God is at the centre of an, often inarticulate, innate human desire and pursuit to enjoy and reflect the divine image in which every human being was created. The purpose of this research project is to affirm that human elemental pursuit as God‘s intent to fulfill this created, intrinsic human desire in the now or, what is referred to in this doctoral thesis as, proleptic spiritual transformation (PrōST). It seems that the world, and the extent, of spiritual transformation range from an etiolated theology to experiential fullness. Considered herein is God‘s heart, in relationship, and its implication toward an image-bearing human spiritually and how the Edenic fall interrupted this intent. From this is considered God‘s active interest in recovery of his fully-expressed image in humanity especially as experienced in PrōST. To corroborate this purpose, the means and methods of God‘s revelation in unveiling his heart, truth, and intents toward creation and humanity in particular toward spiritual recovery and PrōST, is examined. Moreover, the transformative and soteriological implications of proleptic spiritual transformation (PrōST) are investigated and whether a unified theory regarding PrōST emerges. The primary aim of this work investigates whether individuals must wait for the afterlife to have purification and spiritual transformation fully or largely "worked out", This thesis investigate the provisions of God‘s economy to include a present enjoyment of the imago Dei (image of God) in transformation as inclusive of the existential life of Christ as the imago Christi, reflected and represented by humans in relation to God and creation. That is, this study demonstrates that PrōST, an experience of transformation usually reserved for heaven in eternity, is greatly available today. The central theoretical argument of this study, as set out, is that humans were created in the image of God; however, the enjoyment and expression of this imago Dei, not its essence, has been greatly blemished, marred, and damaged by a God-defying wilfulness of humanity. Despite this rebellion, God desired a full restoration of the enjoyment and expression of his image. God has not forgotten or abandoned this intent. Moreover, the imago Dei now carries something more—the God-man (imago Christi). God‘s image in Jesus now carries the existential realities of his incarnate life toward which PrōST drives. This study re-examines the conventional partitioning of the "now" and "not yet" for a new balance and paradigm in expressed PrōST toward imago Dei. / PhD (Dogmatics), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus in co-operation with Greenwich School of Theology, United Kingdom, 2014

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Thesis advisor: James F. Keenan, SJ / Why should any society acknowledge and address recognition as a vital human need? This dissertation primarily sets out to offer a theological ethical response to this opportune and critical question. Fundamentally, it does not attempt to develop a new theory of recognition or, even, correct the existing ones. Rather, in agreement with the Aristotelian eudemonistic principle that the end of ethics is virtuous action and drawing on major theories of recognition, it highlights the necessity of acting virtuously in a manner that properly addresses the human need for due recognition. Its ultimate goal is to highlight the ethical significance of recognition as a vital human need. This goal is premised on the central thesis that all human beings need to be duly recognized and consistently treated as subjects with inherent dignity and fundamental rights; and, that failure to address the need for recognition leads to a catch-22 situation in human society. Therefore, it argues that doing a proper social ethics, especially Catholic Social Ethics, practically demands that we duly address the human need for recognition and explore how to integrate the habit of mutual recognition into the moral schemas of our societies so as to create a thriving culture of recognition – one that normalizes, prioritizes, and sustains mutual recognition as a common ground for negotiating the common good in modern multicultural and pluralistic societies. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

