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In our interconnected, multi-religious world, how should religious people engage with religious others? What and how can theologians learn from religious others, from their traditions and their scriptures? Amongst those who engage in theological reasoning about these issues, two distinct approaches have been identified. The established discipline of theology of religions considers it necessary to examine the sources of one’s own tradition to come to some broad assessment about the value of religious diversity – usually identified through some version of the classic typology of inclusivism, exclusivism and pluralism (Alan Race). Others have criticised theology of religions, seeing it as prescriptive, biased towards pluralism, distorting of religious difference, and as making definitive judgments as to the presence of truth and possibility of salvation through other religions (e.g. Francis Clooney, George Lindbeck and Michael Barnes). These critics, working within the emerging field of interreligious hermeneutics, prefer direct engagement with other traditions in their particularities, learning from the religious other, yet often without reflecting on internal sources or arguing theologically for the possibility of finding truth in other religions. This thesis seeks to make a contribution to this discourse about method in the theological engagement to the religious other. It argues that the work of theology of religions is necessary to support theological learning from the religious other, particularly given that the scriptures of major religions (notably the New Testament, Qur’an and Pali Canon) are generally perceived to discourage this kind of activity. It also responds to criticisms, and works to make theology of religions more attuned to the insights of interreligious hermeneutics, so that it can be seen as capable of attending to the complexity and uncertainty that is inevitable in any realistic attempt to relate religious traditions to one another. Chapters 1 and 2 survey the development of theology of religions and of the alternative approaches found in the emerging field of interreligious hermeneutics. These are examined and as a result an adapted typology is presented which may be related fruitfully to interreligious hermeneutics. Chapters 3 and 4 explore interreligious hermeneutics further through two of its most prominent practices, scriptural reasoning and comparative theology, as carried out by some of its most notable practitioners. The extent to which these practices can be regarded as theologically ‘truth-seeking’ is analysed, and the usefulness of the adapted typology in reviewing the findings of these practices is assessed. Chapter 5 offers a detailed example of the kind of approach to the religious other present in a particular religious scripture, by focusing on the Buddha’s approach to the Brahmins as recorded in the Pali canon. This is done in order to demonstrate that the ‘plain sense’ of scriptures often does not support the approach to religious others advocated by scholars of interreligious hermeneutics. Finally, Chapter 6 outlines ‘soft pluralism’ as a particular approach within theology of religions which can support interreligious hermeneutics of the deepest, most adventurous ‘truth-seeking’ kind, without succumbing to the problems associated with pluralism in its classic (hard) form. This position can be supported by the work of a growing number of scholars (including Catherine Cornille, Rose Drew and Marianne Moyaert) who, far from seeking to eschew or downplay deep differences between traditions, believe that it is precisely at these points of tension or impasse, where traditions are offering insights that cannot be simply reconciled to one another, that we stand to learn the most from the religious other.

This thesis is the first major investigation into the representations of Vodou within the cultural productions of Britain and America. It also opens up opportunities for further research to be undertaken in the representations of Vodou, Haiti and the culture and religions of other Caribbean countries. This thesis explores the representations of 'Voodoo,' the widely accepted and recognised term for the re-imagined religion, in Britain and America since 1850. The history of the Caribbean and Haiti is examined before considering the influence that the religion of Haitian Vodou has had on cultural production. Through a historical perspective the thesis will consider the evolution of Vodou during the horrors of slavery. The historiographic representations form the basis of the productions and are explored to contextualise Vodou in the British and American imagination. All genres of literature are examined, from the first mention of Vodou in the eighteenth century through to the present day. This is followed by an examination of the cultural reproductions of Vodou in film, animation, theatre and television to explore the diversity of the representations. The wider societal influences are considered throughout this work to contextualise the productions of 'Voodoo'. This thesis argues that the cultural reproductions of Vodou since 1850 have not changed greatly, despite various efforts to redress the misrepresentations, they remain rooted in colonialism. It will argue that many of the cultural productions are reliant on previous representations. They do not in the majority introduce authenticity, instead opting for the more sensational approach. Many of the representations will be shown to be derogatory to the religion, culture and people of Haiti and the diaspora. This is despite Vodou as a religion having survived, gained strength and continuing to thrive in the twenty-first century.

It is 25 years since my first publications in professional and academic journals, Resource and the British Journal of Religious Education respectively, and thus a suitable point to reflect on my contribution to the discipline, or rather disciplines, of Religious Education and Religious Studies. Although the majority of my published work relates to religious education, my teaching and administrative career has included both religious studies and religious education, and I have also published materials relating to the religions themselves and the teaching of religious studies at university level.

