The central aim of this thesis is to analyse the influence of Kierkegaard on Bonhoeffer. This relationship has been almost universally recognized. And yet this area has received no comprehensive study, limited within the secondary literature to footnotes, digressions, and the occasional paper. Furthermore, what little literature there is has been plagued by several stereotypes. First, discussion is often limited to Discipleship. Second, Kierkegaard has been identified as an individualist and acosmist who rejected the church, leading many to consider Bonhoeffer the ecumenist and ecclesiologist as selectively agreeing with Kierkegaard, but ultimately rejecting his overall stance. This thesis will argue that neither stereotype is true, and suggest (a), that Kierkegaard’s influence can be found throughout Bonhoeffer’s work, and (b) that although a more stereotypical perspective may be present in SC, by the end of his life Bonhoeffer had gained a far deeper understanding across the breadth of Kierkegaard’s work. The importance of this thesis is not simply to ‘plug the gap’ of scholarship in this area, but also to suggest the importance of analysing Kierkegaard and Bonhoeffer together. This will focus on three specific areas. First, alongside the influence of Kierkegaard on Bonhoeffer, it will argue for the importance of using Bonhoeffer as an interpretive tool for understanding Kierkegaard. This thesis will show how Bonhoeffer adopted and adapted Kierkegaard’s work to his own situation, forcing Kierkegaard to answer questions that were not present during his own life. In this way, we are led to compare Kierkegaard and Bonhoeffer as individuals, and not simply their static declarations. Secondly, against the tendency to consider Kierkegaard and Bonhoeffer’s final attacks on Christendom as unfortunate endings to otherwise profound careers, it will be suggested that these attacks stand as the fulfilment of their earlier thought. It will be argued that despite their different contexts, both Kierkegaard and Bonhoeffer were led to the same conclusions concerning Christendom. Thirdly, given Kierkegaard’s submission to indirect communication and his somewhat 'prophetic' proclamations concerning one who will come after him and reform, this thesis will ask whether Bonhoeffer stands as something of a fulfilment to Kierkegaard’s thought in the guise of a Kierkegaardian ‘reformer’.

This thesis studies, through a literary and theological analysis of her writings and an examination of her background, how a fifteenth century Spanish nun called Teresa de Cartagena dealt spiritually with disability. She was physically disabled, having become deaf as an adult but also having endured many illnesses. Her first book, Arboleda de los enfermos, was written to pass on to other sufferers the spiritual lessons she had learned from her own suffering; that suffering was good because it had saved her from sin and had brought her to God. Her second work, Admiraçión operum Dey, was written to answer those who had criticised her for the act of writing because of her gender, at that time a disability for any woman wishing to write or teach. She justified her writing as a special work of God, but did not claim mystical direct divine inspiration. Teresa was a member of a prominent family of Jewish Christians (conversos). At the time she was writing, the second half of the fifteenth century, anti-converso prejudice and violence were growing in Spain. This culminated in the introduction of the Inquisition in order to deal with the so-called 'judaising conversos'. In these circumstances her conversa status was a distinct social disability, but there is no express mention of this in her writings. However, there are traces in her writings of converso concerns, and of a specifically converso theology. Although there have been many studies of Teresa de Cartagena from the viewpoints of medieval Spanish literature, disability studies, feminist history and her use of rhetorical techniques, there has been no in depth study of her theology and spirituality. This thesis demonstrates that, although in general these were orthodox and unoriginal, they were unusual for a woman of her time and background.

