Thesis advisor: Frederick G. Lawrence / Taking as its mandate the expansive vision suggested by the integral ecology of Laudato Si’, in conjunction with the insights of contemporary ecological and evolutionary theologians, this dissertation proposes a framework for an integral, planetary, and cosmic theology of grace. It draws from and builds upon many of the insights of the leading Catholic contributors to ecological and evolutionary theologies, including especially John Haught, Elizabeth Johnson, Denis Edwards, and Celia Deane-Drummond. Through their various approaches, each emphasizes the created, cosmic effects of both the universal invisible mission of Holy Spirit and the visible mission of Christ’s Incarnation, intended from all eternity and culminating in his passion death and resurrection. Noting the strong resonances with traditional accounts of the economy of grace in human redemption, this dissertation seeks to provide a unitive account of God’s healing and elevation of all of creation through a creative and redemptive economy of grace. This project is also carried out in intentional dialogue with both with traditional understandings of grace, especially as articulated in the speculative and systematic synthesis of St. Thomas Aquinas, and with contemporary scientific understandings of world process. To facilitate this larger conversation, this dissertation also explores Bernard Lonergan’s transposition of grace, nature, and sin from the Medieval theoretical framework into a framework based on interiority, and it relies especially on Lonergan’s explanatory account of the dynamic orientation of nature as “upwardly but indeterminately directed,” as laid out in his generalized emergent probability. However, as Lonergan and his students have only attended to grace in relation to human contexts, the constructive part of this dissertation lays out an understanding of grace as “God’s created relationship of transformative love and care for all creatures that opens them up to ever deeper relationships with God and with each other.” This broad definition makes possible the identification of God’s grace throughout all of creation: humans, other animals, plants, and even “inanimate” matter are caught up in the networks of grace that bring them to greater perfection along three axes: According to their absolute finality, all creation may be observed as existing in a state of ontological praise of its Creator and Redeemer and in a state of eschatological expectation. According to their horizontal finality, each creature is empowered to realize its particular, fleshly excellences in line with its dynamically conceived nature, the account of which nature is described by the vast array of modern sciences. According to their vertical finality, each creature exists in networks of interconnection that undergird the possibility and, sometimes, the reality of surprising and irreducible inbreaking of renewal and emergence. At the same time, this framework also recognizes the elevation of human beings to not only these forms of relative supernaturality, but also to the absolute supernaturality of sanctifying grace and the habit of charity in which we are adopted into the intra-trinitarian life of friendship. By situating this theology of grace in relation to Lonergan’s transposition of nature in the form of his account of generalized emergent probability, the specifically theological character of this account of world process is both distinguished from and related to the other explanatory accounts offered by the whole range of the human, social, and natural sciences. To clarify these relationships and the particular role of theology in dialogue with these other sciences, the final chapters explore the hermeneutical and heuristic value of this theology of grace in relation to the larger conversations around emergence, convergence, and cooperation in evolutionary theory. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

In Christianity, there are two major perspectives of how one attains eternal life: by faith in Jesus Christ alone, or by necessary additional works/ordinances, such as baptism, or obedience to commandments. Though beliefs about salvation may reasonably be thought to have an influence on mental health and behavior, research on the subject has been slow to accumulate. This project examined the association between beliefs about salvation and mental health, as well as whether this association is mediated by other variables, including Religious Involvement, Scrupulosity, and Perfectionism. A sample of 1,556 Protestants/Evangelicals and Latter-day Saints (who generally hold distinct views about salvation) completed a survey assessing beliefs about salvation and other religious and mental health variables (including Well-Being, Anxiety, and Depression). A scale assessing beliefs about salvation was generated for use with this sample and evaluated by exploratory factor analysis. A correlation matrix indicated beliefs about salvation did not have significant relationships with most variables, with the exception of religious Legalism (negative correlation with Faith, positive correlation with Works). This broadly contradicts theoretical data suggesting potential deficits due to beliefs about salvation by faith alone (e.g., lack of religious involvement) or by additional works (e.g., higher perfectionism). A mediation model was also tested, showing significant path strength between Faith/Works and Legalism; other significant paths were observed between the mediating variables and mental health variables (especially Spiritual Transcendence and Well-Being). Implications for future research on the cognitive dimension of religion are discussed.

