Bachelor of Arts, Walsh University, 2022, Honors

Over the past few years, the nationwide protests over the long-standing plague of racism in our country, most recently manifested in the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor, have placed our nation before a “fork in the road.” We stand on the precipice of monumental change or devastating regression in the area of race relations within our nation. This has been most vivid in the relationship between law enforcement and the African American community. What comes next between these two parties will depend on how law enforcement responds to the cries of the people in these affected communities. Historically, particularly in African American communities, there has been an intimate connection between social movements and sensitives to injustice and faith. At the same time, there appears to be a decreasing appreciation of faith among law enforcement officers. If the disparity between the attitude towards faith by law enforcement and the significance of faith in communities of color continues to increase, it will undoubtedly lead to more tension between these two communities. I hypothesize that reconciliation between law enforcement and African American communities can be achieved through the inclusion of religious literacy in the training and formation of law enforcement officers. As a disclaimer, it is important to understand that the building of trust and the reparation of relationships is an effort that requires the cooperation of both sides. This means that there has to be a willingness and an understanding from both law enforcement and communities of color for any real difference to be made. It is also important to recognize that this is not a “black versus white” issue, this is an issue that affects society as a whole. This understanding will be made present throughout this research, but the primary focus will be on the inclusion of religious literacy in the formation of law enforcement officers.

Master of Arts (M.A.), University of Dayton, 2021, Theological Studies

This thesis argues that the Western sacramental and christological ecclesiology of Otto Semmelroth, SJ, is complementary with the Eastern pneumatological-trinitarian theology of liturgy of Jean Corbon, OP. Their little studied theologies are taken as key for interpreting and receiving the Second Vatican Council. Where Semmelroth had a distinct and influential impact on Vatican II's sacramental ecclesiology, particularly in Lumen Gentium, Corbon had a similar impact on the theology of liturgy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. A particular point of significance of Vatican II is its personalist paradigm shift of recentering the faith of the church on God's revelation of self as Trinity of persons. Semmelroth and Corbon not only started with and maintained the primacy of divine initiative but they also made their faith-filled awareness of the mystery of God, revealed through Christ in the Spirit, the lynchpin of their theological endeavors. Their strikingly similar fundamental, methodological move of perceiving reality as determined by the mystery of the person of God enabled both Semmelroth and Corbon to achieve advances in sacramental theology and theology of liturgy, respectively. Building on these insights, this thesis synthesizes Semmelroth's and Corbon's theologies in proposing sacrament and liturgy as co-principles of the church as the form of trinitarian communion. This thesis proceeds by first characterizing the basic points of philosophical and theological twentieth century personalist thought, which takes persons as central and determinative in understanding reality. Ormond Rush's theological hermeneutical principles of Vatican II are then described. The geographical orientations of the theologies of Semmelroth, Corbon, and Vatican II are explored next and a conciliar hermeneutical principle of complementarity with distinction between Eastern and Western theologies is proposed. From there, Dei Verbum's theology of divine revelation is analyzed. Foll (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), University of Dayton, 2020, Theology

Sexism is a reality in the Catholic Church. The Church's teaching on women, though true, needs to be explicated more carefully to avoid a sense of woman's incompleteness in both humanity (through misunderstood “complementarity”) and imaging the Trinitarian God (if she only images God as “mother” in a family). Augustine can help bring balance to the lacuna. Review of feminist theologians on Augustine find two major concerns: inequality between women and men in imaging God, and a question of his development in appreciating women in the Church (Chapter One). His letters track such a growth, but from a mix of positive and negative statements to increasingly positive assessments of women (Chapter Two). Augustine finds women to be equal with men in being the image of God, in their minds, but female and male bodies do not equally represent God's image. The representation corresponds to contemplative and “temporal management” aspects of mind in every human. Only the contemplative aspect is “image of God”; the temporal management aspect is not unless joined with the contemplative. Augustine wants to stress, however, that women are God's image, and in this life all of us are and are not yet God's image. The inequality in representation is problematic, but the inequality is resolved in the Incarnation of Christ, the divine Word “married” to humanity Inequality is resolved for women and men completely in the resurrection of women's and men's bodies to the fullness of redeemed equality. This is what it means according to Augustine to grow up fully into the Image of God, Christ (Eph. 4:15) (Chapter Three). Christ, the union of divinity and humanity gives himself to the women and men of the Church through the bishop's body so that the bishop in his embodiment is devoted to the temporal management of the Church. The bishop finds himself in such embodied solidarity with women in the Church that they are better understood as incorporated into each other so closely that (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts (M.A.), University of Dayton, 2017, Theological Studies

