“Sanctification and self-cultivation: A study of Karl Barth and neo-Confucianism (Wang Yang-ming)” Ph.D. Dissertation by Heup Young Kim
Abstract: Despite their radically different orientations, Confucianism and Christianity have a point of convergence central to their interpretations, i.e., “how to be fully human.” This focal point has produced distinctive but comparable doctrines, the Confucian teaching of self-cultivation and the Christian doctrine of sanctification. Hence, the thesis is that, in the light of paradigmatic teachings […]
Sacred Text Lecture begins
John Pairman Brown delivers the first annual Sacred Text Lecture on February 25, 1993: “What Makes a Text Sacred?” Each year since then, the library invites a speaker with a particular connection to a “sacred text,” written or oral, traditional or new, within a canon of scriptures or drawn from outside a religious tradition. The […]
San Jose Mercury News Features GTU in “The Face of Belief”
Tom McNichol’s article on how GTU’s students and instituions relate, begins: “On Common Ground: After centuries at war with one another, many faiths come together on Berkeley’s Holy Hill…”
“AIDS, the gay community, and the American Catholic Church” Ph.D. Dissertation by Richard Leslie Smith
Abstract: The construction of AIDS by the American Catholic bishops has been problematic for many Americans, activists and public health officials alike. The American bishops, while calling for a greater compassion and justice for people living with AIDS, have used this epidemic as an occasion to shore up a sexual ethic that is increasingly difficult […]
New Perceptions of the Spirit exhibit opens
New Perceptions of the Spirit, an exhibit in conjunction with the International Conference on the Visual Arts and Religious Communities, opens on July 5, 1995.
“Religion at risk: Death and the sacred in AIDS community” Ph.D. Dissertation by Paul Anthony Schwartz.
Abstract: Drawing from interviews with individuals diagnosed with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, service providers, and community activists in 1988, elements leading to the formation of an AIDS community in San Francisco are examined. Persons with AIDS are seen to be conversant with medical discourse about HIV disease, as required by their interactions with service providers. When […]
“Women’s bodies, women’s blood: The politics of gender in rabbinic literature” Ph.D. Dissertation by Charlotte Fonrobert
Abstract: This dissertation argues for the importance of a feminist hermeneutics which refuses to submit to the dominant androcentric discourse of rabbinic literature. Analyzing the talmudic discussions of menstrual regulations (Niddah), it engages in readings of select texts which have as their goal to brush the androcentrism of the literature against the grain. In this, […]
Margaret R. Miles, Dean 1996-2001
Margaret R. Miles was appointed Dean in 1996. She received her B.A. and M.A. from San Francisco State University, and her Ph.D. from GTU (’77). She taught at the Harvard University Divinity School for 18 years, where she chaired the theology department (6 years) and the Committee on Religion, Gender, and Culture since its inception. […]
“The Moral Vision of Cesar E. Chavez: An Examination of His Public Life from an Ethical Perspective” Ph.D. Dissertation by Frederick John Dalton
Abstract: Cesar E. Chavez was a national public figure recognized for his leadership of the United Farm Workers, the first farm labor union in the nation’s history to obtain collective bargaining contracts with agricultural employers. During the three decades that Cesar Chavez led la causa, the farm worker struggle for justice, he was regarded by […]
“Imago Dei/imago hominis: Interacting images of God and humanity in theology and in artificial intelligence” Ph.D. Dissertation by Noreen Herzfeld
What does it mean for something or someone to be created in one’s own image? This dissertation examines this question from the viewpoint of the two fields of theology and artificial intelligence (AI). At the root of the fascination our current culture has with creating an image of ourselves, an imago hominis, in a intelligent […]