Pour triompher de ses adversaires et faire valoir le christianisme, Arnobe de Sicca, apologiste chrétien de l'Afrique du Nord, s'évertue à saper les bases du paganisme en s'attaquant respectivement aux idoles et aux pratiques idolâtriques païennes. Dans le livre VII de son traité apologétique l'Adversus nationes, il pose la question des sacrifices et des offrandes faits aux dieux ainsi que d'autres cultes institués en leur honneur. Il explique que, loin de faire plaisir aux dieux, les sacrifices sanglants constituent une abomination dont les dieux ne sauraient se rendre responsables. Comptant "parmi les documents les plus riches dont dispose l'historien de la religion romaine sur les finalités et les modalités du sacrifice ...", le livre VII n'a pourtant pas fait l'objet d'une recherche approfondie de son contenu. Aussi, ce travail de recherche propose un commentaire littéraire et stylistique du livre VII ainsi qu'une analyse thématique et comparative. / To triumph over its adversaries and to put forward Christianity, Arnobe of Sicca, Christian apologist of North Africa, strives to sap the bases of paganism by attacking both the idols and the pagan idolatrous practices. In book VII of his apologetic treaty "Adversus Nationes", he questions the sacrifices and the offerings made to the gods as well as others worships instituted in their honor. He explains that, far from pleasing the gods, the bloody sacrifices constitute an abomination that gods could not make themselves responsible of. Counting "among the richest documents availableto the historian of the roman religion on the finalities and the methods of the sacrifice...", book VII however was not the object of a deep research regarding its contents. This research work proposes a literary and stylistic study of book VII as well as a thematic and comparative analysis.

Notion vaste, vague, ambigüe, le surnaturel est un thème très présent dans les écrits de Daniel Defoe. Il est mis en question, voire évacué par la raison au siècle des Lumières. Defoe quant à lui, adopte une argumentation empirique pour défendre l’existence du surnaturel contre l’athéisme. A travers les sens, les composantes de son monde surnaturel comme peste, tempête, fantôme, Dieu et diable se manifestent. Cette écriture sensible le rend crédible. Le surnaturel apparaît aussi à travers les personnages. Leur relationnel est parfois caractérisé par la diabolisation de l’autre. Durant leur parcours, les héros vivent un déchirement entre le bien et le mal, entre Dieu et diable. Defoe souligne à travers son exploration de leur psychologie un surnaturel trompeur produit de la mélancolie, de la folie. Mais le surnaturel est aussi un ingrédient littéraire attrayant qui répond à une réalité du marché du livre. Defoe utilise l’autobiographie s’alliant l’éditeur et le lecteur pour tisser le vraisemblable et conférer crédibilité au surnaturel. Le romancier fait du temps et de l’espace un vecteur d’évaluation face au surnaturel mais ils ancrent aussi le monde invisible dans le réel. L’usage des sens permet de créer une esthétique du surnaturel qui révèle des émotions proches de « l’âme sensible ». De plus, la diversité des styles d’écriture complique la tâche de l’identification générique quant au surnaturel. Celui-ci se positionne ainsi entre l’apologétique qui le présente sous des aspects vraisemblables et le romanesque qui l’introduit dans une esthétique de l’étrange. Cette ambivalence fait de Defoe un précurseur, dont la postérité met en relief le modernisme. / A vast, vague and an ambiguous notion, the supernatural is an omnipresent theme in the writings of Daniel Defoe. The supernatural is questioned and even erased by reason in the age of the Enlightenment. Defoe adopts an empirical argumentation to defend the existence of the supernatural against atheism. He reveals the elements of his supernatural world such as the plague, storm, ghost, God and devil through the senses. Defoe’s writing style based on senses makes the supernatural credible. The supernatural is also made manifest through characters. Their relationship is sometimes characterized by the demonization of one another. Besides, during their life, characters balance between good and evil, between God and devil. Through the exploration of their psychology, Defoe shows an imaginary supernatural, a product of melancholy and madness. The supernatural is also an attractive literary ingredient which answers to a book trade reality. Defoe uses the form of autobiography making the editor and the reader his allies to build up the plausibility of his work and make the supernatural credible. Time and space are employed by the novelist as means, of self-evaluation for his characters vis-à-vis of the supernatural; at the same time, they anchor the invisible in reality. The use of senses helps to create an aesthetic style of the supernatural which reveals emotions close to “Sensitive Soul”. Furthermore, the diverse styles make it difficult to define the literary genre of the supernatural. It is half-way between the apologetic which presents it as plausible and the fictional which introduces it in an aesthetic style of the strange. This ambivalence makes Defoe a pioneer of the novel whose posterity highlights his modernism.

