The evolution of landscapes and seascapes in time is the result of the constant interaction between flows and topography. Flows change topography, which in turn change the flow. This feedback causes evolution processes to be highly non-linear and complex. When full analytical derivations of the co-evolution of topography and flow are not possible without oversimplifications, as is the case in river bends, recent large topographical datasets and modern computers allow for correlations between horizontal (planview) and cross-sectional geometry of channels. Numerical analysis in the Mississippi and Trinity rivers indicate that the type of correlation between river radius of curvature and bankfull channel width depends on the migration behavior of the river. In other cases, channel topography may only have a second-order effect on its own evolution, as is the case for fully depositional turbidity currents, and the evolution of aeolian field topography may only be a function of this topography. I show that in these situations, changes in topography may be decoupled from details of the flow field and modeled very easily with a good accuracy. / text

This study examines and compares two well-established private universities in their provincial environments: Trinity Western University (TWU) in British Columbia, and Augustana University College (AUC) in Alberta. Three questions were addressed. First, what were the conditions that enabled TWU and AUC to take root and flourish in their environments? Second, in what way and to what extent are TWU and AUC "private"? Third, how have TWU and AUC survived in their public environments on issues related to achieving degree-granting status, quality control, academic standards and public acceptance? The main finding to the first question is that both universities were established by the faith, perseverance and volunteer action of supporting memberships whose philosophy and beliefs were mainly incongruent with those of the public environment. Both universities were given recognition by politically conservative governments whose ideology extolled the virtues of private initiative. The main finding to the second question is that both universities were not "private" to nearly the same degree. While both universities are recognized for their academic quality by the postsecondary environment, TWU exhibits characteristics that are more distinctive and incongruent with the public environment in its faith-affirming beliefs, governance, financing, missions, academic frameworks, faculty, students and ethical standards. AUC, on the other hand, is far more "public-like" in these aspects, and is formally accountable to and part of the postsecondary education system of Alberta. The conclusion to the third finding is that TWU has depended on maintaining its distinctiveness and financial autonomy whilst maintaining recognition and acceptance by its environment in order to remain viable. AUC, by contrast, has depended on relinquishing much of its distinctiveness and autonomy in order to receive provincial support and recognition. These two cases illustrate that the idea of "private" as opposed to "public" universities should be viewed as a matter of degree rather than in absolute opposite terms.

The dissertation details and analyses an interpretation of the Christian concept of God that emerges through the interactions between the missionaries, post-missionary Christianity and the Raya people in Tanzania. It investigates the nature, implications and possible problems encountered in the processes of interpretation. Four main issues are investigated and addressed. Firstly, each group interacted in its own way and played a significant role in creating an arena for successful communication. The main two challenges facing the missionaries were: delivering the Christian message so that the hearers derive its meaning, and the use of the traditional but nonindigenous concept of God for identifying the Christian concept of God, according to the biblical and the classical doctrine of the Trinity. Secondly, the Raya and the convert's reactions to the missionaries' version of God had taken place in two phases, earlier and later interactions. In the earlier phase, the Raya responded to the missionaries' version of God on the basis of their traditional understanding of God. It led them to an initial acceptance of the missionaries' version of God and conversion. The converts later reacted to the missionaries' version and some asked: what happens after a conversion to Christianity? Challenged by their earlier experience of the Christian concept of God, some converts felt the need for a second paradigm shift. On the basis of an invocation of the Deity in a threefold form at a subjective level, these converts had embarked on a self-interpretation and understanding of the missionaries' version of the Trinity in traditional idiom and terms. It resulted in the construction of the Raya Christian theology of the Trinity. Thirdly, the study also addressed the further impacts and responses to the missionaries' version of God. While the missionaries' interpretative approach laid the foundation for the converts' interpretation, in turn both set the course for the post-missionary Christianity's interpretation. At this point, post-missionary Christianity had reinterpreted the Christian concept of God on the basis of a traditional Raya concept of God. The main question faced them is an application of the Ruhanga model according to its frame of reference, although partially applied it paved the way for a full application in later times. Fourthly, in response to the challenges raised by earlier interpretative approaches, missionaries, converts and post-missionary Christianity, the study embarked on interpreting the Trinity in traditional tenns. It aimed at reaching a higher stage of understanding the Trinity by all Haya converts, even the simplest ones. It demanded an investigation of the hypothesis that a Haya invocation of the Deity in a threefold fonn is a key to understanding both the Haya and the Christian concepts of God. An application of it involved addressing the question of how it could be applied at the church level to interpret and understand the Trinity in Haya idiom. It is proposed that initially this will be achieved through an interpretation and christianisation of the Haya concept of God and a re-interpretation and indigenisation of the Christian concept of God. While biblical, classical and contemporary interpretations of the Trinity are a referral basis for each approach, social and theological models are key methodological instruments. Finally, the need of this study has roots in the fact that, through my pastoral ministry, I have pondered and cross-examined myself on what the Haya and Africans as a whole can contribute to the enrichment of Christian theology. An investigation of the converts' interpretation of the Trinity into their own version of a Haya theology of the Trinity is looked upon as a small part of this contribution. / Thesis (Ph.D. ; School of Theology) - University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2003.

