No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

ix, 325 p. / This dissertation examines the development of skeptical views concerning causation from the medieval to the early modern period. While causal skepticism is often overlooked by intellectual historians, I argue that, in spite of its typical motivation as a religious response to shibboleths of ancient philosophy that stood askance from the dogmas of Abrahamic theology, causal skepticism was the greatest intellectual development of post-antiquity and ultimately culminated into modern Science. The first chapter examines Hume's famous analysis of causation and serves as a foil for the prior history of causal skepticism addressed in the subsequent chapters. The second chapter addresses the dispute over causation in medieval Islamic philosophy. I argue that virtually the entirety of Hume's analysis was anticipated, and in some cases superseded, by al-Ghazali in the eleventh century. The third chapter examines Averroes' critique of al-Ghazali, as well as the development of Aristotelian causal metaphysics in the Christian West. The fourth chapter concerns the development of the nominalist tradition skeptical attitude towards efficient causal explanation in the aftermath of the anti-Aristotelian condemnations of 1277. The fifth chapter addresses the Cartesian occasionalist tradition and its skeptical stance on secondary causation and the relation between this causal skepticism and central doctrines of Cartesian physics and metaphysics. The sixth and final chapter of my dissertation concerns the collapse of occasionalism and its many offspring. My ultimate thesis is that the hallmarks of both modern philosophy and modern science trace their origin to the failure of occasionalism to resolve its own internal contradictions. / Committee in charge: Dr. Naomi Zack, Chairperson; Dr. Cheney Ryan, Member; Dr. Colin Koopman, Member; Dr. Malcolm Wilson, Outside Member

The purpose of this study was to compose a profile of characteristics of a competent elder as a leader of Christian churches/churches of Christ for the year 2010. An essential component of this composition was the identification of issues that elders are likely to face in the 21st century church. A second objective was to identify effective ways in which elders can be prepared to meet the challenges of leading congregations in the beginning of the 21st century. A Delphi Technique was applied in this study since it is a particularly efficient research tool used in building consensus and in forecasting future needs and trends. A group consisting of 10 elders, 10 ministers, 10 faculty members, and 10 writers was assembled to serve as an expert panel. Two rounds of questionnaires were mailed to these individuals. The first round consisted of nine questions that solicited a narrative type response. Qualitative analysis of Round 1 yielded 66 statements that comprised the second questionnaire. The level of agreeability and likelihood of occurrence associated with the response of each panelist to the 66 statements of Round 2 was ascertained using a Likert scale and a probability factor. Consensus was reached on 47 items. Issues identified include: family breakdown, fragmentation of society, pluralism, change, vision/mission, diversity, unity, and spirituality. Characteristics, based on consensus, suggest an elder in the year 2010 should be a team player, seeking to work in harmony with other elders and ministers. The effective elder will display a strong sense of collegiality, characterized by trust, love, respect, camaraderie, and mutual accountability. Elders will need to be carefully and prayerfully chosen with the primary criteria being spiritual qualities, giftedness, and proven leadership abilities. An elder must create and maintain a vital commitment to a clear and widely owned vision for the church and should be competent at keeping the vision lucid, pointing the way, guiding, motivating, challenging, inspiring, instructing, and enabling the congregation to function as a unified organism. Elders in the year 2010 should be committed to spiritual and leadership development in themselves. At the same time, the effective elder should be a mentor and teacher to others, helping to prepare them as servants of Christ. The elder must be a person who models integrity and genuine devotion to Christ thereby encouraging the congregation to be a moral and ethical people.

Religious diversity has become a central topic in the philosophy of religion. This study proposes a methodological approach to the topic by exploring the division of tasks set out by Bernard Lonergan (1904-1984). Lonergan’s methodological framework, which he called functional specialization, provides a generic differentiation of tasks, each of which is central to the overall project of understanding religious diversity. This thesis explores the relevance and utility of functional specialization as a methodological approach to religious diversity in the philosophy of religion. [...] / La diversité religieuse est aujourd’hui une préoccupation centrale dans l’étude de la philosophie des religions. Cette étude propose une démarche méthodologique en explorant la division des tâches mise de l’avant par Bernard Lonergan (1904- 1984). La méthodologie employée par celui-ci, qu’il nomma « spécialisation fonctionnelle», permet d’établir une séparation générique des tâches, chacune d’elles jouant un rôle important dans la compréhension globale de la diversité religieuse. Cette étude illustré la pertinence et l’utilité de la spécialisation fonctionnelle en tant qu’approche méthodologique dans la philosophie des religions, et particulièrement dans l’étude de la diversité religieuse. [...]