Thesis (D. Min.)--Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 220-224).

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A signed LAC Non-Exclusive License form from this author is pending. / The relationship between philosophy and Christianity has, of course, a long history, as do the discussions of that relationship. My own position is not dissimilar to that of many of the early Church Fathers, though of course that position must be elaborated differently for various historical and personal reasons, and hopefully enriched by attention to the history of Western philosophy. As with all such relations, one's understanding of this relation has a lot to do with one's understanding of the terms involved. To promote the possibility of "Christian philosophy" is also to comment on that "and" which might be understood to relate two otherwise distinct and irreconcilable terms. In the end I claim this "and" must be understood as that "love" which defines philosophy as the "love of wisdom" (and finally, the wisdom of love), and does so in terms which (almost) merge-with the surprising assistance of such thinkers as Martin Heidegger, Jacques Derrida, and Paul Ricoeur-with those of the Church Fathers cited. On the one hand, I intend nothing but the historical, orthodox, and catholic understanding of Christianity, especially with regard to the central figure of Jesus the Christ, the Trinitarian God whom He embodies, represents, and reveals, and the Scriptures given as The Bible. On the other hand, I present the specifically philosophical pertinence of this unique Person as such emerges from the texts of the "philosophers" considered, and in a manner which I claim does not force the issue by reading into their texts what is not there. Attending to a (Christian) philosophical reflection on (Christian) philosophy also offers elaborations of inherited doctrines, both Christian and philosophical, including a way to read and think unique to the outcome. Such is the adventure of this current work.

This qualitative, multiple case study was concerned with the best practice of shared leadership in a ministry context. Four specific churches were considered for this study between September and November 2014. Data was gathered from the four churches through online questionnaires administered to leaders, on site interviews with leaders and staff, published material from each church, notes documented while observing, sermons on shared leadership, training materials, bylaws, and other pamphlets or material to discover and isolate the number of occurrences of the established best practices, as well as possible unique best practices in each ministry context. The top three highest occurrences of established best practices in a ministry context were spiritual giftedness, relational support, and biblical shared leadership. Unique best practices were discovered and isolated as well. It is hopeful this study will assist leaders and others interested in the best practices of biblical shared leadership.

Thesis advisor: Thomas Stegman / Thesis advisor: Robert Imbelli / Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

This thesis provides a broad reading of the writings of Jacques Ellul focused on presence as a driving theme of his theological-ethical works. Drawing on numerous rare, unpublished and untranslated primary sources, this reading suggests that presence was a central and guiding theme of his work from its inception in the mid-1930s to its planned conclusion in La raison d'être (1987). Focusing on presence further elucidates a personal crisis which Ellul underwent in the late 1960s, described in the opening pages of L'espérance oubliée (1972). Part one, Architecture, focuses on some of Ellul's major theological and sociological sources as providing material structuring Ellul's understanding of the present. Chapter one treats Ellul's 1987 book Reason for Being: Meditations on Ecclesiastes, in which Ellul reads his two chief theological sources, the book of Ecclesiastes and the Danish thinker Søren Kierkegaard, through each other. The result is first, that Kierkegaard's chief focus on contemporaneity with Christ is modified, stripped of its philosophical fixity; this provides the model for Ellul's time. Second, Kierkegaard's irony is challenged by Ecclesiastes' rigorous seriousness towards words; this informs Ellul's more serious irony. Time, language, and humanity are linked in this approach to the present. Chapter two focuses on Karl Marx and Ellul's early understanding of institutions. Synthesizing from books made from his courses on Marx, Ellul's Marxist reasons for opposing philosophical fixity are displayed (complementing his theological reasons). Marx's influence is also noticeable in Ellul's time, language, and approach to humanity. This implies that rather than having one unified dialectical method between his sociology and theology, discerning which of these latter plays more heavily at a given moment is a matter of personal discernment. Part two, Movement, treats changes in Ellul' Chapter three establishes continuity in Ellul's use of presence from 1936—1964. 'Presence' describes a mutually implicating three-part dialogue: first, a communicative dialogue between sign and presence; second, an incarnational dialogue between body and spirit; and third, a dialogue between time and space. This dialogue is evident in all of Ellul's major theological-ethical works. It unites time, language, and humanity, grounding an ethic of signification. Focusing on presence offers a fresh understanding of Ellul's theological-ethical vision. Chapter four highlights crises in Ellul's life and thought, and in French society. In the 1960s, France was transitioning from an extended period of institutional and cultural stability to a time of crises, from an intellectual atmosphere of 'critical humanism' to one of 'theoretical antihumanism.' The latter is visible in the rise to popularity of structuralism—a term encompassing diverse projects united by a Nietzschean critique of presence, including critiques of the human, of language, and of history. Ellul engaged deeply with at least one major work employing this critique, Michel Foucault's Les mots et les choses (1966). Ellul's reaction to this critique is clearly visible in his texts from this era; read in the context of other events in French society and Ellul's life, the structuralist critique of presence certainly would have contributed to, if not constituted, a crisis for Ellul. Chapter five treats Ellul's response to this crisis. First, Ellul offers sociological criticism of structuralism. Second, he questions presence theologically, suggesting that in the moment of God's abandonment on the cross, Christ's hopeful, communicative address to God is God's presence. Against structuralist views of language as violent, in the new, image-saturated societal context, language is perhaps the only non-violent means of expression; the fragility of linguistic presence is humanity's only hope for true community. Ellul's theology of presence changes to hope as its new mode, and his ethics of signification shifts from a Barthian approach to signs and institutions to a Kierkegaardian incognito. The conclusion uses Ellul's response to these critiques to respond to questions from the introduction, drawing on scripture to propose a protestant theological response to structuralism. Ellul gave an early, in-depth, and original response to this critical moment of thought with subsequent global influence. His is a suggestive proposal for those interested in formulating contemporary theological ethics of media and communication for the postmodern age.

Thesis (M.A.)--Harding Graduate School of Religion, 1986. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 140-153).

Nasledujúci príspevok poslal časopisu Viera a život vedecký pracovník katolíckej teologickej fakulty na Regensburskej univerzite (Nemecko) pán Stefan Gatzhammer, M. A., Líc. iur. can. Podkladom pre článok bola rozpracovaná vedecká štúdia, preto aj nemecká pôvodina príspevku mala bohaté a dôkladné poznámky. S láskavým súhlasom autora sme pre potreby našich čitateľov poznámky zjednodušili. Pôvodný nemecký titul článku znie: „Die Ausweisung der Jesuiten aus Portugal 1759/60. Der Brasilienmissionar P. Josef Keyling SJ aus Schemnitz." Príspevok do slovenčiny preložila Zuzana Vaňová.

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