Master of Arts in Theology, Mount St. Mary's Seminary & School of Theology, 2019, School of Theology

The Church Fathers and early Ecclesiastical writers are unanimous in their claim that Matthew's Gospel was written first among the Four Gospels and was written in the Hebrew language. The evidence for these Patristic claims is external to the Gospel itself--relying on "traditions" purported to have been passed down from authoritative figures such as John the Evangelist and his disciples. The Patristic authors, while unanimous in their claims that Matthew wrote first and wrote in Hebrew, are generally discounted as being historically unreliable regarding the origin of Matthew's Gospel. This thesis examines this problem by analyzing in detail the Patristic authors who, as Biblical historians, write on the authorship of Matthew's Gospel. The witnesses were examined based on the work of several contemporary scholars, and their testimonies were cross-referenced with each other and with other historical evidence in order to ascertain if the claims held up to scrutiny. While many of the Patristic claims were indeed plausible, issues such as questionable motives on the part of some (such as Eusebius), textual errors (in Jerome's writings), linguistic unclarity (in Papias' witness), and possible chronological errors (in Irenaeus' account) make proving the veracity of the Patristic claims impossible. While proving the claims beyond a reasonable doubt is impossible, the research demonstrates that it is indeed plausible that the Patristic writers were familiar with a Hebrew proto-Gospel which later developed into a canonical Greek version--though the canonical version was likely not a direct translation from a Semitic original.

Committee: David J. Endres Ph.D. (Advisor) Subjects: Bible; Biblical Studies; Religion; Religious History

Doctorate in Sacred Theology (S.T.D.), University of Dayton, 2000, International Marian Research Institute

.

Committee: Bertrand Buby S.M. (Advisor) Subjects: Theology

Master of Arts (M.A.), University of Dayton, 2013, Theological Studies

The study of feminist biblical hermeneutics is very diverse; it can mean different things to different people. As a result, there is much disagreement concerning how to read Scriptures from a feminist perspective in the correct way. For a proper study of the Scriptures from a feminist point of view, one must converse with other forms of feminist hermeneutics. Therefore, using excerpts from Mark 5 and John 4, this thesis will create a dialogue between the theologians Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, Musa Dube, and John Paul II. In doing so, this thesis will attempt to show a more comprehensive feminist biblical hermeneutic using theological perspectives from Catholic Western feminism, Protestant Two-Thirds World feminism, and the Magisterium.

Committee: Jana Bennett Ph.D. (Advisor); Silviu Bunta Ph.D. (Committee Member); Joseph Kozar Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: African Studies; Bible; Biblical Studies; Gender Studies; Religion; Theology; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, 2011, History

Religious groups use strong doctrinal markers to ensure and maintain their integrity and more importantly, their identity. The Ohio Valley Friends counted themselves among the traditional pacifist denominations throughout the United States in the twentieth century. With the onset of World War II, they dutifully followed this doctrine of pacifism incarcerating their youth in their own sponsored conscientious objector camp in Coshocton, Ohio. Driven by this central tenet of pacifism, through an ageist struggle to maintain identity, the Friends lost both their identity and their youth. Within two years of the entrance of the United States into the war, a sudden shift in the Ohio Valley Friend's collective affirmations caused them to try to abandon the camp's sponsorship, and patriotically support the U.S. militarist goal of victory. Their monthly newsletters and actions showed no changes in their theology nor radical reordering of their allegiance to their supernatural God, but rather the embrace of this same God, co-opted into a newly founded nationalist civil religion.

Committee: Walter Hixson Dr. (Advisor); Elizabeth Mancke Dr. (Committee Member); Kathy Feltey Dr. (Committee Member); Kevin Kern Dr. (Committee Member); Kenneth Bindas Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; Religion; Religious History

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1969, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2023, History

This dissertation examines early Christian literary hierarchies and categories, beginning in the pre-Christian context of the Hellenistic world and ending in the early Middle Ages. While scholars have long studied the formation of the biblical canon and the development of ancillary classes of text, such as the so-called “apocrypha,” many accounts of this history struggle to evince how these intellectual and institutional categories changed over time, which tends to obscure early Christian intellectual nuance and circumspection. This project improves our understanding by rooting early Christian evaluation of sacred (or potentially sacred) literature in the literary criticism of the classical world. It finds that, over the course of centuries, early Christianity generally moved away from the question of textual authenticity to the question of theological authority. In many cases, this movement corresponded to the maturation of the institutional episcopacy, particularly in the post-Constantinian era. Consequently, while Hellenistic literary criticism had once provided the chief template for Christians to evaluate books, hierarchies of text became increasingly institutionalized and supposed to have been settled by earlier authorities. By the sixth century, some Christian commentators forgot the meaning of the older categories altogether.