Horrendous evils pose distinctive challenges for belief in an ethically perfect God. To home in on these challenges, I construct an ethical framework for theodicy by sketching four cases of human action where horrors are either caused, permitted, or risked, either for pure benefit (i.e., a benefit that does not avert a still greater harm) or for harm avoidance. I then bring the framework and the moral valuations confirmed by this casuistry to bear on the project of theodicy. I construct four analogous structures – one for each case – and identify examples of each structure in theodicies in contemporary philosophy of religion. I summarize each theodicy and evaluate whether it is structurally promising with respect to horrendous evils. That is, if the proposed interconnected set of facts and reasons were true, would God be ethically in the clear? My initial conclusions impugn the dominant structural approach of depicting God as causing or permitting horrors in individual lives for the sake of some merely pure benefit. This approach is insensitive to relevant asymmetries in the justificatory demands made by horrendous and non-horrendous evil and in the justificatory work done by averting harm and bestowing pure benefit. I next argue that the structurally promising theodicies I have identified are implausible due to their overestimation of the extent to which finite human agents can bear primary responsibility for horrendous evils and their underestimation of the importance for theodicy of being consonant with a broadly Darwinian approach to evolutionary theory. The project of theodicy is in trouble. The second half of my thesis develops an approach to theodicy that falls outside my proffered taxonomy. Following a suggestion of Leibniz, Robert Adams has argued that theodicy can be aided by the insight that almost all of the evil of the actual world is metaphysically necessary for the community of actual world inhabitants to be comprised of the specific individuals who comprise it. Beginning with this insight, I develop (what I term) Non-Identity Theodicy. It suggests that God allows the evil he does in order to create and love the specific individuals comprising the community of inhabitants of the actual world. This approach to theodicy is unique because the justifying good recommended is neither harm-aversion nor pure benefit. It is not a good that betters the lives of individual human persons (for they wouldn’t exist otherwise), but it is the individual human persons themselves. In order to aim successfully at the creation of particular individuals, however, God would need a control of history so complete that it might be argued to be inconsistent with beliefs about human free will that are important to some theologies. I construct a second version of Non-Identity Theodicy designed to avoid this problem by considering whether God’s justifying motivation for allowing the evil of this world could be his aiming for beings of our type, even if it could not be his aiming for particular individuals. I suggest that God would be interested in loving those he creates under various descriptions (e.g., biological, psychological, and narrative descriptions), and argue that a horror-prone environment is necessary for us to be the type of being we are under each of the descriptions. I assess the structural promise and plausibility of Non-Identity Theodicy. In order to do so, I engage with Derek Parfit’s non-identity problem and with some influential assumptions in the ethics of procreation literature. I end by recapping what I take to be the key areas of overemphasis and under-emphasis in contemporary theodicy.

