<p>The thesis is a philosophical and thematic study based on a Sanskrit commentary to the Śivajñānabodham, one of the basic texts of Śaiva Siddhānta, an important though relatively unnoticed religio-philosophical school of Indian thought. The text has the remarkable feature--apart from inspiring several voluminous commentaries on it--of containing only twelve verses, of two lines each. My thesis is based on one such commentary in Sanskrit called Śivāgrabhāsya by Śivāgrayogin (sixteenth century). I began the thesis by arguing that, contrary to a prima facie acquaintance with Indian thought, there is a philosophical anthropology implicit in several schools of Indian philosophy, although it may not be clearly discerned by that name. I have tried to show in any case that the Śivāgrabhāsya, in terms of its own thematic focus, has a claim to being a philosophical anthropology--a claim borne but by the fact that the author of the text himself asks: "Who are the beings for whom ... this world is produced?" It is clear that man is the focus of his attention in answering the question and, from his insightful and elaborate deliberations, one can see a philosophical anthropology emerging. I have located the problem of man within this text and have attempted to elicit from it, by a careful and selective analysis, adequate material toward a plausible reconstruction of the philosophical anthropology I see contained in it. Śivāgrayogin deals with the theme concerning man on at least two basic premises, viz., that of man as a being who possesses limited knowledge about the nature of ultimate reality, in which context the idea of fallible man emerges, and that of man as a being involved in the world. Both these postulates imply that man is a fettered being, endowed with the possibility of a condition of unfettered existence, i.e., with the possibility of an existence which can claim freedom from fettered life. Gnosis is said to be the only means for liberation--a means that, by its own inherent logic, is efficacious ultimately through divine grace. Life in the world is itself made possible through a "veiled" grace which, when "manifest", effects a due unleashing of man's powers of consciousness. The impact of Śivāgrayogin's point that man is to be defined essentially in terms of consciousness, has a special and striking significance in the light of his discussion on what constitutes freedom and liberation. Indeed, the condition of the possibility of the latter serves as the basis for the former. What I have found unique to the Śaiva Siddhānta understanding of man is its attempt not only to analyze man's essential nature as radically different from that the world--and, indeed, a world in which a scope for liberation is afforded--but, also, its attempt to account for the nature of man's so-called bound existence in the world itself. I have attempted to approach Śaiva Siddhānta philosophical anthropology from the latter standpoint, i.e., by expounding and analyzing the Śaiva Siddhānta description of man in the world, I have sought to bring out the impact of its view that the intrinsic nature of man be defined essentially by consciousness. The Śivāgrabhāsya has never been translated, nor is it anymore available in print. My thesis makes a contribution to knowledge because it is based almost entirely on this text and because it contains translations of several portions related to the topic of the thesis. From my own carefully selected and specific perspective, my thesis is an encyclopaedic view of Śaiva Siddhānta and gives a glimpse into the wealth of untapped source material in a relatively ignored area of research.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>Scholars know a good deal about Kashmir Śaivism. Beginning in the teens of our century the works of Abhinavagupta and others were edited, translated and studied both by Indian and Western students. The philosophy of non-dualism or absolute monism that charactedized the thought of Abhinavagupta and the Trika or Pratyabhijñā school of which he was a representative has come to be identified with the name Kashmir Śaivism.</p> <p>Yet a Śaiva school teaching philosophical dualism existed in Kashmir during the the same period. The only early writer of this school whose writings have survived is Sadyojyoti (9th.C). It is the writings of this author, along with their commentaries by Rāmakantha (12th.C) and Aghoraśiva (12th.C) which form the main textual basis for this study. The essay also includes a study of Aghoraśiva's commentary on King Bhoja's (11th.C) Tattvaprakāśikā.</p> <p>The first two chapters give a detailed exposition of the philosophy of God in Sadyojyoti's Tattvatrayanirnaya (with Aghoraśiva's commentary) and Tattvasangraha (with Aghoraśiva's commentary). The first chapter, on the Tattvatrayanirnaya, includes a complete translation of this work and its commentary into English for the first time. This is followed by a study on the same theme in Bhoja's Tattvaprakāśiká and Aghoraśiva's commentary thereon. These three chapters are followed by a summary of the findings concerning the positive teachings on God put forth in these texts. Chapter four is a study of the polemics in the second chapter of the Nareśvaraparíksá of Sadyojyoti with a commentary by Rámakantha. It is here that the defence of the phiIosophy of God is effected against other schools of Indian philosophy. Chapter five is a study of Abhinavagupta's polemic in the TantrāIoka against Sadyojyoti's dualism and conception of God. This is followed by a summary and conclusion.