Cyril of Alexandria left to posterity a sizable body of exegetical literature. This thesis attempts to reconstruct his theology of Scripture in order to suggest that his exegetical practice is inseparable from, and must be interpreted in light of, his overarching theological vision. I argue that the most important intellectual factor shaping his exegesis is his Christologically focused, pro-Nicene Trinitarianism, an inheritance that he received from fourth-century authors. Cyril’s appropriation of pro-Nicene thought is evident in his theology of revelation and his theology of exegesis. Revelation, in his understanding, proceeds from the Father, through the Son, and in the Spirit, following the order of Trinitarian relations. Moreover, this pattern applies to the inspiration of Scripture as well, insofar as inspiration occurs when the Son indwells human authors by the Spirit and speaks the words of the Father. Corresponding to this movement of God towards humanity in revelation is humanity’s growth in understanding that occurs according to a reverse pattern—in the Spirit, through the Son, unto the Father. This scheme applies broadly to Cyril’s soteriology, but also to his understanding of exegesis, since he regarded biblical interpretation as a means of participating in the divine life. More specifically, this Trinitarian pattern implies that the Spirit is required to read Scripture properly, and that in the act of interpretation the Spirit directs the reader to a Christological reading of Scripture, through which the believer gains a limited but genuine apprehension of the Trinitarian mystery. This process continues until the final eschatological vision when the types and riddles of Scripture will be done away with in light of the overwhelming clarity of the vision of the Father.

Thesis advisor: Brian Dunkle / Thesis advisor: Margaret Guider / This thesis argues that in the History of the Church the question of the Trinity has been influenced by cultures, languages and ways of life. Despite these differences, there is a common understanding of the relationship among the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The thesis argues that the Trinitarian relationality as it was understood by the fathers of the Church and by subsequent theology is fundamental in appreciating human beings' relationships with each other. This thesis uses the historical investigation method to understand Trinitarian relationality and its impact on African Christianity today. The first chapter will elaborate the Trinitarian relationality approach in the cultures and the languages of the early centuries, the Cappadocians in the East, Augustine in the West, and in the sixteenth century, Ignatius of Loyola. The thesis seeks to demonstrate that each approach was meant to respond to heretics denying the factuality of the three distinct Persons in one God and emphasizing the Trinitarian relationality. The second chapter will focus on an African theological vision for togetherness. The key concepts will be the Ubuntu and Ujamaa. Ubuntu is a concept used in the context of South Africa to resolve the wounds of apartheid in its three periods of pre-, during, and post-apartheid. Ubuntu is the term used for togetherness. In Tanzania, during the post-colonial period, a relative concept is used in terms of "familyhood" to explain togetherness and its implications, the concept of Ujamaa. The third chapter will introduce the concept of Deou. Deou is a word for human being or person in one of the Chadian languages called Murum; this concept expresses the inter-relationality that exists in the life of Murum people. this inter-relationality is a cultural model of living that binds Deoudje (plural of Deou) together. The theological consequence of the concept of Deou is to allow the people of Chad to experience themselves as one despite their diversity. This model for Trinitarian relationality is the aim for this work. / Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

Efter Andra Världskriget och författandet samt ratificerandet av den traditionella folkrätten har huvuddelen av de väpnade sammandrabbningarna haft karaktären av icke-internationella konflikter med en asymmetrisk uppsättning aktörer. Samtidigt har den värst drabbade aktören kommit att vara civilbefolkningen. Syftet med denna uppsats är att problematisera skyddet av civilbefolkningen i den nya tidens konflikter. I uppsatsen genomförs en kvalitativ textanalys av Säkerhetsrådets resolutioner och missionsspecifika strategier för skydd av civila i de tre FN-missionerna UNMIS, UNAMID och MONUC. Resultatet av analysen problematiseras därefter utifrån van Crevelds non-trinitarian theory för att undersöka vilka problem det finns med att tillämpa det traditionella folkrättsliga skyddet av civila i nya tidens konflikter. Det sammanvägda resultatet av studien visar att det finns problem med att tillämpa det traditionella folkrättsliga skyddet av civila i nya tidens konflikter, och att ett av huvudproblemen är att skyddet endast tycks adresseras av världssamfundet. / After the Second World War, and the creation and ratification of the traditional international law, the majority of the armed clashes has had the character of non-international conflicts with an asymmetric set of actors. Meanwhile, the most affected actor has come to be the civilian population. The purpose of this study is to problematize the protection of civilians in the conflicts of the new era. A qualitative method is used in the study in order to analyze the Security Council’s resolutions and mission specific strategies for the protection of civilians in the three UN missions UNMIS, UNAMID and MONUC. The result of the analysis is then problematized with van Creveld’s non-trinitarian theory in order to investigate what problems there are in applying the international humanitarian legal protection of civilians in the conflicts of the new era.The aggregated result of the study show that there are problems in applying the traditional international legal protection of civilians in the conflicts of the new era, and that one of the main problems is that the protection only seems to be a subject for the international community.