Committee: Kristina Sessa (Advisor) Subjects: Biblical Studies; Classical Studies; History; Religious History

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), University of Dayton, 2022, Theology

This dissertation is about the problem of history in modern theology. It describes early Christian conceptions of history and truth and sketches a genealogy of the impact of modern historical consciousness on Christianity. By focusing on Third Republic France, and then the work of the bible scholar Alfred Loisy, this dissertation seeks to situate the Modernist Crisis, where the conflict between history and theology erupted most violently. In so doing, the way in which conceptions of doctrine are embedded within histories, contexts, and politics is revealed. To flesh out this same point, in its later chapters, this dissertation shifts its attention to Catholic engagement with the right-wing and fascist movements of the twentieth- century. To this end, the career of Jacques Maritain (d. 1973) proves particularly important. His move from reactionary politics in his youth toward the articulation of a “New Christendom” reveals the extent to which theology and politics co-constitute each other. More than that, this dissertation looks at Maritain's role in the religious freedom debates of the Second Vatican Council. The final thesis of the dissertation is that the thinking Maritain utilizes in articulating his New Christendom - what he calls “prise de conscience” or “awareness” - offers a contribution to the ongoing conversations about continuity and discontinuity that mark Catholic reflection on the problems of history and doctrine.

Committee: William Portier (Advisor); Jana Bennett (Committee Member); Thomas Guarino (Committee Member); Vincent Miller (Committee Member); Dennis Doyle (Committee Member) Subjects: History; Philosophy; Political Science; Religion; Religious History; Theology

Master of Arts (M.A.), University of Dayton, 2022, Theological Studies

This thesis seeks to uncover the scriptural foundations for the ancient Catholic sensibility that the Virgin Mary is the great opponent of Satan, the devil. The method adopted is a Marian reading of both the Ark of the Covenant and the Woman clothed with the sun in Scripture, specifically where the Ark appears in 1 Samuel 5 and the Woman in Revelation 12. The thesis begins with some brief illustrations of the Ark's history and theology, then moves on to a close reading of 1 Samuel 5 and Revelation 12, respectively. For 1 Samuel 5, a close reading of the text seeks to uncover how Scripture portrays the Ark in this passage as nothing less than God's chosen conqueror of evil. For Revelation 12, a close reading of the text follows John's carefully-constructed depiction of the Woman clothed with the sun as being clothed with triumphant spiritual dignity, specially protected by providence, and invulnerable to the attacks of the Dragon. The work concludes with a typological and symbolic reading of the 'Ark-Woman' (the Ark from 1 Samuel 5 together with the Woman of Revelation 12) in both texts, through a Marian lens. It is hoped that a Marian exploration of these texts may help to heighten our appreciation of some of the biblical foundations for Marian devotion, as well as alert us to the indispensable role which the Virgin Mary plays in the spiritual battles of all Christians.

Committee: Sébastien B. Abalodo (Committee Chair); Neomi De Anda (Committee Member); Ethan D. Smith (Committee Member) Subjects: Religion; Theology

Doctor of Ministry , Ashland University, 2022, Doctor of Ministry Program

This project discovered the financial knowledge and actions of participants at New Mount Zion Baptist Church in Cleveland, Ohio, and the Greater Cleveland vicinity. A five-point Likert scale survey was distributed to twenty-seven African American millennials. The major findings for knowledge were the importance of a checking and savings account. The major findings for actions revealed owning a vehicle and having a checking account. Finally, comparative analysis revealed the unchurched were informed and participated more in financial matters juxtaposed to the churched. Likewise, the Greater Cleveland vicinity was informed and participated more in financial matters juxtaposed to NMZBC.

Committee: William Meyers PhD (Advisor) Subjects: African American Studies; Black Studies; Minority and Ethnic Groups

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2021, Interdisciplinary Arts (Fine Arts)

In this dissertation, A Black (Human)ist Homiletic: A Literary Exegetical Response and Hermeneutic Case Study about the Life and Experience of Prince Kaboo as Samuel Morris; the Angel Ebony, I courageously excavate the literary art of texts written about Samuel Morris through a series of exegetical tools in order to uncover extortion, exploitation, and the cunning sacrilegious exhibition that deprived Morris of his cultural identity behind a veil of Christianization. In this dissertation, I seek to affirm the "human worth and dignity" of Morris without a codependency on theism and provide viable evidence to reveal the mythomaniacal acts of white Christian antics. I argue that a decolonial humanist approach to the literary arts pertaining to the life of Samuel Morris, both material and metaphorical, (Pinn, 2010, p. 11)restores Morris from a TransAtlantic narrative under racial-religious identity that eradicates his human nature and intuitive rationality and reconciles his appropriate Black cultural property (Weisenfeld,2018, p. 5). The depiction of Morris in these synoptic compositions is a theological-aesthetic application interwoven with social and political ingenuity in order to respond to the time in which each text was born.

