The purpose of this thesis is to explore the Latter-day Saint theology and teachings concerning the physical nature of man.Exploring the Latter-day Saints' theological approach to corporeal man and God's designs regarding the physical nature of man is significant because of the unique Latter-day Saint belief that God, Himself, is an exalted, corporeal man and that the physical body of man was created by God to enable humans to become like Him in all aspects. Latter-day Saints believe that Heavenly Father created spirit bodies for His sons and daughters in a pre-mortal state.The physical earth was then created through Jesus Christ as a place for God's spirit children to receive the physical bodies necessary to become like Heavenly Father.The uniting of the spirit with a physical body creates the soul of man. Adam and Eve were placed on the earth with immortal, physical bodies which had been organized from elements of the earth. A necessary change occurred in the bodies of Adam and Eve after their Fall, thus making them and their descendants mortal. Mortality provides an environment for man to learn to properly balance both his spiritual and physical natures in an effort to become like Heavenly Father.God's commandments regarding the body, such as the Word of Wisdom, chastity, and treating the body as a temple of God, facilitate mankind's progression. In contrast, disobedience to these commandments negatively affects man's soul, both body and spirit. Eventually, physical death will separate the spirit from the body of every mortal. Jesus Christ received a physical body and experienced mortality like everyone else. However, through His perfect mortal life, Jesus is able to succor mankind in the trials of mortality. Jesus also performed the Atonement through His own death and resurrection and unconditionally redeemed mankind from physical death. Because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, all mankind will overcome physical death through resurrection and receive the degree of eternal glory merited through obedience and repentance in mortality.

This thesis explores the initial expansion of the seminary program of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints beyond North America from 1967 – 1970. During these years, seminary expanded to Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand. William E. Berrett, as the administrator of the seminary and institute program, is involved in each phase of the program's expansion and therefore acts as a constant influence throughout the study. This study explores the conceiving and developing of the home study seminary program as well as the pilot program coordinated by Don Bond in the Midwestern United States. The efforts of the first international coordinators during the first year of expansion are related and examined. Administrators selected John Madsen to establish the program in Great Britain, J. L. Jaussi to establish the program in Australia, and Rhett James to establish the program in New Zealand. Each of these coordinators identified the challenges they faced and successes the program achieved. This study highlights the collective concern of Church Board members, local priesthood leaders, and Church education administrators for the youth of the Church as they approved, developed, and established the program internationally in Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand.

This thesis pertains to the efforts of the Mormons in establishing their Church among the Irish and is arranged to give a chronological account of activities there. A brief background of the establishment of Christianity in Ireland and a knowledge of numerous conflicts between Catholics and Protestants helps to understand the complex religious interaction occurring at the time Mormonism was introduced in that country. The difficulties encountered by the first Mormon missionaries in Ireland suggest reasons why the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints did not expand as rapidly as it did elsewhere in Britain and other European countries.Shortly after the missionaries arrived in 1840, a famine caused many Irish to emigrate to England and Scotland where some became Mormon converts. Many of the converted Irish emigrated to America, and several of them became prominent Irish Mormon Pioneers.Mormon history in Ireland can be divided into three major campaigns. The first was from 1840 to 1849; the second from 1850 to 1867; and the third and permanent campaign began 1884 and has continued to the present (1968). Each campaign is discussed in the thesis, and one chapter is devoted entirely to Irish opposition to Mormonism. Those who desired that the new religious doctrine not be taught in Ireland employed a variety of means to try and achieve their objective.After the turn of the century, the image of the Mormon Church in Ireland gradually changed from negative to positive due to many factors. Foremost was the fact that the worldwide image of the Church experienced a similar change. During the twentieth century there was a slow though gradual increase in membership among the Irish until World War II when Mormon missionaries were withdrawn. Due to their absence, a sharp decrease in activity occurred, but after their return in 1946, conversions and the membership both have steadily increased.Until 1962, missionary work in Ireland had been supervised from England to Scotland, but in that year Church leaders organized a separate Irish Mission. Within a year the number of missionaries increased from the usual eight or ten to well over 150. Consequently, the Church membership rose from about 600 to nearly 3700 by 1967, and four new chapels have been built during the same period to accommodate the increased membership. The thesis includes statements of mission presidents describing the significance of recent growth.The concluding chapter indicates that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Ireland ranks eleventh among sixty-seven religious denominations according to the number of members. Other statistics point to factors which could influence Church growth. The appendices contain a statistical report of the year by year conversions and membership of the Church in Ireland. Also included are over one thousand names of Mormon missionaries who have served in Ireland since the work commenced there.

