A common theme in examining Christian identity focuses on the emergence of that identity, on locating the point in time within the history of the Christian church that one can first observe a clearly identifiable community which can be called ‘Christian.’ There is evidence that a clear sense of a Christian identity existed by the second century CE. This is expressed in several authors from the second century CE, who employ ‘ethnic’ terminology to refer to the Christians as a ‘new’ or ‘third’ race. What allowed these authors to identify the Christians as a distinct ‘race’ so soon after the emergence of the group? This study explores the origins of this ‘race’ of Christians. Examination of the earliest existent Christian texts, the undisputed letters of the apostle Paul, demonstrates a group which exists partially within the Jewish identity group, and yet simultaneously displays features of a unique group identity. Two methods of investigation are employed to explore the origins of a Christian ‘race.’ First, from those authors who describe the Christians as a ‘race,’ a ‘vocabulary of identity’ is identified, and instances of this vocabulary are examined in the undisputed Pauline corpus to demonstrate the continued Jewish identity of Paul and many of his congregants. Second, a series of group identity features which are unique to the Jewish identity group are drawn from the work of John Hutchinson and Anthony D. Smith, James D.G. Dunn, and E.P. Sanders. An examination of these features in the undisputed Pauline corpus shows the beginnings of a distancing between the nascent Christian movement and its Jewish parent body. Continuing the investigation, the study explores the Pauline epistles for evidence of uniquely Christian group identity features. A series of these identifiers are examined, demonstrating the methods by which the earliest Christ-followers were identified as Christ-followers. These Christ-following identifiers served as the basis for the eventual ‘ethnic’ distinction of the Christian movement. The thesis concludes that the Pauline epistles reveal the origins of the later Christian ‘race’, and that during the first century Paul and his congregations simultaneously existed within the Jewish identity group, and alongside this group as members of an identifiable Christ-following identity group.

Drawing on insights from sociolinguistics, the thesis investigates the relationship between speech patterns and social context in three ancient Greek narratives: the Acts of the Apostles, Acts of John, and Acts of Philip. The thesis explores how characters’ speech patterns correlate with their Christian status, and with the Christian status of their addressees. The relationship between speech patterns and gentile/Jewish identity is also assessed. Linguistic variables include plural forms of address and third-person references to Jesus and the Christian god. The thesis shows that Christian characters are portrayed as speaking differently amongst themselves than when addressing non-Christian characters. It also demonstrates that parameters of sociolinguistic variation in each text point to differing understandings of Christian identity. It is argued that attention to sociolinguistic relationships highlights the importance of ascetic practices and baptism in the Acts of Philip, the gradual nature of Christian conversion in the Acts of John, and the close relationship between Jewish and Christian identity in the Acts of the Apostles. The thesis also examines characterization and implied audience, and argues that attention to social context is necessary to appreciate the full significance of an author’s choice of words.

Our society has become more and more radicalized. For many people religion plays a vital role in this radicalization process, particularly for those who justify racial supremacy through religious tenets. The purpose of this study is to examine and compare two ideologies from which radicalized followers assume racial supremacy from a God given designation as the "true Israelites". The two ideologies interpret the Bible – and sometimes even the same passages – differently.  In this study I will examine the Christian Identity movement and the Black Hebrew Israelites by using a comparative method from a prototypical approach. My focus is how two different ideologies misinterpret the biblical myth about the Lost Tribes of Israel and how this misinterpretation inspires racial supremacy and Anti-Semitism. This is a study about the connection between race and religion. Keywords: racism, race, Christian Identity, Black Hebrew Israelites, Anti-Semitism, Lost Tribes of Israel

