Thesis (Th. M.)--St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary, 2006. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 124-130).

Thèse--Paris. / Bibliography: p. [271]-273.

Thesis (Th. M.)--St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary, 2006. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 124-130).

Thesis (doctoral)--Bonn, 1908. / Contains chapter 3 only of the thesis. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Duquesne University, 2009. / Title from document title page. Abstract included in electronic submission form. Includes bibliographical references (p. 297-314) and index.

Thesis--University of Paris. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2005. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xi, 254 p.; also includes facsimiles, graphics (some col.). Includes bibliographical references (p. 196-205). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center

The aim of this study is twofold: to identify the theological purpose underlying the depiction of angels at certain key points in the history of their use, and to explore how far that deeper theological rationale can be re-appropriated for our own day. This study first traces the progression of the angelic motif in the Hebrew Scriptures. By examining numerous pericopes in the Pentateuch, major prophets and Daniel, I demonstrate that the metamorphosis of higher-order beings like the angel of the Lord, cherubim and seraphim, is directly related to the writers' desire to enhance God's transcendence. Next, I evaluate pseudo-Denys' hierarchical angelology, which prominent theologians like Luther and Calvin condemned as little more than a Neoplatonic scheme for accessing God through angels. I propose that not only has pseudo-Denys' Neoplatonism been overstated, but that his angelology is particularly noteworthy for the way it accentuates Christ's eucharistic immanence to the Church. Then I maintain that because assessments of Aquinas' angelology are often based upon the Summa Theologiae, his views are wrongly portrayed as overtly philosophical, rather than biblical and exegetical. In his lesser-known biblical commentaries, however, Aquinas pushes the semantic range of the word ‘angel' to include aspects of the physical world, which unveils an imaginative, Christocentric, and scriptural dimension of his angelology that is rarely acknowledged. The conclusion considers how contemporary figures and movements relate to these three angelologies. Barth emphasises the transcendent God but unlike Hebrew Scripture, weakens connections between God and angels. New Ageism affirms the immanent angel but unlike pseudo-Denys, does so at the expense of Christology and ecclesiology. Contemporary ecological discourse generally lacks Aquinas' appreciation for an imaginative, supernatural approach to the world. Finally, I ground the angels' relationship to transcendence, immanence and imagination in an experiential, eucharistic context.

The Lofoten Maelström in Norway, one of the world’s most powerful systems of tidal eddies, has been a locus of terror and imagination for centuries. First depicted in renaissance cartography, the myth of the vortex was propagated through the occult science of Athanasius Kircher and found its most current expression in Edgar Allan Poe’s “A Descent into the Maelström”. This thesis is a work of exegesis. That is, a work of interpretation that leads out of a text, or a site, towards another level of meaning. Poe’s text refers to the geographic site of the thesis but also becomes a site in itself. It is out of this text/site that the author unfolds a series of exegetical pathways, constructing an ambiguous ground between the real and imaginary dimensions of the Maelström. This thesis is also a work of synthesis. It explores how the speculative architectural proposition can crystallize subtle conceptual material in ways that text and image alone cannot. While the thesis is heavily invested in various modes of representation, architectural and otherwise, it also acts as a critical investigation into the nature of representation itself. The document is composed as a performance in three parts. Each part broadly engages a fundamental binary that is latent in the work of architecture: 1) history and fiction 2) figure and ground 3) ritual and design. Part I introduces the site through various historical and fictional portrayals of the Maelström which have contributed to the co-authorship of its mythologized identity. Part II consists of a suite of three discursive essays that address the sublime, the death instinct, romanticism, negative theology, the chora, and 20th century performance theory. This material is organized under the umbrella of three figure/ground conditions: the figure against the sublime ground of the romantic-era painting, the negative ground of medieval mysticism, and the ritual ground of the Greek chorus and its spatial counterpart, the chora. Finally, Part III includes two movements: the design of a wave energy research facility, and a series of episodic vignettes that subvert the intentions of the designer by re-casting the facility as a place of ritual. With the Maelström as a backdrop, the architectural proposition offers itself as the stage upon which this struggle between design and ritual is enacted.

The Lofoten Maelström in Norway, one of the world’s most powerful systems of tidal eddies, has been a locus of terror and imagination for centuries. First depicted in renaissance cartography, the myth of the vortex was propagated through the occult science of Athanasius Kircher and found its most current expression in Edgar Allan Poe’s “A Descent into the Maelström”. This thesis is a work of exegesis. That is, a work of interpretation that leads out of a text, or a site, towards another level of meaning. Poe’s text refers to the geographic site of the thesis but also becomes a site in itself. It is out of this text/site that the author unfolds a series of exegetical pathways, constructing an ambiguous ground between the real and imaginary dimensions of the Maelström. This thesis is also a work of synthesis. It explores how the speculative architectural proposition can crystallize subtle conceptual material in ways that text and image alone cannot. While the thesis is heavily invested in various modes of representation, architectural and otherwise, it also acts as a critical investigation into the nature of representation itself. The document is composed as a performance in three parts. Each part broadly engages a fundamental binary that is latent in the work of architecture: 1) history and fiction 2) figure and ground 3) ritual and design. Part I introduces the site through various historical and fictional portrayals of the Maelström which have contributed to the co-authorship of its mythologized identity. Part II consists of a suite of three discursive essays that address the sublime, the death instinct, romanticism, negative theology, the chora, and 20th century performance theory. This material is organized under the umbrella of three figure/ground conditions: the figure against the sublime ground of the romantic-era painting, the negative ground of medieval mysticism, and the ritual ground of the Greek chorus and its spatial counterpart, the chora. Finally, Part III includes two movements: the design of a wave energy research facility, and a series of episodic vignettes that subvert the intentions of the designer by re-casting the facility as a place of ritual. With the Maelström as a backdrop, the architectural proposition offers itself as the stage upon which this struggle between design and ritual is enacted.