<p> The need for holistic solutions to diverse problems presents the church with an opportunity for a social witness shaped by the gospel. As a step toward accomplishing this end, this dissertation aspires to establish a refreshed approach for understanding Christian social engagement as fundamental expressions of the character of God through the virtuous witness of the church. To begin, chapter 1 contains the introduction to the dissertation, beginning with a statement of the thesis, namely, the church embodies a prophetic social ethic in the world through presence, possibility, and place as expressions of the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love. Following the articulation of this thesis will be definitions of &ldquo;faith,&rdquo; &ldquo;hope&rdquo;, and &ldquo;love.&rdquo; A proper understanding of these terms is crucial to the dissertation, and each will be elaborated further as the project progresses. This chapter closes with an overview of the project by explaining research methodology and brief chapter summaries. </p><p> Chapter 2 begins the explanation of the proposed virtuous social ethic: presence. Drawing together particular contributions from Ellul and Hauerwas to reveal how Christian faith enacted in social ethics requires the faithful ecclesial witness of God's people in the world. The goal of this chapter is to unpack, develop, and synthesizing particular emphases from the theological ethics developed by Ellul and Hauerwas. The resulting combination strengthens each respective position to encourage healthy Christian social presence from a disciplined theology of faithful presence. </p><p> Significantly, Ellul and Hauerwas encourage Christian social witness empowered by the revelational foundations of Scripture and biblical community. As well, the enduring witness of the church in the face of social instability, coercion, and injustice remains the peaceful paradigm of Jesus Christ. Only through genuine faith granted by the sovereign choice of God is the church able to maintain a prophetic and incarnational presence in the world. This chapter concludes by developing a theology of faithful presence revealed in the disciplined faithfulness of God's holy, redeemed people. </p><p> Chapter 3 moves from presence to possibility. The first part of this chapter explores how Ellul and Hauerwas see Christian hope driving and shaping the redeemed community. That is, joining Ellul's hopeful Christian freedom with Hauerwas' eschatological ethic encourages the church to embrace a broader vision for moral action. Such a living hope drives the Christian community to seek the substantive social good shaped by the dynamic awareness of God's lordship over all creation. </p><p> Chapter 4 moves to the third part of the proposed Christian social ethic: place. Through a loving relationship with the world, the church does not neglect cultural needs nor capitulate to social pressures but practices a dynamic commitment to Christ through enacting God's love. Christian social ethics are thwarted before they begin without an effort to know and understand context. </p><p> The first part of this section examines the way Ellul and Hauerwas describe the love exemplified by the church in relationship with God and the world. Specifically, Ellul's emphasis on living in relationship with the world complements Hauerwas' commitment to truthful community and Christian presence among the sick and suffering. The second part of this chapter further unpacks the lived significance of the loving God's world. Ellul's dialectic social ethic emphasizing man's need for divine intervention, Hauerwas points to the practiced presence of Jesus as the church's path to loving social witness. As a synthesis of the first two sections of this chapter, the final section explores how the Christian living in loving relationship with the world demands a rich theology of place emphasizing personal relationship, apologetic disposition, and temporary expressions. </p><p> Chapter 5 will wrap up this study by providing review, final analysis, and areas for further study. The church has a divine responsibility to embody the goodness and character of God in the world. Yet, the church often reacts in extremes by cultural capitulation or sectarianism. In light of this, the church must develop a balanced approach to the cultivation and practice of Christian virtues of faith, hope, and love. Even more, in the face of social marginalization, the church must maintain a creative yet distinctly Christian approach to social ethics. The hope of this study is to provide a constructive analysis of proposals made by Jacques Ellul and Stanley Hauerwas in order to empower the church to rightly embody the character of God for the glory of God and the good of the world. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.) </p>

