This dissertation critically engages Wesley’s theology of law and gospel and uses it to construct a Wesleyan plot for narrative preaching. Paul Scott Wilson describes homiletician Eugene Lowry’s narrative sermon plot as a theological movement from law as trouble to gospel as solution. In this view, law functions largely as bad news; gospel as good news. Lowry’s plot assigns a largely negative role to law in that it convicts of sins, or in the case of narrative preaching, creates tension in a plot. John Wesley, however, defines law as “privilege and glorious liberty” for those who desire and participate in sanctification, a continuing growth in love for God and neighbors. This thesis, therefore, proposes a Wesleyan plot for narrative preaching that begins with law, moves to gospel, and ends with renewed law. This dissertation attempts to integrate narrative form and theological content in sermons, even though recent homiletical theories tend to move one way or the other. In doing so, it also bridges the gap between Lowry’s narrative preaching and that of postliberal homileticians, insofar as they tend to start either with experience or the biblical world, respectively. Instead, this work recognizes a kind of redemptive narrative in the relationship of justification and sanctification and suggests this for a Wesleyan model for narrative preaching. Ultimately, a discussion of law in Wesley’s covenantal sense challenges Lowry’s central, individualistic notion of freedom as a result of experiencing the gospel only after the law. This dissertation is an exercise in practical theology. It begins by critically analyzing the context and mode of Lowry’s narrative preaching. After consulting Wesley’s theology of law and gospel as normative, it critically engages black preaching traditions in the U.S. as a way of bridging the gap between Wesley’s time and today, especially recognizing the pastoral context of contemporary listeners. In connection with an analysis of black preaching traditions that creatively tell the redemptive narrative of God, the works of Edward Wimberly and Dale Andrews are especially instructive for showing how black churches narrate their members’ responsibilities in acts of justice and reconciliation in covenantal relationship with God and people.

<p> Many years ago, I watched a 2008 YouTube video by Fr. Robert Barron, now auxiliary bishop in Los Angeles, who commented on Bob Dylan as being a spiritual poet. Being a fan of Dylan since I was a teenager, and most familiar with his song, &ldquo;Blowin' in the Wind,&rdquo; I was intrigued by Fr. Barron&rsquo;s take on this song as being a reference to the Holy Spirit. Some of the comments on the YouTube commentary ridiculed the idea that Dylan&rsquo;s songs were spiritual. Others denied the poetic prowess of Dylan. Nonetheless, Bishop Barron seems to be vindicated, at least as far as the second disagreement, now that Dylan has won the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature. </p><p> However, Barron&rsquo;s interpretation of &ldquo;Blowin' in the Wind,&rdquo; resonates well because unless we allow the &ldquo;Blowin&rsquo; in the Wind&rdquo; to permeate our being, we will be blowing in the wind of a crooked and depraved generation. Precisely, this spiritual sense of &ldquo;Blowin' in the Wind,&rdquo; is what compels this thesis. Today&rsquo;s teenagers face a world in which &ldquo;moral therapeutic deism&rdquo; in the spiritual life, relativism in the moral life and &ldquo;alternative facts&rdquo; in the political life are perceived as viable options. According to Cardinal Walter Kasper, &ldquo;the only answer to the modern day God-question and to the present situation of modern atheism is the God of Jesus Christ and the Trinitarian confession&rdquo; (<i>The God of Jesus Christ, Crossroad Publishing, 1996</i>). This thesis helps answer the question whether mystagogical preaching, an ancient form of preaching relating to the sacraments of initiation, is effective in making a connection to today&rsquo;s teenagers within the context of the sacrament of confirmation, which hopefully results in forming intentional discipleship. </p><p>

<p> The thesis of this dissertation is that a dialogical approach to contextualization demonstrates that kingdom and covenant are critical themes for proclaiming the gospel in a Southeast Asian Buddhist context. </p><p> The introductory chapter explains basic background information regarding missions among Southeast Asian Buddhists. The thesis for the research is presented and explained. A basic outline for the organization of the research is presented with summaries of each of the six chapters. Basic definitions, limitations and assumptions regarding the research are also addressed. </p><p> Chapter 2, &ldquo;Evangelism and Southeast Asian Buddhists: Contemporary Issues Affecting Gospel Transmission,&rdquo; outlines four contemporary problems affecting gospel transmission from Western missionaries to Southeast Asian Buddhists. The chapter focuses on four reasons why the <i>process</i> of transmission and <i>content</i> (themes) of gospel presentations need