Master of Arts in Catholic Studies, Mount St. Mary's Seminary & School of Theology, 2022, School of Theology

The goal of the paper is to explore St. Thomas Aquinas' theology of happiness and its relationship to the natural desire to see God. More specifically, it seeks to address whether this natural desire to see God is innate or elicited. There are two different schools of thought on this matter. Some scholars, such as Bl. John Duns Scotus and Henri Cardinal de Lubac maintain that the natural desire to see God is an innate and unconscious desire that is separate from knowledge. On the other hand, many Thomists such as Cajetan, Suarez, John of St. Thomas, Garrigou-Lagrange, and Jacques Maritain contend that the natural desire to see God is a naturally elicited movement of the will that stems from knowledge. Both of these positions have different implications regarding the human ability to love God and to attain complete happiness. Dr. Lawrence Feingold, a Thomistic theologian and prolific author, has written extensively about this in one of his books: The Natural Desire to See God According to St. Thomas Aquinas and His Interpreters. Utilizing his book, this paper will provide a summary of St. Thomas' theology of happiness, examine these two different interpretations of Aquinas' texts, and then suggest some conclusions from this research.

Committee: Bradford Manderfield Ph.D. (Advisor) Subjects: Bible; Philosophy; Religion; Theology

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

Mary's purity has been a subject of theological inquiry for over a millennium. This project's objective is to follow the development of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception historically to the ways it became manifest in the Spanish kingdoms of the Middle Ages, how it was brought and taught to the Nahua and Maya in the sixteenth century evangelization of Central Mexico by Spanish friars, and then how it remained a powerful force of evangelical and political fervor in New Spain through the analysis of three seventeenth century homilies about the Immaculate Conception. Whereas the conquest of the Americas is largely remembered for the brutalities and injustices committed, the Spanish friars who implemented a wide-scale evangelization of the Native Americans were interested in the sincere conversions of people like the Nahua and Maya. This dissertation studies the evangelization methods of the sixteenth century Franciscan friars in Central Mexico with particular attention to the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception and to Marian belief and devotion. The study also takes into account the cosmologies and ways of living of the Nahua and Maya, the two most prominent cultural groups in Mesoamerica at the time. The interaction between the friars and the natives is viewed in light of their respective cultural heritages. The spiritual concerns of the friars and their indoctrination of the Nahua and Maya are studied in light of the religious heritage of the Spanish kingdoms of the Middle Ages and the defense of the belief in the Immaculate Conception of Mary. The Spanish friars make Mary central to their evangelization of Central Mexico, along with Christ and the Cross. The first three chapters deal with the pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican world with respect to Nahua and Maya cosmologies, the Catholicism of the Iberian Peninsula up to the expansion to the Americas, and the development of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception respectively. Chapter four focuses on the ev (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Neomi DeAnda (Advisor); Sébastien (Bakpenam) Abalodo (Committee Member); Sandra Yocum (Committee Member); Dennis Doyle (Committee Member); Gilberto Cavazos-González (Committee Member) Subjects: Latin American History; Latin American Literature; Latin American Studies; Middle Ages; Native Americans; Religious Education; Religious History; Spirituality; Theology

Master of Arts in Theology, Mount St. Mary's Seminary & School of Theology, 2015, School of Theology

One of the questions that Catholic theologians have debated for centuries pertains to the true meaning behind St. Paul's statement, “that in all things, he [Christ] may have the first place [primacy]” (Colossians 1:18). The beginning stages of the debate presented it as a counter-factual claim concerning whether the God-man would have come had Adam and Eve not sinned. One position suggested that the Incarnation was directed toward redemption and gave a negative answer; the opposing position stated that Christ's primacy spoken of by St. Paul was not dependent on anything outside of God's will, and gave a positive answer. This thesis seeks to examine the work of the major contributors to both sides of the debate, starting with St. Anselm's Cur Deus Homo and closing with the work of Bl. John Duns Scotus. In doing this, it will examine in what ways the question developed throughout the Church's history, what the major contributors to the question truly sought to answer in engaging the question, and why it became such a central and foundational question for the major theologians involved in the debate. What will be seen through this method is that, though the question began as a hypothetical concerning an alternate economy of salvation, theologians like St. Bonaventure and Bl. John Duns Scotus moved it beyond its hypothetical formulation by recognizing that it actually concerned two opposing theological viewpoints on the Incarnation and created universe. The conclusions of this thesis will further show how, at this point, the hypothetical can only obscure the true nature of the question since it does not recognize how fundamentally it affects our understanding of the economy of salvation. It will also show that method has played a role in how the question is approached and answered throughout the Church's history.

Committee: Anthony Brausch Ph.L. (Advisor) Subjects: Theology