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Cultural Diversity In The Body Of Christ: An African American Theological Reading Of The Book Of Revelation, Charles Gilmer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study will attempt to facilitate a more helpful reading of the text of John’s Apocalypse by placing it in an appropriate literary and historical context, deploying an African American hermeneutic, informed by the work of African American commentators such as Brian Blount, Allen Dwight Callahan, Clarice Martin, and Shanell T. Smith to develop from the text of the Apocalypse its ecclesiological content for a contemporary audience. As the church writ large (Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant and indigenous expressions) wrestles with its increasing global presence and the cultural and linguistic diversity which that expanded presence creates, this study will attempt to …

Contestant Theology: Toward A Play Theology Of Religions, Greg Jones

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

How can a Christian theology of religions navigate the interreligious dialogical problems of 1) the inability to fully articulate faith, 2) the lack of persuasive religious language, 3) the reality of violence among religions, and 4) the liquescent “truth” of modern times? This dissertation answers this question with a theology of religions considered through the lens of play theology. Contestant theology navigates these problems as 1) a space of cooperation and contest which 2) incorporates assertiveness (exclusivism), compassion (inclusivism), openness (pluralism) and free participation (Trinitarianism) to 3) hold together enriching and diminishing relationalities among diverse religious peoples with a view …

The Reception Of Isaiah's Suffering Servant In Thomas Aquinas' Theology Of The Cross, Daniel Waldow

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a quantitative and qualitative analysis of Thomas Aquinas' reception of Isaiah 53 throughout his major works of theology.

Our Authors

Gathered Fragments

No abstract provided.

A Disability Theology Of Limits For Responding To Moral Injury, Lisa Hickman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The lament of Jeremiah, “they dress the wound of my people as if it were not serious,” reverberates today as veterans return home from a decade of war, ridden by PTSD and moral injury, only to discover lethargy, lack of seriousness and complacency in societal response. The seriousness of our soldiers’ wounds, to body and spirit alike, demand ethical, societal and theological responsibility. Failure to address the seriousness of these wounds results in distress, depression and even suicide for the soldier. Statistics may describe a portion of the reality, but the degree to which soldiers suffer in silence and the …

Michael J. Gorman, Ed., Scripture And Its Interpretation. A Global, Ecumenical Introduction To The Bible. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2017., James Chukwuma Okoye C.S.Sp.

Spiritan Horizons

No abstract provided.

Sacramental Theology Of Elochukwu Uzukwu In Light Of Vatican Ii And Its Application In African Contexts, Emmanuel Osigwe

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recognition of the indispensable intersection of faith and culture has become a major trend in the contemporary theology. This renewed approach emphasizes various anthropologies and cultures as locations of divine activity. Specifically, the Second Vatican Council’s understanding of sacraments as pneumatological, and ecclesiological, beyond the dominant Christological motif, and its call for profound adaptation gives a wide latitude for rethinking the sacraments. This provision overcomes the danger of enforcing a monocultural model of sacramental celebration, which can submerge local voices and separate sacramentality from symbols and values that resonate differently with various peoples and cultures. This dissertation shows how Elochukwu …

Our Authors

Gathered Fragments

No abstract provided.

Becoming A Priestly People: A Biblical Theology Of Liturgical Sacrifice As Spiritual Formation, Ximena Debroeck

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The centrality of sacrifice in the Judeo-Christian tradition is undeniable; nevertheless, unidimensional presentations of sacrifice have contributed to an incomplete, and at times distorted understanding. This work does not aim to resolve every ambiguity or misunderstanding, rather, it presents a canonical approach interpretation and brings attention to three underappreciated dimensions of sacrifice: first, the relationship between the external actions of the ritual and the internal dynamic of spirituality and morality; second, the reality that sacrifice refers not only to death, but to a way of living; and third, atonement and reconciliation are not the only reasons to offer sacrifice. My …

The Church As A Theophanic Community, Daniel Levis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Vatican II document, Lumen Gentium, holds multiple images of the Church in tension and was greatly informed by two ecclesiological models: The Church as Sacrament and eucharistic ecclesiology. This thesis explores the Church as a community of theophany as a model that is not only in harmony with Lumen Gentium, but finds a helpful cohesion of its images. An early New Testament and patristic christology understood Jesus to be the ultimate theophany of God. The Church, as the body of Christ shares and perpetuates this embodied theophany into the world. Luke's Pentecost narrative has been read as the descent …