The thesis surveys Hans Urs von Balthasar's theology of mission as presented within the context of the first two parts of his trilogy: The Glory of the Lord: A Theological Aesthetics; and the Theo-Drama. Primary characteristics of his theology of mission are highlighted regarding his assessment of the state of the discipline of theology and its ability to apologize for the faith and to dialogue with contemporary culture. Balthasar envisions the transcendentals of beauty, goodness, and truth, as vital for reimagining the faith and the aggiornamento proposed by Vatican II. Balthasar identifies beauty as the transcendental that has been marginalized by an acquiescent academy deferential to modern pragmatism. For Christianity, the form of beauty that reconciles existential tensions is Jesus Christ. The crucified Christ is the concrete, awe-inspiring, counter-intuitive beauty that demands a response. Balthasar uses the doctrine of analogy of being to reunify the transcendentals and reconcile them with theology. By contemplating the three Persons of the Trinity and their perichoretic dynamism, Balthasar uses the analogy of the theater to disclose the drama of the Christian life. With the hinge of history, Christ, in the incarnation, cross and resurrection, a space is opened up for persons to participate in Trinitarian relationship and redemptive suffering for the salvation of the world. Individual subjects freely respond to a personal encounter with Christ. Receptive assent and obedient submission to a uniquely tailored personal mission transform individual subjects into theological persons, or saints. The theological person lives out a theological mission, and existence takes on a theological hue quelling existential anxiety and instilling hope. As Jesus Christ is the full utterance of the Father, so, by analogy, through Jesus Christ, each theological person can utter anew a tiny fresh utterance of revelation. After laying out the matrix of Balthasar's theology of missio (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts (M.A.), University of Dayton, 2015, Theology

My thesis will examine Aquinas' doctrine of justification in three chapters corresponding to three lines of inquiry. First, I examine Aquinas' biblical interpretation of the Pauline language of justification in the epistle of Romans where the most extended and important biblical text of the doctrine is found. Second, I survey his overall anthropological understanding as illuminated by his doctrine of charity. This affords the interpreter of Aquinas with an understanding of how he conceives the core of human nature in the interdependent dynamic found between the will/appetite on the one hand and the intellect/reason on the other. Given the comprehensive scope and role of love in human nature, understanding charity in Aquinas, which is natural love transformed by grace, will also help clarify in what sense Aquinas understands grace to perfect and fulfill human nature. Third, I provide a summary and interpretive expansion on his doctrine of justification as found in the Summa, starting with Aquinas' explicit treatment of the doctrine but drawing from other articles to clarify terms and set the doctrine in a larger context with respect to his understanding of human and divine causality. This helps establish the systemic difference between Aquinas' doctrine of justification and the variety of forensic definitions found in post-Reformation theologies, as well as a more ecumenically promising commonality in how the dynamic between grace and free will is understood in justification. The three chapters relate to each other as progressive waves of interpretive insight. The close examination of his Pauline interpretation sets the basic contours and boundaries within which he works out his theology of justification. Aristotelian foundations in the second chapter enable a more penetrating analysis of Aquinas' teaching on the doctrine of justification found in the Summa. The third chapter takes all that we understand about Aquinas' biblical interpretation and anthropology and (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Sacred Theology (S.T.M.), Trinity Lutheran Seminary, 2014, History-Theology-Society Division

