The contribution of feminist biblical hermeneutics to a theology of ministries

Thèse numérisée par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Statue of Liberty National Monument, maps /

In text: In 1986 the Statue will be 100 years old.

Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island /

Statue of Liberty view is from ground level and Ellis Island views are aerial views.

Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island /

Statue of Liberty view is from ground level and Ellis Island views are aerial views.

Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island /

Statue of Liberty view is from ground level and Ellis Island views are oblique aerial views.

Re-imagining the theology of human sexuality in the Methodist Church: the use of narrative in theological methodology

This thesis proposes the development of a narrative methodology in the British Methodist Church. Such a methodology embraces and communicates both felt experience and critical theological thinking, thus producing and presenting a theology that might have a constructive transformative impact on wider society. In chapter one I explore the ways in which the Church speaks in public, identify some of the challenges it faces, and consider four models of engagement. If the Church is to engage in public discourses then I argue that its words need to be relevant and connect with people’s experiences. To ground the thinking I focus on the context of the British Methodist Church and explore how the Church engages in theological reflection through the lens of its thinking on issues of human sexuality. Chapter two reviews how theological reflection is undertaken in the British Methodist Church. I describe how the Methodist Quadrilateral of Scripture, tradition, reason and experience remains a foundational framework for theological reflection within the Methodist Church and consider the impact of institutional processes and the ways in which the Methodist people actually engage with theological thinking. The third and fourth chapters focus on how the British Methodist Church has produced its theology of human sexuality, giving particular attention to the use of personal and sexual stories in this process. I find that whilst there has been a desire to listen to the stories of the Methodist people, there has not been a corresponding interrogation or analysis of their stories so as to enable robust and constructive theological reflection on these experiences. Using resources from Foucauldian approaches to discourse analysis, I critique key statements and the processes involved in their production, offering an analysis of this body of theological thinking and indicating where possibilities for alternative ways of thinking and acting arise. The proposed methodology draws upon resources from social science methodologies, and in chapter five I look at the use of personal experience and relevant strategies of inquiry that prompt reflection on the hermeneutical process and employ narrative approaches in undertaking, analysing and presenting research. The exploration shows that qualitative research methodologies offer resources and methods of inquiry that could help the Church to engage with personal stories in its theological thinking in a robust, interrogative and imaginative way. In chapter six an examination of story and narrative is undertaken, to show how they have been understood as ways of knowing and how they relate to theological inquiry. Whilst acknowledging some of the limitations of narrative, I indicate how it offers constructive possibilities for theological reflection and could be a means for the British Methodist Church to engage in public discourse. This is explored further in chapter seven, which looks in more detail at how the British Methodist Church has used narrative in its theological thinking, and outlines areas requiring further attention in order for a narrative theological methodology to be developed, namely: attention to the question ‘whose experience?’; investigation of issues of power and the dynamics involved in the process of the production of theological thought; how personal stories and experiences are interrogated and how narrative is constructed; and how narrative might be employed within the Methodist Quadrilateral. The final chapter considers the advantages and limitations of such an approach, whether the development of such a method is possible in the Methodist Church today and its potential for helping the Church to engage in public discourse more effectively. I argue that this methodology can provoke new theological insights and enable new ways of being in the world

COMUNIDADES ECLESIAIS DE BASE: EDUCAÇÃO POPULAR E CONSCIENTIZAÇÃO NO ABC (1964-1985)

