To accomplish the purpose of this thesis an examination of the hermeneutical method expounded by Athanasius will be made. There are three books that comprise Contra Arianos so the progression of this thesis will follow the progression of the stated Athanasian work. This thesis will also review the relevant passages that Athanasius utilizes to present his case for the Eternal Sonship of Jesus Christ. This review will adequately demonstrate the Athanasian Trinitarian concept of eternal, functional subordination of the Son to the Father. The thesis will also review the word ”homoousios” in order to support the conclusions of Contra Arianos. The word ”homoousios” was the term that became the official recognized position of orthodox Christology at the Council of Nicea. The need for such a review arises from the academic concern that the word ”homoousios” may exclude the idea of functional subordination. A review of this word (along with its history) seems appropriate. However, the conclusion (and defense of that conclusion) that will be presented is that homoousios is not mutually incompatible with the idea of ”functional subordination” in a temporal or eternal relationship. This term and concept will adequately demonstrate that an eternal, functional subordination relationship exists between the Father and Son from the Athanasian point of view. Historical and background studies, which will help interpret and clarify cultural meanings, will also be employed to enhance the study of this thesis. Finally, certain conclusions will be presented showing the results of the study. The conclusions will attempt to answer questions that have undoubtedly arisen in the mind of the informed reader of ancient theology and may help identify and even address contemporary issues concerning the Christological and Trinitarian doctrines. / Systematic Theology & Theological Ethics / M. Th. (Theological Studies)

This thesis offers a constructive engagement with T.F. Torrance’s theological reading of the patristic tradition. It argues that Torrance reconstructs the Fathers into a Consensus Patrum, or “Consensus of the Fathers” consisting of catholic/ecumenical themes and figures. Torrance’s consensus is a creative attempt to produce a Reformed and evangelical version of the consensus which involves significant changes to both standard readings of the Fathers in other approaches to the consensus and Torrance’s own Reformed evangelical tradition. It is unique among other interpreters of the Fathers and ecumenically relevant, offering much to contemporary theology in both substance and method. In order to view Torrance’s project in historical context this thesis examines the notion of the consensus as found in historical Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant theology. Each tradition has a lens through which they view the Fathers: Aquinas for the Roman Catholics, Palamas for the Orthodox, Augustinian themes for the Reformers, and “de‐Hellenization” for liberal Protestants. This thesis places Torrance’s project within other contemporary retrievals of the church Fathers arguing for its uniqueness as a distinctively Reformed evangelical approach to the Fathers on their own terms. It inspects the Torrancian consensus exploring its consistence of a Reformed and evangelical approach to patristic themes and figures, rooted in the primary theme of the Nicene ὁμοούσιον and the primary figure of Athanasius of Alexandria. It examines Torrance’s creative reconstruction of the Fathers into a Reformed evangelical consensus and points to his constructive achievements demonstrating that Torrance’s approach is ecumenically relevant, as seen particularly in his work in the Reformed‐Orthodox Dialogue. A critical adoption of the Torrancian consensus is proposed in conclusion.

To accomplish the purpose of this thesis an examination of the hermeneutical method expounded by Athanasius will be made. There are three books that comprise Contra Arianos so the progression of this thesis will follow the progression of the stated Athanasian work. This thesis will also review the relevant passages that Athanasius utilizes to present his case for the Eternal Sonship of Jesus Christ. This review will adequately demonstrate the Athanasian Trinitarian concept of eternal, functional subordination of the Son to the Father. The thesis will also review the word ”homoousios” in order to support the conclusions of Contra Arianos. The word ”homoousios” was the term that became the official recognized position of orthodox Christology at the Council of Nicea. The need for such a review arises from the academic concern that the word ”homoousios” may exclude the idea of functional subordination. A review of this word (along with its history) seems appropriate. However, the conclusion (and defense of that conclusion) that will be presented is that homoousios is not mutually incompatible with the idea of ”functional subordination” in a temporal or eternal relationship. This term and concept will adequately demonstrate that an eternal, functional subordination relationship exists between the Father and Son from the Athanasian point of view. Historical and background studies, which will help interpret and clarify cultural meanings, will also be employed to enhance the study of this thesis. Finally, certain conclusions will be presented showing the results of the study. The conclusions will attempt to answer questions that have undoubtedly arisen in the mind of the informed reader of ancient theology and may help identify and even address contemporary issues concerning the Christological and Trinitarian doctrines. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Theological Studies)

