No description available.

Thesis advisor: Richard Lennan / Thesis advisor: J. Randy Sachs / Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

No description available.

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University / The purpose of this thesis, as the title indicates, is to examine Tillich's concept of religious experience in the light of the phenomenological method. Tillich follows St. Augustine in his approach to the problem of the knowledge of God, believing that one finds clues to the basic nature of religious experience in man himself rather than in nature or by rational deduction. For Tillich the key question is not, "Does God exist?" but what does the experience of God mean in terms of finite human experience. To carry out his analysis of the ontological nature of human existence as finite and as raising the question of God (that which can account for the fact that despite all the threats to the contingent order, this order persists and therefore must be grounded on something non-contingent and unconditional) Tillich finds the phenomenological method a valuable tool. He does not accept this method uncritically though he is greatly indebted to Husserl and Heidegger. Tillich feels that if phenomenology is to be an adequate tool for theology, it must be "corrected" by reference to final revelation (the New Being in Christ) as the criterion of the type of experience that needs to be subjected to a phenomenological analysis. What Tillich finds missing in Husserl's approach is any recognition of the importance of the experience selected as normative. Not only must phenomenology describe meanings, it must also indicate where and to whom the experience has occurred. Nonetheless, before we can understand the particular approach Tillich takes, we must have a general knowledge of what the phenomenological movement is, especially as found in the writings of the two phenomenologists who directly influenced Tillich: Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger. Accordingly, the main body of the thesis begins with a chapter entitled "The Phenomenological Movement". This chapter begins with a general discussion of the principles and techniques of the phenomenological method. Here it is pointed out that one of the major tenets of the phenomenological method is to avoid pre-suppositional prejudices which would distort one's approach to the subject matter. The most common prejudice cited by the phenomenologists is that of the natural standpoint. This is discussed at some length by Husserl in Ideas as he wishes to point out that we do not primarily and basically experience the world as independent and "out there", somehow making impressions on a largely passive consciousness. Rather, our world is always permeated by certain valuations and perspective variations. This leads us to think that consciousness has a more active and formative role in the knowing process than common sense assumes. Therefore, to study objectively the world and thus make it possible for philosophy to be a "rigorous science" (Husserl), we must turn our gaze away from the natural objects to the structures of consciousness and concentrate on what it is that makes it possible for us to have the experiences that we do in the way that we do. In order to do this we must "bracket" (shut off) any references which assume the world as objectively given, and reduce what is presented to us until we are aware of their essences (what makes them what they are). One of the things we discover when we bracket the transcendent referents of consciousness (Husserl) is that we become aware that consciousness is intentional, i.e. it always has an object. In Heidegger, this concept is signifi• cant because it opens the possibility of discovering or becoming aware of Being, the goal of human existence and knowing. What intentionality reveals, for Heidegger, is the fundamental fact of the self's relatedness to the world. Man is Dasein, Being-in-the-world and an analysis of Being as manifest in this structure is our best means of access to the nature of Being. In Heidegger, then, phenomenology is changed from an abstract methodology (Husserl) to an existential hermeneutic. Tillich is indebted to both approaches. He is indebted to Husserl for his emphasis on the need to focus on what concepts mean, quite apart from their existential references, and he is indebted to Heidegger for his concept of phenomenology as the means by which one can discover Being (God in religious terms) as manifest in the human self. Therefore, the relation between Tillich and the phenomenologists is very close at key points. For example, Tillich's concern for the meaning of religious statements involves a bracketing of such questions as ''Does God exist?" which involve the "natural standpoint" assumption that there is a being "God", 'out there' somewhere and to whom one may choose to be related or not, or about whose existence one may argue. Tillich points out that unless what is meant by the word "God" is somehow present to man even in the very asking of the question and unless the question deals with a matter of threatening or saving one's being, we are not really dealing with a religious question at all. Granted that the experience of God is a reality to man before he becomes aware of it and makes explicit the question of God, how should we proceed to discover this fact? How may the "hidden" God of our experience be brought to awareness? Here Tillich relies on Heidegger and the use of phenomenology as an existential hermeneutic. If God is present to man even in his pre-reflective experience, and if what is meant by "God" is the Being or Reality which sustains the finite order and gives meaning to human life, then the kind of approach that must be taken is to analyze human experience in the attempt to see what is really given in that experience. What Tillich finds explicitly as the result of his ontological investigation by means of the phenomenological method is the amazing fact that despite the contingency and threat of nonbeing, experienced as anxiety, man still exists and can affirm his being. How is this possible? Only because, says Tillich, man experiences an unconditional power which gives him the courage to be and this power of being is what is meant by and pointed to by the religious symbol "God".

