VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The soteriology of Gustavo Gutiérrez, communal dimensions of salvation

Studies of Gustavo Gutierrez's reinterpretation of the doctrine of salvation usually focus on his conceptualization of salvation as an integrated process of liberation. Critics have commonly claimed that he simply equates salvation and liberation. It is my thesis that Gutierrez interprets salvation ultimately as communion with God and one another in history and beyond it. In his vision, liberative communities among the poor and marginalized are primary subjects of salvation; they are loci of salvation, places of transformative action where communion is experienced historically in anticipation of full eschatological communion. Chapter one situates the soteriology of Gustavo Gutierrez within contemporary soteriology and explores its distinctiveness within Latin American liberation soteriology. Chapter two demonstrates that historical community serves as the basis of reflection for Gutierrez's soteriology. From his perspective in the late 1960s and 1970s, I review the perimeters of the reality of massive socially structured evil, popular liberation movements, and base Christian communities. I then identify four central soteriological principles which emerge from Gutierrez's experience. Chapter three moves into the centre of the debate concerning Gutierrez's notion of salvation. I argue that Gutierrez finally conceives of salvation as communion, and sin as breach of communion. I explore his vision of base ecclesial communities as covenantal communities which anticipate final communion with God and one another in their search for integral liberation. Chapter four investigates the theological foundations of Gutierrez's soteriological vision. As he explores foundational theological categories from within the soteriological framework of liberation for communion, Gutierrez gains a renewed understanding of the nature of God as gratuitous love, the identity and mission of Christ as liberator and reconciler, spirituality as a communal journey of contemplation in liberative praxis, and the church of the poor as sacrament of communion. The concluding chapter reflects on implications of Gutierrez's communal vision of salvation beyond Latin America. I illustrate its wider relevance by examining the import of Gutierrez's central soteriological principles for Canadian Christian churches and Roman Catholic religious orders, two communities committed to salvation in the Canadian context. Woven throughout the dissertation is the soteriological perspective of Latin American feminist theologians.
Baal and Yahweh in the Old Testament, a fresh examination of the biblical and extra-biblical data

The study concludes that the term habba`al in the OT is not a uniformly understood proper noun but a title, “the baal”, that had distinct uses in the north and the south. In northern sources, “the baal” refers to the Phoenician storm deity introduced by the Omrides—likely understood by them to be a form of Yahweh but a figure rejected by the prophets as foreign. The related term, “the baals”, is used separately in the DH as a collective for gods of which the Deuteronomist disapproved. In the south, polemics against “the baal” do not generally contain the allusions to storm or fertility present in northern sources. For the most part, when the southern prophets of the 7th century and onward speak against “the baal” they attack a figure unlike that found in narratives like 1 Kings 17–19. This deity is centred in Jerusalem, honoured with human sacrifice and fragrant meal offerings, and is intimately associated with “the baals” or “the Host”. The one feature that “the baal” in southern writing and “the baal” in northern writing share in common is the fact that the people appear to have understood the title as referring to a figure compatible or identical with Yahweh. The connection of this Baal with human sacrifice at Tophet as well as his identification with “the Molek” points toward a chthonic character for this deity. In the post-exilic period, cultic danger came not from a dynastically sponsored cult but in the gods of the peoples with whom Israel rubbed shoulders in the territory of Judah. For this reason, it is not surprising to find that the Chronicler sometimes uses “the baals” where the DH made reference to “the baal”. In order to provide a relevant message to this new situation the Chronicler, in his own work and often in his reuse of Kings, changed “the baal” to “the baals”. In so doing, he took the warnings given to earlier generations and updated them for use in his own time.
The place and meaning of suffering in the theology of Edward Schillebeeckx

