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Authentication and Secure Session Establishment in Body Area Networks Using Multiple Biometrics and Physiological Signals
A body area network (BAN) consists of wireless sensors and actuators attached to orimplanted in a patient’s body for real-time health monitoring and personalized medical care. Itis critical and challenging to secure wireless communications within a BAN in order to protectthe patient’s privacy and also to allow authorized personnel (e.g., doctors and nurses in anemergency room) to easily access and control the BAN without the patient’s involvement oreven when the patient loses consciousness. With the existing key agreement schemes, thedevices are based on a pre-installed secret or a physiological signal feature to authenticateeach other and to agree upon a cryptographic key for secure communications in the BAN. Theformer requires the patient’s involvement to access and configure the BAN, while the latter isnot sufficiently reliable and secure due to signal dynamics. These issues were the motivationfor designing a new key agreement scheme called Multi-Biometric and Physiological Signalbased Key Agreement (MBPSKA) in order to achieve a more secure and reliable authenticationand communication session between BAN devices, while not requiring the patient to providethe secret password. The proposed scheme incorporates reliable biometric traits and timevariant physiological signal features of a patient along with efficient fuzzy crypto-algorithmsand key distribution protocols. The devices use multiple biometric and physiological featuresfor mutual authentication and cryptographic key protection. In order to verify the efficacy ofthe proposed scheme, a number of security characteristics of MBPSKA were assessed, includingrobustness and reliability against various attacks (e.g. replay attack man-in-the-middle attack).The evaluation results using real-world datasets demonstrated that MBPSKA outperforms theexisting physiological signal-based key agreement schemes in terms of security, authenticationreliability, and accuracy. It not only enhances security but also enables flexible and securenetwork access and configuration without the direct involvement of the patient., Computer science, Biometric-based Security, Body Area Network, Key Agreement, Physiological Signal, Secure Communication, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Degree Awarded: Ph.D. Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. The Catholic University of America
The Authoritative Weight of Non-Definitive Magisterial Teaching
Degree Awarded: Ph.D. Systematic Theology. The Catholic University of America, Catholic theologians have written extensively about infallible and definitive magisterial teaching, but much less so about the non-definitive teaching of popes and councils, even though many of the doctrines taught in papal encyclicals and by the Second Vatican Council fall into this category. Important questions arise regarding doctrines in this category: How are the Catholic faithful expected to respond to such teachings? As these doctrines have not been taught infallibly, what can be said about the possibility of error? Given that doctrines in this category do not all possess identical authority, how can the weight of a specific non-definitive teaching be determined? Official answers to these questions have been rare, brief, and often vague. As a result, the task of addressing these matters and developing a more comprehensive theology of the magisterium has fallen to theologians.This dissertation addresses these questions. Ranging from the Middle Ages to the present day, the first three chapters survey theological and hierarchical evaluations of non-definitive magisterial teaching. These evaluations exhibit a considerable consensus on many points.The fourth chapter of this dissertation constructs a concise method of measuring the authoritative weight of non-definitive doctrines. This construction begins by presenting the consensus among the theologians surveyed in preceding chapters, and then builds on that foundation by adjudicating the points on which these theologians disagree.The usefulness of this method is then demonstrated in the fifth chapter, using the topic of religious liberty as a test case. A prima facie contradiction exists between the teaching on religious liberty found in the nineteenth-century papal encyclicals and that found in Vatican II's Declaration on Religious Freedom. The method elaborated in the fourth chapter is used to measure the authoritative weight of each of these teachings. These weights are then compared to one another; the result of this assessment indicates that the teaching of Vatican II has slightly more weight than the nineteenth-century teachings do. The implications of this result are then explained. The dissertation concludes by indicating potential applications of this method to additional topics.
