Contrary to popular belief, discussions of morality, spiritual sensibilities, and religion are major themes in the lyrics of rap music. The current study provides an exploratory content analysis of rap lyrics in an effort to better understand the ways in which rap artists and audiences thought and think about their spirituality. Results indicate that there existed a fervent and nuanced discourse around spirituality and its various forms during the rise of rap music between the mid 1990s and early millennium.

Thesis (M.A.P.S.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 128-131).

Thesis (M.A.P.S.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 128-131).

Thesis (M.A.P.S.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 128-131).

Thesis advisor: Andrew L. Prevot / This dissertation in the area of Christian Systematic Theology offers a critique of the political-economic, philosophical, and cultural framework of neoliberalism through the framework of Ignacio Ellacuría’s liberation theology. The project grounds itself in Ellacuría’s theological vision of historical soteriology, where one understands salvation as the persistence of Christ’s salvific act through history and in which all are called to participate through cooperative grace. It is through this theological lens, in conjunction with Ellacuría’s philosophical and political thought, that a full critique of neoliberalism’s various facets is accomplished. The project offers this critique through an analysis of neoliberalism’s false promises of prosperity, stability, and salvation from impoverishment. Chapter 1 offers a definition of neoliberalism as manifesting in three ways: a political-economic theory that manifested in the policies of the Reagan administration in the United States and the Thatcher Government in the United Kingdom, a philosophical high theory critiqued by thinkers in the Marxist and Foucauldian traditions, and a cultural framework that is open to theological critique. The chapter serves as a survey of significant figures of each facet of neoliberalism. Chapter 2 outlines the focal points of Ellacuría’s philosophical thought, most importantly his theory of historical reality. Using these philosophical tools, Ellacuría is put into dialogue with the philosophical critics of neoliberalism to show the philosophical claims implicit in neoliberal thought are untenable. Chapter 3 explores Ellacuría’s theology with a focus on historical soteriology and engagement with reality. The theory of historical soteriology then serves as a critical tool to examine neoliberalism’s underlying tenets that offer a false promise of salvation. Chapter 4 develops a political theology of dissent drawing from Ellacuría’s work in “Utopia and Propheticism in Latin America,” in which Ellacuría offers one of his strongest critiques of the civilization of capital. The political theology of dissent offers an alternative framework to the contemporary neoliberal conception of political economy, focusing on discernment and community. Finally, Chapter 5 synthesizes the Ellacurían Critique from Chapters 2-4 and puts it into conversation with other theological critics of neoliberalism. This dialogue shows the Ellacuría Critique to be a complimentary to other critics of neoliberalism while adding a unique Catholic liberationist voice to the conversation. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

This thesis offers a systematic engagement with the theological hermeneutics of Hans Frei. The two key conceptual categories are “the logic of belief” and “the content of God”. The former refers to the grammatical ordering of theological statements: Frei is concerned to distinguish grammatical logic from ontology, and to establish the actual starting point for any given theological enterprise. Frei’s own preference for a “linear” and “cumulative” method built upon the starting point of a realistic narrative reading of the gospels is unpacked and explored. The second category, “the content of God”, refers to Frei’s search for an account in which God has actual reality, as opposed to a mere metaphysical abstraction. Indeed, for Frei, the arrival – or failure to arrive – at a ‘concrete’ account of God is the test of any theological starting point, as evidenced in the ability or otherwise to do exegetical justice to the narrative shape of the crucifixion-resurrection sequence. The thesis demonstrates that for Frei, the starting point in the logic of belief must be the identity of Jesus Christ as revealed in scripture, and only on that basis can a concrete content of God be posited. In so doing, the intention is to set Frei very firmly within his mid-twentieth century context, in particular his engagement with and ultimate rejection of existentialist and Neo-orthodox theology. Accordingly, the thesis traces the development in Frei’s thinking of these two conceptual categories, from his doctoral thesis on Barth’s early theology up to and including his twin publications, The Eclipse of Biblical Narrative (1974) and The Identity of Jesus Christ (1975). Later works by Frei are also considered in relation to these. The thesis does not stop at the mid-twentieth century, but illustrates the continued relevance of Frei’s hermeneutical theology into this century, putting him in conversation with a number of systematic and biblical theologians. Suggestions are made as to his applicability to modern theological concerns, including the debate surrounding the being and action of God: a field where he has yet to be deployed successfully.

