UMD Theses and Dissertations
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Item “GOD RATHER THAN MEN”: AUSTRIAN CATHOLIC THEOLOGY AND THE ORIGINS OF THE CHRISTIAN SOCIAL PARTY, 1848-1893(2024) Messersmith, Thomas Martin; Rozenblit, Marsha L; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation examines the changes in Austrian Catholic theology from 1848 to 1893 and the role these changes played in the foundation of the Christian Social Party. Due to a series of crises after 1848, the theology of the Austrian Catholic Church underwent several shifts, ultimately settling on the belief that, in a modern world, direct political action from the Church was not only permissible, but imperative to defend the Church against those who would destroy it. This shift in political theology, which allowed for informal and unofficial theological participation in the realm of politics, was necessary to allow for the development of the Christian Social Party. This dissertation focuses primarily on the German-speaking areas of the Habsburg Monarchy, drawing on a variety of sources, including letters, diaries, meeting notes, legal records, newspapers, theological treatises, and contemporary academic journals to track the theological and political discussions that took place in this portion of the monarchy. The first chapter defines “political theology” as it is used in this dissertation (i.e., as a broader concept, positioned in opposition to the more limited and problematic definition of Carl Schmitt) as “the study of the divine as it relates to politics,” and provides an overview of the state of political theology in both Austria and the Catholic Church as a whole before 1848. Chapter two focuses on the shifts in political theology that occurred as a result of the Revolutions of 1848, with the paradigm of political theology ultimately coalescing around the leadership of Joseph Othmar Rauscher and the notion of a negotiated legalistic political compromise. Chapter three examines the Habsburg Concordat with Rome of 1855 and its subsequent undoing through the May Laws of 1868, which tested the new paradigm of political theology. Chapter four follows the arrest, trial, and conviction of Bishop Rudigier of Linz for “disturbing the peace,” following his attempted publication of a pastoral letter that called for Catholics to disobey laws that went against the Concordat and Church teachings. This proved to be a pivot point in the development of political theology of the Habsburg Monarchy, leading now-Cardinal Rauscher to reassess the political theological paradigm. Chapter five follows the proceedings of the First Ecumenical Council of the Vatican and the Kulturkampf in Germany, both of which resulted in the development of a more aggressive political theological paradigm in Austria. Finally, chapter six examines the completion of the shift from the Vormärz political theological paradigm to the paradigm of popular public political theology employed by Karl von Vogelsang in the ideological creation of the Christian Social Party. Ultimately, this dissertation argues that while other factors, such as antisemitism and the dissatisfaction of the lower clergy, as argued by John Boyer, helped to create the Christian Social Party in Austria, a shift in political theology in the Austrian Church and in the Catholic Church as a whole was necessary before the various ideologies of the Christian Social Party could coalesce.Item Seeing The Divine Through Darkness: Illuminations of Christ Healing the Blind Man, C. 1200-1400(2021) Prescott, Hannah; Gill, Meredith J.; Art History and Archaeology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the image of Christ healing the blind man began to appear alongside psalmic text in western European psalters and books of hours. In this thesis, I elucidate the devotional implications of the miracle of the blind man, foregrounding illuminated examples—located in the Rutland Psalter, Saint Elizabeth Psalter, Taymouth Hours, and Psalter-Hours of Yolande de Soissons—within the context of period discourse concerning the corporeal and spiritual nature of the eye. My discussion first considers how lay viewers perceived the miraculous restoration of sight as a reflection of the process of divine illumination and contemplative ascent. I then elaborate upon the relationship between blindness, the sacrament of Baptism, and medieval Passion Plays, demonstrating how the blind man’s place within the overall decorative program of each manuscript underlines the soteriological significance of this miracle and its role as a necessary precursor to the Resurrection.Item FROM PICTURE TO SOUND: A CONDUCTOR'S STUDY GUIDE TO THE ST. JOHN PASSION OF JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH(2018) Kim, Kieun Steve; Maclary, Edward; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Bach’s music is filled with musical allegories. These musico-theological symbols are often concealed to modern eyes and ears. Scholars have worked diligently to help modern