Digital Commons Network^™

Maybe Irish Voters Actually Were Swayed By Their Church, Una M. Cadegan

History Faculty Publications

It’s almost always more incorrect than correct to say “Church” when you mean “hierarchy.” It’s especially misleading in the case of same-sex marriage, and Catholic support thereof.

The vocal public insistence of much of the hierarchy (Vatican, Irish, US) on the impossibility and the danger of same-sex marriage represents a dead end in Catholic moral theology. This is not to undercut the entirety of the moral theology — far from it. The notion that humans are created for relationships, that the power of procreation is deeply and sacredly connected to the love between men and women, that stable, loving families …

Mary, Spouse Of Joseph, Model For Married Life, Joseph Arias

Marian Studies

Broadly, I propose to respond to the following question: What does the unique spousal relationship of Mary and Joseph have to teach families and individuals about the nature of marriage and conjugal love, especially in Christian marriage? While the circumstances of their particular relationship and calling might seem too extraordinary to appear relevant for recent thinking about marriage and family life, I will argue that it is precisely in view of the unique features of their spousal relationship that Mary and Joseph can be appreciated as exemplary for married life, even in modern times.

Mary As The Model Of Faithful Love For Families, Spouses, And Consecrated Persons, Robert L. Fastiggi

Marian Studies

This essay will explore Mary as the exemplar of holiness for the faithful in the various states of life. In a special way, it will draw upon the insights of St. John Paul II (1920–2005).

Contesting Victorian Beliefs: The Unintended Effects Of Victorian Novels, Christina Barquin

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Victorian society reproduced polarized gender roles known as the ideology of the separate spheres in order to confine the authority of women. However, as the Victorian Era progressed social norms were gradually contested, and the consequences of the assertion of female authority led to reform. In reinterpreting the Victorian women’s movement, I will interpret the effects of the writers of the late nineteenth century who argued explicitly against proposed changes in the traditional position of middle-class women. I will most closely examine how the late Victorian novels, A Marriage Below Zero by Alan Dale and The Revolt of Man by …

Exploring A Model For Equipping Colombian Pastors And Lay Leaders In The Skill Of Narrative Preaching, Juan Carlos Mejia

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Prudence And Executive Control: An Analysis Of The Decision-Making Processes Of The Christian And The Modern Man, Ryan Frazier

Spring 2015, Faith and Science

Scientific research and Christian philosophy often appear to be at odds. These different perspectives sometimes offer different answers to the same question. In the light of these perspectives, however, we can gain a greater understanding of the human experience. Executive control, or how a person decides to do something, is unable to account for the greater question of why. St. Thomas Aquinas¹ explanation of prudence provides reasonable evidence in favor of this perspective. In order to understand the Christian intellectual virtue of prudence, a mastery of the classical, Thomistic account is required. Despite the gaps between science and religious thought, …

Convergent Friends: The Emergence Of Postmodern Quakerism, C. Wess Daniels

Quaker Studies

Postmodernism is ushering in radical change for the Church. Some theologians argue that this change, especially given the discontinuities between modernism and postmodernism, affords new opportunities. Because of these changes there is a decline in many Christian traditions in the West, but there is also a renaissance of ' emerging churches'. The same can be said for Quakers who are experiencing a renaissance of their own. 'Convergent Friends' are a decentralized, international, body of Quakers seeking to renew their tradition through a growing awareness of the need to interact with culture missionally. Their origins and interactions are unique to Convergence …

Abuses Of Double Effect, Anscombe’S Principle Of Side Effects, And A (Sound) Account Of Duplex Effectus, Thomas A. Cavanaugh

Philosophy

No abstract provided.

Learning With Digital Technologies: Privileging Persons Over Machines, Mary E. Hess

Faculty Publications

Learning with digital technologies, at least when framed by moral commitments, requires lifting up specific epistemological frames, beginning with a conviction that learning involves human persons in interdependent communities who are involved in a shared search for truth. Such a conviction necessitates moving from teaching-centered to learning-centered pedagogies, and from explicit content to shaping tacit forms of knowing. Digital technologies can prove highly beneficial when used within those constraints.

