Thesis (D. Min.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2001. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 236-246).

Thesis (M.A.P.S.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [90]-92).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2001. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 236-246).

Thesis (M.A.P.S.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [90]-92).

Thesis (Th. D.)--Concordia Seminary, 1985. / Bibliography: leaves 339-379.

Project (D. Min.)--Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, 1975. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [172]-182).

The Body of Christ is a traumatised body because it is constituted of traumatised bodies. This thesis explores the nature of that trauma and examines the implications of identifying the trauma of this body. Trauma specialist Bessel Van Der Kolk posits that trauma is written into the somatic, or bodily, memory rather than the semantic memory. This somatic memory is essential to understanding trauma as this memory is repeated in the traumatised body. No theologian has yet explored what the somatic memory of the Christian body might be. This somatic memory not only tells us what the trauma of the Body of Christ is and signposts routes for healing, but also, once we identify the somatic memory, allows us to explore its implications for theology. Beginning with the celebration of the Eucharist as the central place in Christianity where bodies and memory come together, this thesis examines what memory is being remembered and repeated at the altar. The identification of this somatic memory is then used as a hermeneutical lens through which to explore the foundational narratives of the Eucharist and the bodies involved in its celebration. This research reveals that the somatic memory at the heart of Christianity is the memory of the Annunciation-Incarnation event. This event ruptures the foundational eucharistic narratives of priesthood, sacrifice, and presence and demonstrates that Mary must have a central place in Christian theology. It reveals that Christian liturgy holds within it an unclaimed memory and experience of trauma, and an unacknowledged instinct for trauma recovery. The results of this research are significant because they offer a fresh perspective on Christian theology, in particular the Eucharist, and present a call to love the body in all its guises. Furthermore, this traumatic, somatic memory opens up new pathways for considering what it means to ‘be Christian’.

The Power of Motherhood: Leah Widtsoe's Writings on Women's Roles, Influence, and the Priesthood Ashley Marie Laneri Department of Religious Education, BYU Master of ArtsThis thesis analyzes Leah Widtsoe's writings in the 1930s. Her primary emphasis was on motherhood. Widtsoe encouraged women to realize the importance of their role as mothers and the positive results a good mother can have on generations to come. Each chapter examines how Widtsoe used motherhood to help women understand their role in the Church and their role in society. The first chapter outlines Widtsoe's personal life and analyzes why motherhood was a central part of her writings. The second chapter focuses on how Widtsoe used motherhood as a construct, or in other words, a model, to motivate women and to help them understand their purpose in the Relief Society program in the Church and in the world. The third chapter focuses on the priesthood and motherhood model which Widtsoe helped originate. She used motherhood as a way to help women understand their relationship with priesthood power. Lastly, this thesis examines the contradictions, inconsistencies and patterns of Widtsoe's writings on motherhood.This study finds that Widtsoe used motherhood as a model to empower women and help them understand their relationship with priesthood power and their role in the Church. Additionally, she taught that what women did in the home had a great impact on society.

My dissertation analyzes the passages related to the priesthood, cult, and temple in the Aramaic Scrolls from Qumran. The Aramaic Scrolls comprise roughly 15% of the manuscripts found in the Qumran caves, and testify to the presence of a flourishing Jewish Aramaic literary tradition dating to the early Hellenistic period (ca. late fourth to early second century BCE). Scholarship since the mid-2000s has increasingly understood these writings as a corpus of related literature on both literary and socio-historical grounds, and has emphasized their shared features, genres, and theological outlook. Roughly half of the Aramaic Scrolls display a strong interest in Israel’s priestly institutions: the priesthood, cult, and temple. That many of these compositions display such an interest has not gone unnoticed. To date, however, few scholars have analyzed the priestly passages in any given composition in light of the broader corpus, and no scholars have undertaken a comprehensive treatment of the priestly passages in the Aramaic Scrolls. My dissertation fills these lacunae. After a brief introduction to the dissertation in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 gives an overview and assessment of earlier treatments of the Aramaic Scrolls. Chapters 3 through 5 offer analyses of the passages related to the priesthood, cult, and temple found in fourteen of the approximately thirty Aramaic Scrolls, dealing with each composition in turn. In Chapter 6, I synthesize the material in the previous three chapters, and show that the Aramaic Scrolls reflect a remarkably consistent conception of Israel’s priestly institutions. By way of conclusion in Chapter 7, I situate the Aramaic Scrolls in the context of broader scholarly proposals concerning the history of the Second Temple Jewish priesthood, and demonstrate how this corpus can shed new light on an otherwise poorly documented period in Jewish history, namely, the pre-Hasmonean, Hellenistic period. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / My dissertation is a literary analysis of themes related to the Jewish priesthood in the Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls. It uses the results of this literary analysis to understand better the history of the Jewish priesthood in the Second Temple period.

Thesis (M.A.)--B.Y.U. Dept. of Church History and Doctrine.