</p> <p>In brief, the findings are that, Sadyojyoti's system of thought resembles what one might think of as theistic Sámkhya. The metaphysics is similar with the only significant difference being that Sadyojyoti finds a place for God (Śiva) largly, so the thesis argues, due to the presence of mala in Śaivism, which is absent in Sāmkhya. The argument for the existence of God is similar to the Nyāya syllogism (ie., is a combination of the cosmological and design arguments). The main opponents to this attempted proof of the existence of God are the Buddhist, Dharmakīrti, and the Mīmāmśaka, Kumārila.</p> <p>In general, Sadyojyoti's philosophy of God and his doctrine of philosophical dualism are as successful as any thought system in terms of power of explicability and internal coherence.</p> <p>The final part of the conclusion argues that the type of philosophy espoused by Sadyojyoti and his commentators cannot really speak to the modern western world since the premises of the former are those which the latter sees itself as having outgrown.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>This dissertation examines key aspects of Jürgen Moltmann's writings in order to determine the extent to which non-biblical language and experience determine his theology. He employs various hermeneutical frameworks to create a postmodern political theology. This theology is intended to replace the modern subjectivist interpretations of certain biblical themes, such as the eschaton, the crucifixion of Christ, and the relationship between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Moltmann draws on a number of sources to help him rearticulate these themes in a way that, he believes, is more meaningful and politically relevant in the modern context. This study of Moltmann's theology was suggested to me by George Lindbeck's model of religion, which I employ as a heuristic device in the analysis of Moltmann's writings. Lindbeck synthesizes the ideas of language philosophers, cultural anthropologists, and narrative theologians to construct, what he calls, a postmodern cultural-linguistic understanding of the relationship between experience and language in religions. This model of religion attempts to show that religious life and experiences are determined by the language of the each tradition. Lindbeck believes that this view of religion has implications for theological method. In the Christian context, he believes that the language contained in the Bible and Christian doctrines should be understood as the source of religious experience. Christian theologians should not, then, base their theologies on extra-biblical descriptions of the nature of religious experience. To do so would be to allow them to eclipse the possible religious experiences generated in genuine attempts to live out the story of the Bible. There are aspects of Moltmann's approach to theology that seem to correspond to Lindbeck's demand that the language of the Christian tradition should be the leading partner in the dialectic between extra-biblical experiences and ideas. But Moltmann's theology seems, in key places, to be more heavily informed by non-biblical interpretive frameworks than permitted by the cultural-linguistic model of religion. I conclude, then, that Moltmann's theological method is not, for the most part, consistent with Lindbeck's recommendations for theological method.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>The story of the origins of women's ordination into the Buddhist monastic order (sangha) is pivotal to the study of Theravāda Buddhist female renunciation---textual, historical, and contemporary. The story is not, however, easy to understand. It reflects an irreducible ambivalence toward women's renunciation. Though the story acknowledges women's capacity to attain nibbana (liberation from the bonds of rebirth), it also attributes to women's presence in the order a halving of the lifetime of the "true dhamma" (saddhamma, the Buddha's teachings which propel individuals to realization of nibbāna), and presents the Buddha as requiring the formal subordination of the women's order to the men's in an attempt to minimize the damage their presence will bring. This thesis provides an interpretation of the story in its relationship to the Pali Vinaya (the monastic code of rules and regulations). I argue that the story is a literary construct which functions to legitimize the vision of an ideal Buddhist renunciant that pervades the Pali Vinaya. Throughout the Vinaya, women (even ordained women) symbolize the outside world beyond the boundaries. They are that from which monks need protection and against which the Vinaya conception of identity is formed. This thesis makes four contributions to the field of Buddhist studies. It is the first full-length study of the story of women's ordination. It is also the first study of the Pali Vinaya to consider seriously the impact of gender on its categories, assumptions, and overall structure. As such, the thesis acts as a corrective to scholarship on Buddhism which assumes that the story is an accurate reflection or women's role in an early period of Buddhism's development. Additionally, the thesis could provide the basis for a more nuanced investigation of the social history of Indian Buddhism that accommodates the constructed nature of the texts.