<p>The question of Paul's relationship to Jesus has been debated variously and vigorously for more than a century. Research on the question seems to have moved along three basic lines: 1. Paul's Christian consciousness in the Spirit was virtually independent of Jesus, which accounts for the paucity of references to Jesus in the Letters; 2. Parallels exist between the Gospels and Paul's letters, which points to Paul's awareness of historical continuity between his work and the life and teaching of Jesus; 3. Paul's conceptuality of Christ required only the fact of Jesus, especially his death, to make his preaching the Gospel. Whereas the arguments generally have sought to uncover elements of continuity and/or discontinuity between Paul and Jesus, the present discussion investigates the interpretive mode by which Paul conceived of the continuity and change between Jesus of Nazareth and the resurrected Christ of faith. The particular schematism by which Paul conceived of the relationship and identity between the pre-Easter and post-Easter Christ may be described as "typological". Typological relationship between prefiguration and fulfilment (type-antitype) can be observed in Paul's letters principally in terms of his understanding of the change from the old aeon to the new under the single plan of God for the world. God intended all along to inaugurate the new aeon by raising Christ from the dead; and the divine intention can be traced in the sacred record of Israel's sojourn under God. Typology understood thus in Paul's letters is readily discerned in arguments that use important figures from Scripture. Three figures in particular are prominent in Paul's letters: Adam who is said to be a type (ᴛυπoς) of Christ (Rom. 5:14; cf. I Cor. 15:20ff; 42ff); Abraham who is presented as a type of one who enters the community of Christ by faith (Rom. 4:1-25; Gal. 3:1-18); Moses who comes across as a type of Christian ministers in the new dispensation of the Spirit (II Cor. 3:1-18; cf. I Cor. 10:1-13). In each case the antitype resides in the post-Easter experience of Christ and the Spirit, except perhaps in the case of Adam where change from the old to the new creation is focused more sharply. In light of Paul's method of associating his post-Easter experience of Christ with figures of salvation-history in the old aeon, we are in a position to test the probability of a similar typological identity between Christ resurrected and Jesus of Nazareth. The two are not synonymous, but are rather on a typological continuum. Christ according to the flesh is type, of which Christ according to the Spirit is the antitype, or fulfilment (Rom. 1:3f; 8:3; cf. Gal. 4:4-6). The identity between the two spheres of Christ may be sought on other levels, but this typological level demands serious consideration in light of the pattern that exists for figures of Scripture. Further confirmation of this typological identity between the two spheres of Christ's existence comes from Paul's view of Christian existence in the Spirit in anticipation of the resurrection/transformation at the parousia. Christian life in the Spirit, while still in the flesh, is said to be "guarantee," "seal," and "first fruits" (II Cor. 1:22; 5:5; Rom. 8:23), all terms representative of typological thinking. This typological schematism, when applied to the pre-Easter Christ according to the flesh, tends to decrease the prominence of the type in favour of the antitypal fulfilment.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>This thesis deals with what two modern theologians have said about knowledge of God. Karl Barth, who must be regarded as the most influential theologian of this century, defended the position that God can only be known through his revelation in Christ - the Word of God. Consequently, any attempt on man's part to attain to knowledge of God in another way must be seen as an expression of his refusal to recognize the freedom and grace of God. Theology, according to Barth, is only true to its calling if it submits to the Word and accepts it unquestioningly as the point of departure for theological reflection. Wolfhart Pannenberg belongs to the post-Barthian era. He is deeply concerned about the situation in which theology finds itself today. It is his firm conviction that a 'Theology of the Word' leads the Church into a ghetto and fails tzo respond to the challenge of atheism. Pannenberg observes that the word 'God' has become a meaningless sound to many of our contemporaries, which is precisely the reason why theology ought to render a reasonable or rational account of the Christian faith. Theology must engage in such a task not only for the sake of those who have become estranged from the Christian tradition, but also and equally for people who confess Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Christians, too, need the assurance that their faith is not based on private experiences or subjective decisions, otherwise they will not be able to free themselves from the gnawing doubt that their faith might be an illusion, a merely subjective affair without a corresponding reality. Pannenberg presents us with a program of which many details still have to be worked out. Nevertheless, his numerous publications give us a clear picture of the direction theology is to take. The main elements in his approach are (1) the development of a philosophical theology with a basis in modern anthropology, and (2) the development of a concept of revelation as history; i.e., revelation is not so much a matter of divine words as of historical acts which can be verified by means of the historical-critical method. It is the contention of this author that there are indeed differences between Barth and Pannenberg but they are not nearly so radical as the latter contends.