Thesis advisor: Daniel J. Daly / Thesis advisor: James F. Keenan / This thesis examines the concept of Fihavanana in Malagasy morality, characterized by the promotion of life in its fullness. Currently, global and local socio-political crises have resulted in significantly increased violence in Malagasy society. It reviews and examines the concept of Fihavanana through the lens of Christian friendship as expressed in scriptural and Christian tradition. The thesis endeavors to assess and guide the Malagasy response to the loss of social friendship and increase in deadly violence in the nation. It interprets Fihavanana through Christian friendship rooted in charity to arrive at a principle that can be embraced at the national level. Fihavanana thus interpreted is a norm of Christian ethics for life that can shape and guide Malagasy morality to build (re-build) a peaceful and harmonious society. / Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2023. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

At least from the time of Augustine, Christians have been reflecting on the question of moral conflicts. Since the mid-1960s this issue has become the center of attention for several scholars, including Norman L. Geisler, who developed ethical hierarchicalism in an attempt to resolve these conflicts. The question therefore arises: Is ethical hierarchicalism comprehensive, consistent, and biblically sound, and the only viable approach for Christians, as Geisler claims? Because Geisler is the most articulate and influential proponent of this strategy, his ethical method was selected for this research. To provide some framework, a brief survey was made of various methods relating to ethical dilemmas. In addition to observing the contrasting ways in which eminent early Christians, Reformation leaders, post-Reformation thinkers, and twentieth-century scholars have dealt with moral conflicts, this overview examined utilitarianism, situationism, non-conflicting absolutism, conflicting absolutism, hierarchicalism and the principle of double effect. Additional background traced Geisler's philosophical, theological, and ethical development over the years. Then, after outlining what Geisler considers the fundamental presuppositions of theistic morality and Christian ethics, hierarchicalism was delineated. Next, Geisler's moral methodology was critiqued, firstly against his own basic presuppositions, then by comparing contradictory concepts within hierarchicalism, and finally by contrasting his theories with those of other Christian thinkers, and with the biblical passages that Geisler uses. Following this, positive aspects of hierarchicalism were enumerated, a synopsis and recommendations made, and a final conclusion drafted. This study indicates that ethical hierarchicalism contradicts most of the essential characteristics of theistic morality and Christian ethics as specified by Geisler himself. careful research suggests that, while this theory holds to divinely-derived objective moral norms, it also embraces relativistic, utilitarian, situational, antinomian, and teleological components. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that hierarchicalism is based on falsely assumed responsibilities, inaccurately specified absolutes, naturalistic definitions, a descriptive approach to Scripture, a bifurcation in God's law, and subtle semantic strategies. Though hierarchicalism does grapple with difficult issues, emphasize personhood and individual responsibility, and offer relief from false guilt, this method of moral reasoning appears unacceptable for Christians since it is incoherent, inconsistent, self-contradictory, and unscriptural. / Theological Ethics / D.Th, (Theological Ethics)

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The context in which we find ourselves at the beginning of the twenty-first century is one of acute environmental degradation. In this thesis, I examine how Christians may respond to the realities of degradation through ecological restoration, an environmental practice aimed at assisting the recovery of ecosystems that have been degraded, damaged, or destroyed, and do so in ways that reflect the core belief in the redemptive purposes of God in Christ for creation. The intention, therefore, is to construct a theological framework for ethical responses to degradation through restoration. I begin by examining ecological restoration as a contested scientific and cultural practice, exploring the questions it raises on the nature of human life, the natural world, and moral action, and evaluating the role of history in shaping moral responses to degradation through restoration. To develop a theological framework for restoration, I engage the work of Christian ethicist Oliver O'Donovan, particularly his text on the foundations of Christian ethics: Resurrection and Moral Order. I ground this framework in his arguments for the resurrection (with its dual movements of restoration and transformation) as the starting point for moral action, for the work of the Holy Spirit who makes God’s redemption a reality that shapes moral action, and for love as the shape of moral action. I draw out the significance for restoration of his moral realist approach, examining the created order and articulating a theological anthropology, and I show how the resurrection of Christ provides a guide for restorative action that both affirms the created order and yet remains attentive and open to its, and our, transformation. Finally, through an examination of love as perceptive and responsive to the natural world, I articulate a vision for restorative action that is oriented toward upholding and preserving the value of the natural world, and attentively and creatively responding to it in ways that bring forth its value so that it may be seen for what it is: the beloved world that God has affirmed and redeemed in the resurrection and which awaits its fulfilment.

