Arts and Humanities Commons^™

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 …

Circumcision Of The Spirit In The Soteriology Of Cyril Of Alexandria, Jonathan Stephen Morgan

Dissertations (1934 -)

In this dissertation I argue that Cyril of Alexandria's interpretation of "spiritual circumcision" provides invaluable insight into his complex doctrine of salvation. Spiritual Circumcision - or Circumcision by the Spirit -- is a recurring theme throughout his extensive body of exegetical literature, which was written before the Nestorian controversy (428). When Cyril considers the meaning and scope of circumcision, he recognizes it as a type that can describe a range of salvific effects. For him, circumcision functions as a unifying concept that ties together various aspects of salvation such as purification, sanctification, participation, and freedom. Soteriology, however, can only be …

Christological Name Theology In Three Second Century Communities, Michael D. Harris

Dissertations (1934 -)

This dissertation seeks to consider the possible backgrounds for second century Christian name theology, the distinct regional applications of "Name" theology to Christology, and also to compare Rome, Syria, and Alexandria to one another and reveal how that application was different in each of the three regions. In order to understand the backgrounds for this theological idea, the first three chapters investigate the variety of theological uses of the word "name" in the Hebrew Bible, in other Jewish literature, and in the New Testament. The three communities are represented by 1 Clement and Shepherd of Hermas from Rome, Ascension of …

Dominus Mortis: Martin Luther On The Incorruptibility Of God In Christ, David Luy

Dissertations (1934 -)

Contemporary literature broadly presupposes that Luther's Christology represents a definitive course correction within Christian reflection upon the doctrine of God. The hinge point of Luther's innovation, according to this understanding, resides in his apparent endorsement of a mutual transfer of predicates between the divine and human nature of Christ. This mutuality represents a significant radicalization of pre-existing theological opinion, which is content to affirm the statement `God suffers', for instance, only in the carefully restricted sense that Christ (who happens to be divine) suffers according to His human nature. According to this more traditional explanation, it is not the divinity …

Lonergan On The Historical Causality Of Christ: An Interpretation Of 'The Redemption: A Supplement To De Verbo Incarnato', John Volk

Dissertations (1934 -)

In 1958, the Canadian Jesuit theologian Bernard Lonergan (1904-1984) completed a draft of a major text on redemption. He stated that the text was to be an addition to his book De Verbo Incarnato, with the purpose of explaining the historical causality of Christ. The Lonergan Research Institute, Toronto, has produced a preliminary English translation titled The Redemption: A Supplement to De Verbo Incarnato. To date, there has been no interpretation of this text. This dissertation aims at making a contribution towards the remedy of this lacuna in Lonergan studies. The dissertation interprets Lonergan's understanding of the historical causality of …

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 …