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>Livnot U'Lehibanot (To Build and to be Built), a three-month work-study program in Israel for North American Jews in their twenties. This study will focus on the Jewish message and methods of Livnot U'Lehibanot , in order to explore the impact and significance of the program for participants' Jewish identities. Similar programs offering youth travel to Israel are extremely popular within the organized Jewish community, and are perceived to promote Jewish identification and cultural continuity. Using categories of Israel, Jews and Judaism, I analyze Livnot 's message, presentation and goals in order to examine more closely the Jewish worldviews that participants learn about and in which they take part during the program. With attention to recent anthropological and post-colonial theory on the dynamics of cultural hybridity and ambivalence, this work also explores ways in which past-participants create diverse and hybrid Jewish identities and commitments for themselves, selectively making use of the information and experiences they acquire at Livnot . Is there any significance to ethnic experiences like Livnot , beyond the neat labels of essentialist, nostalgic, romantic searches for roots? Drawing on notions of resistance and agency, I suggest that Livnot offers participants knowledge and experience that empowers them to make informed Jewish decisions following the program. In this sense, Livnot provides participants with agency by enabling them to pick and choose from Jewish tradition, in order to fashion their own creative, personal Jewish identities.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>The Gospel of John often uses ingesting language. First, it refers to concrete elements of food and drink (such as bread, water, fish and wine) and the actions of eating and drinking. Second, it uses metaphors of food and drink; for example, Jesus is the "bread of life" and the "source of living water." Third, it uses meals as the setting for much of the narrative. The prevalence of ingesting language in various contexts and genres establishes it as a primary literary motif in the Gospel of John. While the individual passages involving food, drink and ingesting have not gone unnoticed in the history of Johannine scholarship, no major monograph has addressed the motif as a whole nor drawn specific conclusions about its function in the Gospel. Drawing on the literary theory of William Freedman, this study first extends the limits of the ingesting motif to include phrases drawn from the semantic domain of ingestion as well as narrative contexts that have been excluded, for the most part, from previous studies. By extending these limits, this study affirms more emphatically the relationship between eating and drinking and the death of Jesus. In particular, ingesting language provides a way to describe both the role of Jesus as the one who is incarnate as "flesh" but who must die in order that others might eat and live, and the role of the believer who is "to eat and drink Jesus." This study will thus argue that the ingesting motif serves as a vehicle for Johannine soteriology. This conclusion has implications for the extended debate concerning Eucharist traditions in the Johannine literature, for although the Eucharist is not specifically mentioned in the Gospel, the prevalence of the ingesting motif suggests that eating and drinking play a significant role in the Johannine understanding of salvation.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>This thesis attempts to set forth clearly what Nietzsche says about Christianity in The Anti-Christ. Its goal is the achievement of an adequate understanding of Nietzsche's critique of Christianity; it is not meant to be a critical evaluation of that critique.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>The question behind this thesis is "What does Charles Hartshorne conceive to be the rational and experiential grounds for belief in God?". This question is approached through a study of Hartshorne's distinctive formulation of the teleological argument and the central features of that argument. Attention is given to the components of Hartshorne's natural theology in order to establish the context within which to approach Hartshorne's formulation of the argument, to the principles of his metaphysics which I see to underpin his formulation, to the proper manner in which to conceive of the argument, the cosmic organism analogy, and to his proposed solution to the problem of evil.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>Of the eighteen traditionally recognized Purānas in Indian religious literature, the Bhāgavata is indisputably the most famous. Scholarly consensus (van Buitenen, T.J. Hopkins, Winternitz, Farquhar, et. al.) regards the text as being a "unified composition" of twelve skandhas (books) or 18,000 verses written about the 10th century A.D. is Southern India. This places the Purāna in a cultural context which had come under the popular and powerful influence of the Ālvār and Nāyanār bhakti saints and of the renowned teacher, Śankarācārya. Added to this was the presence of Vedic brahmins from the north whose migration had been supported by southern kings and whose teachings had become respected as normative for those societies. Although many of these Smārta brahmins, as they were called, were theistic, they carefully defined themselves off from sectarian groups such as the Vaisnavites who worshipped only Visnu.</p> <p>What will be investigated in this study is the Vaisnavite response to the challenge presented by the Advaitin (non-dualist) teachings of Śankara being spread by the respected Smārta tradition. More specifically, the aim of this thesis is to explore the pedagogy employed by the Vaisnavite author of the Bhāgavata Purāna in presenting a conciliatory understanding of the relationship between the teachings of bhakti and the doctrines of the Smārtas.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)