Theology Theses Research Articles

Toronto School of Theology Theses Completed Academic Year 2020–2021

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Christian theology and the principle of inertia in physics

The article discusses the dependence of the formulation of law of inertia in classical mechanics on theological concepts of its time. It is shown that in medieval science, all attempts to solve the problem of motion of a thrown body were made within the framework of the Aristotelian understanding of motion as the actualization of the possible. Nevertheless, within the framework of the theory of impetus (John Philopon), medieval natural philosophers came close to the principle of preserving the amount of movement (Jean Buridan). Galileo, who himself began his work on the theory of motion with an attempt to mathematize the concept of impetus, in his mature works proceeded to a principled criticism of the Aristotelian understanding of motion. However, despite all the Socratic power of the Maevtic method, he failed to prove the law of inertia. Galileo’s virtuoso dialectic only allowed him to destroy all objections to the movement by inertia. Descartes gives a positive proof of the law of inertia, and the basis of his deduction is the theological thesis about the immutability of God. The law of inertia in the classical mechanics of Descartes and Newton was closely related to the thesis of the passivity of matter. The article shows that this thesis echoes the Protestant understanding (Luther’s) of the Christian way as the cultivation of passive righteousness, where all the activity of salvation is conditioned only by the action of God.

Revelation and Religious Experience: A critical study of René Latourelle’s theology of revelation

This article is a critical study of René Latourelle’s concept of revelation who conceives of it as Word, testimony and encounter. The theological thesis that I would like to advance in this article is that, whatever the analogy of God’s revelation, it is always fundamentally rooted in the experience of human openness to the highest value of his/her life in this world. Revelation itself is the analogical word of the most significant human experience in the world. The historical intervention of God is always experienced symbolically and considered plausibly according to the criterion of universal reason. Every understanding of the mystery is a human experience which in its essence is conditioned by the mystery itself. In this sense, it can be said that every concept of revelation is constructed from any interpretative and significant experience of the human being. This fundamental aspect of Christian revelation does not appear in Latourell's theological reflection.

Israel and the Individual in Matthew and Midrash: Reassessing “True Israel”

Since the Holocaust, New Testament scholarship has become increasingly sensitive to issues of Christian anti-Judaism. While many Matthean specialists have acknowledged the problems with polemical interpretations of the Gospel, the idea that Matthew presents Jesus and/or the church is the “true Israel” continues to enjoy broad acceptance. The scholarly conflation of Jesus and Israel recycles the Christian polemic against a comparatively inauthentic or inadequate Judaism. This article argues that Matthew does not present Jesus or his church as the true Israel, and that the Jesus-as-Israel interpretation could be refined by comparing the Gospel with later rabbinic discussion that connects Israel with biblical individuals. Genesis Rabbah 40:6 juxtaposes verses about Abraham and Israel to reveal a comprehensive scriptural relationship between the nation and the patriarch without devaluing either party. The rabbis’ theological thesis is predicated on both similarity and separation between Abraham and his offspring. Insofar as both Matthew and Midrash present similar biblical content and exegesis, a comparative analysis can provide Gospel commentators with a view of the Jesus-Israel paradigm that avoids the Christianization of “true Israel.”

L’exégèse des mythes du Nihon shoki chez Yoshikawa Koretari : entre allégorie et théologie de la présence

