The ritual music written for the Compline service of the Liturgy of the Hours, Into Your Hands, is analyzed using an ontological and phenomenological approach, which seeks to answer how such sound/musical phenomena wed to the specific ritual dynamics of Compline in their own right can create a potential for encounter with the Divine. The Jewish philosopher Martin Buber’s understanding of encounter is used to show that the sound/musical phenomena in itself bears similarities with the nature of the Judeo/Christian God, and such a nature is revealed to be both irreducibly non-conceptual as well as an entity that establishes the ontological actuality of one’s being. Studies in the beginnings of humanity at large as well as the beginnings of the individual fetus reveal that an integrated expression of music and ritual can be said to have formed the impetus of such ontological beginnings through encounter. Therefore, one of the first sounds heard in the womb - that of water (or amniotic fluid) - constitutes what may be an archetypal sound of encounter. The phenomenological effects of such an archetype are analyzed in the music of Into Your Hands through topics such as the loss of aural perspective, immersion, dynamic swells, cyclic harmonic progressions, and simultaneity. Works of other composers who use similar techniques are discussed.

<p>The writings of Martin Buber have had an impact in many areas. Theology, philosophy, educational theory, psychotherapy and biblical studies have each culled insights from his wide-ranging works. While Buber's interests have been diverse, however, a major part of his efforts has been expended in explicating, exegeting, translating and philosophizing about the Hebrew Bible. This thesis describes and analyzes Buber as an interpreter of the Hebrew Bible. It is not a sustained critique of his theology and philosophy and their effect on biblical interpretation, but rather a discussion of his use of theological and philosophical concepts in interpretation and the problems arising therein. Buber has often been understood as being antinomian in respect to the biblical tradition and the concepts of Judaism which grew out of that tradition. This thesis focuses upon and calls attention to the traditional elements as they appear within the methodology and content of Buber's interpretations, especially in regard to prophecy, the election, nationhood and land of Israel, and kingship and messianism. In so doing, it evidences a perception of Buber as a traditional Jewish thinker. Buber as biblical interpreter is set against Maimonides and Nahmanides as a means of ascertaining the traditional components. The antinomian aspects and their implications are also analyzed. The thesis demonstrates the strong presence of traditional elements in Buber's biblical interpretations, elements, however, which are often distorted because of Buber's rejection of the rabbinic tradition. The thesis concludes that the antinomian aspects are not overcome by the traditional components, and so remain effective in Buber's writings.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Published Article / The article revisits the concept and phenomenon of human communication to show that it deserves to be part of a first-year undergraduate core curriculum which aims to further knowledge and advance learning. Conceptual analysis and critical and rational argumentation are employed. Teaching students about what human communication really is and, concomitantly, what it entails existentially as well as adopting the appropriate spirit, stance and method for authentic intercultural communication, could go a long way in equipping them to be critical thinkers, competent citizens, and compassionate human beings in the worlds in which they live.

This thesis explores the possibility of dialogue between leader and follower in order to further develop the theory and practice of relational leadership. It draws from and contributes to Relational Leadership Theory (Uhl-Bien 2006) and Buber’s concept of ‘I- Thou’ dialogue (Buber 1958). Using first-person and co-operative inquiry methods (Reason and Bradbury 2008b) the ‘space between’ (Bradbury and Lichtenstein 2000, Buber 1958) leader and follower is explored in order to reveal the complexities inherent within leadership relations. Four main findings are detailed which enrich our understanding of how leadership relations operate from ‘within living involvement’ (Shotter 2006). Firstly, the quality of leader-follower encounter could be affected by levels of ‘busyness’ and the ensuing assessment and prioritising process. Secondly, the pressure to ‘seem’ rather than ‘be’ may strengthen the construction of a façade which might be dismantled, in part, through disclosure, though this may feel extremely risky given organisational ‘rules’. Thirdly, mutuality between leader and follower may be crucially influenced by the way in which ‘leader’, ‘leadership’ and ‘power’ are constructed in the between space. Finally, ineffable dialogic moments may occur through sensing a particular quality of encounter amidst and despite the complexity of a myriad of micro-processes vying for attention in the between space. This thesis contributes a further strand to RLT constructionist work focused on the quality of leader-follower encounter which has not been previously revealed. Leadership constructs and macro-discourses relating to power, ‘busyness’ and the need for ‘worthwhile meetings’ encourages transactional relating. Consequently, opportunities for genuinely encountering others in organisational settings are suffocated. This holds important implications for ‘leaders’ and ‘followers’ who wish to creatively address pressing organisational issues in the 21st century through dialogue. Fundamentally this thesis suggests we pause to consider the implications that the nature of our encounters in our work-life have upon us as human beings wishing to know what it is to be fully human.

