Thesis (M.A.)--Simon Greenleaf School of Law, 1985. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 179-184).

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Missionary work is one of the most important tasks undertaken by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Spreading the gospel is at the heart of the Savior's message to his apostles shortly before his ascension into heaven, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," (Matt. 28:19). Full time missionaries of the Church are charged with teaching Christ's message. The questions of what to teach and how to teach it have led to four sets of formal missionary discussions published by the Church beginning in 1952 and continuing on to 1961, 1973 and 1986. This thesis will document the timeline of decisions that lead to the creation of the missionary manual Preach My Gospel introduced in 2004 which contains the fifth set of missionary lessons published by the Church.

The Protestant women who engaged in theology and biblical scholarship throughout the sixteenth century faced numerous barriers entering into and being heard within their Protestant movements. Because Protestants recognize Scripture as the primary authority on matters of faith, 1 Timothy 2:11-12, along with its parallel in 1 Corinthians 14:34-35, provided a unique impediment to sixteenth-century Protestant women theologians. These women faced the burden of both affirming the authority of Scripture and simultaneously contravening the biblical prohibition against women teaching. Many women theologians of the time; including Argula von Grumbach, Marie Dentiére, and Anne Askew; addressed this issue in their writings. These writings offer a glimpse into how they each wrestled with the question of women’s roles in the religious movements of their times. In this thesis, I argue that von Grumbach, Dentiére, and Askew interpreted 1 Timothy 2:11-12 or its parallel 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 to their audiences in a variety of ways to argue that their involvement in the Reformation was exempted from the Pauline injunction against women teaching or holding authority over men.

From 1991 through 2000, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints experienced a greater volume of national periodical attention than ever before in its history. This thesis surveys what was written about the Church in national magazines during that time and provides analysis of the effect of those writings on the Church's public image. National periodicals may serve as an important gauge of the Church's public image because they address topics of national interest and also help to formulate public opinion on those topics. This study thus provides a basis for determining how the Church fared in terms of public perception by indicating which Latter-day Saint topics received the greatest attention. It also shows how magazine coverage of these topics may have reflected favorably or unfavorably on the Church. This thesis is preceded by four similar studies. Richard O. Cowan completed a doctoral dissertation using national periodicals to analyze the Church's image from 1850 through 1961. Thereafter, Dale P. Pelo, Adam H. Nielson and Matthew E. Morrison respectively completed theses covering the three decades from 1961 to 1990. This thesis is a continuation of those studies, and implements the same research methodology.

<p>This thesis comprises the first full-length study of Gregory of Nazianzus's theology of the Holy Spirit. Gregory was a major political and intellectual figure during the pneumatological controversies of the late Fourth Century. Gregory is the first author whose works are extant to declare that “the Holy Spirit is God” in so many words. He advocated, against leading figures including Basil of Caesarea, that such a declaration should be made by the Church, but largely met with failure in his lifetime. Yet, Gregory's affirmation of the Spirit's divinity was eventually to be embraced by nearly all Christians, and it remains so today. Despite these facts, Gregory is usually treated by historians as a minor influence on Fourth Century pneumatology. This thesis will not necessarily challenge this assessment, but will seek to establish a fuller understanding of how Gregory's pneumatology functions in itself such that his historical place can be reassessed in the future.</p> <p>Our key observation is that Gregory's pneumatology is rooted in his understanding of the Spirit's relationship to the Church. A discussion of Gregory's ecclesiological pneumatology comprises Part I. Having presented Gregory's understanding of the Spirit's relationship to the Church, and his understanding of his own place within this relationship, we explore, in Part II, some of the texts in which Gregory argues for his pneumatological doctrine in the face of various opponents. We note that Gregory remains consistently concerned with ecclesiology when engaging other thinkers on the Spirit. We conclude that when Gregory's ecclesiological pneumatology is accounted for, his reactions to the pneumatological controversies of his day appear as consistent, pastorally motivated responses to concerns about the Church's relationship to the Holy Spirit and the preaching of pneumatological truth which Gregory thought this relationship demanded.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Hubmaier's appeal to the fathers was inspired by humanist principles, especially ad fontes, restitutionism, and rejection of scholastic syllogism and glosses in favour of full, humanist editions of the fathers based on an improved focus on grammar and philology. However, Hubmaier confessionalized Humanism by commandeering its disciplines, principles, and accomplishments to advance a reforming program that centred around credobaptism and freedom of the will. This confessionalization of Humanism is reflected also in the way Hubmaier exploited a perceived Nicodemism in the disparity between Erasmus' private and public statements on baptism and appropriated his endorsement of the docete–baptizantes–docentes baptismal sequence in Mt. 28:19 and defence of free will. Further, Hubmaier's Catholic, nominalist, and humanist academic background ensured that study of the fathers was an intuitive activity as his Anabaptist convictions developed. His nominalist education under the mentorship of Johann Eck also seems to have factored into his moderate Augustinianism and use of the African bishop in defence of free will against the hyper-Augustinianism of Luther. Hubmaier used carefully selected, amenable patristic theologians and historical witnesses to verify that credobaptism was preserved by the fathers in continuity with the practice of the apostolic era, while infant baptism was introduced only later and gradually accepted in the second to fifth centuries until definitively ratified by Augustine and universally embraced by the Catholic, papal "particular church." This increasing confusion during the patristic era was thought by Hubmaier to reflect the hesitant acceptance of paedobaptism in his own day especially by Zwingli and Erasmus, which inspired his desire for a new ecumenical council to decide the correct form of baptism on the basis of Scripture and supporting patristic exegesis. Ultimately, Hubmaier not only cognitively accepted the teachings of the fathers on baptism and free will, but embraced them as co-affiliates with himself in the one, holy, apostolic ecclesia universalis in protest against the errant papal ecclesia particularis as per the composition of his ecclesiology.