The concern of this research is the nature of the Hindu nationalist ideology in the western Indian state of Gujarat from 1880 to 1950 since this period is crucial in forging a relationship between Hindu and Muslim communities based on mutual suspicion. The attempt is to shed light on the way a fundamentalist ideology is configured in increasingly exclusivist terms whereby minorities in the subcontinent were gradually granted a marginal citizenship subordinated to a Hindu cultural mainstream. The deconstruction of the nationalistic discourses of some representative individual figures and groups -the Arya Samaj, the Hindu Mahasabha, K.M. Munshi and Vallabhbhai Patel- allowed unravelling a trajectory of this ideology identifying its major fluctuations. The focus on Gujarati nationalism of Hindu tradition as opposed to a rather exceptional Gandhian nationalism and its commitment to non-violence made possible to explain the current political culture in India nowadays that inherited the legacy of the agitational politics of those years. Along with the historiographical analysis of these discourses, the research explores the mobilizational strategies accompanying the ideological dimension. The political campaigns of these actors were fundamental in spreading a communal consciousness that enabled a history of perennial confrontation between Hindus and Muslims, an aspect whose origin can be traced in the colonial historiography on India. In this sense, the research aims not only at being a contribution to the academic debate on the formation of a national consciousness in Gujarat, but also attempts to elucidate the motivations behind communal violence grounded on the circulation of stereotypes and their exploitation. The study contributes to the understanding of contemporary violence as a result of a gradual communalization of politics and daily life that imbibes from the distortion of the historical paradigms that by the end of the nineteenth century still coped with multiculturalism.

Light allows revelation while concealing its source; it allows articulation while it is non-articulate. It is light that allows us to stand on the edge, that border between knowing and unknowing. It was the first great kenotic act, deconstructing darkness and it is this sublime aspect of light that takes us beyond the limits of our own imaginations, and in that process raises us to unexpected insight and perception. This thesis is a discourse on the sublimity of light that has provided a catalyst for fresh reflection beyond that which is actually presented whereby the sublime can be understood as an experience rather than merely an object of sense of perception. While light and darkness can stand symbolically for many realities theologically light became a symbol of divine presence and salvation in ancient Judaism where it was seen as God's glory, was revealed in columns of fire and burning bushes, and was envisioned as a sign of the perfection of the kingdom; 'arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you' (Isa. 60:1). Similarly at the start of the Christian era light is associated with the Eucharist and although Paul celebrates in Troas at midnight it is still noted that 'there were many lights in the upper chamber where we were gathered' (Acts 20:8). The expression of this has gone far beyond the work of theologians and necessitated an interdisciplinary approach to this study linking the work of writers, poets and artists, particularly painters. All art is essentially about representing the unrepresentable. Beyond the mimetic this is more easily recognised and accepted and it is the art of abstraction that has accelerated the drive towards the sublime where "the sublime can be understood as first and foremost the result of a failed attenpt of the imagination to comprehend an absolute of magnitude or power." It is along these lines that Theology and Art can be seen to run parallel. Art has resisted the repeated announcements of its death or demise. This is because Art has always moved within itself and has never completely located itself in any movement or mere style whereas Theology has often become bogged down in a floe of words that formed vast sheets, or melted away. Art has always been greater than historical attempts at impossible depictions of some ethical idea. Art is what is left in the absence of any idea; and it is the presence of absence that remains a central concern of theology. An interdisciplinary approach raises the question of the paradox of artistic articulation towards silence; that the words and images, as they become more articulate, come closer to finality, that they are a prelude to the silence of the sublime. This study is an approach to the articulation of light; the threshold of the sublime.

