Thesis (Th. M.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 1987. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 88-94).

Thesis (Th. M.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 49-56).

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität, Jena, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [303]-326).

Thesis (Th. M.)--Regent College, 2008. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [110]-114).

This thesis provides a critical examination of Robert Jenson's doctrine of the Trinity, and the ways in which Jenson's development of this doctrine corrects central aspects of contemporary metaphysics. Jenson's doctrine of the Trinity develops from his belief in the significance of the narrative form of Scripture, and the way in which the Christian Gospel addresses human religiosity. In order to explain this development, the thesis addresses some topics not addressed in scholarship on Jenson, especially his understanding of theological language and his approach to religious epistemology. It also describes the ways in which Jenson's theological project coheres with the task and method of contemporary metaphysics. After describing Jenson's doctrine of the Trinity, the thesis moves on to address substantial critiques from George Hunsinger, David Bentley Hart, and Oliver Crisp. Hunsinger critiques Jenson on the ground of orthodoxy. He claims that Jenson's views commit him to a number of heresies, both ancient and modern. David Bentley Hart also critiques Jenson for his perceived unorthodoxy, arguing that Jenson makes the world necessary for God, and makes God responsible for evil in a way which is at odds with the Christian faith. Oliver Crisp critiques Jenson's metaphysics on the grounds of coherence. The thesis provides responses to all of these critiques. Following these critiques, the thesis describes the ways in which Jenson's Trinitarianism reconstitutes certain central aspects of contemporary metaphysics, especially in the philosophy of time and fundamental metaphysics. Jenson argues on Trinitarian grounds that Christians ought to hold something akin to a moving spotlight view of time. He also argues that Christians ought to deny the category of substance and hold 'event' to be the primary category of metaphysics. The thesis also highlights several weaknesses in Jenson's thought: he has no clear epistemology, his response to the problem of evil is inconsistent, and his work on 'being' is misdirected. None of these weaknesses are found to be fatal to Jenson's project, and the thesis offers suggestions for how each in turn could be corrected.

Questions regarding the fate of the unevangelized have been contemplated for centuries and now, in this post-Christian world, issues of the church's claim that Jesus is the unique Son of God have been added to the debate. Does God truly desire the salvation of all human beings? Is Jesus Christ the full and unequalled revelation of God? This work explores, through means of comparison and contrast, the theological positions of exclusivism, pluralism, and inclusivism. Particular attention is given to each school's history, biblical arguments, theological arguments, and convictions concerning the purpose of missions, as well as an evaluation of each school's position. The author concludes that while exclusivism maintains a high Christology and pluralism a wide-ranging salvation, only inclusivism adequately harmonizes these positions in a cogent manner. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Systematic Theology)

Through a philosophical analysis of realist interpretations of Madhyamaka Buddhism, I will argue that the Madhyamaka is not well represented when it is represented as nihilism, absolutism or as some non-metaphysical alternative. Indeed, I will argue that the Madhyamaka is misrepresented when it is represented as anything; its radical context sensitivity entails that it cannot be autonomously volunteered. The Madhyamaka analysis disrupts the ontic and epistemic presuppositions that consider inherent existence and absolute truth to be possible and necessary, and so the ultimate truth, śūnyatā, is not an absolute truth or ultimate reality. However, I will argue that śūnyatā does qualify as a universal truth and should be understood as a context-insensitive, non-propositional truth in a non-dual dependent relationship with the multitudinous context-sensitive, propositional truths. This analysis will prove helpful in an investigation of those tensions, discernible within Buddhist modernism and the discourse of scientific Buddhism, that arise when Buddhist apologists claim a timeless modernity and a non-hostility with respect to contemporary worldviews. I will argue that apologists can resolve these tensions and satisfy their intuitions of timelessness, but only if they are willing to foreground the crucial distinction between their Buddhist worldview (their context-sensitive propositional truths) and their Madhyamaka attitude towards that worldview (the context-insensitive truth of śūnyatā). I will go on to generalise this result, showing that this Madhyamaka analysis opens up the possibility for frictionless co-operation between any and all worldviews, and that we therefore have a philosophical basis for a workable and sensitive theory of worldview pluralism. I will find it necessary to defend this position by demonstrating that, despite its context-insensitivity, the ultimate truth’s non-dual relationship with conventional truth mitigates against moral and epistemic relativism. I will further substantiate my claim as to the universal truth of śūnyatā by showing that, in Karan Barad’s ‘agential realism’, we find a revealing example of śūnyatā being articulated from within a non-Buddhist context. Thus, I hope to demonstrate some of the good effects of the Madhyamaka message, and show that this message can only be communicated clearly when it is distinguished from the discourses of Buddhism. In this manner, not by giving it a voice but through finding its voiceless authority, I hope to enable the Madhyamaka speak to the West.

