Several psychologists have attempted to articulate a theistic psychology or one consonant with their religious beliefs. Unfortunately, confusion over the concept of theism and a persistent naturalism in the discipline create substantial obstacles towards achieving a serious theistic psychology. It is suggested that these challenges can be overcome through examining alternative philosophies and methodologies for scientific psychology, exploring seminal articulations of God's activity, and providing a practical example of a theistic psychological research program.

Esta tese examina três escritos de Thomas Paine (1737-1809) elaborados durante a Revolução Francesa, os quais representam as reflexões mais radicais de seu pensamento religioso, político e social. Em primeiro lugar, será analisado o panfleto The Age of Reason, expressão máxima de seu radicalismo religioso, que teve sua primeira parte escrita em 1793 e a segunda em 1794. Contrapondo-se, por um lado, às religiões reveladas e, por outro lado, à descristianização do período jacobino, nesse texto o deísmo é apresentado como a face religiosa da democracia vindoura. Em segundo lugar, será analisado o texto Dissertation on the First Principles of Government, redigido e publicado em 1795, a mais acabada exposição da teoria democrática. A um só tempo contrário ao liberalismo termidoriano e crítico do que fora o jacobinismo, nesse texto Paine opõe-se categoricamente àqueles que pensavam a propriedade privada como um direito natural que poderia ser equivalente ou mesmo superior aos direitos naturais de liberdade e a igualdade. Por fim, será analisado o texto Agrarian Justice, expressão máxima de seu radicalismo social, produzido no inverno de 1795-1796 (publicado em 1797). Em reação tanto ao liberalismo irredutível dos termidorianos, quanto às propostas igualitaristas de Graco Babeuf, o texto apresenta-se como uma proposta de erradicação da pobreza sem romper com os princípios do que seria política liberal. Pretende-se captar o sentido do pensamento de Paine no contexto da Revolução Francesa e discutir a validadade da afirmação de Eric Hobsbawm na Era das Revoluções, segundo a qual Paine, radical nos Estados Unidos, seria um moderado girondino na França. Na contramão da maioria das interpretações correntes, a pesquisa objetiva repensar a figura de Paine, mostrando sua relevância como intérprete da Revolução Francesa e como nome fundamental para a história do pensamento político, religioso e social. / This thesis examines three writings of Thomas Paine (1737-1809) elaborated during the French Revolution, which represents the most radical reflections of his religious, political and social thought. In the first place, the pamphlet The Age of Reason will be analyzed, that contains the maximum expression of his religious radicalism, which have had its first part written in 1793 and the second in 1794. Contradicting, on the one hand, to the revealed religions, and, on the other hand, to the dechristianization of the Jacobin period, in this text, deism is presented as the religious face of the coming democracy. Secondly, the text Dissertation on the First Principles of Government will be analyzed, the most complete exposition of his democratic theory, drafted and published in 1795. Contrary to Thermidorian and critical of what Jacobinism was, in this text Paine categorically opposes those who thought private property as a natural right that could be equivalent or even superior to the natural rights of freedom and equality. Finally, the text Agrarian Justice will be analyzed, the maximum expression of its social radicalism, produced in the winter of 1795-1796 (published in 1797). In reaction to both the irreducible liberalism of the Thermidorians and the egalitarian proposals of Graco Babeuf, the text presents itself as a proposal to eradicate poverty without breaking with the principles of what would be liberal politics. This analysis seeks to capture the meaning of Paine\'s thinking in the context of the French Revolution and to discuss the validity of Eric Hobsbawm\'s statement in the Age of Revolutions that Paine, radical in the United States, would be a \"moderate Girondist\" in France. Contrary to current interpretations, this research aims to rethink the figure of Paine, showing his relevance as an interpreter of the French Revolution and as a fundamental name for the history of political, religious and social thought.