The purpose of the present study is to discuss which relationships and images of God exist between the Lovers in the Song of Songs. Theologian Sallie McFague's thoughts on the image of God as lover from Models of God: Theology for an Ecological, Nuclear Age form the framework from which I conduct my analysis. Since my primary material is of a biblical historical nature, my method is to read the texts with both modern idea-analytical methods, but also to read the narrative with a dialogic interpretation of history that enables a conversation with our contemporaries. Being that the Song of Song is a poetic text; questions of form and content are also applied as they are suitable for analyzing poetic philosophical texts. To nuance my discussion, I also bring in the feminist theologians Janet Soskice and Marcella Althaus-Reid as interlocutors. My essay shows that the relationships between the Lovers are egalitarian and poignantly sexual and include God in a triad of love. It also shows how images of God can become bigger if we dare to mirror both bodily and spiritual love not only horizontally towards each other, but also vertically towards God. This gives us the opportunity not to reduce or limit God, and neither ourselves as beings in reflection of Imago Dei.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-07-29T15:13:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese Ricardo Almeida de Paula.pdf: 575942 bytes, checksum: 0ec317ec0ef5e61d733726a1b2025646 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-08-27 / This thesis has as main purpose to study Emmanuel Mounier´s personalist thought as shown in his Oeuvres edited by Paulette Mounier in four volumes, published by Editions du Seuil from 1961 to 1963. The personalism is a movement with a wide philosophic renews and has the person as its core. In this manner, the study of being a person has its implications on Education. According with its Christian anthropological premise the Mounier´s philosophy sees the human being gifted with a imago, image, and throughout his transcendence with imago Dei, God´s image. The study of Mounier´s works and thinkers in the personalist context and philosophy of Education gave us perception of centrality of the person role as reference on contemporaneity. We affirm that personalism was lived as a philosophy which has the person as its core and therefore it is an Integral humanism, nevertheless the person´s concept and idea come from Mounier´s professed christianism, in this manner a Christian humanism. We assured that the personalism is a philosophy. The problem comes because Mounier marked his thought as an attitude more than a doctrine. However, personalism is a philosophy because it does not miss to it accuracy na systematization. Notwithstanding, it is a philosophy outdoor, out of academic walls, a lived and acted philosophy, a pluriform philosophic proposal, having the human person as its convergence center. We elucidated that the personalist thought is not underneath to the philosophical Brazilian thought building, on the contrary it was forbidden due the confusion made by the military system which understood its Marxist or communist and therefore prejudicial to the nation. Throughout social and communitarians movements as CEBs, JEC, JUC, AP, where had participated thinkers like Alceu Amoroso Lima and Henrique Lima Vaz the conscience of being personal in a repressive context and educational was of crucial importance for social-historical-educational development in Brazil. We discussed the meaning of the word education showing to be this changing and valorative attitude concerning the person that aims the transformation of the being of human person. We distinguished educational practice of institutional school practice, being the first understands the human educability and the second seeks to maintain the order ideologically established. We got the conclusion that the perceived crisis in the educational behavior was triggered by the person absence as being of education. The absence of a more defined anthropology, integral and proper about human person gives variable character to the education according to its thought about human being and humanization. Through Mounier´s thought we can retake the person´s concept as itself rescuing him in his communitarian-social aspect and at the same time as the center of all educational proposals. / Esta tese tem como principal objetivo estudar o pensamento personalista de Emmanuel Mounier conforme apresentado nas Oeuvres editadas por Paulette Mounier em quatro volumes, publicadas pelas Editions du Seuil, de 1961-1963. O personalismo constitui-se como um movimento de ampla renovação filosófica que tem como centro a pessoa. Desta sorte, o estudo do ser pessoa tem suas implicações na educação. Dentro de sua premissa antropológica cristã, a filosofia mounierista percebe o ser humano dotado de uma imago, imagem, e, mediante sua transcendência, de imago Dei, imagem de Deus. O estudo das obras de Mounier, e pensadores no contexto do personalismo e da filosofia da educação nos deu a percepção da centralidade do papel da pessoa enquanto referência na contemporaneidade. Afirmamos que o personalismo foi vivido como uma filosofia que tem a pessoa como centro, portanto, um humanismo integral, contudo, a idéia e conceito de pessoa partem do cristianismo professado por Mounier, dessa forma, um humanismo cristão. Afirmamos que o personalismo é uma filosofia. A problemática se instaura pelo fato de