Divinity School Professional Degree Program Capstones and Theses

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https://ir.vanderbilt.edu/handle/1803/9600
The Vanderbilt Divinity School offers three professional degree programs: Masters of Divinity (M.Div.), Masters of Theological Studies (M.T.S.), and Masters of Theology (Th.M.). This collection includes capstone projects or theses from these programs. Theses (M.A) and dissertations (Ph.D.) from the Department of Religion can be found in the Electronic Theses and Dissertations collection.

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    Rethinking “The Orphan”: Towards a Unitarian Universalist Imperative for Supporting LGBTQIA+ Grievers Experiencing Living Family Loss
    (2024-04) Westervelt, Krista
    The living loss of family after coming out can lead to disenfranchised grief for members of the LGBTQIA+ community. Such an experience could be considered an orphaning, a state of vulnerability that numerous religious traditions respond to with mandates of care. The plurality of religious and moral sources that inspire Unitarian Universalist moral and ethical praxis illuminate a throughline care for the orphan that transcends mere material offerings by expanding into care for emotional well-being. This interreligious throughline can undergird a Unitarian Universalist imperative to care for the grief of those within the LGBTQIA+ community who have been "orphaned" by living loss after coming out, allowing for those within Unitarian Universalism at the denominational and congregational levels to fill in critical gaps in religious praxis and to live more fully and authentically into the denomination's welcoming and affirming values.
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    "Don't Call Me Sis/Cis Cuz' I'm Not Your Sister": Black Nonbinary Method and the Praxis of Nonbinary Womanism
    (2022-05-13) Temple, Simone
    The intersection of gender and Blackness as it pertains to transgender identity has long been a contested site. The ontologies and epistemologies of Black trans individuals have complicated and interrogated the gender binaries of white supremacy and Black culture. In this essay, I use my own experience, memoirs, and scholarship from nonbinary writers and scholars to develop a Black nonbinary method. I map the experience of nonbinary Blackwomanhood as well as define nonbinary Blackwoman. Then, using the language of Alice Walker and Stacey-Floyd Thomas, I attempt to apply the Black nonbinary method to womanism and define nonbinary womanism. I conclude by detailing the implications for this work in womanist and Black trans scholarship and communities.
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    Theorizing Identity Harm as a Barrier to Clergy Well-being
    (2021-04-15) Cook, Randy
    Clergy experience poor well-being. In addition to difficult job conditions and inadequate training, the work itself causes harm to the Self. This project theorizes how this harm occurs. This project also proposes a prescription for each minister: Find, or create, a place in your life where you are safe enough that you are compelled to be open, with others, about who you really are." Joining a Clergy Peer Group is a systemic way of creating the needed space for restoring from Identity Harm. The project includes selected resources for creating a Clergy Peer Group.
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    Narsai's Homily on Job: A Digital Edition and Translation with Introduction
    (2019-05-05) Potter, William L.; Michelson, David
    This thesis presents an electronic edition and English translation of a homily on the book of Job written by the fifth-century Syriac poet Mar Narsai. Furthermore, the edition and translation have been encoded in using the eXstensible Markup Language (XML) following the guidelines established by the Text Encoding Initiative for encoding textual sources in a digital format. Along with the edition and translation of the homily on Job, this thesis offers an introduction to the life of Narsai, his writing style, and the extant sources for this homily. The introduction, moreover, explores Narsai's interpretation of the book and character of Job within the context both of late-antique biblical interpretation and of early Syriac asceticism—of which Narsai was a prominent figure. Narsai combines an early Syriac understanding of the Bible as a mirror of divine Truth with a prominent Christian interpretation of Job as a moral exemplar. Furthermore, Narsai refracts this view of Job as moral exemplar through his particular ascetic lens. Narsai thus presents Job as an ascetic mirror, an ascetic par excellence whose narrative serves as a model to be emulated by other ascetics when faced with the vicissitudes of life and the temptations of the Accuser.