Esta tese examina três escritos de Thomas Paine (1737-1809) elaborados durante a Revolução Francesa, os quais representam as reflexões mais radicais de seu pensamento religioso, político e social. Em primeiro lugar, será analisado o panfleto The Age of Reason, expressão máxima de seu radicalismo religioso, que teve sua primeira parte escrita em 1793 e a segunda em 1794. Contrapondo-se, por um lado, às religiões reveladas e, por outro lado, à descristianização do período jacobino, nesse texto o deísmo é apresentado como a face religiosa da democracia vindoura. Em segundo lugar, será analisado o texto Dissertation on the First Principles of Government, redigido e publicado em 1795, a mais acabada exposição da teoria democrática. A um só tempo contrário ao liberalismo termidoriano e crítico do que fora o jacobinismo, nesse texto Paine opõe-se categoricamente àqueles que pensavam a propriedade privada como um direito natural que poderia ser equivalente ou mesmo superior aos direitos naturais de liberdade e a igualdade. Por fim, será analisado o texto Agrarian Justice, expressão máxima de seu radicalismo social, produzido no inverno de 1795-1796 (publicado em 1797). Em reação tanto ao liberalismo irredutível dos termidorianos, quanto às propostas igualitaristas de Graco Babeuf, o texto apresenta-se como uma proposta de erradicação da pobreza sem romper com os princípios do que seria política liberal. Pretende-se captar o sentido do pensamento de Paine no contexto da Revolução Francesa e discutir a validadade da afirmação de Eric Hobsbawm na Era das Revoluções, segundo a qual Paine, radical nos Estados Unidos, seria um moderado girondino na França. Na contramão da maioria das interpretações correntes, a pesquisa objetiva repensar a figura de Paine, mostrando sua relevância como intérprete da Revolução Francesa e como nome fundamental para a história do pensamento político, religioso e social. / This thesis examines three writings of Thomas Paine (1737-1809) elaborated during the French Revolution, which represents the most radical reflections of his religious, political and social thought. In the first place, the pamphlet The Age of Reason will be analyzed, that contains the maximum expression of his religious radicalism, which have had its first part written in 1793 and the second in 1794. Contradicting, on the one hand, to the revealed religions, and, on the other hand, to the dechristianization of the Jacobin period, in this text, deism is presented as the religious face of the coming democracy. Secondly, the text Dissertation on the First Principles of Government will be analyzed, the most complete exposition of his democratic theory, drafted and published in 1795. Contrary to Thermidorian and critical of what Jacobinism was, in this text Paine categorically opposes those who thought private property as a natural right that could be equivalent or even superior to the natural rights of freedom and equality. Finally, the text Agrarian Justice will be analyzed, the maximum expression of its social radicalism, produced in the winter of 1795-1796 (published in 1797). In reaction to both the irreducible liberalism of the Thermidorians and the egalitarian proposals of Graco Babeuf, the text presents itself as a proposal to eradicate poverty without breaking with the principles of what would be liberal politics. This analysis seeks to capture the meaning of Paine\'s thinking in the context of the French Revolution and to discuss the validity of Eric Hobsbawm\'s statement in the Age of Revolutions that Paine, radical in the United States, would be a \"moderate Girondist\" in France. Contrary to current interpretations, this research aims to rethink the figure of Paine, showing his relevance as an interpreter of the French Revolution and as a fundamental name for the history of political, religious and social thought.

Recent years have seen increased interest in using theism (the perspective that assumes that God is currently actively in the world) as a conceptual framework for scientific inquiry. This interest has built particular momentum in psychology where several scholars have expressed that traditional naturalistic approaches limit understanding and investigation of psychology's subject matter and thus are insufficient to fully account for human phenomena. Others have previously made the case for the consideration of theism as a legitimate alternative basis for psychological theory, research, and practice. This dissertation begins with that consideration and examines what would be required to move a theistic approach to psychology forward. In other words, if God is assumed to be active in the world (including the psychological world-theism), what difference would that make for the ideas, methods, and practices of psychology? As the current activity of God is the foundational assumption of theism, clarity about what that activity would entail is especially essential for those seeking to develop a theistic approach to psychology and to describe how their discipline would be different from that perspective. Unfortunately, there is currently a lack of clear and explicitly articulated conceptions of God's actions in and for psychology. This dissertation provides a conceptual analysis of the activity of God that synthesizes disparate approaches to divine action into a tentative conceptualization or taxonomic schema. This schema organizes the scholarly literature from across several major traditions into six major heads and elucidates multiple subordinate concepts. The conceptualization serves as an orientation to important issues such as strong v weak theisms, the limitations of naturalism, and practical theistic applications for psychology. Detailed illustrations of these concepts as applied to psychological theory, research (both in the qualitative and quantitative modes), and practice further demonstrate the utility of such a conceptualization. These examples provide a specific focus on the unique contributions of a theistic perspective over and against those of naturalism.

