Browsing by Subject "Creation"

The following thesis addresses an issue in ways of knowing that is both commonand destructive in the contemporary American context. Specifically, the issue of misunderstood anthropologies is posited to be an unnecessary destructive force against American churches already in decline. This damage is caused by wooden and polarizing theological and evolutionary anthropologies that underlie the basis of how many define themselves. This project endeavors to show that theological and evolutionary anthropologies are not necessarily adversarial. To this end, the theological anthropology of Gregory of Nyssa as described in On the Making of Man (de Hominis Opificio) and the evolutionary anthropology as described by Charles Darwin in The Descent of Man are defined and compared. These seminal yet still authoritative works are shown to be making different statements about humanity’s coming into being, more so than confrontational ones. The lack of mutual exclusivity between these two anthropologies is heightened by a number of interesting points of connection between them, such as reason being the definitive characteristics of humanity as well as the notion that humanity is continually becoming a more good creature. These ideas will serve to remove barriers of belief for many, all the while providing for a more holistic view of the origins of humanity and thus humanity’s place in the world.

ABSTRACT

In this dissertation I examine Calvin's trinitarian theology as it intersects his theology of materiality in order to argue for a positive theological account of the liturgical arts. I do so believing that Calvin's theology of materiality not only offers itself as a rich resource for thinking about the nature of Christian worship, it also opens up a trinitarian grammar by which we might understand the theological purposes of the arts in public worship.

Using Calvin's commentary on musical instruments as a case study, generally representative of his thinking on all the liturgical arts, I identify four emphases: that the church's worship should be (i) devoid of the "figures and shadows" which marked Israel's praise and that it emphasize instead a (ii) "spiritual," (iii) "simple," and (iv) "articulate" worship suitable to a new covenantal era. A common feature of these emphases is an anxiety over the capacity of materiality to occlude or distort the public worship of God and to mislead the worship of the faithful in idolatrous or superstitious ways. While a more narrowly patrological argument dominates Calvin's thinking on the arts in worship, I contend that it is in his thinking on creation, the resurrected body of Christ, the material symbols of worship, and the material elements of the Lord's Supper, that a distinctly trinitarian pattern of thought becomes conspicuous. Here materiality discovers its telos in the economy of God by way of its participation in the dynamic activities of Christ and the Spirit.

Taking the first three emphases in turn, while setting aside his concern for "articulate" worship as an issue more directly related to the question of metaphor rather than materiality, I argue, sometimes against Calvin, sometimes with and beyond Calvin, for a more integral role for materiality in public worship, even if this means following the logic of Calvin's theology to conclusions which he himself did not imagine. I contend that just as the triune God appropriates these distinctive material things to form and feed the church, so he takes the liturgical arts, as material artifacts, to form and feed the church in their own way, even if not on their own terms.

In an era of ecological upheaval that has led some scientists to declare that human activity has inaugurated a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene, the apocalyptic theology of the Apostle Paul speaks a timely word of ethical and practical import. In his letter to the Roman Christians, Paul calls for a conversion of behavior that resonates with and lends theological substantiation to the urgent calls of ecologists, climatologists, and others concerned for the wellbeing of the entire ecosphere. With a fundamental belief in the God who creates, sustains, and resurrects life, Paul's message in Romans 8:19-22 urges Christians to align their lives with the liberation that God intends for creation and that Jesus Christ has inaugurated through his life, death, and resurrection.

This dissertation examines Rom 8:19-22 in its literary, theological, imperial, and ecological contexts in order to illuminate the implications of Paul's thought for contemporary Christian living. Laying a biblical and theological foundation, the first chapter delineates the ways in which Old Testament texts assume a "relational pyramid" in which Israel, the nations, and nonhuman creation relate with one another and with God in ways that affect the wellbeing of all. In this vision, the conditions and destinies of human and nonhuman members of creation interdepend. Presupposing such a view of the world, Paul indicates throughout Romans, and especially in Rom 8:19-22, that creation's slavery to destruction results from human sin and that its liberation depends upon God's liberation and glorification of humanity, an argument developed in my second chapter. While this interpretation parallels common understandings of Rom 8:19-22, the frequently muted voice of creation is magnified when we recognize that the nonhuman creation too acts as subject, aligning itself with God's purposes, expectantly awaiting the resurrection of humanity, and collectively groaning and laboring towards that resurrection, the apocalypse of the "sons of God." Chapter three turns to relevant features of ancient Rome's religious, political, and agricultural traditions. Like Paul, the Roman imperial mythos maintained that human activity affected the health of creation. Yet, in contrast to Paul, it declared that Augustus, the divinely favored son of god, had established an age of peace and had brought fertility and abundance to the natural world. This "Golden Age" depended upon military power and the exploitation of conquered people and land, as an investigation of the Roman grain trade reveals. By placing Roman rhetoric and practice in conversation with Paul, chapter four demonstrates how Paul's vision of liberation subverts the Roman imperial mythos. The Epistle to the Romans insists that the empire's practices are among those that enslave creation to destruction and that the fulfillment of God's liberation will be established by Jesus Christ, the true Son of God, who will share his inheritance with his siblings, the children of God from all nations. In accord with their allegiance to Christ, his followers should live in ways that honor their relationships with human neighbors and also alleviate the destruction of creation, promote the flourishing of life and biodiversity, contribute to the wellbeing of creation's vulnerable members, and render thanksgiving to God. Exhibiting Paul's practical theology of creation and its powerful political bite, the fifth chapter examines and criticizes American industrial agriculture, particularly the growing of wheat in the Great Plains. In ways that parallel the Roman imperial myth, modern agriculture presents itself as liberating the world from famine through industrial power even as it masks the ways in which it binds creation to destruction. Inspired by the message of Romans, however, Christians find themselves called to unveil the powers of oppression and nurture sustainable communities of liberty, peace, and flourishing in harmony with creation. They may begin to do this by supporting local, organic, and perennial forms of agriculture with the hope that farmers may rely less on fossil fuels, toxic chemicals, and expensive seeds. In so doing, humans presage the liberty and flourishing of the New Creation as they mitigate the epoch-shifting and life-destroying events of climate change and species extinction.

