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This thesis explores five documents written by Tagore between 1906 and 1940. Tagore was writing at a time when India was struggling for independence. Among his numerous concerns, he wanted an India which could be compassionate and humane. He realized that such a lofty goal could only be achieved through an education system which not only encouraged these qualities but allowed students to cultivate them by understanding the world around them. Central to the arguments in this thesis is Tagore's discussion of the tapobon, the Indian meditative forest. The tapobon is seen as metaphorical place for contemplation in deciphering the world and developing an understanding of one's place in it. The documents examined here reflect the breadth and depth of Tagore's thoughts on education though they are only a sampling of the extensive work he did in his lifetime.

Contrary to the view of many interpreters that Francis of Assisi (1181--1226) dabbled in church renovation for a few years following his first conversion experience in 1205, architecture remained a central preoccupation until his death in 1226. His creative practice ranged from hermitage planning to the clothing design of its occupants, from architectural legislation to the composition of psalms to be sung in the hermitage churches. Through the medieval art of memory, Francis formed his architectural intentions around two contemplative foci: first, the symbol of the tau, which became his attire, prayer position, signature, talisman for healing the sick and the crucifixion of Christ imprinted on his flesh in the stigmata; and second, the chapel of the Portiuncula, which Francis renovated himself to be the cave of the annunciation and the nativity, the womb of Mary and a portion of heaven on earth where angels descended. With its hedge-bound monastery. it became the prototype for construction among his followers. As the art of memory aimed at an ethics, so did his architecture strive to inspire communal good through narratives of compassion, voluntary penance and humility. / The Portiuncula was copied throughout the Franciscan order, but as the order grew its commitment to poverty waned. As a result, buildings began to deviate from Francis' ideals. Rather than resort to prescriptive architectural legislation, Francis addressed this dilemma through an intricately choreographed performance of his death whose poetic image would be unforgettable for those who wished to imitate him in word, deed and architecture. Two years after this event the Basilica of San Francesco in Assisi, built by his friend and hand-chosen successor, Br. Elias, rapidly rose to house the newly canonized saint. Its earliest form, narrative and symbolism, also widely imitated, seems to illustrate aptly Francis' architectural vision: if the Portiuncula was the Bethlehem of the order, the Basilica's tau plan became its Jerusalem. From these two prototypes Italian mendicant architecture for the next century drew its meaning and form.

Miskawayh's theory of intellect is the subject of this thesis; in addition, the historical and conceptual sources--Greek and Islamic--that were to shape Miskawayh's noetic are examined. The first part of this thesis examines the Greek tradition and its first most complete work dealing with the intellect, Aristotle's De Anima. Then, Alexander of Aphrodisias' noetic, as it is found in his Risalah fi/ 'Aql, Plotinus' conception of Intelligence, as it occurs in his Theologia Aristotelis and Proclus' conception of Intelligence, as it occurs in his Liber de Causis and finally, Themistius' noetic which is elaborated in his commentary of Aristotle's De Anima will be examined and evaluated in relation to Miskawayh's noetic. The second part of this thesis examines the Islamic tradition. The noetics of al-Kindiand of al-Farabi elaborated in their respective Risalah fi al-'Aql, are examined. In spite of Miskawayh's apparent shunning of his Islamic tradition, he is greatly influenced by it. The last part of this thesis examines Miskawayh's noetic as it can be reconstructed from his works: the Risalah fi al-Nafs wa al-'Aql, the al-Fawz al-Asghar and the Tahdhib al-Akhlaq. However, the use of the Risalah fial- 'Aql wa al-Ma'qul, a text attributed to Miskawayh, for the reconstruction of Miskawayh's noetic is more problematic. At he end of this study, it will appear that Miskawayh's noetic is indebted to both Greek and Islamic traditions. In spite of Miskawayh's explicit emphasis on Aristotelian aspects, he implicitly adheres to cosmological and anthropological speculations belonging to his Islamic tradition, which in turn, are greatly influenced by Neoplatonism. Thus Miskawayh, in an attempt to revive and utilize the Greek heritage, operated a rearticulation of the noeticsphere.

This thesis seeks to contribute to scholarship on the great Swiss theologian, Karl Barth, and to the ongoing discussion of theology and politics by examining Barth's view of war. / There has so far been only one monograph on Barth's view of war: John Howard Yoder's Karl Barth and the Problem of War (1970). Whereas Yoder's work is restricted to Barth's general discussion of war in his Church Dogmatics, and to a partial glance at his response to World War Two (WWII) and the Cold War, this thesis expands and completes the picture by examining Barths, overall theo-ethical framework, and his attitude to World War I. / Pushing a little further into Barth's theology, I start by re-evaluating the significance of Barth's key ethical concept of the Grenzfall ('extreme case')---particularly his use of it in relation to the problem of war. Briefly, rather than being a 'cop-out' clause (Yoder's thesis), the Grenzfall serves as a descriptive, conceptual short-hand for Barth's contextually-engaged, prophetic stance with regard to war. This is shown most clearly in his responses in word and deed to World War One (WWI---ignored by Yoder), WWII and the Cold War. / Following my examination of the Grenzfall, I chart Barth's path through these three situations: No substantial work has previously been done on Barth's response to WWI, largely because much of it is articulated in a series of sermons which have not yet been translated. Uncovering Barth's thought in these sermons---hitherto largely ignored in both dogmatic and ethical scholarship---I compare Barth's early, middle and later responses to concrete, historical wars, and relate these to his use of the Grenzfall in the ethical discussion of his Dogmatics.