The End Of The Natural Law: Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Christological Ethics., Jordan J. Ballor

CTS PhD Doctoral Dissertations

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) has often been understood as articulating an occasionalistic, divine-command theory of ethics. In this regard, he is often seen as aligned with Karl Barth (1886-1968). This study challenges this view by demonstrating that Bonhoeffer’s own ethical project was aimed at resuscitating and reviving a distinctively Protestant form of natural-law thinking. Bonhoeffer’s approach was characterized by an emphasis on the origin, formation, and goal of natural mandates in, by, and toward Jesus Christ. Bonhoeffer’s early teaching concerning orders of preservation and laws of life was developed into a mature doctrine of divine mandates in his Ethics, which are …

Proof Of Heaven?: Controversy Over Near-Death Experiences In American Christianity, Joel Sanford

The Hilltop Review

Testimonies claiming firsthand experience of Life after Death have been circulating in many cultures since antiquity. Among these experiences are those occurring at, near, or beyond the point of death or apparent death. Testimonies of this kind of experience, now widely referred to as a Near-death Experience (NDE), were popularized by Raymond Moody's publication of Life after Life in 1975. In the last 10 years, it seems there has been a growing American public interest in these experiences, resulting in a slew of New York Times best-sellers. With such provocative titles as Proof of Heaven and Heaven is for Real …

Religious Discourse And Interdisciplinarity In Sport Studies, Zachary T. Smith

The Hilltop Review

Religious and theological explorations of leisure have remained few and far between, as religious studies perceive sport and game related studies as trivial, and as leisure theorists find social scientific methods more compelling. And yet, religious traditions and thinkers have been offering accounts and ethics of leisure activities for thousands of years, and anthropological evidence suggests the origination of sport and game play arose in the context of religious cult activity (Huizinga, 1949; Guttmann, 2007). Further, contemporary research has indicated that religion plays an important role in structuring the thought and behavior of religious persons towards their leisure (Waller, 2009) …

Augustinianisms And Thomisms (Chapter Nine Of The Cambridge Companion To Political Theology), Eric Gregory, Joseph Clair

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Excerpt: "The standard linage of Augustine and Aquinas that emerges in twentieth-century textbooks of political philosophy is that of two fundamentally opposed theological approaches to the political. Augustine, in one corner, is the clear-eyed realist, convinced that political society is fallen, mired in the consequences of original sin and the contingent necessity to restrain evil, vice, and sin. Aquinas, in the other corner, is the more cheerful Aristotelian, who emphasizes the inherent goodness and naturalness of political society and its beneficial purposes for human flourishing.' These contrasting visions continue to animate diverse Christian understandings of the limits and possibilities of …

Political Affections: Civic Participation And Moral Theology. By Joshua Hordern. Reviewed By Travis Pickell., Travis Pickell

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Review of Political Affections: Civic Participation and Moral Theology. By JOSHUA HORDERN. Pp. 336. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2013. ISBN: 978-0-19-964681-4.

“Fire tends upwards, stone downwards. By their weight they are moved and seek their proper place ... My love is my weight: wherever I go my love is what brings me there” (Augustine, Confessions 13.9). Augustine long ago recognized that affections are an inescapable dimension of human existence. Why, then, have emotions and affections been so largely neglected, even opposed, in political philosophy? In Political Affections, Joshua Hordern, University Lecturer in Christian Ethics at the University of Oxford and …

We Do Not Know How To Love: Observations On Theology, Technology And Disability, Jana Marguerite Bennett

Theology and Religious Studies Faculty Publications

Does technology enable those who are disabled to be fuller members of society, or does it ultimately seek to eradicate disability and so promote a kind of eugenics against those who are disabled? In the late 1990s and early 2000s, literature and debate on this question ran rampant. A common example is that of cochlear implants, which endured much debate at the time within the Deaf community regarding whether they eradicate an impairment— or whether implants actually do away with entire communities of the Deaf and thus displace an important minority culture. Yet, very little is written today on this …

Polycarp's Dilemma: A Discussion Of Nicholas Wolterstorff's The Mighty And The Almighty: An Essay In Political Theology, Richard W. Garnett

Journal Articles

The Mighty and the Almighty: An Essay in Political Theology. By Nicholas Wolterstorff. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. Pp. 190. $94.00 (cloth). ISBN: 9781107027312. $29.99 (paper). ISBN: 9781107673809.

From the Review

In March of 2014, a distinguished group of scholars from a variety of institutions and disciplines gathered at Notre Dame Law School to discuss and appreciate Nicholas Wolterstorff's 2012 book, The Mighty and the Almighty: An Essay in Political Theology. This stimulating conversation, like several other similar events at Notre Dame in recent years, was convened and supported by the Law School's Program on Church, State, and …

Catholic Theology And The Enlightenment (1670–1815), Ulrich Lehner

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

This chapter examines the Catholic Church’s engagement with the Enlightenment from 1670–1815. It considers Catholic philosophies of the Enlightenment and new conceptualizations of natural law. The chapter also explores Catholic exegetical discussions during the period, showing how Enlightenment concerns enabled new styles of attention to the Scriptural text, new Patristic scholarship, and the origins of the later liturgical movement. Jansenist and Gallican theologies stimulated reflection on eccelesiology and the papacy, and a variety of thinkers developed new theologies of the state, and of the economy. This period also saw the rise of the Catholic ultramontanism that was to mark Church …

Roman Catholic Teaching On International Debt: Toward A New Methodology For Catholic Social Ethics And Moral Theology, M. Therese Lysaught

