The thesis "Teilhard de Chardin's apologetics of Christianity" starts with a brief introduction to apologetics and fundamental theology in general, on the basis of Teilhard's thought, presents the main critical comments and addresses the methodological question of the approach to his thinking. In the main part, develops the structure of apologetics from the phenomenological description of the world's evolution, from the particles and animals through the emergence of consciousness and man. This is showed on the basis of the "law of complexity and consciousness", which shows the increase of consciousness with the increase of the complexity. And then, through noogenesis (evolution of the spirit), it reaches the point of Omega. The thesis addresses the question of the legitimacy of such extrapolation and continues to the philosophical deduction of Omega's characteristics, as essentially transcendent, to an entropy independent, attractive and present. From the philosophically introduced point of Omega, seeks to show the possibility of identifying Christ of revelation with the Omega point through the theological reflection, as proof and defense of the truth of Christianity. The thesis tries to critically evaluate the apologetics thus built, to elaborate the philosophical view and to evaluate the...

Submitted by admin tede (tede@pucgoias.edu.br) on 2017-03-09T19:17:49Z No. of bitstreams: 1 LUIZ HUMBERTO CARRIÃO.pdf: 1385634 bytes, checksum: c903b8193a06180b01a63bb07064c960 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-03-09T19:17:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 LUIZ HUMBERTO CARRIÃO.pdf: 1385634 bytes, checksum: c903b8193a06180b01a63bb07064c960 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-12-20 / The goal of this research is to investigate the new aspects contained in the Christological view of the Brazilian philosopher Huberto Rohden about the central character of the Gospels – Jesus Christ – for whom, the Cosmic Christ, the Word or Logos described in the fourth Gospel is the first and most perfect individual manifestation the Universal Deity, God; and, the Telluric Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, the visible vehicle of the invisible Christ who, through Mary, lived among us, and who may have become personified in other parts of the Earth and the Universe. / A pesquisa tem como objetivo investigar a novidade contida na visão cristológica do filósofo brasileiro Huberto Rohden acerca do personagem central dos Evangelhos - Jesus Cristo - para quem, o Cristo Cósmico, o Verbo ou Logos descrito no quarto Evangelho, é a primeira e a mais perfeita manifestação individual da Divindade Universal, Deus; e, o Cristo Telúrico, Jesus Nazareno, o veículo visível do Cristo invisível, que através de Maria habitou entre nós, com a potencialidade de habitar em nós, e que, como Cristo, pode ter-se personificado em outras partes da Terra e do Universo.

Ce travail de thèse présente la pensée de Grégoire de Nysse sur la corrélation entre le cosmos et l’homme. La recherche a pour ambition d’expliquer et de comprendre la conception grégorienne de la création et l’interprétation du rôle de l’homme dans la création pour voir si elle apporte ou non un complément potentiel au débat contemporain sur la crise écologique. Il s’avère que cette problématique contemporaine conduit à renouveler notre regard sur les textes de Grégoire et à dégager ses réflexions sur un mode de comportement envers la création, propre à sa vision théologique de Grégoire. L’analyse des concepts concernant le cosmos et l’homme démontre une bipolarité de leurs relations possibles, qui s’exprime dans l’idée d’ontologie et d’éthique cosmique. L’éthique semble alors être la liberté vécue de l’homme sur cette terre, avec pour résultat le principe agissant de son rapport avec le reste de la création au cours de sa vie. D’après Grégoire, l’approche humaine en ce qui concerne l’environnement n’est qu’une question de liberté de choix qui pourtant marque le cheminement de l’homme vers la nouvelle création, celle créée par le Christ. / This thesis presents Gregory of Nyssa’s point of view about the relation between man and the cosmos. The current analysis aims to understand and explain Gregory’s concept of creation and the way this concept perceives the role of the human in the creation; this is in order to verify if it makes any eventual addition to the contemporary debate on ecological crises. Actually, this contemporary problematic contributes in renewing our view on Gregorian texts and shows a way of behaviour towards the nature/creation itself in accordance with the theological vision of Gregory. The analysis of concepts concerning the human and the cosmos stresses a twofold relation between them, expressed through the idea of ontology and cosmic ethics. In this case ethics seem to be the experimental liberty of man on this earth and as a consequence, the active principle of the relation with the rest of the creation in the frame of life. According to Gregory, the human approach towards the environment is only a question of free will which nevertheless determines the way of man to the new creation established by Christ.

