Through contemplation, and the practice of actions with religious meaning, faith is taught and reinforced. Beliefs that conflict with the established teaching of a religious group are sometimes ruled by it as heretical. Effective in countering heresy are religious practices that would not be performed by those deemed heretical. The practices indicate those who are orthodox and safeguard them from accusations of heresy. Catharism was an expanding heretical sect in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, enticing adherents away from the Roman Catholic Church, rejecting the Catholic sacraments and holding to a dualistic theology. Through the study of eleven hagiographies (idealized biographies of saints) this thesis identifies and examines sixteen attributes of people who lived in the southern Low Countries, corresponding with contemporary Belgium and northeastern France. We show how these attributes aided the Catholic Church’s struggle against Catharism through the confirmation, dissemination, and distinction of orthodoxy, while serving to nullify heterodox suspicion of the hagiographical subjects.

This paper endeavors to examine the mechanisms by which the crown of France was able to subsume the region of Languedoc in the wake of the Albigensian Crusade in the thirteenth century. The systematic use of Catholic doctrine and an inquisition run by the Dominican Order of Preachers allowed France to dominate the populace of the region and destroy any indigenous social, economic, and political structures.

This paper endeavors to examine the mechanisms by which the crown of France was able to subsume the region of Languedoc in the wake of the Albigensian Crusade in the thirteenth century. The systematic use of Catholic doctrine and an inquisition run by the Dominican Order of Preachers allowed France to dominate the populace of the region and destroy any indigenous social, economic, and political structures.

The aim of this paper is to find out how the European religious traditions reflect in modern tourism. To analyze this, a specific example of Pays Cathare, a southern France's destination, is used. The first part of this paper deals with the main religions that affected the history of Europe and describes the most important religious monuments. Subsequently, it focuses on France, its religion history and situation in the domain of tourism. The next chapter explains the historic and religious background of the so-called Cathar movement and specifies the area of Pays Cathare. The last part describes the tourism in the Pays Cathare. It examines various factors of development of local tourism, main tourist's segments, history and actual management of tourism. All obtained information is then used within the compilation of the SWOT analysis, assessment of the importance of the medieval tradition of Catharism for modern tourism in the area of Pays Cathare and formulation of general conclusions that can be applied in other European destinations rich in religious traditions.

Cette thèse consiste à une étude comparative entre les romans arthuriens d’un côté et le Shâh-Nâme de Ferdowsi de l’autre coté sur le sujet de Graal. L’enjeu est d’étudier l’origine du Mythe du Graal et essayer d’expliquer la ressemblance entre le mythe du Graal avec le Khvarnah l’équivalent de mythe dans la littérature persane. Dans une première partie, la thèse se concentre sur une étude du mythe de Graal chez Chrétien de Troyes, Wolfram von Eschenbach et Ferdowsi. Les différentes manifestations du mythe, le sens spirituel tout autour de ce mythe seront l’objet de cette recherche dans cette partie. Dans un second temps, la thèse fait porter l’analyse sur l’origine de ce mythe tellement contesté chez les chercheurs de différentes écoles, soit l’origine celtique ou irano-aryenne. Cette thèse défendra la théorie d’origine iranienne en prenant en considération l’influence celtique du mythe. Selon ce travail, dans la structure du roman de Graal, il existe une base du folklore Alano-celtique que le néo manichéisme cathare, en l’utilisant comme la matière première, construit une couche d’initiation propre à la conviction dualiste afin d’ajouter le personnage de Perceval/Parzival à l’histoire du roi Arthur. Parzival, de ce point de vue, est plus proche de sa modèle persane Kay Khosrow. La divergence entre l’auteur français par rapport à son homologue allemand dépend de leur situation sociale ; Chrétien est l’artiste proche du pouvoir religieux de l’église catholique et Wolfram, le chevalier qui gagne sa vie en chantant, était proche des hérésies cathares et des templiers. Enfin, ce travail essaie de montrer que ce mythe d’origine aryenne, est déformé par les religions à leur fin et que le vrai sens de la quête n’est pas le salut mais le surhomme. / This thesis is a comparative study of the Arthurian romances on the one side and the Shâh-Nâmeh of Ferdowsi on the other side, referring to the subject of the Grail. The challenge is, to study the origin of the Grail myth and try to explain the similarity between the myth of the Grail and Khvarna, the equivalent myth in Persian literature. In the first part, the thesis focuses on a study of the Grail myth in the work of Chrétien de Troyes, Wolfram von Eschenbach and Ferdowsi. Different manifestations of the myth, the spiritual sense around this myth will be the subject of this research in this part. In a second step, the thesis focuses the analysis on the origin of this myth much disputed among researchers of different schools, either Irano-Aryan or Celtic origin. This thesis defends the theory of Iranian origin, taking into account the Celtic myth too. According to this work, the structure of the Grail novel is based on Alano-Celtic folklore. Thereafter, Catharism, using it as the raw material, built a layer initiation specific to dualistic belief, in order to add the character of Perceval/ Parzival to the story of King Arthur. From this point of view, Parzival is closer to the Persian Kay Khosrow model. The divergence between the French author in relation to his German counterpart depends on their different social situation; Chrétien was an artist close to the religious authority of the Catholic Church and Wolfram, the knight who earned his living by singing, was close to Cathare heresy and the Templers. Finally, this work tries to show that the origin of this Aryan myth is that distorted by religions to achieve their ends and that the true meaning of the quest is not salvation but the “Übermensch”.

