The Kyrgyz are a Mongolian, Turkic ethno-linguistic people group. The political and social changes of the post-soviet times have led to a great religious openness among the Kyrgyz. Within one decade the nunber of Kyrgyz Christians has grown from few dozens to over 3000. The intention of this work was to analyze the conversion process of the Kyrgyz converts to Christianity and to apply the results to further missiological activity. The religious background of the Kyrgyz, which is heavily influenced by Folk Islam, was presented in the first chapter of the paper. In the second chapter, interviews collected from Kyrgyz Christians were evaluated. The third chapter summarizes the most important findings of the work and makes them applicable for missionary work. The precise knowledge of the religious background of the Kyrgyz and intercultural communication that it is based upon it can essentially dismantle barriers for the acceptance of the gospel. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M. Th. (Missiology)

Jeanne d’Arc devient l’un des personnages clés de la fin du XIXème siècle. Façonnée et tiraillée, construite comme un symbole, elle est au cœur des enjeux politiques. C’est dans ce contexte que Camille Vallery-Radot réunit sa collection. Née en 1880 et contemporaine de cette période, elle s’est prise de passion pour Jeanne d’Arc et collectionne dès son enfance et jusqu’à sa mort en 1927 tout ce qui a trait à son héroïne, soit 10 000 documents. Sa collection s’apparente à un regard contemporain, et qui se veut en même temps exhaustif, de la période qui, progressivement, fait de la Pucelle un symbole fort de la Patrie. Elle témoigne de cette construction d’un mythe et d’un véritable culte lorsque Jeanne d’Arc devient le symbole de tout un peuple jusqu’à devenir ensuite un produit moteur pour le tourisme naissant. Le personnage de Jeanne d’Arc prend une place centrale dans les politiques culturelles qui commencent à se structurer à cette même période. A Rouen, la préservation et la valorisation du patrimoine lié à l’héroïne est au coeur de la démarche. Au-delà de sa fonction commémorative, l’enjeu de ce patrimoine devient aussi celui de l’attractivité d’un territoire. / By the end of the 19th century, Joan of Arc became one of the key character, shaped and raised as a symbol, she is at the core of political stakes. The Camille Vallery Radot's collection fits this context. She was born in 1880 and was contemporary of that period. She became passionate about Joan of Arc at the early age to her death in 1927. She collected everything she can find about her heroin, in total around 10 000 documents. This collection is a certain contemporary viewpoint, even exhaustive, of the period which will gradually built the Pucelle d’Orléans to a strong mother country symbol. Her collection witnesses the creation of myth and cult of Joan of Arc for the entire French population to become a product to rising tourism. Joan of Arc becomes the mainspring of cultural politics which arise at that time. In Rouen, preservation and development of patrimony linked to the heroin is deep in the heart of the procedures that leads not only to a commemoration, but also to a challenge of attractiveness issue.

Les lieux de culte antiques constituent des observatoires privilégiés des évolutions que connaissent les communautés. Ils sont le lieu où s'établit de manière privilégiée la communication entre la communauté et ses dieux. Ils font souvent l'objet d'un investissement financier et symbolique important et contribuent à exprimer l'identité de la communauté qui s'y rassemble. Ce travail de thèse s'intéresse au rôle joué par les lieux de culte de la Transpadane occidentale et centrale, dans l'organisation du territoire des peuples puis des cités de la plaine padane et des vallées alpines. L'intégration de la région dans l'Italie romaine fut très progressive et fut l'objet de plusieurs expérimentations administratives. Après avoir été alliés à Rome par la signature de traités, les habitants de la région reçurent en 89 av. J-C. le droit latin et furent organisés sous forme de colonies. Puis, en 49 av. J-C., Je droit romain leur fut concédé. Sous Auguste, les vallées alpines conquises furent rattachées à l'Italie selon le régime de l'« adtributio ». Ces changements de statut modifièrent en profondeur l'organisation politique et territoriale des peuples intégrés. En s'appuyant sur un recensement des lieux de culte connus par la documentation littéraire, épigraphique et archéologique, ce travail cherche d'une part à expliquer leurs évolutions - leur mise en place, leur abandon et leurs transformations - dans le contexte de la conquête et de la mise en place du cadre administratif romain, et d'autre part à montrer comment, à travers une telle étude, on peut écrire l'histoire des territoires et des communautés de la plaine du Pô et des vallées alpines. / The study of ancient cult places affords remarkable insights into the evolutions that shape the communities using and managing them. Since these are the places where the community and its gods communicate and since that function distinguishes cult places from other parts of the territory, they often are the objects of important investments, both financial and symbolic. They, in turn, become an expression of the identity of the community that gathers there. Cult places are distinct from other space-structuring elements because they manifest, within a certain region, the presence of a given group and help to define this group's territory. This dissertation studies the role of Cisalpine cult places - of Western and Central Transpadana to be exact- in the territorial organization of the peoples then cities, of the plain of Padania and the alpine valleys. The chosen period begins with the start of the Roman domination in the region, at the beginning of the 2nd century B.C., and ends in the 3rd century A.D., when the epigraphic evidences become scarce. The length of this period answers the need for a dyachronic study of the relationships between territory and cult places. The integration of the region in Roman Italy was indeed a slow one and was marked by several administrative experiments. The region's inhabitants first signed treaties of alliance with Rome. They received Latin Rights in 89 B.C. and were reorganized into colonies, before receiving Roman Rights, in 49 B.C.. The alpine valleys were conquered under Augustus and incorporated within Italy as adtributi. These changes in status implied a deep political and territorial reorganisation for the locals. Based on an inventory and study of the cult places known from literary, epigraphic and archaeological evidences, this dissertation aims, on the one hand, to explain their evolution - creation, abandon and transformations- within the context of the Roman conquest and imposition of the Roman administrative structure, and, on the other hand, to show how, through such a study, one can write the story of the territories and communities of Padania and the alpine valleys.

1 and 2 Chronicles is a book that solicits many questions and on which neither research nor debate is complete. The reason for this is the discrepancies between the book compared to other books with similar content. The purpose of this dissertation is to: - -- identify the differences between Chronicles and source writings; -- determine which selections were made from the source material, what has been nuanced, omitted, added and emphasized; -- study these selections contextually and determine what its function or purpose would have been; -- determine the Chronicler’s ideology and against this background determine whether the text functioned as discourse of power. The book 1 and 2 Chronicles forms the study field of this dissertation. This book is mainly a narrative that pretends to be a narration of history and covers the period from Adam until after the Babylonian exile. The temple and cult in Jerusalem form the focal point of this narrative. A comparison of the book 1 and 2 Chronicles with the source documents the author(s) used (namely Genesis, Joshua, 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings) clearly shows that the Chronicler worked extremely selectively when using the source documents and that he retells the history of Israel and Juda through omissions and additions with his own particular emphasis. The narrative offers a negative judgment of the Northern Kingdom (Israel) and all the tribes that lived in that area. On the other hand the Southern Kingdom and the tribes Juda, Levi and Benjamin are described extensively and are judged positively. David is presented as the ideal king. Bar one, all his wayward deeds that are comprehensively reported in the source documents are concealed. The purpose is evidently to create an extremely positive image of him. He is inter alia depicted as the founder of the cult in Jerusalem. In this manner the cult is also legitimized and given the stamp as the only true place of worship of the living God. To have a close connection with the cult in Jerusalem or not thus becomes the criterion to judge all kings after David. The study clearly reveals that 1 and 2 Chronicles functioned as a discourse of power that was aimed at promoting the interests of the post-exilic temple personnel in Jerusalem and legitimizing their control over the cult. As a discourse of power it sets boundaries and excludes different groups that were traditionally part of the people of YHWH. The destruction of the temple in 70 AD and the ending of the cult also meant the end of the purpose of this text as a discourse of power and created the possibility that it could become part of the collection of sacred writings known as the Old Testament. / Thesis (PhD (Old Testament Studies))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Old Testament Studies / unrestricted

RESUMÉ V ANGLICKÉM JAZYCE Since the 1980s, a revival of religious traditions, whose continuity was disrupted considerably in the Soviet-era Russia, has been in motion in the entire area of Siberia and Central Asia, among the so called 'rooted nations'. While major religious groups, such as buddhism and islam, could successfully pick up the threads of their religious traditions thanks to their written resources; religions based mainly on oral transmission are facing the opposite situation, shamanism not being an exception. Intense tension coming from the spirituality of their own ethnic traditions, which spontaneously opened after many years of the Communist secularization, in the case of shamanism hit the barriers of how to adequately re- establish the disrupted traditions (lack of living bearers and experts on their own traditions, initiated and uninitiated shamans, and other ceremony specialists, ignorance of symbolism). The whole process of rebirth, revival or revitalisation of shamanism is entirely consistent with the context of current issues concerning constituent societies, which naturally carries the legacy of Soviet culture. Political and economic changes in the post- Soviet space also enabled the bearers of traditions to become open to a wide range of new influences from abroad. Revitalization...

