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published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

This research is rooted in my professional practice at the newly established international Centre for Spiritual Life Development (CSLD) of The Salvation Army. It is designed to develop a foundation which can shape and enhance the policy and provision of the CSLD. It seeks to answer two questions: How do Salvation Army officers sustain and develop their personal spiritual life in the context of an activist, missional organisation? In what ways can the Centre for Spiritual life Development facilitate and support this process? The research methodology is qualitative, bringing responses to a written questionnaire and semi-structured interviews into mutual critical dialogue with the conceptual framework, which is drawn from the theology and history of evangelicalism and evangelical spirituality, and the theory of theological and vocational education. This has generated a rich description of spiritual life development in Salvation Army officers in the 21st century, leading to new understanding. The empirical research focused upon a particular constituency, delegates to the International College for Officers, thus facilitating understanding of the difference encountered in an organisation that has both global and local influences. It confirmed an expected diversity of understanding and practice in three major areas; definitions of, and practices leading to, spiritual life development; the means used by officers develop their spiritual lives; and the relationship between practice and the spiritual life. The work contributes to academic knowledge about The Salvation Army by locating the organisation, and Salvationist spirituality, within the framework of evangelicalism. A proposal to encourage a holistic understanding of spiritual life development using a process of reflection based upon the integration of, and interrelationships between, ‘knowing, being and doing’, offers a way forward that is applicable in a range of contexts. The evolution of my professional practice during the period of the research demonstrates that the foundations of new policy and practices are taking shape. It therefore contributes to the field of practical theology, as the integration and mutual critique of practice, spirituality and educational theory have led to new understanding and new practice.

Pauline scholarship often overlooks the fact that from the Levitical sacrificial perspective “sacrifice” and “curse” are diametrically opposed concepts. A sacrifice must be “holy and acceptable to God” (Rom 12:1). Arguably, Paul describes Jesus or his blood as a sacrifice to God (1Cor 5:7; Rom 3:25). In this light, how might we understand his assertion that Christ became a “curse” on the cross (Gal 3:13)? The “accursed” person who hangs on a tree is impure and defiled and thus totally unacceptable as a sacrifice to God (Deut 21:23; John 19:31). This research argues that the key concept that resolves such potential tensions in Paul's statements is the “covenant”. Both “sacrifice” and “curse” are covenantal concepts. Sacrificial activities are essential for maintaining the covenant between God and his people. When God's people sin, sacrifice provides the means to attain forgiveness and to remain in the covenant. However, the covenant can be broken by grievous sins such as idolatry, which result in the loss of the sanctuary and the sacrificial means. Consequently, they would fall under the “curse” of the covenant. This covenantal perspective underlies Paul's soteriology. This thesis demonstrates that in Paul's understanding Christ's death serves both ends: the termination of the Mosaic curse by becoming a curse, and the dedication of his life-blood for the maintenance of the renewed covenant. These two things are related yet not identical. As test cases for this covenantal model, this research examines three Pauline texts. Galatians 3:13 describes the redemption of God's people from the Mosaic covenantal curse. Deutero-Isaiah envisaged this event as a new “Exodus”, about which Paul talks in 1 Corinthians 5:7. Romans 3:25 illustrates the eschatological Yom Kippur for this new Exodus people consisting now of Jews and Gentiles, which sustains and sanctifies God's renewed covenant people to the end.

This dissertation evaluates the historiography, methodology, exegesis, and theological conclusions of pneumatological inclusivists and their doctrine of salvation, and then offers a biblical and theological defense of soteriological exclusivism based on the relationship between the Son and the Spirit. Chapter 1 defines the categories of exclusivism, inclusivism, and pluralism. Attention is given to those inclusivists who ground their inclusivist proposals in a work of the Holy Spirit in world religions apart from Gospel proclamation. Chapter 2 summarizes the work of non-evangelical inclusivists in the area of theology of religions, with particular attention given to those theologians who focus their work on the person and ministry of the Holy Spirit. Chapter 3 summarizes the work of evangelical pneumatological inclusivists, focusing on the efforts of Clark Pinnock and Amos Yong. Chapter 4 evaluates the historiography of pneumatological inclusivists. The chapter contends that any appeals to the theology of Irenaeus or a rejection of the Fifoque clause to bolster support for pneumatological inclusivism are tendentious. Chapter 5 evaluates the theological method of pneumatological inclusivists. The chapter argues that systematic theological conclusions must be based upon solid exegesis and biblical theology. The Bible presents the Spirit as working to glorify the Son. Theological method ought to reflect this priority, that is, it must be Christocentric. Chapter 6 presents a theology of the Son and the Spirit. It is demonstrated that from the beginning of redemptive history, prior to and during the incarnation, the Spirit worked toward and for the glorification of the Son. During the present church age, the Spirit works to glorify Christ. Chapter 7 summarizes the dissertation and highlights areas of contribution and significance. / This item is only available to students and faculty of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. If you are not associated with SBTS, this dissertation may be purchased from <a href="http://disexpress.umi.com/dxweb">http://disexpress.umi.com/dxweb</a> or downloaded through ProQuest's Dissertation and Theses database if your institution subscribes to that service.