Automatic Three-dimensional Reconstruction of Coronal Mass Ejection from STEREO A/B White-light Coronagraph Images
Degree Awarded: Ph.D. Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. The Catholic University of America, Solar activity and its effects on terrestrial and near-terrestrial environments have attained major attention in recent times. Ejections of plasma and magnetic field from the solar atmosphere are capable of disturbing interplanetary medium and producing geomagnetic storms on Earth. The main vehicles of these highly energetic events are the Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs). One of the missions to observe these solar phenomena is a Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) Ahead/Behind (A/B) mission. STEREO uses two spacecraft with almost identical instrumentation consisting of a series of coronagraphs (COR) and heliospheric imagers (HI). COR and HI images captured by STEREO A/B spacecraft allow for tracking a CME from two different viewpoints and reconstructing its propagation in a three-dimensional (3D) space. Such 3D reconstruction can be accomplished by using a technique of geometrical triangulation. The geometric triangulation technique, however, requires the location of a CME leading edge in each image to be determined first, followed by an estimation of CME propagation parameters. However, there is currently no robust, reliable, and automatic method to derive CME kinematic properties by tracking a CME leading edge continuously in COR and HI images.To our best knowledge, this dissertation is the first systematic approach to address this issue and to develop a fully automatic pipeline for the CME leading edge tracking and estimation of propagation parameters in COR and HI images. The methods proposed in this dissertation are based on algorithms derived from data analysis with further application of image processing and pattern recognition techniques. The proposed methods include 3 individual modules: one unique approach to segment images in a stack (Pre-processing module) and two different novel approaches to track a CME leading edge and estimate propagation parameters in the stack of segmented images (Tracking modules 1 and 2). Pre-processing module allows for effective background removal and CME segmentation. The output of Pre-processing module is a set of running-difference binary images which can be fed into Tracking module 1 (or 2) to track a CME leading edge and to estimate the propagation parameters. The methods were validated using the selected CME events captured in the period from 1 January 2008 to 31 August 2009. The results demonstrate that the proposed pipeline is effective for CME leading edge tracking and CME propagation parameters estimation. Integration of these innovative approaches with the technique of geometric triangulation will provide a necessary tool for automatic estimation of 3D CME properties.
Awareness of Place and Awareness of Self: Kant's Treatments of External World Skepticism in Light of His Phenomenology of Embodiment
Throughout his career, Immanuel Kant repeatedly formulates different arguments aimed at demonstrating that we cannot know ourselves as persisting subjects of introspective states without any knowledge of physical objects. These attempts have received much attention in Anglophone scholarship in the past seventy years, though exegetical and systematic issues remain which have not yet yielded consensus. I argue that Kant’s phenomenology of embodiment sheds light on his engagements with external world skepticism. I proceed by first arguing that Kant is clear, in various writings from various periods, that we have a direct awareness of ourselves as present in a particular place, as having a specific mereological structure, and as having the power of intentional movement. I then examine Kant’s published treatments of external world skepticism in light of his views on embodiment, as well as two different proposed approaches for combining these two elements of his thought. Finally, I argue that Kant’s attempts to show that any understanding of temporal order presupposes an understanding of spatial order makes sense in light of Kant’s phenomenology of embodiment. The results of this investigation are the following: 1. Kant has a phenomenology of embodiment, which he takes as relevant to understanding what it means to be embodied; 2. All of Kant’s published arguments against external world skepticism implicitly involve the claim that a thinking self must also be an embodied self; 3. Kant’s phenomenology of embodiment may be used to augment some of his attempts to respond to external world skepticism in his unpublished writings., Philosophy, Embodiment, Epistemology, Kant, Phenomenology, Philosophy, Degree Awarded: Ph.D. Philosophy. The Catholic University of America
Bands of Brothers: The Negotiation of Identity in the Congregation of the Mission's Polish Vice-Province in the United States, 1903--1975.
Degree awarded: Ph.D. History. The Catholic University of America, Bands of Brothers: The Negotiation of Identity in the Congregation of the Mission's Polish Vice-Province in the United States, 1903--1975.Charles R. KaczyńskiDirector: Leslie Tentler, Ph.D.The historical literature on late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Polish Catholic immigration to the United States includes numerous studies of conflicts between the immigrant laity and members of the Catholic clergy, both Polish- and American-born. While scholars have closely studied the laity's motivations and the conflicts' outcomes, little attention has been given to the Polish immigrant clergy who came to the United States to minister to the spiritual needs of the laity and their perspective on these tensions.This dissertation fills a gap in this historical literature by examining the history of the Polish Vice-Province in the United States of the Congregation of the Mission (Vincentian Fathers) from the