<p> In this thesis I examine various statements relating to the Jain lay community in the early &Sacute;vet&amacr;mbara texts. My approach is deliberately and consistently historical. The earliest extant &Sacute;vet&amacr;mbara writing presents an almost exclusively negative view of all non-mendicants. In the context of competition with other religious groups to gain the respect and material support of members of the general population, the &Sacute;vet&amacr;mbara mendicants began to compose positive statements about a lay community. Instead of interpreting the key terms and formulations in these early statements anachronistically on the basis of the later and systematized account of lay Jain religiosity, I attempt to trace how the idea of lay Jainism and its distinctive practices gradually came into being. The more familiar account that is often taken as the basis for understanding earlier sources in fact emerges as the end product of this long history.</p><p> This historical reconstruction poses numerous challenges. There is little reliable historical scholarship to draw from in carrying out this investigation. In the absence of a widely accepted account of the formation of the &Sacute;vet&amacr;mbara canon, the dates of the canonical sources that I examine remain uncertain. I argue that by focusing on key passages relating to the Jain lay community it is possible to establish a relative chronology for the composition of some of these passages and for the compilation of some of the texts in which they appear. We can thus observe development in the strategies employed by the mendicants as part of their effort to establish and maintain relations with a community of householders who respected and regularly supported them. What I offer here is a preliminary but important step toward writing a critical and comprehensive history of lay Jainism. More broadly, scholars of monastic religious traditions may be interested in this account of how one group of ascetics in ancient India garnered lay support and developed a role for non-monastic members of the community.</p>

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<p> This psychobiographical study explores the research and conclusions of Michael Murphy's theories on evolutionary panentheism and metanormal human potential. Murphy's diverse oeuvre renders it impossible to produce a comprehensive study without accounting for Murphy's integrality; multiple ways in which separate personal and professional events unite to create a whole. The current literature on Murphy appears as segmented overviews which inhibit thorough chronicling of his work. This lacuna contributes to a resistance to attend to Murphy's philosophy within an academic schema. By addressing his achievements as components within the totality of his worldview, the researcher demonstrates that Murphy deserves stronger academic recognition. </p><p> This qualitative study incorporates features of psychobiography, hermeneutics, and narrative analysis. Psychobiology emphasizes biographical and psychological development, allowing the researcher to use these aspects of Michael Murphy's activities to provide additional insight into his motivations, philosophies, and work-product. </p><p> This psychobiography uses Michael Murphy's literary and nonliterary works, as well as data obtained from interviews with Murphy, as representative constituents of his philosophical totality. Murphy's works integrate his (1) theory on evolutionary panentheism, which proposes a God that not only desires humanity within Its consciousness, but also "cares" for Its creations, residing within and evolving with them, (2) faith in the theories of involution&ndash;evolution, which maintain the existence of accessible levels of advancement, (3) innate trust in the interrelationship of all things, (4) evidence that advanced human potential has been part of humanity's development since the origins of contemplation, (5) conviction, stemming from data-driven research of metanormal occurrences, that humanity can evolve and transmute, (6) commitment to overcome the divisiveness of science and religio-mysticism, as well as the disparities of religious tenets, (7) humanist efforts to mitigate problems of the disenfranchised, persecuted, diasporic, and powerless factions of humanity; and finally, (8) trust in the inherent value and possibilities of human life. These components reflect Murphy's overarching goal: building a bridge between science and religion in order to facilitate an intelligent, integrated understanding of the natural and cosmological order--and the future it portends.</p>

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<p> The doctrine of the metaphysics of Light was a powerful current of thought that flowed through Western philosophy from ancient times down through the Renaissance. It taught that reality was essentially and fundamentally Light, not in a metaphorical but in a proper sense. Moreover, this Light was understood to both emanate being and illuminate cognition. </p><p> The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the possibility that the doctrine of the metaphysics of Light also appeared in the systems of two other philosophers: Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi, a Persian philosopher of the 12th century, and Abhinavagupta, a great Kashmir Shaivite philosopher of the 10th century. Suhrawardi worked within the Islamic philosophical tradition and so had direct historical connections with the Neoplatonic sources of the metaphysics of Light in the West. He also claimed Persian, Egyptian, Babylonian, and Indian sources for his Light doctrine. Abhinavagupta had no attested historical connections with either Suhrawardi or Neoplatonism. Yet there are remarkable and striking similarities in the systems of Suhrawardi and Abhinavagupta in both ontology and epistemology that identify them with the doctrine of the metaphysics of Light. The situation with regard to cosmology is more complex. Suhrawardi enunciates a system of emanation similar to that of his Neoplatonic forbearers. Abhinavagupta enunciates a system of emanation, but its categories are radically different from Neoplatonism. Combined with Suhrawardi's invocation of ancient sources, this suggests that both Suhrawardi and Abhinavagupta taught a true metaphysics of Light, but that the context of the doctrine itself should be extended beyond Neoplatonism to include traditions from Iran and India.</p>

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The following consideration of methodologies in comparative Canadian literary criticism is influenced by Margaret Atwoods Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature, and Clment Moisans Posie des frontires: tude compare des posies canadienne et qubcoise. An analysis of the advances and pitfalls in Atwoods and Moisans works of thematic criticism sheds light on what stands to be gained from a broader ground for comparison, one that relinquishes the need to capture all Canadian literary expressions under the net of a single study organized around language and culture. Translation emerges as both a model for such change, and a tool that facilitates a more fluid treatment of differences within recent studies. Contemporary comparisons by E.D. Blodgett, Sylvia Sderlind, Peter Dickinson, and Lianne Moyes seek to forge ahead despite the difficulties inherent to the discipline. Their methodologies demonstrate a desire to find new ways of reading Canadian literatures together, while recognizing Canadas ever-expanding linguistic and cultural literary diversity.

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