John S Gravett | Heythrop College, University of London (original) (raw)
Bachelor of Arts with Upper Second Class Honours, December 1986.
Master of Philosophy, December 1993 - Thesis: 'A Model of Natural Language Dialogue.' MA Christian Theology, October 2009 - Thesis: 'Constructing a Balanced Theodicy: Contributions from Augustine and Irenaeus.' PhD., May 2017 - Thesis: "Facilitating Theological Conversations about the Holocaust: An Assessment of the Applicability of David Tracy's Notion of the Classic."
Supervisors: Rev Dr Martin Poulsom, Professor Dan Cohn-Sherbok
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Papers by John S Gravett
In this thesis I have a threefold purpose. Firstly, I will attempt to argue that the individual u... more In this thesis I have a threefold purpose. Firstly, I will attempt to argue that the individual utterances agents make in natural language dialogue stem from specific beliefs, goals, and plans and that these interlock with those of other agents in the production of dialogue. I suggest that agents utilise syntactic, semantic, pragmatic and contextual knowledge in this process. Furthermore, that these elements contribute to the utterances speakers make and hearers interpret in the pursuit of their individual goals, and cannot be treated separately. I will suggest that utterances, being intentional behaviour, are sub-components of plans to achieve specific communicative purposes. Following from this, I will present a descriptive model showing how the beliefs and goals of agents contribute to the composing of a logical form for an utterance prior to its syntactic representation. It is suggested that the logical form of an utterance, is composed of elements relating to the agent's be...
and theology the groundwork done by Martinez is most useful and provides the major source for thi... more and theology the groundwork done by Martinez is most useful and provides the major source for this discussion, supplemented by some other writers and the writer's own reading of Tracy and some of his sources. The plan and structure for this section is, firstly, to note some general observations that Martinez makes about Tracy's overall theological enterprise that have a general significance for this work.
Thesis Chapters by John S Gravett
Facilitating Theological Conversations About the Holocaust: An Assessment of the Applicability of David Tracy's Notion of the Classic, 2017
David Tracy's notion of the classic and his hermeneutical, conversational model of theological in... more David Tracy's notion of the classic and his hermeneutical, conversational model of theological investigation are used in this work to examine a number of theological themes, responses which emerge from post-Holocaust theological and philosophical literature. This is done within a theological context of evil and suffering of which Auschwitz has become the paradigm example and against the backdrop of theodicy, antitheodicy and atheodicy. It is argued that the event of the Holocaust can be viewed theologically in terms of Tracy's concept of the religious classic. Literature relating to the Holocaust is vast but this work restricts its focus to the Jewish theological and philosophical literature arising from this event. The reasons for this are firstly, given the character and nature of the genocide perpetrated against the Jewish people by the Nazis in the years of the Third Reich, the event must be interpreted predominantly as a Jewish phenomenon. Secondly, the most thoughtful and widely accepted responses to this event have arisen mainly from Jewish sources and literature, pointing to the Holocaust being a greater existential issue for Jewish theologians and philosophers than those of Christianity or thinkers within contemporary secular society. Jewish writing on the Holocaust is also considerable and a further way of dealing with the diversity of responses arising from this negative event is to arrange them thematically in a dipolar framework. These themes and responses are invariably dealt with in the literature in opposition to each other and therefore a dipolar framework can be seen to emerge naturally from the treatment of the themes in the texts. Eight themes, arranged in four dipoles, are subjected to analysis. These are: the punishment of the Jews for their sins versus the Jews as the suffering servant; hester panim (the hiding of the face of God) versus human freedom, responsibility and sin; the mystery and inexplicable nature of the Holocaust versus the providence of God; and unbelief/disbelief versus belief and faith. Tracy's method of analysis draws the dipolar themes into a conversation with each other and into a wider dialogue between the religious classics of post-Holocaust theology. This transcendental and dialectical model of analysis offers the possibility of transcending the dipolarity of the themes by a process of sublation, bringing about transformation. Furthermore, distinct levels of
In this thesis I have a threefold purpose. Firstly, I will attempt to argue that the individual u... more In this thesis I have a threefold purpose. Firstly, I will attempt to argue that the individual utterances agents make in natural language dialogue stem from specific beliefs, goals, and plans and that these interlock with those of other agents in the production of dialogue. I suggest that agents utilise syntactic, semantic, pragmatic and contextual knowledge in this process. Furthermore, that these elements contribute to the utterances speakers make and hearers interpret in the pursuit of their individual goals, and cannot be treated separately. I will suggest that utterances, being intentional behaviour, are sub-components of plans to achieve specific communicative purposes. Following from this, I will present a descriptive model showing how the beliefs and goals of agents contribute to the composing of a logical form for an utterance prior to its syntactic representation. It is suggested that the logical form of an utterance, is composed of elements relating to the agent's be...
and theology the groundwork done by Martinez is most useful and provides the major source for thi... more and theology the groundwork done by Martinez is most useful and provides the major source for this discussion, supplemented by some other writers and the writer's own reading of Tracy and some of his sources. The plan and structure for this section is, firstly, to note some general observations that Martinez makes about Tracy's overall theological enterprise that have a general significance for this work.
Facilitating Theological Conversations About the Holocaust: An Assessment of the Applicability of David Tracy's Notion of the Classic, 2017
David Tracy's notion of the classic and his hermeneutical, conversational model of theological in... more David Tracy's notion of the classic and his hermeneutical, conversational model of theological investigation are used in this work to examine a number of theological themes, responses which emerge from post-Holocaust theological and philosophical literature. This is done within a theological context of evil and suffering of which Auschwitz has become the paradigm example and against the backdrop of theodicy, antitheodicy and atheodicy. It is argued that the event of the Holocaust can be viewed theologically in terms of Tracy's concept of the religious classic. Literature relating to the Holocaust is vast but this work restricts its focus to the Jewish theological and philosophical literature arising from this event. The reasons for this are firstly, given the character and nature of the genocide perpetrated against the Jewish people by the Nazis in the years of the Third Reich, the event must be interpreted predominantly as a Jewish phenomenon. Secondly, the most thoughtful and widely accepted responses to this event have arisen mainly from Jewish sources and literature, pointing to the Holocaust being a greater existential issue for Jewish theologians and philosophers than those of Christianity or thinkers within contemporary secular society. Jewish writing on the Holocaust is also considerable and a further way of dealing with the diversity of responses arising from this negative event is to arrange them thematically in a dipolar framework. These themes and responses are invariably dealt with in the literature in opposition to each other and therefore a dipolar framework can be seen to emerge naturally from the treatment of the themes in the texts. Eight themes, arranged in four dipoles, are subjected to analysis. These are: the punishment of the Jews for their sins versus the Jews as the suffering servant; hester panim (the hiding of the face of God) versus human freedom, responsibility and sin; the mystery and inexplicable nature of the Holocaust versus the providence of God; and unbelief/disbelief versus belief and faith. Tracy's method of analysis draws the dipolar themes into a conversation with each other and into a wider dialogue between the religious classics of post-Holocaust theology. This transcendental and dialectical model of analysis offers the possibility of transcending the dipolarity of the themes by a process of sublation, bringing about transformation. Furthermore, distinct levels of