Through his personal spiritual growth process and Jesus’ teachings and life, Paul became acutely aware of the vast differences between Prophetic Judaism and the Mystical Traditions in relation to the Temple Cult and Temple-ism in general. Paul’s own “history of religion” centred on Abraham’s Covenant as the first and preferred, unmediated, spiritual and universal model, against Moses’ priestly mediated cultic system designed basically for Jews. Therefore, Paul follows Jesus teachings and mission to “rip the dividing curtain” of the Jerusalem Temple (Heb 6:19, 20); so that all nations can be reconciled to God (Eph 2:11-18). Jesus re-negotiated “a new and better covenant” of God’s mercy through repentance to all. Cultic “regulations” and Jewishness as being a special “religious”, covenantal “qualification” is now outdated and rather were now dangerous myths in Paul’s new religion. Paul knew that bridging concepts and new interpretations of metaphors will have to be part of the transition. God did not need a final special blood cultic sacrifice; to the contrary, only some people needed one so that they can make the mental transition from a cultic religion to a spiritual and personal religion.To Paul, God was the unknown Father and the Essence of all creation and Jesus-Christ was their leader and master or lord. In the mystical sense however, “Christ” represented the real Spiritual essence of mankind; the image of God in mankind. The core of Paul’s soteriology is his growth and participational aspects which constitutes the salvation process and are closely linked. The salvific process starts in the first phase with conversion from cultic Temple-ism and weaning from cultic and ethnic “laws” through the teaching of, and participation in, the spiritual growth process of the “physical” Jesus while the Spirit within us is awakening. The latter heralds the start of the “second” mature spiritual phase of the resurrected and vindicated Christ; sensitising our conscience as our moral identity and source of internal motivation from the real Self; one lives intuitively from loving-kindness; you honour this Gift in your earthly vessel with a fitting response to life. The behavioural element is central and an absolute necessity in the salvific process and he never views it as being secondary. Christianity will have to revise simplistic “faith” to salvation dogmas and broaden its functional scope by again honouring the second personal and authentic spiritual growth phase to be able to manifest a better Kingdom with the aid of Human Beings. / Systematic Theology and Theological Ethics / D.Th. (Systematic Theology)

The research on "The healing touch of Nature in the context of pastoral therapy" illustrated the role of Nature in bringing healing to individual people in an urban context in South Africa. The role Nature plays in connecting the participants with God and how this positively affects their daily lives, has been central in the research. Through their interaction with Nature, the participants lead richer, more meaningful lives and experience a greater sense of well-being. Nature stimulates and elicits response as the digital world is set against the calm energy and "warmth of the earth". Through connection with God in Nature, the participants translate the healing metaphor into more tangible "language" – the "beautifying effect" of Nature. It is not the words that captivate, but the thoughts which the words carry. Mostly the research tells the story of the experiential knowledge of living in the intimate presence of God and the healing power of God‘s presence. This narrative is about a kind of knowing that can only come through Nature. The research offers a way of seeing Nature that could influence pastoral care today. / Practical Theology / M. Th. (Practical Theology with specialisation in Pastoral Therapy)

Through his personal spiritual growth process and Jesus’ teachings and life, Paul became acutely aware of the vast differences between Prophetic Judaism and the Mystical Traditions in relation to the Temple Cult and Temple-ism in general. Paul’s own “history of religion” centred on Abraham’s Covenant as the first and preferred, unmediated, spiritual and universal model, against Moses’ priestly mediated cultic system designed basically for Jews. Therefore, Paul follows Jesus teachings and mission to “rip the dividing curtain” of the Jerusalem Temple (Heb 6:19, 20); so that all nations can be reconciled to God (Eph 2:11-18). Jesus re-negotiated “a new and better covenant” of God’s mercy through repentance to all. Cultic “regulations” and Jewishness as being a special “religious”, covenantal “qualification” is now outdated and rather were now dangerous myths in Paul’s new religion. Paul knew that bridging concepts and new interpretations of metaphors will have to be part of the transition. God did not need a final special blood cultic sacrifice; to the contrary, only some people needed one so that they can make the mental transition from a cultic religion to a spiritual and personal religion.To Paul, God was the unknown Father and the Essence of all creation and Jesus-Christ was their leader and master or lord. In the mystical sense however, “Christ” represented the real Spiritual essence of mankind; the image of God in mankind. The core of Paul’s soteriology is his growth and participational aspects which constitutes the salvation process and are closely linked. The salvific process starts in the first phase with conversion from cultic Temple-ism and weaning from cultic and ethnic “laws” through the teaching of, and participation in, the spiritual growth process of the “physical” Jesus while the Spirit within us is awakening. The latter heralds the start of the “second” mature spiritual phase of the resurrected and vindicated Christ; sensitising our conscience as our moral identity and source of internal motivation from the real Self; one lives intuitively from loving-kindness; you honour this Gift in your earthly vessel with a fitting response to life. The behavioural element is central and an absolute necessity in the salvific process and he never views it as being secondary. Christianity will have to revise simplistic “faith” to salvation dogmas and broaden its functional scope by again honouring the second personal and authentic spiritual growth phase to be able to manifest a better Kingdom with the aid of Human Beings. / Systematic Theology and Theological Ethics / D.Th. (Systematic Theology)