Submitted by SBI Biblioteca Digital (sbi.bibliotecadigital@puc-campinas.edu.br) on 2017-06-26T18:11:49Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DANILO RODRIGUES.pdf: 563452 bytes, checksum: daab2df8a0a48f2b5a312a2fc6b8721d (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-26T18:11:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DANILO RODRIGUES.pdf: 563452 bytes, checksum: daab2df8a0a48f2b5a312a2fc6b8721d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-02-23 / The aim of this dissertation is to present Christian spirituality in the Moltmannian perspective and its experience in society. To present the current picture of society we will use the analyzes of the sociologist Zygmunt Bauman that raises the frailties, despair and despair of a liquid society. With the reflections of the theologian J?rgen Moltmann we will spread through his sensitivity the hopes for an incarnated and committed spirituality. The text is systematized in three chapters; In the first it was exposed how to understand Christian spirituality and its centrality; From this nucleus converge the schools of spiritualities with various charisms that were born from the experiences of groups led by founders of Communities and Congregations. Yet in this chapter we have already inferred Moltmann's thinking on Christian spirituality; Which is not limited to those consecrated in a religious congregation, but to all Christians. In the second chapter; We approach the despair that we point out as fragilities and despair of a consumer society and dissatisfied with life. The values for a solid life with respect, alterity, and altruism have been liquefied and gained ground to the exacerbated preoccupation with the body and the addictive mania for financial power. The third chapter retakes the Moltmannian reflections on Christian spirituality. For Moltmann there is no such thing as a spiritual life disembodied from reality, hence the need to rescue the victims of hopelessness and lead them to a vitality that will free them from oppression. Liberation is part of Christian spirituality in the Moltmannian perspective; The transformation of the world happens when the Christian acts in society and fights indifference and faces injustice. From the arbitrariness that oppresses the spiritual life there is the neglect towards the Planet and its ecological system; Pollution, deforestation are mistreating the Earth and jeopardizing the existence of Creation. For this reason, Moltmann in his sensibility presents us with an ecological spirituality which transforms our attitudes towards our neighbor and towards all Creation. / O objetivo desta disserta??o ? apresentar a espiritualidade crist? na perspectiva moltmanniana e sua viv?ncia na sociedade. Para apresentar o quadro atual da sociedade, utilizaremos as an?lises do soci?logo Zygmunt Bauman, autor que levanta as fragilidades, desesperos e desesperan?as de uma sociedade l?quida. Com as reflex?es do te?logo J?rgen Moltmann discorreremos, dissertando por meio da sensibilidade expressa em sua obra sobre as esperan?as para uma espiritualidade encarnada e comprometida. O texto est? sistematizado em tr?s cap?tulos: no primeiro foi exposto como compreender a espiritualidade crist? e sua centralidade ? desse n?cleo, convergem as escolas de espiritualidades com diversos carismas que nasceram das experi?ncias de grupos liderados por fundadores de Comunidades e Congrega??es. Ainda no primeiro cap?tulo, inferimos sobre o pensamento de Moltmann sobre a espiritualidade crist? que n?o se limita aos consagrados em uma congrega??o religiosa, mas a todos os crist?os. No segundo cap?tulo, abordamos as desesperan?as as quais apontamos como fragilidades e desesperos de uma sociedade consumista e insatisfeita com a vida ? os valores para uma vida s?lida, com respeito, alteridade e altru?smo foram liquefeitos, o que deu espa?o ? preocupa??o exacerbada com o corpo e a viciante busca pelo poder financeiro. No terceiro cap?tulo, retomamos as reflex?es moltmannianas sobre a espiritualidade crist?. Para Moltmann, n?o h? vida espiritual desencarnada da realidade, por isso a necessidade em resgatarmos as v?timas da desesperan?a e conduzi-las na busca de uma vitalidade que as liberte da opress?o. A liberta??o faz parte da espiritualidade crist? na perspectiva moltmanniana; a transforma??o do mundo acontece quando o crist?o age na sociedade, combate a indiferen?a e enfrenta as injusti?as. Das arbitrariedades que oprimem a vida espiritual, h? tamb?m o descaso para com o Planeta e seu sistema ecol?gico, a polui??o e o desmatamento que maltratam a Terra e colocam em risco a exist?ncia da Cria??o. Por isso, Moltmann, em sua sensibilidade, nos apresenta uma espiritualidade ecol?gica que transforma nossas atitudes frente ao pr?ximo e para com toda a Cria??o.

In contemporary society, distinct traditions are bleeding into one another, blurring traditional lines of inquiry and historically significant boundaries. This phenomenon frames this project and creates the context for the Yoga-Christian praxis dialogue this study constructively critiques. Unfortunately, this dialogue exhibits an Eliadean concern for essentialism and universality. I challenge this trend by juxtaposing two distinct texts, Patañjali‘s Yoga-Sūtra and Gregory of Nyssa’s Life of Moses. These texts point to the similar idea that without striving and personal transformation neither the yogic practitioner nor practicing Christian logically subsists. More importantly, however, from this point of correspondence I constructively critique the Yoga-Christian praxis dialogue by concretely engaging these texts and paying particular attention to the differences inherent in them. My comparison, then, suggests how attention to particularity points to a more authentic dialogue: what I wish to call a dialogue of distinction without separation.

The thesis interprets and analysies the results of the explorational survey, which deals how people with intellectual diabilities reflect on sellected religious terms. The targert of this thesis is to chart the opinions, definitions and attituteds of the people with intellectual disabilities to the sellected religious categories. The theoritical part of the thesis deals not only of problems of spiritual life, meetings, dialogues and interwies with people with intellectual disabilities but solves their specific qualities and their role in the catholic community too. The exploration part presents two researches - with worshippers people with intellectual disabilities and worshippers people without disabilities. In the end of the thesis the explorational survey definates differences beetween both groups. The thesis use the method of the qualititive research, concretely the mothod of the semistructured interview and the method of the group discussion.