This thesis explores an ambiguity found in the term "contextual theology". After evaluating two typologies classifying the relationship between culture and theology, I propose a new typology, which distinguishes two diverging tendencies in the practice of contextual theology— what I term “contextualized” theology and “cultural” theology. After discussing these typologies I offer two detailed case-studies in order to evaluate my proposed typology. The case-studies explore the work of Paul Tillich and Gustavo Gutierrez, showing these two tendencies clearly, while also indicating that no theologian fits perfectly within any typology. Following these case-studies I expound an Eastern Orthodox contextual theology, showing that this tradition possesses particular resources which allow it to undertake a fully "contextualized" theology while avoiding many tendencies of "cultural" theology.

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2010, Comparative Studies

Theologies of liberation have existed in multiple cultures around the world and contain similar relationships between oppression and theological reflection. Most notable among theological expressions are the community's relationship to biblical narratives of the Exodus and the gospel stories relating Jesus' affinity to the poor. This thesis compares the theological reflections and cultural understandings of oppression of three specific religious communities: Black liberation theology in the United States, minjung theology of South Korea, and Rastafari theology in Jamaica and the Caribbean. This thesis demonstrates that though the mechanisms of oppression are universal, groups experiencing collective oppression utilize culturally specific understandings of that oppression to inform theological ideas. Each group contains a culturally specific idea of sorrowful hope that informs their theology. These concepts, blues, han, and sufferation, are the culturally located ideas that inform similarities among these diverse groups.

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), University of Dayton, 2013, Theology

John W. Nevin was the driving force behind the Mercersburg Theology, which Sydney Ahlstrom's A Religious History of the American People notably described as "the outstanding example of the Catholic tendency in American Protestantism." The Mercersburg Theology took its name from the Pennsylvania village where Nevin taught at the seminary of the German Reformed Church from 1840 to 1851. This dissertation examines the Mercersburg Theology as Nevin's attempt to address what he perceived to be a crisis of epochal proportions.Throughout Nevin's Mercersburg writings one finds references to the "church question" as the all-encompassing problem of the day. For Nevin, the church question was not merely an attempt to assess the rival doctrinal claims of competing denominations. Rather, he urged his contemporaries to consider that the conditions for the possibility of fully Christian existence simply did not exist within the strictures of mainstream American Christianity. In short, the critical thrust of the Mercersburg Theology was to convict antebellum American Protestantism that it suffered from a lack of catholicity. In the early 1850s, after nearly a decade of prolific, creative, and controversial scholarship, Nevin resigned his professional posts, giving rise to rumors that he would soon become a Roman Catholic. In the end, he did not convert, but Nevin-and the Mercersburg Theology itself, with its grand hopes for an Evangelical Catholic church of the future-had clearly reached an impasse. In this contextual, diachronic reading of Nevin's classic Mercersburg writings, I argue that the Mercersburg Theology is most instructive for contemporary reflection on the ongoing Catholic tendency in American Protestantism more generally precisely at the point at which Nevin tried-and failed-to resolve the church question to his own satisfaction. I contend that there is a correlation between Nevin's inability to bring the church question to a resolution and his equally inconclusive c (open full item for complete abstract)

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2023, English

A thesis analyzing the patriarchal theology of John Milton's Paradise Lost, especially how it relates to free will and the justification of Milton's God. Milton's argument is that his God is justified in punishing humanity after the Fall because he created Adam and Eve with free will and they chose to disobey his directive. My main argument is that Milton's God is not justified in all his ways, because he declines to grant all of his creatures a truly free will, especially Eve. This thesis also considers the difference between an author's intent with their text and the reader's interpretation. Specifically, I explore deriving meaning from within the text itself, following Milton's intent to justify his God; I show how Milton does this. Then, in chapter 2, I derive meaning from outside of the text; I show that Milton fails in his goal. Ultimately, this thesis explores the dangers of patriarchal theology and the damage it causes, mainly relating to women.