In light of women’s marginal status in church governance and ministry through most of recorded history, feminist trinitarian ecclesiology is needed to transform the church’s institutional and spiritual life. While Vatican II provided the paradigm shift and promising anthropology essential for an egalitarian church, feminist ecclesiology prompts a radical transformation of its hierarchical and patriarchal structures and practices so that it may truly embody the Trinity. Trinitarian life provides practical and radical consequences for Christian life, and provides a model of church marked by relationships of equality, mutuality, unity and reciprocity. It also provides a strong ecclesiological argument for reform of the juridical Catholic nullity of marriage process, which may pave a pathway for the civilly remarried to receive the sacraments of Reconciliation and Holy Eucharist.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T19:20:27Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Jose Antonio Faro.pdf: 604193 bytes, checksum: 734e1a4c863656f5195c081faf15fa65 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-05-14 / Fundação Porticus / This work deals with the Trinitarian anthropology, which underlies the practice of the dialogue performed by Chiara Lubich. Initially, this research demonstrates how the thought on dialogue falls on the whole of her spirituality. It is in the space between her peculiar understanding of the Gospel and the social praxis that comes from it, that she develops her vision and her dialogue experience. Secondly, this work offers a synthetic presentation of the main cardinal points of her spirituality in relation to her life experience, as an existential space in which the experience of God is revealed. Thirdly, this work deepens the understanding of unity and Jesus forsaken − understood as the synthesis of Christ's cross event − as the way to pass the threshold of God s communion life: He who is unity and trinity. Fourthly, it puts into dialogue the writings of Lubich with contemporary theologians, and philosophers. This dialogue reveals how her writings develop a vision of reality that can be defined as Trinitarian ontology. Emphasizing the idea of the Self as communion, according to lubichian point of view, the dynamics of the Trinitarian relationship must go into the determination of the Self as itself. Therefore, the unit with the other is intrinsic to the individual identity, that is, the human being fulfills himself/herself in the communion. Effectively, this means that the idea of the Self as Trinity leads in a Trinitarian anthropology. The categories of this anthropology are individualized on the basis of the communion of God who is unity and Trinity. Specifically, from the characteristics of the Trinitarian relationship of unity and distinction in God, this research identifies the characteristics of a Trinitarian way of life, whose incarnation and explanation in the history of mankind is dialogue. Finally, this research demonstrates that, for Lubich, dialogue is not an activity that adds itself to the many different dimensions of human life, but the way to relate with each other according to the model of the Trinity, that is, the very realization of the relationality self of man / Este trabalho versa sobre a antropologia trinitária que subjaz à prática de diálogo realizado por Chiara Lubich. Inicialmente, esta pesquisa demonstra como o seu pensamento sobre o diálogo se insere na globalidade de sua espiritualidade. É no espaço entre a peculiar compreensão do Evangelho e a práxis social que dela nasce que se desenvolve a sua visão e a sua experiência de diálogo. Procura, então, fazer uma apresentação sintética dos principais pontos cardeais de sua espiritualidade, relacionandoos com a sua experiência de vida, enquanto espaço existencial no qual a experiência de Deus se manifesta. Nessa linha, aprofunda a compreensão da unidade e de Jesus Abandonado − entendido como síntese do evento da cruz de Cristo − como chaves para adentrar na compreensão e na participação da vida de comunhão do Deus Uno-Trino. Colocando os escritos de Lubich em diálogo com teólogos e filósofos contemporâneos, demonstra como, a partir desses dois pontos, desenvolve-se uma visão da realidade que pode ser definida como ontologia trinitária. Enfatizando a ideia do Ser