Subject Area
Philosophy, Religion
Abstract
Classical theism is often held to be antithetical to resisting oppression. Within this dissertation I argue that Classical theism is not merely consistent with the project of resisting oppression, but that traditional commitments of classical theism can be shown to entail an obligation to resist oppression and center the voices of the oppressed persons. Towards this end, I will advance four claims pivotal to my thesis. First, a commitment to classical theism entails a commitment to the creator-creature distinction. Second, a commitment to the creator-creature distinction entails an obligation to reject false conceptions of God.
My third and most crucial claim is that oppression depends upon false conceptions of God. This third claim is itself buttressed by two foundational premises. First, that all false moral evaluations depend upon false conceptions of God. Second, that oppression depends upon false moral evaluations. I take the latter of these two claims to be nearly uncontestable in its plausibility. However, the former claim will require a more fine-grained account of classical theism. In service of my argument, I will employ an Anselmian moral phenomenology drawn from Anselm’s Monologion and Proslogion and helpful contemporary interpreters of Anselm like Jeffrey Brower. These two buttressing claims support the plausibility that oppression depends upon false conceptions of God
If—on classical theism—one ought to reject false conceptions of God, then one ought to reject those false conceptions of God upon which all instances of oppression depend. Since oppression as a social relation is dependent upon false conceptions of God, then the classical theist ought to resist oppression. This all leads to my fourth claim: Classical theists ought to center the voices of oppressed persons. Here, I will draw from the tradition of standpoint epistemology to motivate my claim.
The plausibility of the thesis advanced within this dissertation follows from my four instrumental claims. Classical theism is not merely consistent with the project of resisting oppression, rather, the obligation to resist oppression and center the voices of the oppressed can be shown to be entailed by the traditional commitments of classical theism. Whether my argument is ultimately successful, this research serves as a constructive foray into the social and political implications of classical theistic commitments.
Degree Date
Summer 8-5-2025
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Department
Graduate Program
Advisor
Bruce D. Marshall
Second Advisor
Frederick Aquino
Third Advisor
Karen Baker-Fletcher
Fourth Advisor
D. Stephen Long
Fifth Advisor
Simon Hewitt
Number of Pages
232
Format
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Recommended Citation
Juliano, Chance, "Liberation as Apophasis: A Constructive Account" (2025). Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations. 43.
https://scholar.smu.edu/religious_studies_etds/43
Included in
Christianity Commons, Epistemology Commons, Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons, Ethics in Religion Commons, Metaphysics Commons, Other Philosophy Commons, Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons
