Thesis (D. Miss.)--Western Seminary, Portland, OR, 2007. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 197-201).

This thesis examines the spiritual lives of eighteenth-century English women through an analysis of their personal writings. It explores the manuscripts of religious women who practised their faith by writing letters, diaries, poetry, and other highly personal texts—texts that give unique access to the interior, spiritual lives of their authors. Concerned not only with the individual meaning of those writings but with their communal meanings, it argues that women’s informal writing, written within personal relationships, acted to undergird, guide, and indeed shape religious communities in vital and unexplored ways. Through an exploration of various significant personal relationships, both intra- and inter-generationally, this thesis demonstrates the multiple ways in which women were active in ‘writing religious communities’. The women discussed here belonged to communities that habitually communicated through personal writing. At the same time, their acts of writing were creative acts, powerful to build and shape religious communities: these women wrote religious community. A series of interweaving case studies guide my analysis and discussion. The thesis focuses on Catherine Talbot (1721–70), Anne Steele (1717–78), and Ann Bolton (1743–1822), and on their literary interactions with friends and family. Considered together, these subjects and sources allow comparison across denomination, for Talbot was Anglican, Steele Baptist, and Bolton Methodist. After an introductory chapter, Chapter Two focuses on spiritual friendship, showing how women used personal writings within peer relationships to think through religious ideas and encourage faith commitments. Chapter Three considers older women as spiritual elders, arguing that elderly women sometimes achieved honoured status in religious communities and were turned to for spiritual direction. Chapter Four explores the ways in which women offered religious instruction to spiritual children through the creative use of informal writings, including diaries and poetry. And Chapter Five considers women’s personal writings as spiritual legacy, as they were preserved by family and friends and continued to function in religious communities after the death of their authors.

This diploma thesis is focused on the analysis of the current relationship of Christianity and the European Union, namely the positions of political fractions in the European Parliament to the values derived from the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. In the work there are analyzed the political programs of the four major parties of the European Parliament (EPP, S&D, ALDE, Greens)and examined level of representation of Christian values. The work is divided into five main chapters. The first chapter is a theoretical part, which forms the theoretical basis, in which the whole work is further conceived. In the second chapter, there are characterized the relations between Christianity and the European Union, respectively, the influence of Christianity on the formation of the European Union. The third chapter delas with the cooperation between the Roman Catholic Church and the European Union. The fourth chapter deals with the determination of Christian values. There are defined and characterized the basic Christian values as contained in the Compendium of the social doctrine of the Church. In the final chapter there ate analyzed the actual political programs four largest parties of the European Parliament. Programs are analyzed in terms of their relation to the defined Christian values.

This thesis outlines the development of the doctrine of Purgatory in the theology of the nineteenth century theologian John Henry Newman (1801-1890). I trace the beginning of this development from 1816-1828 by identifying key theological themes from Newman’s early Evangelical writings on holiness, purification and conversion. After rejecting the Evangelicalism of his youth, Newman moved progressively towards High-Church Anglicanism from 1828 onward, and adopted the Anglican teaching of the 'intermediate state'. From 1830 he began to preach on this teaching by presenting it as an alternative to the 'depressing prospect' to the 'Romish' doctrine of Purgatory. However from 1837-1845 his views on Purgatory shifted considerably after studying the Tridentine decrees. In 1841 he claimed in Tract XC of Tracts for the Times that significant changes in the formulation of Article XXII of the XXXIX Articles meant that the Church of England did not reject the doctrine of Purgatory in its primitive form, but rather only the 'Romish' extremes of mediaeval theology which had corrupted her teaching. His claim that there was no disparity between what Trent taught on Purgatory and what the Church of England held in Article XXII caused widespread controversy among his contemporaries. In his early Roman Catholic years, from 1845-1853, he initially adopted the commonly held punitive model of Purgatory, but leaned increasingly towards an ameliorative understanding of the doctrine. By 1865 Newman had adumbrated a theology of Purgatory in The Dream of Gerontius, in which he showed how rather than being purged by material fire, the soul was purified by a singular and instantaneous experience of the holiness of God. I demonstrate how his theology of Purgatory in the Dream represents a significant contribution to a renewed understanding of the doctrine in Roman Catholic theology.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Covenant Theological Seminary, 2002. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 200-206).

Thesis (J.C.L.)--Catholic University of America, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 64-69).

Thesis (J.C.L.)--Catholic University of America, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 64-69).

Thesis (J.C.L.)--Catholic University of America, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 64-69).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Covenant Theological Seminary, 2002. / Abstract. This is an electronic reproduction of TREN, #030-0113. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 200-206).

Thesis (Ph.D)--Southern Methodist University, 1982. / Bibliography: p. [409]-416.