Dischargers to the Trinity River in North Texas were required to dechlorinate their effluents in 1990-91. Field surveys were conducted above and below an outfall to determine the response of resident immature insects and caged in situ juvenile Asiatic clams to chlorinated and dechlorinated effluent. Within six months after dechlorination began, insect community composition and C. fluminea survival significantly improved at stations below the outfall. Significantly lower clam growth within one mile below the dechlorinated effluent indicated the presence of non-chlorine toxicants. Effects from chlorinated and dechlorinated effluent exposure were comparable between Ceriodaphnia dubia lab tests and in situ C. fluminea.

Gully erosion has been established as a major source of sediment pollution in the upper Trinity River watershed in north-central Texas. This fact, along with a lack of models appropriate for a large-area gully erosion analysis established a need for a gully erosion study in the upper Trinity basin. This thesis project attempted to address this need by deriving an index indicative of gully erosion risk using remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS) methodology. In context of previous field studies, the coarse spatial resolution of the input GIS data layers presented a challenge to prediction of gully prone areas. However, the remote sensing/GIS approach was found to provide useful reconnaissance information on gully risk over large areas.

The role of scriptural interpretation in the Monarchian controversy of the early 3rd century C.E. has received relatively little scholarly attention. This oversight is due, in large part, to a persuasive if unstated belief held by many modern scholars that Scripture is a secondary or tertiary factor in the construction of doctrine. This thesis will argue that scriptural interpretation played a primary or generative role in the construction of doctrine. The Proto-Trinitarians and Monarchians believed their position to be superior to that of their opponents’ precisely because it made better sense of the scriptural data. This thesis will argue that the modern view which sees the early church fathers as poor exegetes may have more to do with questionable modern assumptions about the interpretive enterprise (especially when doctrine is considered) than it has to do with any interpretive incompetence of the early Christian interpreters. The introduction will offer a survey of the modern status quo view of patristic interpretation in general and patristic interpretation in a doctrinal context in particular. It will then consider some dissenting voices to the status quo view. Chapter 1 will offer a brief history of the Monarchian movement and examine the Monarchian doctrine of God and its scriptural basis, seeking first to provide an accurate picture of Monarchian belief and secondly to show that the Monarchians took Scripture seriously in their theologizing. Chapters 2 and 3 will consider the two most influential treatises in the demise of Monarchianism, the Contra Noetum (chapter 2) and Tertullian’s Adversus Praxeas (chapter 3). It will be demonstrated that scriptural interpretation was the decisive factor in their theological construction of the nature of God and that the Gospel of John played a decisive role in their rebutting of the Monarchian position.

In the New Testament and in the early church fathers’ writings, the Son is understood to be ontologically equal to the Father and subordinate to him. Whether understood as ingenerate-generate, sender-sent, commanded-obedient, subordination shows the distinction between the Father and Son. As seen in church history, minimizing these distinctions can lead to modalism and pressing them too far leads to Arianism. In the Bible, obedience or subordination does not mean ontologically inferior. Rather, obedience results from faith and love. Although some fathers connected obedience to Christ’s humanity, they were doing so while rejecting the Arian argument that the Son’s obedience meant he was ontologically inferior. They affirmed the voluntary obedience of the Son as an expression of his love for the Father and rejected any sense of coercion or determinism. The doctrine of the eternal generation of the Son from the Father’s ousia held together the equality and subordination of the Son to the Father. Beginning with Christ’s atoning work rather than metaphysics, P. T. Forsyth and Jürgen Moltmann believe that the Son’s obedience is crucial for the atonement to be the free act of grace of the Sovereign God. Because of this, the Son’s obedience must be divine, and thus eternal. Otherwise, the obedience would be from Christ’s humanity, and humanity would contribute in inappropriate ways to the atonement. They also believe that subordination, obedience, humility, and servanthood complete the understanding of divine love. The unity provided by the same divine love is expressed according to the particularity of the Person. In the Trinitarian relationship, the Son’s eternal obedience is his free response to the Father. Here subordination is not oppression, but perfect love freely given to the perfect Lover. This fuller conception of divine love that a proper emphasis on obedience affords has great potential to help Trinitarain theology contribute to the elimination of oppression and the improvement of human relationships and to do so in a manner consistent with the biblical witness.