Esta dissertação procurou apreender que consciência, ou consciências, formaram as Comunidades Eclesiais de Base CEBs com a apropriação das orientações da Educação Popular e da Teologia da Libertação durante o Regime Militar brasileiro. Entretanto, diferente da maioria dos trabalhos que se voltam a essa experiência, o estudo elaborou uma abordagem que as colocaram em prismas diversos. Focalizou, inicialmente, o momento histórico e algumas experiências nos vinte anos de regime e, em seguida, a Educação Popular e a Teologia da Libertação (teoria e prática), objetivando compreender seus projetos político-pedagógicos. A reflexão sobre a Educação Popular e a Teologia da Libertação aliada à reconstituição histórica do período forneceram o contexto no qual se inseriu a análise pretendida: a observação do fenômeno educacional numa perspectiva de micro-análise retratando os processos sociais e as experiências vividas para conhecer a consciência que emergiu de tal experiência educacional. Neste sentido, a pesquisa inferiu, por meio da análise de uma comunidade em particular, que a consciência nascida de tal prática foi de curto alcance, uma vez que os sujeitos envolvidos nesse projeto conscientizador perceberam apenas a ausência imediata de direitos.(AU)

COMUNIDADES ECLESIAIS DE BASE: EDUCAÇÃO POPULAR E CONSCIENTIZAÇÃO NO ABC (1964-1985)

Esta dissertação procurou apreender que consciência, ou consciências, formaram as Comunidades Eclesiais de Base CEBs com a apropriação das orientações da Educação Popular e da Teologia da Libertação durante o Regime Militar brasileiro. Entretanto, diferente da maioria dos trabalhos que se voltam a essa experiência, o estudo elaborou uma abordagem que as colocaram em prismas diversos. Focalizou, inicialmente, o momento histórico e algumas experiências nos vinte anos de regime e, em seguida, a Educação Popular e a Teologia da Libertação (teoria e prática), objetivando compreender seus projetos político-pedagógicos. A reflexão sobre a Educação Popular e a Teologia da Libertação aliada à reconstituição histórica do período forneceram o contexto no qual se inseriu a análise pretendida: a observação do fenômeno educacional numa perspectiva de micro-análise retratando os processos sociais e as experiências vividas para conhecer a consciência que emergiu de tal experiência educacional. Neste sentido, a pesquisa inferiu, por meio da análise de uma comunidade em particular, que a consciência nascida de tal prática foi de curto alcance, uma vez que os sujeitos envolvidos nesse projeto conscientizador perceberam apenas a ausência imediata de direitos.(AU)

COMUNIDADES ECLESIAIS DE BASE: EDUCAÇÃO POPULAR E CONSCIENTIZAÇÃO NO ABC (1964-1985)

Esta dissertação procurou apreender que consciência, ou consciências, formaram as Comunidades Eclesiais de Base CEBs com a apropriação das orientações da Educação Popular e da Teologia da Libertação durante o Regime Militar brasileiro. Entretanto, diferente da maioria dos trabalhos que se voltam a essa experiência, o estudo elaborou uma abordagem que as colocaram em prismas diversos. Focalizou, inicialmente, o momento histórico e algumas experiências nos vinte anos de regime e, em seguida, a Educação Popular e a Teologia da Libertação (teoria e prática), objetivando compreender seus projetos político-pedagógicos. A reflexão sobre a Educação Popular e a Teologia da Libertação aliada à reconstituição histórica do período forneceram o contexto no qual se inseriu a análise pretendida: a observação do fenômeno educacional numa perspectiva de micro-análise retratando os processos sociais e as experiências vividas para conhecer a consciência que emergiu de tal experiência educacional. Neste sentido, a pesquisa inferiu, por meio da análise de uma comunidade em particular, que a consciência nascida de tal prática foi de curto alcance, uma vez que os sujeitos envolvidos nesse projeto conscientizador perceberam apenas a ausência imediata de direitos.(AU)

Plato's Cretan Colony: Theology and Religion in the Political Philosophy of the Laws

The Laws is generally regarded as Plato’s attempt to engage with the practical realities of political life, as opposed to the more idealistic, or utopian, vision of the Republic. Yet modern scholars have often felt disquieted at the central role of religion in the Laws’ second-best city and regime. There are essentially the two dominant interpretations on offer today: either religion supports a repressive theocracy, which controls every aspect of the citizens’ lives to such an extent that even philosophy itself is discouraged, or religion is an example of the kind of noble lie, which the philosopher must deceive the citizens into believing—viz., that a god, not a man, is the author of the regime’s laws. I argue that neither of these interpretations do justice to the dialogue’s intricately dramatic structure, and therefore to Plato’s treatment of civil religion. What I propose is a third position in which Plato both takes seriously the social and political utility of religion, and views theology as a legitimate, and even necessary, subject of philosophical inquiry without going so far as to advocate theocracy as the second best form of regime.