Suffering is a formative factor in the development of the theology of Edward Schillebeeckx. It is not a self-evident theme; creation and salvation are the overriding themes of Schillebeeckx's theological enterprise. Suffering is, however, the pervasive, existential reality amidst which he tries to make the gospel intelligible in the modern world. Suffering is, as it were, a force of constant pressure impacting and molding Schillebeeckx's thought from different angles throughout his theological development. And this makes sense when one considers that Schillebeeckx has spent his life proclaiming God's commitment to human happiness in a world more schooled in suffering than in joy. Though he never develops an explicit theology of suffering, Schillebeeckx demonstrates that salvation can only be imaged and articulated in counterpoint to the concrete reality of suffering. This, in fact, is the essence of the notion of “negative contrast experience” which emerges in his later theology. In other words, Schillebeeckx's method of doing theology corresponds to the essence of his theological message. The dialectic of human suffering and salvation is most identifiable after Schillebeeckx's dramatic shift wherein human experience assumes center stage in his theology. The fundamental elements of this dialectic are, however, present even in Schillebeeckx's earliest work. Thus, the task of this dissertation will engage us in an analysis of how suffering operates as a formative factor throughout the whole of Schillebeeckx's theological development. The dissertation proceeds according to Schillebeeckx's own image of the hermeneutical spiral, showing how his appropriation of material from a variety of disciplines is determined by the dialectic of the gospel of salvation and the human reality of suffering. Schillebeeckx's early formation in the thought of Thomas Aquinas played a significant, if implicit, role in his theological development. In particular, the classical categories of original justice and original sin warrant attention as paradigmatic for Schillebeeckx's later development of negative contrast experience. Ultimately, we see that the reality of suffering illumines the more original reality of grace, born out by the Christian community's witness to God's solidarity with sufferers in a “discipleship of presence.”
We beg to differ: The Roman Catholic church in the United States as a public church

Martin Marty contends the optimal ecclesial response to the American culture is that of the public church. This dissertation is a response to Marty's challenge to “discover not invent the public church” within the Roman Catholic church in the United States. Relying on the work of Robert Bellah, chapter one examines America's individualism as the primary cultural factor that relegates the role of religion to the private sphere. In the second chapter, the characteristics and manifestations of the nascent public church are examined in light of four twentieth century American Catholics who are antecedents of the public church in the twentieth century. Chapter three examines the shift in ecclesiology that allows the theological and conciliar foundations for the self-understanding of the Roman Catholic church as a public church. Part one of chapter three outlines the growing centralization of the Roman Catholic church in the late nineteenth century and its impact on the church in the United States. Part two shifts focus to the implicit characteristics of the public church contained in two specific conciliar documents. In Gaudium et spes and Dignitatis humanae there exists a theological foundation for the Roman Catholic church as a public church. These implicit characteristics—a critical anthropology, a critical and dialogical mode of ecclesial presence in the world, and the social implications of theology—allow a conciliar foundation for the Roman Catholic church as a public church. The fourth and final chapter demonstrates how Bernard Lonergan is a resource for the public church. Not attempting an exhaustive explanation of Lonergan's contribution, this chapter focuses on four of his categories for consideration—his anthropology; communities of meaning and value; history as the story of the simultaneous principles of progress, decline, and redemption; and the redemptive role of the church in the world—which provide a larger frame of reference for a fuller understanding of the public church. The task that remains is for the understanding of the public church to be effectively appropriated in the Roman Catholic church in the United States. This dissertation takes a step towards this appropriation.
The real and revelation, the development and function of the doctrine of original sin in Phillip Melanchthon

This work seeks to examine the importance of the doctrine of Original Sin in understanding Melanchthon's anthropology and then how the doctrine can also serve as a reliable indicator in relation to certain key areas of Melanchthon's theology and theological method. The conclusions derived from the thesis argue that Melanchthon is best understood not out of a proximity to proto-rationalism (the so called Melanchthon blight), but rather his proximity to an emerging Lutheranism. The work seeks to trace Melanchthon's usage of the doctrine synchronically across the familial editions of the Loci Communes carefully arguing the epistemological ramification of the doctrine in light of Revelation. As such, the work also attempts to explain the theological and historical motives for changes--real and apparent--within Melanchthon's thought and compare this to the emerging Lutheran orthodoxy.
Multireligious experience and pluralist attitude, Raimon Panikkar and his critics

Theological reflection removed from the experience of encounter with other religious traditions is not adequate to situations of interactive religious pluralism. Some theologians draw explicitly on their experience of multiple crossing of boundaries. This dissertation studies multireligious experience and response to this phenomenon in the life and writings of one such theologian and scholar, Raimon Panikkar (b. 1918). The dissertation is in four parts: problematic, exposition, interpretation and evaluation. The first chapter sketches elements of the problematic of multireligious experience and presents a rationale for focussing on Panikkar's life-work. The dissertation moves in the second part to an exposition of Panikkar's thought related to major changes in his geographical location. Thus the second chapter studies Panikkar's writings from the 1940s and 1950s in Franco's Spain. The third chapter recounts the adjustments in his theological stance that took place after his move to India in 1954; it was in India that his encounter with Advaita Vedanta (and Buddhism) gave him by the 1960s the grounds for claiming “multireligious experience.” The fourth chapter highlights his recognition and fostering of a pluralist attitude related to his multireligious experience during the period be divided each year between North America and India (1967–1987). The fifth chapter does not focus on geographical context but gives an account of his call for a dialogical dialogue and illustrates the operation, in two of his reflections on the encounter between Hindus and Christians, of what he terms the diatopical hermeneutic. The third part of the dissertation, entitled interpretation, is divided into two chapters that present contrasting understandings of and judgments on Panikkar's approach to religious pluralism. The sixth chapter is a study of the dissenting views of Paul Knitter and others. The seventh chapter is a presentation of the concurring views of Bernard Lonergan and others. The fourth part of the dissertation is a chapter of evaluation in which I take positions in response to two questions raised by critics: Is Panikkar's context that of commitment to the poor? and “Is Panikkar's pluralism a relativism?” I find that he works with a concern for and commitment to the poor and promotes pluralism as relatedness. This eighth chapter concludes with a “postscript” that suggests implications of the pluralist attitude for multireligious Canada.
Alternative dispute resolution and the United Church, theological and jurisprudential implications of collaborative decision-making

