Word Upon Words: The Sacramentality of Scripture As Expressed in Augustine and Speech Act Theory
By Miller, Benjamin, 2020 -- "Is the language of Scripture abstract, compared to the presence of Christ in the eucharist? Does divine presence and self-disclosure become more abstract just because it occurs in the realm of language rather than in physical things? My thesis came about because I wanted to push back against the subtle notion I sense that the inspiration of Scripture is somehow less “real” and less divinely “present” than the eucharistic real presence. My way of criticizing this notion is to articulate the Bible’s inspiration, its capacity to bear the Word of God, sacramentally. To make such a claim, I am compelled to examine how language itself functions to articulate that the Bible, a kind of Christian language, functions sacramentally. My framework to discuss how language theologically functions in such a way that it can bear divine presence concretely is to use Augustine, who expressed the presence of God in Scripture and the sacraments with a rich theology of signs, and speech act theory, a philosophy used by some theologians stating that words can enact what they perform. Together with the heritage of modern Christian theologies of Scripture, I can argue that the language of Scripture bears the divine Word in a way that bears a real presence. God is present in Scripture the way God is present in baptism and the eucharist: as a living Word that joins to the human, creaturely elements of speech and text and genre, as breath makes bone join to sinew." -- Introduction, p. 1-2
Miller, Benjamin
Virginia Theological Seminary
5/9/2020
© Copyright Benjamin Miller, 2020.
PDF
Text
Vocational Understandings: An Exploration of the Nature of the Tensions in the Musician-Cleric Relationship
By Alexander C. Graham IV, 2020 -- "Go up to a group of clergy and say, “let’s talk about Church musicians…” and the eyerolls will be ubiquitous and revelatory. Go up to a group of Church musicians and do the reverse, and expect to encounter the same dramatic response. As a priest who was first a musician, I understood both worldviews personally, but needed to explore them on a larger scale.
Through individual interviews, I sought to explore the nature of the unique and unusual relationship between musicians and clerics. What made it work? Where were there problems? How does one group tend to view the other? I then brought the participants together for a plenary session to test what I thought I learned and to discern together in a group what makes for a good relationship, and where the tensions might lie.
One of the significant learnings (for both myself and for those musicians and clerics participating) during this project was that the stories of epically tragic cleric-musician relationships, while perhaps entertaining, are far more widespread than encountered in real life, and do not match the overall experience of the participants or their colleagues. Problems – even daunting ones – do arise, and can be addressed, but they do not escalate to the level of popular expectation."
Graham, Alexander Coulter IV
Virginia Theological Seminary
April 17, 2020
Coyright 2020, the author.
PDF
Project thesis.
Vestry Members as Trustees of the Soul of the Parish
by Divis, Mary Lou Hoover (2020) -- Vestry members need to understand their leadership role in the parish by attending worship and meetings, engaging in the life of the parish, establishing prayer and Bible reading habits. In a specific workshop, Vestry members will learn that their role and vision are needed by attendance at worship and meetings and engaged in the life of the parish. The project is a five (5) hour retreat based on the calling to leadership of Moses (Exod. 3:1-6) and Paul (Acts 9:1-6). This retreat also offers Kathryn Tyler Scott’s work on Trusteeship to encourage Vestry members at both parishes to realize that they need to be dedicated to growth, change, learning, and prayer support as a team in order to move into the future. Each vestry retreat will culminate with a written Covenant Agreement describing how Vestry members are called to lead by attending worship, being prepared to attend meetings, promising to pray and read the Bible. The future is in their hands to encourage growth in their relationship with God and Scripture, to attend worship and meetings with intentionality, to engage with the parish community and those not yet in the parish.
Divis, Mary Lou Hoover.
Virginia Theological Seminary
5/2020
Copyright © 2020
PDF
English
Thesis.