Mounier o ter assinalado mais como uma atitude do que como doutrina. Contudo, o personalismo é uma filosofia, pois, não lhe faltam o rigor e a sistematização. Porém, uma filosofia postulada fora dos muros acadêmicos, uma filosofia vivida e agida, uma proposta filosófica pluriforme, com o centro de convergência para a pessoa humana. Elucidamos que o pensamento personalista não é subjacente à construção do pensamento filosófico brasileiro, ao contrário, foi proibido devido à confusão feita pelo regime militar taxando-o de marxista , comunista e, portanto, pernicioso à nação. Através dos movimentos sociais-comunitários como as CEBs, JEC, JUC, AP, dos quais participaram pensadores da ordem de Alceu Amoroso Lima e Henrique Lima Vaz, a consciência de ser pessoal num contexto repressivo e educacional foi de crucial importância para o desenvolvimento sócio-históricoeducacional no Brasil. Discutimos a concepção do termo educação mostrando ser esta uma atitude transformadora e valorativa da pessoa, que visa todas as áreas da existência humana e, ainda, visa a transformação do ser da pessoa humana. Distinguimos a prática educativa da prática escolar institucionalizada, sendo que a primeira percebe a educabilidade humana e a segunda procura manter ordem ideologicamente estabelecida. Concluímos que a crise percebida no meio educacional foi deflagrada pela ausência da pessoa como ser da educação. Ausência de uma antropologia mais definida, integral e própria sobre a pessoa humana, confere à educação um caráter variável a respeito do que entende por ser humano e humanização. Através do pensamento de Mounier podemos retomar o conceito de pessoa enquanto tal resgatando-a em seu aspecto comunitário-social e ao mesmo tempo como centro de toda proposta educacional.

Synthetic biology is a relatively new discipline within the field of biotechnologies. In essence it is the artificial creation of microorganisms. Though similar in principle, it differs from genetic engineering because it creates an organism from scratch, rather than cutting and pasting DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) between existing organisms. This study investigates the ethical aspects (both rational and theological) concerned with synthetic biology through the use of a literature analysis. The study starts by investigating and describing the origins, pioneers, science and uses of synthetic biology. Secondly, it describes and ethically assesses the rational arguments for and against synthetic biology by comparing its benefits and risks. Lastly, the study describes and ethically assesses synthetic biology within the Reformed tradition, mainly by using the creational perspective of Christian ethical evaluations (including concepts such as creatio ex nihilio; creatio continua and imago Dei) and secondary the re-creational and eschatological perspectives. The final conclusion reached shows that synthetic biology is acceptable from a Reformed theological-ethical perspective, because humans as the image of God can create, just as God constantly creates new things and created a new universe from nothing. The rational arguments state that the potential benefits of synthetic biology surpass the risks it poses. Hence, it supports the idea that synthetic biology can be used to fulfil God’s commandment to love one’s neighbour, by improving his circumstances and activating hope. Nevertheless, Christians should always stay vigilant about motives and possible uses when dealing with new technologies. How and for what synthetic biology is used should in the future be constantly reviewed. In this way Christian scientists can still inquire about their work: Does it glorify God? / MA (Ethics), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Synthetic biology is a relatively new discipline within the field of biotechnologies. In essence it is the artificial creation of microorganisms. Though similar in principle, it differs from genetic engineering because it creates an organism from scratch, rather than cutting and pasting DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) between existing organisms. This study investigates the ethical aspects (both rational and theological) concerned with synthetic biology through the use of a literature analysis. The study starts by investigating and describing the origins, pioneers, science and uses of synthetic biology. Secondly, it describes and ethically assesses the rational arguments for and against synthetic biology by comparing its benefits and risks. Lastly, the study describes and ethically assesses synthetic biology within the Reformed tradition, mainly by using the creational perspective of Christian ethical evaluations (including concepts such as creatio ex nihilio; creatio continua and imago Dei) and secondary the re-creational and eschatological perspectives. The final conclusion reached shows that synthetic biology