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Within the discipline of theology, this thesis examines the soteriology presented in the Revelations of Divine Love, composed by Julian of Norwich (1343 - ca. 1420). Through an exegesis of the Paris copy of the Middle English manuscript, the research analyzes the understanding of salvation implicit in the text. This study builds on and expands previous theological inquiry into Juiian’s texts. A hermeneutic for interpreting the theology expressed in this mystical literature creates guiding principles for interpretation. After demonstrating how in essence all Julian I s theology is a trinitarian theology of love, the investigation addresses each aspect of Julian's soteriology within the framework of her Trinitarian formula. The formula encapsulates the human journey summarized as: in the first we have our being, in the second we have our increasing, and in the third we have our fulfilling. The theological precis reveals that for Julian, salvation is a process of oneing from God to God.

Thesis advisor: Stephen Brown / The <italic>Cur Deus Homo</italic> (CDH) of Anselm of Canterbury is one of the most well-known and yet controversial works in the Anselmian corpus. Anselm's audacious effort to prove the necessity of the Incarnation has been met with varying levels of skepticism and critique in the intervening centuries. Critics of Anselm have taken aim particularly at the language that Anselm used in the CDH, commonly asserting that the key terms of the argument were derived primarily from the feudal society that surrounded Anselm as he wrote. The contention is then usually made that Anselm's usage of such terminology betrays a mindset so entangled in feudalism as to render the whole work ineffective as a work of Christian theology. Only in recent years have serious efforts been made to examine the theological roots of Anselm's thought process in the CDH. In this work, I examine the language that has been so maligned in recent years and I build on recent trends in Anselm scholarship to argue that his language is not so much feudal as it is scriptural and patristic. By analyzing Anselm's use of &ldquo;honor,&rdquo; &ldquo;justice,&rdquo; &ldquo;debt&rdquo; and &ldquo;satisfaction,&rdquo; I argue that Anselm was more concerned with maintaining consistency with his own work and with scriptural and patristic sources than with the feudal or juridical nature of his social context. I conclude by highlighting the ways in which Anselm accomplished his stated purpose in the CDH and provided a unique perspective on the Incarnation and Atonement that stands on its own as a turning point in the history of Christian theology. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

Magister Artium - MA / In the history of Christianity a number of distinct soteriological models have developed over the centuries. In the Patristic period, victory over death and destruction was emphasised. In late medieval Catholicism, the Protestant Reformation and evangelical circles, the focus was on reconciliation with God through the forgiveness of sins, while modern liberal notions of salvation emphasised the need for education and moral upliftment, if not enlightenment. In the twentieth century, other soteriological motifs became dominant, including development (in the tradition of the Social Gospel), self-actualisation (in existentialist theologies), liberation and emancipation (in liberation theologies, feminist theologies, etc). With the emergence of global Pentecostalism in the 20th century, two other forms of soteriology resurfaced, namely an emphasis on healing and deliverance from evil. This study will contribute to Pentecostal discourse on deliverance as a soteriological motif. In Western forms of Pentecostalism the need for deliverance from evil is recognised, in contrast with evangelicalism where the emphasis is on forgiveness of sins. Deliverance from evil is typically understood in personalist terms as affliction, namely as the need to overcome forces of evil inside the human psyche, typically associated with personal vices. This suggests a ministry of exorcism in order to be delivered from such vices that are then described as “demons”, evil forces, dominions and principalities. In political and liberation theologies, there is likewise an emphasis on evil forces, but these are understood in societal and structural terms, namely with references to ideologies, oppressive structures and forms of exploitation. In African forms of Pentecostalism (as in the case amongst African Instituted Churches) there is a similar emphasis on deliverance and the need for exorcism. However, this is especially understood with reference to witchcraft. Here, the one in need of deliverance is regarded as the victim of (demonic) possession beyond one’s locus of control. Deliverance is thus understood as victory over forces outside one’s own psyche that cause psychological trauma and have medical, social and economic consequences for the victim. This research project will explore a corpus of literature on the understanding of deliverance in the context of West-African Pentecostalism (or neo-Pentecostalism). It will analyse and compare views in this regard emerging from amongst Western African Pentecostals with Western Pentecostal scholars that seek to understand the distinct understanding of deliverance in the context of West-African Pentecostalism. More specifically, it will describe, analyse, compare and assess the contributions of Allan Anderson, Paul Gifford, Ogbu Kalu, J Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu, and Opoku Onyunah in this regard.

