For his capstone dissertation work in the Academy of the New Church Theological School (www.ancts.org), Stephen Muires is studying the nature and process of the sacred. Included here is a brief abstract in which Stephen introduces the reader to the motivation which propelled him into this study and one section from his dissertation entitled “Relation Between Holiness and Our Life.” This is the second theological school dissertation digest. Last week Todd Beiswenger shared a little of his work on Creating Your Own Reality. Next week we hear from Pearse Frazier about the nature of Celestial Bliss. -Editor

Abstract

The topic of my dissertation is holiness, or the Sacred. Why holiness? Because I am interested in the experience of religion, not just the understanding of religion. Holiness implicitly has an experiential side. Holiness is where meaning and value become obvious, without needing arguments as proof.

The topic has within it a development, moving from what is ordinary, given and part of the order of creation to the purpose, goal and process of human life. There is a movement from a state of holiness in objects and places, to a becoming or growing in holiness. This is also a movement from an external to a more and more internal reality.