This study brings the biblical book of Proverbs into discussion with two significant accounts of the nature and foundation of practical reason in Christian ethics, one medieval—Thomas Aquinas—and one modern—Oliver O'Donovan. It begins with an outline of the complexities of practical reason in the thought of Aristotle, which leads to an extended discussion of Aquinas's moral theory. The centrality of Proverbs 8 in Aquinas's account of eternal law opens the way to a reading of Proverbs, in which the central constructive ideas of the thesis are developed. These are then sharpened through an engagement with the work of Oliver O'Donovan. The conclusions are consolidated and developed in a final, constructive chapter. The study's central thesis is that the way the Book of Proverbs thinks about wisdom presents an important challenge to the way practical reason has been understood in the Western theological and philosophical tradition. Rather than being a perfection of speculative knowledge, in the Book of Proverbs, wisdom is a practical knowledge of how to act well, grounded in the reality of the world God has made. God's wisdom is therefore better understood as a perfection of his action, which is why it ultimately relates to Jesus Christ crucified. This perspective reframes our understanding of certain aspects of Christian ethical theory. It shows that created, natural order is a crucial, unavoidable presupposition of Christian ethics, but not its only norm. It helps us understand why moral deliberation and discernment centres on the construal of actions as kinds. Finally, it clarifies the purpose of Christian ethics as a theoretical discipline that accompanies the practical wisdom of the Christian life.

This thesis provides a theological reading of Judith Butler's gender theory. In dialogue with ancient and modern writers, theologians, and philosophers, I argue that Butler's gender theory is a protological theory. Butler enters the originary scene to recreate the human so that gender and sex can be perpetually reconceived in ways that reflect mundane desire. I argue that Butler's gender theory is therefore susceptible to the theological criticisms of coveting and idolatry. However, the methodological decision to structure the engagement with Butler as a dialogue does not permit unilateral criticism. The criticism levelled at Butler's thought is reversed to query a traditional theology of gender. The critique and countercritique reveal two laws in operation that result in death in life: (1) the law of desire and (2) the law of Adam and Eve. Drawing on the Apostle Paul's New Testament letter to the Romans, I offer an alternative—the law of God—that does not jettison desire or the originary creation of humanity. The ethical implications of this thesis emerge from reflecting theologically upon these three laws. I conclude by developing a chastened Christian ethics of gender that relies on a fresh understanding of gender as man-and-woman in the world, which considers human existence as good regardless of its location (pre- or post-lapsarian), while at the same time recognising that human existence is troubled by the fall. This protological grounding of man-and-woman in the world enables the theological concept of the imago Dei to be explored in relation to Christ's redemptive work, rather than the generally accepted originary terms that frame what is right or wrong gendered existence. Butler's desire of desire is not repudiated, but acknowledged theologically as fundamental to humanity's God-given vocation: one desires God's desire, which is to desire righteousness or the originary human vocation to image Jesus Christ. A Christian ethics of gender is therefore chastened as gender is reconceived theologically as a vocation of becoming like Christ—discipleship. Those who hear and are claimed by the originary divine performative utterance that man-and-woman in the world is very good are called to receive their embodied existence as (created) good, yet troubled (by the fall), yet with the hope of one's final embodied glorification in Christ.

Thesis (M.A.)--Southern California College, 1987. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 156-167).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 237-246).

Thesis (M.A.)--Trinity International University, 2001. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 92-105).