Thesis (M. Div.)--St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary, 1977. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 117-118).

Thesis (M. Min.)--Cincinnati Bible Seminary, 2005. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 127-137).

Azaria Mbatha's (1941 - ) work incorporates the many and various influences he has experienced throughout his life. Writers have tended towards essentialist readings of his work emphasizing proselytizing, resistance or traditional Zulu aspects of his work discretely. This is not sufficient to gain an accurate representation of his work which exhibits a spontaneous response to Biblical narratives as he critically appropriates and modifies texts at will. He utilizes narrative to express and explore his own circumstances creating works which are able, in turn, to express the plight of anyone who identifies with his experiences. His work functions both autobiographically and didactically and aspires to be applicable and encouraging to both the individual and the general public, regardless of one's culture of origin. This dissertation aims to present a holistic reading of Mbatha's oeuvre taking into account, amongst others, his Lutheran kholwa upbringing, the situation in South Africa (especially in the years under Apartheid), his familial ties to the Zionist church, his training at the Evangelical Lutheran Church Art and Craft Centre and in Sweden, his foundation within traditional Zulu cosmology, the influence of members of the Lutheran Theological College on his theological views, his position as an artist of the diaspora as a result of his self imposed exile in Sweden and his own interpretation of the Bible, influenced most profoundly by his father. Such a reading of his work is necessary to decipher aspects of Mbatha's idiosyncratic approach to the various influences he applied to his work in order to outline his personal worldview. His work encompasses many themes, of which three are covered here. Firstly, his depictions of scenes from the book of Revelation are examined, as are his various portrayals of the figure of Jesus Christ. Finally, his images of reconciliation in its various forms are considered. Interpretations of these works are informed by a consideration of the various influences already mentioned combined with a visual analysis of each work. It is hoped that this dissertation will aid in understanding the idiosyncrasies and complexities present in Mbatha's work and thus aid in preventing further essentialist readings of comparable artists. For the purposes of this study I have limited my interpretations to his linocuts only. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2007.

Thesis (D.W.S.)--Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies, 2008. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 131-135).

The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on March 24, 2010). Thesis advisor: Professor James H. Calvin. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (D.W.S.)--Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies, 2008. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 131-135).

D.Litt. et Phil. (Greek) / This thesis deals with the Christian divine, holy and saintly protection of African rulers in the Afro-Byzantine ‘Coptic’ (mainly Nubian and Ethiopian) iconographic tradition. The term ‘icon’ is used in its Byzantine Orthodox meaning as “a theological art picture; a religious, sacred image”, according to the theological and artistic Byzantine prescriptions.1 The term is also applied to frescos, murals, mosaics, larger wooden panels, illustrations in manuscripts and scrolls and smaller items such as protective amulets and charms, depicting a Christian holy representation. The iconographic themes, representing authority and its preservation and protection will be discussed, analysed and examined, the two coefficients being authority and protection of royals and their deputies and officials (i.e. the ‘protected’) on the one hand, and on the other hand Christ, the Holy Virgin, angels, military and non-military saints, supernatural and holy beings (i.e. the ‘protectors’). Firstly, a historical overview of the Byzantine and Afro-Byzantine Orthodox society in terms of religious, social, cultural and political influences is presented and the importance of Orthodox iconography and hagiography and the transformation of local Afro-Byzantine themes are analysed. As such, once the conversion from paganism to Christianity took place in Africa, influences of the Byzantine iconography and hagiography were transformed and integrated with local African Orthodox themes. Byzantine ideology and political theory as well as their relevance for the Coptic-Egyptian, Nubian and Ethiopian context have been discussed, while the artistic and symbolic iconographic representations of the Byzantine (and Medieval Afro-Byzantine) periods...

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This dissertation examines two controversies involving paintings of the female nude by artists Debora Arango and Carlos Correa during a period of political crisis in Bogota (Colombia) in order to open the political to cultural analysis and thus shed light on scenarios of change in the 1930s and 1940s. Unpacking the controversies lends insight into the unique ways in which modernity, the body, its representations, sexuality, gender and politics came together in Colombia during this period. Such an approach also shows that modernity in Colombia involved shifts in religious and secular frames of sense-making and morality. This dissertation argues that the controversies and the female nudes provide a window into the Liberal regime's creation of culture as an autonomous sphere as part of its cultural program, which bridged high and popular culture, as well as on aspects of private life concerned with sexuality and gender. It shows how such changes registered in the lives of the artists and how the artists translated the changes they experienced into modes of pictorial expression. This dissertation argues that the demands of the aesthetic and the demands of politics during this period pressed on each other, resulting in the wide-spread perception of moral breach that came to a head in the "scandals of the female nudes." This dissertation thus sheds light on dimensions of both the political and the private during this period. / Because art and politics were thus entangled, this dissertation shows that, in this particular Colombian modernity, society was not polarized, that the private and the private overlapped, that issues of intimacy surfaced in the public realm, and that Catholicism was the idiom shared by men and women who were grappling with change. It shows that the cultural program of the Liberal regime was the immediate referent for criticism in these events and, through it, of the Liberal regime's reforms of education of 1934 and 1936. Finally, it shows that this modernity and its attendant anxieties were played out through the body in the public and the private realms, within, not against, the Catholic tradition, in unprecedented ways. This thesis demonstrates that politics and issues of sexuality and gender were entangled in the public sphere and converged in the female nudes, turning them into a major threat to morality within both religious and secular frameworks. By unpacking the controversies, this dissertation marks a seminal break with historical accounts that describe Colombia's as a failed modernity, its society as polarized, and debates over sexuality and gender as the product of politics. This dissertation also contradicts art historical writings that account for the production of images and the reception of art in this period solely in political terms.

As art historians uncover the many sources and catalysts that have contributed to the emergence of black contemporary art in South Africa, one of the principal influences is that derived from the Christian mission churches and breakaway separatist groups - the African Independent Churches (AICs). Histories of African art have failed adequately to consider the art that emerged from these contexts, regarding it perhaps as too coerced and distinctive – merely religious art subject to the rigours of liturgical or proselytizing function. The purpose of this dissertation is to foreground this art and its position in the development of both pioneer and contemporary South African art and to identify the many features, both stylistic and thematic, which distinguish this work. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2003.