My project reflects upon our body's impermanence and our efforts to balance the enormity of the concept of mortality with living every day. It investigates the condition of being that one cannot permit oneself to know too often, that is, the condition of, inhabiting a body through which one engages meaningfully with the world as a conscious being, but aware that this body will die. Within this framework, I investigate concepts of consciousness, sentience, and impermanence. These are concepts that are not clearly delineated in experience. There is a need to grasp them by means of other concepts that are understood in clearer terms. Using the quotidian experiences of food preparation, eating and the domestic as metaphorical tools, I delve into these themes. As I worked with these ideas the wider possibilities, both material and conceptual became evident. I expanded the initial medium of food to encompass personal objects and daily bodily processes in my attempt to probe complicated feelings about the impermanence of my own body. The project matured into a closer examination of what could be read as signs in every day life, of my body's vulnerability to death. The specific areas of focus are: Skin, Reanimation of the inanimate, Mouth, Concepts of the internal, Organs, Offal, Transmogrification, Organic destiny. Beginning with the skin that we are encased in, I used my body as an armature to produce a facsimile of my own hollowed-out empty skin. In Reanimation of the inanimate, I explore the continuum from preserved food to fermented food investigating the development from food as organic material whose life had passed to food as organic material in which change is an indicator of ongoing life. In the section titled Mouth, I consider the concept of exploring the world with one's mouth and the notion of anti-food. Introduced in Concepts of the internal are three investigations of the internal human body: anatomical illustrations from the sixteenth century, a cinematic portrayal from 1966 that has included in its subtext a spiritual journey, and a current project in which the internal human body is seen as purely scientific data. In Organs I investigate the idea of ingesting 'properties of character' that can be culturally associated with internal organs and the possibility that such characteristics could permeate the person ingesting them. In the section titled Offal, I propose that the polarity of life and death inherent in food is most evident when eating a meal of offal. In Transmogrificaation, I consider the conundrum of my internal organs, that is, they are mine in fact they are 'me' and at the same time they are foreign to me. In this section, I also investigate the concept of my body as a conduit with the ability to transport and transform matter. Finally, in Organic destiny I posit the notion that as bodies we are an ongoing process, an accumulation of matter built up over time and that we are small participants in a much bigger phenomenon.

This dissertation seeks to recover the relational quality of the Holy Spirit who is the Lord and the Giver of life as enshrined in the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed (381). Neo-Scholastic theology had utilized the conceptual categories of Aristotelian metaphysics with its orientation to foundationalism and immobility in a manner destructive of difference, plurality, and the relational language of the Spirit as witnessed in the Bible. One of the upshots became the totalizing bent of Western epistemology which eventually found concretion in colonialism and the slavery of Africans among others. This dissertation utilizes the category of "relationality," a core tenet of West African Weltanschauungen, as an organizing and interpretive device for reinterpreting the creedal affirmation in a way that allows for new understandings of the Spirit. In our world in which there is an increasing awareness of the simultaneity of the dialectic of differences and interconnectedness due to the process of globalization, we are compelled to seek ways of living together without subordinating difference to the regime of sameness. The thesis is that relational pneumatology provides template for negotiating an other discourse on the Triune God which recognizes and respects equality-in-difference. To develop this thesis, I utilize an anthropological, interdisciplinary, critical, and descriptive approach. I argue that relational pneumatology invites that subalternized epistemic potentials be foregrounded and legitimized in a manner that fosters "solidarity of others." I also draw the implications of this perspective for the Nigerian church with regard to ecclesial structures and authority, interreligious dialogue, and the question of holistic liberation that fosters justice and peace. / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts / Theology / PhD / Dissertation

During the Mexican War, Americans radically transformed their ideas about Mexicans and Mexican-Americans. The Mexican War offered itself up as the first of such interactions between the neighboring republics. The Mexican during the War was met largely with criticism from the American public, a criticism aided by the work of the press. While a vast majority of the presses disparaged the Mexican populace on a variety of subjects, not all papers denigrated the Mexicans as some inferior population in need of assistance from the United States in order to survive and reach a proper level of civilization. Papers such as the Catholic and abolitionist presses sought to portray the Mexican in a more positive light. Analysis of these spheres of influence of the various presses offers up a genesis of the Mexican within the American imagination.