Sin And The Story Of Salvation: The Theology Of Atonement In Light Of Biblical Narrative Theology, Mark Ortwein

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Contemporary atonement theology offers three general conceptions of the cross: objective, subjective, and dramatic, which corresponds to Gustaf Aulén's classic tripartite typology. Although these different views are important since they contribute to a rich soteriology, when addressing the topic of atonement, or reconciliation proper, the objective type, promoted in satisfaction and penal substitution theories, are by comparison more compatible with Scripture when considering its larger narrative structure. This compatibility is attributable to the seriousness with which they construe the problem of sin that alienates humanity from God and places them in a predicament from which they are unable to extricate …

A Constructive Account Of Children's Moral Agency Drawing On Thomas Aquinas's Theory Of Emotions, Ann Vinski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation makes the case that children are moral agents engaged with the morality of their communities without being morally accountable as adults. Contemporary Christian theological anthropology holds that children are fully human and in the image of God, and that they are already encountering good and evil in the world. Childhood is viewed as an essential part of human life and as something that perdures throughout a person's existence. Through their emotions, children are able to engage with, make meaning of, and respond to their surroundings, and these early emotional experiences help to shape each person for the whole …

Gsrs Event Program Booklet 2013, Office Of Research

Graduate Student Research Symposium

No abstract provided.

Encountering Eucharistic Presence Within A Postmodern Context: A Dialogue Among Chauvet, Schmemann And Zizioulas, Jason Gary Delvitto

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Roman Catholic and the Orthodox Churches, as well as other Christian communities, are faced with the challenges of postmodern thought, which calls into question some of the foundational theological and philosophical constructs through which Christianity has articulated the mystery of Eucharistic presence. Louis-Marie Chauvet, Alexander Schmemann and John Zizioulas, the interlocutors presented in this dissertation, recognize that for centuries, Eucharistic theology has been shaped within a metaphysical/Scholastic framework which confines, in many respects, the experiential/relational aspects of the divine/human dynamic as mediated in the Eucharistic celebration. An appeal for a paradigmatic shift is made evident in their respective works …

The Holy Spirit In Spiritan Life And Mission, Yves Marie Fradet

Spiritan Horizons

No abstract provided.

The Spirit As The Lord And The Giver Of Life: Recovering Relational Pneumatology And Its Significance For Being Church In Postcolonial Nigeria, Okechukwu Njoku

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation seeks to recover the relational quality of the Holy Spirit who is the Lord and the Giver of life as enshrined in the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed (381). Neo-Scholastic theology had utilized the conceptual categories of Aristotelian metaphysics with its orientation to foundationalism and immobility in a manner destructive of difference, plurality, and the relational language of the Spirit as witnessed in the Bible. One of the upshots became the totalizing bent of Western epistemology which eventually found concretion in colonialism and the slavery of Africans among others. This dissertation utilizes the category of "relationality," a core tenet of West …

Volume 24 — Christian Theology And Social Relevance: Ethical, Economic And Social Implications Of Solidarity, The Ecumencial Association Of Nigerian Theologians

Bulletin of Ecumenical Theology

No abstract provided.

Uncovering The Roots Of The Crucified God: How Walter Brueggemann's Old Testament Theology Challenges And Contributes To Jürgen Moltmann's And Jon Sobrino's Interpretations Of The Cross, Patricia A. Sharbaugh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation provides a study and analysis of Old Testament theology's discernment of God through hiddenness, silence, absence, and suffering and then brings into conversation notions of God drawn from these Old Testament traditions with notions of God drawn from an interpretation of the cross. This exploration is done through an in depth study of Walter Brueggemann's Old Testament theology of God as both a challenge and a contribution to the interpretation of the cross of Jesus Christ in the works of Jürgen Moltmann and Jon Sobrino.

