fourth In The Treatment Of Queer Christian Clients, Whitney Wilson

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects

This paper is an exploration of C.G. Jung’s essay, A Psychological Approach to the Dogma of the Trinity, and how he inadvertently provides a relational psychodynamic lens for working with queer Christian clients who are differentiating from their harmful, embedded theologies. Jung hypothesizes that the Christian Trinity archetype – the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, cannot exist without a fourth member, the Devil, who holds an essential role in the successful differentiation of the Trinity. The relational therapist is called to act as the Devil when working with queer Christian clients - inviting in seemingly mischievous and dangerous thoughts that …

Personhood, Particularity, And Perichoresis: The Doctrine Of The Trinity In Identity And Faith Formation, Tabitha Petrova Edgar

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis argues for the importance of doctrine in faith formation and retention among emerging adults in contemporary Canadian Christianity. Advocating a holistic approach to faith which blends mindful doctrinal engagement with the practical and emotional aspects of faith, the thesis maintains that the relevance of doctrine has largely been underestimated by the churches. Recent cross-denominational research commissioned by the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, in Hemorrhaging Faith (2012) and Renegotiating Faith (2018), is used to argue this case, alongside recent treatments of the doctrine of the Trinity. The latter is used as a case study, drawing on the work of …

The Interconnectedness Of Jonathan Edwards's Ontology And Trinitarianism, Holly Davis

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Jonathan Edwards scholarship has been divided in recent years on the correct interpretation of his work. Scholars like Sang Hyun Lee and Amy Plantinga Pauw maintain that Edwards used a radically new dispositional ontology to understand the fundamental realities of nature. Oliver Crisp, Kyle Strobel, and Steve Studebaker have argued that Edwards used an essentialist ontology. I will defend the latter position and explain how it is tied to Edwards’s Trinitarianism. I argue for an interpretation of Edwards that situates him in his historical and theological context. The early modern philosophy of his day was marked by essentialist ontology. The …

Dancing Theology - A Construction Of A Pneumatology Of The Body, Kristin Kissell

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

Dance is the language of the soul. Dance, as a theological source, can remind us of who we are in and with the living perichoresis of the Trinity. Dance, as embodied art, can provide us with a new way of viewing and discussing pneumatology and that we too, in our incarnate reality, participate in perichoresis. Within this work I seek to answer the questions of how dance is a source of theology, why a pneumatology of the body is significant, and how dance provides a framework for a pneumatology of the body. The creation of a pneumatology of the body …

Fire In The Bread, Life In The Body: The Pneumatology Of Ephrem The Syrian, David Kiger

Dissertations (1934 -)

The fourth century debates about the status and personhood of the Son later expanded to reflections on the status and person of the Holy Spirit. In this dissertation I examine the pneumatology of Ephrem the Syrian, who is often over-looked in discussions about fourth century pneumatology. I argue that Ephrem displays a high pneumatology that fits within the broad contours of the pro-Nicene movement. I begin with a discussion of Ephrem’s Syriac heritage and focus on the themes and language surrounding the Holy Spirit in pre-Nicene Syriac texts. Pre-Nicene Syriac authors speak about the Spirit’s role in liturgical practices, often …

Economy Of Condescension: John Henry Newman's Trinitarian Theology, Matthew Kemp

Dissertations

John Henry Newman (1801-90) did not write any systematic treatise on the doctrine of the Trinity, yet it consistently pervades his theological writings. Not only does he frequently treat the doctrine directly, but it also influences how he writes about other areas of theology, so that there is arguably a Trinitarian €œframe€ around all of Newman's thought. Yet there has been surprisingly little scholarship on Newman's theology of the Trinity. This is problematic because it leaves unexplored a major component of his thinking, one that seems essential to a fuller understanding of his theology. in this dissertation I provide a …

Classical Trinitarian Theology And The Idolatry Of Nationalism: The Doctrine Of The Trinity As A Critique Of Political Theology, Shane Akerman

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation proposes that the doctrine of the Trinity, in the field of political theology today, should be taken as a critique of the idolatry of nationalism and should point us toward a new theological politics that is informed by the proper worship of the triune God, especially in the Church’s sacred liturgy. Existing proposals regarding the relation between trinitarian and political theology can be sorted into two basic camps, separated by alternative understandings of the meaning of political theology as primarily either descriptive or prescriptive. Representative of the descriptive sort is Agamben’s genealogical analysis of the link between trinitarian …

The Revealing Love Of God: A Systematic, Hermeneutic, And Phenomenological Approach To Thinking Well About The Love Of God, Daniel L. Nelson