<p> What role does beauty play in our moral formation? What difference does the perception of beauty make to the way we live our lives? In order to answer these questions, I look to the twentieth-century Catholic theologian, Hans Urs von Balthasar. Relatively little has been written about Balthasar&rsquo;s ethics. He is, perhaps, best known for his retrieval of beauty as a transcendental property of being. Balthasar, though, never set down an extended account of his ethics or moral theology. While he had no explicit ethic, he certainly thought that his theology could be lived. The <i>Theo-Drama,</i> for instance, discusses the implications that the perception of beauty has for Christian life. </p><p> I do not intend to present &ldquo;Balthasar&rsquo;s ethics.&rdquo; Instead I will offer a &ldquo;Balthasarian ethic.&rdquo; Drawing from his theological aesthetics and dramatics, I will outline the morality implicit in his theology: a Balthasarian theo-dramatic ethics. We can see this kind of ethic at work, I contend, in some of Balthasar&rsquo;s lesser-known works on Christian life. I will then go beyond Balthasar to consider how we might put this moral formation into practice in the possibility of living out Christian pacifism in the nation-state and in our treatment of non-human animals. </p><p> This dissertation points to the convergence of method and performance. The method of theo-dramatic ethics can never be distilled to a set of abstract rules or terms. We can do so artificially in order to better express what makes performances of the good beautiful. But it is the performance, not the method, of theo-dramatic ethics that we find enrapturing. Being formed by performances of beauty better enables us to recognize and express new forms of beauty. My thesis is that recognizing beauty as the foundation of moral formation affirms the formational power of the Christian tradition as well as that of new experiences and practices because in both cases we are responding to beauty.</p>

<p> This dissertation considers the political implications of the doctrine of holiness. I proceed by demonstrating the neglect of holiness in political theology, the viability of the holiness movement as an embodied witness of the political implications of the doctrine of holiness, and a biblical trajectory in Leviticus that extends into the New Testament. I describe this scriptural holiness as vocation for all of God&rsquo;s people through personal formation and outward societal action to extend God&rsquo;s holiness. </p><p> With attention to the approaches of political theology and formation, I demonstrate that the holiness movement of the nineteenth century offers an example of holiness in practice that addresses societal problems (e.g., urban housing crisis, intemperance, and slavery). I then propose three theological issues that undermined the political vision of the holiness movement in the twentieth century. First, the scope of sin narrowed resulting in a less hopeful expectation of sanctification&rsquo;s power. Second, most of the holiness movement adopted premillennial eschatology, which altered the way it viewed social structures. Third, the holiness movement was marginalized by its theological rejection of the Third Great Awakening, which served to influence religious and civil approaches to social problems in the twentieth century (e.g., the New Deal and Social Gospel). </p><p> Three case studies (race, global missions, and temperance) demonstrate the influence these respective theological shifts had on social action. I argue that a theological interpretation of Leviticus 17-26 guides the holiness movement to embody the vocation of holiness as an alternative vision to the formation of modern politics regarding social orderings. I extend Israel Knohl&rsquo;s insight that Lev 17-26 responds to prophetic critiques of cultic practices and reconceives holiness to address social challenges. I argue that Jesus picks up this stream when he recites, &ldquo;love your neighbor as yourself,&rdquo; and that Christian embodiment of this Scriptural holiness sustains the political vocation of holiness in changing contexts (including the modern bifurcation of life into private and public spheres). I conclude that vocational holiness enables a Christian understanding of political community.</p>

<p> In this exploratory work I argue that Jesus&rsquo;s particularity as a Jewish, male human is essential for developing Christian theology about nonhuman animals.</p><p> The Gospel of John says that the Word became &ldquo;flesh&rdquo; not that the Word became &ldquo;human&rdquo;. By using flesh, John&rsquo;s Gospel connects the Incarnation to the Jewish notion of all animals. The Gospel almost always uses flesh in a wider sense than meaning human. The Bread of Life discourse makes this explicit when Jesus compares his flesh to &ldquo;meat,&rdquo; offending his hearers because they see themselves as above other animals. Other animals are killable and consumable; humans are not.</p><p> The notion that the Word became flesh has gained prominence in ecotheology, particularly in theologians identifying with deep Incarnation. Unless this notion is connected to Jesus&rsquo;s particularity, however, there is danger in sacrificing the individual for the whole. We can see this danger in two early theologians, Athanasius and St. John of Damascus. Both of these theologians spoke of the Word becoming &ldquo;matter&rdquo;. Yet they ignored Jesus&rsquo;s Jewishness and rarely focused on his animality, preferring instead to focus on cosmic elements. Consequently they often devalued animal life.</p><p> Jesus&rsquo;s Jewishness is essential to the Incarnation. His Jewishness entailed a vision of creation&rsquo;s purpose in which creatures do not consume one another, but live peaceably by eating plants. This Jewish milieu also entails a grand vision for transformation where predators act peaceably with their former prey.</p><p> Jesus&rsquo;s maleness is also connected to his Jewishness. In the Greco-Roman context in which he lived, his circumcision marked him as less male and more animal-like. Moreover, Jesus&rsquo;s Jewish heritage rejected the idea of a masculine hunter. His theological body was far more transgendered and connected to animality than the Roman ideal.</p><p> Finally, Jesus&rsquo;s humanity entails a kenosis of what it means to be human. By becoming-animal he stops the anthropological machine that divides humans from animals. We see this becoming animal most clearly in his identity as a lamb, but also in Revelation&rsquo;s idea that he is both a lion and a lamb. His eschatological body fulfills the Jewish vision for creation-wide peace.</p>

