Morris Brown African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church is in a gentrifying community on the Peninsula of Charleston, South Carolina. This congregation is a historic black church that has been very involved in the surrounding community. Until about 20 years ago, most of the church members lived within walking distance of the church. Now that gentrification is occurring on the Peninsula, many church members have been displaced, and Morris Brown AME Church does not have the connection to the community it has traditionally embraced. As a historic black church, this project will address ways that this congregation can connect to a constantly evolving community. In this effort, I will examine distinctive elements of black church ecclesiology that are formative for the ministry of Morris Brown AME Church. Prominent among these are the theology of Richard Allen, the founder and first bishop of the AME Church, and the scholarship of Raphael Warnock and Walter Fluker. The black church is so much more complex than just black people sitting in a church building. The development of the black church is a distinctive Christian movement born out of adversity that included slavery, segregation, and sharecropping. These challenges uniquely position the black church to minister to those on the margins of society. From this tradition, Morris Brown AME Church can connect with a gentrifying community in Charleston to minister both to the new neighbors and with the new neighbors on behalf of the marginalized people in our community. This will hopefully be realized by developing a racial reconciliation group that will have a Christian foundation and embraces the tenets of Ubuntu. Out of this relationship that will be formed between the congregation and neighborhood, side door ministries will be designed to address many of the present challenges in our community. Among these will be the development of the Morris Brown Development Corporation that will address housing challenges—establishing a STEM (Science, technology, engineering, and math) Program that will address discrepancies in formal education. Finally, Morris Brown AME Church will expand its relationship with the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) to address health concerns that disproportionately affect people of the margins.

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In response to a changing cultural landscape, especially the movement away from traditional religion and the emerging practice of diverse members of health care teams addressing existential or spiritual pain as a quasi-medical problem, hospital chaplaincy is (re)conceptualized in terms of two concepts intelligible and meaningful to people within and outside religious traditions: narrative and witness. The project examines hospital chaplaincy in an age of spirituality, and to elaborate on the notions of narrative and witness, reviews the Book of Job; the Holocaust narratives of Elie Wiesel and Judith Sherman; the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas and the liberation theology of Gustavo Gutiérrez, as well as selected case studies.

Domestic violence is a phenomenon that knows no boundaries of race, color, age, sexual orientation, gender, nationality, religion or culture. Its pervasiveness varies from place to place depending on several factors including socio-cultural dynamics and values. Researches indicate that Nigeria, like most Sub-Saharan African nations, has a high rate of domestic violence. Victims who are mostly women and children are battered, sexually abused, raped and sometimes murdered. The socio-cultural beliefs and patriarchal dominance serve to sustain the phenomenon, which is a gross violation of victims’ human dignity and rights, and a major factor to women’s high rate of morbidity and mortality. We have designed this project to confront the inherent socio-cultural bias that breeds this gendered structure of evil. It challenges the Nigerian Church’s complacency and complicity in the whole matter. We argue that domestic violence is an ecclesial and theological issue, and that the church’s adequate theological and pastoral response will mitigate the high rate of the phenomenon in Nigeria. The study suggests a different attitude to pastoral ministry that would bring about the desired transformation. Preaching, pastoral counseling, and a ministry for abused victims and general holding church environment are practical pastoral measures proposed to fill the gap.

The thesis is meant to explore the art and symbolism of the medieval royal chapel Sainte-Chapelle. The research is done based upon studying the documents of that period such as Jandun’s Tractatus de laudibus Parisius, Suger’s On the Abbey Church of St.-Denis, and Durand’s Rationale Divinorum Officium, as well as the research of contemporaries scholars. The research shows that the royal chapel, as a prominent masterpiece during the mature Gothic period, is particularly excelled in displaying the magnificence of interplay between light and color. As a place designated to house the Crown of Thorns, the most precious relics in Christendom, the Sainte Chapelle presents itself to be a monumental sized shrine with its unique design and extremely rich decoration. The lavishly ornamented Grande Châsse and the gorgeously rendered large-scaled windows, the masterly sculptures and the fine art in dado and medallions, as well as the total openness and unity with the incredible lightness and etherealness, the royal chapel embraces the narrative of The King, as well as the story of the king, within the grand salvation narrative. The splendent and florid chapel, with all its radiance and dazzling beauty, would elevate the faithful from this intimate house on earth to one of the most prominent arched chambers in heaven, just as Jandun indicates in Tractatus: “…in eam subingrediens, quasi raptus ad celum… unam de Paradisi potissimis cameris putet intrare.”

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University