CGU Theses & Dissertations

“The medium is the message:” theological reflections on the idea that God is love. I am proposing that the idea of the self-revelational nature of God’s being functions, among other ways, rhetorically, such that the content of revelation (God’s love) determines the rhetorical mode of its communication (giving orders, inviting, begging, etc.). The three aspects of rhetoric that Kenneth Burke emphasizes in A Rhetoric of Motives—the use of identification, that it is addressed and, as such, is convincing (persuasive)—are examined in terms of revelation. Chapter one seeks to clear the way for what is commonly understood as special revelation by …

Transforming The Foundation: Lonergan's Transposition Of Aquinas' Notion Of Wisdom, Juliana Vazquez Krivsky

Dissertations (1934 -)

Medieval philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas developed a multifaceted account of wisdom by integrating Aristotelian and Platonic lines of thought with the truths of Christianity. Bernard J.F. Lonergan, SJ (1904-1984), one of the leading Catholic systematic theologians of the twentieth century, transplanted the metaphysical insights of Aquinas into a contemporary philosophy and theology of conscious intentionality constructed around human experiencing, understanding, judging, deciding, and loving.This dissertation reiterates the deceptively simple question first posed by Frederick Crowe: Did Lonergan achieve a deliberate, thoroughgoing transposition of the Thomist metaphysical category of wisdom into a more cognitive-existential context? Through a chronological and detailed …

Feminist Ecclesiology: A Trinitarian Framework For Transforming The Church's Institutional And Spiritual Life, Stacy Geere

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

In light of women’s marginal status in church governance and ministry through most of recorded history, feminist trinitarian ecclesiology is needed to transform the church’s institutional and spiritual life. While Vatican II provided the paradigm shift and promising anthropology essential for an egalitarian church, feminist ecclesiology prompts a radical transformation of its hierarchical and patriarchal structures and practices so that it may truly embody the Trinity. Trinitarian life provides practical and radical consequences for Christian life, and provides a model of church marked by relationships of equality, mutuality, unity and reciprocity. It also provides a strong ecclesiological argument for reform …

Will-Independent Mereological Trinity Monotheism: A Defense Of The Logical Coherence Of, A Priori Motivation For, And A Particular Model Concerning The Doctrine Of The Trinity, Andrew Kirschner

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The doctrine posits that God is one being, but three persons. The orthodox parameters for affirming the Trinity are found in the early Ecumenical Creeds of Christendom, especially the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds. Four primary affirmations emerge as a summary of the essential content of the doctrine: (ONE): There is one God; (THREE): The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct divine persons; (FATHERSOURCE): The Father is the source of the Son and the Holy Spirit (perhaps with the Son, perhaps not); and (EQUALITY): The three persons in the Trinity are ontologically equal; none is greater than any of the …

Breathing With God: Inhaling God's Spirit, Exhaling God's Reign, Douglas Scott Dent

Doctor of Ministry Theses

This action research project engaged transformative mixed methods to determine the effect of directed interventions on a cohort’s participation with the triune God. “Breathing with God” embraces an inspiring by God, aspiring to be Christ-like, and conspiring with the Holy Spirit. Theoretical lenses included respiration and personality preferences. Biblical lenses included Genesis 11:1-9 (Babel), Psalms 42-43 (the deer pants), Acts 2 (Pentecost), and Romans 12:1-8 (church as body). Theological lenses included spiritual capacity and discipleship. Findings revealed that improved comprehension of personality preferences and spiritual gifts coupled with consistent spiritual practices improved participation and willingness to engage in missio Dei.

Unity And Diversity: How A Bilingual-Multicultural Congregation Reflects The Nature Of The Trinity In Unity And Diversity, Albert W. Triolo

Doctor of Ministry Theses

This project used the lenses of adaptive change, transculturation, church size theory, love the stranger, led by the Spirit, unity and diversity in God’s family, imago Trinitatis, and missio Dei to study how action research interventions might affect a culturally diverse congregation. It was found that understanding culture is complicated, homogeneous units typically stay apart but do come together, crossing boundaries of homogeneity is difficult, ongoing education helps for transculturation, transculturation comes mostly through conversation, and people can experience Trinitarian equality through transculturation. In short, the Common Culture of a Community is Cultivated in its Context through Conversation and Communion.

Perichoretic Worship: Cultivating Relationships With The Triune God, With One Another, And With The World, Greg G. Busboom

Doctor of Ministry Theses

A Participatory Action Research (PAR) study focusing on perichoretic worship as a way of cultivating holy relationship with the Triune God, with others, and with the world. Theoretical lenses include ritual studies, Faith Development Theory, and personhood in social relationships. Theological lenses include perichoresis, Lutheran worship, and faith practices. Using both quantitative and qualitative research, the study explores the practice of Christian worship in a large Lutheran congregation and seeks to grow active participation in the missional work of the Triune God through worship grounded in Word and Sacrament. Presents the Triune God as the active subject of Christian worship.

