Joseph Smith is one of the most enigmatic figures in American religious history. From the details of his life story to the eventual formation of his own church, much has been written on the legacy of Joseph Smith. However, there are still numerous areas of Smith’s life and thought that demand further engagement, especially from a Nicene perspective. The purpose of the present research is to substantively add to scholarly knowledge regarding Joseph Smith. In contradistinction to other Nicene treatments of Joseph Smith and his theology, the present project will integrate multiple disciplines for the purpose of producing a robust, Nicene assessment of Smith’s life and tritheism. The aim of this project is to establish the historical context and potential religious influences upon Joseph Smith’s theological evolution. The process by which this information is ascertained requires a thorough and exegetical evaluation of the scriptural basis for Nicene orthodoxy. This data represents a theological foundation that must be built upon by recounting the development of Trinitarianism among the early Christians. Based upon this scriptural and historical background for Nicene orthodoxy, the historical focus then must turn to theological trends just prior to and during the life of Joseph Smith. The result of this process then leads to an assessment of Smith’s life and tritheism, from a Nicene perspective that integrates multiple lines of data. The findings of this research demonstrate, rather conclusively, that Nicene orthodoxy is rooted in the text of Christian Scripture. Further, Trinitarianism developed creedally, over time, among the early Christians but existed, in nascent form, from the close of the New Testament. Additionally, Nicene orthodoxy held sway among the colonies in America prior to the revolutionary era. The ideas and events leading up to the American Revolution gave occasion and platform to anti-Nicene ideologies that greatly influenced Joseph Smith’s family. Moreover, Joseph Smith’s own historical and religious context was littered with anti-Nicene and unorthodox teachers, movements and visionaries. These details lead to the conclusion that Joseph Smith was not a unique prophet but just one of many anti-Nicene religious leaders that arose to prominence during this period. It is therefore argued that Smith’s theology originated from his own theological musings. The resultant system is replete with doctrinal contradictions and philosophical absurdities. Thus, from the perspective of Nicene Christianity, Smith’s tritheism must be deemed as a distinct and rival system intended to replace historic orthodoxy. / PhD (Church and Dogma History)

Joseph Smith is one of the most enigmatic figures in American religious history. From the details of his life story to the eventual formation of his own church, much has been written on the legacy of Joseph Smith. However, there are still numerous areas of Smith’s life and thought that demand further engagement, especially from a Nicene perspective. The purpose of the present research is to substantively add to scholarly knowledge regarding Joseph Smith. In contradistinction to other Nicene treatments of Joseph Smith and his theology, the present project will integrate multiple disciplines for the purpose of producing a robust, Nicene assessment of Smith’s life and tritheism. The aim of this project is to establish the historical context and potential religious influences upon Joseph Smith’s theological evolution. The process by which this information is ascertained requires a thorough and exegetical evaluation of the scriptural basis for Nicene orthodoxy. This data represents a theological foundation that must be built upon by recounting the development of Trinitarianism among the early Christians. Based upon this scriptural and historical background for Nicene orthodoxy, the historical focus then must turn to theological trends just prior to and during the life of Joseph Smith. The result of this process then leads to an assessment of Smith’s life and tritheism, from a Nicene perspective that integrates multiple lines of data. The findings of this research demonstrate, rather conclusively, that Nicene orthodoxy is rooted in the text of Christian Scripture. Further, Trinitarianism developed creedally, over time, among the early Christians but existed, in nascent form, from the close of the New Testament. Additionally, Nicene orthodoxy held sway among the colonies in America prior to the revolutionary era. The ideas and events leading up to the American Revolution gave occasion and platform to anti-Nicene ideologies that greatly influenced Joseph Smith’s family. Moreover, Joseph Smith’s own historical and religious context was littered with anti-Nicene and unorthodox teachers, movements and visionaries. These details lead to the conclusion that Joseph Smith was not a unique prophet but just one of many anti-Nicene religious leaders that arose to prominence during this period. It is therefore argued that Smith’s theology originated from his own theological musings. The resultant system is replete with doctrinal contradictions and philosophical absurdities. Thus, from the perspective of Nicene Christianity, Smith’s tritheism must be deemed as a distinct and rival system intended to replace historic orthodoxy. / PhD (Church and Dogma History)

