In today’s global religious landscape, many beliefs and practices have been dislocated and thrust into unfamiliar cultural environments and have been forced to adapt to these new settings. There has been a significant amount of research on this phenomenon as it appears in various contexts, much of it centred on the concepts of globalisation/localisation and appropriation. In this dissertation, the same process is explored in relation to the traditions of contemplative prayer from within Eastern Orthodox Christianity known as the Jesus Prayer and hesychasm. These prayer practices have traveled from a primarily monastic Orthodox Christian setting, into general Orthodox Christian usage, and finally into wider contemporary Western culture. As a result of this geographic shift from a local to a global setting, due mainly to immigration and dissemination of relevant texts, there has been a parallel shift of interpretation. This shift of interpretation involves the way the practices are understood in relation to general conceptions of authority and tradition. The present work attempts to explain the divergence of interpretations of these practices by reference to the major themes of authority and tradition, and to several secondary themes such as appropriation, cultural transmission, “glocalisation,” memory, and Orientalism. By looking at accounts of the Jesus Prayer and hesychasm from a variety of sources and perspectives, the contentious issues between accounts will be put into a wider perspective that considers fundamental differences in worldviews.

A Inquisição Moderna foi uma instituição criada pelos Estados Ibéricos e apoiada pela Igreja Católica no século XVI para investigar e punir indivíduos que não estivessem agindo de acordo com a moral religiosa. Agindo através de denúncias e segredos, o julgamento inquisitorial forjou heresias, apontando como principal inimigo o cristão-novo. Ao analisarmos o funcionamento do Tribunal do Santo Ofício, através de documentos inquisitoriais e trabalhos diversos publicados sobre o tema, percebemos o caráter indispensável que a instituição teve no sentido de restringir as liberdades individuais, em prol de uma ideia de uniformidade baseada numa verdade absoluta a fé católica. Em um período de tantas transformações como foi o da modernidade, a Inquisição se tornou uma das principais instituições de manutenção do Antigo Regime, assegurando o poder nas mãos do clero e da nobreza. / The Modern Inquisition was an institution created by the Iberian States and supported for Catholic Church in the XVI century to investigate and to punish individuals that were not acting in accordance with the moral religion. Acting through denunciations and secrets, the inquisitional judgment forged heresies, pointing the new-Christian as main enemy. When analyzing the functioning of the Court of the Holy Office, through inquisitional documents and several published works on the subject, we notice the indispensable character that the institution had in the direction to restrict the individual freedom in favor of an idea of uniformity based on an absolute truth the catholic faith. That one period of so many transformations, as it was the modern period, the Inquisition became one of the main institutions of maintenance of the Antique Regimen, assuring the power to the hands of the clergy and the nobility.

In Russia today, conservative views about gender are often promoted through reference to the past, to show that supposedly ‘traditional’ gender roles are intrinsic to Russian history. Frequently, this idea is upheld in scholarship. My work explores the historicity of commonly held assumptions about gender. This dissertation focusses on gender and sexuality in Russia from the sixteenth to early eighteenth centuries. It shows that ideas about what constituted a virtuous marriage were established by reference to ideas about brotherhood. Brotherhood here refers not to biological siblings, but to a church rite of ‘spiritual brotherhood’ known in Russian as bratotvorenie. This rite has not been studied in any depth before. Based on archival work, this dissertation offers a detailed account of the tradition in Russia until its ban in 1650, when it was prohibited by leading ecclesiastical figures for being too like marriage. One churchman complained: ‘The priest, joining together these two men, unites them in matrimony’. The dissertation shows that bratotvorenie was conceived of in premodern Russia as a form of same-sex union, and that it was through banning this tradition that churchmen came to express in a coherent way which kinds of partnership were legitimate and why. The first chapter challenges the idea that marriage was always a monogamous union between a man and a woman for the creation of children, an idea that is often encountered in academic literature on Russian marriage history. It shows that the church rite of marriage was edited in Russia during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when ideas about the sacramental nature of marriage changed. The second chapter builds on these observations, suggesting that marriage and ‘spiritual brotherhood’ were understood as analogous in the premodern period. The final two chapters look at depictions of marriage and brotherhood in hagiography and iconography respectively. They focus on Petr and Fevroniia, the first married couple to be canonised in Russia in 1547. In 2008, their feast day was reworked into a state festival called the ‘Day of Family, Love and Fidelity’, now widely celebrated across Russia. Petr and Fevroniia have been cast as the patron saints of so-called ‘traditional moral-spiritual values’. This view is generally upheld in existent scholarship on the saints. This dissertation responds to the way the saints are being represented today, arguing that they were initially venerated for subverting normative ideas about gender and sexuality—that they were queer. What is more, their veneration paralleled the veneration of holy brothers. Their hagiography seems to have been based on the Life of a monastic brotherhood, and icons depicting Petr and Fevroniia standardly showed them in monastic robes. Focussing on marriage and brotherhood in premodern Russia, each chapter of this dissertation challenges a preconceived idea about the immutability of supposedly ‘traditional’ gender roles in Russian history.