This paper examines dialogue between disputing students and the teacher/facilitator in conflict mediation meetings, and discusses what kind of teacher/facilitator’s actions help disputing students find a constructive solution, or even relational transformation. Key theories that inform my research are taken from Martin Buber and Carl Rogers. Buber argues that a human needs to set him/herself at a distance to see the other as an independent existence, and that humans enter relationship through self-becoming, and confirmation of the other’s existence. This is very difficult to achieve in a conflict situation, but Rogers’ core conditions of Person Centred Therapy: Unconditional positive regard; Empathy; Genuineness, fill this gap. The conflict mediator can help this process. Data for the study is taken from twenty video recordings in a secondary school in England, where diversified students, including those who were born abroad, learn together. I examine the outcomes of twenty video-recorded meetings, grouped into three categories: Relational Transformation; Resolution Only; Conflict not transformed. I describe how I have selected three meetings each (nine in total) for thematic coding and conversation analysis. Elicitive and empathetic facilitation appeared most frequently in Relational-Transformation cases, whereas judgmental and directive facilitation were observed most frequently in Conflict-not-transformed cases. As for student’s actions, openness and expansiveness appeared most frequently in Relational-Transformation cases, and attacking and defiance appeared most frequently in Conflict-not-transformed cases. Resolution-Only cases lie between these two categories. These findings suggest that conflict mediation favours elicitive and empathetic facilitation, and leads to the transformation of students’ relationships. When the facilitator/teacher shows judgment and directiveness, students respond with attacking and defiance, which impairs transformative process. It was also revealed that students were only able to acknowledge the other student’s feelings and experiences after their own feeling had been acknowledged.

I denna studie undersöker jag hur det interreligiösa fredssamarbetet kan se ut mellan muslimer och kristna. Fokus ligger på en kvalitativ studie där tre muslimska och tre kristna interreligiöst aktiva fredsförespråkare i Stockholm förklarar sin syn på fredsskapande. Men det görs även nedslag i engelskspråklig litteratur där exempel från runt om i världen ges. Här nämner författarna sinsemellan vilka svårigheter som kan uppstå. Dessa svårigheter kan bland annat bero på vem som anses ha kunskaperna för att bedriva fredsarbete. Men även vilka roller som externa aktörer tar på sig när de ger sig in och påverkar fredsskapandet. Här ges exempel från Balkan. Vad gäller den kvalitativa studien ser man att det interreligiösa fredssamarbetet kan ta sig olika form. Exempel ges på ett gemensamt bönehus och mötesplats som finns i Fisksätra. Men även studie och föreläsningsprojektet Saalams vänner beskrivs. Den teori som används utgår från Ruth Illmans tolkning av filsofen Martin Buber. Illman söker genom Buber att förklara hur mötet med Den Andre också är ett möte med sig själv. Ett möte som när det är ärligt kan skapa respekt och förståelse trots skillnader. Dessa skillnader blir då sekundära.