While Richard Baxter (1615-91) is well known and rightly held in high esteem for his practical divinity and his evangelistic zeal, he has hitherto been conspicuously neglected as a theologian. In particular there have been no major studies of him with respect to the renewed paradigm of Protestant Scholasticism and none at all of his Methodus Theologiae (1681), which represents the fruit of a lifetime of theological reflection and study and which is arguably, in both scope and vision, one of the last great Summas of English scholastic divinity. This thesis focuses on the Methodus and on Baxter‟s theological method, which he took, though imperfect, to be the closest to the true Scripture method of theology that anyone had yet come. Baxter believed that every level of (active) created reality reflected the impress of God‟s Triune being in metaphysical composition, structure and activity. This he described, following the Italian metaphysicist Tommaso Campanella, in terms of the divine primalities or principles of Power, Wisdom and Love. In the Methodus these insights are systematised into a kind of Trinitarian logic. Baxter held that human reason should be sanctified in order to conform to the Trinitarian structure of created reality, and therefore espoused a method of trichotomising organised according to these same divine principles, derivative of both Ramist and Lullist method. This thesis argues that the whole of Baxter‟s mature thought is structured in a Trinitarian fashion according to his own „hallowed logic‟ and that two themes, often interlinked, are the key to interpreting his thought: the metaphysics of the divine principles and the Christian‟s baptismal covenant with the Triune God. Furthermore it examines Baxter‟s analogical ascent from the general vestigia Trinitatis present in the whole created order through the special vestigium of man‟s soul fashioned in the image of God and finally to the Trinity itself. This detailed exposition provides the basis, in the concluding chapter, for an examination of the whole of the Methodus and a demonstration that this represents a methodological unfolding of the covenant between the believer and God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the threefold Kingdom of Nature, Grace and Glory. In this way the Methodus may be seen as having taken its inspiration from the Theo-Politica (1659) of Baxter‟s friend George Lawson. Finally this thesis concludes that Baxter‟s thought has pronounced Scotist and Nominalist accents. His Scotism in particular runs deep and has strong ties with his Trinitarian thought, which is especially significant in light of the recent increasingly vocal discussions of the Scotist character of Protestant Scholasticism. Overall therefore it is suggested that Baxter is a neglected figure who deserves to be rediscovered and whose mature theology represents a fascinating reconstrual of biblical ideas according to a Trinitarian and scholastic paradigm.

The purpose of this study is to describe and explain tributary changes within the lower Trinity River basin, Texas, downstream of Livingston Dam. Within southeastern Texas, an opportunistic geomorphic experiment arose when the Trinity River was impounded. The dam represents a marked moment and place of a system perturbation. Geomorphological effects of the lower Trinity River tributaries were investigated through five different types of data: analysis of published discharge and sediment load data, examination of alluvium, planform change as measured from aerial photographs, resurveys of bridge cross-sections, and field mapping of geomorphic indicators of change. Since closure, Lake Livingston has reduced sediment supply while minimally affecting the discharge regime. Channel scour is evident for about 60 km downstream. All the tributaries studied are located within this reach. Currently, there is no model that directly addresses the morphological response of a tributary streams confluence downstream of a dam. Therefore, the Confluence Effects Model is developed to predict the resulting geomorphological impacts within a tributary streams mouth with varying changes in trunk stream discharge and channel morphology. When applied to two confluences of the lower Trinity River, the Confluence Effects Model successfully predicts the resulting geomorphological changes. Within the lower Trinity River basin, the tributaries are reacting in a nonlinear and complex manner. Delayed or lagged responses are illustrated through sediment budgets for two tributaries which suggest a large amount of sediment is in storage within the tributary basins. Applying the unstable hydraulic geometry model, thirteen qualitatively different modes of adjustment with respect to increases, decreases or lack of change in width, depth, slope and roughness were observed within the tributary systems. The nonlinear and complex reactions of the tributary systems mask the effects of the impoundment beyond the confluences with the Trinity. The geomorphic characteristics of the tributaries are largely dominated by Holocene sea level change and the response to extreme events, such that dam effects become relatively localized. While this study considered a coastal plain fluvial system perturbed by human modifications, other earth surface systems may draw comparisons between emergent responses, response times and landscape sensitivity to a disturbance within a system.

This study articulates a God-concept in the tradition of classical Christian theism, contending with calls to modify significantly or revise classical constructions. Attention falls upon two closely related divine attributes that have, especially in recent decades, come under philosophical and theological attack – God’s timelessness and impassibility (inability to suffer). Is the “classical” Lord truly Immanuel, i.e. with us? This general question motivates the study. The opening three chapters analyze aspects of the God-concepts put forth by Augustine, Aquinas, and Calvin. Apparent tensions between a timeless transcendence and an affirming union of the Trinity with creation are countenanced, with an eye to doing justice to both doctrines. Chapter One examines the idea of divine timelessness and corresponding thoughts about temporal reality found in the Confessions, supplementing Augustinian transcendence with the creational and eschatological insights of two other Church Fathers. Chapter Two documents Aquinas’s affirmation of both God’s strong immutability and the non-necessity of creation, while questioning whether he affirms these in a logically consistent way. Chapter Three then follows the contours of Calvin’s Trinitarianism and Christology, reflecting on the Triune Creator’s gracious “wedding” of himself to the whole work of creation. The final three chapters operate within the fields of philosophy and philosophical theology. Chapter Four commends a tenseless (or B) theory of time, highlighting several problems surrounding tensed (or A) theories of time. But this former view implies that there is no “official present,” leaving no apparent room for the presence of the timeless God with times and temporally located agents. Thus Chapter Five seeks to address classical eternalism’s “present problem.” The conclusion is reached that the temporally absent God’s “present problem” can be resolved by embracing a “risk-free” understanding of divine providence, best understood in terms of a “Reformed decree” that strongly actualizes all non-divine entities and events. Chapter Six begins by wrestling with what implications the timelessness doctrine might have for “responsive” divine compassion and ends by proposing that the infinite God “embraces” the finite world not by way of a panentheistic inclusion but in some ways more akin to a husband’s attentive care for his wife.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Southern Methodist University, Perkins School of Theology, 1977. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 196-201).

Thesis (Th. M.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [49]-54).

Thesis (M.A.P.S.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 61-64).

Thesis (Th. M.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [49]-54).