musicians gain a better understanding of this learned musician’s musical allegories, theological symbols, and, in the words of John Butt, his dialogue with modernity. It is the conductor’s job to help reveal the meaning of these symbols so that the performers can translate the visual representation of the score into a sonic realization for the listeners. This study guide to the St. John Passion is an attempt to help conductors understand Bach’s musical, textual, and theological intent. The St. John Passion was written for a liturgical purpose— to edify Bach’s Leipzig congregation and to help them comprehend the essential meaning of the Passion story. The work is both a musical proclamation of Scripture and a detailed dramatization of that narrative. Therefore, it is critical for conductors to examine not only the musical structures and motives, but also to study the text carefully. The Passion text of John’s gospel is unique and differs from the Synoptic Gospels. This dissertation provides musical analyses of this Passion by examining key passages of the Scripture in the original Greek and Hebrew, and using the lenses of theologians by whom Bach was influenced. This includes relevant scholarship as well as examinations of musical interpretations of recordings of the St. John Passion by acclaimed conductors through comparisons of score illustrations of each conductor’s interpretations. Deepening the surface level understanding of the text, and Bach’s depiction of it, will broaden the conductor’s choices to intensify both musical rhetoric and dramatic sound. This method of 1) analyzing musical motives and structures, 2) studying exemplary interpretations, and 3) dissecting key words of the biblical texts in the original languages will enhance the understanding of Bach’s theology and enable the conductor to encourage the musicians to perform Bach’s music more enlightened and inspired. This, in turn, will strengthen the conductor’s and the performers’ rendition of the St. John Passion and augment the power and drama of its music.Item I Love to Tell the Stor(ies): Narrative Construction in the Christian Right(2017) Gilmore, James Gillespie; Parry-Giles, Trevor; Communication; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Since the emergence of the Christian Right as an identified political and social movement in the late 1970s, commentators have sought to explain it. I Love to Tell the Stor(ies) posits that Christian Right rhetoric can be defined and understood by its appeals to two narratives about the universe and the nation. The Cosmic Narrative suggests that the cosmos is a battlefield between the Christian God and Satan, hinged on the incarnation of Jesus Christ and culminating in the End Times. In the American Narrative, the nation was founded by Protestant Christians to fulfill God’s purposes, but has fallen into moral decline and must return to Christianity so that it can again be blessed by God. I Love to Tell the Stor(ies) reconstructs these narratives from texts by prominent Christian Right rhetors. The narratives resonate with one another in the parameters they set out for how the universe is held together and for epistemology within that universe, forming the foundation of the Christian Right’s rhetorical edifice. A challenge emerges for Christian Right rhetors in some of the particulars, though, as the narratives present dissonant hermeneutics for space and time, for the identity of the movement’s adherents, and for the relationship to other politically-conservative religious worldviews. This project concludes that while these dissonances threaten to undermine the Christian Right’s worldview, they can also be strategically used to bolster that worldview. Rhetors can use these dissonances to transpose methods of reasoning from one narrative to another, creating a context in which adherents’ actions have eternal consequences, the symbols of civil religion are reinterpreted as special revelation from God to those with the means to understand them, and the humanist enemy is not merely a threat to God’s purposes for the American nation but an occupying army in league with the forces of Satan in the great cosmic war. In the hands of skilled rhetors, the worldview structure constructed by these resonances and dissonances has continued to stand for decades.Item Children's Music in the Southern Baptist Convention: An Ethnographic Study of Four Churches in Maryland Examining the Effects of Doctrine and Local Church Autonomy on Children's Music(2011) Diab, Melak Victoria; Provine, Robert C; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is the largest Protestant denomination and the largest group of Baptists in the United States. Furthermore, LifeWay Christian Resources, the Southern Baptist publishing house, is the largest Christian publisher in the United States, producing various literature and media resources, including music material for children. However, the autonomous nature of the local Baptist church gives it absolute freedom to