This dissertation rhetorically analyzes the ways in which ineffable moments of awakening are constructed in the context of three religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Zen. Close textual analysis revealed that awakening is constructed differently in all three religions and that ineffability itself assumed different meanings in all cases. The conventional understanding of language as arbitrary and as based on human convention does not apply to Hebrew which takes itself to be a sacred language. Words are understood in this tradition as creative elements that convey more than trivial information and the term ineffability does not occupy much thought in Judaism. Christianity is grounded in a representative model of language and equates words with mortality and temporality. Awakening is constructed ontologically as moments in which textuality and corporality are transcended and one merges with the infinite divine. Zen is cautious about the ways in which language constructs the illusion of distinct identities, but ineffability is not constructed as an ontological concept in this tradition. Awakening is understood as beyond all words. The tropes recognized in the Jewish construction of awakening are metonymy, dialogue, differences, juxtapositions, particularities, haunting, and intertextuality. In Christianity, the dominant tropes are allegory, typology, metaphors, substitution, replacement and abstraction. Awakening is modeled after the resurrection of Jesus and is understood as a dramatic and ineffable event. The dominant rhetorical moves in Zen are suchness, nonsense, and paradoxes. Differences are also found between the construction of subjectivity, the perception of time, aesthetics, the linguistic model and ineffability. Judaism views itself as an architecture of time, but this time is not linear and is instead understood by the qualitative moments of the events. Awakening maintains the reverberations of past events into the present, but present moments are given significant attention. In Christianity, man is understood as grounded in space and progressing on a linear axis of time from birth towards his telos. Ineffability is constructed spatially and the event of awakening divides life into before and after. Zen attempts to deconstruct time and views it as sunyata, or “emptiness”. / text

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This thesis explores the possibility of dialogue between leader and follower in order to further develop the theory and practice of relational leadership. It draws from and contributes to Relational Leadership Theory (Uhl-Bien 2006) and Buber’s concept of ‘I- Thou’ dialogue (Buber 1958). Using first-person and co-operative inquiry methods (Reason and Bradbury 2008b) the ‘space between’ (Bradbury and Lichtenstein 2000, Buber 1958) leader and follower is explored in order to reveal the complexities inherent within leadership relations. Four main findings are detailed which enrich our understanding of how leadership relations operate from ‘within living involvement’ (Shotter 2006). Firstly, the quality of leader-follower encounter could be affected by levels of ‘busyness’ and the ensuing assessment and prioritising process. Secondly, the pressure to ‘seem’ rather than ‘be’ may strengthen the construction of a façade which might be dismantled, in part, through disclosure, though this may feel extremely risky given organisational ‘rules’. Thirdly, mutuality between leader and follower may be crucially influenced by the way in which ‘leader’, ‘leadership’ and ‘power’ are constructed in the between space. Finally, ineffable dialogic moments may occur through sensing a particular quality of encounter amidst and despite the complexity of a myriad of micro-processes vying for attention in the between space. This thesis contributes a further strand to RLT constructionist work focused on the quality of leader-follower encounter which has not been previously revealed. Leadership constructs and macro-discourses relating to power, ‘busyness’ and the need for ‘worthwhile meetings’ encourages transactional relating. Consequently, opportunities for genuinely encountering others in organisational settings are suffocated. This holds important implications for ‘leaders’ and ‘followers’ who wish to creatively address pressing organisational issues in the 21st century through dialogue. Fundamentally this thesis suggests we pause to consider the implications that the nature of our encounters in our work-life have upon us as human beings wishing to know what it is to be fully human.

Syftet med studien är att utifrån de ställda frågeställningarna undersöka hur lärare arbetar med didaktiska utmaningar i ett mångkulturellt klassrum i undervisningen och hur mångkulturaliteten påverkar undervisningen. Det som undersökts är vad för verktyg som behövs för att motarbeta dessa utmaningar lärarna ställs inför. Studien är till för att lyfta vilka utmaningar några verksamma lärare har uppmärksammat, vad som behövs för att förebygga utmaningarna och slutligen ge uppmärksamhet till vad som behövs forskas mer om. Teorin utgår från Martin Bubers dialogfilosofi och hans begrepp jag- du, jag- det, det sociala och det mellanmänskliga. Den valda undersökningsmetoden som används för denna studie är en kvalitativ semi-strukturerad intervjuform, där fokus legat på lärares erfarenheter och reflektioner kring didaktiska utmaningar. Resultatet delades upp i teman där både relation, kommunikation, inkludering, exkludering och mångkulturalitet utgjorde analysen. Slutsatsen visar på betydelsen av hur alla dessa begrepp måste kontinuerligt arbetas med, både i planeringen och i undervisningen.