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Mysticism As Spiritual Consciousness Of God’s Presence In Bernard Mcginn’s \u3ci\u3eHistory Of Western Christian Mysticism\u3c/i\u3e
Get PDFThis thesis explores the concept of mysticism as a spiritual consciousness of God\u27s presence, drawing on Bernard McGinn\u27s multi-volume work, The Presence of God. Chapter One delves into McGinn\u27s definition of mysticism, emphasizing consciousness over experience to capture the immediacy and ongoing nature of this awareness. It explores the themes of God\u27s absent presence, mysticism as a process, and its role within religion and broader contexts. Chapter Two examines the roots of Christian mysticism in Jewish traditions, Greek philosophy, the life of Jesus, and early church practices. It then investigates the role of scripture, particularly through Origen\u27s approach, and the concept of Imago Dei as explored by Augustine and Walter Hilton. Chapter Three explores dynamic pairs in mysticism, such as presence and absence, love and knowledge, and contemplation and action. It analyzes figures like Dionysius the Areopagite, the author of The Cloud of Unknowing, Teresa of Avila, and Francis of Assisi to illustrate these concepts. Chapter Four focuses on applying the concept of consciousness of God\u27s presence to contemporary Taiwanese Catholic Christians in the second half of life, roughly beginning in the early 30’s. It considers the specific challenges and opportunities of this population group and proposes practical methods for cultivating a deeper connection with God during this life stage. These methods include finding one\u27s true self, appreciating individual experiences, creating a sacred space for prayer, exploring yearnings and desires in relation to the Divine, integrating service into one\u27s faith journey, and considering the potential for blending Catholic traditions with Asian Eastern wisdom. This thesis ultimately argues that Bernard McGinn\u27s framework of consciousness of God\u27s presence offers a valuable lens for understanding Christian mysticism and its potential to guide contemporary spiritual seekers, particularly those in the second half of life
Happiness in Thomas Aquinas and Bernard Lonergan\u27s Tripolar Dialectics of History: Towards Africa\u27s Flourishing
No full textWhile exercising ministry in my home country, Cameroon, I have lived the negative effects of the internal confusion that can sometimes bedevil human life and the external chaos that can envelop society because of war. The case in point which I consider throughout this thesis is that of James Fonyuy, who experienced the death of his parents and family members. The savage hostility in my country and many other African countries has clearly revealed to me the troubling dichotomy between faith professed and faith lived. For this reason, this thesis attempts at eliminating this perceived wedge and replacing it instead with a bridge that links confession to praxis. Aquinas\u27 conception of Happiness has been considered in relation to Bernard Lonergan\u27s dialectics of history as an integrated approach in reconstructing happiness towards flourishing for the African continent. The methodological foundation for my inquiry is James Bretzke\u27s hybrid method of Scriptures, Tradition, Rational Reflection on the Normatively Human and Human Experiences. This groundwork is complexified by Lonergan\u27s dialectics of history in a way that historical consciousness permeates the investigation.
The outcome of this thesis is the realization that Africans are deeply wounded by the consequences of colonialism and post-colonialism. These wounds are glaring in systemic and individual aspects of corruption, poverty, traumas, wars, and ethnic conflicts. Even with such wounds, there is inherent goodness in Africans including the ethics of community living, care for creation, and care for the other. These values are to be retrieved in a Renewed Africanness. This Renewed Africanness, I propose could start in Small Christian Communities
The Role of the Church in Youth Formation and Pedagogy: A Response to Religious Extremism and Violence in Nigeria
No full textOver the past two decades, Nigeria has experienced the proliferation of religious extremism and violence. This thesis addresses the precarious issue of religious extremism, which is often engineered by extreme religious views and ideologies. The thesis explores the root causes of these phenomena, cutting across the role of politicians and religious leaders who exploit the youths for their selfish interests. This study highlights the devastating impacts of Islamic religious extremism, which has caused severe wounds to the entire country. This has caused loss of lives, destruction of properties, and excessive fear among citizens. This thesis also explores the historical context, fundamental theories, and several approaches needed to combat religious extremism and violence in Nigeria. The approaches involved in this thesis include Catholic Social Teaching, the virtue-based ethic of nonviolent peacemaking, the education of youths, the pastoral approach, the cultural perspective of youth formation, and interreligious dialogue. All are to foster peace, unity, and human flourishing in Nigeria. Employing these comprehensive approaches, the major aim of this thesis is to contribute to the ongoing conversation about reducing religious extremism and violence and promoting a culture of peaceful co-existence in Nigeria
