LL.D. (Public law)

M.A. (Historical Studies) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.A. (History), Faculty of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, 1994

Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-27T13:48:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ANTONIO SEVERINO DE AGUIAR NETO.pdf: 1179897 bytes, checksum: db638f53ee8efc6bbda61bd65283e2d7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-03-11 / Religious freedom was one of the most debated topics in the seventeenth century in England. This issue was closely related to the extent of the problem of civil jurisdiction or even the relationship between the civil power and ecclesiastical power. The philosopher of Wrington, John Locke, actively participated in the discussions of the time. He devoted several writings to the subject, including the Charter on Tolerance (1689). Our research suggests that the Lockean tolerance is outlined above all, by political issues and not exclusively religious, as is advocated by many. The issue of tolerance with regard to defense and the preservation of the natural rights of men, called Locke in his Second Treatise on Government, such as the right to property. For this reason, at first, we stop to speak about the civil state, as this will constitute the reference framework for our considerations about tolerance. Then we try to talk about the excessive entanglement, presented by Locke in his Letter, between the religious sphere and politics, which resulted in the full enjoyment of these rights to some and deprivation or denial of these to others. And lastly, we demonstrate that tolerance is not something to be unrestricted grant, for any person or group acting against equal enjoyment and free of natural rights should be excluded from tolerance. / A liberdade religiosa foi um dos temas mais debatidos no século XVII, na Inglaterra. Essa questão estava intimamente relacionada com o problema da extensão da jurisdição civil ou, ainda, da relação entre o poder civil e o poder eclesiástico. O filósofo de Wrington, John Locke, participou ativamente das discussões da época. Ele dedicou vários escritos ao tema, entre eles a Carta sobre Tolerância (1689). Nossa pesquisa sugere que a tolerância lockeana é delineada, antes de tudo, por questões de natureza política e não exclusivamente religiosa, como é defendida por muitos. A questão da tolerância diz respeito a defesa e a preservação dos direitos naturais dos homens, designado por Locke, em seu Segundo Tratado sobre o Governo, como o direito à propriedade. Por esse motivo, em um primeiro momento, nos detemos em dissertar sobre o Estado civil, visto que este se constituirá como o quadro referencial para nossas considerações acerca da Tolerância. Em seguida, procuramos discorrer sobre o entrelaçamento desmedido, apresentado por Locke em sua Carta, entre a esfera religiosa e a política, que resultavam no usufruto pleno desses direitos a uns e a privação ou a negação destes, a outros. E, por último, demonstramos que a tolerância não é algo que se deva conceder irrestritamente, pois, qualquer pessoa ou grupo que atentem contra usufruto igual e livre dos direitos naturais devem ser excluídos da tolerância.

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The majority of political science research on religion and politics examines how religious variables influence political outcomes. Either implicitly or explicitly, this literature posits a one-way causal arrow from religion to politics. This dissertation argues that in many developing countries, however, religious and political change have been endogenous (interrelated). This is particularly true in weak states, where established religious groups mobilized to promote third wave democratization. In such contexts, politicians simultaneously faced heightened political competition and established religious groups mobilized to demand accountable democratic governance after the Cold War. Under these conditions, I argue that politicians faced incentives to intervene in the religious sphere, and to actively propagate conversionary religious movements. In doing so, politicians sought to cultivate both moral authority and new constituencies that would compete with the established "watch dog" religious groups. I term this strategy "politicized propagation," and argue that it is an important mechanism undergirding the endogenous relationship between religious and political change in the region. Although the theoretical argument advanced in this dissertation is general, I assess the argument empirically by focusing on the explosive rise of pentecostal (born again) Christianity as a politically salient identity in some, but not all, sub-Saharan states in recent decades. I begin by evaluating the dissertation’s broadest claim — that religion and politics are endogenous — at the cross-national level. Specifically, I assess the degree to which a country’s pentecostal population share in 2010 is predicted by that country’s (i) level of political competition in the 1990s and 2000s, and (ii) prior mobilization by established religions for democratization. The evidence reveals a strong, and significant positive correlation between these political context variables and pentecostal population shares in the region. Moreover, through a controlled comparison of born again movements (i.e., charismatics and pentecostals), I am able to adjudicate between the appeal of born again doctrine, and the organizational features of pentecostal churches (such as decentralized network structures, and relative freedom from transnational oversight and rigid training requirements for leaders), which make pentecostal churches accessible and malleable political allies. The dissertation’s cross-national findings therefore refute alternative explanations for cross-national variation in the rise of pentecostalism, as well as the null hypothesis that political and religious change were not endogenous in sub-Saharan states. The latter half of the dissertation proceeds to evaluate causal process mechanisms by examining church-state relations in a single case over time. Specifically, I focus on Zambia, a predominantly Christian nation, where I collected quantitative and qualitative data in 2011 and 2013. My analyses of these data reveal that Zambia's ruling party systematically targeted local pentecostal churches with cash grants, media permits, urban land plots, and political appointments between 1991 and 2011. Moreover, I find that the government was significantly more likely to allocate perks, such as lucrative tax breaks or church business licenses, in the lead up to national elections. This evidence provides strong suggestive support for the theory of politicized propagation. Zambians' subjective perceptions of the relationship between different religious groups and the state are consistent with the theory of politicized propagation, but also belie the wide-ranging motivations of pentecostal converts. I conclude with reflections on the impact of politicized propagation, as well as the ability of this argument to illuminate political dynamics of born again Christian movements in Latin America, and Islamic movements in sub-Saharan Africa.

