This thesis explores how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) has used media technology as part of its missionary communication strategy. Particular attention is paid to the Internet as a space for religious practice and how the LDS Church has sought to extend its media practices and missionary efforts online. By utilizing new media technology to find individuals interested in hearing its message, the LDS Church faces new challenges to its traditional face-to-face missionary program, its centralized hierarchy of control and its ongoing struggle for identity within American Christian culture. Throughout its history, the LDS Church's missionary communication strategy has used several different methods for finding people to teach but has consistently focused on ensuring that such methods ultimately lead to face-to-face lessons with missionaries, viewed as the most transformative communication exchange for both the missionary and the potential convert. / by Gavin Feller. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.

Thèse--Lille. / Bibliography: p. 334-340.

This thesis seeks to explore two fundamental theological questions: first, what does it mean for the Christian community to conceive of itself as a community defined by the covenant of grace; and second, what are the implications of this distinctiveness for its socio-political mission in an age of globalization. The project is interdisciplinary in its approach, and seeks to integrate biblical and theological inquiry together with the specific opportunities and challenges found in a globalized world. Our way of organizing this thesis is attuned to the demands of argument and method of research employed. Divided into three parts, the thesis derives from a critical examination of a theology of grace and its ramifications for the mission of the church in addressing contemporary issues. Part 1 commences by surveying broadly Reformational theological scholarship from the turn of the twentieth century, and explores how this thesis will make a distinctive contribution to scholarly discussion of the church's socio-political mission through focusing on the central doctrine of grace. Part 2 constitutes a comparative analysis of three leading contemporary theologians evaluating to what extent a theology of grace is evident in their theological political theories. Part 3 is where we seek to apply our theological investigation with the phenomenon of globalization, and engage with international political theory through concentrating on the concepts of power and justice in an interdependent world. The conclusion reached in this thesis is that the doctrine of grace, by virtue of its theocentric and trinitarian emphasis on revelation, reconciliation, election, and creation, directs the Christian community in an age of globalization to be an agent of God's justice in the socio-political arena through demonstrating servant-leadership to contribute in enabling the world's poorest and weakest citizens to share in the benefits brought by a globalized world.

Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo estudar a relação entre Religião e Compromisso Social a partir do movimento de Jesus. Por meio da bibliografia histórica e da sociológica, procura-se identificar os grandes problemas da sociedade em que Jesus estava inserido (Palestina do século I, sob a dominação do Império Romano). Utilizando a bibliografia bíblica atual, faz-se uma incursão no texto de Marcos para identificar a atuação de Jesus, motivada pela compaixão que demonstrou pelas multidões excluídas. A pesquisa revela que Jesus, em suas palavras e, sobretudo em seu testemunho pessoal, apresenta orientações claras ao discipulado para que também se sensibilize com a causa das multidões excluídas e de cada pessoa em particular. A pesquisa mostra também que a atuação de Jesus e do seu movimento, além de denunciar a profunda injustiça social a que estavam submetidas as multidões marginalizadas, sugere uma prática comprometida com mudanças efetivas nas relações sociais, motivada por princípios religiosos / This research project aims to study the relation between social commitment, departing from Jesus movement. Through historical and sociological bibliography, one seeks identifying the great problems of the society which Jesus lived in, (first-century Palestine under Roman empires domination). Departing from the actual biblical bibliography, one makes a incursion in Marks text in order to identify Jesus actuation, motivated by the compassion that he Jesus − demonstrated to excluded regarding to excluded crowds. This research shows up that Jesus, in his words and, over all, presents clear orientations to his discipleship so that they − his disciples themselves − also sympathize with the excluded crowds cause each one person, in particular this research also reveals that Jesus actuation and his movements that one beyond discipleship so that they-his disciples-themselves should also sympathize with the excluded crowds cause and each ones in particular this research also reveals that Jesus actuation and his movements, beyond denouncing the profound social injustice which the excluded, marginalized crowd, were subdued to suggest a compromised practice with effective changes in social rapports, motivated by religious principles