The majority of studies on terrorist groups in the past have been conducted from the perspectives of political science, sociology, or psychology. This historical comparative study examines two terrorist organizations through a human resource development (HRD) lens. The study's goal is to provide a fresh perspective on terrorism to the current discussion of the subject within the public and private sectors. A comprehensive literature review is used to examine religiously based terrorist groups. The following HRD models and theories are used to frame this research: the Basic Systems Model of Swanson and Holton (2001), Daft's definition of an organization (2001), the work of Watkins and Marsick (1992 & 1993) on learning organizations, and group theory as discussed by Johnson and Johnson (2000). Crenshaw's (2001) work on terrorist group theory also helps provide a foundation to the discussion. The study begins with a short review of terrorism during the twentieth, and the first years of the twenty-first centuries. Next, the histories, cultures, and beliefs of the fundamentalist Islamic or Islamist movement and the Christian Identity movement are traced. The focus is then narrowed and an in-depth study of al-Qaeda and the Phinehas Priesthood, from the Islamist and Christian Identity movements, respectively, is conducted. The context of HRD organizational traits is used to portray the similarities and differences between these terrorist groups. There were eight major findings from this study. 1. Al-Qaeda and the Phinehas Priesthood possess structure and demonstrate input, output, process, and interaction with, and feedback from their external environment (Swanson & Holton, 2001) as do conventional organizations. 2. Both groups demonstrate structure and group dynamics similar to conventional organizations. 3. Members of both groups profess beliefs similar to those in mainstream Islam and Christianity, respectively. 4. The belief that God's law is superior to that of man in held in common by al-Qaeda and the Priesthood. This belief is based on the revealed word of God, the Koran and Bible, respectively. 5. Members of both groups believe they have been chosen by God to right the wrongs of society and/or the world. Violent acts in support of this mission are fully justified. 6. A common goal of these groups is to establish racially and culturally pure societies on some scale. 7. Al-Qaeda and the Phinehas Priesthood are both anti-Semitic. 8. Members of these groups are culturally isolated from mainstream society. The study makes four recommendations to HRD practitioners, government policy makers, and educators in pursuit of the goal of providing a fresh perspective on terrorism.

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2016-03-22T11:09:44Z No. of bitstreams: 1 marianadematosponteraimundo.pdf: 717434 bytes, checksum: bdfebe2dac0b3ff8ecaae16b62b5a316 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2016-04-24T02:17:49Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 marianadematosponteraimundo.pdf: 717434 bytes, checksum: bdfebe2dac0b3ff8ecaae16b62b5a316 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-24T02:17:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 marianadematosponteraimundo.pdf: 717434 bytes, checksum: bdfebe2dac0b3ff8ecaae16b62b5a316 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-02-28 / CNPq - Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / O século IV se apresenta como um momento decisivo para o cristianismo, para a Igreja e para o Império Romano. Nesse contexto, a institucionalização do cristianismo e a consolidação de uma identidade cristã envolvem tensões, mas também afinidades eletivas; são diversos os processos político-administrativos, culturais e religiosos presentes nessa conjuntura. A proposta desse estudo é inter-relacionar esses processos, destacando a política imperial de favorecimento do cristianismo desenvolvida a partir de Constantino e da virada constantiniana, a emergência de um cristianismo institucionalizado: a Igreja e o desenvolvimento da Cristandade: a aproximação entre autoridades eclesiásticas e imperiais. Indicar-se-á ainda que, a consolidação de uma identidade cristã está intimamente relacionada à firmação de uma ortodoxia e aos discursos dos intelectuais cristãos sobre o “ser cristão” e que ambos foram mais intensamente desenvolvidos na aproximação entre poder imperial e Igreja; a existência de uma religiosidade tardo-antiga com características comuns ao cristianismo, o fortalecimento das estruturas eclesiásticas e as redefinições identitárias possibilitaram a hegemonia de uma identidade cristã dentre as diversas correntes cristãs constituídas ao longo dos três séculos anteriores. / The 4th century presents itself as a decisive moment for the Christianity, to the Church and to the Roman Empire. In this context, the institutionalization of Christianity and the consolidation of a Christian identity involves tensions, but also elective affinities; are several political and administrative processes, cultural and religious gifts at this juncture. The proposal of this study is to interface these processes, highlighting imperial policy of developed from Constantine favoring Christianity, the emergence of an institutionalized Christianity: the Church and the development of Christendom: the rapprochement between Imperial and ecclesiastical authorities. Will indicate that the consolidation of a Christian identity is closely related to the consolidation of an orthodoxy and to the discourses of Christian intellectuals on the “be Christian” and that both were more intensively developed in the rapprochement of imperial power and the Church; the existence of late ancient religiosity with characteristics common to Christianity, the strengthening of ecclesiastical structures and redefinitions of identity allowed the hegemony of a Christian identity among the various Christian currents formed over the previous three centuries.

This creative project’s ambition is to craft an original novel called The Dreams of Metanoia: The Advent Foreigner. The Dreams of Metanoia is initially influenced by The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a true narrative by Rebecca Skloot. Henrietta and her family were subjected to Jim Crow scientific racism. Henrietta, a black woman with cervical cancer, had her cells removed and cultivated by John Hopkins doctors without any consent. The doctors discovered that Henrietta’s cells continued to divide relentlessly outside her body. They then sold them to other researchers without their knowledge. However, the gap in literature occurs within a mysterious hallucination that happened within the nonfiction narrative. Henrietta’s cousin, Hector Henry, had a hallucination that may be connected to the obscure Philippine-American War and Filipino Folklore. The Philippine-American War was a somber conflict of racism and white American imperialism from 1899-1902. It is a war shrouded from most American textbooks; it was a war that tested American soldier’s ethical morality and allegiance to a 20th century Jim Crow United States. It is a war where enemies found a common strife within their woes. Because of how unknown these narratives are in today’s racial and politically divided world, it is essential to review and learn from these tragedies that united races as humans rather than individual racial identities. This research aims to repurpose these narratives to craft an original story relevant to modern America’s racial strife. Thus, The Dreams of Metanoia: The Advent Foreigner is an original piece that seeks to find the intersectionality in the meaning of being human.

