This thesis investigates the shaping of Christian social behavioural instructions by the author’s theological vision in 1 Peter. The notion that these instructions are de facto derived from the author’s theological conviction as his ultimate concern is more often assumed or neglected, than seriously considered in Petrine scholarship. This thesis aims at adding one more dimension to scholars’ discussion by seeking an empathic understanding of the Petrine mode of Christian social engagement from “an insider” perspective of the author’s own theological vision as his primary concern. Besides paying attention to the more obvious meaning and the literary features of the text, historical data of the socio-political background of 1 Peter are also employed as an entrance to understand imaginatively the author’s vision and the implications of his social ethics. In the exegetical study of the Petrine text with particular reference to the author’s extensive use of Old Testament language, Jesus Christ is shown to be underscored in 1 Peter as the Jewish expected Messiah but who has submitted to human suffering as a resident-alien on the cross. Christians are also perceived as “elect exiles of Diaspora” on earth inheriting the self-understanding and eschatological hope of the Jewish Diaspora. The Petrine social strategy of “differentiated resistance” is thus understood as a token of Christians’ solidarity with the Messiah Christ and a congruent behavioural expression of their identity as “elect exiles of Diaspora”. “Ultimate allegiance to God” is seen to be the overriding boundary of Christians’ accommodation to the pagan culture to ensure their remaining in the grace/salvation of God. In the historical study of the Jewish Diaspora’s social engagement, it is demonstrated that the Petrine appropriation to Christians of Jewish self-definitions includes the Jewish social strategy in the Diaspora which also reflected a form of “differentiated resistance”. Theological conviction as the primary consideration of the early Christians when formulating their social strategies is then further demonstrated by the comparison of 1 Peter with Revelation and the Epistle to Diognetus. The thesis concludes with a reflection on the continuing significance of 1 Peter to Christians’ social engagement in the modern world and on the possible cooperation between the theological approach and socio-historical approach to investigate biblical texts.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / This dissertation constructs and illustrates a model of the field of norms which lies before an appellate judge. The style of the model is both academic and graphic. The function is analytic. The method is phenomenological, analytic and synthetic. Three major illustrations--landmark cases--provide a synthesis and explanation at the boundary lines of the field sectors. In Chapter II, the structural elements of the field are analyzed. First, the field is encircled and divided into thirds along a scale of normative agreement-disagreement, noting, concurrently, correlative social processes which provide social order. Where there is normative unity, processes of prescription provide order; where plurality, collaboration; where diversity, reciprocity. Second, the field is divided into three levels. Within the ultimate-mediate-proximate hierarchy, there is an inverse relationship between formal and situational authority. When norm components (subject, normed-act, and conditions of application) fit the case, lower norms exert more influence than do hi gher norms. When fit is at issue, higher norms control. Third, the sectors which lie between the three processes of social order are identified and examined as basic social units whose functional specializations are guided by particular norm types. The cultural (religious, familial, educational, and artistic) sector is bounded by processes of prescription and reciprocity; persons feel themselves to be duty-bound and conscience-directed by patterns of being and belonging. The economic-political sector is bounded by processes of reciprocity and collaboration; persons feel the necessity of choice and calculation of means and ends in order to achieve their interests. The legal (primarily judicial) sector is bounded by processes of collaboration and prescription; litigants feel the process by which they will be judged should be fair, and the content should be more than legal; judges feel they should account to litigants and various publics for their actions by reasoned reference to legal standards which respond to the whole life-range of norms. Finally,the hierarchical levels of the three sectors are examined and described separately. The cultural sector is differentiated into ethos, moral code, and mores; the economic-political sector into goals, policies, and needs; the legal sector into concepts, rules-in-books, and rules-in-action. In Chapter III, the focus is upon functional elements at the boundaries of the units of the normative field. The problem is to understand how sectors and levels are maintained as separate yet interdependent units. First, a range of inter-level actions is analyzed. Next, the three normative processes--prescription, reciprocity, and collaboration--are examined in detail on both sides of the boundary and at each of the normative levels. The difference at the legal-cultural boundary is illustrated by Griswold v. Connecticut, in which the Supreme Court made explicit as legal precept what was already implicit in the moral code--the right of married persons to use contraceptives. At the legal and economic-political boundary, Mac Pherson v. Buick shows how the New York Court of Appeals imposed a principle of due care upon manufacturers' policies. The eventual importance of action at the cultural and economic-political boundary is illustrated in Chapter IV by the School Segregation Cases. There the Court bolstered efficient against traditional norms for ordering racial diversity by making explicit the creed of equality as fundamental law and imposing a doctrine of federal supremacy on citizenship questions upon states-rights ideology. Concluding, the appropriateness and general fit of the illustrations to the theoretical model support the assumptions that appellate judges make their decisions within a patterned normative field, and that the pattern can be found and described analytically. / 2031-01-01

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Supervisors: Thomas Seung and James Fishkin. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

Not available / text

No description available.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Northeastern University, 2008. / Title from title page (viewed April 1, 2007). Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Psychology. Includes bibliographical references (p. 48-52).

Thesis--University of Wisconsin--Madison. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 140).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Catholic University of America, 1941. / "Texts evaluated in the study": p. xiii-xiv. Bibliography: p. 171-175.

No description available.

No description available.