I conclude that a proper focus on the dialogue form, combined with a careful historical analysis of Plato’s use of social and political institutions, reveals an innovative yet traditional form of civil religion, purified of the harmful influence of the poets, based on the authority of the oracle at Delphi, and grounded on a philosophical conception of god as the eternal source of order, wisdom, and all that is good. Through a union of traditional Delphic theology and Platonic natural theology, Plato gives the city of the Laws a common cult acceptable to philosopher and non-philosopher alike, and thus, not only bridges the gap between religion and philosophy, but also creates a sense of community, political identity, and social harmony—the prerequisites for political order and stability. The political theology of the Laws, therefore, provides a rational defense of the rule of law (νόμος) re-conceived as the application of divine Reason (νοῦς) to human affairs.

Conrad Summenhart's theory of individual rights and its medieval background

This study focuses on the theory of individual rights that the German theologian Conrad Summenhart (1455-1502) explicated in his massive work Opus septipartitum de contractibus pro foro conscientiae et theologico. The central question to be studied is: How does Summenhart understand the concept of an individual right and its immediate implications? The basic premiss of this study is that in Opus septipartitum Summenhart composed a comprehensive theory of individual rights as a contribution to the on-going medieval discourse on rights. With this rationale, the first part of the study concentrates on earlier discussions on rights as the background for Summenhart s theory. Special attention is paid to language in which right was defined in terms of power . In the fourteenth century writers like Hervaeus Natalis and William Ockham maintained that right signifies power by which the right-holder can to use material things licitly. It will also be shown how the attempts to describe what is meant by the term right became more specified and cultivated. Gerson followed the implications that the term power had in natural philosophy and attributed rights to animals and other creatures. To secure right as a normative concept, Gerson utilized the ancient ius suum cuique-principle of justice and introduced a definition in which right was seen as derived from justice. The latter part of this study makes effort to reconstructing Summenhart s theory of individual rights in three sections. The first section clarifies Summenhart s discussion of the right of the individual or the concept of an individual right. Summenhart specified Gerson s description of right as power, taking further use of the language of natural philosophy. In this respect, Summenhart s theory managed to bring an end to a particular continuity of thought that was centered upon a view in which right was understood to signify power to licit action. Perhaps the most significant feature of Summenhart s discussion was the way he explicated the implication of liberty that was present in Gerson s language of rights. Summenhart assimilated libertas with the self-mastery or dominion that in the economic context of discussion took the form of (a moderate) self-ownership. Summenhart discussion also introduced two apparent extensions to Gerson s terminology. First, Summenhart classified right as relation, and second, he equated right with dominion. It is distinctive of Summenhart s view that he took action as the primary determinant of right: Everyone has as much rights or dominion in regard to a thing, as much actions it is licit for him to exercise in regard to the thing. The second section elaborates Summenhart s discussion of the species dominion, which delivered an answer to the question of what kind of rights exist, and clarified thereby the implications of the concept of an individual right. The central feature in Summenhart s discussion was his conscious effort to systematize Gerson s language by combining classifications of dominion into a coherent whole. In this respect, his treatement of the natural dominion is emblematic. Summenhart constructed the concept of natural dominion by making use of the concepts of foundation (founded on a natural gift) and law (according to the natural law). In defining natural dominion as dominion founded on a natural gift, Summenhart attributed natural dominion to animals and even to heavenly bodies. In discussing man s natural dominion, Summenhart pointed out that the natural dominion is not sufficiently identified by its foundation, but requires further specification, which Summenhart finds in the idea that natural dominion is appropriate to the subject according to the natural law. This characterization lead him to treat God s dominion as natural dominion. Partly, this was due to Summenhart s specific understanding of the natural law, which made reasonableness as the primary criterion for the natural dominion at the expense of any metaphysical considerations. The third section clarifies Summenhart s discussion of the property rights defined by the positive human law. By delivering an account on juridical property rights Summenhart connected his philosophical and theological theory on rights to the juridical language of his times, and demonstrated that his own language of rights was compatible with current juridical terminology. Summenhart prepared his discussion of property rights with an account of the justification for private property, which gave private property a direct and strong natural law-based justification. Summenhart s discussion of the four property rights usus, usufructus, proprietas, and possession aimed at delivering a detailed report of the usage of these concepts in juridical discourse. His discussion was characterized by extensive use of the juridical source texts, which was more direct and verbal the more his discussion became entangled with the details of juridical doctrine. At the same time he promoted his own language on rights, especially by applying the idea of right as relation. He also showed recognizable effort towards systematizing juridical language related to property rights.