to be evaluated. The four issues addressed are 1) the confusion surrounding the meaning of the gospel and theological problems surrounding current models of evangelism, 2) the problem of &ldquo;cultural noise&rdquo; in evangelism models, 3) the problem of an assumed Western framework in gospel transmission methods and contextualization models, and 4) the absence of the gospel themes of kingdom and covenant in practical evangelism models. The issues addressed in Chapter 2 seek to demonstrate that research is needed to explore new contextualization models as well as new gospel frameworks and presentations that are better contextualized to an Asian worldview. </p><p> Chapter 3, &ldquo;Gospel Transmission Among Southeast Asian Buddhists: A Dialogical Contextualization Proposal,&rdquo; recommends a dialogical methodology for contextualizing the gospel among Southeast Asian Buddhists. The dialogical proposal proposed is based on Jackson Wu&rsquo;s dialogical contextualization process. The chapter begins by establishing a basic definition, rationale and objectives of contextualization. Next, a dialogical methodology for contextualization is proposed and explained. Specific attention is given to explaining the dialogical process that occurs between the contextualization catalyst and the five spheres of local culture/worldview, biblical culture(s), social sciences, Scripture, and systematic theology. It will be demonstrated that the dialogical methodology offers an advantageous process for contextualizing the gospel among Southeast Asian Buddhists. </p><p> Chapter 4, &ldquo;Toward Contextualized Evangelism Frameworks for Southeast Asian Buddhists: A Dialogical Examination of the Roles of Kingdom and Covenant in the Gospel,&rdquo; applies the dialogical contextualization methodology presented in chapter 3 to a Southeast Asian Buddhist context. The presentation of the methodology, in which the author serves as the contextualization catalyst, includes dialogue with each of the five contextualization spheres as related to the themes of kingdom and covenant in the gospel. The contextualization process demonstrates that within a Southeast Asian Buddhist context, the themes of kingdom and covenant are appropriate biblical themes for framing the gospel in evangelistic presentations. </p><p> Chapter 5, &ldquo;The Benefits of a Kingdom and Covenant Framed Gospel for Evangelizing Southeast Asian Buddhists,&rdquo; explores the primary advantages of a kingdom and covenant gospel framework for evangelizing Southeast Asian Buddhist peoples. The chapter begins with the application of a kingdom and covenant framed gospel to a Southeast Asian Thai Buddhist context, thereby providing an example for the reader to understand both practically how kingdom and covenant can frame the gospel, as well as have greater clarity on its advantages. It will be demonstrated that a kingdom and covenant gospel framework 1) establishes a multifaceted, culturally-meaningful apologetic for the gospel, 2) contributes to a culturally and theologically meaningful understanding of God, sin, salvation and heaven/hell in gospel presentations, 3) connects evangelism to the primary gospel implications of discipleship, church and mission, and 4) contributes to an advantageous hermeneutical framework for doing gospel-centered ministry in context. </p><p> Chapter 6, &ldquo;Synopsis of Research Findings,&rdquo; concludes the research findings with a summary of the thesis and outline of the dissertation. Implications of the research on missions among Southeast Asian Buddhist are explored as well as suggestions for further research.</p><p>

<p> In order to determine the needs and desires of the autism community in the Catholic Diocese of Memphis in Tennessee, a survey was developed and the data parsed via a modified action research method of qualitative analysis with the purpose of determining how the autism community can best be included in the preaching and catechesis of the diocese as both servants and consumers of the services available from the parishes within the diocese. </p><p> The survey was offered online with a paper option and was made available to both current and former members of the Catholic faith tradition. The survey was announced via publication in the diocesan newspaper and in parish bulletins with further dissemination by word of mouth among the autism community. A total of thirty-four responses were received and analyzed using best practices for research involving those with intellectual disabilities and those who care for them, including parents. There were thirty-nine questions in the survey, including questions that established the eligibility and applicability of the respondents. </p><p> Utilizing the results of the survey, a draft &ldquo;Guide for Ministers of the Word&rdquo; was prepared and presented to a mixed group of clergy and lay catechist-preachers who provided feedback to the researcher in the form of suggestions and observations. This was followed up with a second draft of the guide which incorporated those items which were both feasible and appropriate for Catholic parishes. This version of the guide was presented to the annual gathering of deacons and wives/widows in the diocese. This latter group provided additional comments and suggestions which the researcher then incorporated into the final product. </p><p> This ultimate product will provide clergy and lay catechist-preachers in the diocese &ndash; and likely beyond &ndash; a framework for fuller inclusion of the autism community into the life of the Church as full members of the Body of Christ.</p><p>