Deification Through Sacramental Living In Lds And Eastern Orthodox Worship Practices: A Comparative Analysis, Jess P. Jones

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a comparative analysis of the doctrine of deification in sacramental worship as taught (and practiced) by the Eastern Orthodox and Latter-day Saint (Mormon) churches. The doctrine that man may become like God—known as deification, divinization, or theosis—is a central teaching in the Orthodox and Mormon traditions. Both faiths believe that man may become like God. However, because of doctrinal presuppositions and disagreements regarding the natures of God and man, Orthodox and Mormon teachings of deification do not mean the same thing. This thesis will outline several key distinctions between their respective doctrines. And yet, despite doctrinal disagreements, …

Creator Spirit, Spirit Of Grace: Trinitarian Dimensions Of A Charitological Pneumatology, Wesley Scott Biddy

Dissertations (1934 -)

This dissertation takes up the question of the link between the creative and the redemptive work of the Holy Spirit. It presents creation as ordered to redemption and redemption as the completion of creation, especially for human beings. On the understanding of the relationship between the two orders of the Spirit’s activity proposed here, creation is of a piece with redemption and is therefore an operation of grace just as the latter is. I ground my depiction of the Spirit’s role in both aspects of the divine economy in an account of her role within the immanent Trinity. Indeed, this …

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 …

Monarchianism And Origen's Early Trinitarian Theology, Stephen Edward Waers

Dissertations (1934 -)

This dissertation unfolds in two parts. In the first, I offer a reconstruction of the core of Monarchian theology using four main primary texts: Hippolytus’ Contra Noetum, Tertullian’s Adversus Praxean, the Refutatio omnium haeresium (often attributed to Hippolytus), and Novatian’s De Trinitate. The Monarchian controversy enters the historical record at the beginning of the third century, but we know little of its origins or motivations. The first part begins with a hypothesis about what might have prompted the rise of Monarchianism. Following that, I give an account of the core of Monarchian teaching using the sources listed above. My account …

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 …

The All-Embracing Frame: Distance In The Trinitarian Theology Of Hans Urs Von Balthasar, Christopher Hadley

Dissertations (1934 -)

The notion of distance plays a complex role in Hans Urs von Balthasar’s trinitarian theology. The infinite distance that metaphorically marks out the difference between God and creation serves Balthasar as a negative-theological guard against earthly projections in images of God. But this distance also structures the biblical, ascetical, and phenomenological imagery upon which trinitarian theology so often depends. The infinite distance between Father and Son in the unity of the Holy Spirit structures Balthasar’s richly symbolic vision of a divine infusion of grace into a suffering world. Not only is inner-triune distance a controversial notion, but it strikes some …

Eucharistic Undoings: Ecstatic Participation And Divine Incorporation In The Spirit, Natalie S. Johnson

Seattle Pacific Seminary Theses

This project looks at the logical and experiential priority that Sarah Coakley gives to the Holy Spirit in her approach to trinitarian theology and its implications for human gender and sexuality. Coakley's work tends to lean toward internalizing bodily categories, spiritualizing gender particularity as one's posture toward God. My thesis is that a eucharistic understanding of gender and sexuality is needed to give Coakley's understanding of gender bodily significance.

Deep In The Burbs : A Participatory Action Research Project Exploring How The Social Trinity Impacts Spiritual Formation In Suburban Elca Congregations, Steven P. Thomason

Doctor of Philosophy Theses

Deep in the Burbs is a participatory action research project that gathered members from three upper-Midwest suburban ELCA congregations to explore how engagement with the social Trinity might impact the research team’s ideation or praxis of spiritual formation. The research team pursued this question through the practice of Dwelling in the Word—specifically in select passages from the Upper Room Discourse (John 13-17)—various modalities of communicative learning, and communicative action projects in the community. The data indicate three major themes that became important to the research team: the essential nature of relationships, the necessity of reflection, and the awareness of the …

Christ, The Meeting Point Of Sacramental And Trinitarian Theology, Nathan Peter Chase

School of Theology and Seminary Graduate Papers/Theses

This paper explores the relationship between the liturgical life of the Church and the operation of the Trinity in the economy of grace through the work of Fr. Edward Kilmartin. Kilmartin sought to better explain how humanity’s relationship with God through prayer and the sacraments was established. For him, theologians’ understanding of the Trinity in what has become known as the procession model allowed for the katabatic flow of grace to humanity but failed to explain the anabatic flow of grace from humanity back up to God. This paper looks at the complementary model, the bestowal model, that Kilmartin developed …

Trinitarian Theorizing And Mystery As A Way Forward: A Critical Examination Of The Forms Of Trinitarian Hypothesizing, Why They Fail, And Why Mystery Is A Way Forward, Matthew J. Conniry