L’efficience organisationnelle résulte d’une myriade de microdécisions prises au plus près possible du lieu et du temps d’où émerge la perturbation contextuelle. Le Toyota Production System, au niveau du management, ou l’essor d’Apple Corporation, au niveau des outils pratiques de productivité individuelle, témoignent de cette évolution où la pensée n’est plus séparée de l’action. A preuve, les itinéraires des principaux acteurs de la révolution numérique : les fondateurs de Linux, de Yahoo!, de Wikipédia, d’Amazon.com, de Google ou de Facebook. Ils ne sont pas partis d’une théorie apprise sur les bancs d’une institution scolaire. Procédant par essais et par erreurs, ils n’ont jamais séparé la pensée de l’action. On retrouve ce pragmatisme vertueux en Bavière, Flandre, Ecosse, Euzkadi, Catalogne, Lombardie, Vénétie… Ces régions jouissent du même type d’autonomie – y compris et surtout au niveau culturel - que les Länders allemands ou les cantons helvétiques. La France jacobine a suivi la voie inverse : éradiquer les langues régionales et minoritaires c’est-à-dire les systèmes de signes demeurés au contact sensoriel des choses. Or aujourd’hui, la montée en puissance de la complexité, en saturant la puissance significative du concept, crée les conditions du retour du signe. A l’heure d’Internet, de la transition énergétique et de la nouvelle phase de la mondialisation qui obligent à penser global pour mieux agir local, le retour du signe est inévitable. Il devrait favoriser des modes de production autonome de sens autorisant les organisations et territoires à s’adapter aux mutations d’un contexte devenu imprévisible. / Organizational efficiency is the result of a myriad of micro decisions taken as close as possible from the place and time at which contextual interference emerges. The Toyota Production System, on the management level, and the boom of the Apple Corporation, on the level of the intuitive tools for personal productivity, demonstrate this evolution where thought and action are no more segregated. Proof is the path taken by the main actors of the digital revolution : the founders of Linux, Yahoo!, Wikipedia, Amazon.com, Google or Facebook. It did not begin from a classroom theory, but by a trial and error approach that never disconnected the mind from the act.This virtuous pragmatism is also found in Bavaria, Flanders, Scotland, Euskadi, Catalonia, Lombardy, Veneto ... Indeed, these regions have an autonomy - including and particularly at the cultural level - similar to that of the German Länder or the Swiss cantons. On the contrary, Jacobin France followed the opposite path: the eradication of regional and minority languages in which sensory contact with things remained in the sign systems.But today, the rise of complexity, even saturating the significant power of the concept itself, brings the conditions for the return of the sign.