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This thesis is an analysis and examination of the concept of Faith as understood, experienced, and held by John Wesley: Throughout this study, the question, "Is this Faith possible" lingers, depicting the serious quest of heart and mind to understand Wesley's theology and his empirical view of Faith, as found in the eighteenth-century Revival in England and in Methodism. The problem of the usage of Faith, and the confusion of Freedom, in the life of the "true Christian" in Society, forms the basis of this discussion. The concepts Faith, Freedom, and Society are each examined in this work: The Spirit of the Age, as depicted by the thought of Kant the "transcendentalist" in Europe; of Locke the English empiricist; and of Edwards the Calvinist in America, give insight into the struggle in the pursuit of Freedom. These difficulties are met by the unique ministry of Wesley, who would not compromise man's "unalienable right" to be Free, especially in the light of "salvation by faith." In this analysis and consideration I look at Wesley's concepts of Faith, Freedom, and his understanding of Society, in the light of his theology and ethics, as well as the milieu of the eighteenth century; the implications of these are considered, taking note of, the influence and the impact of Wesley's ministry and writings upon almost all of the eighteenth-century English population, as well as the overflow of the same into the wider world. What happened through his ministry stresses the truth that, what he knew as Faith, was very different from the orthodox and traditional views. More than ever, this needs to be understood today. Wesley's experience of Faith, in his Freedom with regard to Society, is as relevant today as it was then. This thesis sets out to clarify some of the problems: What Wesley had found, history cannot deny. / Philosophy, Practical & Ststematic Theology / D. Th. (Theological Ethics)

本文嘗試分析馬克斯·舍勒在現象學視野之下對於天主教神學和社會思想的詮釋來探索天主教會在資本主義和世界大戰等現代性文化的壓力之下真正有效的自我更新方式。舍勒運用現象學的思維方法，通過強調經驗的自身性特徵，論述發生式的意義生成和反應-對抗式的意義生成之間的差別，恢復了天主教在批判精神和確證精神之間的平衡，這與新經院體系、圖賓根天主教學派、新托馬斯主義等流派在純然適應或純然對抗的極端思維中理解天主教會與現代社會關係的做法非常不同，也幫助天主教會克服了"保守-激進"的二元論思維的束縛。具體而言，本文將從以下四個方面論述舍勒的天主教思想：1）從知識社會學的角度分析舍勒對宗教更新的本質、宗教知識的文化學特徵以及宗教世界觀的情感結構的論述，總結出公教精神以自身性的原初性思維對抗實證性思維的過程，以及天主教的整體性文化特徵和貴族主義的情感基調；2）從政治現象學的角度分析舍勒的基督教民主、基督教社會主義、基督教自由等理念，尤其是他以態度民主代替情緒民主、以先知性論述社會主義的原始精神、以意志自由和能力自由的區分來論述宗教自由絶對意義的做法，從而用天主教的宗教視角審視了現代政治文化的弊端；3）從社會學的角度分析舍勒以共感而不是以同情為基礎的宗教集體主義，並將之作為天主教在一戰之後乃至於整個現代社會中帶有尖銳批判性的社會學貢獻，並依此建構天主教會戰後理想的和平理念和社會建設的任務；4）從倫理學的角度分析舍勒如何從時常被鄙棄的情感性、身體性等直觀生命經驗中找出先驗的價值奠基力量，並以之作為與在禁慾和縱慾的極端力量牽引之下的現代資本主義倫理殊為不同的自然倫理學的基礎。最後，本文還將比較舍勒與二十世紀中期的天主教新神學運動和梵二神學的論述，指出舍勒的現象學方法中所體現出來的現實主義和人類學轉向，是與天主教神學從梵一會議到梵二會議的歷史演變邏輯一致的，因而會為天主教會未來的發展帶來更多潛在的借鑒意義。 / This thesis mainly focuses on how German philosopher Max Scheler applied his special phenomenological perspective to penetrate into the self-renewal of the Catholic Church and its social teachings under modern society context, including capitalism and World War etc. Scheler, who emphasized the self-given and realistic characters of experience, distinguished the original-given mode from the counter-react mode in the process of constructing meanings, and rehabilitated the balance of introspective self-criticism and extrovertly instructive confirming of catholic spirit. This phenomenological perspective of Scheler is regarded as a sharp distinction from other Catholic schools like the Catholic Tübingen School, the Scholasticism in the 19th century and later, the Neo-Thomism, as their understandings of the self-renewal of the Catholic Church were somehow guided under the extremism-oriented romantic idealism or authoritarian ideology. To some sense, Scheler’s method actually gave an end to the ongoing historical debate of the "conservatism-liberalism" or "nominalism-realism" dualism, and widened the horizon to approach the understating of real "one": ecumenism. For details, this thesis will analyze Scheler’s phenomenological method in understanding the self-renewal of the Catholic Church with four sections: 1 ) from the dimension of sociology of knowledge, an analysis of Scheler’s interpretation of the essence of the evolution of religious knowledge, its social cultural characters and "its inherent emotional structure as well; an comparing study of religious self-givenness with positivism, and also an comparing study of Ganzheit knowledge and Sammlung knowledge, with which the Christian aristocratism will be drawn and discussed; 2) from the dimension of political phenomenology, an analysis of Scheler’s conceptions of Christian democracy, Christian socialism and Christian freedom, from which the difference with electoral democracy, Marxist socialism, and left-wing liberalism and the special religious narratives of the Catholic Church in political fields will be given; 3) from the dimension of sociology, an analysis of Scheler’s religious collectivism on the basis of empathy rather than sympathy, this kind of collectivism was saturated with phenomenological intentional theory and was carried forward in the proposing the after-WWI re-construction tasks for the Catholic Church by Scheler; 4) from the dimension of ethics, an analysis of Scheler’s percipient contentions on the a-priori ethical value of some long-disdained conception, like body and emotion, by giving a laudatory reconsideration to which, Scheler criticized asceticism or the erotic-individualism-oriented capitalistic ethics. In total, Scheler concentrated the unique value of the Catholic Church in breeding the personal and social ethos with its special religious spirit which is quite similar to the orient wisdom from China. Lastly, this thesis will also draw a comparison between Scheler and the theologians in the Nouvelle Théologie Movement in the middle of the 20th century in order to conclude that the realistic and anthropological turn in Scheler’s phenomenological method was actually identical with the theological development from the Vatican I council to the Vatican II council, so Scheler’s phenomenological understanding of self-renewal of the Catholic Church and its social teaching would potentially shed more light on its future development. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / 李晶. / Parallel title from added title page. / Thesis (Ph.D.) Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2016. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 195-210). / Abstracts also in English. / Li Jing.