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Magister Theologiae - MTh / South Africa

Humanist legal scholarship was the catalyst to historical revolution that took place in sixteenth-century France. French philologists succeeded in demonstrating the cultural distinctiveness of France from a heretofore assumed classical heritage shared with ancient Rome. As a result, scholars sought to retrace the historical origins of France in the non-Roman Gauls and Franks. Their intensive study of the laws, customs and institutions that developed in France, as distinct from ancient Rome, transformed the understanding of the national past. Following the introduction of the principles of historical anachronism and cultural relativism, the sixteenth century witnessed a transformation of traditional perceptions of historical time. It was during this period when the historical myths, legends and traditions that comprised the cultural fabric of French society were called into question, were transformed, and emerged as new myths that spoke more directly to the crises of the French Religious Wars. The purpose of this study is to attach greater significance to the Tumult of Amboise of 1560 than has previously been afforded in the scholarship of this period. The Tumult of Amboise provide not only the impetus for the civil wars that were waged in France for nearly half a century, but also served as the catalyst for an first expression of Protestant resistance theory that was to change the face of political discourse in this period. The debate centered around the Tumult of Amboise set the stage for constitutional theories regarding the laws of succession and the role of the Estates-General that were dominate political discourse in the latter half of the sixteenth century. As political polemicists increasingly sought to reconstruct an image of the mythical French past, in order to demonstrate the ancientness of the French constitution, the historical fiction that developed around these efforts became a functioning political ideology that should be viewed as one of the first concerted expressions of French nationalism. In this regard, the recreation of the national past took on a patriotic dimension heretofore absent from traditional, chroniclesty led medieval histories and, in time, developed into a uniquely Gallican mythology that stood defiantly as a rival to the cultural heterodoxy of Rome. Further, the purpose of this study is to demonstrate the developmental nature of political discourse in this period. As the civil wars progressed, doctrines of constitutionalism and limited monarchy began to be laced with more abstract theories regarding the nature of political obligation and the responsibility of the ruler to his subjects. Employing a comparative analysis of discourse from the 1560's to the succession of Henri IV, it will be shown that the transformation of political propaganda was direct! y dependent on the historical memory of the participants, who engaged in an effort to frame the political and religious crises within the context of their perceptions of the past.

The relationship between ideas and history is important in order to understand the past and the present. The idea of religious liberty and the realization of that ideal in sixteenth-century Europe by the Anabaptists in Switzerland and South Germany in the 1520s was considered to be revolutionary in a society characterized by the union of church and state. The main impetus of the idea of religious liberty for the Anabaptists was the application of the New Testament standard of the Christian church, which was an independent congregation of believers marked only by adult baptism. The purpose of the present study is to demonstrate the contributions of the Swiss Anabaptists to the idea of religious liberty by looking at the ministries and activities of three major leaders of the early Swiss movement: Conrad Grebel, Michael Sattler, and Balthasar Hubmaier. This thesis takes up the modern form of religious liberty as analyzed by twentieth-century authorities, as a framework for better understanding the contributions of the Anabaptists. My research then explores the establishment of the first Anabaptist church in history, the Zollikon church outside of Zurich, and examines its organization membership, motives, and strategies for evangelizing Switzerland. In all areas influenced by the Anabaptists, there was considerable acceptance of their doctrine of a separated church. Their teaching on liberty of conscience also influenced people in towns such as Zollikon and Waldshut. Possible historical links between the Anabaptist doctrines and establishment of later Baptist denominations are shown.