From time immemorial, the search for healing has been an essential and universal dimension of human life. Human beings are motivated by the natural and spontaneous instinct to preserve life in its entirety, especially when health is threatened by, sickness or disease. The mission to heal belongs to all members of the human family, regardless of gender, race, age, or religion. The Church bases her mission to heal on this prerogative and on Jesus' mandate to his disciples to preach and heal. This study is a theological and pastoral analysis of the Church's involvement in the healing ministry among the Banyankore of the Archdiocese of Mbarara. The research investigates the Church's pastoral activity in this regard, examining the successes but also the challenges encountered. From the hypothesis that a theological and pastoral analysis of the Church's approach to the practice of heating in the context of Christian living today, will help to develop an integrated healing mission for the Church in the Archdiocese of Mbarara, the study set out to investigate the Church's contribution to the healing ministry at the local or diocesan level. It is an attempt to discover how best the Church can use an integrated approach to healing to fulfill Christ's legacy. As illustrated in Chapter one, the present study uses the contextual approach to theology inspired by Stephen Bevans' Anthropological and Synthetic models of contextual theology, and Theresa Okure's Incarnational paradigm as theological key to inculturating the Church's healing mission. The local Church is perceived as agent and mediator of healing. The present study takes seriously people's cultural and native practices of healing, while at the same time acknowledging the contribution of other healing traditions. Grounded in the above approach, Chapter two of the thesis looks at the Church's past and present approach to healing in the Archdiocese of Mbarara. It becomes apparent that the Church's ministry of healing at this level lays greater emphasis on the medical model - through health care services offered hospitals, dispensaries, medical clinics. Yet this approach alone is Insufficient to care for all the sick and afflicted, and does not treat sicknesses that are not physiological in nature. People search for alternatives, thus showing that there is a need for a more integrated approach to healing. Chapter three studies the Banyankore native concepts and practices of healing. The study reveals that because of their holistic world view, many sick Banyankore are attracted to native practices of healing. This discovery further emphasizes the need for integration: some of the native beliefs and practices of healing could enlighten the Church's healing ministry. Chapter four is a christological analysis of the healing dimension in the various African faces of Christ. All the dimensions contribute toward the image of Christ the Divine Healer. In other words, Christ's healing ministry as presented in the New Testament, and the Gospels in particular, finds expression in the various metaphors or images employed by African theologians. In this way African Christology makes an invariable contribution toward an integrated approach to healing. Chapter five highlights inculturation as theological key to help the Church in the actualization her healing mission. Just like Jesus' mission of healing was facilitated by his Incarnation, so does the success of the Church's healing mission depend on how much this mission is inculturated in the concrete lives of the people. Thus, inculturation, based on the incarnational model becomes essential for the realization of integral healing. The last chapter proposes that the local Church mediate the various healing traditions: conventional medicine, native healing, and religious or faith healing. The search for integration in this regard requires that the local Church be attentive and learn the components of each healing tradition so as to contribute to healing the individual and the community as a whole. With the urgent need for integration in mind, the chapter makes various suggestions for improving the Church's healing ministry. In the final analysis the study reemphasizes the need for the Church in Mbarara to adopt an integrated approach to healing. Even if this thesis focuses on one particular region of the Banyankore of the Archdiocese of Mbarara, the findings are pertinent for the rest of the Church in Africa as well as the universal Church. This work does not answer all the questions regarding healing, but it is certainly a valuable contribution in the search for an integrated approach to healing.

