Religion Commons^™

Chosen Nation: Biblical Theopolitics And The Problem Of American Christian Nationalism, Braden P. Anderson

Dissertations (1934 -)

Christian theopolitics presupposes that every salvation narrative entails a politics, and that every politics presumes a story of salvation. This means that the church faces a host of theopolitical structures contending with the Christian story for the allegiance, formation, and identity of Christians. However, theopolitical scholarship has largely overlooked or misunderstood one of the church's major challenges today: nationalism. Moreover, this scholarship is unable to properly address the challenge of nationalism due to an inadequate engagement with biblical theopolitics--particularly that of Old Testament Israel--which, in distorted form, is central to nationalism emanating from within the church.

In order to supplement …

Visionary Ascents Of Moses In Pseudo-Philo's Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum: Apocalyptic Motifs And The Growth Of Visionary Moses Tradition, Kristine Johnson Ruffatto

Dissertations (1934 -)

This dissertation explores the development of visionary Moses tradition from its origins in the Hebrew Bible through pro-Mosaic Second Temple literature and rabbinic texts. It demonstrates that throughout this variegated literature, there is a developing tendency to portray Moses as an apocalyptic seer. In the non-biblical Mosaic texts that were analyzed, Moses' revelation on Sinai and Nebo is increasingly invested with esoteric content, and Moses' ascents are often depicted as heavenly journeys. These revelatory developments have conceptual roots in alternative visionary traditions, notably Enochic lore. The texts investigated contain a discernible thread of dialogue with Enochic revelatory claims; Moses' ascents …

The Implications Of ‘Religious Experience’ For Catholic-Pentecosotal Dialogue: A Catholic Perspective, Ralph Del Colle

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

Pentecostals consider the experience of the Holy Spirit to be at the heart of their movement. In dialogue with Pentecostals, Catholics are challenged to probe the resources of Christian experience for the theological enterprise. After examining different paradigms for the understanding of "religious experience," this essay traces the transition that has occurred in Catholic theology allowing for experience in neo-scholasticism and traditional forms of Catholic spirituality to be placed in a more constructive role in the theologies of Karl Rahner and Hans Urs von Balthasar. The essay concludes by describing the opportunity that the turn to experience affords for Catholic-Pentecostal …

Review Of The Tao Of Liberation: Exploring The Ecology Of Transformation, Jame Schaefer

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

The Church's Unity And Authority: Augustine's Effort To Convert The Donatists, Gavril Andreicut

Dissertations (1934 -)

This dissertation is about Augustine's views on Church unity and authority and is primarily based on the letters that he wrote against the Donatists. Although Augustine is one of the Fathers most enthusiastically and thoroughly researched, his letters are less studied than his other works. As a significant number of Augustine's letters were written as part of his effort to unite the Donatists with the Church, they are especially relevant sources for his views on the unity and authority of the Church.

While no single work of Augustine covers the entire period of his dealing with the Donatists, the letters …

Migrants: Illegals Or God's Ambassadors?, Dean Brackley S.J.

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Caritas In Veritate And Africa's Burden Of (Under)Development, Agbonkhianmeghe E. Orobator

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

Providing a critical reading of Pope Benedict's Caritas in veritate from an African perspective, the note examines several key issues in the encyclical to determine their relevance to the situation of development and underdevelopment in Africa. The note also points out some omissions and troubling situations regarding the role of women in development and the contribution of religion to development, and calls for a careful nuancing of the theological and philosophical underpinnings of the encyclical.

The Body As Symbol: Bringing Together Theories Of Sex/Gender And Race For Theological Discourse, Patricia Lewis

Dissertations (1934 -)

This dissertation focuses on race and sex/gender as critical theological topics that are not being adequately addressed in most theological discourse. This project presents a tool to establish better theological discourse about the body that takes the specifities of race and sex/gender into consideration and brings them together in theological anthropology.

"The People Believe That He Has Risen From The Dead": The Gospel Of Peter And Early Christian Apologetics, Timothy Henderson

Dissertations (1934 -)

No scholarly consensus has been reached on the question of the relationship between the Gospel of Peter and the New Testament gospels. The same can be said about determining the particular factors that influenced the author of the noncanonical text when composing his own work. This dissertation contends that the author of the Gospel of Peter used all four canonical gospels as sources and that the category of Second Temple Jewish literature known today as "Rewritten Bible" provides the best analogue for understanding the manner in which the New Testament accounts have been reworked in the noncanonical gospel. Apologetic and …

Word And Faith In The Formation Of Christian Existence: A Study In Gerhard Ebeling's Rejection Of The Joint Declaration, Scott A. Celsor

Dissertations (1934 -)

In 1998, the theologian Gerhard Ebeling helped to initiate a rancorous, public debate among theologians in Germany over whether the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification presents "a consensus in the basic truths of the doctrine of justification" by co-editing the famous letter of protest. Why would he want to do this? The fact that some argue he held a distinguished position in ecumenical circles during the 1950s and 1960s makes this question somewhat intriguing. Moreover, how will this opposition impact the continuation of ecumenical discussions between Lutherans and Catholics?

