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Text in Afrikaans / In this qualitative research study the landscape of the age-old tradition of contemplative spirituality within the context of the reformed tradition was investigated. An empirical study was done to determine the pastoral needs and experiences of Afrikaans speaking believers from the reformed tradition, involved in contemplative spirituality. Questionnaires and qualitative interviews were used for this purpose. The research path has been further shaped by social construction theory as a postmodern approach. This study was born out of my own discovery of the healing qualities of contemplative spirituality and secondly due to the growing demand among Afrikaans speaking reformed believers for exposure to the disciplines of contemplative spirituality. Little research is available on this topic and is it the hope of this research to open new conversations about contemplative spirituality in the Afrikaans reformed tradition. / Practical Theology / M. Th. (Praktiese Teologie)

Text in Afrikaans / In this qualitative research study the landscape of the age-old tradition of contemplative spirituality within the context of the reformed tradition was investigated. An empirical study was done to determine the pastoral needs and experiences of Afrikaans speaking believers from the reformed tradition, involved in contemplative spirituality. Questionnaires and qualitative interviews were used for this purpose. The research path has been further shaped by social construction theory as a postmodern approach. This study was born out of my own discovery of the healing qualities of contemplative spirituality and secondly due to the growing demand among Afrikaans speaking reformed believers for exposure to the disciplines of contemplative spirituality. Little research is available on this topic and is it the hope of this research to open new conversations about contemplative spirituality in the Afrikaans reformed tradition. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Praktiese Teologie)

The thesis is especially focused on the Egyptian monasticism during its supremely period in the 4th a 5th century. As it appears from the title of the thesis it deals about the its beginnings of the monastic movement in Egypt, the end point represents the personality Shenoute the Great that stands at the intersection of the Orthodoxy and Coptic Christianity, meanwhile, in the Coptic Orthodox Church he is the most venerated saint, outside its his names is connected with the authoritarianism. In the thesis the attention is focused to predecessors of the monastic ideal in Egypt, both in within the Ancient Greek philosophy, in Judaism and in the Christian tradition, specifically in the Alexandrian school. In the addition, the thesis deals about early Christian monastic literature, famous monastic centres this period in Egypt and female monastic communities, about which do not exist much information. Main part of the thesis is the chapter about individual monastic leaders, concretely about saints Paul of Thebes, Anthony the Great, Amoun, Pachomius, Macarius of Egypt and Mary of Egypt and about Shenoute the Great, who is revered as saint in Coptic Orthodox Church only. In the various subheads is treatise about each of saints, there are mentioned their disciples, if they had some. I am aware of the...

[pt] O monaquismo antigo é um fenômeno de complexidade notável. Os Padres do Deserto foram homens e mulheres que viveram a vocação à perfeição deixada por Jesus de maneira bastante peculiar. O abandono dos centros urbanos para ir ao encontro do deserto marca a passagem de um cristianismo público, próprio dos mártires, ao cristianismo particular, próprio dos monges. No deserto, este espaço de solidão, silêncio e abnegação, homens e mulheres viveram em busca de seu aprimoramento, seja na busca de virtudes, seja no abandono dos vícios. Para os Padres do Deserto, as paixões são campo do combate em busca da perfeição, ideal herdado desde o testemunho dos mártires. A teologia dos Padres do Deserto trata com muita profundidade de temas relativos à vida interior. A recuperação da teologia destes autores é justificada pela relevância de suas análises das paixões humanas, para as quais a ascese e a oração serviram de remédio. / [en] Ancient monasticism is a phenomenon of remarkable complexity. The Desert Fathers were men and women who lived out the call to perfection left by Jesus in a very peculiar way. The abandonment of urban centers to go into the desert marks the transition from a public Christianity, characteristic of martyrs, to a private Christianity, characteristic of monks. In the desert, this space of solitude, silence, and self-denial, men and women lived in pursuit of their own improvement, whether in the pursuit of virtues or the abandonment of vices. For the Desert Fathers, passions are the field of combat in the pursuit of perfection, an ideal inherited from the witness of the martyrs. The theology of the Desert Fathers deals very deeply with themes related to the inner life. The recovery of the theology of these authors is justified by the relevance of their analysis of human passions, for which asceticism and prayer served as a remedy.

This thesis studies ritual interactions between saints and the landscape, animals and elements during a three-hundred year period from 410 AD. Such interactions include negotiations about and with birds and other animals, exorcism of the sea, lakes and rivers, and immersion in these natural bodies of water for devotional purposes. Although writers of the period lacked a term such as 'nature' to describe this sphere of activity, it is demonstrated that the natural world was regarded as a dimension of creation distinctively responsive to Christian ritual. Systematic study of the context in which these rituals were performed finds close connection with missionary negotiations aimed at lay people. It further reveals that three British writers borrowed from Sulpicius Severus' accounts of eastern hermits, reworking older narratives to suggest that non-human aspects of creation were not only attracted to saints but were changed by and participated in Christian ritual and worship. Natural bodies of water attracted particularly intense interaction in the form of exorcism and bathing, sufficiently widely documented to indicate a number of discrete families of ritual were developed. In northern Britain, acute anxieties can be detected about the cultural and spiritual associations of open water, requiring missionary intervention to challenge pre-Christian narratives through biblical and liturgical resources, most notably baptism. Such a cosmological stretch appears to have informed a 'Celtic' deviation in baptismal practice that emphasised exorcism and bodily sacrifice. Nature rituals were a systematic response to the challenges of the British intellectual and physical landscapes, revealing the shape of an underlying missionary strategy based on mainstream patristic theology about the marred relationship between humans and the rest of creation. St Ambrose emerges as the most influential theologian at the time when the early church was shaping its British inculturation, most notably led by St Germanus' mission in 429.