The last three decades have produced a number of publications devoted to the revision of Athanasius of Alexandria's "Arian Controversy". The fruits of this re-evaluation highlight the complexities of post-Nicene theology long ignored in the shadow of Athanasius' crude "Arian" versus "orthodox" binary. It is now widely accepted in patristic studies that "Arian" was not a self-designation nor was the presbyter who lent his name to the heresy all that crucial a figure. A handful of scholars have moved beyond these helpful developments to revise the "Arian Controversy" out of existence. For some, "Arianism" was a rhetorical construct of a power hungry and abusive bishop who indiscriminately branded his personal opponents. Likewise, this revisionist thesis dismisses the activity of any "Eusebians", opting for the complete rejection of conflicting "parties". What remains is not alternate theologies and a genuine dispute, but a phantasmal "Athanasian Arianism". This dissertation analyzes this re-shaping of the post-Nicene years and offers a modest remonstrance to the most extreme aspects of the "Arian Controversy" revision. The study does not want to return to a place of Athanasian hagiography, but rather argue that "Arian" served as a useful polemical heuristic to identify a distinct theology that the bishop (and others) found unacceptable. After outlining the erosion of the "Arian Controversy", the thesis marshals evidence supporting a substantive theological dispute over which divergent networks clashed. In this vein, the work wants to recapture a genuine historical theology in that not everything is reducible to politics. The thesis argues that there is a responsible way of reading Athanasius' charged polemic.

Im Sommer 1835 traf der polnische Graf Athanasius Raczyński in München auf den Maler Wilhelm Kaulbach (zu diesem Zeitpunkt noch ohne „von“). Raczyński stellte sich in der Eigenschaft eines Kunstsammlers und -suchers bei Kaulbach vor. Dies war der Beginn einer wunderbaren Künstler-Mäzen-Freundschaft mit vielen Höhen und Tiefen, die knapp vierzig Jahre halten sollte.

Athanasius Kircher’s Musurgia universalis (1650) was one of the largest and most widely circulated works of music theory in the seventeenth century. Although his reputation has waned over the centuries, Kircher was a leading intellectual figure of his day, authoring dozens of treatises on a multitude of topics and corresponding with scholars from around the world. Kircher’s central place within the world of learning resulted in a unique perspective on music theory and musical practice within the seventeenth century. The present study investigates a number of topics from Kircher’s music treatise and provides context from within the intellectual discourse of the time. The first chapter explores the seventeenth-century conception of encyclopedias, as well as the possible meanings associated with an encyclopedia musica, a novel term Kircher uses in his preface to describe Musurgia. Kircher’s attempt to describe all that was known about music, from highly speculative theories to the most utilitarian compositional tools, results in a complex blend of philosophical and practical elements. The middle chapters disentangle a few strands from this web of ideas, tracing the development of Pythagorean traditions and speculative music theory, as well as changing attitudes regarding empirical and occult methodologies in the early modern period. The final chapter concerns Kircher’s central goal for Musurgia, an algorithmic method based on the ars combinatoria and the emerging mathematical field of combinatorics that would allow anyone to compose musical settings, including the setting of texts in any poetic meter and in any language. Kircher’s arca musurgica—a device that contained tables to generate music—was in effect a distillation of the rules of harmony and counterpoint in the seventeenth century. Its underlying syntax of standard four-part progressions stands at the juncture between old and new ideologies of music theory and composition. / Music

This dissertation considers the intersection of aurality and visuality in seventeenth-century New Spanish poet Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz’s (1648/1651-95) acoustico-poetic discourse. Prior scholarship has focused either on the author’s engagement with Western music theory and compositional practices or else the role of musical references in her works. This has resulted in the marginalization of Sor Juana’s engagement with sound through disciplines that are not strictly musical or poetic, including: acoustics, cognitive theory and visual art. I address these lacunae by considering such concepts as echo, reflection, Ear, Voice, musica poetica (links between music and rhetoric) and musical pathos within the poet’s canon. Throughout my readings, Athanasius Kircher’s encyclopedic musical treatises— Musurgia universalis (1650) and Phonurgia nova (1673), both of which circulated within New Spain during Sor Juana’s lifetime—stand out as important sources by which such ideas were transmitted. My approach sharpens extant scholarship on these topics and identifies two new influences within Sor Juana’s poetic world: Aristotelian theories of cognition and Kircher’s unique position on musica poetica. More generally, this dissertation engages emerging scholarship on Ear in the early modern world and thus responds to the critical limits of ocularcentrism.

Thesis (M.A.)--Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries, 1991. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-82).

Thesis (M.A.)--Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries, 1991. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-82).

Thesis (M.A.)--Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries, 1991. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-82).