Urban secondary education : poverty, power, class : A pathway to change
VTS Thesis Collection
Education, urban -- United States
Education, secondary - - United States
By Leonard Cambra, 2016. "There is an economic divide between educators and students. It is reflective of deeply rooted ideological principles that perpetuate educational inequities. Culture is rooted in socio-economic class. Schools mirror the societies that have created them. The culture of testing directly relates to these ideological principles and injustices. Only a process of co-subjecctivity rooted in a shared human, historic experience could provide a proper fulcrum for conscientization to occur. The poverty simulation was selected to provide faculty this window into a shared experience with the urban poor. Its purpose, to begin a process of 'conscientization' in order to begin a process of structural reform which will improve teaching and learning at the school and raise the percent of students who graduate. Without further professional development and in tandem with other attempted reforms tied to the dominant culture, the immediate results were encouraging, subsequent ones were not. These latter results highlight the need for ongoing professional development to provide a different language expressive of a different reality. To be human is to be relational and exist within a spontaneous dynamic of love fostered in deep respect and understanding but also rooted in challenge and promise. To the fostering of these ends the Poverty Simulation was undertaken as a necessary preamble to comprehensive reforms and adjustments in what we do as urban educators." -- (Abstract)
Cambra, Leonard
See record for print version in <a href="http://librarycatalog.vts.edu:2082/record=b1472846~S1">VTS Library Catalog</a>.
Virginia Theological Seminary
2016
© Copyright Leonard Cambra, 2016.
Unhooked by Grace : My Inner Work With St. Paul on Recovering from Binge Eating
Eating disorders -- Religious aspects.
Eating disorders -- Patients -- Religious life.
A Capstone project submitted to the Faculty of the Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary in Virginia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Religion and Culture.
Nicholetti, Terry Rose
<a href="https://librarycatalog.vts.edu/record=b1965761~S1">See library catalog record</a>
Virginia Theological Seminary
April 11, 2020
©Copyright, Terry Rose Nicholetti, 2020.
PDF
Text
Unconventional prayer practices
Spiritual retreats -- Anglican Communion - Case studies.
Christ Church Cathedral (Ottawa, Ont.) -- Case studies.
Divine office
.
by Dawna D. Wall, 2013 - How do we as people of faith keep ourselves in tune with the rhythm and mystery of God while being inundated with increasing levels of information, noise, frantic motion, and jobs that are more connected to the flow of information than to the flow of body, mind, and spirit? How can communities of faith offer sanctuary to those yearning for it? Learning from monastic communities that help connect individual lives with the Divine by keeping the seven hours, and mingling work and prayer, this project explored the possibility that a modern, accessible retreat could help participants reconnect body, mind, and spirit. In a one-day retreat in an Anglican Cathedral setting, 42 participants, ranging in age from 7 to 86, loosely kept the seven hours and engaged in creative activities: self-directed art projects, needlework, labyrinth walking, illuminating letters, baking, gardening and making rosaries. Participants rated their levels of peacefulness upon arrival and departure, and explored the areas where they had experienced stress during the day, and what they felt led them to a deeper peace. Contained encounters with stress helped participants move to deeper levels of internal peacefulness, as did support and feedback provided through the structure and experience of the event. Seasonal one-day retreats which mingle prayer, creative activity and silence offered in the intrinsic beauty of our churches can help increase inner peace in ways that spill over into daily lives, and can strengthen the ministries of the churches themselves.
Wall, Dawna D.
<a href="https://librarycatalog.vts.edu/record=b1175455"> Print record from library catalog</a>
Alexandria, VA: Virginia Theological Seminary.
2013
Copyright 2013, Dawna D. Wall.
PDF
English
Text
Towards an Understanding of Congregational Health: How Do We Nurture the Growth of God's Kingdom?
By Diana Moreland, 2020 -- What is a healthy congregation in the Episcopal Church? In April 2001, a research report on New Church Development commissioned by the Episcopal Church classified health or success as a “new church reaching a large enough size to achieve self-support within seven years.”1 This report claims that health is related to size and income. If we limit our definition in that way, we limit our ability to see the Kingdom of God at work in small, under-resourced congregations that do not fit that economic definition. And even more, it prevents us from allocating resources to these congregations. We should look to new ways of understanding health because healthy, low-income, rural congregations are an essential part of the Kingdom of God.
Moreland, Diana Sylvia
Virginia Theological Seminary
2020
@ 2020 Diana Moreland
PDF
The Use of story in spiritual direction
Storytelling -- Religious aspects -- Christianity.
Narrative theology.
Spiritual direction -- Christianity.
