In this paper I set out to find a new tradition beyond the dilemmas of modern and post-modern philosophy, and, once found, to explore the basic assumptions and their correlative view of the world. To do this I analyze and compare St. Augustine and Max Scheler as thinkers who avoided many of our modern-day dilemmas. Starting with Scheler’s abstract thought, I then proceed to show how it comes to life in Augustine’s Confessions. Both thinkers are woven together into an organic whole that seeks to present as many interconnections of internal justification for this worldview as possible. The end result that is hoped for is twofold: 1. to show the extreme connection binding these thinkers together and 2. to present a viable alternative to the action forms that us modern subjects live in.

Thesis advisor: James F. Keenan / This dissertation offers a constructive contribution to the field of liturgy and ethics by proposing a fundamental eucharistic ethics, articulated in the key of virtue. It envisions a new theological approach to examining the relationship between worship and morality, which proceeds on the basis of Eucharistic theology, eschatology, and theories of virtue. The project begins with a critical reading of modern sacramental theology and the field of liturgy and ethics. It draws attention to the problematic prioritization of universal sacramentality over the ecclesial sacraments themselves, and on this basis, it calls for renewed attention to the Eucharist. In addition, it offers a methodological assessment of the field in terms of two models for linking liturgy and ethics: the correlational and pedagogical models. The dissertation attempts, on that basis, to stress the eschatological setting of the relationship between liturgy and ethics. It argues that virtue ethics provides the appropriate theoretical resources for understanding the connection between liturgy and ethics on an eschatological horizon, and it gives an account of liturgical virtue. The limits of this approach are discussed relative to the partial and fragmentary nature of virtue in light of eternal life and in terms of liturgical vice. The project ends with a study and defense of the virtue of hope as the first virtue of a fundamental eucharistic ethics. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

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This dissertation explores North Africa’s role in the development of its own religious discourse, specifically with regard to martyrdom, death, the afterlife, and other eschatological themes. Historians of early Christianity and Islam often depict the region as peripheral, but it was actually a crossroads where pre-existing traditions met new ideas to develop unique, localized versions of these religions. More often than not, these emphasized a pursuit of martyrdom and veneration of saints. This longue-durée study covers a vast timeline, spanning the pre-Christian period to the late Fatimid Caliphate. Its central focus, however, is the Donatist schism that divided North Africa in the fourth and fifth centuries. While typically portrayed as a fanatical, death-mongering sect, Donatism was a multi-faceted movement whose identity shifted with the changing times. It maintained a distinctive African character throughout with an emphasis on the teachings of Tertullian and Cyprian. Rather than accept a static definition of martyrdom, these African voices actively participated in the discourse. Using interdisciplinary methodologies that combine history with archeology, anthropology, theology, and literary analysis, this dissertation traces both the religious and social contexts of North African martyrdom. The continuity of such themes across the region’s changing cultural and religious landscapes amplifies North African voices in a field where they have often encountered silence.

Reading Augustine’s letters as a collection proves useful for understanding his theory in practice of the significance of others—the moral status of love for others—particularly since the conditions of the letter (absence, writing) engender expressions of lack and desire for the other. With Augustine, this desire is frequently in tension with his Neoplatonic and Christian philosophical commitments which valorise the Creator over the creature, universally-directed love over private love, and the soul over the body. Following these tensions between theory and practice chronologically through the letters shows his changing responses to the significance of the other, in terms of their bodily presence and their individual interior experience. Moreover, Augustine’s developing theory of the afterlife as a place of continued embodiment and the fulfilment of intimacy corresponds to and models Augustine’s responses to absence and longing in this life. / Graduate

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Politics and Church in Saeculum – History and Political Theology in Oliver O’DonovanThis essay explores the relation between church, history and politics in the theology of Oliver O’Donovan. It asks the question of how O’Donovan’s political theology and understanding of the church is shaped by his view of history and how God acts within history. It shows how O’Donovan, following Augustine, stresses the tension between the two cities within history – the City of God and the City of Man – and uses this as a paradigm in which to understand the secular political authority. As a provisional ordering in saeculum, the earthly City of Man has a temporary function, awaiting God’s final reign in eschaton, in which it will hand over its authority to Christ. The church, though being a political community already prefiguring the reign of God in Christ, it still lives, in this age, under the secular rule. Awaiting the coming Kingdom its primary occupation is that of witness, inviting society and its ruler alike to accept the kingship of Christ. As a successful example of this mission O’Donovan gives a significant focus to the era known as Christendom, in which the western civilization, following the conversion of the Roman emperor Constantine, is understood as a Christian society with Christian rulers. In discussing O’Donovan’s political theology, the essay asks questions about O’Donovan’s reading and usage of Christendom and tries to reason about the application of O’Donovan’s theology in a situation where Christendom no longer defines the western experience (or what has been called a predominantely post-Christendom context). An important question in the discussion is whether O’Donovan stays true to the heritage of Augustine, or if he, in theory as well as practice, tends to follow other voices within the theology of history.

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In this thesis, I seek to contextualize the exclusivity of traditional marriage in the United States. I investigate the use of Christian beliefs applied to the American legal system, consequently becoming the foundation of American commonsense. I draw out the ways in which Augustinian thoughts on marriage have inadvertently been used to justify institutional favoritism toward heterosexual, monogamous couples. Through examining the Christian-American lens that shapes our understanding of traditional marriage, I argue that previous and current secular opposition to non-traditional marriage is fundamentally grounded in Christian faith, furthermore, American cultural understanding of marriage is unconsciously lined with Augustinian thought.

Excavations conducted in June of 2004 at 71 Park Place, then a vacant residential lot located in downtown St. Augustine, yielded a significant artifact and faunal assemblage. Historic maps and documents indicate that this property was once part of a 10¼ acre orange grove and cornfield that existed from approximately 1790 until the late 1880s. Historic maps show that three structures once stood on this property, which is corroborated by the archaeological findings at 71 Park Place of post-holes that outline a two-room structure. As the majority of the artifacts and faunal remains recovered from the site were found around this possible structure, it is likely that these remains were left behind by the former occupants of this structure. Historic deeds indicate that the antebellum owners of the property were wealthy individuals and slaveholders, which raises the possibility that the former occupants of the structure identified on the property were slaves and that the artifacts and faunal remains recovered from 71 Park Place are representative of the material culture of urban slaves. This thesis examines this possibility by looking for previously determined ethnic markers of slavery within the assemblage, as well as by comparing the artifact and faunal remains to three plantation slave and three middle-to-upper class St. Augustine assemblages. Results indicate that although an urban salve occupation cannot be shown archaeologically, the possibility still remains, and further archaeological research in the thus far little studied field of urban slavery would be greatly beneficial to this study. / Thesis / Master