This study of the views of Edward Irving on the person and work of Jesus Christ has been long delayed in its preparation. It is to be hoped that the time which has elapsed since its inception has served a beneficent purpose. It was Charles Darwin who wrote of one of his books, long postponed: "The delay in this case, as with all my other books, has been a great advantage to me; for a man after a long interval can criticise his own work, almost as well as it were that of another person." For material on which this study is based takes in the full range from the coarse venom of the London pamphleteer to the strong words of Thomas Carlyle. Irving himself wrote volume after volume, and the student is almost embarrassed by the material from the pen of this eccentric preacher. Whole sections of this first-hand material dealing with subjects prophetical were passed by as irrelevant to the theme. The "Life" by Mrs. Oliphant is most readable and gives an attractive picture of the hero. But the sentimentalism of the book casts a shade upon its historical value, and the student is thrown back on accounts of the life which, though less complete, were written shortly after his time.

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This thesis explores how metaphors of identity shape the practice of preaching and can encourage or limit attempts to witness to Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. It asks the question: Is there an identity that will encourage a faithful homiletic practice by embracing the full range of human capacities and gifts without asking the preacher to rely on him- or herself? It suggests that the homiletic identity of THE PREACHER AS ARTIST can lead preachers to understand their task in relation to the life and ongoing ministry of Jesus Christ and so give space to divine and human action in the event of preaching the word of God. The argument begins with an account of the present cultural moment and the suggestion that preachers should consider an identity that takes the imagination seriously in light of shifting cultural assumptions and expectations. It then describes the significance of metaphor for identity before looking at two established homiletic identities, THE PREACHER AS TEACHER and THE PREACHER AS HERALD. Accounts of these two identities highlight the tension between divine and human agency in the task of preaching. The thesis then examines the metaphor of THE PREACHER AS ARTIST. This attempt to re-describe the identity of preachers draws on a theology of communion and the doctrine of the vicarious humanity of Christ to relocate the identity and practice of the preacher in the creative and ongoing ministry of Jesus. The metaphorical association of the preacher and artist understood within the artistic ministry of Jesus Christ frees the full range of human capacities, including the imagination. It connects preachers to the person and work of Jesus Christ, who took the raw materials of the human condition and offered them back to the Father in a redemptive and imaginative fashion through the Holy Spirit.

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Thesis advisor: Daniel J. Harrington / Thesis advisor: Thomas D. Stegman / Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

Thesis advisor: O. Ernesto Valiente / Thesis advisor: Richard Lennan / Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

In Part One, I first argue that the life and thought of educated Graeco-Romans was profoundly shaped by a tension between characteristions of a primary reality and the social experiences of everyday reality. The tension surfaced in various models, images, and expectations of the real-the-essence-the-ideal-the-perfect which both reflected and reinforced the presumption of a higher reality lying somewhere other than in the stuff of everyday life. The second chapter sketches the broad contours of Paul's preoccupation with Jesus Christ. I note how his focus on Christ spilled over into a penchant for the historical, the personal, and the social. I explore these as three interdependent axes of his thought. In chapter three I use the vantage point constructed in the first two chapters to see the distinctiveness of Paul's thought and experience over against the patterns of Graeco-Roman philosophy, theology, religion, and morality. Part Two, explores the ways in which Paul's knowledge of Christ offered coherence within the contingencies of everyday experience. Chapter four focuses on Paul's conversations for change. The topic of these chapters are really inseparable not only from each other, but from those of the previous chapters on Paul's life and thought. Thus certain themes recur through chapters two to five so that the four chapters form a continuous presentation of Paul's life and thought, albeit from several different perspectives. Part Three carries the conversation forward to evangelicalism. In chapter six, I view the sermon as a critical event in the life of evangelicalism, and as the bridge between the academy and the congregation. I concentrate on the intellectual and social phenomena which highlight an evangelical's experience of the movement as a system and a culture. This leads me to consider how evangelical meanings have broken down in the experience of some evangelicals. In chapter seven, I look at ways in which the system and culture and evangelicalism shape the reading of Paul. My focus here is on the drive to attach the epithets 'biblical' and 'unbiblical' to people, propositions, and behaviours. I argue that the intellectual and social phenomena suggest that being 'biblical' or otherwise has as much to do with social acceptability as it does with proximity to the biblical texts. This brings me full circle to the analogies which evangelicalism holds both Paul and to his Graeco-Roman milieu. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)