This thesis argues that a peace-oriented struggle has emerged in Peshawar from within the non–state space and is demonstrated at the empirical level by various associations in that space. The struggle to embrace peace and reject different forms of violence, by this associational life in Peshawar is what we call an ‘emergent civil society’. The thesis argues against those who claim that civil society cannot exist or flourish in a non-western environment. Civil Society in Peshawar is emergent, as the empirical evidence suggests, but within an overarching tendency to root this in a local cultural identity. The latter is, however, imbued with values, belief systems, and gender roles, which limit the search for peace. Two examples are the dominance of a hyper masculinity and religious orthodoxies, which undermine forms of associationalism which might promote peace. To find an indigenous cultural identity, the ‘emergent civil society’ navigates, not without tensions, across three different worldviews that includes cultural (Pakhtunwali), religious (Islam) and, to a certain extent, liberal (human rights) perspectives. The tensions between different perspectives become more frictional when the ‘emergent civil society’ advocates women’s rights and religious pluralism, which is resisted by the antithetical forces of masculinity and religious orthodoxies. Amidst these contestations, the ‘emergent civil society’, while resisting these antithetical forces, pressurizes the state also to provide favourable conditions to continue its peace-oriented struggle. This thesis, however, suggests that the ‘emergent civil society’ also needs an in-ward looking tendency to self reflect on certain challenges that seem to impact the potential for growth and development of an associational life, which can fully embrace the social conditions for peace.

This research explores the method and theological content in Stephen Charnock's discourses on the attributes and the existence of God with the intention to determine whether this material is structured upon the influence of the scholastic method. This is accomplished (1) by locating Charnock within his own academic and historical context and by interpreting his works according to the theological genre to which they belong, (2) by identifying the conceptual and methodological presuppositions that framed the discourses, (3) by examining and accounting for the order of exposition found in the discourses, and (4) by performing a descriptive analysis of the material seeking to identify traces of the scholastic method and style of argumentation. The findings of this investigation indicate that Charnock's discourses are theological sermons primarily intended for homiletical purposes and yet organised and reasoned per the scholastic method.

A Inquisição Moderna foi uma instituição criada pelos Estados Ibéricos e apoiada pela Igreja Católica no século XVI para investigar e punir indivíduos que não estivessem agindo de acordo com a moral religiosa. Agindo através de denúncias e segredos, o julgamento inquisitorial forjou heresias, apontando como principal inimigo o cristão-novo. Ao analisarmos o funcionamento do Tribunal do Santo Ofício, através de documentos inquisitoriais e trabalhos diversos publicados sobre o tema, percebemos o caráter indispensável que a instituição teve no sentido de restringir as liberdades individuais, em prol de uma ideia de uniformidade baseada numa verdade absoluta a fé católica. Em um período de tantas transformações como foi o da modernidade, a Inquisição se tornou uma das principais instituições de manutenção do Antigo Regime, assegurando o poder nas mãos do clero e da nobreza. / The Modern Inquisition was an institution created by the Iberian States and supported for Catholic Church in the XVI century to investigate and to punish individuals that were not acting in accordance with the moral religion. Acting through denunciations and secrets, the inquisitional judgment forged heresies, pointing the new-Christian as main enemy. When analyzing the functioning of the Court of the Holy Office, through inquisitional documents and several published works on the subject, we notice the indispensable character that the institution had in the direction to restrict the individual freedom in favor of an idea of uniformity based on an absolute truth the catholic faith. That one period of so many transformations, as it was the modern period, the Inquisition became one of the main institutions of maintenance of the Antique Regimen, assuring the power to the hands of the clergy and the nobility.