choose programs and materials apart from the Southern Baptist National Convention and LifeWay. This study examines the dynamics of the relationship between the National Convention and the local church as it pertains to children's music. The study looks at the theological and organizational framework on the national level and the local church level and how they affect children and children's music in an autonomous local church setting. The study reveals that all resources and programs related to children on the local church and national convention level, such as children's choir and Vacation Bible School, and Sunday school, are directed towards teaching the children about the two most fundamental concepts of the faith, these are conversion (how to become a Christian) and worship (how to commune with God). The SBC curriculum for children is undergirded by Howard Gardener's theory of multiple intelligences, and makes extensive use of creative movement and American Sign Language to capture children's attention. However, the nature of local church autonomy gives each church the freedom to tailor SBC curriculum to its specific needs or to choose a curriculum from another denomination altogether.Item VIEWS OF GOD AND EVIL: A PERSPECTIVAL APPROACH TO THE ARGUMENT FROM EVIL(2008-06-30) Bernard, Christopher William Thomas; Stairs, Allen; Philosophy; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)A view referred to as "skeptical theism" has received much attention in recent discussions of the argument from evil against the existence of God. According to skeptical theism, humans are not in an epistemic position to make the inferences necessary for the evidential argument from evil to go through. In this dissertation, I defend the importance of individual variations in epistemic position to our evaluation of the argument from evil. Skeptical theists highlight the inadequacy of the human epistemic position to make the relevant judgments. I underscore the importance of individual differences in epistemic position---perspectival differences---to our evaluation of the argument from evil. (Some would prefer the term "worldview" over "perspective." As I use the term, an epistemic perspective includes a worldview but includes factors that are broader than our beliefs, like practical interests and social factors.) I argue that believers and nonbelievers may be epistemically justified in drawing different conclusions about God from similar evidence because the evidence is judged from different epistemic perspectives. In particular, my discussion focuses on two perspectival factors which have received relatively little attention by analytic philosophers of religion: practical interests and social factors.Item Fettering Ignatius to Verse: Donne's Reckoning with the Spiritual Exercises in the Holy Sonnets(2008-05-01) Gilbert, Brian; Passannante, Gerard; English Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this project is to reestablish the Jesuit influence on John Donne's Holy Sonnets in order to better understand the spiritual stagnancy expressed by his speakers. In doing so, this thesis will not examine Donne's poetry as the reproduction of a meditative experience, but as the poet's conscious efforts to contend with his formative traditions by "fettering" them to verse. In these sonnets, Donne dramatizes a conflicted spiritual heritage through the speakers' ambivalent responses to the Jesuit meditative model. As Donne's speakers engage and ultimately reject the requirements of the Spiritual Exercises they uncover the tension between acknowledging one's past and asserting one's selfhood.Item Newman on Preaching and Rhetoric(2007-01-09) King, Milton; Fahnestock, Jeanne; English Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In Newman studies, four current theological issues find resolution and application. Faith emerges as the best mode of reasoning for discerning truth, boosts theology's academic status, and speaks to the felt need in academia to require students to enroll in a course in reason and faith. Objective truth survives as inevitable conclusion of convincing converging probabilities, clarifies the preaching task, and highlights Cicero's style as being best at persuading people. Rhetoric triumphs as inseparable from preaching, points to the path of assent, and identifies antecedent considerations as sermon topics capable of moving congregants toward complex assent. Liberal education emerges as the development of particular intellectual habits and strengths, positions pastors/theologians so trained to re-engagement in public discourse with parity, and gives credibility to recommending that seminary students demonstrate the ability to function in a context featuring indeterminacy of reality.Item CHASING THE RAINBOW: GENDER-RELIGIOSITY AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF IDENITY IN THE MUSIC AND RITUAL OF THE METROPOLITAN COMMUNITY CHURCH OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA(2005-04-01) Lotrecchiano, Gaetano