[pt] O mal é uma realidade que sempre causou comoção e perplexidade na humanidade. Diante dele, muitos e diversos sistemas de sentido foram criados pelas sociedades a fim de fazer frente aos questionamentos que o absurdo dos sofrimentos físicos e morais trazem para a consciência humana. A fé cristã defende que a salvação definitiva do mal encontra-se em Jesus Cristo, o revelador definitivo da presença divina junto ao ser humano que busca uma saída para as contradições da existência. Porém, apesar da esperança despertada pela páscoa de Jesus Cristo, e mesmo diante das expectativas das primeiras comunidades cristãs quanto ao fim iminente dos sofrimentos deste mundo, o mal persiste como realidade fria e cruel. Como conciliar a fé em Jesus Cristo como Salvador universal e a persistência da realidade do mal na história? Para o teólogo espanhol Andrés Torres Queiruga, qualquer tentativa de resposta cristã a esta pergunta deve ser fiel ao rosto amoroso do Deus revelado por Jesus Cristo. Porém, não pode desprezar também outros dois fatores: o primeiro, o advento da modernidade, com a sua consciência de autonomia do ser humano e do cosmos, e que desconfia de toda e qualquer defesa de intervenções empíricas de Deus na realidade imanente; o segundo, o rigor do conceito, ou seja, uma reflexão que seja incansável na busca de uma lógica do discurso, mesmo se tratando de um assunto tão difícil, evitando atribuir rapidamente ao mistério aquilo que é fruto da incoerência ou da insuficiência da reflexão. / [en] The Evil is a reality which has always caused shock and astonishment to people. According to it, several different sense systems have been created by society in order to answer questions about physical and moral damages that are brought to human consciousness. The Christian faith holds that the ultimate salvation from Evil is in Jesus Christ, the definitve revelation of God’s presence with the human being who seeks a way out of the contradictions of existence. However, despite the hope awaken by the easter of Jesus Christ, and even with the expectations of the earliest Christian communities about the imminent end the suffering of this world, the Evil remains as a cold and cruel reality. How to deal with teh faith in Jesus Christ as the universal savior and the persistence of the Evil in history? According to the Spanish theologian Andrés Torres Queiruga, any attempt to the Christian answer to this question must be similar to the loving face of God revealed by Jesus Christ. But, we cannot forget about the other two facts: first, the rising of modernity, with its consciousness of human autonomy and the cosmos, and that it is suspicious of any defense of empirical interventions of God immanent in reality; the second one; the rigor of the concept, this way we have a reflection that is restless in the search of a logical discourse, even when it is related to a so difficult subject, avoiding sticking to the result of the inconherence and failed consideration of the mistery quickly.

[pt] A salvação cristã representa o desejo inequívoco de Deus para todo ser humano e para toda teia complexa que faz parte e comporta sua realidade existencial, não ficando nada de fora, de maneira que quanto mais se realiza a pessoa humana, tanto mais ela se salva. Contudo, essa compreensão salvífica foi, ao longo dos tempos, perdendo essa compreensão o que provocou um encolhimento e mesmo um recolhimento subjetivo que marcou presença num estado de ser religioso que se tornou ressentido do mundo e da vida. Ressentimento esse que refluiu corrosivamente para o interior da espiritualidade cristã e que também esboroou a percepção da verdadeira imagem de Deus por parte daqueles que não transitam pela trilha da fé, criando fantasmas e equívocos que só fizeram separar aqueles que deviam trilhar juntos o caminho do dom, da comunhão e da liberdade de ser, a saber, Deus e a pessoa humana. Cônscios de que nesse quadro a maneira pela qual se exprimia essa relação com Deus (em especial quando essa expressão aparece deslocada em relação às novas bases da sensibilidade cultural moderna) foi, em sua medida, um dos motivos da contradição na ideia de salvação que trataremos, nessa dissertação, apoiados em parte da obra de Andrés Torres Queiruga, de reinterpretar o tema da salvação em profundo diálogo com as categorias do nosso tempo e em profunda sintonia com aquele que é o núcleo inconfundível para toda fé cristã: Deus é amor. Disso dependerá nossa coerência teológica no que tange atualizar a mensagem e a realidade que se desprende do tema da salvação enquanto realidade já presente e coerente com a realidade antropológica da pessoa humana, até aquele momento em que esta é elevada à profundidade de sua realização/salvação plena. / [en] Christian salvation is the unequivocal desire of God for every human being and the whole complex web that forms a part and involves its existential reality, not getting anything out, so that the more one realizes the human person, the more it saves. However, this understanding of salvation was, over time, losing that understanding what caused a shrinking and even a subjective gathering that was present in a state of being religious that became resentful of the world and life. This resentment that corrosively flowed into the Christian spirituality and also crumbled the perception of the true image of God by those who do not travel the path of faith, creating ghosts and mistakes that only separate those who should walk together the path of the gift , communion and the freedom of being, namely, God and human person. Aware that in this picture the way is expressed this relationship with God (especially when that expression appears offset from the new foundations of modern cultural sensitivity) was, in his measure, the reason for the contradiction in the idea of salvation which we will expose in this dissertation, supported in part of the work of Andres Torres Queiruga to reinterpret the theme of salvation in serious dialogue with the categories of our time and in profound harmony with that which is the distinctive core for all the Christian belief: God is love. It depends on our theological coherence in with respect to update the message and the reality that is detached from the theme of salvation as a reality already present and consistent with the anthropological reality of human beings, until such time as it is raised to the depth of his achievement / full salvation .

