Le tourisme est considéré comme un phénomène récent qui a gagné en popularité avec l'augmentation du temps libre et de l'amélioration dans les moyens de transport. Notre recherche se concentre sur deux stations balnéaires : La Baule en France et Bournemouth au Royaume-Uni. Ces destinations ont été créées ex-nihilo par le tourisme et ont gagné en popularité dès le 19e siècle. La recherche statistique montre qu'elles ont progressivement évolué vers les villes où le tourisme reste l'un des facteurs importants de l'économie. Nos recherches et des interviews à La Baule et Bournemouth montrent que ces deux sites sont en train de devenir des destinations populaires d'habitation, que ce soit pour la retraite ou pour posséder des résidences secondaires. La Baule reste une destination privilégiée où les résidences secondaires qppartiennent, pour la plupart à des personnes venant de la région parisienne ainsi que de l'agglomération nantaise. Bournemouth a vu une popularité accrue grâce à son investissement dans "l'éducation", que ce soit les écoles de langue ou de la célèbre université de Bournemouth. L'activité économique accrue en raison d'une augmentation de la population locale a mis la pression sur la demande de logements. Les deux stations, Bournemouth et La Baule, sont des destinations qui semblent avoir surmonté le facteur "saisonnier", alors qu'auparavant elles étaient obligées de vivre avec. Notre recherche montre qu'avec la diversité de l'activité économique dans les stations balnéaires étudiées, le post-tourisme est en place à la fois dans La Baule et à Bournemouth. Ces villes sont attendues à croître et rester attractives pour le tourisme mais resteront populaires comme destinations pour y habiter toute l'année. / Tourism is considered a recent phenomenon that gained popularity with increase in leisure time and better means of transport. Our research focuses on two beach resorts : La Baule in France and Bournemouth in the United Kingdom. These destinations were created ex-nihilo by tourism and gained popularity in the 19th century. Statistical research shows that they have gradually evolved into cities wherein tourism remains one of the important factors in the economy. Our field research and interviews in La Baule and Bournemouth shows that both these sites are evolving into favoured destinations for "living" : be it for retirement or for owning second homes. La Baule remains a favoured destination where second homes are owned by people coming from the Paris region as well as the neighbouring city of Nantes. Bournemouth has seen an increased popularity thanks ti its investment in "education" : be it language schools or the famed Bournemouth University. The increased economic activity due to an increase in the local population has put pressure on housing demand. Both Bournemouth and La Baule are destinations that seem to have overcome the "seasonality" facror that most tourism destinations were once forced to live with. Our research shows that with the diversity of economic activity in Beach resorts, post-tourism is in place in both. La Baule and Bournemouth. These cities are expected to grow and remain attractive for tourism but will remain popular as destinations for residents who will live therein through the year.

The question whether the Ruist (Confucian) idea of Tian (heaven) or Taiji (ultimate polarity) is transcendent in comparison to Christian ideas of the Creator-God remains controversial in the history of Christian-Ru interaction. To tackle the debate, this dissertation investigates the intellectual histories of “creatio ex nihilo” in the Greek-European Christian tradition and of “sheng sheng” (birth birth) in the Chinese Ru tradition, and compares these ideas with a methodology combining the pragmatist use of “vague category” and the hermeneutical “situational thinking.” The emergence of the idea “creatio ex nihilo” from Plato to Augustine championed the “ontological dependence” of cosmic realities upon the Creator-God. Divine creation was typically thought of as one process whereby divine intelligence implants ideas and forms into an inchoate form of being so that varying realities are created. However, Descartes’ theory of “created eternal truth” conceptualized divine creation as not being constrained by any rule of intelligence. This Cartesian voluntarism pushes the theistic vocabularies of creation to their limit such that it allows us to delineate a de-anthropomorphic sub-tradition within the main theistic tradition of “creatio ex nihilo.” Descartes’ thought was refined by Schleiermacher and Tillich. There were two distinctive ancient Chinese cosmologies: one Daoist pioneered by the Dao De Jing, and the other is Ruist initiated by the Appended Texts in the Classic of Change. When Wang Bi employed the ontology in the Appended Texts to interpret the cosmogony of Dao De Jing, his understanding of Taiji influenced the Ru tradition to reach an idea of creation similar to “creatio ex nihilo.” Accordingly, Taiji’s creativity can be characterized as “generatio ex nihilo,” an unconditioned constantly creative cosmic power without a creator standing behind the scene. Wang Bi’s thought was refined by Zhou Dunyi and Zhu Xi. As this project demonstrates, the Ru tradition of “generatio ex nihilo” provides the most apt comparison to the de-anthropomorphic sub-tradition of “creatio ex nihilo.” If we define transcendence as what is indeterminate and ontologically unconditioned by the existing world, Taiji’s “sheng sheng” conceptualized as “generatio ex nihilo” is even more transcendent than the mainstream theistic Christian understanding of divine creation.