<p> This dissertation articulates a practical theology of reconciliation for, with, and by Cuban Catholic exiles through the development of a faith-based structured process of reconciliation&mdash;the Circles of Reconciliation&mdash;that addresses personal reconciliation as the basis for social reconciliation. The Circles of Reconciliation draw on sources of the Christian tradition in dialogue with the empirical sciences and Cuban culture. The Circles provide the space to advance a praxis of reconciliation among Cuban exiles. The reflection that emanates from this process is the basis for the concluding insights on a theology and an ethics of reconciliation for this community.</p>

<p> This dissertation will engage in a critical analysis of discourse related to the reception of migrant workers coming to the United States especially from Latin America. The thesis will propose that at the center of arguments for a more restrictive immigration policy in the U.S. is a construction of the immigrant as "other" and as a threat to the purity of American national identity. This construction will be examined historically, sociologically, and theologically, and will be contrasted with Christian theological and ethical models for dealing with human social and cultural difference, proposing an alternative approach of envisioning the immigrant as enhancing rather than threatening our identity as a people. </p><p> The analysis will include insights from anthropology, postcolonial and feminist thinkers, critical race theories, and a historical exploration of racial ideologies. Christian theological responses will include insights from Latin American liberation theology and the Aristotelian-Christian virtues tradition, along with a theology of reconciliation. The dissertation will also address political and economic aspects of immigration and the relationship between globalization (including NAFTA) and migration.</p>

Thesis (doctoral)--Kgl. Universität zu Breslau. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

The socio-religious regulations of Leviticus offer little-explored perspectives from which to reflect on the relationship between humanity and the non-human creation. The cosmological framework upon which the worldview expressed in Leviticus is constructed places humanity at the fragile interface between creation (order) and chaos (destruction), ever struggling to discern, define and delineate the sacred and the profane. Several texts in Leviticus portray the land as an active character; capable of vomiting, resting and maintaining a ritualistically demanding relationship with God. Not only does the land appear to have a distinct relationship with YHWH, but in fact that relationship predates YHWH’s commitment to Israel. When the people sin, they risk not only the retreat of YHWH’s presence from the sanctuary, but also the land ejecting them in order that it might fulfill its ritual obligations. Each member of the community is responsible for maintaining the well-being of the lived-in world as expressed through obedience to teachings concerning the body, the social group, and cultic behaviour. Within this system, the manifested symbols of created order are those essential elements which enable the sustenance of the whole community: the people, the land, its vegetation and its animals. Responsible human care for this divinely-established ecology is thus ingrained in, and carefully detailed through, the regulations in Leviticus. Important examples include prescriptions for a sabbatical year for the land to rest and to restore its fertility; the Sabbath day as a space of economic disruption and regeneration; agricultural festivals as cultic boundaries of the life of the community; and dietary and cultic laws regulating the killing of animals for humans (as food) or for God (as sacrifice). Disobedience, or sin, renders both the human community, and the land upon which it lives, polluted and unclean. A particularly significant measure of controlling or cleansing the resulting pollution, of both the community and the land, is animal sacrifice – the killing of a perfect animal for God has the potential to restore the delicate balance between chaos and creation. Given these observations, Leviticus' conceptions of the land, animal sacrifice and ritualized rest can be perceived as a fruitful biblical locus of reflection from which to engage contemporary ecological ethics and praxis.

Thesis (M.A.)--Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 114-123).

Thesis (M.A.)--Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 114-123).