Dix ans après la fin du Concile Vatican II, Paul VI renouvelait la doctrine missionnaire du Décret Ad Gentes et de la Déclaration Nostra Aetate par son Exhortation Apostolique Evangelii Nuntiandi sur l'Evangélisation dans le monde moderne, en date du 8 décembre 1975. Il disait alors que "L'Église évangélise lorsque, par la seule puissance divine du message qu'elle proclame (cf. Rom 1.16: 1 Cor 1, 18;2.4), elle cherche à convertir en même temps la conscience personnelle et collective des hommes, l'activité dans laquelle ils s'engagent, la vie et le milieu concrets qui sont les leurs" (E.N.18). Ce qui est à convertir, c'est donc, non seulement les consciences individuelles, mais aussi ce que le Concile a appelé ailleurs les cultures (G.S. 53). Et Paul VI d'insister sur la profondeur de cette conversion: il s'agit selon lui "d'atteindre et comme de bouleverser par la force de l'Évangile les critères de jugement, les valeurs déterminantes, les points d'intérêt, les lignes de pensée, les sources inspiratrices et les modèles de vie de l'humanidessein du salut" (E.N.19). L'hypothèse de cette recherche, c'est qu'il importe de traduire, non seulement les éléments secondaires, mais la totalité du langage ("matière et forme", symbole, signifiants). Pour atteindre à la profondeur que visait Paul VI, il ne faut pas commencer par faire éclater la structure du langage, en imposant des "limites convenables" (G.S.44) qui seraient des limites à priori étrangères à l'esprit de l'Incarnation. La pratique de l'Eucharistie dans les jeunes Églises d'Afrique fournit un excellent terrain pour vérifier cette hypothèse dans toutes ses dimensions, implications et conséquences. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

<p> This dissertation sought to trace and discover Tim Keller's methodology for preaching Christ from all of Scripture, specifically the OT. As a practitioner, Keller gives a basic method for preaching the entire Bible as Christian Scripture. Thirty-six of Keller's sermons from the OT were analyzed using a tool developed from his own six ways to preach Christ. As a sixth way to proclaim the gospel from each OT text, Keller offers the idea of a Christ-centered instinct. Therefore, the dissertation focused on answering two research questions, with the first research question serving as the primary emphasis: (1) How does Tim Keller proclaim Christ in his sermons from the OT? (2) Does Tim Keller's methodology provide insight into what he means by instinct? </p><p> Chapter one contains the introduction, including the statement of the research problem, research questions, delimitations of the study, definition of key terms, and state of the research of Christ-centered preaching generally and Keller's preaching specifically. </p><p> Chapter two focuses on the research methodology for the sermon analysis. The chapter begins by observing the object of analysis, Tim Keller. The chapter includes brief biographical information and a literature review of pertinent works. The chapter explains the method of analysis, and it concludes by discussing the questions in the sermon analysis tool. Each question derives from one of Keller's six ways to proclaim Christ. </p><p> Chapter three consists of an overview of Keller's Christ-centered preaching methodology. His methodology includes an understanding of the purpose of the whole canon in biblical interpretation, as well as a commitment to preach the gospel to the heart in every sermon. Keller's six ways of preaching Christ are examined in an attempt to grasp his intended methodology before analyzing his preaching. </p><p> Chapter four includes the majority of the sermon analysis. The analysis tool was employed to ask six questions of thirty-six OT sermons by Keller. The sermons fit within the categories of the HB: Law, Prophets, and Writings. The answers to the six questions helped to determine patterns and themes in Keller's preaching methodology. Certain patterns allowed for a better understanding of what Keller means by preaching Christ from an instinct. </p><p> Chapter five presents a summary of the findings from the analysis of the thirty-six sermons, including further observations about Keller's idea of instinct. The chapter concludes by offering five implications for Christ-centered preaching and four suggestions for further study. </p><p> The dissertation contains four appendices. The first appendix includes the metric for analysis based on the six questions. The second appendix gives a summary of the ways Keller proclaims Christ from each category of the OT. The third appendix reviews the methods Keller uses to preach Christ in each sermon. The fourth appendix lists the thirty-six sermons analyzed.</p><p>