This thesis sets out to explore the ways people use and interpret experience of music, the divine and interaction with other people within discrete musical spaces. This exploration takes place in two sites: a Pentecostal church in suburban Perth, Western Australia, and the West Coast Blues & Roots festival, a well known music festival held annually in Fremantle, Western Australia. I have nominated these two sites as “realms” because they are spaces set up for the performance and experience of music. My primary questions about these sites relate to how people interact with music, each other and the divine within these realms. This study combines socio-cultural and theological-religious studies theories to illuminate the processes, experiences and interpretations occurring within these musical realms. This has important implications for understanding how people use and interpret music in relation to the world outside the musical realm. People use these experiences to dream and imagine the shape of ideal relationships and communities with each other and the divine presence, and to escape and transform the world outside the musical realm. In this thesis I compile data from participant observation and in-depth interviews at both sites, as well as published interviews with performers. I construct two case studies of the sites, portraying a “day in the life” of a participant in both realms. For each case study I outline ten different interpretive paradigms, five from socio-cultural theorists and five from theology and religious studies. I analyse the data using the phenomenological method, taking a component of data from the fieldwork and comparing and contrasting it with theory. At the end of each chapter I summarise the process and make some remarks relating to the implications of the study. The resulting work makes important contributions to understanding how socio-cultural studies and theological-religious studies can work together in an interdisciplinary fashion to illuminate phenomena. The study sheds light on the nature of musical “realms”, as well as “proto-religious phenomena” and “methodological agnosticism”. Further, this work presents useful contributions into the ways churches may understand and interact with spiritual experience that occurs outside of religious settings. Finally, performers and artists and community workers will benefit from the conclusions of this study on the ways in which people use music and realms to escape, transform and imagine community and society.

No description available.

No description available.

The primary aim of this dissertation is to demonstrate that Jonathan Edwards's "sense of the heart" as a principle of a new kind of perception or spiritual sensation given by the Spirit of God in regeneration, in which a believer tastes or sees God's beauty, can provide expository preaching with a meaningful direction for the restoration of religious experience. Chapter 1 focuses on the disappearance of religious experience in contemporary expository preaching and introduces, by illustrating the debate between the Old and the New Light in the First Great Awakening, an uncomfortable phenomenon in expository preaching that polarizes affectionate religious experience and cognitive-propositional truth. It argues that expository preaching should aim at affectional application because application is possible only when the listeners' fundamental affections are reoriented. Chapter 2 examines Jonathan Edwards's spiritual epistemology by analyzing Edwards's concept of the sense of the heart, through which the saints can experience God's beauty. The sense of the heart enables the saints to obtain a new habit or the heart that brings about new affections. The chapter contends that experiencing God's beauty through the sense of the heart is central to all genuine religious experiences. Chapter 3 defines the nature of Edwardsean religious experience as a spiritual-linguistic approach in the sense that the Spirit is the producer of genuine religious experience and the word of God illuminated by the Holy Spirit enables people to experience God's beauty and glory. It argues that expository preaching should create an experience for the listener, in Edwardsean sense, assuming that the conviction of the authority of the word of God and the encouragement of religious experience are completely compatible. Chapter 4 presents a homiletical analysis of Edwards's affective preaching. The chapter offers a comprehensive analysis of two of Edwards's sermons, as prime examples of his rhetorical strategies, to demonstrate how vivid and dramatic images are used in his sermons. The chapter suggests that expository sermons should pay more attention to language, just as Edwards recognized that the power in the sermon lies in the masterful use of language. Chapter 5 provides helpful implications for contemporary expository preaching. First, the chapter proposes preaching as a persuasion by illustrating Paul's use of rhetoric. Second, it indicates Edwards's power of imagination and suggests that expository preachers should pursue affective preaching by the use of their imagination and imaginative language. Third, it examines the implication of Edwardsean piety for expository preaching. Fourth, it offers preaching as a means of experiencing God's beauty. Chapter 6 summarizes the overall arguments established in the previous chapters. The goal of our preaching should be to touch the affections of our listener's hearts to bring them beyond a merely theoretical knowledge of spiritual realities.

