Confederal School of Religions, Peace Studies and Theology
http://hdl.handle.net/2262/16
Confederal School of Religions, Peace Studies and Theology2024-03-28T12:33:33ZReconceiving Theology after the Anthropological Turn: The Doctrine of God in Friedrich Schleiermacher's "The Christian Faith"
http://hdl.handle.net/2262/102289
Reconceiving Theology after the Anthropological Turn: The Doctrine of God in Friedrich Schleiermacher's "The Christian Faith"
Hoffman, Logan Ross
This study consists of a reconstruction and evaluation of the Doctrine of God in Friedrich Schleiermacher's primary theological work, Der christliche Glaube. The study proceeds by following a method of close reading of primary texts, interpreting those texts in conversation with major secondary literature in both English and German. It begins by examining the intellectual context in which Schleiermacher produced his Doctrine of God, primarily attending to the significance of Immanuel Kant, especially his deconstruction of the traditional "proofs" of God's existence and the attendant implications for speech about God in his critical philosophy. The study then looks at Schleiermacher's theological method, that is, the way he authorized and grounded speech about the divine being by following Kant's turn to the subject but analyzing human subjectivity in distinctive ways. Interpretations of Schleiermacher's theological method that represent influential streams of interpretation in the history of reception are examined and critiqued before a unique formulation of Schleiermacher's theological method is offered on the basis of a close analysis of the Introduction of Der christliche Glaube. Finally, the study proceeds to reconstruct Schleiermacher's doctrine of God by following the distributed parts of the doctrine across of the material dogmatics. The sense in which speech about the divine being is authorized as well as the distinct understanding of divine attributes is discussed in the context of the First Part of the material dogmatics, where the divine being is analysed as absolute causality and specified in particular ways. The final chapter then follows Schleiermacher's turn to the analysis of the divine being as it is "self-communicated" in the Redeemer, revealing the divine being as love. Potential difficulties with this formulation are analysed, including the possibility that this Second Part of the material dogmatics represents a radical enough shift in method from the First Part as to be fundamentally incompatible with it. Finally, the concluding discussion of the doctrine of the Trinity is examined, including the sense in which Schleiermacher's theology might be said to be triune.
APPROVED
2023-01-01T00:00:00ZInterpreting in Ireland's Asylum Process
http://hdl.handle.net/2262/101358
Interpreting in Ireland's Asylum Process
Kiboua, Hassina
Asylum applicants fleeing persecution and seeking hospitality do not usually speak the
language of the host-country. They express themselves through an interpreter, who mediates
between asylum applicants and the examining institutions. In this, interpreters find themselves
dealing with a variety of contexts including, a wide cultural gap, power imbalance, and the
tension between the applicant’s universal human right to seek hospitality and the host-county’s
right to self-determination along with the politics of exclusion exercised towards the outsider
asylum applicant. Building on the premise that interpreters are vital for the asylum process to
function and for asylum seekers to establish their claim and access due process, this research
aims to explore interpreting-related issues in the Irish asylum process; to look at the impact that
interpreting might have on the asylum application and the asylum process. In the absence of a
national regulation, accredited qualifications, and training for interpreters in Ireland, this
research asks whether the current provision of asylum interpretation in Ireland promotes the
realisation of universal rights or contribute to a politics of exclusion.
A triangulation of five research methods is used to explore the role and quality of interpreting in
the Irish asylum settings. Starting by an observational method of asylum consultations,
complemented by semi-structured interviews with key participants in the setting, including
interpreters, legal representatives, an interpreters’ trainer, and Tribunal Members. The third
method involved the analysis of asylum questionnaires in the original language and English,
followed by legal analysis asylum High Court cases. The final method involved a review of
existing reports, publications, studies, and articles in the Irish context and a comparison to other
practices globally.
Using a theoretical framework based on Benhabib’s “the Right of Others”, in which the focus is
on the tension between the universal and the local; and the inherent politics of exclusion in the
local asylum policies; this thesis finds little evidence that the implementation of interpreting
services and the right to an interpreter is affected by the politics of exclusion. However, the
tension between the universal and the local is in evidence as the wide discretion of asylum
institutions and officials in implementing interpreting services and their personal attitude
towards language and interpreting is reflected in the realization of the right to an interpreter in
practice. Interpreting services and access to justice are therefore affected by the discretion of
asylum institutions and by the language approach of Irish asylum officials including judges.
Overall, predominant, and concerns emerge from the confusion about the role of interpreters
and the quality and reliability of services being provided by these interpreters, which go down
to the lack of regularization, training, and a national protocol.
One Baptism Once: The Origins of the Unrepeatability of Christian Baptism
http://hdl.handle.net/2262/101105
One Baptism Once: The Origins of the Unrepeatability of Christian Baptism
Mills, Lynn Elizabeth
PUBLISHED
2020-01-01T00:00:00ZCleansing by Water and Spirit in the Dead Sea Scrolls and New Testament
http://hdl.handle.net/2262/101102
Cleansing by Water and Spirit in the Dead Sea Scrolls and New Testament
Mills, Lynn Elizabeth
This thesis seeks to fill a gap in Second Temple scholarship by giving sustained and focused attention to dual cleansing by water and Spirit in the Hebrew Bible, the Scrolls found at Qumran and New Testament literature. In the Hebrew Bible, Psalm 51 and Ezek 36:25–27 stand out as exemplars of the metaphor of cleansing, for the forgiveness of sins, and transformation or new creation of the person cleansed. The research presented here demonstrates that these passages exert influence on the Qumran discoveries, some other Second Temple compositions and the New Testament. Among the Scrolls, the Community Rule (1QS) and Hodayot (1QHa) in particular share common themes of moral cleansing and transformation with Psalm 51 and Ezekiel 36. These themes are also present among the New Testament writings, especially in the synoptic accounts of the baptism of John and the Pauline Epistles. John’s baptism is situated within ritual purification practices of Second Temple Judaism and compared to but not conflated with the ritual and moral cleansing of the Yaḥad. The weight of evidence shows that John’s audiences were familiar with the pairing of ritual and moral purification. Furthermore, they understood baptism with the Holy Spirit as an eschatological cleansing and transformation.
APPROVED
2022-01-01T00:00:00Z