first Polish Missionaries' arrival in 1903 to the reconstitution of the Polish Vice-Province as the autonomous New England Province in 1975. Drawing on theoretical frameworks developed by T. H. Breen and Benedict Anderson, this dissertation analyzes the role that competing ethnic and clerical identities played in the Polish Vice-Province's ability to resolve conflicts with its Mother Province in Poland and the Eastern Province of the United States as well as with Polish secular priests serving in Catholic dioceses throughout the eastern half of the United States. While these conflicts were, in themselves, difficult to solve, negotiations between these different groups of priests were further complicated by global events, such as the First World War, the Great Depression, and the Second World War, as well as by the assimilation of later generations of Polish Americans.Utilizing materials collected from archives in the United States and Europe and oral interviews with members of the New England Province and alumni of the Polish Vice-Province's former high school in Erie, Pennsylvania, this dissertation concludes that ethnic identity continued to be a significant factor in the history of the Polish Vice-Province in the United States well into the second half of the twentieth century., Made available in DSpace on 2011-02-24T20:47:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Kaczynski_cua_0043A_10066display.pdf: 2079548 bytes, checksum: ca29cea5e83c29872de5b92bef2f6f19 (MD5)
Baptismal Catechesis: Helping New Parents Develop Good Faith Practices
Degree awarded: D.Min. Spirituality. The Catholic University of America, Baptismal Catechesis: Helping New Parents Develop Good Faith PracticesThomas W. Burnford, D.Min.Director: Dominic Serra, S.L.D.During the baptism of an infant, parents commit to raise their child in the Catholic faith. In light of historically low Mass attendance rates and an increase in the number of Catholics who stop practicing their faith, the preparation of parents for the baptism of their child is essential. The theology, words and actions of the Rite of Baptism provide the foundational material for catechesis of the parents before the celebration of the sacrament. The Rite also directs the parents, with the godparents and the Christian community, to bring the child's baptism to fruition by leading him or her to a mature adult Catholic faith. Central to this task of parents are the witness of their own faith and a home environment conducive to the faith formation of the child. Baptism preparation provides an opportunity to help parents develop or deepen good faith practices so they can better lead their child to conversion and faith.This project included the design, implementation and evaluation of a baptism preparation program for fifteen couples at Resurrection Parish in Maryland. Elements of the program were an initial survey, online and take-home resources, a group preparation session, the baptism of the child, a home visit after the baptism for mystagogy, an event at the parish, and a closing assessment survey. During implementation, the parents experienced multiple instances of prayer, learning and sharing faith in the home.The fifteen subject couples provided positive feedback regarding their experience. The assessment survey demonstrated that, as a result of the intervention, the faith practice of parents grew, as did their commitment to raise their children in the faith. In a particular way, the use of mystagogy after the baptism proved useful to the program objectives, as did the take-home materials and overarching focus on the Rite of Baptism. This project prepared parents for the baptism of their child and helped them develop good faith practices beneficial to raising their newly baptized child in the Catholic faith., Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-20T15:48:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Burnford_cua_0043A_10480display.pdf: 2192725 bytes, checksum: 66d4ad8cb4429b9552d149e7b5900fec (MD5)
Baptismal Spirituality for Daily Living
Baptismal Spirituality for Daily LivingDolores Papania, D. Min.Director: Rev. Raymond Studzinski, OSB, Ph.D. What does baptism have to do with everyday life? Pat catechetical answers about becoming a child of God, or a member of the Church, or free from Original Sin, or heir to everlasting life can be almost robotic responses, memorized in religious education classes long ago. But what are the deeper implications of being incorporated into the Paschal Mystery and the Mystical Body of Christ? What do the promises to renounce Satin and profess belief in the Triune God mean in the context of daily living? How are personal and communal spirituality impacted by baptism? There exists an urgent pastoral need in response to these questions to form Catholics in a deep understanding of the significance of their baptism and help them develop an understanding of the baptismal sacramental spirituality intended to be the foundation for everyday living. Rather than a catechetical class or delving into the theology of baptism, an approach that incorporates prayer, reflection, and faith sharing, that engages the heart as well as the mind, was found necessary as a tool for evangelizing those who have been baptized, whether active or inactive in Church. This process would give participants the opportunity to delve deeply into the meaning of the promises made at baptism and the life-changing, or rather, the identity-changing impact of having been made a new creation in Christ. This sacramental grace inherent in baptism enables and empowers the baptized to live a life of holiness. While this is not a new teaching by any means, it is an undeveloped concept for many as a conscious approach to daily living.Understanding the impact of baptism on communal as well as individual spirituality is important to developing a conscious awareness for living from baptismal spirituality in the context of daily