In this doctoral thesis, The Spirituality and Mysticism of Nature in the Early Franciscan Tradition, I have begun with an attempt to clarify the notions of spirituality and mysticism. The former, was seen as an approach to God embodied in outlook, practice and lifestyle, and the latter, mysticism, was defined as a felt awareness and knowledge of the presence of God. My hypothesis is that nature played a very important part in both the spirituality and mysticism of Saint Francis of Assisi, and in the spirituality of the movement he founded. In a systematic attempt to investigate my theme, I began with a study of the chief places associated with Francis. They present a kind of mirror of his soul and reveal, I believe, a good deal about his outlook and way of living. They tend to be remote and solitary places, often high in the mountains or near water, often desolate and harsh and usually beautiful, and what was later to become known as `romantic'. I turned then to the world of nature, beginning with the celestial bodies, sun, moon and the stars, and the elements of the sub-lunar world. The world of living things, fruits and flowers, animals, wild beasts and tame, fish and birds was examined. Nearly all the evidence here came from that collection of Franciscan stories and anecdotes which forms one of the great treasuries of stories in world literature. The fourth chapter was devoted to the poetry of Francis, above all to the Praises of God and The Canticle of the Creatures. After examining the circumstances of its composition, I took the stanzas one by one and examined them in the light of what they reveal of Francis spirituality and mysticism. The purpose of chapter five was to gather the fruits of my research and evaluate the hypothesis I proposed. I concluded that Francis, incorporated nature into his spirituality and mysticism in a very original way. I hold that Francis was a great nature mystic, and that his nature spirituality is still full of vigor and potential for the future. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / (D.Th. (Christian Spirituality))

The Scriptures, as found in the Old and New Testaments, are foundational to a genuine Christian spirituality. Among the different existing approaches to spirituality, the evangelical and charismatic churches in South Africa today need to rediscover a distinctive biblical approach to spirituality for themselves in order to facilitate the discipleship of their own members. A holistic biblical spirituality can also serve society in practical ways and challenge the perceptions and practices of a South African society which is seeking to advance without religious foundations. / Philosophy and Systematic Theology / M.Th. (Christian Spirituality)

This qualitatively oriented Practical Theology research project was based on a narrative enquiry into the spiritualities of five Christ-followers. These conversations occurred within a small group context, and were aimed at enabling the participants to co-author preferred spiritual ways of being. Because of my commitment to reflexive research practice, other voices and perspectives were invited into the research process. Besides sharing in numerous reflexive conversations with my supervisors, I brought into the group three 'outside voices'. By sharing their stories, these 'outside voices' challenged privatised expressions of spirituality, introducing a 'hermeneutic of suspicion' into the research process and enabling the research participants to wrestle with the challenges of a compassionate and ethical spirituality. In this conversational journey I was able to engage the central research question of whether a group narrative approach can facilitate the intention of Practical Theology to transform human life. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematical Theology / M. Th. (Practical Theology with specialisation in Pastoral Therapy)

“How does one develop an appropriate urban Christian Spirituality?” is the question this study asks. First, I develop a rigorous, yet open, theoretical framework with which to describe Christian Spirituality’s complexity: a description focused primarily on constraining the markers of Biblical Spirituality and City Spirituality. Within the limits placed on the complex system of Christian Spirituality, I begin exploring various, mostly minor, tropes of urban biblical spiritualities in the “Old” and “New” Testament. From these analyses, I evince the implications of these biblical spirituality tropes for the current city theater, and also construe a set of questions evaluating the appropriateness of mitigating urban communities. The study culminates in an imagined ideal mitigating urban community named an ekklesiastes: a wisdom teaching technology of urban meaning, complexity, and resistance. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M. Th. (Christian Spirituality)