Some Calvin commentators assert that Calvin argues for the sole view that, in the Father's eternal plan of election, the nature and scope of saving union with Christ is limited to a particular number of the elect. The nature of saving union with Christ is actualized for the believer, by the gift of faith, through a sovereign operation of the Spirit. Prior to this gift of faith, men and women are deemed sinners and excluded from God's salvific work in Christ. Other Calvin commentators assert that Calvin argues that in the Incarnation, God established a saving union between Christ and all humanity. Prior to the illuminating work of the Spirit, in the work of salvation, men and women were embraced by the Father, once and for all, in the person of Christ in virtue of the Incarnation. This thesis argues that, in unfolding the nature of our redemption, Calvin presents both views of our saving union with Christ inconsistently. In his Christological themes, he argues that men and women were savingly united, once and for all, with Christ. This is argued in his presentation of our union with Christ's Incarnate Priesthood, with the Irenaean notion of recapitulation and in his understanding of faith as an acknowledgement of the objective reality of the Father's benevolence toward us in Christ. However in looking at the divine initiative as he presents it from the human response, with his pneumatological insights, Calvin argues that the union which God established is solely between Christ and believers. This is actualized through the gift of faith which is selectively granted to a particular number of the elect. Calvin presents us with an ambiguity as the nature of how we have been savingly united with the person of Christ. In the light of this inconsistency, we go further and work out a resolution beyond Calvin's conception by looking at the theological methods of Karl Barth and Thomas F. Torrance. These two theologians provide a much more consistent approach in unfolding the nature of our redemption in the light of the Incarnation which Calvin grasped but failed to develop.

This work attempts to achieve two overarching objectives: firstly to trace the historical growth of Islamic schools in North America and secondly, to explore the ideological and philosophical values that have shaped the vision of these schools. The historical growth of Islamic schools in North America has been led by two distinct communities among Sunni Muslims: the indigenous and the immigrant. Specific to the North American Muslim diaspora “indigenous” represents the African American Muslim community of Imam Warith Deen Mohammed (1933-2008), and “immigrant” refers to the generation of Sunni Muslims who settled in North America in the 1960s and 1970s. Through oral history, this study attempts to capture the voices, sentiments, and aspirations of those that struggled to establish the earliest full-time Islamic schools. The study examines these voices for the ways Islamic education is defined differently based on generational, contextual, and ideological perspectives. Recognizing the diverse lived experiences of Muslim communities in North America, the findings are organized in four distinct, yet often overlapping historical phases that map the growth and development of Islamic schooling. The four phases of Protest, Preservation, Pedagogy, and Praxis also represent how the aims of Islamic education have evolved over time. From the Nation of Islam and their inherent vision of equality through resistance, the earliest attempt at establishing schools for Muslim children began in the 1930s. The transition of the Nation of Islam into a community redefined by the teachings of mainstream Islam coupled with the settlement of substantial immigrant Muslim communities altered the discourse from protest to identity preservation in the 1980s. Collaboration between the “indigenous” and “immigrant” communities defined a concerted effort to improve the quality of Islamic schools in the 1990s. And post 9/11, the discourse of inward-looking school improvement shifted once again to outward praxis. The historical mapping of the vision of Islamic schooling between communities also allows for the exploration of how interpretations of the Islamic tradition inform the pedagogy of schools. Through separate histories and religious perspectives, this study seeks to explore the complexities of the aims of Islamic schools, both between communities and within them.

The aim of this thesis is to formulate a better definition of religion for legal purposes than the formulation arrived at by the High Court of Australia in the 1983 decision of Church of the New Faith v Commissioner of Pay-roll Tax (Vic). In that case, known in Australia as the Scientology (or Church of the New Faith) case, two of five justices of the High Court of Australia considered belief in a supernatural Being, Thing or Principle to be an essential prerequisite for a belief system being a religion. Two other justices stated that if such belief were absent it was unlikely that one had a religion. There are major problems with the High Court’s formulation in the Scientology case. First, it does not accommodate a number of important belief systems that are generally regarded as being religious belief systems, even though they do not involve any notion of the supernatural in the sense in which that word is ordinarily understood. Secondly, the Court provided little or no guidance as to how one determines whether a particular belief system involves a supernatural view of reality. The guidance that was given is ill-conceived in any event. Thirdly, it is philosophically impossible to postulate a meaningful distinction between the “natural” and the supposedly “supernatural” in a way that would enable the courts and other decision makers to meaningfully apply the “test” enunciated by the Court. The thesis combines a phenomenological approach and the philosophical realism of the late Professor John Anderson with a view to eliciting those things that permit appreciation or recognition of a thing being “religious”. Ultimately, religion is seen to comprise an amalgam of faith-based ideas, beliefs, practices and activities (which include doctrine, dogma, teachings or principles to be accepted on faith and on authority, a set of sanctioned ideals and values in terms of expected ethical standards and behavior and moral obligations, and various experientially based forms, ceremonies, usages and techniques perceived to be of spiritual or transformative power) based upon faith in a Power, Presence, Being or Principle and which are directed towards a celebration of that which is perceived to be not only ultimate but also divine, holy or sacred, manifest in and supported by a body of persons (consisting of one or more faithxvii based communities) established to give practical expression to those ideas, beliefs, practices and activities. The new definition is tested against 3 very different belief systems, Taoism (Daoism), Marxism and Freemasonry.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1988. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 112-128).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Ashland Theological Seminary 1989. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 259-262).

Thesis (Th. M.)--Capital Bible Seminary, 1989. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 97-112).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Auburn University, 2006. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographic references.

Thesis (M. Min.)--Trinity Western Seminary, 1992. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 125-139).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Liberty University, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.