routine. Baptism is relational; the baptized person is plunged into relationship with the Triune God and with the community of the People of God, the Church. Decreasing numbers of Catholics actively participating in the life of the Church, especially in the context of parish life, indicates that the communal implications have little of no relevance for many who were baptized but no longer affiliate with the Church through parish connection.Baptismal Spirituality for Daily Living was developed as an adult formation program to address the apparent disconnect between reception of the sacrament and conscious incorporation of its inherent grace into daily living. Participation in the program was instrumental in a developing consciousness and awareness of the intent of baptismal spirituality as a daily-lived reality. This program, or one similar, is imperative to addressing the issue of the importance, relevance and meaning of baptism. It offers the means to deepen understanding of baptismal living and focuses on practical ways to consciously incorporate all that one is committed to through baptism into daily living., Theology, Spirituality, baptism, sacrament, spirituality, Spirituality, Degree Awarded: D.Min. Spirituality. The Catholic University of America
Bar Daysan and Mani in Ephraem the Syrian's Heresiography
Degree awarded: Ph.D. Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literatures. The Catholic University of America, Before May 24, 2015, this dissertation can be viewed by CUA users only. [24 months embargo], This project addresses Ephraem's approach to Bar Daysan and Mani in his heresiology. The primary aim is to reveal Ephraem's conception of the threat that Bar Daysanism and Manichaeism posed to Ephraem's own community and to analyze Ephraem's response to that threat by expounding on key texts in Ephraem's polemical writings, the collections of his Prose Refutations and Hymns against Heresies. The focus is on three particular ways by which Ephraem casts his opponents as heretics. First, it addresses his attacks on the credibility of his opponents as teachers. Second, it deals with Ephraem's assertion that the apparently pious actions of his opponents are deceptive. Third, it considers how Ephraem is working to create a certain image of these opponents as heretics in the minds of his community. With these characteristics of Ephraem's heresiology in mind, the first chapter of this dissertation will provide a historical backdrop of the setting of fourth century northern Mesopotamia, focusing on the socio-religious settings of Nisibis and Edessa, Ephraem's primary residences. The second chapter will discuss the connection between Ephraem's conception of the correct approach to theology and his approach to doing heresiology. The third chapter will focus on Ephraem's claim against the authority of these teachers and their followers to teach, to interpret scriptures, and to perform sacraments. The fourth chapter will look at Ephraem's depiction of these heretics' apparent virtue as malicious vice and their rites as fruitless chores. The fifth chapter will offer an exposition of the characterization of these heretics that Ephraem is aiming to form in the minds of his audience through an evaluation of the imagery he uses throughout his prose and metrical refutations., Made available in DSpace on 2013-06-25T14:59:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Morehouse_cua_0043A_10430display.pdf: 1929150 bytes, checksum: c42b2fd5797e858c8dba11a15783af9b (MD5)
Battle Against the Epidemic of Diabetes Using Shared Medical Appointments and Conversation Maps
The purpose of this evidence-based quality improvement project was to determine the effect on self-managementof diabetes, health behaviors (nutrition and exercise), and patient satisfactionthrough the use of shared medical appointments (SMA) employing the Diabetic ConversationMaps (CM). Methods: A convenience sample of diabetic veterans age 55+ presenting for fourweekly two-hour SMAs (using CMs) voluntarily completed a pre-intervention demographicsurvey, pre-and post-tests of diabetic knowledge, the Self-Efficacy for Diabetes Survey and theDiabetes Self-management Questionnaire (DSMQ) during the beginning of week one and at theconclusion of week four. Patient satisfaction was also measured at the end of week four (USDiabetic Conversation Map Survey & Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire, PSQ-18). Results: The24 participants graduated from high school (58.3%), were predominantly male (62.5%), and themajority in the age group of 65 to 74 years of age. Most were married (83.3%), obese with meanBMI 31.5, and were poorly controlled (mean HgA1c =8.09%). The Wilcoxon signed ranks testwas used because of the small sample size. Diabetic knowledge scores improved (p- < .05), Self-efficacyimproved (p< .033) with the vast majority of the participants improving in the diabetes-related activities. Between the usual care group and the SMA/CM group, there was no statisticaldifference in diabetes self-management; there was an upward trend towards diabetes self-managementand seven did improve. The SMA/CM program showed that 43.8% believe theprogram to be very effective and 56.3% believed it was effective. Fifty percent of theparticipants strongly agreed and 50% agreed that the SMA/CM sessions help them to learn newstrategies to better control diabetes. A compelling finding was that 100% said that the SMA/CMformat was useful and informative. Benefit-cost ratio calculation indicated a return on the dollarof 3.64 based on revenue alone, and a return of 20.44 based on revenue and prevention ofhospitalization. Conclusion: This quality improvement project affirmatively demonstrated thatthere was an average difference between pretest and posttest scores on self-management diabeteshealth behaviors (nutrition and exercise) and patient satisfaction through the use of sharedmedical appointments deploying the Diabetic Conversation Maps., Nursing, conversation maps, diabetes, shared medical appointments, veterans, Nursing, Degree Awarded: D.N.P. Nursing. The Catholic University of America