Doctor Theologiae - DTh / This thesis takes a new approach to the interpretation of Reinhold Niebuhr's thought by arguing that the category of "redemption" is a key hermeneutical concept for understanding his theology. It is argued that his ethics can best be interpreted as flowing out his understanding of human destiny in the light of the Christian doctrine of the Atonement.

This thesis examines the experience of the Mormon Battalion, a group of five hundred Mormon soldiers commissioned by President James K. Polk to enlist in the U.S. military and aid in the newly declared war against Mexico in 1846. The war was a result of a belligerent and aggressive form of territorial expansion justified by the ideology of Manifest Destiny. Polk and many other Americans believed it was their Manifest Destiny to dominate a continental nation, and the Mormon Battalion was assigned to march to California to conquer Mexican territory for the United States. An examination of the Mormon soldiers' journals and letters, as well as official Mormon Church records and correspondence, reveals that, despite participating in a war that promoted aggressive expansion, the Mormons' understanding of Manifest Destiny contained unique perspectives regarding racial hierarchies and displays of masculinity, key elements of that popular ideology. The peculiar approach that the Mormons' had to Manifest Destiny was directly influenced by their history as a persecuted body of believers. Ultimately, the Mormon soldiers agreed to volunteer for the war not because they wanted to express patriotism, but because they had a firm dedication to their church and resolved obedience to their leader, Brigham Young. Additionally, an examination of popular contemporary media outlets and their responses to the enlistment of the Mormon Battalion, as well as the relevant historiography, is included to demonstrate the evolution of the Mormon Battalion in historical memory, both inside and outside the Mormon Church. The treatment of the battalion by popular media outlets reflected changing attitudes regarding the implications of promoting a martial and aggressive society, while the role of the battalion in Mormon history evolved in tandem with Mormons' fluctuating identities as U.S. citizens.

My work explores the complex social geography of modern society and the intricate relationship between mankind and the environment. Through this work I explore the past and present lineage of manifest destiny, from its beginnings in Europe to western expansion in America, to forms it has takes in contemporary America. These ceramic forms serve as the conceptual grounds to explore the romanticizing of the western landscape especially from an individual and group perspective. I simultaneously celebrate the history of the pastoral life while questioning the authenticity, and motivations of that lifestyle, and use this platform as a jumping off point to ask questions about humanities complicated relationship with nature. Through hand-labor, contemplative making, and a reverence for tradition, I explore both interrelated and divergent human perceptions using clay as my primary medium.

Estudar o conceito de indivíduo na filosofia de Arthur Schopenhauer a partir de um eixo que percorre três argumentos: o duplo ponto de vista do mundo como Vontade e como representação, a identidade entre sujeito cognoscente e sujeito do querer que reside no corpo, e os conceitos de caráter inteligível e caráter empírico. Estes três pontos, conectados em espiral, fazem compreender porque Schopenhauer, fiel herdeiro da tradição kantiana, é responsável por uma revolução que aponta sua filosofia para outras como Nietzsche, Freud e Bergson / Study the concept of individual in Schopenhauers philosophy following an axe composed by three main arguments: the Double point of view of the world as Will and as representation, the identity between subject of knowledge and subject of Will, and the concepts of ideal character and empirical character. These three points, connected in a spiral, lead to the understanding of how can Schopenhauer be, on one side, a faithful heir of the kantian tradition, and on the other, responsible for a revolution that points to thinkers such as Nietzsche, Freud and Bergson.