<p> Through much of the twentieth century, St. Thomas Aquinas was accused of rendering the essential divine attributes&mdash;God&rsquo;s omniscience and omnipotence, God&rsquo;s actuality and existence, God&rsquo;s life and God&rsquo;s joy, and so on&mdash;in isolation from the Trinity. More recent scholarship has debunked the crasser versions of this charge. Yet no study has delved directly into the deep and sweeping and manifold ways in which the Trinity enters into, enriches, and intrinsically informs Thomas&rsquo;s account of the essential attributes. This thesis will do just that. Specifically, it will highlight ways in which Thomas continues to develop his account of the essential attributes within his Trinitarian theology, as the Revelation of the Trinity opens up depths within those attributes that could not otherwise be sounded. </p><p> More specifically still, Chapter One will show that the inner logic of the attributes&mdash;and especially of intellect, will, and simplicity, as presented within Thomas&rsquo;s Trinitarian theology, and as illumined by Revelation&mdash;requires that none of the essential attributes could exist at all were they not shared by three Persons. Chapter Two will survey the interpersonal underpinnings of Thomas&rsquo;s &ldquo;psychological&rdquo; framework, and will plumb both the Son&rsquo;s perfect reception of all perfection from the Father, and the Father&rsquo;s fully giving all fullness to the Son. And Chapter Three will show that the essential attributes&mdash;which are numerically one in the divine Persons&mdash;are inwardly shaped by and shot through with this intra-divine interpersonal giving and receiving: Thomas explicitly teaches that the essential attributes exist as giving in the Father, as receiving in the Son, and as receiving in the Holy Spirit; and principles basic to his Trinitarian thought demand that all of those attributes must exist as thus giving and receiving, and in no other way, or they could exist at all. And a Conclusion will briefly consider what it might mean for faith and reason that natural reason cannot discover the Trinity, even as the inner meanings of the attributes&mdash;which natural reason can discover&mdash;demand that those attributes be given and received by, and exist as giving and as receiving in, distinct divine Persons.</p><p>

Marcella Althaus-Reid sought wherever language or meaning might shift or exceed their possibilities. To do so, she pushed theology from the light into the dark. In the spaces of political, economic, and sexual struggle, she proposed that we encounter the transformative embraces of God’s indecent love. The intimacies of bodies matter in the illicit encounters of dark alleys. Caresses of flesh undress illusions; desires imagine alternatives; and bodies hunger for the unthinkable. Put differently: love and desire disregard boundaries, including the boundaries of knowledge, law, economy, and self. To write of God’s love and our love—to write of God, humanity, and world—we must recognize, refute, and resist the ideological dependencies in dominant modes of doing and communicating theology, because these dependencies constrain the possibilities of bodies in love. We must interrupt academic complacency with (what she called) “Totalitarian” theological languages. We must transform the doing of theology itself. This dissertation offers five studies of theological writing arising from Althaus-Reid’s experiments with indecency. Each considers one of her provocations in conversation with her interlocutors, paying careful attention to both the substance and performance. Study one engages with Paul Ricoeur, Jorge Luis Borges, and Umberto Eco to imagine writing in the shape of a hermeneutical labyrinth. The second questions the temporality of theological writing in conversation with Gustavo Gutiérrez, José María Arguedas, and Michel Foucault. The third examines how Althaus-Reid