S.T.M. Thesis (completed):
AT-ONE-MENT: WHAT IN GOD’S NAME?
Theories of atonement hinge on the character of God. God in the OT has several names, one of which is El Shaddai. It has traditionally been translated into many languages as the English equivalent of “Almighty, ” but “God of the Breast” is a more apt translation as seen via context in the 48 occurrences of it throughout the Hebrew Scriptures. This translation reinforces interpretation as evidenced in a review of Gustavo Gutiérrez’ On Job: God-Talk and the Suffering of the Innocent. Second Isaiah also contains an image of God female that is useful in explicating atonement nonviolently: the mother who remembers. Questions of atonement overlap the issue of theodicy. God is a loving, suffering, powerful God wooing evil into transformation. Pneumatology reveals more of the nature of God, and has many resonances with the Judaic idea of Shekhinah/Spirit of God. From a brief exploration of Moltmann’s pneumatology and Melissa Raphael’s holocaust theology, atonement can be seen as an ongoing process.
Traditional theories of atonement, while appropriate for a long past context, do not answer today’s questions of oppression of women, violent conquest, imperialism, and other forms of abuse. Feminists and Womanist theologians Darby Ray, Deanna Thompson and Joanne Marie Terrell have re-imaged the traditional theories using creativity and rigor as they address current issues. Rita Nakashima Brock and Rebecca Parker have reclaimed the Eastern theory of theosis. Several of the feminist and womanist reappraisals can be grouped under a new category: the moral influence of Jesus’ life.
An holistic theory of at-one-ment addresses the traditional categories of systematic theology, while looking through the lenses of atonement and God as God of the Breast, the remembering mother and Spirit/Shekhinah, and keeping in the foreground feminist and womanist critiques and contributions. The emergent theory does not damage the character of God, is nonviolent, has both “once-and-for-all” and continuing attributes, retains a victory over evil while not ignoring this present evil, adheres to the resurrection, has eschatological characteristics, is firmly rooted in this life, does not further the trauma of abuse, and engages theo-poetics.

Ph.D. Dissertation: Bartolomé de Las Casas’ The Only Way: A Postcolonial Reading of At-one-ment for Mission (Tentative Title, not completed)