"Be Fruitful and Multiply:" Catholic Teaching on the ends of Marriage with reference to Questions posed by Igbo Culture
"Be Fruitful and Multiply": Catholic Teaching on the Ends of Marriage with Reference to Questions posed by Igbo CultureFr. Casmir C. Onyegwara, Ph.D.Director: John S. Grabowski, Ph.D.The institution of marriage is as old as the human race itself. While almost every society engages in marrying, opinions are divided among scholars, cultures, and religions with regard to the purposes of marriage. One of the reasons for this divergence is because each scholar, culture or religion defines marriage by paying particular attention to the values and purposes it attaches to it. The Igbo Ethnic group of Nigeria and the Catholic Church are examples of a culture and a religion that define the purposes of marriage by paying special attention to their cultural values and religious heritage. Thus, while the Igbo culture sees children (particularly male children) as the primary purpose of marriage, scholars debate whether the Catholic Church which held this primacy of children for more than twenty centuries(even if not specifically male children as the Igbo do) currently sees procreation as the primary purpose of marriage. The reason for the lack of consensus among current scholars (such as William E. May and Theodore Mackin) can be attributed to the silence of Gaudium et Spes over the hierarchical terminology of the primary and secondary ends of marriage that was used in the 1917 Code of Canon Law.Given the silence of Gaudium et Spes over the language of primary and secondary ends of marriage, the ongoing debate among theologians, and the Igbo understanding of the purposesof marriage as exclusively ordered to the procreation of male children, this study offers a condensed but critical analyses of the history of the Catholic teaching concerning the ends of marriage from the biblical tradition to the twenty first century. In analyzing this history, this study demonstrates that although Catholic teaching concerning the purposes of marriage has undergone significant development in the course of history from seeing the good of proles as the primary purpose of marriage to an `inseparable connection' between the procreative and unitive meanings of the conjugal act,' the current Igbo cultural practice which understands the male child(ren) as the primary purpose of marriage is in conflict with much of this tradition as well as the current magisterial position on the ends of marriage. It also shows that there has been significant development in the magisterial understanding of the purposes of marriage from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present., Degree awarded: Ph.D. Moral Theology/Ethics. The Catholic University of America
Be Perfect, Just as Your Heavenly Father is Perfect: An Examination of the Juridic Nature of the Diocesan Phase of Causes of Beatification and Canonization.
The Catholic Church professes that the saints are in heaven with God as our forefathers in the faith and are the models of holiness that we are called to imitate. There are thousands of saints recognized by the Catholic Church, and even more who are unrecognized. The process used by the Church to formally recognize a person’s sanctity is called canonization. Canonization is a complex process, and even the most skilled canonists and diocesan personnel can get lost in this multi-step, interdisciplinary and years long process. One of reasons for canonists and personnel getting lost in the canonization process is the lack of clarity as to whether canonization is an administrative procedure or judicial process. This dissertation examines the juridic nature of the diocesan phase of causes of canonization in the hope that diocesan bishops and their staffs can have a better insight into how the canonical process developed over the centuries, a firmer knowledge of the current norms, and a clearer understanding of some of the practical pastoral and canonical questions that occur when instructing a cause of canonization. To accomplish this task, this dissertation is divided into four chapters. Chapter one analyzes the historical developments of the canonical process of canonization from the early Church through 1983. The second chapter examines the current canonical norms governing causes of canonization contained in four extra codal documents and an instruction: Divinus Perfectionis Magister, Normae Servandae in Inquisitionibus ab Episcopis Faciendis in Causis Sanctorum, Rescriptum ex Audientia Sanctissimi: Norme Sull’Amministrazione dei Bene delle Cause di Beatificazione e Canonizzazione, ‘Maiorem hac Dilectionem’. De Oblatione Vitae and Sanctorum Mater. The third chapter of this dissertation analyzes the juridic nature of the current norms for causes of canonization. It begins by examining the juridic nature of canonization during the Middle Ages and under the 1917 Code of Canon Law, and then proceeds to examine the juridic nature of a cause of canonization during the reform of the 1917 Code of Canon Law in the post Vatican II period and in the current norms. The chapter concludes by determining that the current norms governing causes of canonization are a hybrid process that balances administrative procedures with the judicial process. The current process for causes of canonization balances juridic legal precision with a theological and historical-critical methodology. The final chapter examines some pastoral and canonical challenges that diocesan bishops encounter when instructing the diocesan phase of a cause of canonization, such as the difference between the universal call to holiness and “canonizable holiness,” what needs to be included in the historical commission’s report, and the reports of the theological censors., Canon law, Canonization, Holiness, Juridic, Saints, Canon Law, Degree Awarded: J.C.D. Canon Law. The Catholic University of America