By Harre, Jeffri, 2019 -- Story is one of the primary ways in which Christianity has been transmitted through generations. Formation leaders, spiritual directors, and clergy frequently stress the importance of storytelling in sharing our faith. Yet when asked to tell their stories of faith, many people become uncomfortable, unable, or even unwilling to share their stories. How can a spiritual director then help directees to tell their very personal stories of faith in the process of spiritual direction? How do the stories of faith in the Bible help a spiritual director work with directees to integrate their personal stories into the wider Christian narrative?
This paper explores some of the ways in which storytelling has been an important part of Christian tradition and how Christians have been rediscovering that importance. It provides some practical tools for a spiritual director to help directees form, articulate and integrate their personal stories of faith.
Harre, Jeffri
See the <a href="http://librarycatalog.vts.edu/record=b1769856~S1" target="_blank" title="Library Catalog" rel="noreferrer noopener">Library Catalog</a> for details of the print version.
Virginia Theological Seminary
2019
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, 2019.
PDF
The Significance of Inculturation for Evangelism: A case study of The Anglican Church in the Diocese of Masasi, Tanzania.
Church of the Province of Tanzania. Diocese of Masasi.
Intercultural communication -- Religious aspects -- Christianity.
Evangelistic work -- Tanzania.
Christianity and culture -- Tanzania.
Missions -- Tanzania.
This thesis presents the process of inculturation as an effective means to render the Christian faith more meaningful and practical to people in their local cultures. The historical survey of the evangelization process among the Makua people and many Tanzanian cultures indicates that their religious and cultural worldviews are not given due recognition during the evangelization process. Christian converts are obliged to forsake their cultural identity. However, since the first Anglican missionaries in Masasi could not dissociate themselves completely from their religious and cultural beliefs, they tended to blend the Christian faith with Makua traditional religious beliefs, even if in some areas like witchcraft contradicts the Christian faith. This thesis argues that, it is the demand of inculturation to root the Christian faith into cultures so that Christ becomes the principle that guides decisions and transforms the lives of people. When the Christian faith is integrated into Makua cultures it purifies them, and the wholesome elements found in them are incorporated into the life of the Church. This gives uniqueness to the Church of Masasi and also enrichment to the church in Tanzaniaat large.As such, effective inculturation would create a church in Masasi that is truly Christian and truly African. However, this thesis does not intend to equate the Makua religious and cultural beliefs to Christian faith. While inculturation is only effective through the collaboration of all agents of the local Church, the theologians and Christian anthropologists have an urgent task to carefully study and recommend those cultural elements which could possibly be incorporated into the Christian faith but without obliterating the essential elements of the Christian faith.
Mhema, Oraph Joseph
See record for print version in <a href="http://librarycatalog.vts.edu/record=b1965917~S1">VTS Library Catalog</a>
Virginia Theological Seminary
May 5, 2021
Copyright © 2021 by Oraph Joseph Mhema
Thesis
The Significance of Inculturation for Evangelism : A case study of The Anglican Church in the Diocese of Masasi, Tanzania.
Church of the Province of Tanzania. Diocese of Masasi.<br />Intercultural communication -- Religious aspects -- Christianity.<br />Evangelistic work -- Tanzania.<br />Christianity and culture -- Tanzania.<br />Missions -- Tanzania.
Mhema, Oraph Joseph (2021) -- "This thesis presents the process of inculturation as an effective means to render the Christian faith more meaningful and practical to people in their local cultures. The historical survey of the evangelization process among the Makua people and many Tanzanian cultures indicates that their religious and cultural worldviews are not given due recognition during the evangelization process. Christian converts are obliged to forsake their cultural identity. However, since the first Anglican missionaries in Masasi could not dissociate themselves completely from their religious and cultural beliefs, they tended to blend the Christian faith with Makua traditional religious beliefs, even if in some areas like witchcraft contradicts the Christian faith. This thesis argues that, it is the demand of inculturation to root the Christian faith into cultures so that Christ becomes the principle that guides decisions and transforms the lives of people. When the Christian faith is integrated into Makua cultures it purifies them, and the wholesome elements found in them are incorporated into the life of the Church. This gives uniqueness to the Church of Masasi and also enrichment to the church in Tanzania at large. As such, effective inculturation would create a church in Masasi that is truly Christian and truly African. However, this thesis does not intend to equate the Makua religious and cultural beliefs to Christian faith. While inculturation is only effective through the collaboration of all agents of the local Church, the theologians and Christian anthropologists have an urgent task to carefully study and recommend those cultural elements which could possibly be incorporated into the Christian faith but without obliterating the essential elements of the Christian faith" -- Abstract
Mhema, Oraph Joseph.