Institute of Pastoral Studies: Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

The Pastor's Faithless Child: Strengthening Methods For Hurting Parent-Pastors, Ryan Ayers

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Parent-pastors face challenges when balancing vocational and familial responsibilities every day, and when faithless adolescent children are part of their family dynamic the hardship is magnified. These pastors often experience debilitating critique from their faith communities and colleagues while carrying the burden of raising a rebellious child. Utilizing a phenomenological study process, one hundred transparent interviews with parent-pastors are used to identify assumptions and realities surrounding the hurting parent-pastor's dilemma. Leading principles that have helped other parent-pastors cope with the overwhelming affects of their child's behavior will be introduced, empowering those who are hurting identify their stress points and overcome …

The Santa Clara, 2014-10-23, Santa Clara University

The Santa Clara

No abstract provided.

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 …

The Anonymous Theology Of Modern Family, Conor M. Kelly

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

The popular television show Modern Family follows sitcom conventions and attempts to send a moral message about how relatives can live well together. An examination of the specific content of this message shows that it prioritizes self-giving love for the sake of forgiveness and reconciliation. This creates a recognizable parallel with the Christian conception of agape, and a discussion of this notion in the work of Karl Rahner in conjunction with his idea of the “anonymous Christian” allows for the identification of Modern Family’s moral vision as an anonymous theology of family ripe with theological significance and pedagogical potential.

Engaging The Mental Wars Of Our Times, Jan Van Vliet

Pro Rege

Dr. Jan van Vliet’s paper is an edited version of a talk delivered at the annual meetings of the Evangelical Theological Society, in Washington, D. C., November 15, 2006.

Isaac Watts And The Culture Of Dissent, Andrew Eli M. Yeater

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Although Isaac Watts wrote hymns in the early eighteenth century, some of his hymns, such as “Joy to the World,” “Alas! And Did My Savior Bleed?,” and “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,” survive today as well-known hymns. However, little has been written about the rhetorical effects of his hymns. This thesis demonstrates that, like any other literary work, Watts’ hymns can be analyzed rhetorically. This thesis analyzes Watts’ hymns with the aid of Louis Montrose’s New Historicism, showing how Watts’ hymns were impacted by the English culture in which he lived and how they impacted the religious culture to …

Experiencing Our Only Comfort: A Post-Reformation Refocus In The Heidelberg Catechism, Jan Van Vliet

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

Last year marked the 450th anniversary of the publication of the Heidelberg Catechism. In celebration of this momentous occasion and as a reminder of the contemporary applicability of this highly-regarded confessional document, this essay examines the earliest and most complete Puritan commentary extant: that of second-generation Puritan thinker William Ames (1576–1633), protégé of William Perkins (1558–1602), the “father” of the Puritan movement. We examine methodological considerations and two topical issues that arise when the venerated Catechism is placed in the hands of a practically oriented, post-Reformation divine for whom theology was none other than “living to God”: Theologia est doctrina …

Philosophy And Theology: End Of Life Questions, Christopher Kaczor

Philosophy Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

To Speak Of God In A Feminine Way In The Churches And Theologies Of The Americas, Susan Ross

Theology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

An Undivided Heart: How Mary Unites What Sin Divides According To John Paul Ii’S Theology Of The Body, Ann M. Michalica

Honors Theses

Today, personhood is often threatened by the tendency to divide the human person into two contrasting parts: body and soul. Many times, this causes the human person to be reduced to a disembodied spiritual being or a disposable object rather than a whole person called to love and be loved. In his teachings known as Theology of the Body, John Paul II uses a personalistic approach to illuminate the human person as the integration of body and soul. Scripturally based, Theology of the Body is the study of God’s reflection in the human body and human sexuality. Using John Paul …

Has The Silence Been Broken? Catholic Theological Ethics And Racial Justice, Bryan Massingale

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

This survey discusses the emerging contours of a distinctive Catholic ethical approach to race, racism, and racial justice. Among its features are the adoption of a more structural and cultural understanding of human sinfulness, engaged intellectual reflection, concern about malformed white identity, an intentional dialogue with African American scholarship and culture, and the cultivation of spiritual practices and disciplines. The “Note” concludes with a discussion of the global challenges of racialization and the future challenges for Catholic ethical reflection on racism.

Cura Personalis: A Healthcare Delivery Quandary At The End Of Life, George P. Smith Ii

Scholarly Articles

Holistic Medicine traces its provenance to the foundational value or chrism of the Society of Jesus of cura personalis which directs respect be given to all individuals and to their souls — especially whenever medical healing is required. Today, the notion of best patient care should include not merely attention to somatic issues of refractory pain management but, equally, to non-somatic or existential suffering. It is at the end-stage of life that palliative — as opposed to curative — care must be provided. When a condition is seen as medically futile, this Article advocates palliative or deep sedation — when …