Committee: Andrea Frohne (Committee Chair); Brian Evans (Advisor); David Breeden (Committee Member); Robin Mohummad (Committee Member); Winsome Chunnu (Committee Member) Subjects: Aesthetics; African Americans; African Literature; Black Studies; Ethics; Performing Arts; Theology

Doctor of Ministry , Ashland University, 2020, Doctor of Ministry Program

The purpose of this project was to create a biblical theological resource that provides a plausible interpretation of Scripture about eternal punishment as an alternative to the Augustinian viewpoint which has prevailed in the Western Church since the sixth century. God wants everyone to be saved (1 Tim 2:3-4). Still, some people will go to eternal punishment (Matt 25:46). Both statements are true. The Greek word aionios, often translated eternal, can mean age or eon. Therefore, it is plausible that God can purify and save people in the afterlife. In a survey, mainline Protestant pastors agreed with this interpretation, whereas certain other pastors disagreed.

Committee: Russell Morton Dr. (Advisor) Subjects: Bible; Biblical Studies; Religion

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2019, English

As major sources of discourse and debate on theological topics like the resurrection, justification by faith, and predestination, the biblical epistles of Saint Paul played a central role in the development of religious thought and practice across Reformation Europe. But in a period when Christian belief and biblical knowledge permeated every aspect of human life, how did Paul's epistles inform Europe's robust literary and rhetorical cultures? How did scholars and artists respond, not only to Paul's provocative ideas, but also to his provocative manner of expressing these ideas? This dissertation is the first critical study of the reception and influence of Paul's rhetorical style in the Renaissance, 1500-1660. It explores creative uses of Pauline style across a range of mediums and genres – including drama, poetry, and oratory – at a time when the confluent cultural forces of humanism and Protestantism profoundly altered critical perceptions of Paul's prose. The dissertation argues that Pauline style developed into one of the most theoretically productive and artistically provocative styles of the period through a controversial process of critical evaluation. In their biblical scholarship, humanists used emerging methods of grammatical and rhetorical analysis to represent Paul's epistles as persuasive and eloquent to their readers, who often complained of Paul's inelegant, and apparently incoherent, manner of expression. This theoretical discourse directly impacted literary activity in England, shaping how and why authors adapted Pauline style in their texts. From the romance plays of William Shakespeare; to the metaphysical poetry of John Donne; to the courtly sermons of Lancelot Andrewes, English authors imitated Pauline style to produce aesthetic effects, reflect on theological problems, and engage in religious controversy. By thus tracing the reception of Pauline style, the dissertation reveals how English authors used biblical writing to shape their own rh (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Hannibal Hamlin (Advisor); Richard Dutton (Committee Member); Alan Farmer (Committee Member) Subjects: Literature; Religion; Religious History; Rhetoric

Licentiate in Sacred Theology (S.T.L.), University of Dayton, 2017, International Marian Research Institute

.

Committee: Bertrand Buby S.M. (Committee Chair) Subjects: Biblical Studies; Religion; Theology

Master of Arts in Biblical Studies, Mount St. Mary's Seminary & School of Theology, 2017, School of Theology

Many scholars propose that Hebrews 1:3 borrows aspects of its language from the Old Testament book, The Wisdom of Solomon. This paper examines the intention and purpose of the exordium of Hebrews, specifically Hebrews 1:3, in describing the Son of God, Jesus, in the language of divine Wisdom as found in the Wisdom of Solomon 7:26-27. Through an analysis of the terms of Hebrews 1:3—απαυγασμα, δοξα, χαρακτηρ, υποστασις, and ρημα— this paper explores why the author of Hebrews may have borrowed some aspects of the Wisdom of Solomon while forgoing others. This paper proposes that the author is seeking to describe Christ in a language borrowed from the established Wisdom tradition while at the same time avoiding possible misunderstandings with Greek philosophical thought seen, for example, in the works of Philo. Though both the Wisdom of Solomon and the Letter to the Hebrews are influenced by the philosophic currents of their time, the author of Hebrews does not ultimately describe Jesus as a philosophical concept but rather the physical manifestation of God's presence and action in the created world. The author is seeking language to describe God's revelation of Himself through his Son. In order to properly speak about this revelation, the Author of Hebrews borrows from the Wisdom tradition which saw Wisdom as a revelation from God spoken to humanity.

