Thesis (M.A.)--Multnomah School of the Bible, 1984. / Typescript. Bibliography: leaves 46-51.

Thesis (Th. M.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 1991. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 74-76).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--New York University, 1908. / Without thesis note.

Thesis (M.A.)--Multnomah School of the Bible, 1984. / Typescript. Bibliography: leaves 46-51.

The aim of this study is twofold: to identify the theological purpose underlying the depiction of angels at certain key points in the history of their use, and to explore how far that deeper theological rationale can be re-appropriated for our own day. This study first traces the progression of the angelic motif in the Hebrew Scriptures. By examining numerous pericopes in the Pentateuch, major prophets and Daniel, I demonstrate that the metamorphosis of higher-order beings like the angel of the Lord, cherubim and seraphim, is directly related to the writers' desire to enhance God's transcendence. Next, I evaluate pseudo-Denys' hierarchical angelology, which prominent theologians like Luther and Calvin condemned as little more than a Neoplatonic scheme for accessing God through angels. I propose that not only has pseudo-Denys' Neoplatonism been overstated, but that his angelology is particularly noteworthy for the way it accentuates Christ's eucharistic immanence to the Church. Then I maintain that because assessments of Aquinas' angelology are often based upon the Summa Theologiae, his views are wrongly portrayed as overtly philosophical, rather than biblical and exegetical. In his lesser-known biblical commentaries, however, Aquinas pushes the semantic range of the word ‘angel' to include aspects of the physical world, which unveils an imaginative, Christocentric, and scriptural dimension of his angelology that is rarely acknowledged. The conclusion considers how contemporary figures and movements relate to these three angelologies. Barth emphasises the transcendent God but unlike Hebrew Scripture, weakens connections between God and angels. New Ageism affirms the immanent angel but unlike pseudo-Denys, does so at the expense of Christology and ecclesiology. Contemporary ecological discourse generally lacks Aquinas' appreciation for an imaginative, supernatural approach to the world. Finally, I ground the angels' relationship to transcendence, immanence and imagination in an experiential, eucharistic context.

University of Macau / Faculty of Arts and Humanities. / Department of English

Umberto Eco states that the list is the origin of culture, a way of making infinity comprehensible. Lists and catalogues are a way of creating order though history. I am currently, as a composer, working on a piece for choir using a list of angels as its text. Lists of angels deal with infinity, the list as such converges the three different monotheistic religions under the same roof. In my research I have tried to create a short overview of the history of lists in music, along with the musical presentation of angels in music - a subject that has fascinated many composers. Composers of last century such as Arnold Schoenberg, Oliver Messiaen and Karlheinz Stockhausen, to mention just a few, dealt with the representation of the angelic and divine in their music. Their different religious backgrounds suggested different strategies in their works dealing with angelic subjects.

Throughout its three chapters, this dissertation examines a phenomenon that, although underappreciated and underinvestigated in the existing literature, should be of great interest to entrepreneurship scholars: angel investing in the United States. While most of the existing studies of venture financing have predominantly focused on venture capital (VC) funding, angel investing—that is, wealthy individuals investing their own money in new ventures—represents almost as large of a market as venture capital, and recent empirical evidence suggests that ventures financed by angel investors tend to be more successful than comparable ventures that are not angel-financed. More interestingly, perhaps, angel investing tends to focus on ventures at the earliest stage, which leads to investor making decisions based on very little hard evidence. This results in the attempt, on the investors’ part, to reduce uncertainty by leveraging one’s connections and community-level patterns of social relations. In this regard, this dissertation’s main objective is perhaps to tackle the existing literature’s “undersocialized” take on venture financing, and to show the sociological mechanisms that might underpin the decision by entrepreneurs to enter the angel investing market by becoming suppliers of capital, as well as their capital allocation choices, i.e. their investment decisions. Additionally, this work also examines the drivers of success for angel investors, with a view to explaining—at least in part—why certain individuals are wildly more successful than others at angel investing. Empirically, my work relies on a combination of archival data—primarily data gathered from online data source CrunchBase, but also U.S. Census data and hand-collected information from LinkedIn—and fieldwork in the form of interviews with entrepreneurs and angel investors, as well as participant observation at the Angel Capital Association Annual Meeting in San Francisco, the largest yearly gathering of angel investors. The resulting empirical patterns, both qualitative and quantitative, when taken in their entirety suggests that angel investing is a social process, and particularly that entrepreneurs are socialized into becoming angel investors by interacting with the angels who finance their ventures. Further, this work offers evidence that community-level patterns of socialization—i.e. what is generally known in sociology as community social capital—also plays a role in determining whether entrepreneurs will become angel investors and, once they choose to take this step, whether they will show a preference for financing local ventures vis-à-vis pursuing investment opportunities elsewhere. Finally, this work also addresses the question of angel investing outcomes—that is, why some angel investors are more successful than others, as measured by the number of exits in their investment portfolio. In this regard, empirical results suggest that generalists do better than specialists, and that angel investors with broad entrepreneurial experience are found to do especially well. Success is also a function of effective knowledge translation: on average, successful entrepreneurs tend to become more successful angels, and especially so the greater the overlap between the entrepreneurial experience of the founder and their angel investment portfolio.

