Communicating the Gospel and Culture to the younger Vietnamese American generations comes with many challenges. There seem to be many Vietnamese parents living in the United States who are concerned with their children losing their distinctive family cultural characteristics while living in another culture. The younger generation themselves find it hard to adapt to the American and Vietnamese cultures where they are living here. How can these young generations adapt to their new culture and not lose some of their distinctive family cultural and Christian religious roots to balance their lives? How can we help to communicate the Gospel and the culture to the young generation of Vietnamese Americans who need to discern what can support and enrich their lives in living in both cultures, Vietnamese and America? This thesis holds that it is important to maintain the Vietnamese culture which defines their identity and expresses who they are but also make use of the divine opportunity to learn the values and the beauty of the American culture. Cultural adaptation helps balance the values of both cultures and enrich knowledge about living within a diverse world. The thesis further proposes that using Vietnamese Christianity as their asset, young Vietnamese Americans are capable of this cultural adaptation. The Church have to put a gospel presentation strategy in place, follow a seven step pastoral strategy plan, and establish less costly centers which will be devoted to training Vietnamese men and women as spiritual directors and religious educators to aid the priests in ministering to the young generation. Parents need to understand the dual cultures of these young people and accompany the young generation mindful of their duality and the centrality of the gospel values. The younger generation of Vietnamese Americans have to open themselves not only to the two cultures but above all to the Gospel message of Christ. Their openness to divine guidance and endowments, in addition to the worthy human direction and church guidance coupled with good structures and programs will produce fruitful integration.

No description available.

In this project I examine pantheistic views in the history of philosophy and advocate for pantheism as a philosophical position in contemporary philosophy of religion. I take pantheism to be the view that everything that exists constitutes a unity, and that that unity is divine. My contention is that what I call <i>rationalistic pantheism</i>, sufficiently articulated with the help of historical figures, is a position worthy of consideration in contemporary philosophy of religion and metaphysics and not merely as an historical artifact. Pantheism is usually not even considered as an alternative to the belief in the God of perfection theism, a perfect personal God. Often people see atheism as the only alternative to the perfect God of traditional theism. A primary aim of this project is to articulate a version of pantheism that is distinct both from perfection theism and atheism. I discuss in what way the rationalistic pantheist sees all of existence as forming a unity, and what it is about this unity that warrants calling it divine or God. Pantheism has a powerful tradition in the history of philosophy, and the rationalistic pantheism that I develop is based on the views of Spinoza, Herder, and Hegel. In the first three chapters I consider the views of each of these philosophers as distinct but closely related versions of pantheism. I attempt to provide a systematic and charitable account of each of their views while also considering objections to those views from various directions. In the final chapter I provide the basis for what I take to be the most plausible version of pantheism resulting from this historical analysis, which I call rationalistic pantheism. According to this view, God, or the divine, should be conceived of as an all-encompassing unity that exists necessarily, is radically independent, is structured in accordance with rational principles, and provides an explanatory basis for everything that exists. In addition, the recognition of the rational principles of existence on the part of rational agents such as human beings constitutes one of the highest achievements of this divine unity. I briefly consider additional argumentative resources that could support such a view, as well as what I take to be the distinct philosophical advantages of rationalistic pantheism over perfection theism. Ultimately, I think pantheism is worthy of serious consideration as a viable position both in philosophical debates, as well as in discussions of religion at large, providing a refreshing middle ground between traditional theism and atheism.