Robust groundwater management is necessary to maintain long-term aquifer sustainability. Temporally and spatially inconsistent in situ data prevents robust groundwater resource evaluation. Data from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite mission has been used to evaluate long-term, large-scale groundwater trends. However, the spatial resolution of GRACE data presents challenges for groundwater management in medium-sized aquifers like the Central Valley of California (CV). Other researchers have utilized GRACEderived data to evaluate groundwater storage in the CV, but they often make corrections due to what is referred to as the "leakage effect." We demonstrate a method for imputing gaps in groundwater time series that uses in situ data, Earth observations, and machine learning that provides an independent estimate of groundwater storage change. Using imputed data from this method, we calculate a storage depletion curve and use it to rescale GRACE-derived groundwater data in the CV. Our results demonstrate a method for calculating groundwater storage change, providing a direct solution for calibrating GRACE at a variety of aquifer scales.

The majority of critics interested in the religious elements of Flannery O'Connor's fiction argue that her texts illustrate her professed Catholic faith. For many of these scholars, the author's nonfiction figures predominately in their interpretations of her fiction. This thesis highlights the presence of Evangelical theology in O'Connor's short fiction by utilizing an approach that is underrepresented in scholarly examinations of her works: reading O'Connor's texts without considering the author's personal beliefs. Through this approach, the Evangelical dimensions of O'Connor's short stories become apparent. This thesis contends that each of the six short stories discussed exemplifies Evangelical theology as they emphasize the fallen nature of humanity, depict the action of grace as transformative, and suggest that willful cooperation is not necessary to salvation. By demonstrating that O'Connor's short fiction reproduces Evangelical theology, this thesis aims to provide scholars with a basis for reconsidering the relationship of her works to the literary tradition of the largely Protestant South.

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Thesis advisor: Frederick G. Lawrence / Johannine literature explains the meaning of Jesus of Nazareth and our relationship with God in terms of logos and agape: the Logos is Theos (Jn 1) and Theos is Agape (1Jn 4). The goal of this dissertation is to relate these two, understanding and love, to develop a master analogy for the revelation of God to human beings. This is elaborated through close reading and commentary on classic texts by two Doctors of the Church, Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, in an attempt to reconcile voluntarist and intellectualist approaches to the question of God by showing how the act of understanding is analogous with the act of love. Augustine would integrate his understanding of Scripture and philosophy into his theory of the inner word (verbum mentis) as the image of the Triune God. This consummate theological achievement is also a meta-analysis of personal communication by a master of the art of rhetoric, defined as “the good man, skilled in speaking” (vir bonus, dicendi peritus) by Cato the Elder in Quintilian’s Institutio Oratoria. The Bishop of Hippo affirms the words of a wise person as the ideal of communication, as perfected in the life of the Christian evangelist. A systematic exegesis of Augustine’s personal, rhetorical, and theological synthesis, the first part of this dissertation is a study of several key texts to explore how the Doctor of Grace relates love with understanding, the words of Scripture with those of the philosophers. Thomas Aquinas develops Augustine’s insights in the theological system of his Summa theologiae, expanding the theory of the inner word into a theoretical synthesis uniting reason and faith, scientia and sapientia, which the Doctor of Grace was not able to achieve. The second part of the dissertation analyzes and complements the reading of Augustine in the first part by testing it in dialogue with Aquinas’ treatment of the same themes—understanding and love—in the First and Second Parts of the Summa as representative of his mature thought. The study of these two figures is intended as an attempt to apply Lonergan’s Method in Theology. By developing the relationship between knowing the truth and loving it, this project expands upon his efforts to sublate the linguistic phenomenology of Heidegger’s hermeneutic revolution within a theological system. Lonergan formulates his own hermeneutic as four levels of knowing: experiencing, understanding, judging, deciding. Having his insight on the centrality of love late in life, however, he would leave his interpreters with the question of how to integrate knowing with loving. The exigencies of publishing Method would also mean leaving the problem of communication as a challenge for his successors. This dissertation seeks to propose a solution with the retrieval of Augustine’s hermeneutic of caritas as a model for communicating Christian self-appropriation through a phenomenology of how we realize the logos. We understand the meaning of a whole by recognizing the order in which all its parts fit together. In this way, judgment operates analogically as a determination of the fittingness of a logical proportion. And so, as Logos, God is the order into which all things fit together, revealed to us as a complementary pattern, which is expressed through analogy. In the Catholic tradition, this pattern of grace is consummated by receiving bread and wine sacramentally, and recognizing in them the essence of our relationship with God as well as one another, as we realize this loving relationship as the form of all our acts. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

