Congratulations to Atif Khalil and Craig Ginn for successfully defending your PhD dissertations in Spring 2009.

Early Sufi Approaches to Tawba: From the Quran to Abu T Alib al-Makki
Atif Khalil
Abstract: Despite the central place of tawba in Islamic faith and practice, the concept has to date been the subject of very little serious academic research. The purpose of this study is to fill something of this scholarly lacuna by examining early Sufi approaches to tawba with a particular focus on the period that spans the 8^th to the 10^th centuries. The thesis is divided into two parts. It begins with an elaborate semantic analysis of tawba through a survey of the most important classical lexicons of Arabic, the aim of which is to problematize our common understanding of tawba as “repentance.”  The study then proceeds to examine tawba in the Qur’ān through an internal semantic analysis of the text by employing a method utilized by T. Izutsu in his own key studies of the Qur’ān, the purpose of which is to retrace the scriptural origins of many early Sufi notions of tawba and demonstrate L. Massignon’s observation that the Sufis made the first concerted attempt “to interiorize the Qur’ānic vocabulary and to integrate it into ritual practice.” The second part of the thesis begins by examining some of the early tawba-narratives in the Sufi hagiographical literature. It is shown that tawba is presented in the Sufi tradition as a life-altering process of “interior conversion,” and not merely a simple act of turning away from a particular sin or vice.  Tawba is therefore a process in which the seeker is moved to give himself entirely to the inner spiritual life of Islam. A taxonomy of this kind of “interior conversion” is also proposed to account for the differing means through which conversion might be sparked. The study then moves to examine the place of tawba within the ascending Sufi hierarchy of “states (ahwāl)” and “stations (maqāms)” in the thought a number of early, pivotal Sufi figures. It is shown through a close textual analysis of extant early works of the mystical tradition that the most overarching concern in regards to the question of tawba in the early period was not with theoretical or metaphysical issues, but with the Sufi science of praxis or the ‘ulūm al-mu‘āmalāt.

Theological authority in the hymns and spirituals of American Protestantism, 1830-1930
Craig Ginn
Abstract:  This dissertation examines theological authority in the hymns and spirituals of American Protestantism within the period 1830-1930.  It investigates the deuterocanonical status of hymns in hymnic-theological commentary, and demonstrates the functional canonicity of hymns in three case studies (children’s hymnody, African American spirituals, and hymns of marginalized groups), and two representative areas of praxis (conversion and missions).
This dissertation consults a variety of primary source materials, both elite and popular, including journals, biographies, conference minutes, academic addresses, theological works, hymn prefaces, domestic novels, newspapers, and poetry. These sources are used to situate the hymnal in the cultural context of American Protestantism and determine the status and role of hymnody.
As the Bible is acclaimed the exclusive canonical text of Protestantism, consideration of the hymnal’s theological authority in canonical terms is at odds with Protestant biblicism. As such, this dissertation’s claim that the hymnal shared, to a significant degree, the Bible’s place as a textual source of theological authority, is intellectually innovative. In identifying didactic and doctrinal themes in hymnals, primarily through systematic theology, this dissertation shows the role of hymns and spirituals in regulative theology and audible faith. Thus defended in this dissertation, is the hymnal’s capacity to adjudicate on matters of faith and praxis.
Of additional importance to this dissertation is its contribution toward hymnic theology, as well as demonstrating the hymnal’s influence upon historical theology, liturgical theology, cultural theology, and evangelistic theology. This dissertation yields various insights for theology, especially the soteriological efficacy of hymnody, the role of hymns in regulative theology, and the discussion of anti-Semitism and black-liberation theology in African American spirituals. In applied theology and congregational studies the ramifications are critical, with the analysis of hymnic authority, the intersection of singing and doctrine (lex cantandi lex credendi), and the Bible and hymnal as mutually constitutive, all of paramount importance.