Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of St Andrews, June 1998.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of St Andrews, May 2007.

Historians, in considering Freemasonry in the eighteenth century, have tended to define it in political terms, as an expression of enlightened sociability and of the secular public sphere that supposedly paved the way for modern democracy. A close examination of the lodges in Newport and Providence, Rhode Island, between 1749 and 1804, disproves these received notions. It finds that, contrary to scholarly perception, Freemasonry was deeply religious and fervently committed to myth and ritual. Freemasonry in this period was not tied to any one social class, but rather the Fraternity attracted a wide array of mobile, deracinated young men, such as mariners, merchants, soldiers, and actors, and while it was religiously heterogeneous, the Fraternity maintained a close relationship with the Anglican Church. The appeal of Masonry to young men in Atlantic port towns was primarily emotional, offering lasting social bonds amidst the constant upheaval of the eighteenth century, as well as a ritually demarcated refuge from the patriarchal responsibilities of the male gender. Masonry celebrated the holiness of kingship in its myths and symbols; far from hotbeds of revolution, the lodges were haunted by the Jacobite movement, which was firmly royalist and traditionalist. Its main political impact in Anglo-America came in the aftermath of independence, when Masonic art and rhetoric helped to carve out a sphere of sacred institutions and loyalties—such as the Constitution, the Navy, the judiciary, and the figure of George Washington—that purportedly stood above partisan politics, and hence could take the place of the overthrown monarch. Far from proto-democratic, Freemasonry appealed to men’s longing for the unity and stability of a restored Biblical kingdom; the lodges operated largely by social deference and suppressed internal politicking. The Masons summed up their mission in their repeated toasts in the 1790s that prayed, “May universal Masonry be the only universal monarchy.”

Thesis (M. Div.)--St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary, 1979. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 105-108).

No description available.

Thèse--Faculté des lettres de Paris. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.(Clinical Psychology))-University of Pretoria, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references. Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Brown University, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 206-211). Also available on the Internet.

Nazi persecution was not uniform and could be negotiated by the groups being targeted based on a number of factors including the racial status of the group being persecuted, the willingness of the group members to cooperate with the regime, the services and skills the group had to offer and the willingness of the regime to allow cooperation. The experience of Freemasons under the Third Reich provides an example of the ability of targeted groups to negotiate Nazi persecution based on these factors. As members of the educated and professional class, Freemasons belonged to the demographic that most strongly supported Hitler from the late 1920s until war's outbreak in 1939. For Hitler, the skills these men possessed as doctors, lawyers, businessmen and bankers were essential to the success of the regime. So what would have otherwise been a mutually beneficial relationship eagerly sought after by both parties was prevented by the fact that the men were Freemasons and thus had ties to an organization whose ideology stood in complete contrast to that of National Socialism. However, because the identifier "Freemason" was not one based on biology or race, Freemasons had the ability to shed their identity as Freemasons by leaving the regime, an ability that they willingly and eagerly exercised. In return, the Nazi Party had to decide to what extent former Freemasons, whose professional skills and talent were so essential, could be allowed to work with the regime. Thus began the complex dance of compromise as each side tested the limits of what it could and couldn't do in order to cooperate with the other. For former Freemasons, the goal was trying to prove loyalty to the regime in the face of their previous lodge membership. For the regime the goal was finding a balance between ideological purity and practical necessity. Though the Nazis destroyed Freemasonry as an institution, the success of former Freemasons in aligning with the party as individuals shows the ability of Germans, even those in targeted groups, to escape persecution and even benefit from the regime that had previously targeted them.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This thesis examines the coexistence of traumatic themes and Masonic content in the work of contemporary visual artists. The project originated with a discovery of the depiction in my own artwork, produced in the context of a professional art career, of traces of terrifying early initiatory experiences in the context of a Masonic Lodge and using Masonic ritual and regalia. A number of key Masonic authors suggest that the Order draws on a mixed ancestry that contains not only the orderly and sombre rituals based on the practices of the early cathedral builders, but also initiatory rites from various cult groups of the Classical world that involve a course of severe and arduous trials. Recent research by scholars examining cult practices has indicated the existence of Masonic ritual abuse of children, based on the reports of a substantial number of survivors in western countries. Premised on this discovery, the thesis constitutes a feminist and interdisciplinary investigation into the impact of hidden fraternal initiation practices on the production of contemporary art. Examining Masonic themes, symbols and allegories in the context of the contemporary debates about trauma, the thesis initially argues that the concepts used to describe the impact of trauma on the individual psyche may be observed in symbolic form in the rites and practices of the Masonic tradition. This leads into an exploration of the work of five high profile international contemporary artists - the American artists Matthew Barney, Bruce Nauman and Paul McCarthy, an early career painter Mark Ryden, and the Australian artist Ken Unsworth - as case studies, arguing that similar traces of initiatory trauma, along with Masonic references, may be identified in their work. Incorporating insights from trauma theory, scholarly discussions of initiation rites and ritual abuse, combined with knowledge of Masonic practices, this groundbreaking study sheds new light on these artists' work, in particular, on those aspects of the work that have hitherto remained obscure and perplexing for critics. The thesis also includes an examination of my own artwork in this light.