Because of the drastic changes (political, socio-cultural, and ecclesial) in Latin America since the genesis of Latin American Theology in the 1960s and 70s and the persistent and pernicious presence of poverty and injustice, it is imperative for theology to confront the present socio-cultural and ecclesial context. Through the development of a sociological and historical survey of Argentina during the past half-century, this thesis argues that the present holds little hope for a revitalization of the triumphalist, macro-social historical project of Latin American Liberation Theology, but instead demands an informed theological reflection on the micro-social. It also engages various Latin American theological perspectives (Liberationist, Progressive Evangelical, and Pentecostal/neo-Pentecostal) and argues that community is at the centre of their conceptions of transformation and that, accordingly, the local church is a potential transformative historical project. It examines this transformative potential through ethnographic and theological case studies of two local Baptist churches (Progressive Evangelical and neo-Pentecostal) in Greater Buenos Aires, Argentina, demonstrating that the present ecclesial context is diverse and contentious, but nevertheless a potential location of transformation. It contends that the local church is a fitting historical project for Latin American Theology as it functions as a bridge between the exilic present and the utopia of the Kingdom of God, between individual and social transformation, and between the hermeneutically-focused historical sciences and the emancipatory-focused critical social sciences. It concludes that the local church is a transformative historical project as a gathering community that seeks to be faithful and effective through non-violent confrontation, reconciling unity, and discernment.

As Latin American evangelical theologians awoke to dependency on the North in the post-war period, they set the trajectory for a new contextual brand of evangelical Christianity. Ecuadorian Protestant theologian C. René Padilla (b. 1932) coined the term misión integral (integral mission), which first appeared on a public stage in Lausanne at the influential International Congress on World Evangelization of 1974—signalling both the rise of leadership from the Global South and a wider turn toward holistic mission within the global Protestant evangelical community. The concept of misión integral is an understanding of Christian mission that synthesizes the pursuit of justice with the offer of salvation. Padilla utilized the kingdom of God as the central theological motif in this synthesis. The thesis explores the dynamic interplay between Padilla and the global evangelical networks that formed, developed, and diffused misión integral. This first critical study of Padilla is structured thematically in order to provide a more detailed focus on each stage of this process. Earlier studies have largely framed misión integral as responding to Catholic theologies of liberation, beginning in the late 1960s or early 1970s. In contrast, I demonstrate that the origins of misión integral are found within a cluster of political and social forces reshaping post-war Latin America: rural-urban migration flows, the resulting complications of urbanization, and the rapid expansion of the universities, where Marxist ideas of revolutionary change presented a growing appeal to students. When Padilla became convinced of the inadequacy of his received North American evangelical theology of mission to meet such challenges, he began a search for theological materials with which he could address the Latin American context. In doing so, he sought to widen the parameters of an evangelical understanding of Christian mission. Padilla’s response was not purely Latin American nor driven by exclusively Latin American concerns. However, Padilla’s theology developed through a multidirectional and international conversation with a wide variety of interlocutors. Padilla became a metaphorical sponge—appropriating new theological perspectives from his undergraduate and graduate studies at Wheaton College in Illinois, his doctoral work in New Testament at the University of Manchester, the Presbyterian missionary-statesman, John A. Mackay, and the holistic tradition of American women missionaries through his closest colleague and wife Catharine Feser Padilla. This thesis explores these multidirectional conversations that shaped the concept of integral mission, and in doing so provides a corrective to current historiography. The process of developing the contours of integral mission would continue over the next two decades in a further series of transnational theological conversations. Particularly important were those Padilla conducted with the Peruvian Baptist Samuel Escobar and the Fraternidad Teológica Latinoamericana (Latin American Theological Fraternity), the British Anglican John R. W. Stott and the global evangelical movement, and the Argentine Methodist José Míguez Bonino and the ecumenical movement. Padilla’s theological networks cut both ways— influencing him and diffusing his influence to a wider Christian constituency. In focusing on these interlocutors, this thesis provides an assessment of the nature of Padilla’s influence upon the growing acceptance of integral mission within global evangelicalism. Today, the language of integral mission is being increasingly adopted by evangelical mission and relief organizations, evangelical political activists, official congress declarations, and Protestant ecclesial movements around the world.