holds Jean Paul Sartre’s concept of obscenity together with Jean Baudrillard’s idea of reversibility, in order to press against illusions of writing that veil the materiality of lives lived in written pages. The fourth pursues the possibilities of writing bodies with Karl Marx, Jacques Derrida, Kathy Acker, and Lisa Isherwood. The fifth study extends Althaus-Reid’s reading of Pierre Klossowski’s meditation on radical hospitality as imperative for kenotic theological writing. Individually, the studies expand our imagination of what theological writing can or ought to be. Taken together, the studies provide a chronologically ordered view on Althaus-Reid’s complex engagement with liberationist, feminist, and queer theoretical and theological traditions in the context of her ongoing dialogue with continental philosophy.

With the increased ability of medical technology to manipulate or prolong the end of a patient's life, and with the increased dependency of patients on technology for survival and comfort, health care professionals who manipulate these "end of life" technologies seem to more directly manipulate the life and death of the patient. The end of life is the focus of the health care discipline of palliative care. It has been promoted as a holistic approach addressing the needs of dying patients which, if not addressed, give rise to requests for physician assisted suicide. Yet, concerns regarding the direct killing of patients also arise in palliative care through sedation practices. Discussion of this apparent contradiction is especially poignant given the value palliative care places on the dying process as a time of potential growth and self-actualization. Two traditional and foundational criteria within the principle of double effect (PDE) which are often cited as identifying significant ethical differences between killing and letting die are: (1) The psychological intention of the agent, (2) the direct/indirect action distinction. The problem is that the meaning and pertinence of these criteria have been argued as being both inadequate and adequate in demonstrating a moral difference between killing and letting die within healthcare debates. The question for palliative care clinicians is, "What is the ethically significant difference between killing and letting die in palliative care where death is not only foreseen through the treatment but, part of the complex act of doing good through the treatment, such as relieving pain and suffering?". A consistent goal of this inquiry has been to understand the one-sided nature of the principles, moralities and strategies implicit within palliative approaches to sedation practices. The moral reasoning implicit within the interpretation and application of PDE in palliative sedation literature was discovered to focus on the physical, causal or psychological intent of action and not integrate other elements signifying the moral intent or destiny of the action. Dialectics explored within the work of Paul Ricoeur offered insight into the complex operations within the process of interpretation and helped to frame and explore palliative sedation dilemmas as a complex problem of decision in situation. With novel palliative sedation dilemmas arising which betray convention, palliative care is engaged in a new moral frontier. The complexity and rawness of tragic suffering and dying, which accompanies the transition of identity and meaning of the patient, were discovered not as unexpected among palliative care professionals but interpreted as uncontrolled pathology and as the symbols of failure for palliative care. The humanization of dying, the ethical aim spawning the birth and genesis of palliative care, involved introducing a renewed vulnerability and mutuality within this clinical encounter. The challenge of re-establishing, continuing, and creating interpersonal meaning within the context of new and more dramatic forms of tragic suffering and fragmentation is the key challenge now facing the discipline of palliative care. Confronted by unique and tragic forms of dying, the resources of ethical deliberation, practical wisdom, vulnerability and mutuality between the self and the other, are approaches which palliative care professionals seek and yet feel ill prepared for by their own present health care formation.