"Be Who You Are and Be That Well": Salesian Principles and Practices for the Devout Life
The discernment of a vocation to the priesthood and religious life is very important to the Church. Pope John Paul II’s apostolic exhortation Pastores Dabos Vobis states that vocation discernment groups can assist those considering a religious or priestly vocation by offering them “a systematic guide, in a community context, with which to check the development of vocations.” (PDV no. 64). The Oblates of St. Francis de Sales sponsor the Oblate Associate Program, a vocation discernment group for young men in college considering a vocation to the Oblates. A recent assessment of the program indicates that it lacks a process of spiritual formation in the Salesian tradition which could assist the Oblate Associates in deepening their relationship with God as they discern in college. This doctoral program was designed to provide members of the Oblate Associate Program with this type of spiritual formation by introducing them to the Salesian principles and spiritual practices of the “devout life” as advocated by Francis de Sales in his classic spiritual work Introduction to the Devout Life. In addition, aspects of Thomas Groome’s Critical Praxis method were employed to help the Oblate Associates connect their own personal experiences of living the devout life to Salesian spirituality and their relationship with God. Eighteen Oblate Associates participated in the program which presented the devout life through a blended model of three on-campus sessions and two online sessions. Feedback and evaluation materials at the completion of the third and fifth sessions demonstrated that the Salesian principles and practices had positive results from both the on-campus and online sessions. Participants reported gaining a better understanding of the principles inherent in Salesian spirituality. In addition, the participants reported that they felt that they had deepened their relationship with God through by learning and engaging in the Salesian spiritual practices. Finally, while participants appreciated the online aspect of the program, their preference was for more on-campus meetings. In summary, participants found that the program increased their spiritual formation by improving their knowledge of Salesian spirituality and deepening their relationship with God, while they continue discerning their vocation in the Church., Theology, Spirituality, Discernment, Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, Salesian Spirituality, Thomas Groome, Spirituality, Degree Awarded: D.Min. Spirituality. The Catholic University of America
The Beauty of God: Beauty as a Divine Name in Thomas Aquinas and Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite
Degree awarded: Ph.D. Systematic Theology. The Catholic University of America, Does beauty have an inherent association with the divine? If so, what sort of impact does such a claim have upon the field of contemporary `theological aesthetics'? The present study addresses these questions by investigating the historical, philosophical and theological dimensions of beauty insofar as it is conceived as a divine name. It is a conception that first appears in the thought of the fifth century figure Dionysius the Areopagite. Dionysius's thinking on beauty achieves widespread influence throughout the Middle Ages demonstrated by the numerous commentaries written on his treatises. This dissertation examines Dionysius's doctrine on beauty found in his celebrated treatise On the Divine Names along with the commentary put forth by Thomas Aquinas. The argument advanced in this study is that the Dionysian-Thomistic approach to beauty, an approach that is foundational for the origins of the Western understanding of beauty, reveals that beauty is inherently and therefore indispensably associated with the divine. In Dionysius, the association between beauty and the divine that long gestates in the womb of Western thought explicitly enters the Christian theological tradition when it is appropriated to the status of a divine name. Dionysius's doctrine of beauty exercises extraordinary influence on Thomas's understanding of beauty, which shapes his understanding of God in significant ways. More broadly, the Dionysian-Thomistic view of beauty as a divine name crystallizes in unique ways a more general understanding of beauty's inherent association with the divine. Contemporary theology, in the last fifty years or so, has rediscovered the fundamental inspiration that beauty provides to its intentions. Even a brief glance at the publications reveals a notable surge of work being done in what is now called `theological aesthetics.' However, this rediscovery of beauty is beset with difficulties concerning not only the place and role of beauty, but the very question as to what beauty is. It is a primary goal of this study to demonstrate the importance that a Dionysian-Thomistic configuration of beauty has for theological aesthetics, not only with respect to the past but also with respect to the field's future direction., Made available in DSpace on 2012-06-01T16:44:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Sammon_cua_0043A_10295display.pdf: 22901272 bytes, checksum: 35c01735d74dd356ffe48c40ff0241a9 (MD5)
Becoming a patrician: Alejandro Galvis Galvis and the Liberal Party in Santander, 1915-1931