The interpretations of the cross in the works of Moltmann and Sobrino recognize …

Presence And Voice: Understanding The Tensions Over The American Church's Relationship To Its Culture Through The Writings Of Origen, Chrysostom And Augustine, Henry Curtis Mcdaniel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In light of the perceived and demonstrable decline of the church's presence and voice in American culture, this dissertation proposes to examine and to discuss the dynamic viewpoints and tensions within the church over her presence and voice in the American culture by examining the various interpretations over the rhetoric of Christianization in the Roman Empire and how those viewpoints surface in the positions of Origen, Chrysostom and Augustine. The objective of this approach is to continue the discussion first articulated by H. Richard Niebuhr's 1951 work, Christ and Culture, by showing that the way one understands the rhetoric of …

Justification And Good Works: A Study Of The Joint Declaration On The Doctrine Of Justification, Justin Chay

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The doctrine of justification tells how the saving grace of God in Christ can be actualized in the believers. Because of the very importance of this doctrine, disputes broke out between Augustine and Pelagius, later in the medieval period, and most importantly during the Reformation period - which led to mutual condemnations and the division of the Western church. The church still does not have a unified voice in interpreting the doctrine despite recent ecumenical dialogues, which culminated in the Lutheran-Roman Catholic Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification in 1999.

A Contemporary Consideration Of The Role Of Metaphysics In Systematic Theology: The Contributions Of Pope John Paul Ii And Claude Tresmontant, Daniel M. Strudwick

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

It has been traditionally held that Catholic theology has notable metaphysical threads deeply connected with the fabric of its faith and its systematic presentation. This dissertation focuses upon those "metaphysical threads" in order to explore their past, present and possible future status within theology. In each section the goal is to investigate the contributions of John Paul II and Claude Tresmontant and the role they believe metaphysics has within Catholic Systematic theology. This work attempts to present and assess whether, which, and why components of metaphysics, according to John Paul II and Tresmontant, should be retained even in light of …

Sacrament Of Deification: The Eucharistic Vision Of Alexander Schmemann In Light Of The Doctrine Of Theosis, Janet Puppo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study posits that the Eastern Christian doctrine of theosis, or deification, informs, enhances and illuminates Eucharistic understanding. It argues that the Eucharistic vision of Orthodox priest and theologian, Father Alexander Schmemann, offers the most cogent evidence in support of the intrinsic link between the Eucharist and the doctrine of theosis. Based on Schmemann's observations that a Eucharistic crisis exists in the Church as a result of liturgical indifference and secularism, this study seeks to retrieve the patristic vision of the Eucharist that synthesized the world, the Church and the Kingdom of God in an interdependent and harmonic balance. The …

Root, Shoot, And Fruit: From Missio Dei To Mission Today, Anthony J. Gittins C.S.Sp.

Spiritan Horizons

No abstract provided.

Volume 18 — Migration And Relevance Of Christian Mission: Visibility Of Invisible Africans, The Ecumencial Association Of Nigerian Theologians

Bulletin of Ecumenical Theology

No abstract provided.

Between Humanity And Divinity: Christ Consciousness In Jacques Maritain's On The Grace And Humanity Of Jesus And The Epistemology Of Michael Polanyi, Stephen Doering

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This work investigates the consciousness of Christ in Maritain's On the Grace and Humanity of Jesus in light of his theory of consciousness in Poetic Intuition in Art and Poetry. At issue is the epistemological question of non-thematic, non-explicit knowledge bearing upon the conscious awareness of Jesus. Michael Polanyi's contribution is his theory of tacit knowledge. In utilizing Polanyi we are able to substantiate Maritain's belief that non-thematic knowledge does, nonetheless, bear upon our explicit conscious awareness. The final chapter brings these points together by investigating Jesus' knowledge and consciousness of himself and his divine status.

Spiritan News, No. 130, Congregazione Dello Spirito Santo

Spritan News

Spiritan News, No. 130/ January-February 2000

• Meeting of the European Formators --(p.1)
• Meeting of the Spiritan European Commission for Justice and Peace --(p.2)
• A missionary community in Rotterdam --(p.2)
• News Items --(p.3)

Volume 11 — Conflict And Reconcilliation: Towards Jubilee 2000, The Ecumencial Association Of Nigerian Theologians

Bulletin of Ecumenical Theology

No abstract provided.

Volume 7 Numbers 1-2 — Violence And State Security, The Ecumencial Association Of Nigerian Theologians

Bulletin of Ecumenical Theology

No abstract provided.