In this paper I will undertake a study of the worship practices of two major religions, Judaism and Christianity, as they existed during the early days of the Christian Church. Through an examination of specific aspects of worship, historical developments, and especially the prayers of the two communities, I wish to demonstrate that the worship of the Synagogue community had a definite influence upon the liturgy and theology of the church.

This thesis identifies in the Relations des Jésuites de la Nouvelle-France (Relations), written between 1632 and 1650, a comprehensive rhetoric of total selfoffering to Jesus Christ, a rhetoric of martyrdom, rooted in their authors' particular experience of the Christian tradition, their praying with the Spiritual Exercises (1548) of Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556), their encounters with the spirituality of the French Jesuit Louis Lallemant (1578-1635), and their exposure to various forms of Jesuit mission literature from around the world. Published annually, these Relations were the only consistent account of the unfolding French colonial project in Nouvelle- France, and a popular read among the noblesse, ecclesiastics, and pious Christians of the kingdom. Today they form an essential collection of primary sources that continue to provide a doorway into the earliest days of Canada's history. Identifying this rhetoric throughout the narratives, this study endeavours to provide a deeper historical understanding of these Relations by contextualising their content within the particular all-encompassing religious worldview of the authors who wrote them. The religious imaginations of these Jesuit authors, Paul Le Jeune (1591-1664), Jean de Brébeuf (1593-1649), Françoise-Joseph Le Mercier (1604-90), Barthélemy Vimont (1594-1667), Jérôme Lalemant (1593-1673), Isaac Jogues (1607-1673) and Paul Ragueneau (1608-1680), thus gives birth to a rhetoric in the Relations that presents Nouvelle-France as a land filled with Amerindian peoples who would only truly embrace Christianity if all of the missionaries lovingly offer their lives to Jesus Christ; just as He had done for the salvation of the entire world from sin and evil. They do so by placing their efforts on a metaphysical plane. There, the missionaries are presented as having been invited by God to join Christ crucified on a mission into a land filled with suffering and death. Where the Amerindians they evangelise must choose between a barbarous life of selfish material interest that is thought to imbue their traditions and a more human life of self-offering modelled on the Christian God. At the same time Satan, the devil, labours hard not to lose his grip on a part of the world that was as yet unaware of its true divine origins. The 'divine', the 'missionary', 'Satan', and the 'Amerindians', locked in this cosmic battle for souls that can only be won through a self-sacrificing union with Jesus Christ, combine to form the rhetoric of martyrdom in the narratives that reaches its summit as the authors describe the murders of eight of their fallen comrades, tortured and killed by some of the very people they had come to evangelise. This rhetoric, present throughout the narratives, has yet to be acknowledged, analysed, and interpreted by historians. In doing so, it is hoped that this study will deepen any reading of the Relations, advancing our understanding of their full import for both the early modern and the present-day reader.

In writing these following pages, I have carefully avoided criticism of any kind. In these pages, I have mentioned the main differences between the Hindu and Christian faiths. I have treated this subject of incarnation with due respect to both the religions. If the subject could be discussed on an evaluative basis, then there would be the possibility of coming to the conclusion that there is less truth and more truth in different religious faiths. The most important consideration will be the truth value. In the incarnation stories, man is restored by God’s creative act to his original state.