it is the aim of this thesis to demonstrate that the concept of the covenant, as a traditional theological idea, has practical utility in public discourse in the UK. This is done with reference to the secular humanist outlook of John Rawls. It is concluded that such an outlook that sees no role for Christianity in the public realm of political and social policy, does not of itself contain sufficient conceptual resources to furnish the world as fully as an approach that is inclusive of a religious dimension. That such a non-sectarian approach is possible is indicated by the use of New Natural Law, associated with Germain Grisez. The Military Covenant is used as the vehicle to enable this project. The end of the Cold war led to a re-examination of the relationship between the people of the United Kingdom and the British army. After a lengthy and difficult process the connection was summarised by the Military Covenant. This bound together the nation, the state and the army in a solemn manner. However what is a covenant? In an increasingly secular society such concepts that have a theological root are little understood. This is to the impoverishment of national life. The rise of secular liberalism is examined through John Rawls’ Theory of Justice. This is presented as a significant text in understanding this change. Rawls’ misplaced reliance on the rationality of human nature means that secular liberalism is inadequate as a comprehensive model for public policy. In the light of the emergence of the covenant-idea as a robust example of Christian theology, a means of its accommodation is found in New Natural Law. Grisez and his colleagues propose a scheme of thought is based upon the general aspiration people have to live purposeful lives. The Military Covenant is found to find its home in this approach. The legitimate place of Christianity in British society is affirmed as a means to promoting the common good.

Churches are always already in crisis. In this study, I take the current crisis of churches as a point of departure in order to offer a critical and constructive account of church as open(ed) community. In conversation with Ernst Troeltsch (1865-1923) - a conversation which concentrates on a hermeneutical-constructive rather than a historical-critical retrieval of his interdisciplinary thinking - I argue that the communities which constitute church need to be elasticised in order to engage the 'finite other' (the creature) and the 'infinite other' (the creator). My study counters common characterisations of the current crisis of churches in which diversification is interpreted as the reason and de-diversification is interpreted as the response to crisis. In these characterisations, churches are closed off against the 'other'. In three parts which examine the controversial but connected concepts of 'religiosity', 'community', and 'identity', I suggest that the sociological closure against the finite other and the theological closure against the infinite other are connected. Taking trust as a central category, I argue that both the finite other and the infinite other are constitutive of church. Trust opens identity to alterity. Thus, I advocate a turn in the interpretation of the identity of Christianity - from identity as a 'propositional possession' to identity as a 'performative project'. The identity of Christianity is 'done' rather than 'described' in the practices of church. Church, then, is a 'work in movement', continually constituted through the encounter with the finite and the infinite other in Jesus Christ. My study contributes to ecclesial practices and to reflections on ecclesial practices in the current crisis of churches through the elasticisation of ecclesiology. It retrieves Troeltsch's interdisciplinary thinking for the controversies which revolve around the construction of community today, opening up innovative and instructive approaches to the investigation of the practices of Christianity past and present.

Rhythm is an important dimension of Christian liturgical practice as well as life in the world more generally. Given its significance, this study asks how theology ought to think about the nature and role of rhythm. It puts forward the argument that rhythm is a category of significance for Christian doctrine, particularly the doctrine of salvation, rather than one that pertains only to Christian religious expression (in liturgy for example) or aesthetics. This argument is made on the basis of three factors: (1) the pervasiveness of rhythm in dimensions of human experience that are salient to Christian soteriology, such as relationship and communication, make rhythm a dimension of experience worth theological consideration, (2) the fact that different conceptions of rhythm in various metaphysical accounts have different theological consequences requires theological discussion regarding the nature of rhythm, and (3) the capacity of rhythm to illuminate certain dimensions of the Christian doctrine of salvation such as the nature of participation, the relation between immanent and transcendent, and the relationship between interruption and continuity in Christian soteriology, make it a category that adds to theological understanding. The thesis proposes a definition of rhythm as an oscillation between synchronic form and diachronic experience based in theories of poetic rhythm and supported by theological analysis. The project finds that particular philosophical or theological approaches to metaphysics incorporate either a synchronic or diachronic perspective on rhythm but that both of these perspectives are theologically problematic on their own, the former tending to an illusory perspective on the whole from a God's-eye-view and the latter tending towards a strict division between creature and creator such that the relationship between them is one of rupture and confrontation only and not salvific. The thesis therefore proposes an oscillation on the part of the theologian between these two perspectives after the metaphysics of Erich Przywara and demonstrates this approach to be appropriate to the Christian doctrine of salvation.