como comunhão, a dinâmica da relação trinitária deve entrar, segundo a visão lubichiana, na determinação do Ser em si mesmo. Portanto, a unidade com os outros é intrínseca à identidade individual, ou seja, o homem se realiza na comunhão. Isso significa, efetivamente, que a ideia do Ser como Trindade desemboca numa antropologia trinitária. As categorias dessa antropologia são individualizadas com base na comunhão unitrinitária de Deus. Concretamente, a partir das características das relações trinitárias de unidade e distinção de Deus, esta pesquisa identifica as características de um modo trinitário de viver, cuja encarnação e explicitação histórica é o diálogo. Demonstra, então, que, para Lubich, o diálogo não é uma atividade que se soma às diversas outras dimensões da vida humana, mas o modo de relacionar-se com os outros segundo o modelo da Trindade, isto é, a própria realização do ser relacional do homem

In this thesis, my purpose is to determine why Augustine’s theory of knowledge by illumination was rejected by Franciscan theologians at the end of the thirteenth century. My main methodological assumption is that Medieval accounts of divine illumination must be interpreted in a theological context, or with attention to a scholar’s underlying doctrines of God and of the human mind as the image of God, inasmuch as the latter doctrine determines one’s understanding of the nature of the mind’s cognitive work, and illumination illustrates cognition. In the first chapter, I show how Augustine’s understanding of illumination derives from his Trinitarian theology. In the second chapter, I use the same theological methods of inquiry to identify continuity of thought on illumination in Augustine and Anselm. The third chapter covers the events of the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries that had an impact on the interpretation of illumination, including the Greek and Arabic translation movements and the founding of universities and mendicant orders. In this chapter, I explain how the first Franciscan scholars transformed St. Francis of Assisi’s spiritual ideals into a theological and philosophical system, appropriating the Trinitarian theology of Richard of St. Victor and the philosophy of the Arab scholar Avicenna in the process. Bonaventure is typically hailed the great synthesizer of early Franciscan thought and the last and best proponent of traditional Medieval Augustinian thought. In the fourth chapter, I demonstrate that Bonaventure’s Victorine doctrine of the Trinity both enabled and motivated him to assign originally Avicennian meanings to philosophical arguments of Augustine and Anselm that were incompatible with the original ones. In the name of Augustine, in other words, Bonaventure introduced a theory of knowledge that is not Augustinian. In the fifth chapter, my aim is to throw the non-Augustinian character of Bonaventure’s illumination theory into sharper relief through a discussion of knowledge and illumination in the thought of his Dominican contemporary Thomas Aquinas. Although Aquinas is usually supposed to reject illumination theory, I show that he only objects to the Franciscan interpretation of the account, even while he bolsters a genuinely Augustinian account of knowledge and illumination by updating it in the Aristotelian forms of philosophical argumentation that were current at the time. In the final chapter, I explain why late thirteenth-century Franciscans challenged illumination theory, even after Bonaventure had enthusiastically championed it. In this context, I explain that that they did not reject their predecessor’s standard of knowledge outright, but only sought to eradicate the intellectually offensive interference of illumination, as he had defined it, which they perceived as inconsistent with the standard, in the interest of promulgating it. In concluding, I reiterate the importance of interpreting illumination as a function of Trinitarian theology. This approach throws the function of illumination in Augustine’s thought into relief and facilitates the effort to identify continuity and discontinuity amongst Augustine and his Medieval readers, which in turn makes it possible to identify the reasons for the late Medieval decline of divine illumination theory and the rise of an altogether unprecedented epistemological standard.