Submitted by Oliveira Santos Dilzaná (dilznana@yahoo.com.br) on 2016-06-08T19:03:33Z No. of bitstreams: 1 TESE de Cláudio Roberto dos Santos de Almeida.pdf: 2727285 bytes, checksum: 3eae325c1ef7caae82a987953f3e0fa3 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Oliveira Santos Dilzaná (dilznana@yahoo.com.br) on 2016-07-06T13:37:22Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 TESE de Cláudio Roberto dos Santos de Almeida.pdf: 2727285 bytes, checksum: 3eae325c1ef7caae82a987953f3e0fa3 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-06T13:37:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 TESE de Cláudio Roberto dos Santos de Almeida.pdf: 2727285 bytes, checksum: 3eae325c1ef7caae82a987953f3e0fa3 (MD5) / CAPES / Esta pesquisa visa compreender diferentes aspectos do processo de conversão de indivíduos ao pentecostalismo em bairros populares de Salvador. Nesta pesquisa, serão abordados tanto os mecanismos pelos quais os indivíduos foram encaminhados à igreja, quanto os processos de ensino/aprendizado da experiência religiosa em contextos rituais e cotidianos. Este trabalho trata-se de um empreendimento eminentemente etnográfico, onde a metodologia de pesquisa está baseada na observação participante da vida de novatos e experientes na religião. Para tanto, foram selecionados indivíduos que freqüentam igrejas pentecostais em dois bairros populares de Salvador: Pau da Lima e Castelo Branco. Estes informantes ofereceram informações sobre suas vidas tanto em entrevistas formais, onde foi feita uma reconstituição de suas trajetórias, quanto em conversas cotidianas. Aliado a estas técnicas de coleta de informações, foi também realizada uma descrição de cultos e momentos cotidianos que envolviam processos de aprendizado da experiência religiosa no pentecostalismo. Nestes relatos atentei tanto para os modos de intervenção dos agentes religiosos na conformação da experiência dos novatos, quanto da participação destes indivíduos na modificação de sua identidade social. The central object of this research is the process of conversion of individuals to Pentecostalism in poor neighborhoods in Salvador, Brazil. This research will analyze the way of introduction the converted in the religious community, as well as it will look toward the process of teaching and learning the religious experience, both in rituals and in the everyday life. This research consists in a ethnographic approach which the methodology of research is based on the participant observation of the converted’s everyday life, as well as the converter´s one. For this, individuals who live in poor neighborhoods in Salvador (Pau da Lima, Castelo Branco, Paripe etc.) and participate of Pentecostal churches were selected to be interviewed. The collaborators offered informations about their experiences both in formal interviews and in common talks. Notwithstanding, it were made descriptions of rituals and everyday moments that involve process of teaching and learning the religious experience in Pentecostalism – as well as were done videos and taken pictures. In those descriptions I paid attention to the techniques of religious agents in the transformations of the new adept´s experience and in the new adepts’ agency in the changes of their social identities.

No description available.