Recursive Multistep Forecasting of U.S. Treasury Yield Curves Using Machine Learning and Econometrics
No full textWhile machine learning has revolutionalized many fields such as natural language processing (NLP) and computer vision, its impact on time series forecasting is still widely disputed. This thesis focuses on comparing forecasting performance between econometrics/time series analysis, classical machine learning, and deep learning methods. More specifically, it is recursive multistep forecasting of the U.S. Treasury daily yield curve. The U.S Treasury daily yield curve is important because it is considered a leading indicator of recessions. While the majority of yield curve forecasting research focuses on monthly data, we are focusing on business daily data. We have also included a wide variety of methods that have not been tested on yield curve forecasting, especially deep learning algorithms. The algorithms include the Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) model and its extensions, naive benchmarks, ensemble methods, Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs), and multiple transformers built for forecasting. The thesis finds that ARIMA and naive benchmarks outperform all other models overall, except in one time period. Of the machine learning methods, TimeGPT and RNNs perform the best. Furthermore, the thesis explores whether stationary or nonstationary outputs are more appropriate as input to deep learning models
Reading Colonial Transitions: Archival Evidence and the Archaeology of Indigenous Action in Nineteenth-Century California
Get PDFArchaeologists in North America and elsewhere are increasingly examining long-term Indigenous presence across multiple colonial systems, despite lingering conceptual and methodological challenges. We examine this issue in California, where archaeologists and others have traditionally overlooked Native persistence in the years between the official closing of the region\u27s Franciscan missions in the 1830s and the onset of US settler colonialism in the late 1840s. In particular, we advocate for the judicious use of the documentary record to ask new questions of Indigenous life during this short but critical period, when many Native Californians were freed from the missions and sought new lives in their homelands or in emerging urban areas. We offer examples from our individual and collective research—undertaken in collaboration with the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe—regarding long-term Native persistence in the San Francisco Bay Area to demonstrate how archival evidence can illuminate four interrelated areas of daily life that could be investigated archaeologically, including resistance, freedom, servitude, and personal adornment. By using the written record to regain a sense of subjective time, these topics and others could stimulate new, interdisciplinary, and collaborative research that more firmly accounts for Indigenous people\u27s enduring presence across successive waves of Euro-American colonialism.
Los arqueólogos en América del Norte y en otros lugares están examinando cada vez más la presencia indígena a largo plazo en múltiples sistemas coloniales, a pesar de los persistentes desafíos conceptuales y metodológicos. Examinamos este tema en California, donde los arqueólogos y otros han pasado por alto tradicionalmente la persistencia de los nativos en los años entre el cierre oficial de las misiones franciscanas de la región en la década de 1830 y el inicio del colonialismo de los Estados Unidos a fines de la década de 1840. En particular, abogamos por el uso juicioso del registro documental para hacer nuevas preguntas sobre la vida indígena durante este corto pero crítico período, cuando muchos nativos californianos fueron liberados de las misiones y buscaron una nueva vida en sus tierras natales o en áreas urbanas emergentes. Ofrecemos ejemplos de nuestra investigación individual y colectiva, realizada en colaboración con la tribu Muwekma Ohlone, sobre la persistencia nativa a largo plazo en el Área de la Bahía de San Francisco para demostrar cómo la evidencia de archivo puede iluminar cuatro áreas interrelacionadas de la vida cotidiana que podrían investigarse arqueológicamente, incluida la resistencia, la libertad, la servidumbre y el adorno personal. Al utilizar el registro escrito para recuperar un sentido del tiempo subjetivo, estos y otros temas podrían estimular una investigación nueva, interdisciplinaria y colaborativa que explique con mayor firmeza la presencia duradera de los pueblos indígenas a través de las sucesivas oleadas de colonialismo euroamericano
Living Prayer: A Book of Hours for Renewing Creation
No full textMorning and evening prayer for those seeking to respond to Pope Francis’s call for greater care for our common home.
