Thesis (D. Min.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2008. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 352-371).

Thesis (M.A.P.S.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 57-59).

Thesis (M.A.P.S.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 57-59).

Thesis (M.A.P.S.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 57-59).

This thesis argues that both the epistle of James and the Didache reflect tensions among the early Christian communities. The community concerns reflected in the texts of each book are investigated. Then their group maintenance strategies are analyzed. It will be shown that both writings have a similar concern on the harmony and cohesiveness of the Christian communities. On the other hand, there are differences as well as similarities in their strategies for reducing conflict. An analysis of the community tensions reflected in James is given. This shows that James is not merely a random collection of traditional teachings beyond critical studies. Interpretative issues, including grammatical and rhetorical questions surrounding passages in James are considered carefully in order to explore the epistle’s rhetorical situation. It will be argued that reflected in the text are real concerns for tensions among the audience, not merely general ethical instructions. Then results from social-scientific studies on social identity and conflict phenomena are bring in to further explore the possible group dynamics for communities in conflict. This enhances one’s understanding of the meaning and purpose of the teaching in James. Theses group dynamics also fill in some gaps between passages in James. Hence, the coherence of the book is highlighted in the study. Lastly, these social-scientific theories also provide a framework for analyzing the strategies of maintaining group cohesiveness in James. Next, a parallel study is given for the Didache. This study shows that besides chapters 11-15, which clearly reflect dangers of dispute among the early believers, other sections of the document also reflect the Didachist’s concern for tensions among the early Christians. Then the group maintenance strategy of the Didache is analyzed using a similar framework as that used for James. Finally, a comparison between the two writings is given from the perspective of group maintenance. Similarities and differences in the books’ community concerns as well as their means for maintaining harmony in the community are highlighted to indicate the significance of these documents for the early Christian communities.

Widows and their fatherless children are commonly perceived to be the most deserving category amongst the poor. The frequent exhortations in the Hebrew Scriptures of the Old Testament clearly and constantly reminded the early Christian Church of the divine expectations God had enjoined upon them in this matter. There appears to be no obstacle, theological or moral, to perceiving them as worthy recipients of Christian charity and pastoral care. Yet the results of this study show that in the early centuries of the church the fatherless family was invisible to its leadership. They were not perceived as needy people deserving support but were regarded as a problem, rather than real human beings. Ambiguous material in the Gospels and in the other writings of the New Testament, where references to them are sparse and sometimes unsympathetic, allowed creativity of interpretation to occur permitting evasion of the giving of straightforward support, and instead facilitated greater management and control by the clergy. Their informal self-organisation and methods of mutual self-help were increasingly eroded. The only extensive study of the support of the fatherless family in Roman society and the Church is the four volume habilitation thesis of Jens-Uwe Krause, Witwen und Waisen im Römischen Reich, published between 1994-1995. This large study deals with the long period 200 BCE – 600 CE diachronically. Apart from the 2009 collection of essays edited by Sabine R. Hübner and David M. Ratzan. Growing up Fatherless in Antiquity, which deals mainly with elite, political, and literary figures rather than the poor, little else has been written on the fatherless child in antiquity. The issue of whether 1 Timothy 5:3-16 and similar later material are referring to an ‘Order’ of widows, typified by Bonnie Thurston’s 1989 book, The Widows: A Women's Ministry in the Early Church, has proved a major diversion. Recent work by Steven Friesen and Bruce Longenecker reinforce the conception of the composition of the early church as being primarily that of the poor. My focus is on the neglected area of pastoral care of the poor fatherless family within the earliest church, concentrating on the first 300 years CE. The existence of the poor fatherless family created financial, social and moral difficulties for the church leadership, which forced them to devise novel ways to deal with the duties encumbering them. How could they control these sexually experienced, but vulnerable and dependent, women with their young children? One way was to re-define them as something else. The first method, and the most successful, was to split them up into two distinct groups, old people and full orphans, each requiring a different approach. Another strategy was to make widows represent someone or something other than themselves. Their alter egos will be shown to be human, literary or theological. The third trend observed was an effort towards extinguishing the voice of women. If women and fatherless children were to epitomise something else other than themselves, then their own self-perceived reality had to be kept well hidden. They could not be allowed to speak or socialise. If they did speak their words had to be rendered unheard or to be of no effect. Finally, the young fatherless children of widows have no voice and consequently have been rendered invisible. They do not appear in the Gospels. In the rest of the New Testament and the writings of the early church fathers, they receive little more than a cursory mention as part of a literary trope, or are transformed into barely mentioned full orphans.