The English Romantic poet William Wordsworth (1770-1850) – considered by many to be one of the foremost poets of the English language alongside Chaucer, Shakespeare and Milton – is an important name in the history of modern poetry. Together with Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) and Robert Southey (1774-1843) he was known during his lifetime as one of the ‘Lake Poets’, who chose to live and work not in the bustling city of London but in the ‘sublime’ countryside of the Lake District in England’s north western corner. Their poetry – and especially that of Wordsworth – sought to capture the ‘Splendour and Beauty’ (Ode.—1820) of nature and to give it fresh, luminous expression. They sought to recover ‘The vision and the faculty divine’, as Wordsworth called it (The Excursion, I. 79), which is the natural way of perceiving the world for the child but – in Milton’s elegiac words – a ‘Paradise lost’ for man. This study has had two main objectives: (I) to analyse Wordsworth’s poems My Heart Leaps Up and Ode: Intimations from a Christian theological perspective, and (II) to discuss the implications of this analysis on the understanding of the metaphor of the child in the New Testament. The theoretical starting point for the investigation has been that poetry has ‘a special ability to expose different (also contradictory) perspectives and meanings since it is (often) characterised by puzzling paradoxes, suggestive symbols, provocative voids and other stylistic figures’ (Maria Essunger) and that Wordsworth is a ‘Philosophical Poet’ – a thesis well established in the literature. The results of the study show that the metaphor of the child is theologically rich in meaning – it can be understood from an ontological, a Christological, a Trinitarian and a soteriological perspective – and philosophically complex in nature, and that it therefore requires careful consideration in order not to be deprived of its spiritual, metaphorical significance. ‘For the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life’ (2 Cor. 3.6).

This thesis proposes that astronomical ideas and forces structured the poetic, religious and philosophical imaginings of William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Despite the widespread scholarly predilection for interdisciplinary enquiry in the field of literature and science, no study has been undertaken to assess the impact and imaginative value of mathematics and astronomy upon Wordsworth and Coleridge. Indeed, it is assumed they had neither the resources available to access this knowledge, nor the capacity to grasp it fully. This is not the case. I update the paradigm that limits their familiarity with the physical sciences to the education they received at school and at Cambridge, centred principally on Euclid and Newton, by revealing their attentiveness to the new world views promulgated by William Herschel, William Rowan Hamilton, Pierre-Simon Laplace, and the mathematicians of Trinity College, Cambridge, including John Herschel, George Peacock, and George Biddell Airy, amongst others. The language of astronomy wielded a vital, analogical power for Wordsworth and Coleridge; it conditioned the diurnal rhythms of their thought as its governing dynamic. Critical processes were activated, at the level of form and content, with a mixture of cosmic metaphors and nineteenth-century discoveries (such as infra-red). Central models of Wordsworth’s and Coleridge’s literary and metaphysical inventions were indissociable from scientific counterparts upon which they mutually relied. These serve as touchstones for creative endeavour through which the mechanisms of their minds can be traced at work. Exploring the cosmological charge contained in the composition of their poems, and intricately patterned and pressed into their philosophical and spiritual creeds, stakes a return to the evidence of the Romantic imagination. The incorporation of astrophysical concepts into the moulds of Wordsworth’s and Coleridge’s constructions manifests an intelligent plurality and generosity which reveals the scientific valency of their convictions about, variously, the circumvolutions of memory and the idea of psychic return; textual revision, specifically the ways in which language risks becoming outmoded; prosody, balance, and the minute strictures modifying metrical weight; volubility as an axis of conversation and cognition; polarity as the reconciling tool of the imagination; and the perichoretic doctrine of the Holy Trinity. The ultimate purpose is to show that astronomy provided Wordsworth and Coleridge with a scaffold for thinking, an intellectual orrery which ordered artistic consciousness and which they never abandoned.

