Graduate Program in Religious Studies

ST. ANSELM'S Cur Deus Homo 1 ranks as one of the most influential pieces of Christian theology in the two millennia of reflection upon the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The influence of Cur Deus Homo, however, has not been all positive, as much of the modern discussion about the Cur Deus Homo has consisted of offering objections to Anselm's understanding of the atoning work of Jesus Christ, with various authors criticizing the work for its feudal background, its violence, or its neglect of the life of Christ. Anselm's argument in the Cur Deus Homo often serves as a theological Rorschach test upon which theologians have projected their own theological worries, and much (mis)interpretation of Cur Deus Homo results from either importing concepts that are not intrinsic to Anselm's argument or misunderstanding its details. The thesis of this essay is that, rather than focusing on an outdated feudal model, we can better understand the Cur Deus Homo by exploring Anselm's monastic background and the connections between the Cur Deus Homo and the Rule of Benedict (RB or the Rule), 2 particularly in regard to the concepts of obedience, honor, and order.

This dissertation would not have been possible without help and support from a number of people. I am grateful to my advisor, Billy Abraham, for his support, encouragement, and helpful comments at every stage of the project. I am also grateful to Bruce Marshall; I first began to interpret Cur Deus Homo in the way I develop here in a paper I wrote for his course in the history of Christian doctrine, and I pursued it further in no small part thanks to his encouragement. I am also grateful to the other members of my committee, Natalia Marandiuc and Paul Griffiths, for their thoughtful and encouraging comments. I am indebted to many of my colleagues at SMU who have read or discussed parts of this project, and have helped sharpen my thoughts as well as my expression of them in too many ways to list, including Justus Hunter,

The discipline of modern economics has been categorized as based in mathematics and thus dealing only with facts. Religion, on the other hand, is considered one of the primary institutions in society that engenders different values. The stark separation between these two fields is typical of the modern fact-value distinction. The goal of this project is to provide, relying heavily upon Peter L. Berger, a detailed analysis of the value-laden social functions of religion and consider whether economics, specifically capitalism, also carries out these functions. The thesis blurs the lines between economics and religion by showing that capitalism engages in one of the primary social functions of religion, namely the promulgation of a theology. The research has revealed that capitalism, though it eschews any role in producing value-laden beliefs, actually manufactures its own unarticulated theology, establishing certain values through doctrine. This theology of capitalism is displayed by evaluating economic literature produced by three different schools of capitalism. Comparing this economic literature to three standard doctrines of Christian theology has uncovered pieces of capitalism’s own theology heavily involved in shaping specific values. By shedding light on capitalism’s theology, this thesis has revealed that economics carries out the same social functions as religion and consequently problematizes the modern fact-value distinction.

This paper provides a Pentecostal response to the calcified economic logic in society. Sociological descriptions of gift giving suggest that gifts are bound to an economic framework where all spheres of life are governed by scarcity. This paper explores the theological implications of such a claim. I argue that the current, metaphysical spirit of scarcity has governed modern logic to the extent that God’s nature has itself been subordinated to this logic. This project calls into question scarcity’s claim to this status and suggests instead a pneumatological alternative. If a spirit of scarcity is not authoritative, the effected theology must be re-evaluated as well as the subsequent praxis. The topic of Sabbath serves as a test case for the ethical ramifications resulting from the problematizing of the modern economic logic as a theological paradigm.

Scholars frequently harbor "prejudice about American megachurches," (xviii) perhaps due to an "antipathy toward ecstatic desire" (xviii) or flatly considering them "truly corrupt churches" (189), but the authors of High on God: How Megachurches Won the Heart of America challenge these misgivings. James K. Wellman, Jr., Katie E. Corcoran, and Kate J. Stockly admit that they themselves were suspicious as they embarked on their five-year study of megachurches, which are popularly derided as "dens of consumerism and false-messianic profit takers" (xiv) as well as "purveyors of the prosperity gospel" (215) that push a "'powder puff gospel,' a nondemanding invitation to soteriological bliss" (150) that can "anesthetize churchgoers from reality" (24). After close investigation of twelve megachurches across the United States,

Full article: https://www.mdpi.com/1103926

The Jesuit mission to enslaved Africans founded in 1605 in Cartagena de las Indias is amongst the most extraordinary religious developments of early colonial Latin America. By the time Alonso de Sandoval, S.J. and Pedro Claver, S.J. began their work to baptize and catechize the thousands of slaves who passed through Cartagena’s port each year, the Society of Jesus had already established a global missionary enterprise, including an extensive network of communication amongst its missionaries and colleges. Amidst this intramissionary context, Sandoval wrote De instauranda Aethiopum salute—a treatise informed largely by these annual letters, personal correspon- dences, and interactions with the diverse multitudes of people who could be encountered in this early colonial cosmopolitan city—aimed at promoting the necessity of African salvation. From East Asia to Latin America, Jesuits followed the example of their apostolic missionary, Francis Xavier, to bring the Catholic faith to non-Christian peoples. Through De instauranda and the Catholic Church’s collected testimony for the sainthood of Claver, we see how Sandoval and Claver, like other Jesuits of the time, arose as innovative and unique missionaries, adapting to their context while attempting to model the Jesuit missionary spirit. In doing so, this article posits, the historical-religious context of the early modern Atlantic world and global Jesuit missions influenced Sandoval and Claver to accompany enslaved Africans as a missionary theology.