There are two questions that underlie this thesis. The first asks why, in the last 25 or 30 years, there has been an enormous growth in Alternative Dispute Resolution in North American society. Not only the legal system has embraced mediation, arbitration, community circles, victim-offender reconciliation and related alternatives to litigation, but so too have school boards, business corporations, community groups and religious institutions. By looking at the experience within the United Church of Canada, which adopted ADR in 1997, some of the influences behind and implications of this shift are identified. These considerations are then revisited and explored in a wider examination of the question by a review of the literature, which discusses though seldom directly, why ADR has arisen in the last quarter of the 20th century. The second question I address is this: How is it that people obey the law, or choose to act ethically? I identify a phenomenon I call “moral assensus,” which implies a moral “operating system” or grammar to which society collectively assents. Moral assensus is an alternative to “habits of obedience,” coercion or economic, cost/benefit models as a way to account for ethical and law abiding behaviour. Through metaphors drawn from management theory and science and through theological, philosophical and jurisprudential analysis I suggest how moral assensus contributes to our understanding of the role of law and ethics in the human project of living in community. The connection between the two questions comes in my suggestion that the rise of ADR is in large measure attributable to a dilution of the moral assensus by overly rational approaches to law and ethics. In our highly individualistic culture, the inter-subjectivity required for a healthy degree of moral assensus is lacking. ADR contributes to both the discernment and generation of moral assensus. The principles central to ADR when absorbed through the experience of conflict resolution have the potential to transform the way in which persons participate in public discussions of legal, ethical and political issues.
Unworldly friendship, the Epistle of Straw reconsidered

This dissertation examines the presence and purpose of language and concepts associated with the ancient ideal of friendship within the epistle of James, and pays specific attention to how the friendship ideal is used within the letter's rhetorical strategies. A survey of friendship within a variety of contexts is initially provided in order to illustrate the precedents for some of James' language and ideas related to this topos. Next, the justification for studying James as a rhetorically sophisticated letter is set forth, followed by an examination of the rhetorical nature of three sections of James in which the language and ideas of friendship appear. It is argued that James presents an image of God as a true friend, and uses the notion of friendship with God to motivate the audience to various forms of ethical behaviour. In particular, Jas 4:4 is understood to be a saying of Jesus recast in the language of friendship, functioning in the letter as theological proof that the demands of Jesus, God and the author of the letter are identical. We then ask what type of rhetorical situation the use of friendship language could address. By the first century it was common for patrons and clients to mask their relationship as one of friendship, despite the fact that they did not manifest any of the ideals of friendship. James objects to this sham by deliberately describing God as the true friend and benefactor, in contrast to the wealthy. Such a juxtaposition of friend and patron forces the audience to see that liaisons with the rich are nothing in contrast to friendship with God. The rhetorical situation thus includes the exigence of patronage, which James wants the audience to resist. Patronage appears to have been a problem for early Christian churches in Rome, and given the parallels between James, I Clement and the Shepherd of Hermas, it is possible that James' audience included a community in Rome, although the origin of the letter was likely Palestine.
The state of Israel in Catholic-Jewish relations, toward a better understanding of land and peoplehood in Jewish self-identity

This study was born from five years of traveling, studying and living in Israel and the insights that I gathered during this time from both Israelis and Catholics, in their mutual diversity, regarding their engagement to this unique land and their respective communities and their understandings and misunderstandings of one another. While there is much to be written regarding the need for an improved understanding of Christianity among Jews and Israelis, and while great advances have been made in Christians' understanding of Jews and Judaism, I feel that there is an acute need and great opportunity for Christians to gain greater insight into the important role that the State of Israel plays in Jewish self-identity, an issue that is often misinterpreted and/or misrepresented by Christians as purely political in nature. This study has been limited to a discussion of the relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and the State of Israel. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
"I desyred to haue all maner of paynes": A study of the function of pain in The Showings of Julian of Norwich

