Browsing HDS Theses and Dissertations by Title
Now showing items 1-20 of 54
-
A Comparative Study of Bishop Joseph Butler and Wang Yang-ming's Conception of Conscience
This dissertation is a comparative study of the Anglican Bishop Joseph Butler's (1692-1752 AD) and the Neo-Confucianist Wang Yang-ming's (1472-1529 AD) conception of conscience (or in Wang's terminology, liang-chih. ... -
A Passionate Pacification: Sacrifice and Suffering in the Jesuit Missions of Northwestern New Spain, 1594 - 1767
This dissertation tracks Jesuit discourse about suffering in the missions of Northern New Spain from the arrival of the first missionaries in the 16th century until their expulsion in the 18th. The project asks why tales ... -
A Tale of Two Trees: Unveiling the Sacred Life of Nature in Islamic and Christian Traditions
(2023-03-01)This dissertation compares the ancient ṣaḥābī (“companion”) tree that still stands today in northeastern Jordan and the tree that became the Cross, memorialized where it once stood in Jerusalem. The former, by virtue of ... -
Adiaphora and the Apocalypse: Protestant Moral Rhetoric of Ritual at the End of History (1544 –1560)
(2016-05-17)This dissertation argues that the Protestant Reformation did not degrade the importance of ritual, but instead reinvested it with a new form of power. By interpreting a theological controversy over the benefits and dangers ... -
The Aftermath: Memorialization, Storytelling, and Walking at the 9/11 Tribute Center
(2015-05-11)Located in the heart of Lower Manhattan, the 9/11 Tribute Center is a small memorial museum that commemorates the attacks of September 11, 2001, and their aftermath. Tribute’s five small galleries house numerous exhibits ... -
Apophatic Measures: Toward a Theology of Irreducible Particularity
(2015-05-12)Apophatic Measures: Toward a Theology of Irreducible Particularity is a work of constructive comparative theology examining select writings of Śaṅkara (Eighth Century, India) and Nicholas of Cusa (Fifteenth Century, Germany). ... -
“Be You as Living Stones Built Up, a Spiritual House, a Holy Priesthood”: Cistercian Exegesis, Reform, and the Construction of Holy Architectures
(2015-09-22)The development of the Cistercian Order in the twelfth century came as a product of a number of eleventh-century reforms. These reforms affected all strata of society, and they impacted the way in which medieval European ... -
Beyond Charity: Poverty, Gender, and Local Islam in Contemporary India
This ethnographic study of contemporary Muslim poverty alleviation projects in India investigates the way in which Islamic social ethics are brought to bear on efforts to redress the social suffering. Drawing on field ... -
'Big Boston': The Impact of Community Organizing on Christian and Jewish Congregations in Boston
Recent scholarly work has shed light on various contributions made by community based community organizing (CBCO) to civic life in the United States. Through national organizations such as the Industrial Areas Foundation ... -
Carnal Resurrection: Sexuality and Sexual Difference in Early Christianity
This dissertation explores the ways in which early Christians thought about resurrected bodies in terms of desires, sexual practices, and roles, as well as in terms of how maleness and femaleness are distinguished. The ... -
Contesting the Theo-ethical Rhetoric of Home: Feminist and Postcolonial Politics of Space
Although the rhetoric of home is broadly used and may seem banal, it is a notion that has been significantly contested in recent decades. This dissertation critically analyzes the politics of space within the rhetoric of ... -
Devotions of Desire: Changing Gods, Changing People at a Transylvanian Pilgrimage Site
(2015-04-16)This dissertation describes how desiring subjects make devotional worlds in times of radical change. I argue that what is centrally at stake for people who pass through the Şumuleu Ciuc (Hungarian: Csíksomlyó) pilgrimage ... -
"Earn the Grace of Prophecy": Early Christian Prophecy as Practice
(2016-09-27)This dissertation explores discussions of prophecy in early Christianity focusing on Origen of Alexandria’s works. It argues that Origen engages the contested terms of prophetic activity to persuade his audience(s) toward ... -
"Elementally Interrupted": Divine and Human Freedom in the Thought of Eberhard Jüngel
This study's principal goal is to engage Eberhard Jüngel's views on freedom and, with the help of this engagement, to think through the intimate connection of the doctrine of God and anthropology. This larger goal contains ... -
Empire and Ekklēsia: Mapping the Function of Ekklēsia Rhetoric in the Book of Revelation
(2015-05-19)This dissertation explores the function of ekklēsia rhetoric in the Book of Revelation, and demonstrates its role in addressing various issues within the seven ekklēsiai and their inscribed rhetorical situation, including: ... -
Experiencing the Word: Dionysian Mystical Theology in the Commentaries of Thomas Gallus (d.1246)
(2017-09-20)The mystical theology of Thomas Gallus, “the last great Victorine,” was inseparable from his theology of sacred literature. This dissertation analyzes Gallus’s major works: his commentaries on the Song of Songs and the ... -
‘A Firestone of Divine Love’ Erotic Desire and the Ephemeral Flame of Hispanic Jesuit Mysticism
(2015-05-11)A Firestone of Divine Love serves as capstone of two years Jesuit ministry and fifteen of academic study. It extends nine articles into a book project to be published by Gorgias Press. Its original thesis appeared as: In ... -
Forgeries of Desire: The Erotics of Authenticity in New Testament Historiography
(2021-10-29)Situated at the intersection of the study of the New Testament, the theorizing of Christian origins, and queer historiography, this dissertation examines the ways in which biblical scholarship’s pursuit of historical ... -
From The River:Jesuit Missions and Exemplarity in Spanish Colonial Philippines 1581-1768
This dissertation is about Jesuit missionaries and discrete moments of translation, accommodation and exemplarity from the time of their arrival in the Philippines to their expulsion in 1768. Using an interdisciplinary ... -
Harnessing the Prophetic Voice: Rewriting and Allusion in Prophetic Collections from the Second Century B.C.E.
This dissertation examines the use of hypertextual and allusive compositional practices in prophetic collections from the second century B.C.E. Our analysis centers on the three best-preserved examples: 4QApocryphon of ...