Thesis advisor: Frederick Lawrence / This dissertation aims at understanding Bernard Lonergan’s understanding of how the passion of Jesus Christ is salvific. Because salvation is of human persons in a community, a history, and a cosmos, the first part of the dissertation examines Lonergan’s cosmology with an emphasis on his anthropology. For Lonergan the cosmos is a dynamic, interrelated hierarchy governed by the processes of what he calls “emergent probability.” Within the universe of emergent probability, humanity is given the ability to direct world processes with critical intelligence, freedom, love, and cooperation with each other and with the larger world order. This ability is not totally undirected. Rather, it has a natural orientation, a desire or eros for ultimate goodness, truth, beauty, and love, i.e. for God. When made effective through an authentic, recurrent cycle of experience, questioning, understanding, judgment, decision, action, and cooperation, this human desire for God results in progress. However, when this cycle is damaged by bias, sin and its evil consequences distort the order of creation, both in human persons and in the larger environment. Over time, the effects of sin and bias produce cumulative, self-feeding patterns of destruction, or decline. In answer to this distortion, God gives humanity the gift of grace. Grace heals and elevates human persons. Through the self-gift of divine, unrestricted Love and the Incarnate Word, God works with human sensitivity, imagination, intelligence, affect, freedom, and community to produce religious, moral, and intellectual conversion, and to form the renewed, renewing community Lonergan calls “cosmopolis” and the body of Christ. Building on this cosmology and anthropology, the second part of the dissertation turns to the culmination of God’s solution to the problem of sin and evil in the suffering and death of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, on the cross at Calvary. The cross does not redeem creation by destroying its order, nor does it redeem humanity by revoking its freedom. Rather, the cross redeems the world by working with the order and freedom of creation and humanity to fulfill their natural processes and purposes. Just as from all possible world orders, God chose the order of emergent probability and human freedom, from all possible ways of redeeming that order, God chose the way of the cross. How does the cross redeem a free humanity in a world of emergent probability? For Lonergan, the best way to understand the cross is through the analogy of communication. This communication is in two parts. First, the cross is a communication, primarily, of humanity to God. Lonergan calls this part “vicarious satisfaction.” He takes the general analogy from Anselm of Canterbury’s Cur Deus Homo?. But rather than understanding satisfaction primarily in an economic context of debt (as Anselm does), Lonergan situates it in the higher context of interpersonal psychology: Sin creates a rupture in the relationships between human persons and God, among human persons, and among all parts of creation. Christ’s vicarious satisfaction flows from a non-ruptured relationship. It expresses a perfect concord of the human and the divine, through its threefold communication of (1) a perfect knowledge and love of God and humanity, (2) a perfect knowledge and sorrow for the offense that sin is, (3) and a perfect knowledge and detestation of the evil sin causes. Conceived as a communication in the context of ruptured interpersonal relationships, Lonergan’s analogical understanding of the cross as vicarious satisfaction avoids Anselm’s understanding’s tendency to be misinterpreted as “satispassion” or “substitutionary penal atonement.” The other major part to Lonergan’s analogy of the cross as communication is called the “Law of the Cross.” While vicarious satisfaction is mainly Christ’s achievement prescinding from the cooperation of human freedom in a world of emergent probability, the Law of the Cross proposes that Christ’s crucifixion is an example and an exhortation to human persons. On the cross, Jesus wisely and lovingly transforms the evil consequences of sin into a twofold communication to humanity of a perfect human and divine (1) knowledge and love for humanity and (2) knowledge and condemnation of sin and evil. This twofold communication invites a twofold human response: the repentance of sin and a love for God and all things. This love and repentance form a reconciled relationship of God and humanity. Furthermore, when reconciled with God, a human person will tend to be moved to participate in Christ’s work by willingly taking on satisfaction for one’s own sin as well as the vicarious satisfaction for others’ sins. Such participatory vicarious activity invites still other human persons to repent and reconcile with God and other persons, and furthermore to engage in their own participatory acts of satisfaction and communication. Thus, Christ’s own work and human participation in his work are objective achievements as well as moving or inspiring examples. However, while Christ’s work and our participation are moving, their movements do not operate by necessity. Nor are the appropriate human responses of repentance, love, personal satisfaction, and vicarious satisfaction in any way forced upon human persons. Consequently, the cross as communication operates in harmony with a world of emergent probability and in cooperation with human freedom. With the cross as communication, redemption is reconciliation, a reconciliation that spreads historically and communally by human participation in the divine initiative. This is God’s solution to the problem of evil, according to Lonergan. Because God wills ultimately for human persons to be united to God and to all things by love, God wills freedom, and God allows the possibility of sin and evil. But sin and evil do not please God. Out of infinite wisdom, God did not do away with evil through power, but converted evil into a communication that preserves, works with, and fulfills the order of creation and the freedom of humanity. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2008. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