Dans un siècle postrévolutionnaire particulièrement marqué par les tumultes politiques, le progrès scientifique, les idéologies sociales et le développement de la rivalité entre la raison et la foi, l’abbé Paul François Gaspard Lacuria (1806-1890) élabore son œuvre principale : Les Harmonies de l’être, dont l’objectif annoncé est précisément de réduire l’opposition apparemment irréductible entre science et foi. C’est sous l’égide de la doctrine trinitaire, et grâce à des considérations géométrico-mathématiques, que l’abbé recherche cette conciliation philosophique harmonieuse qui doit fonder, selon lui, les bases synthétiques d’un savoir universel ramené en définitive à la « Grande Unité ». L’absence de travaux universitaires abordant le cas de ce métaphysicien mystique, marqué par l’occultisme à des titres divers, nous a incité à entreprendre le présent travail qui comporte, outre une biographie complète de l’auteur, une présentation et une analyse détaillées de son œuvre, enfin un examen de la postérité de celle-ci et de son influence posthume. / In the aftermath of the Great Revolution, France witnesses, during the Nineteenth Century, and apart from continuous political turmoils, the development of scientific progress, social ideologies, and new phases in the progressive evolution of the age-old strife between faith and reason. It is during this eventful period that Father Paul François Gaspard Lacuria (1806-1890) elaborates his main work : Les Harmonies de l’être, with the declared intention of bridging the gap between science and faith. Basing himself on the trinitarian doctrine of Roman Catholicism as well as on deep-reaching geometrical and mathematical analogies, Father Lacuria seeks an harmonious philosophical synthesis capable of establishing a universal knowledge, ultimately reducible to the “Great Unity”. The conspicuous lack of an academic monograph devoted to such an important mystical figure, whose work borders sometimes on occultism, has given birth to the present research, which attempts to retrace the French metaphysician’s biography and to give a detailed analysis of his works and of their posthumous fate.

This study traces the first steps of how divine simplicity entered into Christian Trinitarian discourse. It is the burden of this thesis to demonstrate that divine simplicity emerged in the ante-Nicene period with a distinctive status quaestionis concerning (a) the meaning of the doctrine, and (b) its function in reflections on the Father-Son relation. The first part argues that simplicity emerged in the ante-Nicene period with two possible trajectories of interpretation, anticipated by Plato’s Republic and Phaedo respectively. In the apologists, divine simplicity emerged as a purely metaphysical doctrine. However, a richer interpretation of the doctrine is also available in ante-Nicene theology, as exemplified in Origen’s understanding of divine simplicity as a metaphysical-ethical synthesis, meaning that (a) God’s nature is perfectly incorruptible, and (b) God’s character is perfectly free from contradictions. The second part argues that divine simplicity acquired a role in ante-Nicene reflections on the Father-Son relation within two significant ante-Nicene contexts: (a) polemic against Valentinian emanation (prolatio/probolē) and (b) polemic against Monarchianism. The genius of Origen is to utilise divine simplicity for avoiding the Monarchian identification between the Father and Son on the one hand, and the Valentinian separation between the Father and Son on the other. Consequently, we find the surprising conclusion that divine simplicity serves as a principle of differentiation as well as unity between the Father and Son. This thesis raises new questions for both modern theologians and patristic specialists. For modern theologians, the ante-Nicene developments suggest the Son’s generation as a fruitful site for further analysis on the relation between divine simplicity and Trinitarian theology. For patristic specialists, ante-Nicene developments highlight the need to account for the transition from the ante-Nicene to the post-Nicene status quaestionis: how did divine simplicity change from being attributed to the Father (ante-Nicene) to being attributed to the divine essence (post-Nicene)?