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>This thesis contributes to scholarship on the subject of evil, as well as to scholarship concerning the ethical and political significance of theatre. It is guided by two central questions: the question of how the modern experience of evil has been represented by important works of dramatic literature, and the question of how the experience of evil in general is central to the nature of theatre itself. I discuss the phenomenon of "modern evil" by examining the significant examples of Renaissance and twentieth century drama. Insufficient scholarly attention has been paid to the fact that theatre was a vibrant aesthetic during the early modern and late modern periods, reflecting both thte impulses that initiated the modern project and the sufferings that led to its revaluation. Through plays by Niccolo Machiavelli, William Shakespeare, Albert Camus, and Samuel Beckett, I examine the ethics of both Machiavellian expediency and eschatological utopianism. I argue that these two dominant orientations have given modern evil its distinctive character, and contributed to the unprecedented violence and suffering of the twentieth century. In association with this discussion, I consider how the most significant periods of dramatic art have occurred during moments of crisis, violence, and transition. It was during such historical spocs - when the reality of evil was extremely acute - that threatre arose as a dominan aesthetic. Though theatre has often been symptomatic of the excesses explored in this study, I argue that the very nature of theatre - as a medium of evil. The tragic vision is a distinct alternative to the expedient and eschatological impulses that have dominated Western society for the past two millennia and that have eclipsed our ancient Greek theatrical heritage.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>The residents of Eskasoni make up the largest Mi'kmaw community in eastern Canada, the majority of whom claim Roman Catholicism as a primary religious affiliation. However, to describe the Mi'kmaq of Eskasoni as Roman Catholics belies the diversity and complexity of religious belief and expression practiced in the community. This ethnography contributes to the growing body of literature that includes Native views on the role of religion in Aboriginal societies. Drawing upon fieldwork conducted in a number of Mi'kmaw communities in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, this ethnography is concerned with three specific aspects of Mi'kmaw Catholicism. First, I elucidate the reciprocal nature of the exchange between Roman Catholicism and "traditional" Mi'kmaw beliefs and values, and the multiplicity of religious orientations that emerge from this exchange. Second, I address claims to authenticity by neo-Traditionalists, Mi'kmaw Catholics and Catholic-Traditionalists, paying particular attention to the various cultural markers, especially religious or spiritual motifs, beliefs and values that individuals may either invoke or subvert in the process of constructing positive Mi'kmaw personal and social identities. Third, I look at the role that religion and spirituality plays in the day-to-day lives of the Mi'kmaw people. Taken together, these three aspects of religion and spirituality highlight the distinctive local quality and significance of Roman Catholicism among the Mi'kmaq.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>The purpose of this study is to show the attunement of Jacques Maritain's social thought to the concrete circumstances of the twentieth century, by explaining how the influence of his critical analysis of modern theory and praxis helped determine the development of his personalism as personalist democracy, i.e. as a prescription for action in the world of today. Previous interpretations of Maritain's social thought have failed to delineate the intention of his project and the questions with which he himself was concerned. Often these interpretations either tend to discuss Maritain exclusively in terms of his allegiance to the Thomist tradition, thereby inviting the accusation that his social thought is exclusivist and anachronistic, or they tend to acknowledge the contemporaneity of his social thought without a proper understanding of his commitment to the past, thereby prompting the criticism that Maritain's social thought is the unrealistic contrivance of a duplicitous mind. The purpose of this study is to point to Maritain's relevance as a contemporary thinker, by directing attention to the questions behind his social thought and to the fundamental purpose of that thought. The influence of Maritain's social critique on the development of his personalism enables us to see both the intention of his social thought and the questions which engendered it. Maritain's social critique emerged from his encounter with the exigencies of the current historical situation. Having experienced modern man's egocentrism, evident in the bourgeois world of the Third Republic in France and later in the aspirations of the totalitarian regimes which brought about the Second World War, end having studied the philosophical basis of ego-centrism in contemporary thought, Maritain was concerned with the question of how to overcome modern man's preoccupation with the self. In addition to this negative appraisal of modernity, he came to appreciate the constructive influence of modern man's acknowledgment of human rights and the attempt to establish democratic forms of polity. Having experienced the intellectual stability and social cohesion evident in Thomism and the Church, and having discovered the basis for this unity in the transcendent orientation of the past; he asked how modern man's quest for autonomy and self fulfillment can be brought into harmony with man's earlier transcendent orientation. The intention of Maritain's social thought was to bring about this harmony through personalist democracy. Maritain's personalism is therefore co-determined by his experience in the world of today and by his intellectual heritage. Personalist democracy is thus a relevant or historically responsible position. The proper understanding of Maritain's intention to bring about harmony between traditional modes of transcendence and the current search for autonomy dispels much of the criticism directed against him. However, there still remains a pronounced generality and abstraction in his social project, indicating the necessity for the further theoretical and practical adjustment of his fundamental purpose. For this reason, both the strength and the weakness of Maritain's position are said to reside in his professed intention to harmonize transcendence and autonomy, for he thereby exhibits his attunement to the exigencies of the present situation while failing, through the immensity of his project, to attend to fine details as demanded by cautious scholarship.