One of the most influential figures in recent theological reflection upon interreligious dialogue is Raimon Panikkar. Panikkar was an ordained Catholic priest who also practiced the Hindu and Buddhist faiths. Panikkar lived a life of mystical faith in which his identity was simultaneously Christian, Hindu, and Buddhist, a phenomenon often called `multiple belonging'. However, this mystical unity is not merely an element of Panikkar's faith life, but it also essential to his theology. In fact, it is mystical unity that underlies the very concept of identity in Panikkar's thought. Identity is found through union. It is in the realization of this unity that the concept of `Christ' comes into play. Christ is the principle of this identifying unity, which is found throughout all of Reality. Panikkar's overall theological vision can best be described by his own term: `cosmotheandric', which describes this unity of all of reality in its three poles: the world (cosmos), God (Theos), and Human (Aner). In this way, the very nature of Reality itself is Trinitarian. With this in mind, this dissertation seeks to deduce the ecclesiological and soteriological implications of this theological vision. The key to understanding Panikkar's ecclesiology and soteriology is the interrelation of the concepts of `Christ' and `identity'. / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts / Theology / PhD / Dissertation

This thesis is a study of the relationship between John Wesley's Christology and his broader theology. No specific effort has yet been made to assess whether or not a meaningful change to Wesley's Christology ever occurred, or to what extent Wesley's Christology shaped his broader theology. The purpose of this study is to fill this gap by first demonstrating that a change to Wesley's Christology did occur and describing the implications of this shift for his broader theology and, second, by evaluating to what degree Wesley's broader theology arose out of, or was shaped by, his Christology. Chapter one describes Wesley's inherited theology, which he received from his family and faith tradition, in order to provide a foundation from which to examine changes to his Christology. Chapter two then demonstrates that a change to Wesley's Christology did occur around his 1738 'evangelical conversion', and describes the implications of this shift for Wesley's evangelical theology. John Wesley identified the core doctrines of the early Methodists as repentance, faith, and holiness. Following Wesley's lead, this study examines three correlating areas of focus as representative of these core Methodist doctrines, in order to describe the relationship between these doctrines and Wesley's Christology. Chapter three, 'Christ and Humanity' examines Wesley's doctrine of humanity, including his understanding of the image of God, original sin, and the nature of salvation as restoration of the divine image. This chapter lays out Wesley's understanding of the need for human repentance. Chapter four, 'Christ Working for Us' examines those doctrines most closely tied to justification as an orienting concern. This includes Wesley's understanding of grace, the stages of faith, repentance itself, works meet for repentance, Christ's imputed righteousness, and adoption. Finally, chapter five, 'Christ Working in Us' examines those doctrines most closely linked to sanctification as an orienting concern. This includes the doctrine of the new birth, freedom from sin, assurance, and Christian perfection. By identifying the changes that occurred to Wesley's Christology and evaluating the relationship between his Christology and other core doctrines, this thesis will contribute to the growing body of research into the theological foundations of Methodism and the life and thought of the Rev. John Wesley.

Stoïcisme et bouddhisme présentent d'apparentes similitudes, en particulier dans la pratique d'exercices spirituels. Faute de s'être prémuni d'une interprétation à l'aune de catégories qui ne sont pas les siennes, le regard occidental sur le bouddhisme en fit souvent une philosophie nihiliste et pessimiste. D'autre part, les milieux académiques francophones considèrent que le stoïcisme a disparu irrémédiablement au IIIe siècle. Certaines similitudes sont doctrinales, avec les notions d'impermanence et d'interdépendance, le Logos et le Dharma. Eudémonistes, ils proposent tous deux une voie vers la sagesse par l'usage des vertus et l'éradication de l'ignorance. Le bouddhisme se distingue par sa dimension sotériologique, l'Éveil, au-delà de toute expression conceptuelle. Leur éthique est pragmatique, intentionnaliste et casuiste. Doué d'une remarquable capacité de diffusion, le bouddhisme progresse en Occident sous des formes nouvelles, comme le bouddhisme socialement engagé. Parallèlement, des formes actualisées du stoïcisme ont cours dans les pays anglophones. Sous leurs formes actuelles, stoïcisme et bouddhisme se présentent comme des forces de proposition face aux nouveaux défis de l'humanité, dans l'esprit du convivialisme. / Stoicism and Buddhism present obvious similarities, especially in spiritual exercise practices. For want of care of an interpretation with categories which are not theirs, Western views on Buddhism often made a nihilist and pessimist philosophy of it. On the other hand, French-speaking academic circles consider that Stoicism irremediably became extinct in the third century. Some of the similarities are doctrinal, as impermanence, interdependence, Logos, and Dharma. Eudemonist, they both offer a path to wisdom by purposing of virtue and rooting out ignorance. Buddhism can be distinguished by its soteriologic dimension, Enlightenment, beyond all conceptual expression. Their ethics are pragmatic, intentionalist, and casuist. Having a remarkable ability to extend, Buddhism is growing in the West according to new forms, as Socially Engaged Buddhism. In the same time, update forms of Stoicism do exist in English-speaking countries. In their update forms, Stoicism and Buddhism show us proposition strengths in front of new challenges of humankind, under convivialist spirit.