<p>This study is concerned with business angels’ investments process and which aspects in their choice of target firms are considered important in that process. The problem statement of this thesis is; what aspects play a role in Business angels’ investment decision, and in what way? How do these aspects affect business angels when making investment decisions, and why? The aim subsequently is concerned with discerning what is most important for business angels when choosing their target firms and how business angels make their investment decisions. We also aim to be able to create a deeper understanding of business angels, and contribute to small entrepreneurial firms in their search for financiers. Our research can provide information on how entrepreneurs can attract business angels.</p><p>The study is created with previous studies as a framework, and a wide selection of studies have been used. These have been examined and issues which in those studies have been found to be important for business angels have been reviewed and accounted for in the theory chapter.</p><p>The approach we used for data collection was through qualitative interviews with the use of an interview guide. This is explained by our aspiration to understand business angels’ investment criteria rather than describe them. Due to this, the view of interpretivism along with constructionism was taken on when constructing the interviews and findings. The respondents were found through business angels networks, and the selection of business angels entailed a fair representation of the researched group. This thesis has been conducted in an academically correct manner, and the results are validated and confirmed by the respondents.</p><p>The results we came to from our interviews were that the entrepreneur was most important for business angels in their evaluations, but other aspects also played a role. We analyzed our results with the use of our theory section and hence could see that some things we had come up with were unique, whilst some findings confirmed previous studies. We found that many business angels turn down investments due to their lack of time, which was a rather new emphasize for this study. Some qualities of the entrepreneur the business angels required were that they needed to be sales oriented and not overly optimistic about the future returns and prosperity of their ventures. We have shown that if entrepreneurs are overly optimistic about the value of their own firm it is likely that they will lose the deal. This was also of interest as it has not been stated as clearly in previous studies.</p><p>We conclude the thesis by giving advice to entrepreneurs and business angels, what future business angels should keep in mind and also what entrepreneurs should know before they involve themselves with business angels.</p>

This study is concerned with business angels’ investments process and which aspects in their choice of target firms are considered important in that process. The problem statement of this thesis is; what aspects play a role in Business angels’ investment decision, and in what way? How do these aspects affect business angels when making investment decisions, and why? The aim subsequently is concerned with discerning what is most important for business angels when choosing their target firms and how business angels make their investment decisions. We also aim to be able to create a deeper understanding of business angels, and contribute to small entrepreneurial firms in their search for financiers. Our research can provide information on how entrepreneurs can attract business angels. The study is created with previous studies as a framework, and a wide selection of studies have been used. These have been examined and issues which in those studies have been found to be important for business angels have been reviewed and accounted for in the theory chapter. The approach we used for data collection was through qualitative interviews with the use of an interview guide. This is explained by our aspiration to understand business angels’ investment criteria rather than describe them. Due to this, the view of interpretivism along with constructionism was taken on when constructing the interviews and findings. The respondents were found through business angels networks, and the selection of business angels entailed a fair representation of the researched group. This thesis has been conducted in an academically correct manner, and the results are validated and confirmed by the respondents. The results we came to from our interviews were that the entrepreneur was most important for business angels in their evaluations, but other aspects also played a role. We analyzed our results with the use of our theory section and hence could see that some things we had come up with were unique, whilst some findings confirmed previous studies. We found that many business angels turn down investments due to their lack of time, which was a rather new emphasize for this study. Some qualities of the entrepreneur the business angels required were that they needed to be sales oriented and not overly optimistic about the future returns and prosperity of their ventures. We have shown that if entrepreneurs are overly optimistic about the value of their own firm it is likely that they will lose the deal. This was also of interest as it has not been stated as clearly in previous studies. We conclude the thesis by giving advice to entrepreneurs and business angels, what future business angels should keep in mind and also what entrepreneurs should know before they involve themselves with business angels.