In this study, we have considered if, how, or to what extent emerging Christian expressions within the context of the Emerging Church (EC) movement, and related Emerging Missional partners and postcedents, might reform, contextualize, innovate, or revise Christian forms, language, practices, or doctrines to reform the church and inculturate the gospel in postmodern contexts, while retaining continuity and congruence with apostolicity and orthodoxy. We also wished to see if, how, or to what extent EC voices considered accountability to apostolicity and orthodoxy and, if not, to what they were accountable and also to what extent they remain authentically Christian. We have done so by examining the perspectives of leading EC authors, practitioners, and current and historical conversation partners including Vincent of Lérins and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, using historical, theological, ethnographic and narrative inquiry and analysis methods. Our review of literature from EC authors provides insights into debates that led to fracturing of the EC movement and that offer challenges to orthodoxy. Our analysis also reveals methods EC authors appealed to in order to justify their views, or defense or revisions of core historic doctrines. When they rarely appealed to orthodoxy, there were two common but divergent approaches in which orthodoxy was either viewed as a system of beliefs, in which one could treat orthodox doctrines trans-subjectively, or else as being subjectively grounded in the incarnate Christ, in which accountability to Christ was primarily evidenced in materialist acts. We also placed our analysis of key EC sources and their approaches to apostolicity and orthodoxy in conversation with the historical perspectives of Vincent of Lérins and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, as well as with current EC practitioners, via an ethnographic questionnaire. We found that Vincent’s method of consensual orthodoxy, instead of seeing orthodoxy as a system of universal beliefs, or as entirely subjective, appeared to center orthodoxy in the unified life of the Body of Christ in which doctrine may grow and, yet, its apostolic meaning is safeguarded by requiring Christians to surrender current interpretations of Scripture to the universal ecumenical consensus of the Body of Christ through history. Then too, our review of Bonhoeffer’s works reveals the ways that he provides room for questioning and flexibility, while holding that the creedal beliefs and sacred practices of the apostolic faith must be surrendered to as-is, as agents of revelation. In further analysis of primary sources and ethnographic responses, the study also reveals a third EC approach to apostolicity and orthodoxy, in which, in synergy with Vincent and Bonhoeffer, orthodox doctrine is seen as the unified faith, obedience, worship, and witness of the Body of Christ, and in which body doctrine may contextually grow in faithful alignment with apostolicity. Additionally, we considered Vincent’s method as providing orthodox EC voices a rule to guide contextual listening, inculturation and growth of doctrine while ensuring continuity and congruity with apostolicity. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2018. / Church History and Church Policy / PhD / Unrestricted

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This thesis argues that a peace-oriented struggle has emerged in Peshawar from within the non–state space and is demonstrated at the empirical level by various associations in that space. The struggle to embrace peace and reject different forms of violence, by this associational life in Peshawar is what we call an ‘emergent civil society’. The thesis argues against those who claim that civil society cannot exist or flourish in a non-western environment. Civil Society in Peshawar is emergent, as the empirical evidence suggests, but within an overarching tendency to root this in a local cultural identity. The latter is, however, imbued with values, belief systems, and gender roles, which limit the search for peace. Two examples are the dominance of a hyper masculinity and religious orthodoxies, which undermine forms of associationalism which might promote peace. To find an indigenous cultural identity, the ‘emergent civil society’ navigates, not without tensions, across three different worldviews that includes cultural (Pakhtunwali), religious (Islam) and, to a certain extent, liberal (human rights) perspectives. The tensions between different perspectives become more frictional when the ‘emergent civil society’ advocates women’s rights and religious pluralism, which is resisted by the antithetical forces of masculinity and religious orthodoxies. Amidst these contestations, the ‘emergent civil society’, while resisting these antithetical forces, pressurizes the state also to provide favourable conditions to continue its peace-oriented struggle. This thesis, however, suggests that the ‘emergent civil society’ also needs an in-ward looking tendency to self reflect on certain challenges that seem to impact the potential for growth and development of an associational life, which can fully embrace the social conditions for peace.

Assyrians/Syrians have for over two millenniums been part of the congregation of people that used to live in the Middle East in countries such as Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Turkey. Various circumstances in the form of persecution, war, and, starvation in recent decades resulted in Assyrians/Syrians fleeing their homeland and emigrating to countries around the world. Sweden is today one of the countries with the largest Assyrian/Syrian communities over the globe. What interested many Assyrians/Syrians in residing in one of the world’s most secularized countries, Sweden, is because of various factors. One of them is that it is known for its great religious freedom, which attracted many crowds to locate themselves here. This study focuses on the Syriac-Orthodox church’s approach to the global COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden and how the consequences of this crisis affected two Syriac-Orthodox churches. Little is known about the impact that this pandemic has had on the Syriac-Orthodox Church in Sweden, which raised both a need and an interest to explore. Qualitative methods were applied in this study to explore this alluring topic, and it also allowed me to look into the experiences that were brought up in the interviews told by the active representatives of these two churches. Among the myriad challenges that the pandemic has posed to our world, one that deeply worried religious leaders was whether and how to worship, which is the lifeblood of faith, could be practiced without a community gathered around in a common worship space. Mandatory quarantine and only the assembly of a very small number of the faithful being permitted, with strict social distancing and masks wearing guidelines, obviously diminished the regular liturgical celebration but was not made impossible. The results of this study show that even in our darkest times, the 2,000-year-old tradition has been changed, reshaped, and derived, but remains today, stronger than ever.