See record for print version in <a href="http://librarycatalog.vts.edu/record=b1965917~S1">VTS Library Catalog</a>
Virginia Theological Seminary
May 5, 2021.
Copyright © 2021 by Oraph Joseph Mhema. All rights reserved.
PDF
Summative Capstone project.
The Rev. Shawn Strout, Ph.D. Oral History
VTS Alumni and VTS Liturgy Professor and Dean of Chapel
The Rev. Ruthanna Hooke, Ph.D. Oral History
Professor of Homiletics, former Dean of Students, First Openly Gay VTS Professor
The Rev. Kathleen Schotto Oral History
Oral History of VTS graduate, the Rev. Kathleen Schotto, for the Called and Holy: Virginia Theological Seminary LGBTQIA+ Oral History Project.
The Rev. Jacob Pierce Oral History
Oral History of VTS graduate, the Rev. Jacob Pierce, for the Called and Holy: Virginia Theological Seminary LGBTQIA+ Oral History Project.
The Rev. Harry Stock Oral History
Oral History of VTS graduate, the Rev. Harry Stock, for the Called and Holy: Virginia Theological Seminary LGBTQIA+ Oral History Project.
The Rev. Beth O'Callaghan Oral History
Oral History of VTS graduate, the Rev. Beth O'Callaghan, for the Called and Holy: Virginia Theological Seminary LGBTQIA+ Oral History Project.
The Post-Colonial Imperative of Interreligious Dialogue : Translating the missio Dei through Nicholas Black Elk’s Multireligious Participation
By Hubbard, Joe. (2021) -- "This conversation around the nature of “mission,” the church’s role in it –as well as the role of the “missionary” and the role of the “missionized” –emerges from the complicated context of my own journey. It emerges from a conviction that our Indigenous communities are not the object of our charity, or even our mission. They are our teachers and partners in God’s life of transformation and reconciliation. This conversation is rooted in a sense that mission is not something the church does. Mission is something the church is. As Darrell Guder describes, “it has taken us decades to realize that mission is not just a program of the church. It defines the church as God’s sent people.” Ultimately, then, “mission is the result of God’s initiative, rooted in God’s purpose to restore and heal creation. ‘Mission’ means ‘sending’ and it is the central biblical theme describing the purpose of God’s action in human history.” This is a conversation grounded in the recognition that, if my tradition, the Episcopal Church,is serious about reimagining itself in light of the mission of Christ – to more fully embody the missio Dei – we must learn what it means to be a community grounded in and sent by God’s outpouring life of contestation and restoration from the very peoples we once sought to evangelize. We must listen and learn how to engage the missio Dei through the mode of interreligious dialogue." -- Introduction pp.3-4.
"Steven Charleston, an Episcopal Bishop and member of the Choctaw Nation, joins Taylor in recognizing that God was present and active amongst God’s peoples long before Christian missionaries arrived, but for Charleston the Indigenous peoples of North America have “their own original covenant relationship with the Creator and their own original understanding of God prior to the birth of Christ.” Comparing Indigenous nations to the tribes of Israel, he observes, “God was here, on this continent among this people, in covenant, in relationship, in life.” Indeed the “Old Testament of Native America,” as Charleston calls it, “tells of the active, living, revealing presence of God in relation to Native People through generations of Native life and experience ... It is the living memory, the living tradition of a people’s special encounter with the Creator of life.” This divine encounter and revelation among Indigenous peoples of North America does not discount the encounters and revelations of God among any other peoples but enriches them. The encounters and revelations in these lived traditions, or other “testaments,” according to Charleston, enrich one another as they are in conversation with other traditions and testaments, discerning where and how God is present and at work in and through God’s peoples, “broaden[ing] our dialogue about the connections between old testaments” and even broadening our appreciation of the reach of the life and work of God." -- pp. 10-11.