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Thesis advisor: James F. Keenan / This dissertation presents an ethical examination of power dysfunctions within liturgical practices, with a specific focus on the portrayal of God as an omnipotent monarch. This depiction propagated through rituals, contributes to a culture of unaccountability among clergy and undermines the active participation of the faithful in the liturgy. The study utilizes performative theories from philosophers such as Judith Butler and theologians like Louis-Marie Chauvet to explore how the repetitive use of language and iconography that enacts domination also opens possibilities for resistance. A significant aspect of this research involves an ethical analysis of non-Christological images of God from the twelfth to the fifteenth century. This investigation uncovers a resilient agency among the faithful, who actively resisted the monarchicalization of God and God’s ministers. The dissertation posits that addressing this power dysfunction requires a revival and promotion of depictions that portray divine vulnerability. This conceptualization of vulnerability, inspired by feminist philosophers, is reimagined not as a weakness but as a capacity for responsiveness and the ability to attend to others’ wounds. The dissertation argues that vulnerability is a foundational element in building communities of solidarity that resist injustice. By promoting such imagery, there is a potential to encourage ethical responses and foster openness to others’ claims. This shift can lead to a transformation from a culture of unaccountability to one that upholds the equal baptismal dignity of the faithful, thereby redefining the dynamics of power within liturgical settings. / Thesis (STD) — Boston College, 2024. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

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Desastres naturais (secas, enchentes, etc) têm resultado em perdas humanas e grandes prejuízos financeiros em diversos lugares do mundo. Os recentes períodos de seca ocorridos na região sudeste do Brasil mostraram a importância de se dispor de estratégias de mitigação dos efeitos decorrentes desses eventos extremos. Um pré-requisito para prever impactos desses eventos no futuro, é compreender como os mesmos ocorreram no passado, caracterizando-os espacial e temporalmente. Diante do exposto, o objetivo deste trabalho é quantificar os impactos regionais no sistema hidrológico causados por eventos extremos e identificar conexões entre as secas meteorológicas e hidrológicas, usando a bacia do rio Paraná como estudo de caso. Para tanto, foram identificados e caracterizados os principais eventos de seca ocorridos entre 1995 e 2015, analisaram-se as perdas de água nos componentes do balanço hídrico e no armazenamento total de água. Foram utilizados dados de sensoriamento remoto, incluindo medições da missão GRACE de anomalias no armazenamento total de água terrestre (TWSA), e estimativas de precipitação e evapotranspiração pelos satélites TRMM e MODIS, respectivamente. Simulações de modelos globais de assimilação de dados de superfície terrestre forneceram estimativas de escoamento superficial e umidade do solo. Foram coletados dados de 37 reservatórios para quantificar as perdas de água no armazenamento em terra. Os resultados mostram que o TWSA diminuiu 150 ± 50 km3 entre 2011 e 2015 na bacia do rio Paraná, o armazenamento dos reservatórios diminuiu 30% em relação à capacidade máxima do sistema com taxas de -17 a -25 km3 ano-1 durante as secas. Foram identificados seis grupos de reservatórios cujas respostas são variáveis de acordo com tipo de forçante (natural ou antropogênica) de maior controle. A análise dos tempos de resposta do sistema hidrológico sugere um tempo de até aproximadamente 6 meses para que medidas de combate às secas sejam tomadas. Este estudo ressalta as vantagens do uso combinado de dados de diferentes fontes em estudos regionais. / Natural disasters have caused major economics and human losses globally. Recent droughts over Southeast Brazil underscored the importance of having mitigation strategies to fight the effects from extreme events and a prerequisite to anticipate the impacts from future events is an understanding of past droughts by means of spatial and temporal characterization. The objective of this study is to quantify regional impacts of extreme events on the hydrological system and identify linkages between meteorological and hydrological droughts. To this end, major droughts events between 1995 and 2015 were identified and characterized. Depletion in total water storage (TWS) and main components of the water budget were analyzed. Simulated soil moisture and runoff from land surface models and remote sensing data were used, including measurements of TWS anomalies (TWSA) data from GRACE mission, rainfall and evapotranspiration estimates from TRMM and MODIS satellites, respectively. To quantify reservoir storage depletion, data from 37 reservoirs were collected. Results show that TWSA declined by 150 ± 50 km3 between 2011 and 2015 in the Paraná basin; and reservoir storage decreased 30% relative to the system\'s maximum capacity, with negative trends ranging from -17 to -25 km3 yr-1 during the droughts. Six groups of reservoirs were identified whose response vary according to the main forcing type: human and/or natural controls. Analysis of the system\'s time lag responses indicated a 6 month window during which actions could be taken to combat the drought impacts. This study emphasizes the importance of integrating remote sensing, modelling and monitoring data to evaluate droughts and develop a comprehensive understanding of the linkages between meteorological and hydrological droughts for future management.