Seit ihrer Entdeckung im 19. Jh. sind die latènezeitlichen Graben-Wall-Einfriedungen, die in Nordfrankreich als „enclos“, in Süddeutschland als „Viereckschanzen“ bezeichnet werden, entweder als Kultplätze, als Gehöfte oder auch als Befestigungsanlagen interpretiert worden. Die vorliegende Arbeit, die 34 späteisenzeitliche Einfriedungssysteme aus beiden Ländern miteinander vergleicht, verfolgt daher zwei Absichten: zum einen soll geklärt werden, welche Fundplätze profane und welche sakrale Funktionen besessen haben könnten. Zum anderen stellt sich die Frage, welche Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede die Einfriedungen in Nordfrankreich und Süddeutschland aufweisen. / Since their discovery in the 19th century the enclosures from the Late Latène period, named „Viereckschanzen“ by german archaeologists, have been interpreted as cult places, as farmsteads or even as fortifications. By comparing 34 enclosures of the Late Iron Age from Northern France and Southern Germany, this paper thus pursues two objectives: firstly, to determine which of the sites can be identified as sacred or as profane; secondly, to show the similarities and differences between the enclosures in both regions. / Depuis leur découverte au XIXe siècle, les enceintes laténiennes, appelées „Viereckschanzen“ par les chercheurs allemands, ont été interprétées soit comme des lieux de culte, soit comme des fermes ou bien encore des fortifications. Cette recherche basée sur l’étude comparative de 34 enclos ruraux datés de La Tène tardive dans le nord de la France et le sud de l’Allemagne poursuit donc un double objectif. D’une part, en essayant de faire la distinction entre les sites profanes ou cultuels, et d’autre part, en essayant de mettre en évidence les points communs et les différences entre ces différents types d’enclos situés dans les deux pays.

Historie und Moderne liegen in Lotzdorf nah beieinander. Das Kriegerdenkmal mit dem Turnerkreuz an der Ludwig-Richter-Schule Oberschule Lotzdorf erinnert an diejenigen Gefallenen des Ersten Weltkrieges, die dem Turnerbund Lotzdorf angehörten. Gleichzeitig zeigt sich die Ludwig-Richter-Schule mit ihren Schülern hochmodern und aktuell mit der Darbietung des Kult-Songs: „Cupsong Lotzdorf“, dargeboten in der modernen Sporthalle der Schule und als Film online ins Internet gestellt.

For a long time, the human bones that were found outside the classical graves/grave context during the late Bronze Age were severely overlooked in research. It was first during the 1990’s that research took place and archaeologist like Anders Kaliff och Joanna Brück started studying this severely overlooked phenomena. This paper aims at analyzing and discussing why human bones were used outside the classical graves/grave context. As well as what the human bones were used for and how the human bones were treated. In this study the grave concept will be discussed to understand the late Bronze Age human’s definition of grave and burial rites more fully. The distinction between what is sacred and what is profane in the handling and using of the human bones in non-classical graves/grave contexts will also be overseen. The study in this paper is focused on the East part of central Sweden and will be analyzed and supplemented by both national and international archaeological sites of similar character. The primal sites for the study are Broby in Börje parish, Apalle in Övergran parish, Ryssgärdet in Tensta parish and Ringeby in Kvillinge parish. The study is set in the late Bronze Age in Sweden (1100–500 BC). This paper is meant as an analytical research where former research and archaeologist interpretations will be compared and work as a discussion with the writer’s own interpretations of the late Bronze Age human’s use of human bones. With the writer’s own interpretation and with the help of former research, the human bones found in non-classical graves/grave contexts have been assessed with both sacred and profane contexts. The result shows that the distinction between the sacred and the profane are better left outside the context of handling and using human bones.

