Conversion in Luke and Paul: Some Exegetical and Theological Explorations

MORLAN, DAVID,SCOTT (2010) 

This dissertation explores the conversion theologies of Luke and Paul. For Luke and Paul conversion played an important role in the early Christian experience and in this dissertation we take a fresh look into how they interpreted this phenomenon. We traverse representative texts in the Lukan and Pauline corpus equipped with three theological questions. What is the change involved in conversion? Why is conversion necessary? Who is responsible for conversion? In our theological and exegetical analysis of Luke 15, Acts 2, Acts 17:16-34, Romans 2 and Romans 9-11 we answer these three theological questions, which then builds a theological profile for both Luke and Paul. These profiles provide fresh insight into the theological relationship between Luke and Paul showing significant similarities as well as sharp contrasts between them. Differences emerge concerning their understanding of repentance as well as in the correlation between conversion and creation: for Luke, conversion is the restored imago dei of the original creation while for Paul it is a fresh act by God of New Creation. Similarities surface between Luke and Paul concerning the centrality of Christology in their conversion theologies. While showing a complex relationship between human and divine agency in conversion, both Luke and Paul understand successful conversion to be impossible without the intervention of an agency outside of the pre-convert.

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"Joining the End to the Beginning" Divine Providence and the Interpretation of Scripture in the Teaching of Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons

BUSHUR, JAMES,GEORGE (2010) 

In this dissertation, the author argues that Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons in the second century, reads the scriptures as the living proclamation of the Creator by which he creates and forms human flesh and blood. The scriptural narrative originates in God’s creation of all things ex nihilo and traces the movement of humanity toward its eschatological perfection in the incarnate, crucified, and risen Christ. Thus, the author argues that, for Irenaeus, the scriptures are as anthropological as they are theological. The biblical narrative possesses a continuity that is rooted in the substance of the human body. The very body that was created out of the dust in Adam, preserved from the flood in Noah, catechized by the law in Abraham and Moses, and became accustomed to the Spirit in the prophets is assumed by the Son of God from the Virgin Mary, crucified on the tree of the cross, and raised from the grave. The author maintains that Irenaeus views the scriptures as a single narrative describing precisely that flesh and blood given at the eucharistic altar in the fellowship of the church. Irenaeus reads the scriptures, not only in an intimate relationship with the creation of all things in the beginning and their recapitulation in Christ, but also in accord with an ecclesial dimension. The biblical narrative describes the identity of the baptized, who are joined to the body of Jesus through the baptismal and eucharistic life of the church. From this perspective, the author insists that the meaning of the scriptures, for the second century bishop, is not merely rational, moral or mystical, but truly ontological.

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