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>Chapters 8-12 of 1 Samuel have long been studied as a source of information about the development of a monarchy in ancient Israel. In modern scholarship the narrative in these chapters has usually been approached from the methodological perspective of historical criticism, in which an attempt is made to reconstruct both the historical events described in the narrative and the historical process of composition that resulted in the narrative. The result of 200 years of such study is that 1 Sam 8-12 is no longer read as a literary unit; individual units of the text are ascribed to various authors writing in various times and places, with various opinions about the concept of an Israelite monarchy.</p> <p>The hypothesis explored in this dissertation is that it may yet be possible, perhaps even necessary, to read 1 Sam 8-12 as a literary whole in order to understand it properly. Moreover, initial surveying of the literary and rhetorical features of the narrative suggest that it is necessary to read 1 Sam 8-12 in the light of 1 Sam 1-7. Taken together, the various scenes in 1 Sam 1-12 constitute an episode in the continuing story of the theological-political experiment that was ancient Israel's national existence. When these twelve chapters are read together, they are found to contain a coherent exploration of a single problem experienced by ancient Israel as it attempted to live in a covenantal relationship with its national God, Yahweh.</p> <p>The methodological approach used in this dissertation may be characterized as a close reading of the text that attempts to discover the literary techniques of Hebrew narrative, to describe these techniques, and to use the resulting understanding of Hebrew narratology to understand and interpret the ideas presented by the narrative. The basic premise of this approach is that in order to understand an ancient text from a foreign culture, the modern reader must allow his reading to be guided and educated by the literary conventions of the text. The most basic requirement for this type of reading is that the reader describe the narrative, rather than evaluating it, either as literature or history.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>Our purpose in this study is to show that the absence of God in this world, or the non-intervention of God in this world, is the idea par excellence which is at the heart of Simone Weil's thinking about man's situation in this world. To be very specific, our purpose in this study is to understand the significance of Weil's thinking about the idea of the absence of God in the context of thinking with truth at the same time about the affliction of men, the perfection of God, and the link between the two; or, to express the same thing in different terms, our purpose is to understand the significance of Weil's thinking about the idea of the absence of good in the context of thinking with truth at the same time about necessity, necessity's indifference to the good, and how necessity and the good can be reconciled. What this means, in effect, is that our entire study of Weil is essentially an explication of the relationship that she sees as existing between the question of necessity and Christ's cry of dereliction on the Cross. Not only is Weil's thinking about the idea of the absence of God completely unintelligible apart from a comprehensive understanding of her thinking about necessity, but further, her thinking about necessity is ultimately unintelligible apart from her thinking about Christ's cry of dereliction. More importantly, Christ's cry of dereliction is for Weil the most consummate expression of the absence of God; it expresses the 'absence of God from God', and what this means, as our study will endeavour to show, is that the idea of the absence of God cannot be thought without at the same time thinking the idea of the presence of God. In other words, the idea of the absence of God cannot be thought without at the same time thinking the idea of incarnation. To attempt to understand what Weil is saying about the idea of incarnation, especially in relationship to her thinking about the question of necessity, is to attempt to understand an aspect of Weil's thought which has neither been dealt with in any detail nor analyzed in any depth. To attempt to understand what Weil is saying in this context is, finally, to attempt to understand what she means in thinking that the absence of God in this world is the reality of God, that this world, in so far as it is entirely empty of God, is God Himself, and finally, that necessity, in so far as it is absolutely other than the good, is the good itself.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>In "Symbol Tales: Paths Towards the Creation of a Saint", I discuss Catholic Pueblo women's devotion to Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, a seventeenth century Mohawk convert turned folk saint. Between 1996 and 1998, I conducted extensive ethnographic fieldwork in the Pueblos of New Mexico, including Isleta, Jemez, Laguna, Acoma, and San Juan, as well as in Mescalero, on the Navajo Nation, and in the urban center of Albuquerque. This book is interdisciplinary and uses the methodologies and new writing styles of interpretive and reflexive anthropology to focus on the populist dimensions of saint-making, the ethnotheology of sainthood, devotional narratives, inculturation, miracle discourses, and Native American identity within the post-conciliar Catholic Church. I argue that the "blankness" and silence of Kateri in the official hagiographic tradition allows for both popular theological creativity in the imaginative space of the devotional narratives, and the formation of new social and devotional groups such as local "Kateri Circles" and the multi-tribal national annual Tekakwitha Conference. Finally, I explore the emergence of a broad Catholic pan-Indianism centred around the symbolic figure of Kateri Tekakwitha.