Submitted by Erika Demachki (erikademachki@gmail.com) on 2018-05-25T19:58:52Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Tese - Jacqueline Siqueira Vigário - 2017.pdf: 24150856 bytes, checksum: c8ae8db0716639e9c932177fb18bc61a (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2018-05-28T11:37:56Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Tese - Jacqueline Siqueira Vigário - 2017.pdf: 24150856 bytes, checksum: c8ae8db0716639e9c932177fb18bc61a (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-05-28T11:37:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Tese - Jacqueline Siqueira Vigário - 2017.pdf: 24150856 bytes, checksum: c8ae8db0716639e9c932177fb18bc61a (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-05-16 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / The research proposes to investigate the appropriattion of the artistic thinking of the italian painter Frei Nazareno Confaloni (1917-1977) and his proceding in the context of modernity in Goias from the 1950's, observing it's relation with the scholars linked to the cultural institutions of the state and, consequently, with the projects of renewal who were typical of the artistical environment of the early 1950's in Goias. From the understanding of how art criticism construes the work of the italian artist based in Brazil, this work investigates the appropriation of Confaloni as an icon of modernity and associates him with the founding myth of the city of Goiania. The paper deals with the issues of modernity, modernization and modernism as bridges for the understanding of the modern project of Brazil, considering as the main point the concept of conservative modernization with emphasis on cultural. To achieve this goal, it observes the context of modernization of the city of São Paulo during the first half of the twentieth century so that one can rethink how Goias assumed the demands of modernization during the 1950's and the 1960's. It analyzes the fortuity of the first decades of the construction of the city, the activities related to the creation of the Escola Goiana de Belas Artes (EGBA) and the debate of scholars and artists around a modernist campaign, in which Confaloni is a fundamental piece in the construction of the reasoning of the new, founded on cultural bases. From an idea of the sacralization of the human and the humanization of the sacred in the artistic thinking of Nazareno Confaloni, this paper makes an analytical interpretation of his works based on historical events, exploring the tensions between his religious and artistic formation, confronting them with artistic movements from Europe and Brazil, Besides the religious and socio-political thinking in Latin America. In addition to its construction as a modern inaugural artist, the research points to Confaloni's appropriations of the Brazilian and Latin American conjunctures, evaluanting them as fundamental for their constitution as a religious and as an artist. / A pesquisa propõe investigar apropriação do pensamento artístico do pintor italiano Frei Nazareno Confaloni (1917-1977) e sua atuação no contexto da modernidade em Goiás a partir da década de 1950, observando sua relação com os intelectuais ligados às instituições culturais do Estado, e consequentemente com os projetos de renovação artística, característica do ambiente artístico goiano do início dos anos de 1950. Parte do entendimento de como a crítica de arte interpreta o conjunto da obra do artista italiano radicado no Brasil, investiga a apropriação de Confaloni como ícone de modernidade e o associa ao mito fundador da Cidade de Goiânia. O trabalho aborda as questões que tratam de modernidade, modernização e modernismo como pontes para o entendimento do projeto moderno do Brasil, considerando como ponto principal o conceito de modernização conservadora com ênfase no cultural. Para tanto, observa o contexto de modernização da cidade de São Paulo durante a primeira metade do século XX para que se possa repensar a forma como Goiás assumiu os reclames de modernização nos idos dos anos de 1950 e 1960. Analisa a conjuntura das primeiras décadas da Construção da cidade, as atividades relacionadas à criação da Escola Goiana de Belas Artes (EGBA)e o debate de intelectuais e artistas em torno de uma campanha modernista, na qual Confaloni é peça fundamental na construção do discurso do novo fundado em bases culturais. A partir de uma ideia de Sacralização do humano e humanização do sagrado no pensamento artístico de Nazareno Confaloni faz uma interpretação analítica de suas obras baseada em acontecimentos históricos, explorando as tensões entre sua formação religiosa e artística, confrontando-as com os movimentos artísticos europeus e brasileiros e o pensamento religioso sociopolítico na América Latina. Para além de sua construção como artista inaugural moderno, a pesquisa aponta as apropriações de Confaloni da conjuntura brasileira e latino-americana, avaliando-as como fundamentais para sua constituição como religioso e como artista.

The Trinitarian Perspectives of the Theology of Religions. The Outline of the Approache to the Non-christian Religions in Gavin D'Costa. This thesis presents an analysis of the theological work of British Catholic theologian Gavin D'Costa in the field of theology of religions. The goal of this study is the presentation of D'Costa's huge contribution to the theology of religions and critical examination of his constructive theological concept of Trinitarian Theology of Religions. In the first chapter we provide an introduction to the thought of Gavin D'Costa. We point out his philosophical and theological presuppositions, we go through his most important books and above all we introduce preliminary remarks about his theology of religions, i.e. conception of the relationship between systematic theology, theology of religions and religious studies and the notion of religion in D'Costa. The second chapter classifies D'Costa's approach within the context of contemporary theology of religions. We deal with D'Costa's critique of pluralism, inclusivism and exclusivism. Especially, the D'Costa's polemic with his former teacher John Hick is at the centre of our attention. In the third chapter we consider D'Costa's own paradigm of theology of religion which is based on the Trinitarian faith as well as respectful...