Browsing by Subject "Holy Spirit"

This dissertation examines John Chrysostom’s claim, based on his reading of Matthew 11:28-30, that virtue is easy. In making such a claim, Chrysostom put himself at odds with the broader Greco-Roman philosophical tradition before him. Our aim is to understand whether Chrysostom is consistent in holding this position, and if so, by what rationale does Chrysostom defend such a novel claim, especially when his own preaching is full of exhortations to virtue.As our project is primarily concerned with ascertaining John Chrysostom’s position on the matter, our work will be heavily exegetical in nature. We will examine a broad selection of treatises and homilies, ranging from his earliest to those just prior to his death. In an effort to demonstrate that his position on virtue’s ease goes beyond hyperbole, we will also look to situation his comments upon virtue within the broader framework of the homilies themselves to show the consistent network of ideas that surround this concept. Moreover, we will look to situate his ideas within the broader Greco-Roman tradition, paying attention to those places where Chrysostom seems consistent with, has modified, or entirely deviated from his philosophical predecessors. We will also engage with Raymond Laird’s argument that, for Chrysostom, the locus of human virtue and vice is the γνώμη, or mindset. While we agree with Laird’s broader conclusion about the faculty that is responsible for human action, we would modify it by expanding the language by which Chrysostom is understood to signify the mindset. In the end, it is our position that Chrysostom is indeed consistent with his notion that virtue is easy. What animates this position on virtue is Chrysostom’s pneumatology. For Chrysostom, it is the Spirit who heals the mindset and indwells the Christian who makes the practice of virtue easy, sustaining the Christian as she exerts the effort required to be virtuous.

This dissertation consists of an examination of the human cultural vocation in relation to the created order at large, with particular reference to the writings of theologian Colin Gunton, and writer, poet, and cultural critic Wendell Berry.

Gunton presents a vision of the human vocation within the created world as offering a “sacrifice of praise,” a vision with a distinctive stress on the agency of the Holy Spirit, in which the concepts of perfection, particularity, relationality, and mediation play determinative roles. Humans are enabled to participate in the Holy Spirit’s perfecting of creation through cultural practices that support personal particularity and mediate interpersonal relations between God, humans, and non-human creatures. This vision seeks to both integrate and uphold the integrity of all dimensions of cultural life – the Good, True, and Beautiful or ethics, knowledge, and art – in contrast to what Gunton sees as the fragmented yet homogenizing ethos of postmodern culture.

However, despite his stated concern for particularity, Gunton offers little in the way of particular concrete exemplification of what a “sacrifice of praise” or its related “ethic of createdness” looks like in practice except for the celebration of the Eucharist. The vision of “sacrifice of praise” as presented by Gunton is not sufficiently generative of specific cultural, artistic, or ecological practices that will enable persons to participate in the Holy Spirit’s perfecting of creation.

It is argued that the integrative imagination of Wendell Berry, as embodied by his Sabbath poetry and poetic practice, can be employed to meet the deficiencies of Gunton’s vision, providing powerful, concrete exemplifications of Gunton’s major concerns and developing his concepts of perfection, particularity, relationality, and mediation further. Berry argues that locally adapted poetry is a practice that enables the formation of a sympathetic and placed imagination, such that humans can perceive ways to work in harmony with the material creation. Crucial to this practice and formative process is a rich vision and goal of Sabbath and, consequently, Sabbath-worthy work. His account of poetry and his own poetic output, together with analogous (agri)cultural practices, constitute a fully integrated vision of human culture – imagination, work, economy, and the arts – that advances the main trajectories offered by Gunton.

These two accounts of the human vocation resonate generatively because Gunton and Berry both operate from perspectives that keenly recognize the God-giftedness of creation. Berry’s perspective is from the “ground up” as it were, in part utilizing the practice of poetry to attend to particularities in light of a holy vision of Sabbath rest. Gunton’s perspective is more overtly and rigorously theological, governed above all by a theology of the triune economy and the outworking of the economy within the created order, particularly the perfection of creation by the Spirit. Berry’s Sabbath vision, as embodied in his poetic practice, brings two key resources to Gunton’s pneumatological vision of the human vocation as offering a “sacrifice of praise”: i) a concrete and particular example of human engagement with place and culture-making that exemplifies Gunton’s desire for fully integrated cultural engagement of the True, Good, and Beautiful, and ii) an expansion of Gunton’s vision of the human vocation vis-à-vis creation, that is, a “sacrifice of praise,” by including the cultural category of work and economy.