In tune with the anti-allegorical stance of the Kokugakusha, most modern specialists of mythology consider the interpretation of myths advocated by the Yoshida school and its successors an artificial construct so dependent on Buddhist, Confucianist, and yin-yang concepts that it is alien to the very nature of the theo-cosmological narratives of the Nara period. The aim of the present article is to rehabilitate the hermeneutics of myth developed by esoteric Shinto in the course of its long history of commentaries on the Jindaikan. Special attention is devoted to Yoshikawa Koretari, whose exegetical texts can be read as the grand “coda” of the Yoshida tradition as a whole. The concept of “divine words” appears to be the keystone of this interpretative system, and the Yoshida school hermeneuts radically change its meaning, giving it a wide spectrum: the “divine words” stop being limited to punctual utterances (prophetic or ritual) to acquire a complex syntactic dimension, referring to extensive narratives transmitting a secret knowledge to the men. The semantic density of the divine words explains the role played in the Yoshida schools by a unique, multilayered etymology (connotations borrowed from Buddhist, neo-Confucian, and vernacular cultures coexist in the decoding process), and the importance of theurgic practices (understood, as in the neo-Platonician tradition, in their double movement, descending and ascending). We then proceed to identify the conceptual tools produced (or borrowed) by the Yoshida schools to interpret the cosmological narrative. The fusion of different gods, associations between god names and neo-Confucian notions, numerological games, and systematic parallelism between the cosmogony and the theogony are the most common hermeneutical procedures. But the conceptual operator mishō/ishō plays an even more decisive role in the Yoshidian interpretative strategies: it allows us to distinguish different moments of the creation myth while, at the same time, playing the role of an ontologico-semantic tool (ritual artifacts described in the myth possess an invisible and a visible dimension). These functions are, in turn, subordinated to an original theological thesis. Far from being erased by the emergence of the forms in the cosmogonic process, the formless (the marokare as well as the pre-named Kuni no tokotachi) continue to exist/ insist in the world as a hidden dynamic principle. This theology of presence (the divine voice is inscribed in the text in the same way as the kami are immanent to the world and man’s heart) translates into an ethical system based on a reinterpretation of the virtue of humility (tsutsushimi) in gogyō terms (tsuchikane no hiketsu). Far-fetched as it may seem, this allegorical interpretation of the Jindaikan is paradoxically faithful to the polysemy and the narrative quality of the myth, to the point that it deserves the qualification of “mytheology.”

Formas de resistência da religiosidade, da memória e da cultura negra no Amapá: o caso da comunidade quilombola de Mel da Pedreira

O presente artigo objetiva refletir sobre as formas de resistência da religiosidade, da memória e da cultura negra da Comunidade de Remanescente de Quilombo Mel da Pedreira, localizada no município de Macapá, estado do Amapá. Uma comunidade que possui sua história, práticas culturais e identidade marcadas pela religiosidade de matriz afro-ameríndia e posteriormente protestante. O presente trabalho trata-se do resultado final de um dos capítulos de um estudo etnográfico de natureza qualitativa que adotou a pesquisa bibliográfica, a análise documental, a entrevista semiestruturada e ação colaborativa (pesquisa-ação) no âmbito da Tese de Doutorado em Teologia. O fator relevante para a escolha desta comunidade deve-se ao fato da mesma se diferenciar das demais, por não trazer como parte de sua cultura, os rituais de matriz africana e as festas de santo católico, à medida que realiza cultos evangélicos. No entanto, os resultados apontam que embora essa comunidade quilombola apresente princípios protestantes em sua forma de vida, nos hábitos e nos costumes, há evidências de resistência de religiosidade afro-ameríndia em suas manifestações religiosas, pois utiliza a Caixa de Marabaixo e o Tambor - instrumentos símbolos de raiz negra muito utilizado nas celebrações de matriz africana no Amapá.

Toronto School of Theology Theses Completed Academic Year 2017–18

Toronto School of Theology Theses Completed Academic Year 2017–18

Reform vor der Reformation: Augustiner-ChorherrenstiftsgrÜNdungen an Marienwallfahrtsorten durch die Windesheimer Kongregation, by Jörg Bölling

This study, by Jörg Bölling, of the foundation of houses of Augustinian Canons in Marian pilgrimage sites is based on a doctoral thesis in theology submitted at Bochum University. It is not easy to define its nature because the critical edition it contains is about the same length as the text itself, the Chronicle of Eberhardsklausen, an account of the foundation and early history of a pilgrimage site, and eventually a religious house, in the archdiocese of Trier. The reader is either dealing with an analytical text with a rather large appendix or with an edition following a rather extensive introduction. The book’s main theme is the impact of religious reforms inspired by Geert Groote’s Devotio Moderna (modern devotion) movement, which led to a reinvigoration of lay piety as well as the institutional expansion of the canons belonging to the Windesheim congregation. This theme is pursued on the basis of just one example, the image, later pilgrimage shrine and eventual ecclesiastical centre of Eberhardsklausen. Although repeated references to other centres of reform (Bödingen, Birklingen, Hirzenhain and, crucially, Windesheim and Böddeken) seem to indicate a fulfilment of the promises made in the book’s title, the author really only deals with the foundation of Eberhardsklausen, drawing most of the information from the chronicle, a text by Wilhelm of Bernkastel, who was instructed by one of Trier’s auxiliary bishops to record the events of the foundation process.