“God saw everything that was made, and indeed, it was very good.” Yet human disregard for creation endangers that goodness. In Living Prayer: A Book of Hours for Cultivating Life, authors Alison M. Benders, Lisa Fullam, and Gina Hens-Piazza invite readers to embrace our role as servant-cultivators in the ecology of God, celebrating and sustaining all that is.
Following the pattern of the daily prayer of the church, Living Prayer offers a four-week cycle of morning and evening prayer to support a more sustainable lifestyle and embodies an ethic of care for our common home. Created with ecological and social justice-oriented individuals and organizations in mind, Living Prayer supports hands-on work in local communities, empowered by reflection and prayer. The book also includes a variety of green rituals to extend ecological prayer through practices that enlist elements of the reader’s environment to connect to God’s presence in the created world. It is an invitation to live the prayer of our hearts so that the ecology of God flourishes to cultivate the new creation.https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/faculty_books/1633/thumbnail.jp
Storage Solutions within Memory Capacitor Technologies
No full textThe need for efficient memory solutions is ever-increasing in the contemporary computing technology landscape, particularly in neuromorphic computing. This thesis introduces a novel approach to memory storage using memcapacitors, which store information via capacitance rather than voltage, offering a promising alternative to traditional memory systems. Through the development and simulation of memcapacitor technologies, this work explores their potential to enhance machine learning capabilities and reduce power consumption. Our research demonstrates that memcapacitors can be effectively implemented at the nano-scale, albeit with substantial manufacturing investment. We employed various optimization strategies, including circuit adjustments and behavioral modeling simulations, to maximize the efficiency and scalability of these devices for traditional and neuromorphic applications. The results indicate that memcapacitors hold significant promise for advancing power-efficient computing, positioning them as a critical technology for future research and application in electrical and computer engineering. Further advancements in this technology could lead to significant breakthroughs in AI applications, especially in areas requiring dense, efficient memory architectures. Moreover, the scalability of memcapacitors paves the way for their integration into a broader range of electronic devices, potentially transforming the landscape of consumer electronics by enhancing the capabilities and efficiency of smart devices
Black Superintendents’ Perspectives on Educational Reform
Get PDFThe historical roots of the United States education system are deeply entwined with the marginalization of Black students. Systemic racism continues to permeate educational institutions, creating significant achievement gaps and hindering Black student success. This research addresses the urgent need for educational reform efforts that prioritize Black student success. This dissertation explores the perspectives of Black superintendents in California. It identifies the integral elements they believe are necessary to redesign education and center the success of Black students. Employing a phenomenological approach, this study delves into the lived experiences of Black superintendents. Through semi-structured interviews, the research explores their views on dismantling systemic racism and creating equitable educational opportunities for Black students. The study identifies three key elements Black superintendents deem essential for educational reform: (a) increased recruitment and hiring of Black teachers to foster positive racial identity development in Black students; (b) focused allocation of resources and funding specifically tailored to address the needs of Black students and promote academic achievement; and (c) cultivating a collective belief system within the educational community that recognizes the inherent potential and brilliance of Black students. This dissertation contributes valuable insights for policymakers and educators seeking to dismantle systemic racism in education and create a more equitable learning environment where all students, particularly Black students, can thrive
Health Behavior Change: Proven Strategies for a Longer and Healthier Life (First Edition)
No full textBehavior is hard to change, especially when habits are well-ingrained into our daily lives and lifestyle. Yet, many people are desperate to change their behaviors, especially when it comes to health-related habits that can contribute to significant health problems.Health Behavior Change: Proven Strategies for a Longer and Healthier Life presents readers with a wide variety of evidence-based best practices in cognitive behavioral therapy that can help individuals change their health behaviors for good. The simple and straightforward workbook features a collection of questions and exercises that inspire thoughtful reflection and action. Dedicated sections of the workbook tackle individual behaviors—including diet, exercise, alcohol, smoking, sleep, and more—allowing readers to focus on topics that are of interest to them. Principles and tools for health behavior change are outlined in each chapter, providing readers with the tools they need to initiate long-term behavioral transformation.Based on Thomas G. Plante’s experiences teaching health psychology to college students for over 30 years and treating clinical patients struggling with health behavior efforts for over 40 years, Health Behavior Change is an ideal resource for anyone interested in improving their health and well-being through evidence-based best practices. The workbook is also a useful tool for clinicians treating patients who wish to make behavioral-based health changes in their lives.https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/faculty_books/1586/thumbnail.jp