One of the central issues of early Christianity was the identity of Jesus Christ. Paul and other early Christians discussed this question within the framework of traditional Jewish monotheism and used the language of deity to describe Christ. This thesis explores how and why they integrated the two concepts of monotheism and the deity of Jesus. As a window into this process, it particularly examines Paul’s discourse in 2 Cor 3:16–4:6, employing grammatical-historical exegesis with insights from rhetorical criticism and Oneness Pentecostal Christology. We consider three fundamental questions: (1) What does the exalted language concerning Christ in this text represent? (2) How did Paul reconcile the deification of Jesus with his monotheistic heritage? (3) Why did Paul deify Jesus? What interests were served, and what were the practical consequences? The conclusion is that early Christians, prior to and including Paul, worshiped Jesus within a Jewish monotheistic context and not as a result of Hellenization. They viewed Jesus as the revelation of the one God, not as a second deity or a different personage. Although they reinterpreted their core beliefs in light of Jesus, they did not see their worship of Jesus as violating their core beliefs. The evidence from Paul’s Corinthian correspondence does not require an explicit binitarian or trinitarian model, but it reveals that many early Christians viewed God as both transcendent and immanent and worshiped Jesus as the God of Israel manifested in human identity. We identify four significant socio-rhetorical factors in the monotheistic deification of Jesus: (1) In a context of rapid social change it enabled Christians to combine Hebrew monotheism with Greek longing for universals, thereby claiming both traditional heritage and Christocentric distinctiveness. (2) It gave them a unique social identity and cohesiveness. (3) It affirmed their soteriological experiences, beliefs, and outreach. (4) It positioned the movement to attract all people, moving the new faith beyond Jewish ethnicity and traditional boundary markers so that it became a universal monotheism with a missiological focus. The socio-rhetorically constructed identity of Jesus Christ defined the identity of the early Christians. The result was a distinctively Christian faith. / New Testament / D. Th. (New Testament)

One of the central issues of early Christianity was the identity of Jesus Christ. Paul and other early Christians discussed this question within the framework of traditional Jewish monotheism and used the language of deity to describe Christ. This thesis explores how and why they integrated the two concepts of monotheism and the deity of Jesus. As a window into this process, it particularly examines Paul’s discourse in 2 Cor 3:16–4:6, employing grammatical-historical exegesis with insights from rhetorical criticism and Oneness Pentecostal Christology. We consider three fundamental questions: (1) What does the exalted language concerning Christ in this text represent? (2) How did Paul reconcile the deification of Jesus with his monotheistic heritage? (3) Why did Paul deify Jesus? What interests were served, and what were the practical consequences? The conclusion is that early Christians, prior to and including Paul, worshiped Jesus within a Jewish monotheistic context and not as a result of Hellenization. They viewed Jesus as the revelation of the one God, not as a second deity or a different personage. Although they reinterpreted their core beliefs in light of Jesus, they did not see their worship of Jesus as violating their core beliefs. The evidence from Paul’s Corinthian correspondence does not require an explicit binitarian or trinitarian model, but it reveals that many early Christians viewed God as both transcendent and immanent and worshiped Jesus as the God of Israel manifested in human identity. We identify four significant socio-rhetorical factors in the monotheistic deification of Jesus: (1) In a context of rapid social change it enabled Christians to combine Hebrew monotheism with Greek longing for universals, thereby claiming both traditional heritage and Christocentric distinctiveness. (2) It gave them a unique social identity and cohesiveness. (3) It affirmed their soteriological experiences, beliefs, and outreach. (4) It positioned the movement to attract all people, moving the new faith beyond Jewish ethnicity and traditional boundary markers so that it became a universal monotheism with a missiological focus. The socio-rhetorically constructed identity of Jesus Christ defined the identity of the early Christians. The result was a distinctively Christian faith. / New Testament / D. Th. (New Testament)