Romano; Robertson, Carolina; Jensen, Luke; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The intersection of belief, identity, and performance enacted in the Metropolitan Community Church of Northern Virginia (MCC NOVA) - a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer community of faith, provides an arena for ethnomusicological inquiry into ritual performance and its relationship with identity construction. As a safe-haven for persons marginalized by mainstream religious traditions, MCC NOVA serves as an alternative to historically oppressive and suppressive worshipping environments where LGBTQ lifestyle is often considered antithetical to the goals of religiosity. It grounds ritual and musical practices in its core values: elastic theology, inclusiveness, diversity, community, member-ministers, and love and acceptance. These core values are the basis of a variety of performative events which allow for the self-fashioning of identity and spiritual exploration on both an individual and corporate level. Affected by a variety of "cradle traditions", this LBGTQ group draws on a complex assortment of sacred musics and ritual practices which form a unique gender-religiosity as MCCers journey to describe and re-invent their collective self. MCC NOVA intensifies the experience of faith through its multi-gendered condition, alternative spiritualities, and idiosyncratic performance events by fashioning a Judeo-Christian-based LBGTQ spirituality in light of freedoms which allow for exploration beyond the boundaries of the Christian ordo. This project deals with a series of unexplored important ethnomusicological questions concerning the significance, process, problems, negotiations, and repercussions involved in performing a variety of ritual musics and acts in light of MCC NOVA's central core values. Foremost is the question of the relationship between individual existenz and corporate identity and the role this relationship plays in ritual. The aesthetics which promote this process are a culmination of blended beliefs rooted in LBGTQ lifestyle, concerns about gender, religious priorities, and the historical faith traditions of the congregants. Performances vary in their ability to describe the intersection of these major contributions to identity construction. Therefore, the investigation of a truly gender-religious stance requires a consideration of the behavioral, ritual-musical, and ontological realities of MCC NOVA membership as they interact to construct an identity where liturgy is both source and outcome of this unique religiosity.Item Music, Ritual, and Diasporic Identity: A Case Study of the Armenian Apostolic Church(2004-04-26) McCollum, Jonathan Ray; Pacholczyk, Jozef; MusicThis study examines the relationships between music, music-making, and ritual performance in the Armenian Apostolic Church. By looking at music-making as a ritual liturgical symbol of faith, I explain the meaning of liturgical music practice and its function in teaching the fundamentals of faith. Drawing upon the fields of ethnomusicology, theology, and ritual studies, I explore the theoretical orientations and methodological strategies that assist in the interpretation of music in ritual contexts. By examining various theories of symbol and ritual combined with fieldwork, I interpret Armenian Apostolic liturgical music using a theoretical methodology that investigates the operation of liturgical music within ritual contexts. Because "faith" is not empirically observable, I focus on "the conception of faith" as it is performed by participants in the Divine Liturgy. In addition to looking at these aspects, I also extend my search past that of the "official" Christian Armenian community by asking what purpose the Armenian Apostolic Church serves in the community as a whole, even amongst non-Christians or non-practicing Armenian Christians. There is a discourse that runs through Armenian literature and politics that to be "Armenian" is to be "Christian." Is this the reality of the situation? Is Armenian Christianity perceived as faith, heritage, or both, and to what extent does the Divine Liturgy play a role in realizing Armenian identity? The purposes of this study are to interpret ritual in light of our physical, social, political, moral, aesthetic, and religious existence, to analyze and interpret liturgical music, to contribute to the development of a critical theory of music as a ritual symbol, and to address issues of identity. I conclude that if the symbolic activity of ritual performance evokes participation that is empirically observable, as an outward performance and transformation or "rite of intensification" of a deeper display of the conception of faith, liturgical music-making becomes integral to the liturgical rite itself. Also, in terms of Armenian identity, the Armenian Apostolic Church is essential to the negotiation of cultural identity outside of their historic homeland of Armenia, even amongst Armenians who do not actively perform the Divine Liturgy.