Thesis (Th.M. (Ethics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

This work is an investigation to uncover the apologetic framework used by the Apostle Paul and discuss how it might be applied to current evangelistic efforts in Postmodernism. To be certain, there are a number of issues that face Christianity in the twenty–first century. I will give particular emphasis to the philosophical teachings and arguments that are characterized as being postmodernist in nature. Although within Postmodernism numerous individual challenges to Christian thought are present, I have selected four core issues to examine: (1) relative truth; (2) relative language and meaning; (3) philosophical pluralism; (4) a perceived lack of authenticity in the lives of professing Christians. The first three have been chosen because I believe there to be a meaningful downward progression from the first to the third, which culminates in what I believe is a relegation of the Christian Gospel to the realm of opinion and not truth. The fourth challenge has been selected because of recent research that argues it has perhaps become the single biggest obstacle for postmodernists in considering Christianity as a valid belief system. Once each of these evangelistic challenges is explored in detail and traced from its point of origin, attention is then given to uncovering the apologetic framework used by the Apostle Paul in the first century. This process is basically two–step in nature. Step one involves gaining an understanding of the Apostle Paul's world and discovering the factors that molded him into God's first century apologist. This involves examining Paul's culture, the competing religions and philosophies of the first century, the background and education of the Apostle, and his conversion and commissioning by God while on the road to Damascus. The resulting information allows us to build a bridge between the first century world of the Apostle Paul and today's postmodernist age. The second step in uncovering Paul's apologetic framework is to examine the biblical texts that describe the Apostle's evangelistic efforts and thoughts regarding the delivery of an apologia for the Christian faith. This equates to an investigation of the book of Acts and the Pauline corpus. The conclusions of this inquiry result in a new apologetic classification - that of tria martus or 'three witness' apologetics - with the cornerstone verse of the framework being 1 Thess. 1:5, which says: "for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake." Labeling each component of Paul's apologetic framework results in an analysis being performed of the message of Paul, the method of Paul, and the manner of Paul. After this has been done, one last question with respect to Paul's framework needs to be answered: Is the Apostle's apologia prescriptive or descriptive? While the book of Acts describes Paul's evangelistic and apologetic method in action, does Paul prescribe his method in his writings? Answering this question is pivotal in deciding whether to take Paul's framework and apply it to today's postmodernist culture. I believe the evidence points to Paul's framework being prescriptive, so the task then becomes how to apply the Apostle's apologia to Postmodernism, and how it addresses the challenges to Christianity that were identified earlier. As Paul's apologetic framework consists of three components, it becomes sensible for modern day apologists to take each part of the Apostle's framework and apply it to the various dimensions of the postmodernist unbeliever. This application results in an evangelist speaking to the rational, spiritual, and moral dimensions of non–Christians, with each challenge of Postmodernism being appealed to amongst the various dimensions. When applied, I believe three–witness apologetics represents a strong framework for giving honest and robust answers to the postmodernist unbeliever. While the postmodernist culture certainly poses some threats to Christianity, I firmly believe that the Apostle Paul would have thrived in today's climate and eagerly sought out converts from Postmodernism. I also believe that those who choose to use his apologetic framework will enjoy a harvest that enlarges the body of Christ and brings glory to the Creator of all humankind. / Thesis (Ph.D. (New Testament))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