Degree awarded: Ph.D. History. The Catholic University of America, This dissertation examines the earlier career and intellectual formation of the liberal colombian politician Alejandro Galvis Galvis (1891-1981). To do so, it situates his biography within the context of the long history of economic modernization in the department of Santander. At the end of the colonial period, Santander was an agricultural society of small farmers and artisans; over the nineteenth century, the state transitioned to a coffee-growing region dominated by elite landowners and merchant families who facilitate export-led growth. By the early twentieth century, increasing industrialization and cyclical collapse of the export market had created new openings for social and political change.During the first two decades of his political career, Alejandro Galvis Galvis helped to transform Santander into a laboratory of reformist ideas. Indeen, Santander was one of the first regions of Colombia to witness worker movements during the second decade of the twentieth century. Although he is often portrayed as a privileged and distant oligarch, this study suggests that Galvis Galvis in fact had a populist approach to politics. As the leader of the liberal party, he was in close contact with the peasants, workers, and artisans that formed the base of the party in Santander. This approach would be implemented on a national scale after the Liberal Party took power in Colombia in 1930, particularly under President Alfonso Lopez Pumarejo between 1934 and 1938., Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-24T15:03:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Castro_cua_0043A_10524display.pdf: 3343708 bytes, checksum: 7d706f137cf5b7f9757cb5498157bb57 (MD5)
Before and After Blondel: Scripture, Tradition and The Problem of Representation in Modern Catholicism
Degree awarded: Ph.D. Systematic Theology. The Catholic University of America, This dissertation examines the development of the notion of tradition in modern Catholicism, its relationship to the modern problem of representation, and Maurice Blondel's role and contribution to the development of tradition's history. It contends that Blondel's notion of tradition provides modern Catholicism with a new framework within which it is able to attend to the competing claims of reason, as it has been transformed by modernity, and revelation, in the unwavering and particular claims it makes upon humanity. After tracing the late-medieval shifts in the notion of God's power, ecclesial power, and political power and how these shifts created the conceptual climate for the idea of tradition in modern Catholicism to become less an expression of God's presence embodied in the liturgical practice of the church and more a procedural and institutional reality, the dissertation introduces Blondel's thought to the development of the notion of tradition, by examining the speculative and conceptual context of his idea of tradition in his philosophy of action. Drawing on the philosophical resources of Blondel's account of action and the key role it allots to "liturgical action," the dissertation also describes and analyzes his notion of tradition in the text History and Dogma.The final and constructive part of the dissertation examines the import of Blondel's idea of tradition for contemporary philosophical and theological debates about the modern understanding of history in the development of Christian doctrine, as well as the philosophical debates surrounding the practice of modern hermeneutics outside of Catholicism. This part of the dissertation argues that Blondel's theory of tradition envisions tradition as a "sacramental" representation of God's presence, which shows human understanding how God's revelation is represented in history through the liturgical action of the church. Tradition calls the church to discover God's presence in human history not merely as facts and linear phenomena or as a social and cultural reality, but as the event of salvation. It is in its ability to discern the spiritual dimension of history that Blondel's notion of tradition makes its most important contribution to modern Catholicism., Made available in DSpace on 2011-02-24T20:47:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Koerpel_cua_0043A_10091display.pdf: 10806976 bytes, checksum: 0394f077e2adb6403c7ec2d33a1a55aa (MD5)
Beginning at the End: Literary Unity and the Relationship between Anthropology and Liturgy in the Protevangelium Jacobi (P. Bodm. 5)
Degree awarded: Ph.D. Early Christian Studies. The Catholic University of America, The Protevangelium Jacobi(/italic) is categorized in scholarship as apocryphal. Yet, while instability seems to be the only unifying characteristic of early Christian apocryphal literature, the manuscript tradition of the treatise is remarkably stable. The text is attributed to an apostle and was early considered part of the tradition of the Church.This thesis argues that the author of PJ is not trying to add to the New Testament canon but has, rather, two aims: first, to teach the hermeneutics and techniques for confirming that the Scriptures are written according to technê and that the writings constituting the New Testament are written "according to the Scriptures"; second, to provide the knowledge and critical skills for ensuring the unaltered tradition of these texts and teachings. The text, rather than announcing these aims, leaves it to the reader to discover them. Elements of the text such as grammatical terminology (historia), repetitions of words and phrases, and allusions to intertexts are included in the different manuscript versions to assist the reader in assessing the fidelity of the copy, identifying the main reference works, and determining its subject matter.Analyzing the technical usage of the term historia and reading the text according to the teachings of grammatikê suggest that the writing is a "synoptic" combination of text and clarifying commentary. Morphological and syntactical characteristics of the individual words and phrases bound together in a sentence or embedded in brief narratives, dialogues, or speeches have a heuristic function--they point to glosses in the text (such as paraphrases, repetitions, comparisons, or material for analogies) and to external sources which can expand, complete, and clarify concise passages.While such an interweaving of narrative and commentary clarifies what is said, it also requires transmitting the written text without alterations--even when misspellings seem to beg correction. Features of the text (omissions, orthographic or syntactic errors) that initially seem redundant or incorrect, analyzed grammatically, clarify the argument, allowing the reader to deduce its proposition. The authors of different manuscript versions of PJ use various methods (acrostics, halved lines, references to grammatical terminology and paradeigmata) to prevent permanent alterations., Made available in DSpace on 2011-03-01T11:46:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Raithel_cua_0043A_10176display.pdf: 5041533 bytes, checksum: aa02b07576afe79bbf03a71bf6a4d067 (MD5)