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In this dissertation it is contended that central to Reinhold Niebuhr's theology and ethics is his understanding of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ as a revelation of the suffering of God. Keeping in mind the theologia crucis of Martin Luther, Part I examines the significance of the Christian symbol of the cross during Niebuhr's formative years and as he later sought to relate the moral and ethical insights of the Christian faith to the more tragic social and political events of his age. / Part II begins with a systematic appraisal of Niebuhr's theology of the cross in reference to his understanding of Christian anthropology, theology proper, the atonement, history and eschatology. The theological similarities of Niebuhr's thought to the theologia crucis of Luther are made explicit. A delineation is then made of Niebuhr's social ethic of the cross. It is an ethic which seeks to underscore the true but limited relevance of the norm of sacrificial love to issues of relative justice. This ethic is then contrasted to the ethica crucis of Luther. / The dissertation concludes with an examination of the current debate regarding Niebuhr's ultimate political position. It is suggested that an understanding of Niebuhr's theology and ethic of the cross is essential to any thorough appreciation of the major shifts which occurred within his political thought.

Siegfried Kracauer is mostly known for the work on film theory he wrote during his post-war exile to North America. This thesis proposes to examine a lesser known and far more complex portion of his oeuvre, namely the vast body of essays and monographs he produced throughout the 20s and 30s as editor of the Frankfurter Zeitung, which offer not only a cultural diary of the Weimar republic but also a critique of modernity and the many upheavals it engendered. Using both a detailed analysis of his own work as well as an examination of the various critical responses it elicited, this study aims at exposing the paradoxical complexity of Kracauer's stance towards modernity and its various mass cultural manifestations, a complexity which has unfortunately often been misjudged and reduced to a mere middling position. Indeed, because of his refusal to opt for a definite position, to either fully embrace or reject modernity, Kracauer has often been miscast as a mere seeker of compromise, a thinker who tried to make edges rounder and ease tensions. This thesis is an attempt to prove that far from trying to annihilate the tensions of the modern era, Kracauer in fact sought to cultivate them. He may have refused to opt for a definite stance---be it a "yes" or a "no"---towards modernity, yet his position is not to be reduced to a tepid "maybe", but ought to be seen, rather, as a truly Janusian simultaneous "yes" and "no" towards it. In our age of extreme relativism, where tension is to be avoided at all costs, there is some valuable insight to be gained from Kracauer's obstinate fight against comfortable compromises of any kind.

The intention of this project is to explicate several arguments advanced in the esoteric treatise Al-Risalah al-Ad&dotbelow;h&dotbelow;awiyya fi amr al-Macad, Avicenna's treatise par excellence on the subject of resurrection. This study of Ad&dotbelow;h&dotbelow;awiyya is primarily exegetical and limits itself to ideas which grant Ad&dotbelow;h&dotbelow;awiyya a character of its own. Consequently, the scholastic demonstrations Ad&dotbelow;h&dotbelow;awiyya shares in common with Avicenna's other writings are left aside. / Ad&dotbelow;h&dotbelow;awiyya contains a number of arguments, for example those directed against the mutakallimun, which cannot be found elsewhere in Avicenna's writings. It also presents two purely psychological demonstrations for the immateriality---and hence immortality---of the rational soul. Finally, Ad&dotbelow;h&dotbelow;awiyya explicitly describes the states of the souls in the hereafter, and reveals the principle upon which Avicenna founds his doctrine of al-macad.

This research study focuses on examining the views of patients, their families, and staff member providers of the Centre for Healthy Active Living a clinical obesity management program for children and youth at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, in Ottawa, Canada. Qualitative methodology was used and content analysis was conducted with data obtained from family questionnaires and a provider focus group. Analysis of obtained data was conducted to determine alignment of views between patient, family, and provider views, and the formal goals of the program. Emerging themes from the data indicated that patients and families place higher value on the formal goals of “improve quality of life; improve eating behaviours; improving fitness, increasing activity levels; and empower/strengthen families.” (Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, 2012). Specific recommendations with regards to each component of these goals were provided. Instrumental, procedural, systemic, and conceptual recommendations of program components were also provided.