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In On Christian Teaching, Saint Augustine writes, “Just and holy living depends on being a good judge of things.” This brief sentence lucidly articulates the importance that judgment plays in Augustine’s thought. This thesis is the first full-length study of how he understands the distinct role of the Holy Spirit in judgment. I argue that judgment denotes both the discernment of a thing’s nature and evaluation of it; and we become good judges only as we are re-ordered by the love which is, in Augustine’s favourite pneumatological verse, “poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit” (Romans 5:5). I analyse this transformative work of the Spirit according to two broad categories: first, the Spirit re-orders our relation to creation principally by uniting us to the Word, the second person of the Trinity, in whom all things are created, and so we are able to discern a thing’s nature and evaluate it according to God’s purposes in creation; and, second, the Spirit re-orders our relation to time, as we patiently endure this troublous life as pilgrims hoping for eternal Sabbath rest; within this eschatological horizon situated in the age between Christ’s first coming and his return, we restrain ourselves from making both unfounded and unnecessary judgments as we defer to God’s final judgement. This thesis is divided into two parts. In the first part, on the “theory” of judgment, I explicate the consistent relation throughout Augustine’s corpus between pneumatology, judgment and ethics (chapter one). I then proceed to trace out his account of how the gift of the Spirit’s love perfects our judgment by re-ordering our relation to creation, and, conversely, how lust distorts it. A right relation to creation turns on taking up our middle place: below God, next to our neighbours, and above nature (chapter two). In the second part, on the “practice” of judgment, I focus first on other-judgment, especially the role of mercy (chapter three), and then in the fourth and final chapter I turn to self-judgment, including a lengthy consideration of the nature and role of conscience (chapter four). For Augustine, then, it is only by the Spirit’s love that we are made good judges, and, simultaneously, it is only when we are good judges that our love conforms to the truth both of God’s good creation and of our in-between age.

This dissertation examines the impact of the filioque on the relationship between the Spirit and the Son, particularly as it pertains to the economy of salvation and the availability of salvation to the unevangelized. More specifically, it argues that rejection of the filioque cannot serve as a means of gaining an independent economy for the Spirit. Chapter 1 presents the thesis and describe the place of both pneumatology and the filioque in contemporary inclusive soteriologies. Chapter 2 surveys the status of the filioque debate in contemporary Western theology as well as the various ways that the filioque is treated by pneumatological inclusivists. Primary attention is given to Clark Pinnock and Amos Yong, who serve as the primary dialogue partners for this dissertation. Chapter 3 examines various Eastern Orthodox theologians, both past and present, and argues that inclusivists have misappropriated Orthodox theology. Specifically, this chapter argues that Orthodoxy has historically viewed the work of the Spirit as inextricably connected with that of the Son in spite of its rejection of the filioque . Chapter 4 addresses the biblical portrayal of taxis in the Trinity whereby the Father gives direction to the works of both the Son and the Spirit. Attention is given to the unity of the trinitarian economy that results from the Father's administration. Chapter 5 argues that pneumatological inclusivists have failed sufficiently to consider significant biblical-theological themes of Scripture and their impact on pneumatology. This is particularly true of eschatology. It further suggests that the pneumatological lens through which some inclusivists interpret Scripture distorts biblical pneumatology. This chapter also offers a brief proposal for understanding pneumatology in light of the Bible's eschatological framework. Chapter 6 summarizes the issues considered in the dissertation and offers some brief closing comments. / This item is only available to students and faculty of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. If you are not associated with SBTS, this dissertation may be purchased from <a href="http://disexpress.umi.com/dxweb">http://disexpress.umi.com/dxweb</a> or downloaded through ProQuest's Dissertation and Theses database if your institution subscribes to that service.

Thesis advisor: Stephen F. Brown / The purpose of this dissertation is to provide a systematic account of St. Bonaventure of Bagnoregio’s doctrine of grace. More particularly, the dissertation argues that a systematic account of this kind can only be provided by attending to that doctrine through his theology of hierarchy, a methodology that derives from the Seraphic Doctor’s own claim in the Legenda Maior that St. Francis was a vir hierarchicus, or a “hierarchical man.” Throughout the course of his theological career, the Seraphic Doctor defines sanctifying grace as a created influentia that “hierarchizes” human beings by purifying, illuminating, and perfecting them from within, thus causing them to become a “similitude” of the Trinity. This dissertation explains what this means and why it matters. Methodologically, the dissertation proceeds in three parts. Part I, “Theological Foundations for Bonaventure’s Doctrine of Grace,” lays the necessary groundwork for the rest of the project in two ways: first, by introducing three historical figures whose work will provide indispensible theological contexts for approaching Bonaventure’s doctrine of grace, namely, Pseudo-Dionysius, Thomas Gallus, and Alexander of Hales; and second, by introducing the Seraphic Doctor’s own theology of hierarchy as he inherited it from these sources. Part II, “Bonaventure’s Doctrine of Grace,” then builds upon these foundations to present a systematic account of that doctrine as it developed in some of his most important works throughout his career as a theologian. Part III, “Theological Implications of Bonaventure’s Doctrine of Grace,” concludes the dissertation by exploring how that doctrine can inform scholarship on Bonaventure’s theological anthropology, Christology, and theology of sanctity, respectively. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

