CU Dissertations
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- Communication, Communion and Conflict in the Theologies of Gregory Baum and Patrick Granfield
- Degree Awarded: Ph.D. Systematic Theology. The Catholic University of America, Communion, communication, and conflict are interrelated realities of great importance for the life and mission of the church. These realities themselves and the relationships between them are in need of theological refinement and assessment, because conflict necessarily affects the church's ability to communicate the message of salvation, and to experience communion.Within a North American and Roman Catholic context, Canadian theologian Gregory Baum (b.1923) and U.S. theologian Patrick Granfield (1930-2014) present ways of perceiving the relationships between these three realities. Through an analysis of the salient dimensions of their respective theologies, this dissertation explores their respective understandings of the church, and identifies ways in which their approaches complement each other, with particular attention paid to the themes of communion, communication and conflict.Baum reflected on these three realities with respect to the church's life and mission to the world, articulating an ecclesial spirituality. Granfield did so primarily with respect to the church's institutional life. Considering their works together offers a means to deepen the church's experience of the mystery of communion via a renewed approach to its communication of the divine promise, while acknowledging conflict as a force which need not be destructive, but which can be harnessed for creative growth.The works of both men show that the implementation of an ecclesiology of communion in the church today requires an awareness that communion is more than simply a theological notion of union with God, that communication in the church is more than speech alone, and that conflict in the church need not be divisive or destructive. Rather, communion in the church must always be concretely expressed in order to be experienced, communication is the sharing of the whole person, and conflict can be attended to in a way which strengthens communion and does not undermine it. By their attention to these three realities in the church, both Baum and Granfield have provided important reflections, not only on how the church lives and functions, but on how it can remain faithful to its divine calling and mission in a continually challenging and complex era.
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- A Comparative Study of the Hermeneutics of Henri de Lubac and Hans-Georg Gadamer Concerning Tradition, Community and Faith in the Interpretation of Scripture
- Degree Awarded: Ph.D. Systematic Theology. The Catholic University of America, This dissertation investigates and compares the hermeneutics of the French Jesuit theologian, Henri de Lubac (1896-1991), and the German philosopher, Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900-2001). The writings of both Gadamer and de Lubac continue to generate scholarly investigation, including proposals to apply their insights to contemporary biblical interpretation. Although de Lubac and Gadamer were contemporaries, they never directly engaged each other's writings; this dissertation brings their thought into dialogue. Chapter One provides a biographical overview of the lives of both scholars by situating the texts that will be examined within the broader context of each work. Since de Lubac approached the subject of biblical interpretation chiefly as an historian of exegesis, the first step in this comparative investigation is a formulation of de Lubac's hermeneutical principles. Chapter Two, which constitutes the major portion of this dissertation, analyzes de Lubac's works Catholicisme, Histoire et Esprit, Exegese medievale, and La Posterite spirituelle de Joachim de Flore in view of understanding his hermeneutics. An historical account of the formation of de Lubac's theology of the four-fold sense of Scripture is provided, together with a description of its final synthesis. This chapter proposes that de Lubac's later works must be read in light of his writings of the 1930s in order to grasp the scope of his desired integration of traditional interpretation and modern science. It also provides a more detailed analysis of the exegetical import of La Posterite spirituelle than previous literature. Although the writings of Gadamer concern general hermeneutics, he occasionally applied his theories to biblical interpretation. Chapter Three examines Gadamer's Wahrheit und Methode in order to compare his hermeneutics with those of de Lubac that were presented in Chapter Two. The conclusion appraises the similarities between de Lubac and Gadamer in their treatment of the role of tradition and community in interpretation. The conclusion also explores the tension between their views on the role of faith in interpretation and suggests that certain principles of Gadamer's general hermeneutics may provide the philosophical support that de Lubac desired for his theological hermeneutics of Scripture. An appendix analyzes the textual relationship of Histoire et Esprit to its sources.