Thesis advisor: Thomas E. Wangler / The story of the transformation of St. Benedict Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, originally a small Catholic student center, into a controversial and socially disruptive religious community is little known today even by most Bostonians. Some sixty-five years ago, however, the Center's public activities under the leadership of its chaplain, Leonard Feeney, S.J., were the focus of intense controversy and publicity, nationally and internationally as well as locally. In the 1940s, there was no clear theological consensus on the possibility of salvation for non-Catholics. Although there seems to have been a notable hesitation on the part of theologians and hierarchy alike in Boston to issue an official pronouncement on the Church's theology of salvation, there was at the same time an unhesitating consensus among them that Fr. Feeney's rigorist interpretation of the Catholic doctrine extra ecclesiam nulla salus ("no salvation outside the Church") was not that of the Church in the modern age. Complex social and cultural factors were at play in the controversy. Ultimately, though, any historian attempting to make sense of the ideas and actions of Fr. Feeney and the members of the Center is confronted with the fact that they took theology seriously, and so also must the historian who hopes to understand them. My thesis in this dissertation is that a uniquely explosive combination of theological developments, social flux, and intersecting personalities led to the eruptions at St. Benedict Center. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

O objetivo deste trabalho é estudar o gênero cartas, na sua especificidade, cartas entre escritores apresentado em um corpus único e cronológico e demonstrar que ele registra marcas de oralidade, especificamente marcadores de atenuação, criando um discurso epistolográfico cortês de Mário de Andrade e Manuel Bandeira com seu interlocutor Alphonsus de Guimaraens Filho. Elegemos como corpus seis cartas de Mário de Andrade e dezenove de Manuel Bandeira enviadas a Alphonsus de Guimaraens Filho no período de 1940 a 1944 e editadas no livro Itinerários . Faz-se um estudo descritivo e histórico do gênero cartas, verificando que a forma/composição do gênero não sofreu alterações desde os primórdios do ano 200 dC até os nossos dias. Posicionamos as cartas entre os polos da escrituralidade/oralidade, constatando a condição híbrida do gênero e dos textos sob análise. As cartas foram produzidas de forma gráfica, no entanto, apresentam marcas de oralidade. Verificamos que a história epistolográfica entre os escritores foi duradoura e atingiu seu objetivo, colaborando para o aprimoramento estético de Alphonsus de Guimaraens Filho. Acrescenta-se que tal êxito se deu pela presença da cortesia verbal nas cartas, especialmente, por meio dos marcadores de atenuação. Tais marcas modalizaram o enunciado, diminuindo a força dos atos ameaçadores de face. Na conclusão, destaca-se a valiosa contribuição das cartas de Mário de Andrade e Manuel Bandeira em relação às conquistas literárias de Alphonsus de Guimaraens Filho. A tese contribui para os estudos linguísticos, uma vez que comprovamos que mesmo sendo escritores renomados, Mário de Andrade e Manuel Bandeira mostraramse respeitosos e corteses para com o jovem escritor Alphonsus de Guimaraens Filho, conseguindo manter a interação mesmo à distância. / The objective of this paper is to study the genre \'letters\' in their specificity \'letters between writers\' presented in a unified, chronological corpus and demonstrate that it registers brands of orality, particularly attenuation markers, creating a courteous epistolographic speech of Mario de Andrade and Manuel Bandeira and his interlocutor Alphonsus Guimaraens Filho. We elected as a corpus 6 letters from Mário de Andrade and Manuel Bandeira and 19 sent to Alphonsus Guimaraens Filho during the period of 1940 to 1944 and edited in the book Itinerários. A descriptive and historical study of the genre letters is made, verifying that the form/composition of the genre did not suffered any modifications since the beginning of the year 200 AD to the present day. We positioned the letters between the scripturality/orality poles, evidencing the hybrid condition of the genre and the texts under analysis. The letters were produced graphically and conceptually written, however, they present orality marks. We verified that the epistolographic history between the authors was long lasting and it reached its goal, contributing to the aesthetic enhancement of Alphonsus Guimaraens Filho. It can be added that such success is given by the presence of verbal courtesy in the letters especially through the markers of attenuation. Such marks modalized the statement, decreasing the strength of face threatening acts. In conclusion, it is highlighted the valuable input of Mário de Andrade and Manuel Bandeiras letters regarding the literaly achievements. The thesis contributes to linguistic studies, once proven that despite being renowned writers, Mário de Andrade and Manuel Bandeira proved to be respectful and courteous towards the young writer Alphonsus Guimaraens Son, succeeding at keeping the same distance interaction.