The thesis inquires into the role of the Christian Churches in the ethnic and communal conflicts of the Third World. Often times summoned to intervene, churches can instigate, ignore, or seek to reconcile the inter-communal tensions and strife which wreak havoc on the development of these societies. Church response to reconcile the rival claims of divergent ethnic communities is, however, not necessarily impelled purely by doctrinal directives. The institutional interests of the church as well as other priorities often qualify the role of the churches as peace-makers. Using empirical evidence from Fiji, Guyana, and Trinidad, the thesis focuses mainly on the conciliatory role of the churches in these conflicts. It seeks to ascertain whether the churches, over the years and in different cultural milieux, have evolved a body of experiential resources in resolving or assuaging these conflicts. In the end, the thesis attempts to answer the question whether there is or can be a Christian mode of ethnic conflict resolution.

This thesis is an investigation of the place and function of repentance in the theology of Paul as determined by the critical application of the categories "getting-in" and staying-in" to the passages where the term is used and to passages where the concept may be implied. It contains an exegesis of those passages and an analysis of Paul's conversion experience. Consideration is also given to the implications this study has for other areas of New Testament study. / The main theses are that repentance was used by Paul in a variety of ways and played a more important role for him than has been thought and that Paul's place in early Christianity was in line with the teaching of Jesus and the early Christian church.

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This dissertation is a statement concerning Calvin's view of God and Calvin's view of grace, as they appear in the sermons. Contrary to the opinion of Barth and others, to the effect that for Calvin Christ is the mere executor of the Father's inscrutable and symmetrical decrees, we assert that the requirements of the pastoral situation led Calvin to give much more place to election than to reprobation. Predestination for Calvin was essentially election, because the God we know in Jesus Christ is precisely the electing God through whose free grace undeserving sinners are granted faith and perseverance leading to salvation. The nature of God as sovereign mercy, known through Christ, is the focus of Calvin's doctrine of grace. For Calvin the preacher, reprobation's functional status is less one of a fixed decree than of a dark possibility for those who do not respond in faith to the preaching of the Gospel.

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Tillich frames the question of truth, meaning, and certainty within the spiritual and social crises of the 20th century. Specifically, be addresses the fragmentation of religion, culture, faith, reason, emotion, and the displacement of religion to the periphery of human consciousness. These demonstrate how this compartmentalization and marginalization is due to a misunderstanding of the nature of reason and its relation to being, religious consciousness, language and symbol and reveal religion as the inescapable center of human experience. Tillich reunites these fragments of the psyche and returns religion to the center of human experience without falling into the hubris and subjectivity of idealism. This thesis examines Tillich's ontological approach to knowledge, his idea of "theonomous" culture, religion as "ultimate concern". It presents Tillich's understanding of being-itself as the religious source of human thought, activity; and creation and as the presupposition of truth, meaning and certainty. It examines the universal experience of faith and "ultimate concern" revealed in the "courage to be".

Henri Gregoire poses a problem to all scholars who see the French Revolution as an anti-religious event. Most of his fellow 'red priests', those not-so-few who in 1789 asked for some kind of democracy and more rights for the 'damned of the earth', gradually abandoned either their faith or their patriotism. Gregoire, until his death in 1831, always proclaimed the compatibility of Christianity and republic. Not only is his position representative of that of many Catholics at the beginning of the Revolution, it also asks anew the important question of the link between religion and revolution, and gives it an unusual answer. As many philosophes did, Gregoire was speaking in terms of reason, of the Enlightenments, and of natural rights---but nevertheless believed Catholicism was the only good religion. If a good Christian is the best citizen possible, how can one fight for the recognition of the 'natural rights' of the Jews and the freedom of worship for all without being inconsistant?

Can we read the Gospel of Mark as tragedy? How so? With what limits? With what results? I depart from previous explorations of these questions by rejecting their definition of tragedy as a work faithful to the dramatic conventions described in Aristotle's Poetics. I build instead on Aristotle's essential definition of tragedy as a work that inspires fear and pity in an audience. Using a narrative-critical approach, which allows a focus on the effects generated by Mark's plot and characters, I conclude that Mark, while more tragic than Matthew, is not clearly tragic or comic: the gospel maintains a careful balance of tragic and comic possibilities, challenging the reader to appropriate the story in her own world and tip the scales towards the comic. The effect of the text, however, is dependent on audience; Matthew's rewriting of and Papias' comments on Mark demonstrate that contemporary readers probably did not perceive Mark as tragic.

David Ray Griffin claims that the commonly perceived conflict between religion and science, or between religious and scientific assertions is primarily that of worldview, or philosophical stance. Science is predominantly associated with the philosophy of materialistic naturalism, whereas religion is predominantly associated with supernaturalism. Griffin believes that the conflict between these worldviews can be overcome by a mutual modification based upon the tenets of process philosophy, thus allowing for one integrated worldview. In science this modification involves the adoption of a minimal as opposed to a maximal form of naturalism. In religion, this modification involves the adoption of naturalistic as opposed to supernaturalistic theism. Griffin argues that each respective domain would be more coherent and fruitful if these modifications were to be made. This study examines the details of this argument, and considers whether Griffin's process offering is religiously and scientifically compelling, or whether it is simply potentially philosophically satisfying.

This paper examines Zen Master Dogen's philosophy of shinjin datsuraku, dropping off body and mind, through his dialectical standpoint on sunyata. In our efforts, we shall learn of the philosophical affinities Dogen shares with early Mahayana thinkers, particularly Nagarjuna and his philosophy of emptiness. A demonstration of this connection will in turn open up a new conceptual window for viewing and interpreting various themes and passages within Dogen's writings. Some ideas we will explore in order to frame out a dialectical discussion of shinjin datsuraku are the mind-body problem and its relationship to the problem of time, as well as his philosophy and practice of zazen, seated meditation. / Following from this examination, we will then probe Dogen's dialectical standpoint on shinjin datsuraku. In our attempt to unfold the philosophical layers of meaning that encapsulate this teaching, we will provide a novel reading of his philosophy of Buddha-nature, a philosophy that is free from all traces of essentialism.