<p> This dissertation addresses the role and functions of silent prayers of lament and sorrow in light of individual and communal suffering of black women due to their triple oppression of sexism, racism, and classism. Silence is used theologically in two respects: (1) it refers to the rarity of articulated sentences, but not to the absence of sound; and (2) it refers to the various forms of lament from the disenfranchised that historically and contemporarily are silent within the dominant theological discourse. Silence is the intimate communication which may be quietness or the audible sounds and symbolic actions that may not follow normal rules of speech that persons use to convey their deepest thoughts and most intense feelings, including pain and anguish to God. A Pentecostal Womanist methodology utilizes pneumatological transformation of pathos as a theological framework to examine the ways marginalized people deal with oppression. The Holy Spirit effects change in the act of lamenting prayers by turning the expressions of sorrow, anguish, and afflictions toward the triune God, but also serves as the catalyst for imparting glimpses into the fellowship of Christ&rsquo;s suffering and power of resurrection (Philippians 3:10). Orthopathos is a pneumatological transformation of suffering experienced by marginalized groups. Silent prayers of sorrow and lament have been foundational in empowering African American communities.</p><p>

This is a study of the theological aesthetics of Jonathan Edwards. Previous studies of Edwards’ aesthetics tend to pass over doctrinal issues and address Edwards mostly within a philosophical context. In this treatment, the aesthetics of Edwards is examined within an explicitly theological framework. The definitions of beauty offered by several Enlightenment philosophers known to Edwards (Shaftesbury, Addison, Hutcheson) are explored. Edwards creatively integrates from these writers the Neoplatonic tradition (the objective side) and empirical tradition (the subjective side) in his conception of beauty. Edwards uses the concepts of sensibility and beauty to construct his theocentric worldview. In Edwards’ conception, the material world exists for the purpose of serving as a giant metaphor for spiritual reality. Edwards adopts Lockean vocabulary to distinguish between a rational understanding and a sensible perception of spiritual reality. This sensible perception in the saints is the work of the Spirit according to his own nature. The Holy Spirit is God’s own perception of his beauty. Thus the perception of divine beauty by the saints is an extension of the inter-Trinitarian life of God. For Edwards, humility is the beauty of the human nature of Christ. This is a creaturely beauty not available to the pre-incarnate Son. Conversely, immensity is the unique and incommunicable glory of God. Both the Trinitarian beauty and awesome beauty of the immensity of God will reach their climax in the eschatological states of heaven and hell. Hell is especially a demonstration of the awesome glory of God’s immensity. Edwards’ aesthetics brings out the tension between the relatedness and the freedom of God. Both belong to the beauty of God, yet they cannot be harmonized in a closed system. Soon after Edwards’ death, the Reformed tradition in America quickly forgot this insight into the sensual perception of God in its quest of systemic consistency.