is acceptable from a Reformed theological-ethical perspective, because humans as the image of God can create, just as God constantly creates new things and created a new universe from nothing. The rational arguments state that the potential benefits of synthetic biology surpass the risks it poses. Hence, it supports the idea that synthetic biology can be used to fulfil God’s commandment to love one’s neighbour, by improving his circumstances and activating hope. Nevertheless, Christians should always stay vigilant about motives and possible uses when dealing with new technologies. How and for what synthetic biology is used should in the future be constantly reviewed. In this way Christian scientists can still inquire about their work: Does it glorify God? / MA (Ethics), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

There are some human beings who live their lives at the extremes of the human condition because of some gross intellectual, cognitive, neurological, or developmental impairment to their human nature. The evidence from practices of care and concern towards such people – the profoundly impaired – suggests that they are acknowledged and respected as moral peers within the human community. Such pre-reflective intuitions and commonplace practices lend credence to the anthropological claim that the profoundly impaired are recognisably persons. Yet what might an argument in support of this intuition look like? How is it that the profoundly impaired are recognisably persons among fellow persons? This thesis is a theological response to that question. The presupposition underpinning the question is that there is something at stake for the humanity of the profoundly impaired in their being the particularly conditioned human beings that they are. There are, however, those who do not allow for the personhood of the profoundly impaired precisely because of the impaired condition in which they live their lives, and there are others who do uphold the personhood of the profoundly impaired precisely by sidelining their impairment. Peter Singer is representative of the first position. Christian theology can and should make an effective response to Singer’s challenge. An emerging field in Christian theology seeks to do so by proposing a distinct theology of disability that re-imagines Christian anthropology. The aim is to secure the humanity of the disabled without the condition of their humanity becoming an obstacle to their moral status within the community of persons. Key to this re-imagining is the adoption of a paradigm of inclusion towards the disabled. However, a critique will be offered of those theological re-imagined Christian anthropologies that centre on a paradigm of inclusion, and on a commitment to separating out the condition of the profoundly impaired from the question of their humanity. The Dutch Protestant theologian Hans Reinders proposes one such re-imagined anthropology in his recent major work, Receiving the Gift of Friendship: Profound Disability, Theological Anthropology, and Ethics. His claim is that the humanity of the profoundly disabled cannot be secured by the traditionally held Christian doctrine of the imago Dei because that doctrine treats personhood as something intrinsic to human beings, thereby making it inaccessible to the profoundly disabled who do not have the personalising capacities of reason and will. Instead, he proposes ‘being chosen as a friend’ by God as the only way in which the humanity of the profoundly disabled can be secured, thereby rejecting an immanent reading of the imago Dei in favour of a transcending conception of friendship. This thesis will argue that Reinders’ anthropological project fails because his transcendent concept cannot do for the humanity of the profoundly disabled what it sets out to do. Consequently, a return will be made to that tradition of Christian anthropology centred on the imago Dei to see what may be retrieved from it, such that the condition under which the profoundly impaired live their lives is central to them being recognisably the persons that they are. This is a proposition which says that the personal presence of the profoundly impaired among other persons is not to be denied to them (contra Singer), nor only extended to them as a means of belonging (contra a paradigm of inclusion), nor simply eschewed of them so that they may thereby be included by other means (contra Reinders). In placing the doctrine of the imago Dei at the heart of the creaturely life of human beings, the Catholic Church has made this doctrine the structural centre of any theological account of the personhood of the profoundly impaired. It will be the positive task of this thesis to uncover the theological import of this Catholic anthropological imagination. The two authors most significantly engaged with in undertaking this task will be C S Lewis and Josef Pieper.