Belonging, Affiliation, and Protestant Cultural Identity in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
“Mainline Decline” has led major American religious organizations to quiver with fear of their own demise, and has left church members and leaders yearning for the halcyon days when church buildings were bursting with people. Floods of books and articles present ways to turn the tide of decline and fill the pews once again.Dialogues around Mainline Decline occur within larger discussions of religious change including global religiosity, secularization, and religious economies, which consider many cultural, social-structural, and institutional factors influence religious change. In 1972, Dean Kelley proposed what is now called the “Kelley Thesis,” which states that strict beliefs and practices create strong churches that siphon members from weak churches like those in the American Mainline. In the 1990s, Dean Hoge led a longitudinal study of Presbyterian (PCUSA) Baby Boomers, and found that weakening beliefs and practices contributed to their decline in the mid-twentieth century, while stricter Evangelical churches were gaining members. This study aims to understand changes in the religious practices and attitudes in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), a Mainline national denominational organization. Following Hoge’s methods of incorporating quantitative data and qualitative ethnography, I use national membership data and structured interviews to examine the ELCA. Theories discussing individualism, the social acceptance of nonreligion, changing fertility rates, and weak denominational organizations are updated to include recent history and trends such as political polarization and digital communication. The interviews were performed with individuals who had formerly attended ELCA churches in the Lower Susquehanna Synod, which is located in south-central Pennsylvania. A typology emerged from the interviews, which illustrates different realities of religious change and creates categories for comparative analyses. Religiosity was not especially salient to many interviewees. None of them were attending “stronger” churches or regularly practicing anywhere at all. Despite not officially belonging to any religious organization, many interviewees practiced their own personalized form of ad hoc spirituality, with some still identifying as Lutheran. These findings lend themselves to larger questions of religious identity. What does it mean to belong? What does it mean for the institutions dedicated to sustaining religious traditions? , Religion, American studies, Sociology, ELCA, Lutheran, Mainline Decline, None, Protestant, Secular, Religion and Culture, Degree Awarded: Ph.D. Religion and Culture. The Catholic University of America
Biblical Concepts of Divine Protection: A Study of Psalms 5, 91, and 140 in Light of the Iconography of the Ancient Near East
Degree awarded: Ph.D. Biblical Studies. The Catholic University of America, Taking a holistic approach to individual psalms as distinct and complete poems, this study explores the topic of divine protection in the Psalter. Specifically, three psalms are analyzed: Psalms 5, 91, and 140. The study is a contribution to a growing body of research that systematically incorporates iconographic material in biblical exegesis. The contribution is unique in that (1) it compares ancient Near Eastern iconography to whole poems, in contrast to thematic treatments that have not, and (2) it considers modern linguistic approaches to biblical poetics. The first two chapters review past research on the topic of divine protection in the Book of Psalms and introduce comparative research using the art of the ancient Near East. The following three chapters discuss the three psalms under investigation: Psalms 5, 91, and 140. In each of the chapters on an individual psalm, the research unfolds along two lines. First, there is an examination of the relevant vocabulary and structure. Each psalm is analyzed using the syntactic approach of M. O'Connor's in Hebrew Verse Structure. The second aspect of the study in chapters 3-5 explores the concepts of protection in the selected psalms in light of the ideas of divine protection expressed in the iconography of the ancient Near East. The literary imagery of protection in the psalms is compared with the iconographic imagery of protection as it appears in the miniature art of the Levant as well as the monumental art of Egypt and Mesopotamia. The study provides a new of method of approach and offers a fuller and clearer sense of the biblical notions of divine protection, not, however, in the form of a single overarching theme. Studying the topic of divine protection offers a complex and multifaceted viewpoint; the findings do not produce a single concept of divine protection. The three psalms separately conceptualized divine protection in at least three different ways; thus, there are concepts of divine protection in the psalms., Made available in DSpace on 2011-06-24T17:13:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Plescia_cua_0043A_10231display.pdf: 46485614 bytes, checksum: 8778e008f50a2b88780f9da062751bbd (MD5)

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