This thesis presents the Spanish Empire as seeking to spread a Christian world system - Christendom on a universal scale. By focusing on Spanish America, this thesis seeks to give evidence that a new Christendom was being established in America, one which was sustained through the collection of ecclesiastical revenues. This approach is taken in order to analyze the identities which were forged by the individuals who participated and who were transformed by this empire. Specifically, I focus on the Indigenous and their mixed raced descendants, the castas. Rather than portraying them as passive figures, I seek to give them agency by presenting them as active figures who actively participated within this Christian world system. Through their active participation, a Christian identity was able to be forged. A Christian identity which was not a carbon copy of the Spaniards, but one which was uniquely theirs. Through this Christian identity the Indigenous and their mixed raced descendants were able to blur the lines between who were the conquerors and who were the conquered. This would result in the Indigenous and their mixed raced descendants transforming the Christian world system, from a system which was of European origins, to a system that became distinctly American.

This thesis seeks to answer questions regarding Paul’s understanding of Christian identity by arguing that Paul views Christian identity as a superordinate or New Human identity in which many previous identities persist as subordinate identities, transformed by the superordinate Christian identity—although some previous identities must cease as they are not compatible with the superordinate Christian identity. Utilizing the combined approaches of Social Identity Theory and Self-Categorization Theory, I describe the perspectives that Paul presents in his correspondence with the Thessalonians, Galatians and Corinthians. As regards the Thessalonians, Paul observes that the Thessalonians succeeded in adopting Christian identity. In comparison, the Galatians, while recognizing their need for transforming their subordinate identities, are foolishly attempting to adopt a Judean identity. Finally, Paul rebukes the Corinthians for failing to appropriately adopt Christian identity and for choosing instead to continue to live according to their Old Human identity. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

No description available.

[pt] Memória e a identidade são temas muito presentes nos debates e estudos contemporâneos, em muitos campos do conhecimento, sendo abordados sob variados aspectos e por grupos diversificados. A falta de referências em meio às rápidas e profundas transformações que caracterizam o nosso tempo torna necessária a busca pela compreensão das causas e consequências dessas mudanças. No campo religioso, este processo tem sido caracterizado pela perda progressiva das identidades herdadas, que tem como uma de suas faces mais perceptíveis questões relacionados à transmissão de uma memória coletiva. Partindo desse contexto, este trabalho tem por finalidade pesquisar as catacumbas, na cidade de Roma, sobretudo entre os séculos II e IV, enquanto lugares de memória e identidade para o cristianismo, por meio de uma proposta de diálogo com outros campos do conhecimento, aos quais este tema se relaciona. Através dos registros deixados nestes cemitérios (iconográficos e epigráficos), e de outros documentos, queremos reafirmar a sua importância para a preservação da memória e identidade do cristianismo hoje. A partir dos desafios advindos da pós-modernidade, intentamos que a reflexão em torno desses locais, de enorme relevância histórica, possa contribuir, através de seus testemunhos, para o debate sobre a temática e inspirar opções e ações pastorais nas comunidades eclesiais. / [en] Memory and identity are present themes in contemporary debates and studies, in many fields of knowledge, approached under different aspects and by diverse groups. The lack of references in the midst of the rapid and profound transformations that characterize our time makes it necessary to seek to understand the causes and consequences of these changes. In the religious field, this process the progressive loss of inherited identities characterizes this process, which has of its most perceptible issues related to the transmission of a collective memory. Based on this context, this work aims to research the catacombs in the city of Rome, especially between the 2nd and 4th centuries, as places of memory and identity for christianity, through a dialogue proposal with other fields of knowledge, which this theme is related. Through the records left in these cemeteries (iconographic and epigraphic) and other documents, we want to reaffirm its importance for the preservation of the memory and identity of christianity today. From the challenges arising from postmodernity, we intend that the reflection around these places of enormous historical relevance, can contribute, through their testimonies, to the debate on the theme and inspire pastoral options and actions in ecclesial communities.