<p>This dissertation examines the thought of Jean-Luc Marion in light of his treatment of divine revelation and in connection to the hermeneutic phenomenology of Paul Ricoeur. It argues, first, that Marion’s thought bears within itself significant ambiguities that are determined by the legacies of the key concepts which organize his work: ‘givenness’ (<em>donation</em>) and saturation. Secondly, it also argues that even if a way can be found to resolve these ambiguities the resultant proposal does not meet the criticism raised by Paul Ricoeur in reference to phenomenologies of religion that remain determined by a ‘Husserlian idealism.’ As a result, the dissertation offers a study of Ricoeur’s hermeneutics of revelation in an effort to displace Marion’s account and offer an alternative proposal. Specifically, it treats the connection of Ricoeur’s proposed transformation of phenomenology through hermeneutics, the idea of a hermeneutics of testimony that is generated as a result of that transformation, and Ricoeur’s notion of revelation as being articulated in reference to the ‘world of the text.’ By focusing on the notion of ‘anteriority’ throughout the analysis, the dissertation argues that not only does Marion’s work remain limited by its formal commitments to pure apparition, but it fails to access the sort of radical anteriority that it seeks. This is so because it remains tied to a philosophy of consciousness which is blocked from accessing the pre-reflective level of belonging that is made accessible by Ricoeur’s hermeneutic phenomenology. By making this argument, the dissertation provides a critical analysis of Marion’s work from the perspective of divine revelation and, furthermore, brings that work into conversation with Paul Ricoeur. This important engagement between Ricoeur and Marion has not been adequately addressed in the current secondary literature and this dissertation fills that gap.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>This thesis argues for the presence of an apocalyptic theological perspective in Søren Kierkegaard’s <em>Practice in Christianity</em> (1848), one that is of a piece with the apocalypticism that a number of contemporary biblical scholars, theologians and philosophers have located in the letters of the Apostle Paul.</p> <p>Though familiar motifs (such as the imminent eschaton or the idea of two ages) may be helpful indicators of an apocalyptic theological perspective in a given work, I take the position that apocalyptic theology is fundamentally a matter of settling the question of ultimate lordship or sovereignty. In a Christian context, therefore, where an author manifests a desire to declare the ultimate sovereignty of God (by way of the intervening act of his incarnation in Christ) over and against any worldly counter-claim to sovereignty, he or she partakes of an apocalyptic theology.</p> <p>I demonstrate that Kierkegaard’s apocalyptic theological perspective is manifested in three ways in <em>Practice in Christianity</em>, namely, with respect to his thinking about temporality, epistemology and politics. The three chapters that make up this thesis take up these themes in turn. In each case, Kierkegaard’s position on these matters is compared with an apocalyptic reading of Paul’s letters. I argue that a concern to declare the ultimate sovereignty of God in these three fundamental areas of human experience is one that Kierkegaard shares with Paul. Insofar as Paul is therefore regarded by his scholarly readers as an apocalypticist, so too, I argue, should Kierkegaard be.</p> <p>Furthermore, just as the identification of Paul’s apocalypticism is alleged to provide a coherent framework for his gospel, so too, I argue, should Kierkegaard’s apocalypticism be understood as the substratum that informs his theo-philosophical project in <em>Practice in Christianity</em>.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>This dissertation compares the soteriologies of René Girard and Hans Urs von Balthasar as they engage and respond to the thought of Friedrich Nietzsche, and specifically, to Nietzsche’s critique of atonement theology. It examines a problematic shared by all three figures, one defined by the relationship between the violence and redemption. Chapter 1 traces the development of this problematic from Anselm through Luther and Calvin, and attends to the way changes in the metaphysical framework underlying the language of satisfaction led the Reformers to construe divine wrath in more strictly punitive terms. The subsequent chapters examine the responses offered by Nietzsche, Girard, and von Balthasar. Nietzsche argues that Christian priests used the event of Jesus’ violent crucifixion as a symbol to hold the weak in thrall; the Cross came to symbolize the threat of divine wrath and the hope of a quasi-magical salvation. Girard and von Balthasar each argue that Christian soteriology does not enslave Christians to a lie but orients all human beings to the truth. They also agree that the violence of the crucifixion is significant. But whereas Girard argues that the Christian doctrine of divine wrath is a residue of violent pagan religion and thus has no place in interpreting the meaning of the crucifixion, von Balthasar argues that this doctrine serves to highlight the unique quality of God’s re-ordering love. By analyzing and interpreting their responses to Nietzsche, this dissertation seeks to evaluate the contributions Girard and von Balthasar offer for a post-Nietzschean soteriology.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This thesis engages with the later writings of Paul Ricoeur in order to understand his philosophy as a whole. A reconstruction of Ricoeur’s hermeneutics of ethical life presents his significant contribution to contemporary philosophy of religion. This hermeneutics aims to elucidate a moral religion that binds humans together universally on the basis of the life they share as capable beings. To facilitate this hermeneutics, I will demonstrate that a selective reading of Ricoeur’s philosophy brings to light the pivotal role of his ‘little ethics’ in bridging his later and earlier works. The capable human (l’homme capable) in the later Ricoeur must be understood in relation to both the ‘little ethics’ and an architectonic of moral religion. Elucidating the aim (telos) of ethical life and the norm (‘moral law’) of moral religion from the ‘little ethics’ points to the significant roles of Aristotle and Kant in Ricoeur’s architectonic. Ricoeur himself defines ‘architectonic’ in Kantian terms as a critical framework, while appropriating Spinoza’s metaphysical conception of a rational striving (conatus) for life in its fullness. Core concepts taken from Spinoza, Aristotle and Kant are implicit in the present reconstruction of Ricoeur’s hermeneutics. Three dimensions of ethical life emerge in Spinoza’s metaphysics, Aristotle’s anthropology, and Kant’s moral philosophy, giving us Ricoeur’s architectonic. For Ricoeur, the ethical aim is grounded on a metaphysics of human capability, and the demanding nature of ‘the law’ renders religion moral. This religion assumes that the good life is the goal of human striving. But crucially, the thesis will uncover ‘the arrow of the religious’ (la flèche du religieux) as it motivates the capable subject to embrace life with and for others in just institutions. In conclusion, life is revealed as the heart of Ricoeur’s moral religion.

It is the thesis of this paper that the Church possesses traits which are characteristic of the human personality; therefore, her spiritual movement can be understood and dealth with through the insights of te Oedipus Complex Theory initially described by Sigmund Freud in his discussion of personality development, and greatly elaborated upon by Erich Fromm in his book, "The Forgotten Language".

No abstract available / Systematic Theology and Ethics / D. Th.(Systematic Theology)

This thesis examines Augustine of Hippo's support of the cult of relics through the lens of Peter Brown's revision of the two-tiered model which was proposed in his 1981 book The Cult of Saints. More specifically, this thesis attempts to explain the introduction of saint's relics in the final book, book 22, of Augustine's magnum opus The City of God (De Civitate Dei). After providing proof of the theologian's opposition to the cult of relics in his youth, historical, biographical, and textual evidence is used to trace his later change of heart. This change in position is crystallized in a series of miracle accounts in the 8th chapter of the 22nd book. The analysis of this 'chain of miracles' is essential in understanding the purpose of the City of God as a whole and Augustine's own theories of death and resurrection.