James Fraser of Brea’s significance in Scottish theological history stems principally from his controversial doctrine of universal redemption which led to schisms within the Associate Synod and the Reformed Presbytery in the mid-18th century. During those disputes, several assumptions were made concerning his doctrines that have endured, thereby hindering the development of a more objective interpretation of Fraser's thought. Recent scholarship has begun the re-evaluation of his place in the development of Scottish theology and this thesis continues the process by seeking to exonerate Fraser from the unwarranted and reductionist accusations that have hitherto obscured his doctrine of redemption. This thesis advances a new and more accurate interpretation of Fraser’s doctrine of Christ’s redemption. By broadening discussions beyond the single criterion of the scope of Christ’s redemption, it also helps develop a more precise understanding of the fundamental issues of the orthodox Reformed position upon redemption during the 17th century. In order to provide a context for scrutinizing Fraser’s formulations, the debates surrounding the doctrine of redemption throughout the 16th and 17th centuries have been explored. In addition, a systematic evaluation of Fraser’s views on assurance, God’s eternal decrees, federal theology and justifying faith has been undertaken to construct a framework through which a more accurate interpretation of his doctrine of universal redemption has been achieved. Divided into three sections, this thesis begins with two contextualizing chapters. These establish the parameters of this thesis as well as detail several key developments in the doctrine of redemption throughout the 16th and 17th centuries related to determining the proper interpretation of Fraser’s doctrine of universal redemption. Following this introductory section, the second section of this thesis, which constitutes the main body in four chapters, scrutinizes Fraser’s doctrine of redemption in relation to his expressed purpose in writing and his fundamental doctrinal commitments, namely his unwavering fidelity to covenantal absolutism and redemptive particularism. The final section of this thesis is the conclusion, wherein scholars are encouraged to reconsider how they classify the doctrine of redemption and, specifically, how they understand Fraser’s doctrine of redemption in relation to the redemptive theories of his contemporaries. It is commonly recognized that Fraser deviated from the Reformed orthodox norms of the 17th century by arguing for a broader scope of Christ’s redemption, one that included the reprobate as well as the elect. This thesis moves beyond this basic understanding of his theology in two ways. Firstly, it explores why Fraser determined it was necessary to depart from the traditional presentation of Christ’s redemption and secondly it identifies how his adoption of the two-fold design of redemption corresponded to the more foundational theological commitments of his Reformed contemporaries. Since most previous interpretations have run together the three different positions, Fraser’s perspective has been carefully compared and contrasted with the redemptive paradigms proposed by the Arminians and the Hypothetical Universalists. This thesis will challenge such a confusion of theologies, arguing instead that Fraser’s doctrine of redemption truly represents via media alia. In order to fill the gaps left by earlier examinations of Fraser’s theology which concentrated upon his Treatise on Justifying Faith, for the first time equal consideration has been given to all of Fraser’s writings. Even the voluminous doctoral study by Duncan Fraser (1944), proving that Fraser of Brea employed the theme of Christ’s universal redemption throughout his writings, failed to provide an adequate analysis of how Fraser’s doctrine of redemption fitted into his own theological system or into the context of the Reformed community of 17th century Europe. This thesis provides just such an analysis.

<p> The purpose of writing this paper was to raise awareness about spiritual fitness within the Hawaii Army National Guard. A training program was developed to assist soldiers with increasing their spiritual fitness, thereby making them more resilient. </p><p> Chapter 1 outlines the current trends and ministry problem facing the Hawaii Army National Guard soldiers. A review of the US Army Comprehensive Soldier Fitness Program is addressed, and it is shown how spiritual fitness is developed and increased. </p><p> Chapter 2 provides a review of literature relating to the topic of spiritual fitness, and the importance and place it has in our society. The development of the Four Spiritual Laws is addressed, and shown how the use of the booklet can very simply and directly help individuals grow their faith personally. </p><p> Chapter 3 sets forth the research methodology utilized in approaching the project, including the use of readily available training materials and resources. The purpose of the spiritual fitness inventory is discussed and the goals of each research area are defined. </p><p> Chapter 4 presents an analysis of the method used to gather supporting data. The methodology for the chaplain led intervention is outlined, so that others can use the program to engage their military units in the future replication of this program. </p><p> Chapter 5 assesses the data and points to the strategy for areas of further research across the Hawaii Army National Guard. The benefits of the program are discussed and shown to be applicable for implementation by other chaplains across the state.</p>

In this thesis I offer a theological analysis of biomedical efforts to extend the healthy human lifespan by attenuating the aging process, situating this project within the Christian quest to holiness. The potential of even modestly extended life spans has profound social, familial, political, economic, religious, and environmental implications, and warrants considerable theological reflection, hitherto largely absent from contemporary ethical discussion. Hence, I critique the biomedical attempt to extend human life via aging retardation by considering the historical attitudes towards one’s aging body and longevity within the Christian tradition, paying particular attention to shifts in attitude regarding aging and decay, and by examining the Christian discipline of fasting as practiced by the Desert Fathers, who believed that an attenuated rate of aging was one physiological outcome (among others) subsumed under a larger moral project of character transformation. While the concept of a normative lifespan as derived from Scripture is highly tenuous, a relationship between finitude and a wisdom that recognizes one’s bodily limits does emerge. While key figures in the history of the Church have acknowledged both the difficulties of earthly life and the promise of bodily resurrection leading to a general ambivalence concerning the length of life and its extension, such attitudes were challenged by Francis Bacon and mirrored during the theological upheavals of the Great Awakenings in America. Drawing upon the work of Charles Taylor and Thomas R. Cole, I discuss the theological shifts whereby spiritual growth was segregated from physical aging via an increasingly instrumental stance towards aging and its mutability, increasing one’s fear of death. In the remainder of the thesis I examine St. Antony’s ascetic regime which enabled him to ‘remake’ his body as part of reordering and refining his soul to be the leader of his body, a regime which entailed an attenuated rate of aging. Drawing upon Karl Barth’s christological anthropology who locates the unity and order of soul and body in the person of Jesus Christ, I demonstrate how current attempts to retard aging exacerbate the ‘disorder’ and segregation of body and soul, described as ‘sloth’ and ‘care,’ negating the role of the body and its limitedness in the formation of one’s soul, and failing to mitigate the fear of death occasioned by such a disorder. Finally, I situate the Christian discipline of fasting as an alternative to life extension within the context of the practices of faith communities, understood minimally as baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

