The Novgorod icon of Divine Wisdom is a great innovation of fifteenth-century Russian art. It represents the winged female Sophia flanked by the Theotokos and John the Baptist. Although the icon has a contemporaneous commentary and it exercised a profound influence on Russian cultural history (inspiring, among others, the sophiological theory of the turn of the twentieth century), its meaning, together with the dating and localisation of the first appearance of the iconography, has remained a great art-historical conundrum. This thesis sheds new light on this icon and explores the message, roots, function and historical context of the first, most emblematic and most enigmatic Russian allegorical iconography. In contrast to its recent interpretations as a Trinitarian image with Christ-Angel, it argues that the winged Sophia is the personification of the Orthodox Church. The Novgorod Wisdom icon represents the Church of Hagia Sophia, that is Orthodoxy, as it was perceived in fifteenth-century Rus’: the icon together with its commentary was a visual-textual response to the Florentine Union between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, signed in 1439 but rejected by the Russians in 1441. The thesis is based on detailed interdisciplinary research, utilising simultaneously the methodologies of philology, art history, theology and history. The combined analysis reveals that the great innovation of the Novgorod Sophia icon is that it amalgamates ecclesiological and sophiological iconographies in new ways. Hence the dissertation is also an innovative attempt to survey how Orthodoxy was perceived and visualized in medieval Rus’. It identifies the theological questions that constituted the basis of Russian Orthodox identity in the Middle Ages and reveals the significance of the polemics between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches for the history of Medieval Russian art.

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This thesis evaluates the contribution of Charles Chiniquy (1809-1899) to the religious life of French Canada in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Once a Roman Catholic priest, he converted to "Bible" Christianity and became a Presbyterian minister. The fluid intellectual context between the liberal "Rouge" and conservative "Bleu" elements in French Canadian society is briefly described to explain his conversion. Then, his anti-Catholic, invective - filled works from 1875 to 1900 are studied to discover his contributions to and his observations of the religious mentalities of late 19th-century North America. One finds the concepts of rhetorical repetition and expansion, a projection of moral misconduct, and a "paranoid" mindset fearful of conspiracies. / Cette thèse évalue la contribution de Charles Chiniquy (1809-1899) a la vie religieuse du Canada français dans la dernière moitie du 19e siècle. Prêtre catholique, il est devenu pasteur presbytérien par la voie d'une conversion au christianisme dit biblique. Le contexte intellectuel et fluide entre les éléments libéraux "rouges" et conservateurs "bleus" de la société canadienne-française est décrit rapidement pour expliquer sa conversion. Ensuite, ses livres anticatholiques et pleins d'invectives, de 1875 a 1900, sont étudiés pour découvrir ses apports et ses observations sur les mentalités religieuses de la fin du 19e siècle en Amérique du Nord. Nous trouvons les catégories d'amplification et de repetition rhétorique, de projection de mauvaise conduite morale, et d'un penchant intellectuel "paranoTaque" redoutant les conspirations. fr

Thesis (PH. D)--Catholic University of America, 1939. / "Apologetical publications": p. 165-181; "Essays on the sources": p. 182-187.

This thesis examines the theology of the fourth-century bishop, Hilary of Poitiers, concentrating particularly on two commentaries written at different times in his life. The thesis starts by examining the texts, and demonstrates that Hilary's commentary on Psalm 118 is loosely speaking a translation of Origen; by comparing both authors with Ambrose, the relationship between Origen and Hilary appears much closer than previously thought. The main body of the thesis examines Hilary's anthropological theology. Three chapters look at created human nature, looking at the relationship between body and soul, human nature as imago dei, and the extent to which human nature can be treated as a platonic universal. The general conclusion is that Hilary is not particularly platonic, and at this stage is not particularly stoic either, but rather is eclectic in his choice of philosophical ideas. The influence of Origen is clear but Hilary only uses Origen's theology critically. There follow four chapters on the Fall and its impact, focussing particularly on its effects on human nature. In particular it is shown that Hilary presages Augustine's teaching of the fallen will; in Hilary the Will is described as being in thrall to her mother-in-law Disobedience. Another human malady is the effect of the passions or emotions, where Hilary is influenced by Stoic ideas of the process of human action; nevertheless, concepts such as apatheia or the propatheiai do not appear in his work. These constraints on human action point towards Hilary's theology of original sin; indeed he appears to be the first author to use the phrase peccata originis in this sense. In the concluding chapter, Hilary's place in the continuum between Origen and Augustine is demonstrated; at very least, original sin cannot be called an African doctrine, since it first is named by Hilary, a Gaul.

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<p>The paper's aim is to show the fight of the church against the Potter book series of Joanne K. Rowling and the actual situation which is presented in the books. This fight is based on the acrimonious claims and heated-up discussions which were made by some church members who sued the books as "being evil" and a "seduction to the bad side" for children as well as "having a satanic content" etc. At the same time, positive comments of several church leaders and the author's declared opinion are stated. Finally, book four "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" is interpreted regarding the claims of the church and a neutral observation of the story.</p>

The paper's aim is to show the fight of the church against the Potter book series of Joanne K. Rowling and the actual situation which is presented in the books. This fight is based on the acrimonious claims and heated-up discussions which were made by some church members who sued the books as "being evil" and a "seduction to the bad side" for children as well as "having a satanic content" etc. At the same time, positive comments of several church leaders and the author's declared opinion are stated. Finally, book four "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" is interpreted regarding the claims of the church and a neutral observation of the story.

This thesis is an investigation into the nature of the characterizations of women and Negroes in the fiction of Flannery O'Connor and the extent to which the attitudes, beliefs, and ideas contained in the background of the author influenced such portrayals. The thesis identifies these influences as her native South and the Roman Catholic Church and concludes that her misogynistic treatment of women and sympathetic handling of Negroes proceeds from values placed on both groups in such influences.