The tradition of classical Christology, understood in a MacIntyrean sense as an historically extended and socially embodied argument, is facing an epistemological crisis due to the fact that, at each stage in its complex development, it has failed to resolve the problems arising out of the articulation of the classical interpretation of the Incarnation. This failure on the part of the tradition is due to the unsatisfactory and intractable metaphysical dualism at its heart. This dualism, highlighted in each successive attempt to explain the union of the divine and human natures in Christ, is to be understood as a symptom of a more fundamental God-world dualism, entailed by the doctrine of creation ex nihilo, and informing the traditional Christian conceptual scheme. Failure to recognise and address the God-world problematic has led to one-sided Christological solutions that reflect and reinforce this original and most basic dualism. An alternative view of God is needed to inform Christology if the problematic dualism at the heart of the classical model is to be overcome and the epistemological crisis resolved. Pan(en)theism is such an alternative model of God that offers resources for a non-dualistic Christopraxis.

The tradition of classical Christology, understood in a MacIntyrean sense as an historically extended and socially embodied argument, is facing an epistemological crisis due to the fact that, at each stage in its complex development, it has failed to resolve the problems arising out of the articulation of the classical interpretation of the Incarnation. This failure on the part of the tradition is due to the unsatisfactory and intractable metaphysical dualism at its heart. This dualism, highlighted in each successive attempt to explain the union of the divine and human natures in Christ, is to be understood as a symptom of a more fundamental God-world dualism, entailed by the doctrine of creation ex nihilo, and informing the traditional Christian conceptual scheme. Failure to recognise and address the God-world problematic has led to one-sided Christological solutions that reflect and reinforce this original and most basic dualism. An alternative view of God is needed to inform Christology if the problematic dualism at the heart of the classical model is to be overcome and the epistemological crisis resolved. Pan(en)theism is such an alternative model of God that offers resources for a non-dualistic Christopraxis.

Heterodox master of liberal arts and theirs discussions with Thomas Aquinas Mgr. Miroslav Severa Summary: The proposed thesis deals with two important issues discussed by Tomas Aquinas in connection with the averroistic controversy that occurred in the second half of the thirteenth century in Paris. The topics are On the eternity of the world and On the unity of intellect. Its author defends the position that concerning the problem On the eternity of the Word is the solution proposed by Thomas Aquinas closer to the position of heterodox masters of liberal arts then to the attitude of some orthodox theologians. The heterodox teaching On the unity of intellect is by Thomas sufficiently disproven. The doctrine of Thomas Aquinas doesn't need to always constitute an irreconcilable antithesis against the attitude of heterodox masters as it is described by some authors. The thesis also deals the two topics on the historical background of the condemnations issued by the Parisian bishop Stephan Tempier in the years 1270 and 1277. Although the heterodox masters of liberal arts are in their philosophizing strongly influenced by the Arab philosopher Averroes theirs position concerning the relationship between fides and ratio is different. Averroes says that when the conflict between reason and revelation occurs than...