Hubbard, Joe
Virginia Theological Seminary
May 13, 2021
Copyright © 2021 by Joseph L. Hubbard, Jr. All rights reserved
PDF
An Honor’s Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the Department of Christian History, Witness, and Theology in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master’s in Divinity.
The kingdom of God in the Gospel of Luke and its social implications for the church in China
Bible. Luke -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Bible. Luke -- Parables.
Kingdom of God -- Biblical teaching.
By Lin, Wen-En, 2019 -- There is consensus among New Testament scholars that the kingdom of God is the central theme of Jesus’ message in the Synoptic Gospels. This thesis seeks to demonstrate that self-sacrificial love and social service to those in need are particularly significant to Luke’s understanding of what the kingdom of God means to Jesus’ followers, and they are inspiring and instructive for the faithful and effective mission of the Church in the modern Chinese context. This thesis (1) discusses the nature and traits of the kingdom of God in the ministry and teaching of Jesus as presented in the Gospel of Luke, (2) shows that the kingdom of God is already a present reality but one with eschatological hope for a full consummation, and (3) argues that the kingdom of God has important ethical implications for Jesus’ followers.
The Introduction presents my research questions, reviews recent scholarly contributions, and outlines my methodology. The First Chapter elaborates on the claim that the kingdom of God in Luke’s Gospel has been realized in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The kingdom of God is a present reality with important implications for social services. Most noticeably, Jesus welcomes all kinds of people, especially the marginalized, into the kingdom of God. The Second Chapter puts forth several ideas regarding the kingdom of God in the teachings of Jesus. The less fortunate in society are beneficiaries of the kingdom of God. Love for enemies, though counter-intuitive, is a basic characteristic of the kingdom of God. Love of neighbor should be manifested in practice. The disciples of Jesus are to show mercy
to the neighbor. Those who wish to enter the kingdom of God must show hospitality to the marginalized. The Third Chapter analyzes the theme of the kingdom of God in the parables of Jesus, many of which are found only in Luke. In summary, the kingdom of God is a present reality to be experienced and to embody. It is a remarkable manifestation of God’s salvation, and it is a resounding call for a positive response in life. In the Conclusion of this thesis, I suggest how Luke’s view of the kingdom of God may be applied to the Church in China in modern Chinese contexts.
Lin, Wen-en
See <a href="http://librarycatalog.vts.edu/record=b1768138~S1" target="_blank" title="Library Catalog" rel="noreferrer noopener">Library Catalog</a> for details on print version.
Virginia Theological Seminary
2019
© Copyright Wen-En Lin, 2019.
PDF
The JesusTalk program: developing student leaders for empowered campus evangelism
Erskine College.
Church work with students.
College students -- Religious life.
Christian leadership -- Study and teaching -- Case studies.
Spiritual formation.
Evangelistic work.
By Robert J.F. Elsner, 2016. "The overall purpose of the project was to develop leadership that could change the campus culture to be truer to the Christian mission of a small, rural, distressed Christian college. A total of 157 students participated in the progressive components of this study, including associate researchers (8), Focus group participants (38), Semi-structured interviewees (28), one-on-one (clinical) interviewees (25), role-play training and survey of campus leaders (34). A series of vignettes allowed for role-playing investigations of themes of evangelism. Participants completed a pre-program assessment, participated in the two weeks of training, and another two weeks later completed a post-training assessment that included views on the training itself. Members of student organizations (n=34) were then assessed changes in leadership two weeks after the final leader assessment. Results indicate that the program was effective in changing leaders' views of faith and fear, and was perceived as being efficacious by both leaders and organizational members. Similar evangelical leadership programs could be developed in other collegiate and youth environments to serve the Church and reverse the current trends of youth leaving the church."
Elsner, Robert J. F.
See record for print version in <a href="http://librarycatalog.vts.edu/record=b1472839~S1">Library Catalog</a>.
Virginia Theological Seminary.
4/2016
© Copyright Robert J. F. Elsner, 2016.
142 pages
The influence of American Missionaries on the culture, education, and medicine of Tamil people in Jaffna, Sri Lanka (Ceylon)
Missionaries, American -- Sri Lanka -- Jaffna -- History.