The Westminster Assembly is a useful starting point for detailed discussions of the development of covenantal thought, particularly in view of the direction taken by recent studies which place a strong dichotomy between the early Reformers and their seventeenth-century successors, notably between John Calvin and those who have traditionally been designated 'Calvinists'. The most extreme, or virulent, of these is an unsparing attack upon the Westminster Confession as one of the principal reservoirs of 'a plague that had long infected the Reformed churches'. In seeking to overthrow what he described as 'the treasured confession of my mother church', the author made the astonishing claim, which puts this basic issue in a curious nutshell: 'It was Calvin who rescued me from the Calvinists". And the deadly virus identified as the cause of this plague was the Confession's covenantal statements, of which it was said, 'Calvin knew nothing, for these theological innovations were the work of his successors'. In order to set the scene, therefore, Part One of the thesis has been devoted to a consideration of the background to the Westminster Assembly and its documents, and examination of the sources and content of the theology of the covenant expressed in the standards, and also a critical survey of the historiography of the covenant from around the middle of the last century to the present time. The historical background to the Assembly as it relates to both the English and Scottish churches is designed to get the feel of the general ecclesiastical climate and theological orientation in which the divines and their immediate predecessors lived and moved, while the examination of sources and content more particularly indentifies the direction from which the doctrine of the covenant came to be embodied in the Confession and Catechisms, and also the issues which are emphasized in, and immediately related to, the chapters dealing specifically with the covenant. The scriptural origin of the Reformed doctrine of the covenant is indisputable , so that serious research in this area has never been considered necessary. The temptation to include a section on Scripture in this study has likewise been resisted, but its importance has been kept in mind throughout. In order to demonstrate that the idea of the covenant as held by the Reformed church, even in many of its particular aspects, was no new thing, Part Two picks up some of the threads offered by forerunners in the field. These include several of the church fathers, notably Augustine. The survival and use of the idea in both its political and theological applications during the medieval period has not been overlooked. It was found that the idea of the covenant had specific government, hermeneutical and sotcriological functions in medieval thought which were by no means despised or abandoned in the reaction of the Reformation against medieval scholasticism. Among the early reformers, Luther's theology held firmly to the basic concepts underlying covenantal theology, but it was in the Reformed camp that the importance of the doctrine was chiefly recognized and utilized in the controversies of the tome, first by Occolampadius and Zwingli and then more distinctly by Bullinger, whose little monograph De Testamento seu fordere tlei unico el aelerno was the first to appear on the subject. The findings of this research into Bullingcr's work interact strongly with those studies which regard Bullingcr's view of the covenant as strictly bilateral and consequently portray him as the founder of a separate Reformed tradition, distinct from that which emanated from Calvin and the Genevan school. Part Three is devoted entirely to Geneva, showing the seminal influence of Calvin's work in the development and transmission of covenantal though. In demonstrating that the covenant in both its unilateral and bilateral aspects was an essential part of Calvin's overall theological structure, the disputed questions as to whether Calvin was a 'convenant theologian', and whether he taught a covenant of works is carefully considered in its proper theological context and not merely with respect to the use of terms. For the first lime in any study of covenantal thought, detailed sttention has been given in this research to the work of Theodore Beza. Beza has been consistently singled out by those who oppose the Calvinists to Calvin, supralapsarian, scholastic orthodoxy which diverged manifestly from Calvin's warm, christocentric, humanistic, biblical theology. Just as consistently he has been denied any interest in the theology of the covencnt, with the result that 'covenant theology' has been interpreted as a reaction against Bezcan orthodoxy in an effort to recover a place for responsible man in the economy of salvation. The evidence, however, supplied by a wider consultation of Beza's works than his merely controversial writings, supports a contrary argument. Beza's basic fidelity to Calvin becomes apparent in controverted areas and the warm heart of a concerned pastor is heard to beat in his sermonic material. More importantly for this research Beza is found to have a keen interest in the covenant both unilaterally and bilaterally, particularly in relation to the doctrine of the union between Christ and his church, just as Calvin had before him and the Calvinists after him. In the final part of the thesis the issues and arguments already raised are followed through in representative writers from three main interrelated locations of post-reformation development in Reformed theology. One is the influence of the Heidelberg theologians, Ursinus and Olevianus, in the Palatinate Church of Germany. The others arc the English Puritan movement, dominated mainly by the influence of Willian Perkins, and the Scottish connection in the writings of Knox, Rollock anf Howie. It is the conclusion of this research that while covenantal theology inevitably underwent a process of refining and expansion, and was given fuller defination and varying emphases by later writers, that it nevertheless remained true to the central idea or ideas of the covenant as taught by the Reformers. Such a process cannot be constructed as constituting a fundamental shift or departure from the theology of the early Reformers. Rather there is a general agreement, a unity which makes the Westminster divines in this respect the worthy successors of Calvin and his colleagues.

The purpose of my thesis is to examine the relation between the human and the divine in the Homeric poems, and define thereupon the limits of human and divine responsibility. To this end I particularly focus on the Homeric concepts of fate and divine justice, as these are expressed mainly by the terms and . Nonetheless, since the Greek terms do not always coincide in their semantics with the respective terms of any modern language, it is regarded as necessary that the field of each term be defined prior to the examination of the concepts themselves. Similarly, issues such as morality and Homeric ethics have to be raised, since they form the basis upon which any discussion of Homeric thought can rely. The Iliad and the Odyssey employ the two basic ideas of fate and divine justice each in a discrete manner, and this requires that each poem be examined separately. A comparison between the two works, necessary for a more overall idea of the Homeric world and the Homeric compositions, is incorporated in the chapter on the Odyssey.

This dissertation is fundamentally concerned with the comparative study of Christology in latin American liberation theology and Korean minjung theology. To meet this task the Christology of the former is examined in relation to that of the latter. The study is divided into three parts. Part one contains chapter I through to III. Chapter I is a presentation of liberation theology's motive which takes the suffering people in the current socio-economic political situation as the starting point for a politics-oriented Christology. Chapter II shows the detailed analysis of liberation theology's methodology which is definitely grounded in the principles of the social sciences. Chapter III consists of seeking to interpret Jesus, his words and deeds in the light of the Latin American conditions. Part two, which constitutes chapter IV through to VI, will try to examine a way of thinking about minjung theology within the same categories which we concentrate on the development of liberation theology and its Christological implication in part one, because the clarification between them is necessary for the purpose of this thesis. It may help to solve some of the suspicion whether the label minjung theology is practically synonymous with the label liberation theology in creating a new and appropriate mode of an adequate Christology for answering to the vital needs of the poor and oppressed today. In this observation, have liberation theology and minjung theology anything to say to each other? It is natural for the Christian church to look to them for light on the question. In this desire, part three in chapter VII through to X begins a comparative and critical discussion of the motive, methodologies and Christological implications of the two theologies.