The Mid-Neolithic site of Ajvide on the Baltic Island of Gotland comprises the burials of 89 individuals within 85 separate burial contexts (Österholm 2008). Some of these individuals were detected with absent skeletal elements, such as the cranium, which have been believed to be represented by the considerable number of dispersed human bone fragments discovered from the site (Burenhult 2002: 33, see also Lundén 2012). These occurrences were initially proposed to be caused by agricultural ploughing, which however has not been done on the fields of Ajvide with the modern machinery of the late 20th century (Burenhult 2002: 31). It was hence the intention of this study to investigate the alternative motives behind these phenomena, by reviewing the statistics between these skeletal materials. The correspondence was additionally analysed with some other selected variables on the available data from these burial contexts. Based on the attained results, it was concluded that the human skeletal remains from the disturbed burials were likely intentionally retrieved to be used in the different ritual activities of the PWC populations on Gotland. / Den mellanneolitiska Ajvidelokalen på Gotland omfattar 85 begravningar av totalt 89 individer (Österholm 2008, Burenhult 2002). Vissa av individerna påträffades utan specifika skelettelement, såsom kraniet. Dessa individer har använts som representanter för tolkningen av den markanta kvantiteten av spridda mänskliga benfragment, som hittats via arkeologiska utgrävningar på lokalen (Burenhult 2002: 33, se även Lundén 2012 och Wallin 2015). Till en början ansågs jordbruksplogningen vara ansvarig för detta fenomen, dock har inga plöjningar utförts med moderna maskiner, eller sedan 1900-talet (Burenhult 2002: 31). Därmed, var syftet med studie att undersöka alternativa tolkningar bakom dessa fenomen. Studien är på analyser av de två olika grupperna med skelettmaterial, som inkluderats i en statistisk modell. Dessutom utfördes en korrespondensanalys mellan andra särskilt utvalda variabler från varje gravkontext. Studien har konkluderat, att de mänskliga skelettresterna från de förstörda begravningarna, hämtades sannolikt avsiktligen för olika rituella aktiviteter som praktiserades av den mellanneolitiska befolkningen på Gotland.

L’étude du culte impérial romain au IVe siècle est généralement reléguée au second plan dans les recherches portant sur le sujet, souvent mis dans la même situation de déclin avec les cultes traditionnels. Or, à la lumière des sources d’époque et des travaux de certains historiens, comme Louis Bréhier, le culte impérial semble avoir vraisemblablement survécu à ce pronostique de disparition. Plus intéressant encore, le culte impérial apparait s’être transformé et adapté à la nouvelle réalité qu’offrait un Empire romain se christianisant et dont le pouvoir de l’empereur se sacralisait. Le travail présenté dans ce mémoire met en parallèle les métamorphoses que connait le culte impérial avec le renforcement du pouvoir impérial au cours du IVe siècle, tout en comparant l’évolution de la perception qu’avaient les chrétiens de cette institution fondamentalement traditionnelle. Comme mentionné ci-dessus, l’étude se base sur un corpus de sources contemporaines, allant d’homélies chrétiennes à des sources épigraphiques, en passant par les panégyriques, qui viendront corroborer l’information relevée chez plusieurs historiens s’étant penchés sur le sujet. Globalement, cette recherche démontre que le culte impérial a réussi à se départir des connotations religieuses jugées problématiques par les chrétiens tout en continuant de fonctionner et d’occuper une place centrale dans la vie des romains. Ceci, conjointement à un pouvoir impérial s’exprimant de manière absolue, va amorcer la métamorphose du culte impérial en un « culte monarchique », exaltant encore plus le pouvoir de l’empereur pour les siècles à venir. / The study of the Roman imperial cult in the 4th century has often been relegated to the background in research relating to this subject. The imperial cult has even often been relegated to the same fate than the rest of the Roman traditional cults. However, in the light of period sources and the work of certain historians, such as Louis Bréhier, the imperial cult seems to have survived this prognosis of disappearance. More interesting still, the imperial cult appears to have transformed and adapted to the new reality offered by a Christianizing Roman Empire while the power of the emperor was becoming more sacred. The work presented in this thesis parallels the metamorphosis experienced by the imperial cult with the strengthening of imperial power during the fourth century, while comparing the evolution of the perception that Christians had of this fundamentally traditional institution. As mentioned above, the study is based on a body of contemporary sources, ranging from Christian homilies to epigraphic sources which will corroborate the information found in the work of several historians who have studied the topic. Overall, this research demonstrates that the imperial cult succeeded in shedding religious connotations that Christians considered problematic while continuing to function and occupy a central place in the life of the Romans. This, together with an imperial power expressed in absolute terms, initiated the metamorphosis of the imperial cult into a "monarchical cult", exalting even more the emperor's power for centuries to come.