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2020, Art History (Fine Arts)

Andrea Pozzo was a lay brother for the Order of the Society of Jesus in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries who utilized his work in painting, architecture, and writing to attempt to create an ideal expression of sacred art for the Counter-Reformation Catholic Church. The focus of this study is on Pozzo's illusionary paintings in Chiesa di Sant'Ignazio di Loyola in Rome as they coincide with his codification of quadratura and di sotto in su, as described through perspectival etchings and commentary in Perspectiva Pictorum et Architectorum. This thesis seeks to understand the work of Pozzo in context with his Jesuit background, examining his work under the lens of Saint Ignatius of Loyola's Spiritual Exercises, as well as the cultural, political, and religious climates of Rome during the Counter-Reformation era. Additionally, it seeks to understand how Pozzo and the Order of the Society of Jesus contributed to Baroque Art, as they are so often discussed together. Pozzo's intentions are additionally examined through a study of his predecessors and contemporaries, such as Andrea Mantegna, Baciccio, Francesco Borromini, and Pietro da Cortona. The works of these artists were either studied by Pozzo, or he encountered them directly. Seeking theatricality and striving to visualize the spiritual realm, Pozzo is finally discussed in the context of the decrees of the Council of Trent from 1543, the theology of the Catholic liturgy, and the theology of Catholic Temple.

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), University of Dayton, 2019, Theology

Placing the theological anthropology set forth in the foundational addresses of John Paul II's Theology of the Body alongside feminist theological perspectives, this dissertation proposes a more adequate anthropology, proper to the human person as female and male. My objectives include engaging feminist criticism and related theological frameworks, such as feminist, Trinitarian, and embodiment theologies in order to advance a theological anthropology that assimilates a fuller human perspective. Based on a critical essentialist method, this dissertation accepts difference between sexes as an anthropological criterion by which to assess integrated female and male relationships to one another and to God, but does so in a way that defines terms, refines conclusions, and proposes lacunas in the discourse. The significance of this dissertation is twofold. First, it distinguishes the early discourses of the Theology of the Body as foundational to the entirety of John Paul II's audiences in contrast to a pervasive disregard for close attention to early texts in favor of later discourses on sexual ethics. Second, it advances both unique perspectives of the Theology of the Body and feminism towards a more adequate anthropology that thrives in mutuality and reciprocity, in which neither female nor male is diminished. Third, this dissertation contributes to a conversation about the bodily-person, including embodied difference, in which difference is encountered as a necessary principle for unity, particularly in the acts of self-gift and relationship. My conclusions incorporate John Paul II's claim that the body reveals the person with a feminist concern that marginalized persons, especially women, are created as imago Dei in the same measure as every other person. By considering topics of language and meaning, theology and embodiment, anthropology and feminism, and relationships and complementarity, this dissertation concludes that the Theology of the Body discourse (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), University of Dayton, 2018, Theology

Yves Congar's theology of the laity and ministries is unified on the basis of his adaptation of Christ's triplex munera to the laity and his specification of ministry as one aspect of the laity's participation in Christ's triplex munera. The seminal insight of Congar's adaptation of the triplex munera is illumined by situating his work within his historical and ecclesiological context. The U.S. reception of Congar's work on the laity and ministries, however, evinces that Congar's principle insight has received a mixed reception by Catholic theologians in the United States due to their own historical context as well as their specific constructive theological concerns over the laity's secularity, or the priority given to lay ministry over the notion of a laity. Recovering the significance of the triplex munera for Congar's theology of the laity and lay ministry provides U.S. Catholics opportunity for greater fusion of horizons and understanding of the intrinsic relationship between the laity's secularity and their ecclesial ministries.

