Browsing by Author "Casarella, Peter"

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    A Transcendent View of Things: The Persistence of Metaphysics in Modern German Lyric Poetry, 1771-1908
    (2022) Jolly, John
    My dissertation explores the lyric poetry of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Eduard Mörike, and Rainer Maria Rilke, and it contends that these modern poets retain, albeit uneasily, a view of things as symbols of the transcendent divine. It thus disputes the secularization theory of post- Enlightenment aesthetics. This study specifically challenges the view of symbolism as mere metaphor—an image constructed of arbitrary signs (Nietzsche)—by showing how the epiphanies of modern lyric poetry remain grounded in the metaphysics of analogia, even where (as in Mörike) the writer seems to have left such entanglements behind. The modern poet’s desire to unveil a significant reality beyond subjective impression reveals that symbolic vision necessarily unfolds within the difference between the visible world and the transcendent divine. If signification entails likeness, yet lyric poetry always signifies in and through difference, then a constitutive analogy—that is, the simultaneity of likeness and even greater difference—emerges from within the dynamism of the lyric image itself. Part 1 begins by describing the symbolic image in Goethe’s lyric poetry to recover his view of things as expressing the “holy open mystery” of the cosmos. I show how his symbolism overcomes Enlightenment naturalism by drawing on the antecedent order of analogia. Thus, it reveals the partial yet indisputable relatedness of things to the transcendent. Turning to Mörike, part 2 charts his transition to an equivocal understanding of the symbol that would sever the image from its numinous source of significance by confining the image to the scope of the poet’s own gaze. Yet Mörike’s poetry also evinces a counter-veiling tendency to de-subjectivize the image, thus yielding a vision of things as they are prior to epistemic concerns, sentiment, and subjective preference. Part 3 contends that Rilke’s thing-poetry evinces a similar tendency to neutralize modernity’s biases against metaphysics. For, his poetry recovers an apophatic understanding of symbolism that draws on Dionysian theology. His poems thus focus our attention on the thing’s unfathomable capacity for initiating a vision of the divine, of which the thing itself is a partial and fleeting manifestation.
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    The Mystery of Christ in You: Christology, Anthropology, and Participation in Thomas Aquinas and John Wesley
    (2022-08) Maxon, Caleb
    The subject of Christological approaches to theological anthropology has been a renewed area of study for biblical and theological scholarship in recent years. While Marc Cortez (Wheaton College) has been leading much of the contemporary dialogue, the subject is not necessarily new. In some ways, this renewed approach takes its cue from Karl Barth, who responded to the problem of modernist visions of anthropology that were primarily concerned with the human person and their faculties apart from doctrines of God and Christ. Much of this Christological emphasis appears in Barth’s constructive views, examining the human person in reference to Christ as the fullest depiction and example of the human person. Thinking about theological anthropology from the lens of Christology, however, is not a modern invention; examples of thinkers who develop their reflections on what it means to be human in relationship to Christ’s humanity are extensive. In this thesis, I will argue that John Wesley and Thomas Aquinas provide a systematically coherent and mutually beneficial theology of the imago Dei that thoughtfully addresses the believer’s creation in the image of the Trinity and their growing participation in the image through their graced pursuit of Christ, who is their exemplar and their end. Together, Wesley and Aquinas demonstrate a Christ-centered vision of theological anthropology that would be intelligible to one another and should be intelligible and applicable to contemporary audiences. The goal of this thesis will be to demonstrate the relationship between anthropology and Christology in the theological writings of John Wesley and St. Thomas Aquinas, to explore avenues of further ecumenical dialogue on personhood, and to investigate how these two thinkers imagine the mystery of Christ in the believer who bears the image of God.
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    Toward an Ecclesiology of Presence: Understanding the Church as a Thin Place Where Heaven Touches Earth through the People of God
    (2022) Sefa, Craig Joseph

    In a world that often seems to be burning around us, both literally and figuratively, it is difficult to notice a single burning bush. In a world deafened by the noise of the loudest and most powerful voices, the still small voice of the Holy Spirit all but disappears. Yet God continues to speak in the stillness, in the silence, and in the quiet out of the way places so few dare to walk, let alone take off their shoes. What will it take to notice? What will it take to pay attention and stay awake to God’s presence in our midst? And what will it take for the church to recover her role as sacred space where all people can drink deeply from the fountain of living water flowing forth from the loving presence of their creator?

    Beginning with the Celtic image of “Thin Place,” I will explore our need to rediscover a sacramental worldview in which everything and everyone is sacred and all of creation is aflame with the light of God’s Holy presence if only we have eyes to see. I will then move toward a scriptural foundation for thin places with particular emphasis on Jacob and the Samaritan Woman at the Well, as each encounter the presence of God in the unexpected places of their ordinary lives. I will consider how the theme of God’s presence with us through the incarnation and the Holy Spirit is central to the entire Biblical narrative.

    On the practical side, I turn toward the question of how we might become more aware of thin places in our midst and more readily encounter and respond to the presence of God with us. The ancient practices of silence and stillness offer a doorway into such sacred spaces in every time and place. I will also explore the vital role of the faith community or church in cultivating sacred space through the practices of silence and stillness together and examine our role as the Body of Christ to be a thin place both gathered and scattered throughout the world so that others may encounter God’s presence embodied in the life of the Church through the Holy Spirit. I believe that recovering a sacramental worldview and living a sacramental life is essential to our identity as Christians. As the Church, we must become thin places through whom the living water of God’s presence is readily accessible to a dry and weary world.