This dissertation explores the ways marginalized slaves and orphans came together to create new mission communities in western Tanzania. It shows that slave emancipation was a complex process that involved flight to the missions, public declarations, and certification of emancipation. Former slaves joined missions and their descendants became the first-generation Christians, and some worked as teachers, pastors and catechists. The dissertation centers on multiple language communities brought in juxtaposition by the slave trade, wars, and migrations to examine their involvement in the translation of Christian texts into the Kinyamwezi language. It argues that translation of the New Testament, religious texts and songs was a reciprocal process of Africans and European missionaries teaching each other. In so doing, translation became a stimulus for independent interpretation, as Nyamwezi translators acted as independent intellectuals in shaping an African interpretation of Christianity. In remote areas, far from the centers of mission stations, catechists and teachers helped adherents by translating the Bible and religious texts into their own languages, contributing to the growth of African Christianity. In addition to translation, teachers and catechists administered churches in villages, taught catechism, and prepared the young and adults for baptism and confirmation. They established their own schools, and devised teaching methods and ways of obtaining pupils for instruction. Their families not only provided a model of Christian families but also laid the foundation for African Christianity as children were baptized, attended mission schools and became teachers and catechists, and in some cases, nuns and priests. Furthermore, lay women and wives of the Nyamwezi teachers and catechists taught children in Sunday schools, while others accompanied teachers in villages and launched home-visit campaigns to attract more Nyamwezi women to join Christianity. The dissertation further argues that the growth of African Christianity in villages was not entirely the product of European missionary initiatives, but rather in significant measure the result of African cultural and intellectual creativity. The growth of Christianity in the twenty-century western Tanzania gave rise to the revival movement which spread in missions and villages, attracting Christians and pastors into revivalism. Nevertheless, divergent interpretations on the teachings of salvation, sin, and public confession of sins split Christians in the established mission churches into born-again pastors and Christians who supported revivalism and Christians who opposed the movement. This dissertation shows for the first time that lay Christians dissented from the revival movement, preventing born-again pastors and evangelists from holding services in churches. With growing tensions, some Christians seceded from the mainstream churches to form their own churches and installed their own pastors who worked independently from the control of the established churches.

This thesis presents an exploration of the possibility of women's past experiences of childhood sexual abuse having the status of belonging in Christian communities. This is the result of the observation that in literature and in practice, these experiences are regarded and treated in a way that distances and alienates them from the core values and practices of these places. The thesis is both critical and constructive in exploring how past experiences of childhood sexual abuse can be understood and articulated in ways that facilitate their exclusion from or their belonging in Christian communities. Prioritising the perspectives of women who have been sexually abused as children, and recognising the vulnerability of these perspectives when placed alongside more dominant views, I situate the study among feminist theologies that allow the topic to be explored in such a way that allocates a place of significance to voices and perspectives that are not heard or respected in other locations. Having outlined the roots of the questions I am asking, I set out the features of my location and approach and discuss my choice and interpretation of sources (chapter one). Following a critique and rejection of the dominant discourse of psychiatry as a vocabulary in which the significance of childhood sexual abuse is commonly understood (chapter two), I allow space for a detailed reading of three autobiographical accounts of experiences of childhood sexual abuse (chapter three). From here I develop two theologically significant ideas emerging from these accounts, to show the possibility of articulating and understanding these experiences in terms that belong in Christian communities (chapter four). I then turn to look at how the issue of childhood sexual abuse has been treated in Christian communities (chapter five), exploring the long silences of churches on this subject, and explaining how this impedes the extent to which women who have been sexually abused might be able to belong in these communities. I argue for the importance of hearing these women's voices alongside those of others so that they can belong in Christian communities alongside those who are more commonly heard. From this perspective of considering how these experiences belong in Christian community, I turn to look at the way that the question of forgiveness is understood and approached in relation to childhood sexual abuse (chapter six). I argue that although speaking of forgiveness is in theory a way of speaking about childhood sexual abuse that connects this experience with a theological concept that is meaningful in Christian communities, unless the specifics of the language of forgiveness are carefully and thoughtfully presented, in fact speaking of forgiveness may result in further alienation rather than belonging. I conclude (chapter seven) by suggesting that currently it is problematic to suppose that the formally structured churches are places in which experiences of childhood sexual abuse could safely belong. Finally, I point to the real possibility of these experiences finding a home in Christian community outside formal churches; that in spite of the churches' failures and slow responses, it is possible for women's past experiences of childhood sexual abuse to belong safely in Christian community.

Thesis (M.A.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 1997. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaf [57]).

Thesis (M.A.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 122-127).