In The Showings there is almost no information about Julian of Norwich. There are only three personal references to Julian in the text, but each of these describes the anchoress's experience of pain as it played a part in her mystical vision. In studying these three references one is led to conclude that they are in no way unconscious components of Julian's text. Together they point to the vital role played by the anchoress's personal experience of pain as it formed her as a mystic, created her as an author, and opened her up to the pain of the world. Given the significance of Julian's personal experience of pain, largely unnoticed until my work, it is a natural second step to broaden the horizon of inquiry and to explore the wider role of the image of pain in Julian's thought. A great part of Julian's text is occupied with the perennial question of the relationship between human suffering and original sin. Our pain purchases our eternal bliss in two ways. First, by drawing us closer to Christ in his suffering it invites us to live as perfectly as possible; second, each pain suffered on earth is rewarded in heaven with a corresponding joy by a God who suffers with us because of our earthly pain. The crucified Christ is the central visual image for The Showings, so the pain which Jesus suffered in his humanity also occupies much of Julian's theology. She explores the intimate connection between humanity and God which is perfected in the incarnation and in the crucifixion, and discovers a radiant joy at the heart of both moments. Through his pain Christ is joined not only to suffering humanity, but to all of creation, and salvation comes to everything through his joyful pain. This study shows that the fact and image of pain provides an important heuristic key to understanding Julian's thought, one which she used quite unconsciously to emphasize God's vast love for humanity.
Juergen Moltmann's theology of the Trinity and its significance for contemporary social questions, a dialogical approach

One of the most important theological developments in the last two decades is the renewal of the doctrine of the Trinity. Within this renewal of trinitarian theology Jurgen Moltmann stands as one of the most important contributors. This thesis is an elaboration and evaluation of Moltmann's trinitarian theology in dialogue with other major contributors to contemporary trinitarian discussion. This thesis particularly attempts to identify Moltmann's distinctive contributions and weaknesses by examining his responses to the four major trinitarian issues that broadly identify and characterize the current trinitarian milieu. Chapter One deals with Moltmann's trinitarian theology as a theological response to the conflict between traditional theism and humanist atheism. It is argued that his trinitarian theology offers an insightful response to both traditional theism and humanist atheism by demonstrating that it is the doctrine of the Trinity that provides the ground of genuine human freedom and dignity. Chapter Two examines Moltmann's understanding of the economic-immanent Trinity and its social implications in the light of current discussion of this issue. This chapter contends that his trinitarian theology rightly stresses the genuine historicality of God, while keeping the practical relevance of the doctrine of God for concrete human life. Chapter Three elaborates Moltmann's understanding of the unity of the triune God and its social implications in terms of the current debate of this issue. Moltmann's social Trinity provides a viable but not sufficient option for interpreting the unity-trinity relationship in God that is significant for human liberation and social equality. Chapter Four deals with Moltmann's response to the gender issue of the Trinity. It especially focuses upon his response to the claim that the traditional trinitarian formula of Father, Son, and Spirit is patriarchal and androcentric and thus must be discarded or at least balanced with more gender-neutral or gender-equal images of God. Here it is maintained that Moltmann provides a reliable, but not the only option, which enhances the equality and emancipation of women in our contemporary world. The Conclusion summarizes and sorts out some important contributions of Moltmann's doctrine of the Trinity for the development of future trinitarian theology, especially as a response to contemporary social questions.
The christology of Elizabeth Johnson as a resource for church renewal

This paper presents the christology of Elizabeth Johnson, sister of the religious order, the Congregation of St. Joseph, self-described feminist and systematic theologian as a voice in the church today able to both critique traditional christology and offer direction for its reconstruction. Johnson's christology follows the three steps of liberation theology: naming a situation as sinful and analyzing its roots, searching the tradition for oppressive elements, and searching it again for liberating elements. Her application of this methodology to women in the context of Christology is a serious challenge to a male-defined church in a world in which women in North America and western Europe, as well as in developing nations, experience a new-found dignity and expect their church to reflect this both in the theory and in the practice of its central doctrines. In order to be faithful to the feminist liberation theological tradition in which she situates herself, Johnson's critique of classical christology must be supported by an analysis of the oppression which feminists claim women suffer as members of the church. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)