The genre affiliation is a postmodern study: Virtual Reality (VR) becomes a comprehensive concept, in the face of modernism's illusion, when rhetoric validates all discourses. All is VR. The study is in three sections with an overall introduction and conclusion: the first section introduces VR in its postmodern setting, the second section establishes the postmodern timeless/spaceless paradigm of HyperReality in which all Hermeneutics are being done from, the last section draws the paradigm into the Creatio Ex Nihilio discourse of the Scriptures. The proposed theological model is an intratextual theological model, however when YAHWEH precedes language then all discourses become intratextually part of the Biblical discourse. Human creativity is a metaphorical journey; the Fall was the outset of two languages, one in the presence of YAHWEH, while the other one void of this presence led to a nihilistic abstract constellation. Sin in VR is the unbiblical appropriation of this constellation. / Thesis (M.Th.)

The genre affiliation is a postmodern study: Virtual Reality (VR) becomes a comprehensive concept, in the face of modernism's illusion, when rhetoric validates all discourses. All is VR. The study is in three sections with an overall introduction and conclusion: the first section introduces VR in its postmodern setting, the second section establishes the postmodern timeless/spaceless paradigm of HyperReality in which all Hermeneutics are being done from, the last section draws the paradigm into the Creatio Ex Nihilio discourse of the Scriptures. The proposed theological model is an intratextual theological model, however when YAHWEH precedes language then all discourses become intratextually part of the Biblical discourse. Human creativity is a metaphorical journey; the Fall was the outset of two languages, one in the presence of YAHWEH, while the other one void of this presence led to a nihilistic abstract constellation. Sin in VR is the unbiblical appropriation of this constellation. / Thesis (M.Th.)

The argument advanced is this thesis is that the entities that make up the environment are those that do not owe their origin to any willful creative activity but have evolved through accidental natural processes. This fact of not being willfully created makes the environment ontologically independent and confers on it intrinsic value as opposed to instrumental value. This intrinsic value is one that all the entities that make up the environment share. It is further argued that this intrinsic value is aesthetic rather than moral. Only beings that are specially endowed with certain capacities, like reflection and understanding, could be said, in the context of this work, to have intrinsic moral value in the sense of being moral agents. But as moral agents, we need to give moral considerability to all the natural entities in the environment since they share the same natural right with us, based on our common origin. So, even though the nonhuman, natural entities in the environment do not have moral rights, they have natural rights. It is further argued that this natural right could be best safeguarded in a legal framework.

The argument advanced is this thesis is that the entities that make up the environment are those that do not owe their origin to any willful creative activity but have evolved through accidental natural processes. This fact of not being willfully created makes the environment ontologically independent and confers on it intrinsic value as opposed to instrumental value. This intrinsic value is one that all the entities that make up the environment share. It is further argued that this intrinsic value is aesthetic rather than moral. Only beings that are specially endowed with certain capacities, like reflection and understanding, could be said, in the context of this work, to have intrinsic moral value in the sense of being moral agents. But as moral agents, we need to give moral considerability to all the natural entities in the environment since they share the same natural right with us, based on our common origin. So, even though the nonhuman, natural entities in the environment do not have moral rights, they have natural rights. It is further argued that this natural right could be best safeguarded in a legal framework.

Scholarship has tended to depict John Owen as a “Reformed catholic” attempting a synthesis of Reformed principles with a largely Thomist doctrine of God. In this thesis, I argue that this depiction risks losing sight of those aspects of Owen's doctrine of God that are intended to support a distinctly Protestant account of the economy of grace. By an examination of the principles of divine government, I argue that Owen employs the theme of God's “dominion” in order to establish the freedom and gratuity of God's grace, and to resist theologies that might otherwise use the doctrine of creation to structure and norm God's government of creatures. In chapter one, I argue against prevailing readings of Owen's thought that his theology of the divine will is, in fact, “voluntarist” in nature, prioritizing God's will over his intellect in the determination of the divine decree. I show that Owen regards God's absolute dominion as an entailment of his ontological priority over creatures. Chapters two and three examine the character of God's dominion over creatures in virtue of their “two-fold dependence” upon him as both Creator and Lawgiver. Chapter four takes up Owen's theology of God's remunerative justice in the context of his covenant theology. I show here that his doctrine of divine dominion underwrites his critique of merit-theology and attempts to establish the gratuity of that supernatural end to which humans are destined. Finally, in chapter five, I examine the principles of God's mercy, expressed in the work of redemption, where I demonstrate how Owen's conception of divine dominion underwrites the freedom of God in election and his account of particular redemption.