Stephen Charnock (1628-1680) is arguably remembered for his importance, at the zenith of Puritan or English Reformed scholastic divinity, in terms of the doctrine of God’s existence and attributes. He also contributed to Reformed orthodox or Puritan theology through his writings on the knowledge of God, the doctrine of regeneration, Christology, and the atonement. He wrote all these work in the midst of the theological turbulence of the later seventeenth century, with the underlying purpose of defending the inseparability of theological system and piety. His work, with its eclectic acceptance of medieval scholastic intellectual tradition as a tool, plays a significant role in the development of an historical phase of trinitarian and federal theology. However, The Existence and Attributes of God as Charnock’s magnum opus has been unexplored in terms of its view of the full doctrine of God in its trinitarian and covenantal dimensions. This is despite the fact that the Puritan concept of the divine attributes is the very doctrinal area in which the theological loci are concentrated into “a system” associated with the pursuit of piety in the period of high orthodoxy. This lack of a comprehensive overview concerning the Reformed orthodox system has brought about a misunderstanding of his theology. Charnock’s work has been regarded, even in recent scholarship, as the product of a mere scholastic rationalism. William Perkins (1558-1602) is undoubtedly the “father” of the doctrine of God in the early Puritan or Reformed orthodox period. Although misunderstandings concerning his scholastic Puritan theology and its trinitarian system and piety have been successfully rectified by other previous researchers, a confirmation of it through an investigation of his idea of God’s attributes is necessary in our study. This is in order to prove the identity of Charnock’s doctrine of God with the Puritan Reformed orthodox theological system allowing, of course, for the development of the historical and theological context between these two periods. In particular, Charnock’s understanding of the theological prolegomena, Scriptural foundations, and God’s existence and attributes is dealt with in this current study in comparison with Perkins’ work. Charnock’s work has been viewed in terms of a continuity between the early and high orthodox doctrine of God within the flow of English Puritan thought. During this examination, giving particular attention to Charnock’s treatise The Existence and Attributes of God, we have attempted to resolve the question of whether the past interpretation of Charnock’s theology or doctrine of God as a rigid speculative doctrinal formulation of Protestant scholasticism beyond Scripture is reasonable or not.

<p> The purpose of this study is to analyze the sense of valuation that members of the younger Vietnamese generation receive from church leadership and the effect of this perception of valuation on the church&rsquo;s retention of the younger generation. The motivation for this study arose out of an intergenerational conflict which has existed for some years between the first and second generations of Vietnamese church leaders and members. The researcher proposed that merging potential leaders of the younger Vietnamese generation into church leadership would increase retention of the younger generation in the Vietnamese churches. In order to test this hypothesis, a survey was created and filled out by three groups of second generation Vietnamese: Group A consisted of those who have remained in the Vietnamese Church; Group B included those who had once attended a Vietnamese Church, but have left and are now attending a non-Vietnamese Church; and Group C was comprised of those who once attended a Vietnamese Church, but now are not attending any church. Thus, the participant groups included one &ldquo;retained&rdquo; group and two &ldquo;un-retained&rdquo; groups. The seven-question survey was designed to evaluate seven possible issues related to retention, each touching in some way upon the Second Generation&rsquo;s sense of valuation by the First Generation. The researcher tabulated and analyzed the differences in the responses between the three groups. The results of the study show that valuation of the younger Vietnamese by the first generation is an essential component for making disciples and retaining and developing future leaders within the immigrant Vietnamese church community. </p>