This dissertation traces the theme of justice through the whole narrative of Exodus. Its aim is to explicate how YHWH’s reclamation of Israel for service-worship as narrated in Exodus reveals a distinct theological ethic of justice that is grounded in YHWH’s character and Israel’s calling within YHWH’s creational agenda. It adopts a synchronic, text immanent interpretative strategy which takes specific note of canonical and inner-biblical connections. This exposition gives particular attention to two other overlapping motifs in Exodus that help illuminate the theme of justice. First, it considers throughout the importance of Israel’s creation traditions for grounding Exodus’s theology of justice. It shows that the ethical disposition of justice imprinted upon Israel in the events of Exodus is built upon and is an application of YHWH’s creational agenda of justice. This becomes evident when Exodus is understood against the backdrop of creation theology and as a continuation of the plot of Genesis, a reading that Exodus itself invites. Second, because the book of Exodus functions as a pedagogical narrative—i.e., a persuasive story that is meant to form readers in normative, paradigmatic ways, this work highlights how an educational agenda is woven throughout the text. The narrative gives heightened attention to the way YHWH catechizes Israel in what it means to be the particular beneficiary and creational emissary of YHWH’s justice. The interpretative lenses of creation theology and pedagogy furthermore help in explaining why Israel’s salvation and shaping, in turn, embodies a programmatic applicability of YHWH’s justice for the wider world.

This dissertation investigates the origins of death. It does so by drawing on Augustine of Hippo’s theology of creation, especially as expressed in his De Genesi ad litteram. It argues that recovering Augustine’s theory of the rationes seminales as presented in De Genesi ad litteram is a useful tool that allows contemporary theology to engage with modern cosmology and evolutionary biology without compromising on Catholic magisterial teaching regarding the connection between sin and death. The work consists of five chapters, plus an introduction and conclusion.

The first chapter is methodological. It explains how one might read the text of Genesis ad litteram in the sense Augustine uses the term. To do this, it draws on the resources of Ordinary Language Philosophy. Chapter two investigates Augustine’s use of the term ‘rationes seminales’ and provides a speculative account of what they are. Chapter three connects the speculations on the rationes seminales to the fall of the angels, examining scriptural and doctrinal evidences concerning the nature of the demons. Chapter four remains focused on the angelic fall, but from a literary perspective. It uses Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida and Milton’s Paradise Lost to flesh out a theology of angels, their fall, and the effects this has on the created order. The last chapter examines how the effects of the angelic fall play out in time. It connects the speculations about the angelic fall to the human fall, showing how the doctrine of original sin as taught by the Catholic magisterium is compatible with discoveries in evolutionary biology and modern cosmology.

This dissertation investigates the origins of death. It does so by drawing on Augustine of Hippo’s theology of creation, especially as expressed in his De Genesi ad litteram. It argues that recovering Augustine’s theory of the rationes seminales as presented in De Genesi ad litteram is a useful tool that allows contemporary theology to engage with modern cosmology and evolutionary biology without compromising on Catholic magisterial teaching regarding the connection between sin and death. The work consists of five chapters, plus an introduction and conclusion.

The first chapter is methodological. It explains how one might read the text of Genesis ad litteram in the sense Augustine uses the term. To do this, it draws on the resources of Ordinary Language Philosophy. Chapter two investigates Augustine’s use of the term ‘rationes seminales’ and provides a speculative account of what they are. Chapter three connects the speculations on the rationes seminales to the fall of the angels, examining scriptural and doctrinal evidences concerning the nature of the demons. Chapter four remains focused on the angelic fall, but from a literary perspective. It uses Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida and Milton’s Paradise Lost to flesh out a theology of angels, their fall, and the effects this has on the created order. The last chapter examines how the effects of the angelic fall play out in time. It connects the speculations about the angelic fall to the human fall, showing how the doctrine of original sin as taught by the Catholic magisterium is compatible with discoveries in evolutionary biology and modern cosmology.