This thesis presents Thomas F. Torrance's Trinitarian soteriology, and as such seeks to combine the two most common but often separately treated doctrines in his theological cogitation: Trinity and soteriology. It argues that in a circular manner, Torrance's Trinitarian theology is explicitly soteriological and his soteriology is explicitly Trinitarian. This is because he (1) follows Barth's proposal that God's Being is inseparable from his Act, and vice versa, and (2) consistently employs his comprehensive theological rule that the Trinity is 'the ground and grammar of theology.' As such, this thesis also argues that not only is Torrance's soteriology Trinitarian, but that his soteriology could only be presented, understood and appreciated as Trinitarian. Non-trinitarian or implicitly Trinitarian readings of his soteriology cannot but fail to do justice to Torrance's theological consistency and genius. Furthermore, this thesis argues that Torrance's Trinitarian soteriology is consistent with his scientific and evangelical theology. On the one hand, Torrance's soteriological formulation follows scientific principles because he understands both the arche and telos of human salvation in strict accordance with the Being, Persons and Work of the Triune God. This is referred in the thesis as Torrance's kataphysic soteriology. On the other hand, Torrance's soteriological formulation follows an evangelical procedure grounded in the evangelical content of revelation. Because the content of God's Self-revelation is the Triune God reconciling the world to himself, Torrance understands that the Three Persons are actively involved in the salvific economy in strict accordance with their hypostases as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The evangelical procedure and sketch that Torrance employs is derived from 2 Corinthians 13:14, 'the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.' For Torrance, the ultimate telos of human salvation is participation in the very Life and Love of the Triune God. This may be referred to as humanity's perichoretic participation in the Communion of Love that God is. Humanity's sharing in the Triune Communion, however, is a mediated participation, encapsulated in the Athanasian aphorism 'from the Father through the Son in the Spirit and in the Spirit through the Son to the Father.' All three Persons of the Triune God fulfil distinct salvific agencies in accordance to their hypostases, but their distinct agencies have a united source and goal: the mediation of reconciliation with the Triune God. It is also argued that our participation in the Triune Communion is a human participation, or that we relate with the Triune God as humanized humans rather than as metamorphosized divine beings.

Thesis advisor: Jeremy D. Wilkins / The basic question of this dissertation is, “Why a crucified God?” The history of this question is traced through strategically chosen increments in Augustine, Anselm, Aquinas, and Lonergan. Each contributes in some important way to the development of a tradition that focuses on the choice of divine love and wisdom to answer evil through the justice of the cross rather than by coercion. In light of these earlier transpositions and Lonergan’s own development, this dissertation examines the meaning and justice of the cross, as epitomized in Lonergan’s Law of the Cross, and re-contextualizes this law in relation to our collective responsibility in and for history. This teleological re-reading of Lonergan’s soteriology brings to the forefront that a fitting remedy to the problem of a dis-ordered love is a re-ordering and (re-)ordered love, not coercive power. According to Lonergan’s Law of the Cross, the intrinsic intelligibility of redemption is the transformation of evil into good by love. This love, caritas ordinata et ordinans, is understood by analogy with the antecedent offer of diffusive friendship and by analogy with sacramental penance. The restoration of right order through the cross is fitting because, if the laws of nature and history are not suspended, retaliation would only multiply the objective surd. The constructive part of this dissertation further specifies ontological conditions for the fittingness of the cross by bringing the lex crucis into dialogue with Lonergan’s general theory of historical process. In continuity with the emerging world order (as subject to classical, statistical, dialectical, and genetic laws), the cross manifests an orderly communication of divine friendship to sinners. Correspondingly, the justice of the cross regards, not retributive justice, but the possibility of justice among sinners. This possibility, it is argued, is inaugurated by Christ’s transformation of suffering into the means of a new finality in history, the probabilities of which are decisively shifted in the cross event and concretely realized through the emergent agape network, the higher integration of the human good of order through the whole Christ, head and members, by the power of the Holy Spirit. The justice of the cross, then, is an emergent agapic justice which proceeds from the dynamic state of being in love with God as its principle and is realized in a dialectic unification of all things in Christ, constituting the “cruciform” transformation of human (inter-)subjectivity and the recovery of human progress as ordered to the eschatologically definitive reign of God. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.