Toronto School of Theology Theses Completed Academic Year 2016–17

Toronto School of Theology Theses Completed Academic Year 2016–17

Toronto School of Theology Theses Completed Academic Year 2015–16

Toronto School of Theology Theses Completed Academic Year 2015–16

A pentecostalização do Brasil × os ‘sem religião’; cura e exorcismo– entrevista a Pe. Jesús Hortal Sánchez, S.J.

This article is an interview done to Jesuit Father Jesùs Hortal Sanchez, in the period he was Rector of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro – PUC-RJ, on January 16, 2008. The interview – made in view of the researches of my doctoral thesis in Theology from the Pontificia Università di San Tommaso d’Aquino (Angelicum) in Rome with the title “Universal Church of the Kingdom of God in Brazil. Theology and practices. A critical reading” – examining an 1994 article written by Fr. Hortal titled “A Singular Case of Pentecostalism Self: A Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus” (Teo-Comunicação, v. 24, n. 106, p. 547-559) and therefore sought to examine the ramifications of his thought after almost15 years on that subject.

Toronto School of Theology Theses Completed 2014–15 Academic Year

Toronto School of Theology Theses Completed 2014–15 Academic Year

Toronto School of Theology Theses Completed 2013–14 Academic Year

Toronto School of Theology Theses Completed 2013–14 Academic Year

Toronto School of Theology Theses Completed 2012–13 Academic Year

Toronto School of Theology Theses Completed 2012–13 Academic Year

Entrance into the covenantal space as point of departure for the liturgical act of living the baptismal life in this world

In an effort to rediscover the sacramental sphere in Reformed context the authors attempt to take first steps in describing anew the element of efficacy (pertaining identity-forming and transformative power) as it is envisaged in the Reformed tradition’s view on the sacraments. The sense in which receiving the sacrament of Holy Baptism culminates in a baptismal life -defining the Christian identity and connecting Christians in new, transformative ways to the world they inhabit- should be considered in this quest for rediscovery of the sacramental sphere. An initial theological thesis on entering covenantal space as possible point of departure for the liturgical act of living the baptismal life in this world on daily basis is proposed. As key moment in this thesis, the integral role of a spirituality of anticipation is proposed- a spirituality that expresses itself in the sursum corda- act of entering the transcendental reality of the covenantal space where God is present, visualising and partaking (through faith) in God’s vision for the newness of our lives and returning to this imminent reality bearing witness to the ultimate renewal of the whole creation. In the latter part of the paper the authors employ their theological thesis on entering the covenantal space in formulating praxis theoretical indicators for educating baptised members of the body of Christ in sacramental literacy regarding the enduring identity-forming and transformative power of their baptismal life.

Toronto School of Theology Theses Completed 2011–2012 Academic Year

Toronto School of Theology Theses Completed 2011–2012 Academic Year

Toronto School of Theology Theses Completed 2011–2012 Academic Year

Toronto School of Theology Theses Completed 2011–2012 Academic Year

“I saw souls”: remarks on the theory and practice of intercultural and interfaith spiritual care

In this article the author presents a short overview on the theory of intercultural and interreli-gious pastoral care and counseling. He is giving some explanations about the multicultural situation in Europe, the “synthetic” personality and some definition of interculturality. After describing language and culture as “soft” concepts, religion as a “sign language” and giving some remarks to intercultural and interreligious competencies, he brings an example of a con-versation with a patient in a German hospital to give some insight into the practice of intercul-tural and interreligious pastoral care and counseling. He is ending with presenting a few theo-logical thesis.

Toronto School of Theology Theses Completed 2010–2011 Academic Year

Toronto School of Theology Theses Completed 2010–2011 Academic Year

Toronto School of Theology Theses Completed 2010-2011 Academic Year

Toronto School of Theology Theses Completed 2010-2011 Academic Year