Thesis advisor: Lisa S. Cahill / Naïve optimism pervades theological literature regarding human responses to ecological crises. What is needed is both hope and realism--despair will not resolve anything, but neither will an ecotheologian's vision of a "redeemed," harmonious restoration of the divinely intended natural order. A comparison of two theologians whose views seem at first to be in irresolvable conflict with one another may help to show what a "realistic hope" could look like. How do James M. Gustafson and Sallie McFague conceive of God as relating to human beings, and what do their conceptions imply for how humans should relate to nonhuman creation? These questions will necessarily examine their respective models of God, and how they utilize those models or images in their ecological ethics. I will argue that a synthesis of their views provides hope (despite the claims of those who dismiss McFague as naïve and Gustafson as overly pessimistic) through a third perspective akin to Douglas Ottati's notion of "hopeful realism." For Gustafson, the primary model of God is a sovereign, rather distant power--yet, Gustafson claims that humans are still responsible for attempting to discern what God enables and requires us to be and do. The weakness of his model is that it could lead to a sense of isolation from God as we strive to respond to the cries of creation seemingly on our own. Its strength is a realism that allows us to persevere in the face of ecological crises. Divine grace is present and enables human activity, even if this activity does not effect the changes we think it should. In contrast, for McFague, the primary model of God is an immanent deity whose compassion extends to all of creation--for her, the earth can be seen as God's body, and humans can be seen as co-caretakers or even partners with God as we seek to protect the earth. We should relate to non-human creation as we relate to God and to other humans--as subjects, and as "good" in and of themselves. We get the sense that God is with us in the trenches of ecojustice. The weakness of her model is its possible naïveté regarding historical possibilities and their theological significance. Its strength is its appeal to the inspiring nearness and salvific activity of God in this world, here and now. Divine grace is concrete and almost visible in its clear intention. Their models conflict, and yet these theologians share an ecological concern that is informed by their theological influences and their personal experiences of nature and human relationships. To demonstrate the complementary aspect of their views (and the relevance of this project in addressing ecotheological naïveté), I will also explore the practical application of their views to land ethics in primarily urban settings. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Divinity School, December 2002. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

The size and complexity of many scientific and enterprise-level applications require a high degree of parallelization in order to produce outputs within an acceptable period of time. This often necessitates the uses of high performance computing clusters (HPCCs) and parallelized applications which are carefully designed and optimized. A myriad of papers study the various factors which influence performance and then attempt to quantify the maximum theoretical speedup that can be achieved by a cluster relative to a sequential processor. The studies tend to only investigate the influences in isolation, but in practice these factors tend to be interdependent. It is the interaction rather than any solitary influence which normally creates the bounds of the design trade space. In the attempt to address this disconnect, this thesis blends the studies into an expanded speedup model which captures the interplay. The model is intended to help the cluster engineer make initial estimates during the early phases of design while the system is not mature enough for refinement using timing studies. The model pulls together factors such as problem scaling, resource allocation, critical sections, and the problem's inherent parallelizability. The derivation was examined theoretically and then validated by timing studies on a physical HPCC. The validation studies found that the model was an adequate generic first approximation. However, it was also found that customizations may be needed in order to account for application-specific influences such as bandwidth limitations and communication delays which are not readily incorporated into a generic model. / Master of Science

In order to work toward right relationships among humanity and all other things, what is required is an ethical theory that concerns itself with interests that include but are not limited to the human. James M. Gustafson's theocentric ethics, which centres value on God, can accomplish this in the religious sphere. Gustafson's ethical theory also has the potential to work within nontheistic secularism as a way of construing all things as interrelated and interdependent. Underlying Gustafson's theology and value theory is a commonsense ontology, which appreciates evidences from the sciences, affective orientation, and resembles certain webs of beliefs held by many outside religious communities. In order to illustrate the transition to secular Gustafsonian ethical theory, functional surrogates of theology found in secular philosophy, and particularly in the work of Mary Midgley, are identified. Gustafson's ethical theory is used to identify certain obligations and restrictions with regard to environmental ethics.

Thesis (Th. M.)--Calvin Theological Seminary, 1989. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [221]-224).

Thesis (M.A.)--Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries, 1987. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [162-164]).

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The aim of this thesis is to investigate the relationship between evangelicalism and modernity with the Swedish holiness preacher Emil Gustafson (1862–1900) as a case. This is achieved by comparing Gustafson’s spirituality with Charles Taylor’s characterization of modernity. The investigation identifies five central themes in Gustafson’s spirituality: conversion, calling, suffering, sanctification, and spiritual experience. With regard to these themes paral-lels with modernity are noted. For example, the analysis shows that modern individualism influenced Gustafson’s view of conversion, and that instrumental rationality informed his evaluations of his own work as a preacher. But there are also instances where he distanced himself from modernity. He did not embrace a modern optimistic anthropology, or the view of suffering as purely negative. It is concluded that Gustafson is neither anti-modern, nor identical to Taylor’s depiction of modernity. He represents one kind of modernity. One that is theocentric rather than anthropo-centric. In order to uphold this theocentric character Gustafson’s opposition to the basic struc-ture of modernity had to be grounded in social practices. For instance, his negative anthropol-ogy was grounded in the revival-meeting where outsiders were called to repent and rely on God rather than themselves. Based on the results from this study it is suggested that evangelicalism should be inter-preted as neither in conflict with modernity, nor in continuity with it, but rather as a kind of modernity. There are multiple modernities, and evangelicalism is one of them.

The aim of this comparative study between Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and Emil Gustafson is to identify possible significance of the concept of God in relations to suffering. This is achieved by comparing Gustafsons concept of God in suffering and ACTs concept of a destructive normality as a significant role in human suffering. The study identifies five themes in ACT: destructive normality, fusion, experiential avoidance, defusion and acceptance. A comparative analysis shows that christian concepts in Gustafson like the human as damaged, humility, pride, surrender and fear of temptation may have an impact of the perspective of suffering for the individual human. The study does not show that Gustafsons christian concepts include ACT as such. The psychological processes that ACT identifies and correlates with the power of human language are rather incorporated in Gustafsons language and his concepts of God. It may be concluded that the concept of God in Gustafson, in itself, have structures of symbolic language that can play a significant role in handling with the relations of psychological processes and human language that ACT identifies as a part of human suffering.