Diplominiame darbe nagrinėjamas žmogaus likimo suvokimas filosofiniame kontekste bei ženklo, simbolio ištakos ir vartojimas Vakarų kultūroje. Darbo tikslas – analizuoti lemties nuotaikų, nuojautų raišką fotografijoje. Šio tikslo siekiama remiantis tokių fotografų kaip A. Ostašenkovas kūryba, kuriai būdingas fatališkumas, egzistencinis laikinumas. Remiantis C. G. Jung‘o kolektyvinės pasąmonės ir archetipų teorija, taip pat Vakarų kultūroje vyraujančiais prietarais, fotografijose ieškoma lemties ženklų, simbolių. Kūrybiniame darbe įprasminamos teorinės dalies žinios. Pasiriktoje erdvėje – ligoninėje, ieškoma lemties ženklų, jie fiksuojami, analizuojami. / This study analyzes the perception of humans destiny in philosophical context and Western cultures understanding and usage of signs, symbols. The aim of this work is to analyze fateful moods and foreboding feelings in photography. The purpose is being attained by referring to creations of photographers like A. Ostašenkovas, for their characteristic fatality, existential temporality. Referring to C. G. Jungs theory of collective consciousness and archetypes, also to dominant superstitions of Western culture, it is being searched for signs, symbols of fate in photography.

Estudar o conceito de indivíduo na filosofia de Arthur Schopenhauer a partir de um eixo que percorre três argumentos: o duplo ponto de vista do mundo como Vontade e como representação, a identidade entre sujeito cognoscente e sujeito do querer que reside no corpo, e os conceitos de caráter inteligível e caráter empírico. Estes três pontos, conectados em espiral, fazem compreender porque Schopenhauer, fiel herdeiro da tradição kantiana, é responsável por uma revolução que aponta sua filosofia para outras como Nietzsche, Freud e Bergson / Study the concept of individual in Schopenhauers philosophy following an axe composed by three main arguments: the Double point of view of the world as Will and as representation, the identity between subject of knowledge and subject of Will, and the concepts of ideal character and empirical character. These three points, connected in a spiral, lead to the understanding of how can Schopenhauer be, on one side, a faithful heir of the kantian tradition, and on the other, responsible for a revolution that points to thinkers such as Nietzsche, Freud and Bergson.

Between 1845 and 1848, the United States doubled the size of its land holdings in North America, as Texas, Oregon, California, New Mexico, and other western regions were placed under the umbrella of U.S. sovereignty. Echoing John L. O’Sullivan’s famous phrase, historians have deemed these acquisitions “Manifest Destiny,” and have assumed that U.S. expansion – whether for good or ill – was foreordained. Yet this understanding fundamentally fails to take into account the history of the decade prior to 1846, when Americans throughout the continent believed that it was more likely that the United States would not expand beyond its borders. Examining five groups of Americans operating at the nations geographic and/or social margins, this dissertation argues that these groups hoped to achieve sovereignty outside of the United States. Nurtured by Jacksonian rhetoric that celebrated local government and personal ambition, and wary of – and at times running from – a United States mired in depression and uncertainty, these Americans were, in effect, forming their own “breakaway republics.” To validate their goal of self-sovereignty, breakaway republicans looked to the independent Republic of Texas, often referring to Texas to explain their objectives, or looking to Texas as an ally in achieving them. Between 1836 and 1845 – what this dissertation defines as “the Texas Moment” – Texas’ independent existence presupposed a different map of North America, where peoples of the northern, southern, and western borderlands carved out polities for themselves. With Texas in mind, even Americans who did not share the goals of breakaway republicans believed that independent American-led polities on the continent were likely, acceptable, and perhaps even desired. However, to a cabal of Democratic expansionists and James K. Polk in particular, this future was unacceptable. After winning the presidency after an unlikely series of contingencies in 1844, Polk and his allies laid the groundwork for a dramatic expansion of the U.S. state – and thereby a dramatic expansion of U.S. territory. Their actions ended the Texas Moment, thereby subsuming the actions of breakaway republicans and hiding their collective existence from later historians. Ultimately, the events of the mid-1840s were hardly the logical culmination of America’s expansionist destiny, but a profound rupture of the status quo. / History