Thesis (M.A. (Th.))--Acadia University, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (A.M.)--University of Chicago, Divinity School. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis--Technische Universität Berlin. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 182-189).

Texte remanié de: Diss.--Fachbereich Geschichtswissenschaften--Marburg--Philipps-Universität, 1987. / Bibliogr. p. 296-313.

This dissertation examines the function of shame within Christian texts and practice through the lens of affect theory and trauma studies. A focus on the deleterious effects of interred shame and shame’s role in attachment presses theology to name corporeal shame, understand it as distinguished from guilt, and recognize how it relates to attachment and human bonding. Distinguishing shame from guilt provides conceptual markers of shame, shifting the focus away from the image of the lonely, guilty sinner and toward a self both attached to others and to God. An analysis of classic theological texts along with an exploration of touch in Christian practice discloses that shame must be disinterred and faced in order to repair its negative effects and to restore its natural function in attachment. An analysis of Augustine’s The City of God reveals shame’s emergence in Augustine’s theology embodied by the notion of “covering-up,” which impedes attachment to God. In The Nature and Destiny of Man, Reinhold Niebuhr’s notions of sensuality and pride reflect shame, yet Niebuhr subsumes shame under other terms. Examining the place of shame in these major works and displaying the continual covering-over of shame in these theologian’s descriptions of the human condition exposes shame’s toxicity but also unveils shame as indicative of attachment. Augustine’s notion that the forehead serves as the seat of shame parallels affect theory’s location of affective emergence on the face and corporeally situates shame on the forehead. The final chapter displays what it would mean to take seriously the implications of affect in theological anthropology and practical theology. Both affect theory and trauma studies underscore the somatic and textual interactions that create a shamed self. This dissertation turns to the liturgical enactment of Christian practices, highlighting the importance of touch in both harm and repair. Exploring the moment of touch in the imposition of ashes on the forehead on Ash Wednesday develops touch as an affective encounter with shame. This interdisciplinary study of shame broadens insights about how Christian theologians interpret the human condition, as disinterred shame directs the self towards its greatest attachments: connection to others and to God.

This work rethinks current interpretations of American exceptionalism, emphasizing dynamic relations, especially those we could call "ironic." I am reading Reinhold Niebuhr's The Irony of American History alongside Eric Voegelin's and Woodrow Wilson's philosophical and political treatment of freedom, expressed through the ideal of American personhood. American entertainment continues to spread globally, and the spreading creates a wider nexus of efficacious relations, allowing for the interplay of hidden relations and symbolic complexes. "Ironic American exceptionalism," as I call it, highlights the positive aspects, usually overlooked, provided by "virtual integration" and the spawning of novel cultural hybrids. By "virtual integration," I mean to include the forms of entertainment that Americans export to the world, including sports, movies, music, etc. I will try to show that popular culture, specifically "entertainment," in a certain sense of the word, serves to facilitate a mythic consciousness of open selfhood to the world. It is also my contention that open selves are not scientific, religious, political, economic, or otherwise, at least in any limiting sense. When freedom is concentrated under any of these movements or cultural interests solely, then the openness and inclusiveness associated with being "American" (in the sense I will explain) is jeopardized. I want to suggest that popular theories of exceptionalism, those revolving around these limited interests, misconstrue what "Americans," as exemplary open selves, aspire to be. Assembling symbolic icons, images, and artifacts, consumed widely, generates the pluralization associated with American identity and liberty. The spreading and exporting of these complexes produces novel hybrids between elitist and low cultural trends, bringing them together in subtle ways. Inquiring into exceptionalism through a philosophy of culture shows that American open selfhood is not peculiarly democratic, Christian, or capitalist. By resisting exemplarist or expansionist exceptionalisms, the "American" service to humanity is exceptional without serving some higher moral cause or false sense of superiority.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Permission from the author to digitize this work is pending. Please contact the ICS library if you would like to view this work. / There are many excellent studies of the life and thought of Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971), prominent Christian ethicist, social philosopher, and political activist of the American Century. Most studies focus on his mature works of mid-century, particularly his theological ethics. The following study treats his emergent theory of history between 1927-1934, especially the idea of progress and the narrative of modern capitalist society. During this formative period Niebuhr wrote three major books (Does Civilization Need Religion? [1927], Moral Man and Immoral Society [1932], and Reflections on the End of an Era [1934]) which reflect his intellectual passage from religious liberalism and the politics of persuasion to "Christian-Marxism" and the politics of power. The following thesis will trace the diverse historiographical influences found in these works, from the church-historical perspective of Ernst Troeltsch to the dialectical materialism of Karl Marx. It is common to say that Niebuhr was purely a theologian of history. But following Ricoeur and White, I describe the main ingredients of a philosophy of history that are present in these writings: myth, plot, social processes, patterns of progress and cycle. Moreover, he was a "thinker in time"--these philosophical elements combined to render a plausible and meaningful narrative context for social action. In the early period Niebuhr began his lifelong critique of Enlightenment, capitalism, and the idea of progress. Following Robert Nisbet's analysis of the concept of progress in Western cultural history, I will argue that Niebuhr traverses his own peculiar dialectics of history, moving from the idea of progress-as-freedom (in the twenties) to the idea of progress-as-power (in the thirties); from the form of irony to the form of tragedy; from the concept of the voluntary reform of the excesses of captialism to the concept of the frank use of coercion to implement a socialist alternative to captialism. His philosophy of history in this period thus reflects in Christian idiom aspects of the very antinomies of the Enlightenment regarding personality and power, freedom and fate, which he desires to overcome.