Justice, and its pursuit, has become a regular point of contention within Christian communities and their ambitions to take the moral life seriously. To pursue justice, it is often assumed, requires either a capitulation to a purely secular enterprise in which the distinctives of the Christian faith are abandoned, or can only be applied within parochial and quite limited circumstances appropriately judged to be “Christian.”  Though justice is not difficult to find in the pages of Scripture, such construals find it difficult to see what justice has to do with central themes of the Christian faith, like grace and love. At best, justice is a sometimes-permissible distraction from love and the display of grace, and it only displays elements of divine wrath. It certainly does not have anything to do with the noble aspects of Christian discipleship. It is the ambition of this article to show, insofar as the short summary above tells a true story, that this state of affairs is deeply mistaken. Far from being inconsistent with grace and love, Christian justice is grounded in and defined by grace and love. Not only is there no incompatibility between justice and the gospel, but justice is the necessary moral outflow of a life correctly shaped by the reception of grace and the pursuit of love. In short, my argument will be this: justice is defined by the worth bestowed by the gift of Christ and is the appropriate pursuit of those in whose hearts the love of the Holy Spirit has been poured forth (Rom 5:5). To make the case, section one will exposit Nicholas Wolterstorff’s view of the nature of justice, maintaining that though it properly understands the central dynamics of justice, it does not adequately ground them. Section two will provide this grounding with reference to John Barclay’s theology of grace. Both authors care deeply about worth and make this concept central to their proposals; an inherent and intuitive bridge exists, I shall maintain, between them, one that fortifies each view. Finally, I shall conclude with an Augustinian proposal about the motivations available for the pursuit of justice, motivations never separated from the convictions central to the Christian faith. At each step, then, one discovers that justice is not an enemy to the gospel; if the argument below succeeds, justice is an indispensable outflow from the reception of the gift of Christ. Far from a distraction to the principal characteristics of the Christian faith, it is an essential component of that faith.

Theology plays a role in how we think about human agency for social
change. One’s conception of God’s relationship to humanity, or lack
thereof, can suppress or empower resistance to oppressive systems. The
prophetic revolutionary fighter Aline Sitoë Diatta1 remains an inspirational
symbol of resistance, not only for the Diola people of Senegal but also more
broadly throughout West Africa.2 As “La femme qui était plus qu’un
homme”—the woman who was more than a man—her legendary impact
on subsequent generations offers the opportunity to investigate the
empowering influence of the Diola3 indigenous faith tradition, awasena
path, on moral and ethical formation. Employing the womanist theological
ethics of Katie G. Cannon and Delores Williams, along with the quare
theory of E. Patrick Johnson, this paper theorizes an ethic of resistance
and an ethic of control. The paper will then explore Diatta’s use of both
ethics based on an analysis of an African short film, À La Recherche Aline.
Diatta’s embodiment of an ethic of resistance and an ethic of control within
modern reenactments of her story depict her rebellion against colonialism
as empowered by the awasena path and its theology. The film reflects a
modern reception history of Diatta that continues to inspire those of African
descent to defend against attacks on their personhood by white
supremacy

Henry Chadwick once claimed that 'Cyril [of Alexandria] has nothing to say about the part played by Christ's soul in the Passion', and others have made similar observations regarding the inattention given to the soul in Cyril's Christology. Against these claims, I will argue in this article that Cyril's entire vision of the economy of salvation hinges on the fact that the Logos assumed ensouled flesh. I will focus on Cyril's early writings, since it has been recognized that Cyril became more explicit about Christ's soul after his dispute with Nestorius came to fore. The works I will use to prove my thesis are Cyril's early Festal Letters, written between 414 and 427. The letters naturally bear recurring themes related to the Passion of Christ. Cyril follows his predecessor Athanasius, I argue, in seeing the primary purpose of the incarnation as making it possible for the Logos to taste death on behalf of humanity, in order to undue the corruptive effects of sin, the chief of which is death itself. Cyril held the standard view of death as the separation of soul and body, and thus the event of Christ's death only makes sense for him if Christ had a real human soul. I will conclude by offering an explanation of why Cyril may not have spent much time expounding the extent to which Christ's soul suffered or did not suffer in the Passion, since this has also contributed to the debate over Cyril's Christological psychology.

Completed in partial fulfillment of the requirements for MT 700K Art and Contemplation Fall 2018 "The poet's task is to lead us to something virtuous by some excellent description." Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the Posterior Analytics, Ch. 1, Lect. 1, 6 1

Whereas Augustine, Chrysostom, and Aquinas are all cited as sources for the doctrine of the priesthood of the baptized in Lumen gentium, not one left behind a treatise devoted to the topic. The author of this article provides a survey of the baptismal priesthood in the thought of the three doctors with respect to two theological concepts: (1) the Christian's participation in the priesthood of Christ through incorporation into his Body, or their ordination, and (2) the exercise for which the baptismal priesthood is ordained, namely to worship God both in the liturgy and through a life of virtue. The author aims both to illuminate the thought of each theologian and to show the concordance of Aquinas's thought with that of his predecessors.