Missions -- Sri Lanka -- Jaffna -- History.
Sri Lanka -- Church history.
Education -- Sri Lanka -- Jaffna -- History.
Medical care -- Sri Lanka -- Jaffna -- History.
Culture -- Sri Lanka -- Jaffna -- History.
By Vijayathasan, Daniel Jeyaruban (2021) -- In the 19thCentury, as a result of the American Presbyterian and Congregationalist Missionaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mission, the river of God’s love flowed into Jaffna, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) from Massachusetts in America. American Presbyterian and Congregationalist Missionaries propagated the Christian faith in my region, Jaffna, and were deeply involved in the community by providing educational, medical, and other social service needs. They also provided a printing press, dictionaries, published The Morning Starnewspaper,and translatedwestern books into Tamil and other social services.<br />The American missionaries left their comfort zone, their family members, relatives and friends, and property, and came to our land to share their gifts and talents with our Tamil community. They lived within our community, they wore our dress and learned our Tamil language, encouraged our culture, and translated many English books to Tamil and Tamil books to English. American missionaries were like salt and lightto our community. They lived with us, labored for our community, educated our men and women, died, and were buried in our land. They responded with their lives to Jesus’s command to sell everything, to give up everything (Luke 18:22).<br />The American missionaries were quite different from the British Methodist and Anglican Missionaries who served in Jaffna. The interesting fact is that the American Missionaries were not colonizers in the same sense as those from the Methodist Mission and Church of England. There is often criticism made against missionaries globally, but these Americans were missionaries who sacrificed their entire life for others.
Vijayathasan, Daniel Jeyaruban
See record for print version in <a href="http://librarycatalog.vts.edu/record=b1965915~S1">VTS Library Catalog</a>
Virginia Theological Seminary
May 13, 2021
Copyright © 2021 by Daniel Jeyaruban Vijayathasan
PDF
Thesis
The Episcopal Church in Native American Boarding Schools (1862-1905): Varieties of Assimilation through Transfer Narratives
By Jean Cotting (2020) -- "Within the context of Native American boarding schools, the main objective of the founding Christian churches and later the government was assimilation of students. That is to say, unlike the conventional definition of assimilation which involves recent arrivals adopting the cultural norms of a new homeland, the assimilative process of education in the boarding schools was designed so that children, already situated in their own homeland, gave up their distinctive culture and adopted the cultural norms of white settler society. Within boarding schools such assimilation consisted of eliminating the language, dress, cultural practices, and a unifying ethos of nationhood for Native American children,. In this thesis I will identify these assimilative practices and streams of thought in the Episcopal Church from the mid nineteenth century through the early years of the twentieth century."
Cotting, Jean A.
Virginia Theological Seminary
2020
@Copyright 2020 by Jean A. Cotting
PDF
English
The Black Church and Economic Empowerment: An Ecumenical Collaboration in The Revitalization of West Dayton
By Speare-Hardy, Benjamin E.K. II (2021) -- "This thesis is about an Ecumenical Collaboration of the Black Church to address the disparities in the education of Black students in Dayton (Ohio) Public Schools. These disparities include unjust discipline practices, poor academic performance in reading and mathematics, and low graduation rates. Blacks in West Dayton, Ohio experienced significant gaps in education, economic opportunities, and healthcare services. Education, however, provides a foundation for our growth and is the bedrock upon which much of our economic and social wellbeing is developed. To build the case for collaboration, I conducted several interviews with a cross-section of community stakeholders. Three questions were asked of each interviewee:1) In your opinion, what do you consider to be the disparities in education?2) What should be done to close the education gap between Blacks and Caucasians?3) Which role should the Black Church play in closing the gap? ...<br />My insights gleaned from an analysis of the answers, using qualitative research methods, led to a commitment from three Black Church ministerial organizations. Members of those groups signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that invested in a summer education program for Pre-K through 3rd-grade students in West Dayton....The collaboration of the three Black Church ministerial organizations was a crucial first step in attempting to close the education gap for at-risk Black students in Dayton Public Schools" -- Introduction.
Speare-Hardy II, Benjamin E.K.