Through a comparison of the Joint Declaration and the …

Joseph Smith's Doctrine Of The Holy Spirit Contrasted With Cartwright, Campbell, Hodge, And Finney, Lynne Wilson

Dissertations (1934 -)

The dissertation is an historical–critical examination of Joseph Smith’s (1805–1844) sermons and writings from 1830 to 1844 to determine the scope of his doctrine on the Holy Ghost. Many biographers dismiss Joseph Smith as a product of his environment. Superficially, his thoughts on the Holy Ghost appear to fall within the mainstream of the enthusiastic outbursts of the Second Great Awakening, but a closer look shows that they are an abrupt and radical departure from the pneumatology of his day. To clarify the unique parameters of Smith’s pneumatology, it is necessary to place Smith’s views in a historical context by …

The Enochic Watchers' Template And The Gospel Of Matthew, Amy Elizabeth Richter

Dissertations (1934 -)

The writer of the Gospel according to Matthew was familiar with themes and traditions about the antediluvian patriarch Enoch, including the story of the fall of the watchers, and shows that Jesus brings about the eschatological repair of the consequences of the watchers' fall. In Matthew's Gospel, the foreshadowing of repair and then the repair itself are seen in the evangelist's genealogy and infancy narrative, the focus of this dissertation.

According to the Enochic watchers' template, evil came into the world when the watchers transgressed their heavenly boundary to engage in illicit sexual contact with women and teach them illicit …

The Septuagintal Isaian Use Of Nomos In The Lukan Presentation Narrative, Mark Walter Koehne

Dissertations (1934 -)

Scholars have examined several motifs in Luke 2:22-35, the "Presentation" of the Gospel of Luke. However, scholarship scarcely has treated the theme of nomos, the Septuagintal word Luke uses as a translation of the Hebrew word Torah. Nomos is mentioned four times in the Presentation narrative; it also is a word in Septuagintal Isaiah to which the metaphor of light in Luke 2:32 alludes. In 2:22-32--a pivotal piece within Luke-Acts--nomos relates to several themes, including ones David Pao discusses in his study on Isaiah's portrayal of Israel's restoration, appropriated by Luke. My dissertation investigates, for the first time, the Septuagintal …

The Noetic Paschal Anthropos: Genesis 1:27 And The Theology Of The Divine Image In Early Paschal Literature, Dragos Andrei Giulea

Dissertations (1934 -)

This study examines the theme of the heavenly Anthropos in the earliest extant paschal writings: Melito's Peri Pascha, Origen's Peri Pascha, and Pseudo-Hippolytus's In sanctum Pascha. Instead of analyzing these materials through the prism of such classical images as sacrifice and divine Lamb, the study investigates them through the perspective of the categories of heavenly Man and divine Image. The particular method of the study will be tradition criticism and will envision the paschal tradition of the heavenly luminous Anthropos as a development of the theophanic traditions of the Jewish Second Temple. Echoing such ancient passages as Genesis 1:27, Ezekiel …

The Catholic Intellectual Tradition: Where Is It Today?, Robert Deahl

College of Professional Studies Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Signs Of God In Times Of Aids, Agbonkhianmeghe E. Orobator

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

What Is ‘Catholic Enlightenment’?, Ulrich Lehner

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

Recent research has demonstrated not only the existence of a variety of Enlightenments, but also the importance of the religious aspect to this worldwide process. In particular, special interest has been paid to the long-neglected Catholic Enlightenment, which entailed many strands of thought by Catholic intellectuals and political leaders who attempted to renew and reform Catholicism from the middle of the 18th to the early 19th century. This renewal was an apologetic endeavor designed to defend the essential dogmas of Catholic Christianity by explaining their rationality in modern terminology and by reconciling Catholicism with modern culture. The Catholic Enlightenment was …

Interpreting Rahner's Metaphoric Logic, Robert Masson

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Environmental Degradation, Social Sin, And The Common Good, Jame Schaefer

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

While reports of endangered species, pollutants and toxins in the environment, problematic nuclear and other hazardous wastes, and threats to the biosphere have been highlighted occasionally by the media for many years, recent attention has focused on changes that humans are forcing on the global climate. Indicators of these changes and dire predictions of adverse future effects have been identified periodically by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a collaborative effort of more than a thousand scholars amassed by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme to assess the latest scientific, technical, and socioeconomic studies so …

Review Of Chesterton And Tolkien As Theologians: The Fantasy Of The Real, By Alison Milbank, Robert B. Slocum

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

In this regard, writers such as G. K. Chesterton and J. R. R. Tolkien can be understood as theologians who "offer a theology of art as practice," a practical theology that takes the reader "into an intuition of being through the enchanted experience of art" (p. 166). In this regard, the writings of Chesterton and Tolkien provide a much-needed renewal as they counter "the loss of sign-making capaciti'" and the "draining of shared meaning from cultural discourse in the twentieth century" (p. 163).

The "Just War" Theory: Application To United States And Israeli Militarism, Daniel C. Maguire

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Whom The Gods Would Destroy, They First Make Myopic: Religion And Ethics In Cross-Disciplinary Ecological Dialogue, Daniel C. Maguire

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Hauerwas And The Redemption Of Bioethics, M. Therese Lysaught

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Reading Kant From A Catholic Horizon: Ethics And The Anthropology Of Grace, Philip J. Rossi

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Review Of Chesterton And Tolkien As Theologians: The Fantasy Of The Real By Alison Milbank, Robert B. Slocum

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Valuing Water With Gratitude And Restraint: A Catholic Theological Imperative, Jame Schaefer

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

An overview of some patristic and medieval theological teachings on water and other goods of creation provides key perspectives on our valuing and our use of them.

Functional Specialties For A World Theology, Robert M. Doran

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Roman Catholicism In Africa: Western Africa, Agbonkhianmeghe E. Orobator

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Justice For The Displaced: The Challenge Of Christian Understanding, Agbonkhianmeghe E. Orobator

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Kant's Metaphysics Of Permanent Rupture: Radical Evil And The Unity Of Reason, Philip J. Rossi

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.