The meaning of the Markan Jesus' citation of Psalm 22:2 has long been a matter of debate amongst scholars in the field. More specifically, this debate centers on whether the citation is atomistic or contextual. In an effort both to join and move forward the dialogue on this subject, the primary question of this thesis is: How would Jesus' cry from the cross of Psalm 22:2 in Mark 15:34 have been understood by Mark's first-century readers given its context in the entire narrative of the gospel? The contribution of this thesis is in its multi-level approach to the above question by the examination of a variety of evidence that, in the end, indicates that Mark's earliest readers would have read and understood this psalmic citation as contextual. It is argued that, contra the opinion of the majority of Markan scholarship, a contextual reading of Psalm 22:2 in Mark 15:34 does not serve to negate or dilute the presentation of Jesus as one in distress and agony, but rather enhances this aspect of his death by underscoring his identity as a Righteous Sufferer who experiences suffering but has the promise of vindication. Among the evidence that supports a contextual reading of the citation in the Markan narrative is, (a) the importance of Jesus' impending resurrection/vindication and its foreshadowing in the Markan narrative; (b) the relatively consistent contextual use of the scriptures in the narrative prior to Mark 15:34; (c) the patterns of the textual and liturgical use of the psalms and the presence of the motif of the Righteous Sufferer in Mark's socio-cultural milieu; (d) the Markan presentation of Jesus as the Righteous Sufferer throughout the narrative; and (e) an exegesis of Mark 15:34 and the surrounding Markan passion-resurrection narrative with regard to the function of Ps 22 and the story of Jesus' death and resurrection. A test case of the argument presented in the previous chapters of the thesis is undertaken at the close of the study, when both Matthew and Luke's treatment of Ps 22 and other Righteous Sufferer language is considered, regarding their readings of Ps 22 in Mark as the earliest tangible evidence of the interpretation of the use of Ps 22 in his gospel.

Thesis (M.A.) -- Central Connecticut State University, 2009. / Thesis advisor: Katherine A. Hermes. "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 72-80). Abstract available via the World Wide Web.

In this thesis I present a critical explication of Barth’s doctrine of providence in Church Dogmatics III.3. I argue that Karl Barth’s doctrine of providence developed throughout CD III.3 represents a ‘personalist’ revision of Reformed orthodoxy which can only be understood through his ad hoc use of philosophical resources. I claim that critics and supporters alike have missed the depth of Barth’s revision of Reformed providence by failing to perceive his ad hoc use of contemporaneous philosophical tools of the personal. Barth’s doctrine of providence remains theology proper, and not philosophy, but cannot be understood without philosophy. By setting Barth in conversation with three philosophical theologians, Vincent Brümmer, John Macmurray and Austin Farrer, I attempt to show how far Barth is from pre-modern understandings in his articulation of the doctrine of providence. These conversations equip the reader to discern continuities and discontinuities of Barth’s thought with 20th century personal, relational philosophy, thereby making sense of many of Barth’s counterintuitive claims. For Barth, human life is the continual double-agency of human self-determination and divine determination. This life in covenant before God (coram Deo) constitutes the Godgiven opportunity of human personhood. Seen in dialogue with personalist philosophical thinkers, Barth’s doctrine of providence overcomes problematic aspects of traditional Reformed views and grants limited time and space for personal development. Providence sheds light on Barth’s ‘eternalizing’ eschatology in that election establishes the objective reality of salvation for all creatures, while providence explicates God’s active lordship in the human’s self-determination of personal identity in history (the subjective formation of the person who is objectively saved). Election describes God’s salvific work on behalf of creation solely in the work of Jesus Christ. Providence determines the identity of those creatures in relation with the personal God. The conversations I propose with philosophical theologians enable the reader to discern a greater philosophical coherence in Barth’s doctrine of providence. Through contrast with the philosophical theologians, Barth’s christocentric and Trinitarian articulation gains clarity and significance. Building on these philosophical comparisons, I attempt to assess Barth’s elaborations on entrenched debates concerning history as determined by divine action, human freedom under divine providence, and the problem of evil in world-occurrence. I argue that Barth’s ‘personalist’ post-Enlightenment providence as seen in the whole of III.3 points to absolute confidence in God’s determination of all world-occurrence, limited human autonomy of action under God’s universal providence, and an explication of evil that strengthens the Christian in the face of suffering and injustice.