This work is an investigation to uncover the apologetic framework used by the Apostle Paul and discuss how it might be applied to current evangelistic efforts in Postmodernism. To be certain, there are a number of issues that face Christianity in the twenty–first century. I will give particular emphasis to the philosophical teachings and arguments that are characterized as being postmodernist in nature. Although within Postmodernism numerous individual challenges to Christian thought are present, I have selected four core issues to examine: (1) relative truth; (2) relative language and meaning; (3) philosophical pluralism; (4) a perceived lack of authenticity in the lives of professing Christians. The first three have been chosen because I believe there to be a meaningful downward progression from the first to the third, which culminates in what I believe is a relegation of the Christian Gospel to the realm of opinion and not truth. The fourth challenge has been selected because of recent research that argues it has perhaps become the single biggest obstacle for postmodernists in considering Christianity as a valid belief system. Once each of these evangelistic challenges is explored in detail and traced from its point of origin, attention is then given to uncovering the apologetic framework used by the Apostle Paul in the first century. This process is basically two–step in nature. Step one involves gaining an understanding of the Apostle Paul's world and discovering the factors that molded him into God's first century apologist. This involves examining Paul's culture, the competing religions and philosophies of the first century, the background and education of the Apostle, and his conversion and commissioning by God while on the road to Damascus. The resulting information allows us to build a bridge between the first century world of the Apostle Paul and today's postmodernist age. The second step in uncovering Paul's apologetic framework is to examine the biblical texts that describe the Apostle's evangelistic efforts and thoughts regarding the delivery of an apologia for the Christian faith. This equates to an investigation of the book of Acts and the Pauline corpus. The conclusions of this inquiry result in a new apologetic classification - that of tria martus or 'three witness' apologetics - with the cornerstone verse of the framework being 1 Thess. 1:5, which says: "for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake." Labeling each component of Paul's apologetic framework results in an analysis being performed of the message of Paul, the method of Paul, and the manner of Paul. After this has been done, one last question with respect to Paul's framework needs to be answered: Is the Apostle's apologia prescriptive or descriptive? While the book of Acts describes Paul's evangelistic and apologetic method in action, does Paul prescribe his method in his writings? Answering this question is pivotal in deciding whether to take Paul's framework and apply it to today's postmodernist culture. I believe the evidence points to Paul's framework being prescriptive, so the task then becomes how to apply the Apostle's apologia to Postmodernism, and how it addresses the challenges to Christianity that were identified earlier. As Paul's apologetic framework consists of three components, it becomes sensible for modern day apologists to take each part of the Apostle's framework and apply it to the various dimensions of the postmodernist unbeliever. This application results in an evangelist speaking to the rational, spiritual, and moral dimensions of non–Christians, with each challenge of Postmodernism being appealed to amongst the various dimensions. When applied, I believe three–witness apologetics represents a strong framework for giving honest and robust answers to the postmodernist unbeliever. While the postmodernist culture certainly poses some threats to Christianity, I firmly believe that the Apostle Paul would have thrived in today's climate and eagerly sought out converts from Postmodernism. I also believe that those who choose to use his apologetic framework will enjoy a harvest that enlarges the body of Christ and brings glory to the Creator of all humankind. / Thesis (Ph.D. (New Testament))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

The purpose of this study is to assess the cogency of Francis Schaeffer‘s apologetic in light of John Frame‘s triperspectival epistemology, giving special attention to the existential perspective evident throughout Schaeffer‘s trilogy. The study achieves this aim by employing the instrumental case study method to meet five specific objectives. First, the study determines the extent to which Schaeffer‘s existential perspective is recognized within the apologetic literature that critically engages with his ideas. Based on these sources, the study determines that this perspective is recognized in Schaeffer‘s work but not as an integral component within a broader perspectival approach to apologetics. Second, the study discovers the ways in which Frame‘s triperspectivalism may be used in analyzing apologetic systems to reveal their strengths, weaknesses and cogency. By giving attention to Frame‘s system as a meta-apologetic, it is evident that this tool is applicable to Schaeffer and to other apologists. This establishes Frame‘s perspectivalism as an appropriate theoretical model to use in an instrumental case study on apologetics. Third, the study analyzes the ways in which Frame‘s triperspectivalism is reflected in Schaeffer‘s trilogy, highlighting the existential perspective. Meeting this objective establishes the central theoretical argument of the study, showing that Frame‘s epistemology reveals the underlying cogency of Schaeffer‘s apologetic credibly (?) and does so most profoundly with respect to the existential perspective. Fourth, the study compares Schaeffer‘s existential perspective with that of E.J. Carnell and secular existentialism, which both apologists confronted. On the basis of Carnell‘s critique of existentialism and his existential apologetic of personal rectitude, credible support is offered for Schaeffer‘s engagement with this philosophical movement and his own existential perspective. Fifth, support is offered for the current relevance of Schaeffer‘s apologetic of personal rectitude by showing how the postmodern situation he anticipated is best addressed using the apologetic tools he offers. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Dogmatics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012

