Sewanee: School of Theology Theses 2021
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Item "A Dream of Common Prayer"?: A Case Series of Eucharistic Prayers in Their Context(University of the South, 2021-05) Zimbrick-Rogers, Emily L.The idea of common prayer has been a guiding framework since the first Book of Common Prayer in 1549. The emphasis on common, or standard, prayer has been affirmed to the present day, though the meaning of common has varied with the ages. The 1979 Book of Common Prayer (BCP) outlines that the Holy Eucharist is the principal act of Christian worship in the Episcopal Church. Thus, Eucharistic liturgy and practice are central to the expression of how common prayer throughout the Episcopal Church. While the 1979 Book of Common Prayer is the only authorized liturgical standard across the Episcopal Church, not all Episcopalians pray only out of the BCP. This project offers an exploration of the idea of common Eucharistic Prayer in practice by describing and comparing three parishes and their Eucharistic liturgies that are not found within the 1979 BCP. Interviews with clergy and bishops put the Eucharistic texts and practices into context, highlighting the importance of sociological insights and performance to understand written liturgy. This case series offers reflection on the role of ecclesial authority in relation to creativity, liturgical practice, lived theology, and dynamic interplay of the center and the edges in the Episcopal Church.Item "THE FORMATIONAL AND PASTORAL ASPECTS OF LITURGICAL CHANGE"(University of the South, 2021-04) Johnstone, Elise BeaumontThis project undertakes the premise that any liturgical change should be preceded by and accompanied with well-considered and thoughtful formation as well as a pastoral sensibility to those experiencing the change. A study of ritual theory is first engaged to examine how rituals, in the form of liturgies, are internalized by human beings and that when those rituals are changed, careful attention should be given to the fact that there is an internal, emotional process that is occuring. Second, the implementation of trial rites in The Episcopal Church in the 1960s-1970s is examined with particular attention to formation and pastoral approach. Third, a review of Christian Formation approaches in this part of the 21 st century is examined to begin to see options of constructive formation for such a change. Fourth, hypothetical processes for implementing liturgical change, one on a church-wide scale, and the other on a more local level are offered in light of this work.Item The Old Testament Shaping the Book of Revelation(University of the South, 2021-04) Mweningoma, Jean BerchmansIt would be inadequate to read the book of Revelation without considering the Old Testament traditions that influenced its content. As Revelation contains more Old Testament allusions than the rest of New Testament books, this work is a contribution to indicating that the author of Revelation used the Old Testament texts to shape this book. The present work begins with some generalities that should orient the reader to discover the relationship between the perspective of Revelation and that of Old Testament texts to which the author of Revelation alluded. The work proceeds by indicating that the author of Revelation intentionally used the Old Testament materials by recontextualizing them for his audience through thematic, analogical, universalization, indirect fulfillment, and solecisms uses, in a way that proves the author's sense of creativity. To end, this work analyzes Rev. 21 •.1-8 and its use of Second Isaiah, which shows that the language and the perspective of this pericope relate to the traditions of Second Isaiah in multiple ways. In short, as this work demonstrates, the general setting of Revelation, the specific uses of Old Testament allusions, and the comparison of Rev. 21:1-8 with Second Isaiah should lead the reader of Revelation to recognize that the composition of Revelation was shaped by various Old Testament traditions.Item The Non-Kenotic Christology of William Porcher Dubose: A Response to Francis J. Hall(University of the South, 2021-05) Daily, Teresa WootenIn the late nineteenth century, General Theological Seminary professor Francis J. Hall claimed that University of the South professor and fellow Anglican, William Porcher DuBose, subscribed to a kenotic Christology. The goal of this thesis is to evaluate whether this characterization of DuBose’s incarnational theology is warranted. The thesis begins with an exploration of DuBose’s Christology with its personalistic, progressive, and Spirit-based Incarnation. Next Hall’s traditional understanding of the Incarnation, with a Christological union that safeguards attributes of both the divine and human natures, is examined, along with an overview of Hall’s anti-kenotic arguments. Because the Christology of German theologian Isaak August Dorner is the model for DuBose’s theology, and given that Dorner himself was avidly anti-kenotic, a survey of Dorner’s theology follows in the hope that it may illumine elements in DuBose’s Christology that point away from Kenoticism.Circling back to Hall’s claim that DuBose embraces a kenotic Christology, each feature in his theology that resonates with Kenoticism is considered. The conclusion is reached that DuBose’s incarnational theology, with its personalistic view of reality and the gradual union of human and divine natures in Christ, does not fulfill the essential feature of a kenotic Christology – the abandonment or suspension of some attributes of the Logos during the Incarnation. Finally, DuBose’s underlying theological motivation – to articulate an ethical Christological union rooted in mutuality, self-consciousness, and freedom – is presented as an expression of Christian mysticism, although the Personalist worldview that forms the basis of this divine-human union is incongruous with his sympathy for the Confederate South.Item THE DEVELOPMENT OF DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION AT SAINT JAMES SCHOOL OF MARYLAND(University of the South, 2021-03) Montgomery, Brandt LeonardThis project is a historical analysis of the development of diversity, equity, and inclusion at Saint James School, established in 1842 at "Fountain Rock'' plantation in Hagerstown, Washington County, Maryland. It starts from the conception of the "Church school" by William Augustus Muhlenberg (1796-1877) and goes·through the present time in the tenure of the Tenth Headmaster, Donald Stuart Dunnan (b. 1959). Saint James School identifies as "an Episcopal school within the Anglo-Catholic tradition" that "remains faithful to our historic identity as a Church school." The purpose for this project is to bring forward the "blind spots'' in the School's historic Oxford Movement and present-day Anglo-Catholic heritage and Muhlenberg's Church School Movement. For Saint James School to remain what it has been, but in a changed way, it must be theologically orthodox, liturgically traditional, and socially progressive governed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Muhlenberg's vision is still worth maintaining, but with a more comprehensive meaning and application. Saint James School can remain faithful to its stated mission of being a Muhlenbergian Church school whose Christianity is the basis for its inclusivity and Anglican affiliation and ecumenism enabling the School to prepare young people of all races, sexes, and gender identities to be "leaders for good in the world."