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Thesis Title: A comparative study of literary and theological differences in the ancient editions of Daniel 3
Supervisors: Ian Young, Stephen Carlson, Gareth Wearne
Thesis Abstract: The book of Daniel existed from a very early stage in several distinct literary editions. In most ancient versions of Dan 3 ("The Fiery Furnace"), the Addition to Dan 3 appears in the middle of the narrative; there are also numerous smaller differences between the ancient versions. Traditional textual criticism has largely overlooked these features-because they are largely secondary-but when taken together, they suggest that the different textual traditions of Dan 3 developed different literary and theological foci. These represent valuable early perspectives on the interpretation of Dan 3, and Daniel more broadly.
This is a comparative text-critical study of these different foci as they emerge from the translation and transmission of ancient versions of Dan 3, including the Addition. The project compares Dan 3 and Add Dan 3 across the Masoretic Text, Dead Sea Scrolls, Peshitta, Vulgate, Septuagint (Old Greek; comprising LXX Manuscript 88, the Syrohexapla, and Papyrus 967), Theodotion, Vetus Latina, Aquila, Symmachus, Chronicles of Jerahmeel (an unusual Aramaic version of Add Dan 3), and Jacob of Edessa (whose Syriac translation of Daniel is made from an unusual composite).
Thesis Title: Purity and Holiness in the Gospel of Matthew
Supervisors: Kylie Crabbe, Benjamin Edsall
Thesis abstract: This project explores the dynamics of purity and holiness in the narrative world of Matthew's Gospel in its Second Temple context. The project questions how the two interrelated conceptual pairs, purity/impurity and holiness/profanity, are understood and intersect within the narrative, how the problem of impurity is resolved and what role holiness plays in this resolution, and how these concepts are applied to Jewish and Gentile characters within the Gospel narrative. In so doing, I seek to demonstrate that purity and holiness are of central importance to some of the major themes of Matthew's Gospel: Jesus' baptism, legal teachings, healing miracles, and death.
Thesis Title: Beyond the Stark Thesis: Religious Conversion, Commitment, and Conviction among Women in the Ante-Nicene Christian Movement
Supervisors: Dr Stephen Carlson, Dr Dawn LaValle Norman
Thesis Abstract: An overwhelming majority of scholars accept that the earliest Church was made up of a staggeringly large proportion of women. In fact, it is estimated that up to two-thirds of the earliest Christians were women. When attempting to provide a rationale for this gender disparity, most scholars assert that the primary motivation for ancient women to accept Christianity was pragmatic-in essence, the early Church provided sociological advantages to women which classical society did not, and so women were attracted to these advantages. This view is typified by sociologist Rodney Stark, although is by no means exclusive to him. Proponents of this sociological model focus on practices in classical Roman society such as child marriages, proliferation of adultery, infanticide and abortion, and the roles of women, and suggest that Christianity presented a positive alternative, and was a prudent sociological choice.
However, within this model, the potential religious conviction or intellectual agency of ancient women is largely ignored-there is very little consideration of the possibility that perhaps women were attracted to Christianity because they genuinely believed its message. As such, my thesis will explore the role of intellectual agency and conviction in the conversion and experiences of early Christian women. This will be done by providing an overview of the sociological model, and then exploring several examples from the ante-Nicene period, including Lydia, Thecla, and Blandina, to see what can be ascertained about their own agency and conviction, and how this relates to the sociological model.
Thesis Title: How do late-antique authors characterise intimacy between women?
Supervisors: Kylie Crabbe, Dawn LaVelle Norman, and Sarah Gador-Whyte
Thesis Abstract: My project is a contribution to the wider academic conversation regarding women in same-sex relationships. While there has been strong interest in same-sex relationships in antiquity in the last few decades, the vast bulk of the scholarship in this area has largely focussed on men. Where women in same-sex relationships are considered, scholars have mostly addressed classical Greek and early Roman imperial period sources. They have also particularly focussed on sexual activity. My project will examine intimacy between women described in the late-antique Christian primary sources, which encompasses both the sexual and non-sexual desire women have for one another. The thesis is comprised of three parts: sexual activity; gender frameworks and desire for effeminacy; and intimacy.
