Thesis advisor: Khaled Anatolios / Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

Zugl.: Rostock, Univ., Diss., 2006.

Zugl.: Münster (Westfalen), Univ., Diss., 2007

This thesis begins a dialogue between Hans Urs von Balthasar’s theological aesthetics and Chinese academic aesthetics. We identify a tension between aesthetics and religion in Chinese academic aesthetics, and argue that a dialogue with von Balthasar’s work has the potential to contribute to the development of Chinese academic aesthetics with regard to overcoming that tension. In order to set a ground for the dialogue, von Balthasar’s theological aesthetics is examined in Part I. His theological aesthetics reveals that genuine beauty can never be fully accounted for by a perspective based in modern aesthetics, an aesthetics that limits itself to worldly categories. Rather, genuine beauty comes only from the beauty of the Christ form, in which religion and aesthetics converge. In Part II, we examine the tension between religion and aesthetics in Chinese academic aesthetics. The origin and influence of Chinese academic aesthetics stems from Cai Yuan-pei’s proclamation calling for the “substitution of aesthetics for religion”. For Cai, with a perspective based in modern aesthetics, aesthetics and religion occupied opposed and incompatible positions. Social and historical factors, for example government backed Marxist ideology, also contribute to hostility towards Christianity. We argue that due to the lack of the transcendental dimension, a result of rejecting the divine and so divine beauty, the further development of Chinese academic aesthetics may be stunted. Finally, in Part III, we outline the beginning of a dialogue between von Balthasar’s theological aesthetics and Chinese academic aesthetics. We argue that by dialoguing with von Balthasar’s theological aesthetics, Chinese academic aesthetics may potentially obtain a transcendental dimension in coming to recognise genuine beauty, divine beauty. In coming to recognise genuine beauty, we argue that true progress in Chinese academic aesthetics may be made.

Thesis advisor: Dominic F. Doyle / Examines the relationship between theology and literature with a goal of developing a starting point for a comprehensive theology of literature. / Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

Freedom is a key element in contemporary Western thinking and one which is central to all bioethical discussions, including the stem cell debate. However, the adequacy of the current understanding of the concept has not been subject to sufficient analysis. In order to address this deficiency, using the stem cell debate as a case study, I engage with the current understanding of freedom in a particular area of social activity. Examining the stem cell debate, I consider that freedom is defined in three ways; as the freedom of research, as the consent of gamete and embryo donors to create stem cells and as the freedom to transcend physical limitations. I argue that Isaiah Berlin’s categorization of freedom as negative and positive is useful in examining the understandings of freedom in the stem cell debate. I conclude that all of the currently accepted understandings of freedom in the stem cell debate tend to be focused on the individual and I argue that they are consequently problematic, resulting in individualism, conflict, subjectivism and inappropriate attitudes toward natural resources. In response to the problems identified, in the second part of the thesis I draw on the theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar in order to offer an alternative conception of freedom. Von Balthasar argues that although freedom entails individual willing and choosing, it also is relational, involving interaction with other people and God, both in the realisation of the possession of freedom and in the fulfilment of that freedom. Thus I argue that von Balthasar’s theology provides an effective counter to the neglect of relationships in the contemporary understanding of freedom. However von Balthasar, in his analysis, focuses on interpersonal relationships and he can be criticised for underplaying the role of society. I therefore expand upon his work employing the concept of the common good. This provides a means of examining freedom in the context of wider society. The conception of freedom thus arrived at is then considered in relation to the original case study of the stem cell debate. In doing this I provide a more nuanced rendering of the issues involved; one that is better able to accommodate the social and personal aspects.

This thesis intends to define Christian hope in the context of the author’s grappling with disenchantment in his own spiritual journey during the COVID-19 pandemic. This thesis will first analyze conceptions of Christian hope put forth by Augustine and Hans Urs Von Balthasar. It will then compare them by analyzing the personal and communal dimensions of hope. The analysis of the two theologians will rely on historical surveys of hope from their respective time periods as well as examinations of their own periods of disenchantment. This thesis will identify hope as harmonizing for both individuals and humankind writ large to God; this harmony has soteriological implications for the next life after this one for individual Christians, the larger Christian community, and the world at large.

Diss. Univ. Bonn, 2008/2009.

