Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / One of the most controversial theological subjects today is the doctrine of man. In this area, too, lies some of the sharp criticism of Protestant liberal thought. Hence there should be value in analysing some recognized liberal thinker's doctrine of man. Harry Emerson Fosdick was an especially well-known liberal preacher of the first half of the twentieth century. He received both great praise and severe negative criticism. While much has been written concerning his preaching methods, there has been little effort to analyse any of his theological doctrines. This dissertation has sought to make clear and to evaluate Fosdick's doctrine of man. An effort has also been made to discover what implications this doctrine has for Fosdick's type of liberalism. The method followed has been a careful reading of all Fosdick's work pertinent to any phase of the doctrine of man, supplemented by correspondence and personal interview with Fosdick himself. Fosdick is not a systematic theologian. He has not fully expounded any theological doctrine in any one place. Therefore, it was necessary to select different emphases from different works and to try to bring them together into a coherent whole. The resulting doctrine of man was then analysed for its liberal elements. These elements were compared with those found in concepts of liberalism expressed in the writings of Reinhold Niebuhr and Walter Marshall Horton. These two theologians hold widely differing views of what constitutes liberalism. The comparison between their concepts of liberalism and that revealed in Fosdick's doctrine of man served to clarify Fosdick's type of liberalism. The study established the fact that Fosdick's doctrine of man is fundamentally Christian, true to the emphases of the Bible and general Christian thought. Fosdick does not reveal the tendency, often found today, to over-emphasize one aspect of man's nature to the exclusion of others. He balances the idea of man's goodness with clear recognition of his sin; reason is important but revelation is primary; man is both free and limited; man is a spiritual being but the physical body is a necessary vehicle for its expression; eternal life, which is both present and future, is open to man. What man should be, as a total person, is seen in Christ, the revelation of both God and man. In insisting on the sacredness of personality Fosdick is true to the spirit of Jesus. Fosdick is clearly a liberal. He is not guilty, however, of the excesses of liberalism which gave rise to severe criticism. His liberalism has always been moderate and he has remained close to central Biblical affirmations. A critic himself of much early liberalism, he expressed neo-liberal ideas before the term "neo-liberal" came into existence. No adequate grasp of Fosdick's theology can be gained unless one reads all his work. Much of his theolo gical thought is expressed in writing other than his published sermons upon which many are prone to base their criticism. A thorough study of all his work shows that he deserves more recognition than he has received in theological circles. Appreciated as he has been for his important contribution to early liberal thought, he has not been recognized for his solid contribution to what is now often called neo-liberalism. In the advance guard of both the critics of early liberalism and the adherents of a new, more realistic, and soberly considered liberal viewpoint, he deserves consideration in modern thought.

Dissertation (Ed.D.)--Boston University, 1970. / The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not semantic flexibility as a language characteristic of teachers in training could be used as a predictor of the teacher's ability to receive and transmit information. The Guilford Word Association Test, designed by J. P. Guilford to measure convergent and divergent thinking, was selected as the instrument for measuring semantic flexibility and was administered to 201 students enrolled in the block methods course at Boston University. The students were all juniors, scheduled to student teach the following semester. The Guilford Word Association Test was also administered to 154 sixth grade children enrolled in the Boston Public Schools in the South End and Roxbury and to 182 sixth grade children enrolled in the Newton Public Schools. The two groups of children were designated as the urban and suburban samples, respectively. From the populations tested four high Guilford teachers and four low Guilford teachers were selected. From each of the urban and suburban classes four high Guilford and four low Guilford children were selected. Each teacher had eight pupils assigned to her and for the purposes of data analysis, the children were categorized first as high and low Guilford scorers and then as urban or suburban children. In total there were eight teachers and sixty-four children in this experiment. [truncated]

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University / A panel of speakers from several hospital services including; psychiatry, nursing and social service, who speak on the work of the psychiatric hospital has just completed its tenth year of community education in and around Greater Boston, under the auspices of the Massachusetts MentalHealth Center. The purpose of this study is now to seek some index of its effectiveness, to consider how the findings may serve as a gP.ide to practice for the panel itself and for other programs in the mental health education field, and to recommend areas for further study.

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University / Epilepsy which has the longest known medical history of any disease effects a large segment of our population. In the United States, there are about a million persons affected with this connition which is characterized by a seizure or fit. It has been said that about seventy five recent of this group can have seizures controlled by medication. However, other studies have shown that with control of seizures, it does not follow that the problems of this group are solved, The difficulties besetting this chronically ill group seem at times to be almost insurmountable. Our society, because of its fears and lack of knowledge about the illness, discriminates against the epileptic in employment, education and other social activities, There are even discriminatory laws relating to his employment, marriage, and driving a car.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Boston University

This dissertation studies one of the new ministries for women in the Catholic Church that developed after the Second Vatican Council. It is a historical, critical, descriptive, and evaluative study. While professional roles for women in the Church had become limited and privatized through the centuries, there are precedents in the early Church and even in the Middle Ages for more public and official roles for women. Vatican II renewed and broadened the definitions of "minister" and of "ministry" and called upon all Christians to participate actively in the work of the Church. We have sought to discover the degree. to which women have been able to achieve a professional ministerial role for themselves in campus ministry. Many primary sources were available to answer this question, the most important being the testimony of the women themselves. One chapter of the dissertation traces the history of women's roles in the Catholic Church. Another follows the history of Catholic campus ministry and shows why this was a ministry open to women more than many others in the Church. A third chapter traces the efforts of women in the American Catholic Church as a whole as they made a transition from being assistants of priest chaplains to chaplains themselves, a movement requiring changes in concepts of ministry and of minister held by the women themselves as well as those held by their colleagues and constituencies. The women, numbering nearly three hundred by 1972 were able, within limits, to win the title chaplain, to prove their value as ministers in individual situations, and to increase their own self-confidence as ministers. Their experiences give insights into job descriptions, models, procedures, and criteria that have developed over a twelve-year period. The fourth, and longest, chapter is in effect a case study of the larger movement as it developed in the Archdiocese of Boston. This diocese was chosen as a case study because of its comprehensive and varied academic community and because of the representative character of the 18 women chaplains who have served within its boundaries. Conclusions of the study are: 1. Since 1962 campus ministry has provided a situation in which Catholic women have been able to realize a ministerial identity and reveal the potentialities of women as ministers. 2. Experiences of the women have varied from very positive to very negative. Factors contributing to negative experiences were: a. Women, denied the sacramental-cultic forms of ministry, are marginal to a ministry that has itself been marginal to both the Church and the university. b. Catholic ministry was so identified with priestly functions that women had no models to follow. c. The changes in attitudes and practices in the Catholic Church after Vatican II often left the women anxious and without adequate support systems. Factors contributing to positive experiences were: a. The personal character of the individual woman. b. Effective team-work situations. c. Support from Church officials, colleagues, and religious communities. 3. Issues related to the positive or negative experiences of women are a woman's feminist consciousness, the attitudes of people toward women as public ministers, and the question of ordination of women in the Catholic Church. 4. Even when and where women are accepted and find success as campus ministers, two other problems arise: the relationship of women religious to their communities, and the prejudices lay women encounter. The broad significance of the experience of these women lies in the way attention has been called to women's capacities, when given a chance, to exercise ministry and to their unequal position in the Church. A direction has been set by women campus ministers that will not easily be reversed. These women may be creating models that recall the origins of Christian ministry as well as suggest its future.

No description available.

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University

No description available.

No description available.