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), University of Dayton, 2017, Theology

Rosemary Radford Ruether is one of the most well-known and influential Christian feminist theologians, having emerged in the early 1970s as a leader in Catholic feminist theology. Ruether produced the first systematic theology based on women's experience, that is, a feminist treatment of the Christian symbols, in her classic, Sexism and God-Talk: Toward a Feminist Theology, published in 1983. To label Ruether strictly as a feminist theologian, however, is to risk overlooking the broad scope of her interests and her work. This dissertation argues that while Ruether is one of the most widely read feminist theologians and a deservedly recognized pioneer in the field, she is far more than a feminist theologian. It is the contention here that Ruether's feminism emerges out of her much broader interests and experiences. That is, feminism did not, and still does not, come first in either priority or sequence for Ruether. The broader concern for her out of which she writes in a wide variety of areas is liberation from "a world system of oppression." Thus, this dissertation presents Ruether as a liberation theologian. This dissertation argues that Ruether has developed her theologies – liberation theology, feminist theology, her Christology, and her ecclesiology – from her personal encounters, her own life's experiences; thus for Ruether, the personal becomes the theological. Her passion for justice and human rights and her lifelong involvement in varieties of social activism that resulted from that passion, led her to develop a wide-ranging theology of liberation. In her social involvements and her writings, she has sought to probe a world system of oppression, divided by race, class, gender, ecological abuse, and imperialism. In each of these diverse areas, she has sought to probe the justifying ideologies and to imagine how to create a liberated world beyond. This is what ties all her thought and writings together. Three of the areas of her work are pre (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), University of Dayton, 2017, Theology

Patristic apophatic theologies were typically written as commentaries on the church's liturgy and/or as guides to the ascetic struggle for holiness. As such, apophatic theology was Christocentric, Scriptural, liturgical, and experientially mystical. Modern negative theology, by contrast, is often written as philosophical reflections on the limits of language and/or thought. It begins with the doctrine of creation, instead of Christology, and proceeds inferentially, rather than experientially, to determine that language and/or thought necessarily cannot comprehend the Creator. I argue two things about this kind of modern negative theology. First, I use the philosophical logic of Ludwig Wittgenstein to argue that the very idea of showing the transcendence of God by means of a demonstration of the limits of language or thought is fundamentally confused. Second, by contextualizing Patristic apophatic theology with ancient Jewish merkava mysticism I argue that modern negative theology functions as a way for theologians to look away from the revelation of divine transcendence in Christ as the crucified Lord of Glory

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), University of Dayton, 2016, Theology

The principal goal of this dissertation is to demonstrate that the Confucian interpretation of xiao (“filial piety”) provides a fruitful hermeneutical lens for Christology in two respects. Most immediately, I argue the early Confucian xiao is a salutary resource for understanding, appreciating, clarifying, and amending the Christology of Hans Urs von Balthasar, who gave profound importance to Christ's obedience in his thought. More generally, I argue the Confucian reading of xiao can help theologians enter into the mysteries of the Church's Christological dogmas and doctrines in new and expansive ways. Consequently, the main argument of the dissertation is that through Balthasar and the early Confucian tradition, we arrive at a rich and compelling orthodox account of Christ's filial love and obedience. After situating the dissertation's theological approach to incorporating Confucian philosophy in chapter 1, the dissertation develops two sets of studies. The first is devoted to examining and exploring Balthasar's Christology on its own terms. The second is similarly devoted to analyzing themes in the Confucian treatment of xiao on its own terms. The final chapter of the dissertation undertakes a theological synthesis of these two studies, showing how the combination of Balthasar's theological vision and the Confucian philosophical distinctions produce fruitful reflections on how Christ's filial obedience functions within and expresses his life as eternal Son.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2015, Spanish and Portuguese