1. Aim The thesis aims to explore Emmanuel Levinas’ philosophy as a fertile resource for Christian theology. In this general context, we focus specifically on the way Levinas opens the possibility of a language of alterity, or radical “otherness”, in theology, in a manner which escapes the limitations of such categories as objectivity, presence and Being. Recent attempts to employ Levinas’ philosophy for the benefit of Christian theology have hesitated to go beyond onto-theology. This thesis, however, aims to show how Levinas’ philosophy opens up a style of thinking and suggests a vocabulary of expression that can serve Christian theology, especially by intensifying its sense of encounter with Christ and of the Other in him. Accordingly, the thesis will make use of a number of Levinasian notions to critique and complement the theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar. This will lead to the development of what we call a “prolegomenon to a Trinitarian praxis”. 2. Scope The thesis firstly remarks on Christian theology’s discovery of Levinas’ philosophy. We then go on to introducing three of the major influences of Levinas’ philosophy, namely Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger and Franz Rosenzweig. This will be followed by an introduction to the life of von Balthasar. But the major part of the thesis will be made up of three extensive explorations. The first introduces a number of key terms and concepts in Levinasian thought, taking into account their possible contribution to the theology of von Balthasar. Here we examine especially the notions of “otherness” and “passivity”. The second exploration takes us into what might be called a recontextualisation of the major sections of von Balthasar’s theology (aesthetics, dramatics and logic) through Levinasian analysis. We will concentrate especially on von Balthasar’s treatment of Holy Saturday, the Resurrection, Trinitarian and Soteriological “Inversion”, and truth as participation. The third exploratory exercise attempts to develop a prolegomenon to a Trinitarian praxis. Intrinsic to the very understanding of this Trinitarian praxis is the notion of alterity to such a degree that ethical transcendence is the very inspiration for theology if it is to go beyond the limits of objectivity, Being and presence. This prolegomenon will, therefore, contain an articulation of Trinitarian praxis in the context of ethical transcendence, eschatology and soteriology. To this end, we employ Levinas’ ideas of passivity and otherness to critique von Balthasar’s eschatological conception of Christian existence and his soteriological understanding of the eucharist. Because Levinas and von Balthasar have both used the writings of Husserl, Heidegger and Rosenzweig as sources, there will be abundant references to these writers at various junctures in this study. Likewise, the views of a number of Christian theologians who have been influenced by Levinas (Purcell, Ward, Barnes and Ford) will be critically examined. 3. Conclusions The thesis concludes that, with the aid of Levinas’ ideas, theology is offered the possibility of breaking out of the limits imposed by traditional notions of objectivity, Being and presence. In reaching such a conclusion, the thesis contests von Balthasar’s prioritising of the beautiful by resituating his use of analogical thought. In this context, our study suggests new ways of speaking of Holy Saturday and the Resurrection, in a non-phenomenal manner. It means developing a theology of Gift to understand the unity between Christ’s missio and processio. Here we highlight the deepest problem to be faced by a theo-logic as one of giving priority to the ethical over the ontological. In short, the thesis argues for a conception of Christian life that goes beyond the categories of ontology and experience. From what we have learned from Levinas, we propose a notion of Trinitarian praxis in which we come to God by way of ethical transcendence.

Meister Eckhart exhibits an unprecedented confidence in the transcendental way of thought in medieval philosophy. Eckhart, unlike his predecessors, identifies being as such (ens commune) and God, allowing the most primary determinations metaphysics – ‘being,’ ‘one,’ ‘true,’ ‘good,’ – to function as both metaphysical and theological first principles. Eckhart placed them at the head of his projected Tripartite Opus, a vast work of quaestiones and commentaries whose intelligibility, he insists, requires the prior foundation of a supposed series of a thousand axioms. The table of contents remains, the opus propositionum does not. This thesis argues that what enables Eckhart to pursue the direct application of the transcendentals to the divine also makes it unrealizable. His determination of unity is twofold: as (i) indivisibility, and the standard transcendental conception of unity as a negation of the given positive content of being (ens); as (ii) indistinction, comprehending both the negation of otherness which produces the indivisible and the otherness that is negated. There is an inherent tension between Peripatetic metaphysics and Procline henology. Consequently, the Good is devalued when the Procline One appears within the transcendental perspective. Metaphysics, theology and, a fortiori for Eckhart, ethics, take no consideration of Goodness. I show how this tension gives rise to Eckhart’s association of the divine essence with the Neoplatonic One, while the Peripatetic One and the transcendental “true” function as the explanans of the Trinitarian intellectual self-return. This, in turn, gives rise to the constitutive function of the imago dei, and every imago as such, within that self-relation. Ultimately, this produces a standpoint wherein every essence, only as idea, contains the divine uniform infinity.