Thesis Title: Physics and Theology in John Philoponus
Supervisors: Michael Champion, Matthew Crawford
Thesis Abstract: Most broadly put, my project explores the interrelationship between physics and theology in Late Antiquity. The 6th century Christian commentator on Aristotle, John Philoponus, offers an apparently conspicuous body of work dealing with both disciplines. For various reasons, however, little work has been done to provide a synthetic account of his body of work. My research seeks to provide such an account by way of an analysis of discipline, method and theory in Philoponus.
Thesis Title: Reimagining the Ethics of Assisted Dying through Compassion
Supervisors: David Kirchhoffer, Michael Champion, Jonathan Zecher
Thesis abstract: Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD) is being increasingly legalised. The rationale for this is the consequentialist reasoning which states that we ought to do what we can to minimise or eliminate suffering, even if this means ending life. Often this reasoning is cited as being the compassionate course of action. In this thesis I will be examining the concepts of compassion and empathy and how they can be best understood in terms of both present and historical Christianity, as well as present and historical medical practice. The hope is by examining hagiographical texts and early Christian writings such as those of Augustine and Aquinas, a more complex understanding of compassion and empathy can be constructed, which will in turn assist with viewing VAD in a new way.
Thesis Title: Reformulating Catholic Eschatology for "the People of Today": An historical-hermeneutical investigation of Karl Rahner's and Joseph Ratzinger's anthropological-eschatological conclusions in the light of their aims, methods, and criteria
Supervisors: Professor Robyn Horner, Dr Philip McCosker, Dr Lexi Eikelboom
Thesis Abstract: In seeking an eschatological theology for today, many Catholic theologians build upon the eschatologies of Karl Rahner and Joseph Ratzinger. From the late 1950s to the early 1980s, these two leading theologians pursued the project of reformulating traditional Catholic eschatological dogmas to address "die Menschen von heute" ("the people of today"). For both of them, "the people of today" functioned as a significant hermeneutical criterion, influencing their methods of doing eschatology and their choice of additional hermeneutical criteria. However, despite their common objective and sometimes close collaboration, Rahner and Ratzinger reached divergent and contradictory conclusions in regard to eschatological anthropology, in part because they each had different ideas of their "people of today" and in part because they each gave different weight to this criterion within their overall method of doing fundamental theology. Furthermore, the ground has shifted, and today's "people of today" are significantly different from Rahner's and Ratzinger's contemporaries. For this reason, both Rahner's and Ratzinger's anthropological eschatologies for "the people of today" require hermeneutical reading in their historical context if their conclusions are to be employed today. Bringing them into conversation will be instructive for constructing contemporary articulations of traditional eschatological anthropology.
Thesis Title: The Reconfiguration of Divine Authority in Fourth-Century Trinitarianism: from Eusebius of Caesarea to Gregory of Nyssa and Didymus the Blind
Supervisors: Lewis Ayres, Matthew Crawford
Thesis Abstract: Τhere is currently a lack of scholarship on the concept and function of divine authority in the trinitarian formulae of the Fourth-Century. My research will address this lacuna by first examining this notion within the Late Antique philosophical debates over determinism and free-will and then by tracing its theological development through figures like Eusebius of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa, and Didymus the Blind. I will show that two distinct trajectories emerge after Nicaea (325) to the question of whether the Father eternally has authority over the Son. For Pro-Nicene and Anti-Nicene theologians alike, the correct answer to that question would transform by the end of the century into a litmus test for orthodoxy.
Thesis Title: Emotions, Attachment, and Identity in Victor of Vita’s History of the Vandal Persecution
Supervisors: Michael Hanaghan, Michael Champion, Sarah Gador-Whyte
Thesis abstract: My research explores the role of emotions in the formation of group identity in Victor of Vita’s Historia Persecutionis. Largely viewed by modern scholars as a culturally divisive text, marred by invective and bias, I argue that Victor’s writing opens up a window onto the experience of suffering in Late-Antiquity. Although it demonstrates a strong apologetic agenda, I suggest that his History can also be understood as one of lament. I therefore analyse the Historia Persecutionis through the lens of Attachment Theory and the History of Emotions, examining the way in which Victor promotes an emotionally driven attachment, or ‘affectional bond’, to Nicene Christianity in his pursuit of collective identity formation.