Thesis advisor: Stephen F. Brown / Pierre d'Ailly and the Development of Late Medieval Trinitarian Theology: (with an edition of <italic>Quaestiones super primum Sententiarum</italic>, qq. 4-8, 10) By: John T. Slotemaker Advisor: Stephen F. Brown The present dissertation analyzes several periods in the development of late medieval trinitarian theology. The work is divided into two volumes. Volume I contains three parts of two chapters each: (1) the first part treats the trinitarian theology of Thomas Aquinas (ch. 1) and John Duns Scotus (ch. 2); (2) the second part treats the trinitarian theology of William of Ockham (ch. 3) and Walter Chatton, Adam Wodeham and Robert Holcot (ch. 4); (3) the third part treats the trinitarian theology of Gregory of Rimini (ch. 5) and Pierre d'Ailly (ch. 6). Volume II contains five appendices, including: a transcription of the tabula quaestionum for Peter d'Ailly's, Peter Gracilis's and James of Eltville's (i.e., the `<italic>Lectura Eberbacensis</italic>') respective commentaries on the Sentences; and an edition of Pierre d'Ailly's <italic>Quaestiones super libros Sententiarum</italic>I, qq. 4-8 and 10. Part I of the dissertation considers Thomas Aquinas and John Duns Scotus, arguing that this period of Parisian trinitarian theology is characterized by the heated debates concerning opposed and disparate relations. Thus, the role and primacy of the divine processions and/or the divine relations in articulating the distinction of persons is considered. As such, the argument developed throughout part I is consistent with the broader treatments of Michael Schmaus and Russell L. Friedman. Part II of the dissertation considers the trinitarian theology of four Oxford theologians: William of Ockham, Walter Chatton, Adam Wodeham and Robert Holcot. The first chapter analyzes the methodological approach of William of Ockham, considering in detail the influence of his analytic and linguistic method of theological analysis on the development of trinitarian theology. It is argued that Ockham is not primarily concerned with the previous debate over opposed or disparate relations, and that a shift in trinitarian theology is introduced with Ockham. Again, following Friedman, it is argued that because of Ockham's epistemological and linguistic approach to theological questions, he inaugurates a "search for simplicity"--to use Friedman's language--that characterizes the Oxford theologians. The second chapter of Part II examines the influence of Ockham on the subsequent developments in Oxford trinitarian theology. It is argued that in thinkers as diverse as Walter Chatton and Adam Wodeham, the influence of Ockham's theological method and approach to trinitarian questions is evident. The Venerable Inceptor, it is argued, shaped the discourse of subsequent Oxford theology. Part III of the dissertation returns to Paris, examining the theology of Gregory of Rimini and Pierre d'Ailly. In the first chapter, it is argued that Rimini follows closely the theological method of Ockham, with a renewed interest in articulating his theological positions in dialogue with Augustine of Hippo. This historical approach, it is argued, is grounded in Rimini's deductive theological method and its reliance on Scripture and the Fathers of the Church. Further, it is argued that Rimini clearly follows the previous Oxford theologians "search for simplicity", in particular the developments found in Walter Chatton and Robert Holcot. Finally, the second chapter of Part III considers the trinitarian thought of Pierre d'Ailly. It is argued that d'Ailly follows closely the theology of Ockham, but with a renewed interest (post Gregory) in articulating Ockham's positions in dialogue with Augustine. D'Ailly borrows methodologically from both Ockham (emphasis on language, etc.) and Rimini (emphasis on a deductive method and Scripture), although he will also return the basic theological arguments of Thomas Aquinas at points. Pierre d'Ailly is a harsh critic of Gregory and any trinitarian minimalism; in that regard he follows more closely the moderate path set by Ockham and Wodeham. Volume II of the dissertation includes an introduction to the manuscripts, incunabula and early printed editions of Pierre d'Ailly's <italic>Quaestiones super libros Sententiarum</italic> (Appendix A). Here the relevant manuscripts are discussed, and the reasons for basing the edition on Paris, Bibl. Mazarine, ms. 934, ff. 1-152 and Paris, Bibl. Mazarine, ms. 935, ff. 1-196 are defended. This is followed by Appendices B-D, treating the <italic>tabula quaestionum </italic>of book I of the commentaries on the <italic>Sentences </italic>by Pierre d'Ailly, Peter Gracilis (Royal, ms. 10A1) and James of Eltville (Clm, ms. 11591; i.e., the `<italic>Lectura Eberbacensis</italic>'). Finally, Appendix E contains a transcription and collation of Pierre d'Ailly's <italic>Quaestiones super libros Sententiarum </italic>I, qq. 4-8 and 10. The edition is based on Mazarine 934 and 935. The tables of questions are presented to allow some comparison of the structure of d'Ailly's commentary with those of his contemporaries. The edition of d'Ailly's texts is the first complete (i.e., presenting an entire <italic>quaestio </italic>or more) transcription of any of the questions in consideration, and is based on the two best manuscripts. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.