Cette thèse est une réflexion sur la vitalité de la thématique du désert dans le domaine de la littérature. Cette thématique, dans le cas présent, est indissociable de celle du monachisme primitif, puisque le corpus que nous interrogeons, constitué de : Les Marches de sable, Marie d’Égypte et Macaire Le Copte, se présente comme hagiographique. Le lien entre désert et monachisme dans ces trois romans est au centre de cette réflexion qui s’efforce de comprendre et de mettre en lumière la nécessité pour des écrivains contemporains de reprendre cette thématique. Le désert nous est tantôt apparu comme le lieu de l’expérience spirituelle dans toute son ambivalence : espace de tentation par le diable, mais aussi espace d’élévation ascétique. Tantôt, il est un prétexte qui permet aux écrivains de porter un regard lucide sur la société actuelle, en voie de réification voire tout simplement d’ores et déjà réifiée. Pour finir, le désert nous est apparu comme un moyen pour ces trois écrivains de mettre en évidence leur conception non seulement de l’espace littéraire, qui apparaît de fait comme un espace paradoxal en ce sens qu’il peut à la fois être un espace de partage et un espace de réclusion, mais aussi de l’écrivain et de son travail. Il en ressort que l’écrivain est à l’image de l’ermite, c’est-à-dire une sorte de quêteur d’absolu / This thesis is a thought about the vitality of desert thematic in literature field. In this case, this thematic is inseparable from that of primitive monasticism as the corpus in question; I mean Les Marches de sable, Marie d’Egypte and Macaire Le Copte is presented as hagiographic. Therefore, the link between desert and monasticism in these three novels has led us to identify contemporary writers’ need of keeping bringing up such thematic. The desert has appeared as the place of spiritual experience in all its ambivalence, I mean devil temptation space, but also ascetic elevation space. To the writers, it is also a way to bring a lucid eye to the current society which is being reified because one cannot say only that it is already reified. In conclusion, to these three writers, not only the desert is a way to evidence their conception of literary space which really appears as a paradoxical space as it can at the same time be a sharing and a seclusion space, but also a writer’s workplace. It appears that the writer is image of hermit, that is, he is a sort of absolute seeker

This essay aims to discover differences and similarities in the linguistic behavior ofpoliteness in apologetic expressions between men and women in emails. Material wastaken from the Enron Corpus. This Corpus includes information about the senders andrecipients of the chosen email, the context, and an email thread. We searched for twodifferent apologetic expressions, "sorry" and "I apologize", and chose 25 of eachexpression to analyze superficially. We also compared them to each other and by thegender of the user. Out of those 25, we chose ten to analyze more in-depth, five ofwhich used "sorry" and the other five used "I apologize" as apologetic expression. Weanalyzed the emails through the lens of politeness theory, which apologetic expressionwas used, if humour occurred, and to what email genre it belonged. Our results basedon this study showed that women used the apologetic expression "I apologize" morethan men, and that men used "sorry" more frequently than women. One possibleconclusion of this is that women appeared to be more formal in their emails. They alsoindicated tendencies to be nurturing, cohesive, and cooperative in their language. On theother hand, men showed less tendencies of formal behavior and more informallanguage.

[pt] O objetivo deste estudo é caracterizar o ato de desculpas públicas realizados por agentes políticos, no exercício de suas funções. A partir de uma perspectiva sociopragmática, pretende-se examinar a especificidade da forma e da função das desculpas públicas e o tipo de ofensa e contexto que motiva o pedido de desculpas. O corpus é constituído por desculpas públicas, veiculadas pela mídia impressa e eletrônica. Os resultados sugerem que as desculpas públicas têm como alvo não o ofendido, senão a manutenção da própria imagem e que nem sempre as ofensas são da responsabilidade do ofensor ou implicam a expressão de arrependimento. A análise mostra ainda que a alta frequência das desculpas na contemporaneidade está também relacionada à imposição do princípio do discurso politicamente correto. / [en] This study aims at characterizing the public apologetic speech by political agents in the charge of their functions. From a socio-pragmatics perspective will be examined the specific character of a content and function of public apologies, kinds of offenses and context which motivates the apologetic speeches. The corpus came from the public apologies reported by press and electronic media. The results suggest that the public apologies main target is not the offended party but to keep the image of his own not always are the responsibility of the speaker or mean expression of regret. From the analysis is still elicited that the high frequencies of apologetic speeches in the modern world go through a politically correct discourse.

This thesis is in three parts. The first part looks at the historical scholarship on writings opposed to Mormonism, especially those from the nineteenth century. The conclusion is that, despite hundreds of works written against Mormonism in its early years, the historical scholarship has not done justice to the writings or people involved. The vast majority of the writings and writers have not been analyzed, and those that are discussed are usually the most sensational and not representative of the genre.The second part of this thesis is a a case study giving an example of the kind of work the author feels needs to be done to make up for the deficiency in this area. Specifically this part examines the religious concerns of critics who wrote in the United States and Great Britain between 1844 and 1857. The evidence clearly shows that there were many writers who expressed religious concerns about Mormonism. Criticisms were made against Mormon religious practices such as polygamy, temple ceremonies and baptism for the dead, and against Mormon religious beliefs such as the role of Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, and Mormon doctrines on God and the Bible.The third section contains two appendices. The first is a bibliography of imprints written against the Mormons between 1844 and 1857. The second is a bibliography of all secondary literature about opposition to Mormonism.