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>While scholars uniformly recognise John 13-17 as a unique literary unit within the Fourth Gospel, these chapters contain various difficulties that distract from their cohesive integrity. Some argue that the problems result from an incomplete or careless editorial redaction, and might even provide evidence of the changing theology of the Johannine community as it moved through successive historical developments (diachronic reading). Others attempt to resolve the inner tensions by positing that the supposed difficulties actually signal changes of mood or spiritual insight, and for that reason belong where they fall (synchronic reading). A third alternative, suggested more frequently in recent years, tries to bring these divergent readings toward some harmony though a different exegetical approach. Reflecting on the influence of the Hebrew Bible on the content and style of the Fourth Gospel, these interpreters see patterns of both micro-chiasm and macro-chiasm in its literary development. They then read John 13-17 as an expression of macro-chiasm. While scholars generally acknowledge the presence of micro-chiasm in biblical literature, there is wide disagreement as to whether macro-chiastic readings are possible. This thesis explores chiasm in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament on both the micro and macro levels, concluding that it is indeed possible to read passages in each collection as developed macro-chiastically. Further a set of criteria for governing such readings is outlined. These criteria are then applied to the Johannine Farewell discourse. Other chiastic readings of the discourse are reviewed and a new chiastic reading is offered, based on the criteria deduced in the first half of the study. A final section shows how this chiastic reading of John 13-17 allows a new assessment of the points of difficulty, and provides a bridge between the perspectives of synchronic and diachronic interpreters.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>The following dissertation consists of a study of an eighth century A. D. Sanskrit text dealing with the soteriological implications of the nature of "bhoga"--"mundane experience" or, more precisely, "empirical consciousness". The dissertation can be subdivided into two major sections. The first section consists of a critical discussion of the doctrine of bhoga in the Bhogakārikāvrtti; the second section consists of an English translation of the Sanskrit text.</p> <p>The following study of the Bhoga Kārikā and its commentary has as its major concern the explication of the idea of "bhoga" put forth in the text. According to the schooI of Śaivism to which the author of the Bhoga Kārikā belongs, souls are by nature possessed of the two "capacities" (śakti) of consciousness and agency. Existing in a beginningless condition in the soul, these two capacities are obfuscated by the defiling power of a cosmic principle described as "mala". Due to this defilement the soul is forced into experiencing things in a limited manner, i.e., solely as an ego-personality whose self-understanding is both defined by and limited to the empirical sphere of experience.</p> <p>In explicating the doctrine of bhoga expressed by Sadyojyoti and defended his commentator Aghora Śiva, the dissertation takes up a discussion of the various polemics against other systems such as the Buddhists, Cāvāka, Nyāya and Sāmkhya. As well, an attempt is made to point out the particular manner in which Sadyojyoti's doctrine of "bhoga" shares close affiliations with the schools of Mimāsā and Sāmkhya-Yoga.</p> <p>The text was translated under the guidance of Dr. S. S. Janaki, the Director of Kuppuswami Sastri Research Institute in Madras. The Sanskrit text of the Bhoga Kārikā consists of 146 verses by a renowned Śaivite author, Sadyojyoti (8th c. A. D.) and a brief commentary by another renowned Śaivite author, Aghora Śiva (14th c. A. D.). Although by themselves the verses are difficult to understand without the aid of the commentary, the commentary itself is written in simple Sanskrit prose. The Bhoga Kārikā is one of a host of Śaivite "manuaIs" that systematically define the essential teachings and particular themes of Āgamic Śaivism. Aghora Śiva's commentary on the Bhoga Kārikā is typical of the commentaries accompanying most of these manuals: it is brief and polemical.</p> <p>Chapter of the dissertation deals with the authors Sadyojyoti and Aghora Śiva in relation to the Śaivite tradition; as well, Chapter I treats the basic concepts of "bhoga" and "tattva" employed in the Bhoga Kārikā. Chapter II deals with the doctrine of the subtle and the gross elements, emphasizing the concern of the tattvic doctrine that each tattva is a sine qua non in the event of bhoga. Chapter III treats the sphere of the motor, sense a intellectual organs and the polemics against the Cārvākas and Nyāya concerning the role of "consciousness" in the sphere of empirical experience. The specific organs of the "antahkarana", i.e., manas, buddhi and ahamkāra, are treated in Chapter IV. More epistemological issues are discussed in Chapter V, most notably the Śaivite doctrine that the soul has intrinsic to it the dual capacities (śakti) of consciousness and agency. The last chapter, Chapter VI, deals with the trans-buddhi conditions governing empirical consciousness, and includes a discussion of the soteriological import of māyā and mala. Appendix I consists of the translation of the Bhoga Kārikā Vrtti while the transliteration of the text appears in Appendix II.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)