Originally presented as the author's thesis, Marburg. / Bibliography: p. 235-[247].

This thesis is an analysis and examination of the concept of Faith as understood, experienced, and held by John Wesley: Throughout this study, the question, "Is this Faith possible" lingers, depicting the serious quest of heart and mind to understand Wesley's theology and his empirical view of Faith, as found in the eighteenth-century Revival in England and in Methodism. The problem of the usage of Faith, and the confusion of Freedom, in the life of the "true Christian" in Society, forms the basis of this discussion. The concepts Faith, Freedom, and Society are each examined in this work: The Spirit of the Age, as depicted by the thought of Kant the "transcendentalist" in Europe; of Locke the English empiricist; and of Edwards the Calvinist in America, give insight into the struggle in the pursuit of Freedom. These difficulties are met by the unique ministry of Wesley, who would not compromise man's "unalienable right" to be Free, especially in the light of "salvation by faith." In this analysis and consideration I look at Wesley's concepts of Faith, Freedom, and his understanding of Society, in the light of his theology and ethics, as well as the milieu of the eighteenth century; the implications of these are considered, taking note of, the influence and the impact of Wesley's ministry and writings upon almost all of the eighteenth-century English population, as well as the overflow of the same into the wider world. What happened through his ministry stresses the truth that, what he knew as Faith, was very different from the orthodox and traditional views. More than ever, this needs to be understood today. Wesley's experience of Faith, in his Freedom with regard to Society, is as relevant today as it was then. This thesis sets out to clarify some of the problems: What Wesley had found, history cannot deny. / Philosophy, Practical and Ststematic Theology / D. Th. (Theological Ethics)

A pesquisa realizada teve como escopo examinar a prática pastoral indigenista da Igreja Católica Romana que se instalou em uma perspectiva social e se tentou materializar, especificamente, no Projeto Uma vaca para o índio. Não é proposta deste trabalho apresentar a visão do índio com relação ao projeto do gado. As análises interpretativas das escrituras bíblicas, orientadas pelo Concílio Vaticano II, endossadas e aprofundadas pelos documentos dos bispos na América Latina, em sua clara opção preferencial pelos pobres, nortearam as ações pastorais para essa linha de ação. Dessa forma, o propósito foi entender nuances de uma ação pastoral visivelmente enraizada em um modelo eclesiológico adverso ao modelo de ser Igreja, até então orientado pelos parâmetros do Concílio de Trento, e centrada em uma teologia focada na realidade e na libertação do estado de opressão no qual se encontrava grande parte dos povos na América Latina, nesse caso, os indígenas. Em tal perspectiva, a Diocese de Roraima contribuiu com a elaboração de documentos em assembleias, comissões e conselhos de que participava e, assim, se comprometeu com a construção da justiça, abraçando a renovação da pastoral indigenista. O Projeto Uma vaca para o índio foi uma estratégia que fundamentalmente contribuiu para a homologação das terras indígenas, especialmente da Terra Indígena Raposa Serra do Sol, e modificou as relações entre índios e não-índios ao se constituir a base material da organização indígena, promovendo, parcialmente, sua independência política e econômica. Esta investigação, de caráter sociorreligioso, procurou responder a temática sobre a importância dos fatores religiosos institucionais no momento em que interferem nos aspectos sociais, econômicos e políticos; para tanto, percorremos a historiografia amazônica, com recorte em Roraima. Nesse sentido, o estudo de caso contou com revisões bibliográficas, entrevistas, pesquisas em periódicos: jornais e revistas, registros documentais (atas de reunião, relatórios, Cartas Pastorais e cartilhas).