Seminary Masters Theses

Scholarship reveals that there are at least two primary ways of handling the issue incumbent within Trinitarian theorizing. Most theologians resolve the issue by addressing the inconsistencies, finding various ways to make important distinctions to eliminate apparent contradictions. This is no doubt the most popular route. Among these are social Trinitarians and Latin Trinitarians. A rough distinction can be made here, wherein social Trinitarians start with the Threeness of God and reason from that stance that God is one by an inexorable and eternal loving relationship. Oppositely, Latin Trinitarians start with God as one and reason how God can possibly …

Hans Urs Von Balthasar And Kenosis: The Pathway To Human Agency, Timothy J. Yoder

Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the kenotic motif in the theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar, particularly in light of his concern to protect human agency. This dissertation argues that Balthasar views kenotic spiritual practice as the pathway to achieve true human agency. This kenotic pathway to agency is placed in contrast to Balthasar's concept of original sin as an attempt by humanity to achieve agency on their own terms. The narrative of original sin results in two possible outcomes for Balthasar: a spiritual pathway toward the absorption of the self, which results in the annihilation of …

Covenant Of Redemption In The Theology Of Jonathan Edwards: The Nexus Between The Immanent And The Economic Trinity, Reita Yazawa

CTS PhD Doctoral Dissertations

Contemporary trinitarian theologies tend to hold that the doctrine of the Trinity, especially the immanent Trinity, became impractical, speculative, and abstruse over the years in the history of Christian theology. In response, the recent theologies of the Trinity explore various practical implications of the doctrine of the Trinity with emphasis on God’s economic work of redemption in history. However, the Reformed idea of the covenant of redemption helps us to reconsider whether the doctrine of the Trinity, even of the immanent Trinity, has been really so impractical. In this study, I argue that the Reformed idea of the covenant of …

Timelessly Present, Compassionately Impassible: A Defense Of Two Classical Divine Attributes, Philip R. Olsson

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This study articulates a God-concept in the tradition of classical Christian theism, contending with calls to modify significantly or revise classical constructions. Attention falls upon two closely related divine attributes that have, especially in recent decades, come under philosophical and theological attack – God’s timelessness and impassibility (inability to suffer). Is the “classical” Lord truly Immanuel, i.e. with us? This general question motivates the study.

The opening three chapters analyze aspects of the God-concepts put forth by Augustine, Aquinas, and Calvin. Apparent tensions between a timeless transcendence and an affirming union of the Trinity with creation are countenanced, with an …

The Assumption Of All Humanity In Saint Hilary Of Poitiers' Tractatus Super Psalmos, Ellen Scully

Dissertations (1934 -)

In this dissertation, I focus on the soteriological understanding of the fourth-century theologian Hilary of Poitiers as manifested in his underappreciated Tractatus super Psalmos. Hilary offers an understanding of salvation in which Christ saves humanity by assuming every single person into his body in the incarnation. My dissertation contributes to scholarship on Hilary in two ways.

First, I demonstrate that Hilary's teaching concerning Christ's assumption of all humanity is a unique development of Latin sources. Because of his understanding of Christ's assumption of all humanity, Hilary, along with several Greek fathers, has been accused of heterodoxy resulting from Greek Platonic …

The Trinitarian Theology Of Irenaeus Of Lyons, Jackson Jay Lashier

Dissertations (1934 -)

This dissertation is a study of the Trinitarian theology of Irenaeus of Lyons. With the exception of two recent studies, Irenaeus' Trinitarian theology, particularly in its immanent manifestation, has been devalued by scholarship due to his early dates and his stated purpose of avoiding speculative theology. In contrast to this majority opinion, I argue that Irenaeus' works show a mature understanding of the Trinity, in both its immanent and economic manifestations, which is occasioned by Valentinianism. Moreover, his Trinitarian theology represents a significant advancement upon that of his sources, the so- called apologists, whose understanding of the divine nature converges …

“Made In Each Other:” John Scottus Eriugena’S Conception Of The Human Person As A Unifying Vocabulary For Trinitarian Metanarrative And Anticartesian Phenomenology, Carey B. Vinzant

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Vinzant, Carey B. “Made in each Other: John Scottus Eriugena’s Conception of the Human Person as a Unifying Vocabulary for Trinitarian Metanarrative and Anti-Cartesian Phenomenology.” Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2010. 260 pp.

This study sets forth an account of the human person, drawn primarily from the thought of John Scottus Eriugena, which integrates the metaphysical account of personhood set forth by Trinitarian theology (especially John Zizioulas) with the phenomenological one set forth by certain Anti-Cartesian philosophers (especially John Macmurray, Martin Buber, and Gabriel Marcel). These two schools of thought have in common the conviction that uniqueness and relation to other …