Abstract

This dissertation queries the ongoing significance and fruitfulness of Augustine of Hippo's insight that the Holy Spirit is the Love of God. Rather than turning to the standard text, his De Trinitate, this project examines closely the earlier Tractatus in Epistolam Joannis ad Pathos, a set of sermons on 1 John delivered mostly during the Octave of Easter.

The study of the Tractatus is offered in conjunction with a much later interlocutor, John Wesley. A close reading of Augustine's sermons of the Tractatus is synthesized with a close reading of Wesley's five extant sermons on texts from 1 John. The principal argument in this dissertation is that a synthesis of Augustine and John Wesley on the Holy Spirit produces a nuanced understanding of the Holy Spirit as the Love of God that enriches contemporary systematic theology. Furthermore, instead of either a purely archeological retrieval or genealogical study of these two theologians, this dissertation demonstrates the potential for enrichment by offering constructive proposals concerning the systematic coherence between a theology of divine desire and a theology of Christian initiation made possible by this Augustinian-Wesleyan approach to the Spirit.

The opening chapters, one through three, form an exegetical and synthesizing foundation, establishing the basic building blocks of the constructive proposals of chapter four, a theology of divine desire, and chapter five, a theology of Christian initiation. In the early chapters, the dissertation draws on the recent insights into systematic theology of Sarah Coakley and A.N. Williams in order to approach systematics in a way that brings coherence to a disparate set of homiletical texts. The conclusion of the dissertation is that Augustine's naming of the Holy Spirit, far from being an ancient relic best abandoned, resonates strongly with Wesley's own insights into the Spirit's person and work and that an Augustinian-Wesleyan pneumatology suggests possibilities for further cross-centuries examination of these two significant Christian preachers.

Some recent trends in homiletics have begun to move beyond postmodern questions to postcolonial questions. One primary concern shared among many contemporary homileticians, and especially articulated by postcolonial homileticians, is “relationality.” How can diverse peoples with diverse histories interacting through a variety of power dynamics truly relate to one another? How can those people relate to God and God’s word, especially as God’s word is proclaimed through preaching by a human being who is caught up in those power dynamics? These questions touch on the relationality of bodies, minds, and teaching; they explore anthropology, epistemology, and practical theology. However, the issues at the heart of relationality are not new. This thesis explores the homiletical theory and practice of St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430 CE), with a view toward how Augustine anticipates some of the core questions of relationality raised in the 21st century. The first chapter synthesizes contemporary questions of relationality and suggests why Augustine is an apt conversation partner for these questions. The body of the thesis (chs. 2—4) focuses on a close reading of Augustine’s treatise, De Doctrina Christiana, and select sermons, through the lenses of the questions synthesized in ch. 1. The final chapter brings the insights gained from chs. 2—4 back into conversation with three contemporary sermons, each preached by a postcolonial homiletician. By setting Augustine’s sermons alongside contemporary sermons, this thesis seeks to show that there is much to draw on in the historic Christian tradition to help answer contemporary homiletical questions. Ultimately, it will be argued that Augustine’s way of interweaving various characteristics of bodies, minds, and teaching and his crucial reliance on the Holy Spirit to hold together the overflowing and intermingling relational dynamics of the preaching event outline a way of preaching relationally in both the 5th and the 21st centuries.

There continues to be strong interest in the arena of Christian formation, which is

primarily concerned with developing mature Christians in light of shifts in contemporary

views on religion and its relationship to ethics. The field of Christian formation has many

facets one of which is the field of Christian practices. Those who work in this field are

primarily concerned with relating Christian beliefs to the every day lives of Christians in

the interest of providing a stronger witness to the faith. Also, Christian practices are a

means to provide a response to other forms of identity formation provided by a hyper

individualistic consumer driven culture.

This thesis is concerned with the question of how the work of the Holy Spirit is

understood to function in Christian practices? In short, “Does Pentecost have anything to

do with how Christians live their daily lives?” To answer these questions a brief

investigation of present work in Christian practices will be provided to ascertain how the

work of the Holy Spirit is present. Thereafter, an example of how the focus on the Holy

Spirit in the work of Christian practices may be enhanced indebted to Eugene Rogers’

work on the Holy Spirit and James K. A. Smith’s work on the formation of Christian

desire will be proposed