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Articles 1 - 10 of 10
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
How Is The Christian Virtue Of Detachment Epistemically Transformative?, Simon C. Summers
How Is The Christian Virtue Of Detachment Epistemically Transformative?, Simon C. Summers
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This thesis aims to understand how the Christian virtue of detachment, understood as the proper ordering of one’s desires toward God, contributes to epistemic transformation. In order to achieve this result, I rely on the work of the Trappist monk, Thomas Merton, beginning by mapping out his conception of detachment and demonstrating how it helps one to overcome competing desires and find their true self. Following this, I offer an account of the type of epistemic transformation required to access some theistic knowledge in order to connect Merton’s views on the topic with those of modern-day philosophers and show the …
Narratives Of Existence And The Narrative Existence: Ontological Unity In The Border Trilogy And Quantum Theory, Rebecca Leigh Mcintosh
Narratives Of Existence And The Narrative Existence: Ontological Unity In The Border Trilogy And Quantum Theory, Rebecca Leigh Mcintosh
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Because the humanities and the sciences approach philosophical questions in contrasting ways, the study of literature and the study of physical science are often viewed as unrelated realms of scholarly inquiry. Science aims to provide a methodological approach for gathering knowledge about the world, while the humanities focus on criticism or analysis of cultural artifacts. However, even though the conceptual frameworks applied in scientific study and literary study are often incompatible or remarkably divergent, their methods for conceptualizing and transmitting ideas are the same, for humanity understands the world and experience of this world through narratives composed of referential metaphors. …
Becoming Stewards Of Attention: A Theological Appeal, Joshua Gorenflo
Becoming Stewards Of Attention: A Theological Appeal, Joshua Gorenflo
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The widespread compromising of attention currently taking place in our digital age is, at least in part, a theological issue necessitating a theological response, which invites an examination of the human person in relation to God. Familiar within the biblical narrative and throughout Christian tradition, I suggest that when the role of steward functions as the operative paradigm for humans, the claims made upon their lives have profound implications for attending within the digital age. More specifically, the steward’s attention becomes a tangible expression of authority and accountability in representation of God’s image to the rest of creation. In pursuit …
Do Muslims And Christians Worship The Same God: A Philosophical Approach, Zachary W. Casey
Do Muslims And Christians Worship The Same God: A Philosophical Approach, Zachary W. Casey
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
In this thesis I probe the question of whether Muslims and Christians worship the same God primarily through the discipline of philosophy of language. Though a multifaceted question at its core (e.g., theological, historical), the question directly ties into how language operates in relation to God. That is, the ways in which Muslims and Christians make predications of God have a significant role in delineating whether they worship the same God. By working from the perspective of predication, I argue that Muslims and Christians refer to but do not worship the same God. In this sense, Muslims and Christians refer …
Wholeheartedness And Acquaintance With God, Sarah Naomi Dannemiller
Wholeheartedness And Acquaintance With God, Sarah Naomi Dannemiller
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
In this thesis, I demonstrate that wholeheartedness is a constitutive intellectual virtue. Wholeheartedness consists of a definite and unified volitional structure in which one’s desires are integrated around union with God and which contributes to one’s personal intellectual worth by positively orienting her toward acquaintance with God. Since wholeheartedness consists of a hierarchy of the will that prioritizes a desire for union with God, wholeheartedness aims towards the epistemic good of acquaintance. By desiring that one have a will that wills union with God, she cooperates with God toward wholeheartedness. As one becomes aware of her volitional structure changing, she …
Divine Simplicity As A Necessary Condition For Affirming Creation Ex Nihilo, Chance Juliano
Divine Simplicity As A Necessary Condition For Affirming Creation Ex Nihilo, Chance Juliano
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Proponents of the Doctrine of Divine Simplicity (DDS) have frequently argued that God must lack any temporal, physical, or metaphysical composition on the grounds that God’s existence would be dependent upon God’s parts. This avenue of discourse has been tried and trod so often that most detractors of DDS find it insufficient to demonstrate DDS. Additionally, objectors to DDS have often rejected the doctrine on the count of the heap of metaphysical (often Aristotelian or Neoplatonist) assumptions that one must make before one can even arrive at DDS. Within this essay I will offer an argument for DDS that is …
Explaining The Obvious: Privileged Hermeneutics And The Irony Of Explicitly Literal Interpretation, Joshua Alkire
Explaining The Obvious: Privileged Hermeneutics And The Irony Of Explicitly Literal Interpretation, Joshua Alkire
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The purpose of this thesis is to examine why so many uses of the word literal (whether taken from everyday contemporary speech or the works of well-respected ancient writers) seem at odds with the word’s theoretical definition and to explore the implications of this disparity for those who privilege a literal interpretation of Scripture. The examples will show that the meaning of literal was not altered at a particular point in time, nor is it altered on an ongoing basis by a small subset of particularly idiosyncratic individuals. Rather, the word is predisposed to behave strangely the moment it is …
Epistemology In The Churches Of Christ: An Analysis And Critique Of Thomas B. Warren, Derek Estes
Epistemology In The Churches Of Christ: An Analysis And Critique Of Thomas B. Warren, Derek Estes
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This thesis seeks to understand at least one prevalent religious epistemology in the Churches of Christ by exploring the work of Thomas B. Warren. To accomplish this goal, I first offer a descriptive analysis of Warren’s theory of knowledge followed by an assessment of its strong and weak points. Ultimately finding his epistemology unsatisfying, I conclude the thesis by highlighting recent developments in religious epistemology that might point the way forward in accounting for knowledge of God in a theologically and philosophically robust way.
The Indwelling Of The Holy Spirit And Human Intentionality: A Constructive Proposal, John R. Kern
The Indwelling Of The Holy Spirit And Human Intentionality: A Constructive Proposal, John R. Kern
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
How does the Holy Spirit, by indwelling believers, guide them to act in ways that contribute to their spiritual progress? In this thesis, I will argue that, by indwelling believers, the Spirit redirects their intentionality towards their ultimate end in union with God, thus placing believers in the best possible position for acting in ways that contribute to that end. If the Spirit guides believers in the spiritual life on a day-to-day basis, then such guidance must connect with the actual processes by which humans generally act (especially intentions). Thus, by exploring the indwelling of the Spirit, grace, and human …
Deification, Friendship, And Self-Knowledge, Matthew Hale
Deification, Friendship, And Self-Knowledge, Matthew Hale
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
How does human friendship contribute to the process of deification? In this thesis, I will argue that a kind of “spiritual friendship” contributes to the process of deification by placing the human agent in a better position for acquiring self-knowledge, and avoiding false beliefs or misunderstandings about the self. This acquisition of self-knowledge is an important part of the deification process, which involves not just a moral and ontological transformation, but an epistemological one as well.