The role of the Ruah YHWH in creative transformation : a process theology perspective applied to Judges 14

La Ruah YHWH joue un rôle important dans la transformation créative de l’univers et des entités actuelles; cependant, une réflexion concernant les modalités de ce rôle reste à développer. La théologie processuelle offre une plateforme à partir de laquelle sont examinées diverses facettes des rôles que peut jouer la Ruah YHWH dans un monde où le chaos semble dominer. L’objectif de ce mémoire est justement d’explorer la Ruah YHWH dans son rôle de transformation créative au service, ultimement de l’ordre, de la paix et de l’harmonie dans le monde, les communautés, la vie des entités actuelles, etc. Le Chapitre 1 passe en revue des notions clés de la théologie processuelle. Le concept des “entités actuelles” est d’abord défini. Sont ensuite examinées les différentes phases du devenir d’une entité actuelle. Finalement, les concepts de “créativité” et de “transformation”, dans une perspective de la Ruah YHWH font l’objet d’observations attentives avant d’aborder « trois natures » de Dieu, à savoir primordiale, conséquente, et superjective. Le Chapitre 2 s’intéresse à la péricope centrale de ce mémoire : Juges 13:24-14:20. Le découpage de la structure de cette péricope est basé sur des critères de critique textuelle et d’analyse syntaxique. La première analyse s’attarde aux difficultés que le texte hébreu présente, alors que la deuxième met l’accent sur l’organisation structurelle des propositions grammaticales des versets. Les deux analyses me permettent ensuite de proposer une traduction du péricope. Le Chapitre 3 se veut une application de ce qui a été élaboré au Chapitre 1 sur la péricope analysée au Chapitre 2. Ce troisième chapitre permet de mettre en pratique une approche processuelle originale développée par Robert David dans son livre Déli_l’ ÉCRITURE. Dans la foulée des chapitres qui le précèdent, le Chapitre 4 propose quelques principes herméneutiques contemporains pouvant éclairer le rôle de la Ruah YHWH dans l’avancée créative du monde : vie, amour, et paix.

An enquiry into the doctrines of necessity and predestination : in four discourses preached before the University of Oxford, with notes and an appendix on the seventeenth article of the Church of England /

Mode of access: Internet.

A plea for liberty : an argument against socialism and socialistic legislation, consisting of an introduction by Herbert Spencer and essays by various writers /

Introduction. From freedom to bondage, by H. Spencer.--The impracticability of socialism, by E. S. Robertson.--The limits of liberty, by W. Donisthorpe.--Liberty for labour, by G. Howell.--State socialism in the Antipodes, by C. Fairfield.--The discontent of the working-classes, by E. Vincent.--Investment, by T. Mackay.--Free education, by B. H. Alford.--The housing of the working-classes and of the poor, by A. Raffalovich.--The evils of state trading as illustrated by the Post Office, by F. Millar.--Free libraries, by M. D. O'Brien.--The State and electrical distribution, by F. W. Beauchamp Gordon.--True line of deliverance, by A. Herbert.