Virginia Theological Seminary
Copyright Benjamin Speare-Hardy, 2021.
PDF
The Bishop Payne Divinity School: A History of the Seminary to Prepare Black Men for the Ministry of the Protestant Episcopal Church
Harris, Odell Greenleaf
Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary
1980
PDF
The Apostle Andrew in Scripture and Tradition
Andrew, Apostle, Saint.
The name of Andrew the Apostle appears thirteen times in the Gospels and Acts, and he is the generative character in four crucial episodes of Jesus’s ministry. But his role as an apostle is muted in the New Testament, in the Church, and in institutions named for him. The important Andrew episodes in scripture are very familiar. He was the first person to recognize and proclaim Jesus as Messiah (John 1:41); he introduced Jesus to his brother Simon, upon whom Jesus built His Church (John 1:42); he identified a lad with bread and fish, which Jesus multiplied to feed five thousand followers (John 6:8-9); he brought to Jesus a group of inquiring Greeks, which initiated the glorification of our Lord (John 12:20-22).
The Synoptic Gospels are silent on Andrew’s role in Jesus’s ministry except for being called by Jesus and included in lists of apostles. In the Synoptics, Andrew is not included in the innermost circle of Jesus’s disciples, and he is never mentioned in the Epistles. Nevertheless, legends and traditions about Andrew abounded in early Christianity. He is often portrayed in Christian art with an X-shaped cross, and his Feast Day is observed throughout the world. He is a central figure in the Eastern Church.
Contemporary theologians have often dismissed Andrew. De Boer concluded that in scripture Andrew is a “one-dimensional ‘type.’” Peterson wrote that “Andrew as disciple….was historically a person of no importance whatsoever.” The Anchor Bible Dictionary entry for Andrew reads: “The NT shows little interest in Andrew….Andrew is little more than Peter’s shadow and Jesus’ occasional interlocutor.” This essay is a close review of Andrew’s narratives in scripture and tradition, and an illumination of his contribution to our faith. The objective of the paper is to provide worthwhile insights for persons assigned to preach about Andrew and to offer a resource for institutions who bear Andrew’s name so they may meaningfully celebrate their connection with him and his witness to Christ. With God’s grace, perhaps an enlarged appreciation for Andrew will enhance our vision of God’s revelation in the world.
Keithley, Carter
<a href="https://librarycatalog.vts.edu/record=b2038712~S1"></a>
Virginia Theological Seminary
2022
©Copyright, Carter Keithley
PDF
Thesis (MA)
The alchemical eucharist : the Christian influence on Medieval esotericism
Occultism.
Lord's Supper -- History of doctrines -- Middle Ages, 600-1500.
Alchemy -- Religious aspects -- Christianity -- Middle Ages, 600-1500.
Creation -- History of doctrines -- Middle Ages, 600-1500.
By Evancho, Nicholas, 2018 -- "Because the foundation of medieval philosophical and conceptual thought was the context of Christian doctrine and practice, when inquiry began into the workings of the natural world it was done from the same theological origin. God was seen as the origin of all things and the supreme governor of the world and so it was firmly believed that anything which was true of God would be true of the world at least in a limited sense. Within the medieval consciousness, there was an assumed link between the study of the Creator and the study of the creation and each was able to inform the study of the other.
In today’s world, the idea that scientific inquiry should begin within the framework of Christian theology seems misguided and antiquated. However, in the Middle Ages there was not yet an intellectual distinction between the veracity of theology and that of physical science. This allowed for a sort of spiritual science which conceived of a divinely infused world in which all perceived truths were intimately related and knowledge of the Creator dictated the understanding of the creation. It is difficult for the modern mind to blend the beliefs of faith with the distinctions and formulas of science but for the medieval theologians and esotericists it was impossible to separate the two without somehow admitting that one was not fully true. Through the recovery of the spirit of these esoteric doctrines, the modern Christian can regain an openness to a universe of divine immanence and action during a time where the natural world is understood solely through a mechanical lens."
Evancho, Nicholas
See record for print version in <a href="http://librarycatalog.vts.edu/record=b1744145~S1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Library Catalog</a>
Virginia Theological Seminary
April 26, 2018
© 2018, Nicholas Evancho
PDF