This dissertation analyzes the philosophical, theological, and political thinking of Ignacio Ellacuria, SJ. In it, I read Ellacuria's work as a cultural text, or more specifically, as testimonio. In that light, Ellacuria's work can be seen as resulting from and responding to the historical reality within which he was situated. In reading his work as cultural text, I place it in dialogue with a form of writing that is more widely considered to be a cultural text: literature. Doing this creates a dialogical relationship between Ellacuria's writing and Salvadoran literature that allows the different texts to inform each other and us in a horizontal manner. I begin by comparatively reading Roque Dalton's Clandestine Poems and Ellacuria's philosophy of historical realism. The combination of these revolutionary and utopian projects move us toward a historical praxis that positions itself with those oppressed by the dynamic system of reality and attempts to go against the grain of history. I then move from Ellacuria's philosophy to his theology in conjunction with Manlio Argueta's One Day of Life. When read with his articulation of liberation theology, the subversive potential of the Christian-Jesuit spirituality that Ellacuria embodied emerges as both a basis for an alternative intersubjectivity and as an existential threat to the established order. In exploring Ellacuria's philosophy and theology, the first half of the dissertation signals the potential contributions of a thinking geographically/epistemologically located with and from Central America. The second half of the dissertation centers on the years leading up to the Salvadoran civil war and the public debate around agrarian transformation. Two post-war novels, Horacio Castellanos Moya's El arma en el hombre and Lucia Cerna's La verdad register the need to historicize the concept of private property. Ellacuria's political writings pose a methodology that responds to that need and reveals a necropolitical and par (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Sacred Theology (S.T.M.), Trinity Lutheran Seminary, 2014, History-Theology-Society Division

"No Greater Love Than This: Violence, Nonviolence, and the Atonement" looks at the role of violence in the discussion of the atonement. This is accomplished by first examining a number of well-known atonement theories including Anselm's substitutionary theory, Abelard's moral exemplar, ransom theory, and Christus Victor for their connection to violence. Then, three less well-known theories such as Julian of Norwich's theory, Patrick Cheng's theosis theory, and womanist theories are looked at in light of their connection to violence. Finally, a proposed theory of atonement, which attempts to be as low-violence as possible, is presented. Throughout the thesis, the topics of what is violence and why a nonviolent atonement theory is needed are addressed.

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

I attempted to address the issue of gender fluidity and whether the concept is a feasible one for dealing with the issues of sexism and gender stereotypes in Christianity. I did this by primarily using Protestant feminist theologian Sarah Coakley, whose own work has managed to bring together the voices of early Church Fathers and secular feminists to discuss gender theory. Coakley employs a hermeneutics of charity to bring together these divergent voices and to discuss a concept of gender that is more fluid and potentially more empowering for men and women. I brought Sarah Coakley into dialogue with secular feminist Judith Butler, who views gender as being largely a social construct and who has greatly influenced feminism today. I also brought Sarah Coakley into discussion with traditional Christian concepts of gender as understood by the Catholic Church, particularly John Paul II, who's encyclical Mulieris Dignitatem has highly influenced the Catholic Church's beliefs on gender and the place of women.

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.

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2010, American Culture Studies/Popular Culture

Liberation from oppression, racism, and poverty is a long-awaited dream for many African Americans. The “liberating” dream for most African Americans in times past was achieved through a spiritual commitment to God and communal support from fellow believers within a given church body. How does one achieve liberation today? Is it through Christian theology? Is it through artistic musical expression? Or is through both? On the other hand, is it achieved through religious ideology packaged as political expository preaching? Black Christian rappers are the latest in a far-reaching procession of African Americans to participate in a “redeemer exercise” dedicated to the safeguarding of ethnic-gender hierarchies. Similar to the social and psychological messages for slaves that were revealed in the old Negro Spirituals during the nineteenth- and twentieth-century, Christian rappers and Black liberation theologians, use a personified –social form of politics to convey meaning and substance to challenge racial intimidation in America. Moreover, these spiritual activists focus on liberation from social, political, economic, and religious oppression that has kept African Americans in bondage for many years. This study argues that Christian rappers interpret the effects of postmodern and post-civil rights social, economic, and political transformations in a similar mode to the messages declared from the pulpit by Black liberation theologians. However, these spiritual rappers adopt a different agenda for empowerment and religious freedom from the one proclaimed by their elder counterparts.In particular, the study explores the views that Christian theology is a theology of liberation and by means of this spiritual deliverance, an innovative, yet, revolutionary voice (Gospel hip hop) has emerged from the pews of the Sunday morning worship hour in the Black church. It is my contention that the emergence of Christian hip hop based ministries has taken on the role of a new liberating (open full item for complete abstract)