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Sandlin Dissertation Final Library Copy (2)__final format approved LW 7-30-2021.pdf (2.04 MB)
ETD Abstract Container
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Help Us to Be Good: A Pneumatological Virtue Ethic for Churches of Christ
Author Info
Sandlin, Mac S
Permalink:
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=dayton1627659252721087
Abstract Details
Year and Degree
2021, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), University of Dayton, Theology.
Abstract
Churches of Christ (Stone-Campbell Movement) have inherited from early thinkers in the Restoration Movement and generally operate out of an ethic which can be summarized in the maxim, “Try hard to do what the Bible says.” This approach has two major flaws: self-reliance rather than reliance on the Holy Spirit, and a tendency to treat Scripture and an individual’s obedience to Scripture as ends in themselves instead of the means to an end. This ethic yields an anthropology that is at once too high and too low: too high in its assumption that we can achieve goodness without the direct aid of the Spirit and too low in its assumption that obedience is the highest good to which we are called. To this problem, I propose a two-part prescription. The first element of my proposed solution is recommendation of Alasdair MacIntyre’s recovery of Aristotelian virtue ethics. Key concepts like teleology, narrative, community, practices, and traditions help provide a more wholistic, practical, and, I argue, biblical way to think about ethics. Helpful as he is, MacIntyre presents his project in the language of philosophy, and if virtue ethics are to be accessible to Churches of Christ, they must be baptized and appear in explicitly Christian language. Providentially, Stanley Hauerwas has already done precisely this work. His theological appropriation of MacIntyre transforms teleology into eschatology, narrative to the gospel, practices to sacraments, and traditions to the church. But Hauerwas’s work, as has often been noted, tends to offer only a bare account of the Holy Spirit. The second element of my prescription is a more robust pneumatology than can be provided either by Hauerwas or by Churches of Christ but which draws on the best elements of both. Following Hauerwas’s aphoristic style, I propose a riddling methodology to explore three major themes in pneumatology: 1) the Holy Spirit as both the power/presence of God and as a person, 2) the Holy Spirit’s role in kenosis and theosis, and 3) the Holy Spirit and love. Drawing on a wide range of biblical sources, the work of theologians including Robert Jenson and Eugene Rogers, and the images and insights of patristic authors, especially Augustine I attempt to show that the Spirit is a person who helps us to become that which God is, namely, love. I conclude by suggesting that Churches of Christ replace the maxim “Try hard to do what the Bible says” and the theological ethic that it represents with maxims such as: “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” “Love and do what you want.” And, the simple but profound prayer, “Help us to be good.”
Committee
Brad Kallenberg, Ph.D. (Advisor)
William Portier, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Dennis Doyle, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Jana Bennett, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
John Mark Hicks, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Pages
358 p.
Subject Headings
Bible
;
Biblical Studies
;
Ethics
;
Philosophy
;
Religion
;
Spirituality
;
Theology
Keywords
Pneumatology, Churches of Christ, Virtue Ethics, Alasdair MacIntyre, Stanley Hauerwas, Augustine, Ethics, Restoration Movement, Stone-Campbell Movement,
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Citations
Sandlin, M. S. (2021).
Help Us to Be Good: A Pneumatological Virtue Ethic for Churches of Christ
[Doctoral dissertation, University of Dayton]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=dayton1627659252721087
APA Style (7th edition)
Sandlin, Mac.
Help Us to Be Good: A Pneumatological Virtue Ethic for Churches of Christ .
2021. University of Dayton, Doctoral dissertation.
OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center
, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=dayton1627659252721087.
MLA Style (8th edition)
Sandlin, Mac. "Help Us to Be Good: A Pneumatological Virtue Ethic for Churches of Christ ." Doctoral dissertation, University of Dayton, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=dayton1627659252721087
Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)
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Document number:
dayton1627659252721087
Download Count:
1,429
Copyright Info
© 2021, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by University of Dayton and OhioLINK.