The research on "The healing touch of Nature in the context of pastoral therapy" illustrated the role of Nature in bringing healing to individual people in an urban context in South Africa. The role Nature plays in connecting the participants with God and how this positively affects their daily lives, has been central in the research. Through their interaction with Nature, the participants lead richer, more meaningful lives and experience a greater sense of well-being. Nature stimulates and elicits response as the digital world is set against the calm energy and "warmth of the earth". Through connection with God in Nature, the participants translate the healing metaphor into more tangible "language" – the "beautifying effect" of Nature. It is not the words that captivate, but the thoughts which the words carry. Mostly the research tells the story of the experiential knowledge of living in the intimate presence of God and the healing power of God‘s presence. This narrative is about a kind of knowing that can only come through Nature. The research offers a way of seeing Nature that could influence pastoral care today. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Practical Theology with specialisation in Pastoral Therapy)

Currently the world is in the midst of a major ecological crisis, of which climate change is a key element. It is contended that this ecological destruction is largely a result of the underlying values controlling ethics and the controlling instinct of the modern worldview, which has been dominant for the past three centuries. The most recent and still emerging worldview, postmodernism, is examined and contrasted as a rebuttal to the modernistic tendencies and ethics. Utilising Ecclesiastes 1: 1-18, the ethical themes that the author of Ecclesiastes used are explored and paralleled to similar views found in postmodernism. Together, these biblical and postmodern thoughts illustrate how a strong environmental ethic can be formed that counters the modernistic worldview of controlling creation. The outcome of this research is to integrate aspects of postmodern thought with the book of Ecclesiastes to present a theological ethical basis from which a Christian can view and act towards creation. / Systematic Theology & Theological Ethics / M.Th. (Theological Ethics)

[Truncated abstract] In this thesis I examine the poetics of Thomas Traherne’s often over-looked Christology through a reading of The Kingdom of God. This work, probably written in the early 1670s, was not discovered until 1997, and not published until 2005. To date, no extended studies of the work have been published. It is my argument that Traherne develops an expansive and energetic poetic expressive of the theme of the ‘Cosmic Christ’ in which Christ is understood to be the source, the sustaining life, cohesive bond, and redemptive goal, of the universe, and his body to encompass all things. While the term ‘Cosmic Christ’ is largely of 20th century origin, its application to Traherne is defended on the grounds that it describes not so much a modern theology, as an ancient theology rediscovered in the context of an expanding cosmology. Cosmic Christology lies, according to Joseph Sittler,“tightly enfolded in the Church’s innermost heart and memory,” and its unfolding in Traherne’s Kingdom of God is accomplished through the knitting together of an essentially Patristic and Pauline Christology with the discoveries and speculations of seventeenth century science: from the infinity of the universe to the workings of atoms. … The thesis concludes with a distillation of Traherne’s Christic poetic The Word Incarnate. The terms put forward by Cosmic Christology are used to explicate Traherne’s intrepid poetic. In his most remarkable passages, Traherne employs language not only as a rhetorical tool at the service of theological reasoning, but to directly body forth his sense of Christ at the centre of world and self. He promises to “rend the Vail” and to reveal “the secrets of the most holy place.” Scorning more “Timorous Spirits,” he undertakes to communicate and “consider it all.”

Currently the world is in the midst of a major ecological crisis, of which climate change is a key element. It is contended that this ecological destruction is largely a result of the underlying values controlling ethics and the controlling instinct of the modern worldview, which has been dominant for the past three centuries. The most recent and still emerging worldview, postmodernism, is examined and contrasted as a rebuttal to the modernistic tendencies and ethics. Utilising Ecclesiastes 1: 1-18, the ethical themes that the author of Ecclesiastes used are explored and paralleled to similar views found in postmodernism. Together, these biblical and postmodern thoughts illustrate how a strong environmental ethic can be formed that counters the modernistic worldview of controlling creation. The outcome of this research is to integrate aspects of postmodern thought with the book of Ecclesiastes to present a theological ethical basis from which a Christian can view and act towards creation. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M.Th. (Theological Ethics)