This study examines the role of history in the writings of the English deists, a group of heterodox religious controversialists who were active from the last quarter of the seventeenth century until the middle of the eighteenth century. Its main sources are the published works of the deists and their opponents, but it also draws, where possible, on manuscript sources. Not all of the deists were English (one was Irish and another was of Welsh extraction), but the term ‘English Deists’ has been used on the grounds that the majority of deists were English and that they published overwhelmingly in England and in English. It shows that the deists not only disagreed with their orthodox opponents about the content of sacred history, but also about the relationship between religious truth and historical evidence. Chapter 1 explains the entwining of theology and history in early Christianity, how the connection between them was understood by early modern Christians, and how developments in orthodox learning set the stage for the appearance of deism in the latter decades of the seventeenth century. Each of the following three chapters is devoted to a different line of argument which the deists employed against orthodox belief. Chapter 2 examines the argument that certain propositions were meaningless, and therefore neither true nor false irrespective of any historical evidence which could be marshalled in their support, as it was used by John Toland and Anthony Collins. Chapter 3 traces the argument that the actions ascribed to God in sacred history might be unworthy of his goodness, beginning with Samuel Clarke’s first set of Boyle Lectures and then progressing through the writings of Thomas Chubb, Matthew Tindal, Thomas Morgan, and William Warburton. Chapter 4 charts the decline of the category of certain knowledge in the latter half of the seventeenth century, the rise of probability theory, and the effect of these developments on the deists’ views about the reliability of historical evidence. Chapter 5 is a case-study, which reads Anthony Collins’s Discourse of the Grounds and Reasons of the Christian Religion (1724) in light of the findings of the earlier chapters. Finally, a coda provides a conspectus of the state of the debate in the middle decades of the eighteenth century, focusing on the work of four writers: Peter Annet, David Hume, Conyers Middleton, and Edward Gibbon.

Die vorliegende Dissertation stellt eine Interpretation von Thomas Paines THE AGE OF REASON (1794) und Ralph Waldo Emersons NATURE (1836) als politiktheoretische Traktate vor, die normative Demokratiekonstrukte entwickeln. Diese Demokratiekonstrukte werden anhand ihrer Parameter vergleichend und historisierend gelesen. Die Annahme ist hierbei, dass sich die normativen Demokratieentwürfe beider Autoren mithilfe der Denkfigur des rhizomatischen Panoptizismus explizieren lassen. Die Dissertation leitet diese Denkfigur anhand von Texten des französischen Poststrukturalismus und auf Grundlage des soziologischen Ansatzes der Surveillance Studies her und erläutert seine Relevanz für das Verständnis und die Verhandlung von Demokratie in den Epochen der frühen Republik und des Antebellum in den USA. Ebenso findet eine Analyse der diskursiven Vermittlung dieser Denkfigur durch das religiöse Vokabular von Deismus, Unitarismus und Transzendentalismus in beiden Traktaten statt. Ein ausführliches close reading legt schließlich dar, wie einzelne Parameter eines rhizomatischen Panoptizismus in den Texten entwickelt, repräsentiert und diskutiert werden. / The present dissertation introduces an interpretation of Thomas Paine’s THE AGE OF REASON (1794) and Ralph Waldo Emerson’s NATURE (1836) as politico-theoretical tracts that develop normative constructions of democracy. At the core of the analysis lies a comparative and historicist reading of the parameters of these constructions. The thesis informing the analysis posits that both normative constructions of democracy can be made explicit with the aid of the concept of a rhizomatic panopticism. The dissertation develops this concept on the basis of French poststructuralist texts and with theoretical approaches from the sociological field of Surveillance Studies in mind, explaining its relevance for the understanding of democracy during the Early-Republic and Antebellum periods in the USA. Furthermore, the discursive mediation of the introduced concept through the religious vocabularies of Deism, Unitarianism, and Transcendentalism in both tracts receives attention. Finally, a close reading elucidates how the distinct parameters of a rhizomatic panopticism are developed, represented, and discussed in both texts.