Browsing HDS Theses and Dissertations by Title
Now showing items 26-45 of 51
-
The Origins of the Apocalypse of Abraham
(2016-05-17)The Apocalypse of Abraham, a pseudepigraphon only extant in a fourteenth century Old Church Slavonic manuscript, has not received much attention from scholars of Ancient Judaism, due in part to a lack of readily available ... -
Perceiving Splendor: The "Doctrine of the Spiritual Senses" in Hans Urs von Balthasar's Theological Aesthetics
This study argues that the so-called "doctrine of the spiritual senses" should be recognized as a vital component of the theological aesthetics of Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-1988). The doctrine of the spiritual senses ... -
Religious Practices of the Enslaved: A Case Study of Roman Ephesos
Enslaved persons were ubiquitous in the first- and second- century CE Roman Empire, and early Christian texts, in particular, reflect this fact. Nevertheless the implications of enslaved presence in religious practices are ... -
The Rhetoric of PIETAS: The Pastoral Epistles and Claims to Piety in the Roman Empire
(2015-05-11)This dissertation reads the Pastoral Epistles alongside imperial propaganda, monumental inscriptions, and philosophical writings of the Roman period to determine how claims to piety (Greek: εὐσέβεια, Latin: pietas) advanced ... -
Sanctifying a Darke Conceit: Seeing the Bible in the Faerie Queene
(2015-05-11)Approaching the poem from the perspective of reception history, the present dissertation seeks to show that the Bible’s role in The Faerie Queene is far more pervasive than has usually been recognized. Rather than see the ... -
Sanctuary and Subjectivity: Rethinking Practical Theological Categories in Light of the Sanctuary Movement of the 1980s
(2021-11-09)This dissertation utilizes interviews with participants in the Sanctuary Movement of the 1980s to situate the movement as an object of practical theological inquiry. Much of the scholarship on the movement focuses on the ... -
Showdown In The Sonoran Desert: Religion, Law and the Immigration Controversy
Set in the Sonoran desert, at the U.S.-Mexico border, in the shadow of migrant deaths, Showdown In The Sonoran Desert examines one of the most daunting ethical questions of our time: How should we treat the strangers who ... -
Silent Statements: Narrative Representations of Speech and Silence in the Gospel of Luke
Silent Statements: Narrative Representations of Speech and Silence in the Gospel of Luke Even a brief comparison with its canonical counterparts demonstrates that the Gospel of Luke is preoccupied with the power of ... -
Sobre La Marcha: The Fiesta of Santiago Apostol in Loiza, Puerto Rico
(2016-05-19)The annual Fiesta of Santiago Apóstol is the most significant religious festival in Loíza, Puerto Rico. This dissertation examines this religious ritual applying an indigenous methodological approach I call sobre la marcha, ... -
The Cult of the Saints and its Christological Foundations in Eustratios of Constantinople's De statu animarum post mortem
In this study, I propose that the cult of the saints in Eustratios of Constantinople's De statu animarum post mortem has a Christological foundation. I examine this thesis from cultural, historical, and theological ... -
The Place of the King Wherein He Dwelt: Reading Ephrem's Mariology in its Contexts
(2023-03-01)Abstract This dissertation examines a fundamental paradox in Christianity. How can the omnipotent, omnipresent God be said to be present within Mary, mother of Jesus Christ? I pose this question of the poetry of Ephrem the ... -
The Rhetoric of Dress and Adornment and the Construction of Identity in Early Christianity
(2021-11-09)In the cultural landscape of the ancient Mediterranean, clothing was not only a covering for the body but also functioned as an ideological system that worked to construct and stratify categories of identity and social ... -
The Rhetoric of Sexual Purity in Contemporary Conservative U.S. Christianity
Sexual purity rhetoric produced by conservative Christian individuals and institutions shapes U.S. religious and political life in profound ways. Yet, there has not yet been a study of the scope or the results of sexual ... -
The Spiritual Disciplines of Contemporary Business Management at Seeing Things Whole: The Lived Metaphors of Shape-Shifting Capital
This dissertation applies a phenomenological and existential ethnographic method to encounter and engage the formal theology and ritual practices of one group of workplace reformers that is comprised of business leaders, ... -
The Use of Slaves in Early Christianity: Slaves as Subjects of Life and Thought
(2017-07-24)Early Christianity emerged within an empire built on the backs of slaves. Christians likewise participated in the slaveholding practices of the Roman Empire. Christians owned slaves, were slaves, and made use of enslaved ... -
The Vital Landscape: Evangelical Religious Practice and the Culture of Nature in America, 1790-1870
Evangelicalism, historians have long noted, was a movement born in field, forest, and stream. Like most truisms, however, this one has rarely been explored as deeply as it deserves. Using the tools of cultural history, ... -
Theology in Place: Religion, Geography, and the American South
(2021-11-09)Christianity is a place-less religion, so the story goes. This dissertation argues, on the contrary, that Christian theology, far from having put an end to spatial thinking, has found ways to take place literally over the ... -
Trading Futures: Future-Talk, Finance, and Christian Eschatology
(2017-04-17)Standard textbooks describe finance as the field of economics that concerns itself with the future. This dissertation suggests instead that financial discourse conjures a particular mode of future-talk, one that renders ... -
Transforming Suffering: Insights From the Work of Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa
(2016-05-18)Gloria Anzaldúa’s understanding of suffering is inextricably connected to subjectivity and spirituality. Tracing her rethinking of stories/histories involving the violent dismemberment of female religious figures, ...