Thesis advisor: Jane E. Regan / This dissertation considers adolescent girls and what they need from an all-girls’ Catholic school that will prepare them, not just for college and career, but for life in a world that marginalizes girls and women. More than simply trying to make a case for single-sex schooling for girls, it suggests that the single-sex school is an important site for conversations about what it means for adolescent girls to be adolescent girls. This project names the patriarchal forces that marginalize girls and calls for a pedagogical approach that is rooted in the theological affirmation that adolescent girls are created in the image of God and called to exercise a prophetic imagination. Chapter one introduces the history of all-girls’ Catholic secondary schools, a history rooted in the story of women’s religious orders and the ministries of these women religious as educators at a time when the education of girls was not valued. Today’s all-girls’ Catholic schools are informed by this history and the Catholic Church’s commitment to honoring the dignity of each student, thus grounding a commitment to a caring and liberative educational approach. Chapter two argues that contemporary adolescent girls, including those who attend these all-girls’ Catholic secondary schools, are growing up in a cultural milieu that makes them vulnerable to the effects of the conflicting and impossible expectations to which girls and women are held. Chapter three investigates the imago Dei symbol as a theological foundation for fighting this toxic cultural milieu. Taking a cue from feminist theologians who have explored embodiment and relationality as central expressions of the imago Dei, this chapter proposes that creating communities of God’s hesed (loving-kindness) and resisting injustice are two ways that the imago Dei symbol can be expressed so as to best include adolescent girls. Chapter four suggests that, in order to realize this goal of affirming the imago Dei in adolescent girls by creating communities of God’s hesed and resistance to injustice, a feminist prophetic imagination is needed. Drawing on Walter Brueggemann’s identification of the prophetic imagination as the twinned process of denouncing the oppressive forces of the dominant culture and announcing a new and more just way of being in the world, it proposes a feminist prophetic imagination that engages in a feminist critique of the cultural milieu that girls experience and the construction of communities based in hesed and resistance to injustice. Chapter five takes up the pedagogical challenges of teaching with and for a feminist prophetic imagination. The liberative pedagogy of Paulo Freire and the caring pedagogy of Nel Noddings provide the resources for educating adolescent girls to participate in communities of God’s hesed and in practices of resistance to injustice. Chapter six returns to the concrete situation of all-girls’ Catholic secondary schools and imagines how these schools can speak to a commitment to educating for a feminist prophetic imagination in their mission and reflects on how a feminist prophetic imagination can be expressed and formalized in all Catholic schools.

This research covers the story of four persons from different backgrounds brought together by their faith in God, fellowship in the same church, residing in the same community and sharing the experience of living with HIV and AIDS: either as infected and/or affected individually. I am one of these persons due to the fact that I lost my sister to HIV and AIDS, thus I am affected. Though I only appear in the story as the researcher, it is my own loss that made it possible for me to empathise with my co-researchers. While one co-researcher was affected due to the fact that her husband was infected, became ill and died of HIV and AIDS-related sicknesses, the other two women were both infected by their husbands and at the same time were affected because they had to nurse the same husband who infected them. This was one of the cruelest moments in their lives but they forgave their husbands and cared for them to the end. In order for my research to reach the holistic insight into these women’s stories, I used the postfoundationalist practical theology approach. The reason for this is that this approach is contextual and relevant to people’s everyday life. One does not have to import knowledge to try to solve problems emanating from a particular context, but one needs to engage the locals and from that engagement, people start to reflect positively on their problems. Other lessons learnt is that one needs more than just a religious experience to play a role in solving the problem of HIV and AIDS; one needs more of the other disciplines to work together. In places like Mozambique, HIV and AIDS is not regarded as one of the health problems, but is classified as an interdepartmental or multi-sectoral problem. This means that HIV and AIDS do not affect only the Health Department, but all the departments. As such, each department is expected to have its own HIV and AIDS budget. It is here that I propose the Multi Disciplinary Team (MDT) composed of professionals from different disciplines working together to help solve the problem at hand. HIV and AIDS also help us to revisit our own understanding of God. While some people see the pandemic as the punishment from God for promiscuity, the truth is that we are all created in His image and this loving God does not destroy His own creation through HIV and AIDS. In His loving care, He reaches out to the unreached and cares for all His people: whether they are infected with HIV and AIDS, cancer or just are as healthy as they could be. The process of this research has empowered and enabled me to contribute to those who are infected and affected to be resilient and to stand, having hope in the goodness of God, working with others to bring a lasting solution to those infected and affected. Being resilient helps one to reclaim the marred Image of God in oneself and to reflect that image to impact onto our communities. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Practical Theology / unrestricted