Committee: Marco Mulattieri SSL (Advisor) Subjects: Bible; Biblical Studies; Religion

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), University of Dayton, 2015, Theology

This dissertation seeks to understand and evaluate the hermeneutical logic and apologetic mentality behind American evangelicalism's appeal to biblical inerrancy during its twentieth- and twenty-first-century battles for the Bible. In nuanced agreement with Christian Smith's charge that evangelicalism's pervasive interpretive pluralism renders appeals to biblical inerrancy meaningless, I argue that what drives the perpetuation of such appeals is a fundamental desire for epistemic certainty in the face of what is perceived to be a devastating subjectivism. This is a certainty said to be obtained and maintained by an oversimplified conception of sola scriptura and a biblical hermeneutic replete with modernistic assumptions about textual objectivity and the effects of history and tradition upon interpretation. After attending to the intersection of the hermeneutical theory of Hans-Georg Gadamer with those of high-profile evangelicals James Packer and Clark Pinnock, I propose the adoption of a more community-centered conception of biblical authority alongside a rehabilitation of faith as trust in God's own faithfulness.

Committee: William Trollinger Jr. (Advisor); Brad Kallenberg (Committee Member); William Portier (Committee Member); Anthony Smith (Committee Member); Peter Thuesen (Committee Member) Subjects: History; Modern History; Religion; Religious History; Theology

Master of Arts in English, Cleveland State University, 2015, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio has received its share of criticism and sometimes condemnation for its depiction of small town life in a fictional Ohio town. Although Anderson's characterizations of gender and use of biblical allusions have already been widely examined, I build upon scholarship specifically in these areas to apply those findings to reading the work in the context of families. Anderson presents the extended, agrarian, and strongly patriarchal Bentley family as an illogical family structure for the increasingly industrialized nation. Similarly, the many one parent families in the town are also often inadequate for the characters, with boys lacking father figures and girls lacking mother figures. George Willard and Helen White stand out as exceptions to these family structures, since both characters have a small nuclear family with both parents present. Although Anderson by no means upholds this as a perfect situation, it appears as comparatively the most reasonable choice for the modern world. Anderson also provides the possibility for going in new directions altogether by the inclusion of George and Helen's “sophisticated” but still malleable relationship.

Committee: Adam Sonstegard PhD (Committee Chair); Ted Lardner PhD (Committee Member); Gary Dyer PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: American Literature; Biblical Studies; Families and Family Life; Gender; Gender Studies; Individual and Family Studies; Modern Literature; Personal Relationships; Religion

Licentiate in Sacred Theology (S.T.L.), University of Dayton, 1995, International Marian Research Institute

.

Committee: Bertrand Buby S.M. (Advisor) Subjects: Biblical Studies; Theology

Doctorate in Sacred Theology (S.T.D.), University of Dayton, 2005, International Marian Research Institute

.

Committee: Bertrand Buby S.M. (Advisor) Subjects: Biblical Studies; Theology

Master of Fine Arts (MFA), Bowling Green State University, 2015, Creative Writing/Poetry

Asset Protection addresses themes of emotional repression, the difficulty of being a woman, romance, friendship, spiritual struggle, and the problem of feeling. These themes often manifest themselves in the physical act—or lack of—touch, both platonic and sexual. The poems cover a variety of subjects, ranging from math and science to the natural world, history, mythology, biblical narratives, daily life, and fantastical events. Through traditional and experimental forms, through narrative and lyric, the collection seeks to address a core human desire and fear: to be known and to know others.

Committee: Sharona Muir Ph.D. (Advisor); Larissa Szporluk MFA (Committee Member) Subjects: Bible; Ethics; Gender; Literature; Spirituality

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2015, Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services: Educational Studies

U.S. higher education institutions participate in a number of transparency initiatives intended to enable stakeholders to hold the institutions accountable. In these initiatives, and the broader higher-education accountability literature, there are two gaps: (1) accreditation agencies and processes are generally not included and (2) evidence does not exist to demonstrate stakeholders' ability to interpret, and their satisfaction with, transparency systems. Working within a single U.S. higher-education sector (Biblical higher education) as defined by an accrediting agency (the Association for Biblical Higher Education), this three-phased research project developed a system whereby institutions of higher education may hold themselves accountable to a broad range of stakeholder groups in a transparent fashion, satisfying stakeholders' information needs. Phase One surveyed accreditation experts to develop a multivariate index of institutional health; this phase included identifying metrics for inclusion in the index and identifying cutpoints to classify an institution as at-risk, challenged, effective or excelling. Results were subjected to validation by experts unaffiliated with the accrediting agency; validation did not conclusively support the developed index, reflecting the tension identified in the literature between improvement- and accountability-oriented paradigms. Phase Two surveyed a broad range of internal and external institutional stakeholders to determine what kinds of information they perceived themselves to need in order to evaluate a higher-education institution's performance. Based on those results, a website template based on Phase Two's survey results was created, and four mock profiles were created. Phase Three surveyed the same broad range of stakeholders as in Phase Two; here, stakeholders were asked to review the mock online profiles, then answer questions measuring (a) the accuracy of their understanding of profile information and (b) their sati (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Mary Brydon-Miller Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Vicki Plano Clark Ph.D. (Committee Member); Christopher Swoboda Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Higher Education