The significance of Holy Saturday, the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, is often ignored in Christian life. The most influential modern theologian who has taken its importance seriously is the Swiss Catholic theologian, Hans Urs von Balthasar. He has presented a very innovative but also controversial interpretation that on Holy Saturday Jesus Christ suffered in utter solidarity with the dead in Hell and took to himself our self-damnation. However, this interpretation and several other aspects of his theology related to it seem to depart from the traditional teaching in an idiosyncratic way and have invited various critiques. What this thesis aims to do is to critically examine Balthasar’s theology of Holy Saturday and present its implications for Christian suffering and discipleship, while doing full justice to the genre within which he is working (a combination of theology and spirituality) and at the same time taking into consideration the main critiques made against him. First of all, we will argue that Balthasar does not try to present a radical reinterpretation of the doctrine of the Descent into Hell in contrast to the traditional teachings but rather tries to fully appreciate the in-betweenness of Holy Saturday as the day of transition from the Cross to the Resurrection, in other words, from the old aeon to the new. Balthasar says that Christ Himself descended into Hell as victor over sin and death objectively, but He still had to wait for the victory to arrive subjectively. Further, we will claim that this silent waiting on Holy Saturday, which marks the transition from the Cross to the Resurrection, helps us to deepen our understanding of the meaning of suffering in Christian discipleship. The waiting on Holy Saturday represents the fundamentally ‘tragic’ state of the Christian (understood as “tragedy under grace”) torn between the law of this world and the truth of Christ. As a paradoxical being in transition, the Christian believes that their victory is both already there and not there yet. In this sense, the Christian still lives in Holy Saturday. This notion deepens our understanding of suffering in the Christian life, because now we could translate the meaning of suffering into ‘tragic waiting,’ while fully facing the subjective reality of suffering and at the same time maintaining the hope of finding its salvific meaning by relating it to the paschal mystery. Our conclusion will be that this ‘tragic waiting,’ which itself is our lives, now can be seen in a Christological light. In short, we can patiently endure our Holy Saturday because of Christ’s Holy Saturday in Hell.

1. Aim The thesis aims to explore Emmanuel Levinas’ philosophy as a fertile resource for Christian theology. In this general context, we focus specifically on the way Levinas opens the possibility of a language of alterity, or radical “otherness”, in theology, in a manner which escapes the limitations of such categories as objectivity, presence and Being. Recent attempts to employ Levinas’ philosophy for the benefit of Christian theology have hesitated to go beyond onto-theology. This thesis, however, aims to show how Levinas’ philosophy opens up a style of thinking and suggests a vocabulary of expression that can serve Christian theology, especially by intensifying its sense of encounter with Christ and of the Other in him. Accordingly, the thesis will make use of a number of Levinasian notions to critique and complement the theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar. This will lead to the development of what we call a “prolegomenon to a Trinitarian praxis”. 2. Scope The thesis firstly remarks on Christian theology’s discovery of Levinas’ philosophy. We then go on to introducing three of the major influences of Levinas’ philosophy, namely Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger and Franz Rosenzweig. This will be followed by an introduction to the life of von Balthasar. But the major part of the thesis will be made up of three extensive explorations. The first introduces a number of key terms and concepts in Levinasian thought, taking into account their possible contribution to the theology of von Balthasar. Here we examine especially the notions of “otherness” and “passivity”. The second exploration takes us into what might be called a recontextualisation of the major sections of von Balthasar’s theology (aesthetics, dramatics and logic) through Levinasian analysis. We will concentrate especially on von Balthasar’s treatment of Holy Saturday, the Resurrection, Trinitarian and Soteriological “Inversion”, and truth as participation. The third exploratory exercise attempts to develop a prolegomenon to a Trinitarian praxis. Intrinsic to the very understanding of this Trinitarian praxis is the notion of alterity to such a degree that ethical transcendence is the very inspiration for theology if it is to go beyond the limits of objectivity, Being and presence. This prolegomenon will, therefore, contain an articulation of Trinitarian praxis in the context of ethical transcendence, eschatology and soteriology. To this end, we employ Levinas’ ideas of passivity and otherness to critique von Balthasar’s eschatological conception of Christian existence and his soteriological understanding of the eucharist. Because Levinas and von Balthasar have both used the writings of Husserl, Heidegger and Rosenzweig as sources, there will be abundant references to these writers at various junctures in this study. Likewise, the views of a number of Christian theologians who have been influenced by Levinas (Purcell, Ward, Barnes and Ford) will be critically examined. 3. Conclusions The thesis concludes that, with the aid of Levinas’ ideas, theology is offered the possibility of breaking out of the limits imposed by traditional notions of objectivity, Being and presence. In reaching such a conclusion, the thesis contests von Balthasar’s prioritising of the beautiful by resituating his use of analogical thought. In this context, our study suggests new ways of speaking of Holy Saturday and the Resurrection, in a non-phenomenal manner. It means developing a theology of Gift to understand the unity between Christ’s missio and processio. Here we highlight the deepest problem to be faced by a theo-logic as one of giving priority to the ethical over the ontological. In short, the thesis argues for a conception of Christian life that goes beyond the categories of ontology and experience. From what we have learned from Levinas, we propose a notion of Trinitarian praxis in which we come to God by way of ethical transcendence.