During the First Crusade's onset, lay enthusiasm went unregulated. Popular preachers spread Urban II's call to crusade across Europe, and after Peter the Hermit left the Rhineland, religious tension flared and culminated in the 1096 A.D. Jewish massacres. This paper examines Christian crusader motivation during the 1096 massacres. Through textual analysis of contemporary Latin and Hebrew chronicles and medieval eschatological legends, I argue that the conversion of the Jewish communities to Christianity was the primary motivation of the Christian crusaders and neighboring burghers. I suggest that figures such as Count Emicho of Flonheim were likely inspired by the eschatological legend of the Last Roman Emperor and sought to destroy the Jewish communities to bring the second coming of Christ and the End Times. The Jewish communities' destruction was through conversion or the sword, however, I argue through primary source examples that conversion was preferable, and crusaders and burghers went to great lengths to see conversion through. This study is part of a growing body of research on conversion during the 1096 massacres, specifically conversion linked to Christian millenarianism. This study aims to add to the greater literature and offer another voice to the ongoing conversation.

It is my deep conviction that the Gospel takes on new meaning as we see its message in the light of its historical background. In this instance we are interested in the influence which the Wisdom Literature exerted upon the Gospel records.

There seems to be, among other things, a vivid reflection of church life in the Gospel According to Matthew. It is my purpose to point out the outstanding characteristics of the Gospel of Matthew and in so doing present what appears to me to be a definite portrait of an early church. As the environment seems to become clear in what we read, the church takes form and we can see many interesting aspects of it.

In this study it is not the author's aim to attempt to cover the field pertaining to the origin and development of the Eucharist. A vast number of competent works have been vrritten on the subject, but the primary purpose here is to examine the Eucharistic teachings of the Didache in the light of Canonical, early Christian, and non-Christian literature, in an effort to determine if the Didache presents the Eucharist (or Lord's Supper) in its original form as practiced in the primitive Christian Church of the first century. Further, we propose to show how the simplicity of the act was developed into a crystallized rite, or sacrament, by the time of the second century Church.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-22T22:18:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Macario Lopes Junior.pdf: 783285 bytes, checksum: a0b13070d03650ad1fabfbc46600faec (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-10-01 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This dissertation deals with a crucial period in the history of Christianity and of the Western World. In this moment, a particular institution, the council, was consolidating itself as the most effective instrument to achieve resolution of conflicts, homogenize rules and behavior in distant communities, and as an occasion to the meeting of the Élite of the Christians, primarily the bishops. Both councils that will be analyzed here, Elvira and Arles, happened in a period of great importance to the Roman World, the transition from a pagan empire to a Christian one. It s my intention to analyze the laws edited in those events to understand what was going on in the local communities at this moment of intense transformation in which the Roman World and the Christian Religion. At the same time, my purpose is to examine the ways through the Christian communities, mainly their leaders, dealt with the external world of polytheists, Jews, heretics and, of course, the Roman Administration. My expectation, thus, with this analysis is to know other aspects of the development of Christendom, based upon concrete practices in the small communities that formed the Christian Church. To accomplish that, the concepts of clergy, identity, and otherness will be put to use along with elements of Gender Studies. In doing so, I hope to extract information from the sources that may relocate the events of the councils as great windows to the new configurations of the beginning of Late Antiquity. / Esta dissertação trata de um período crucial na História do Cristianismo e do Ocidente: o final do séc. III e o princípio do séc. IV. Neste momento, uma instituição singular, o concílio, se consolidava como instrumento mais eficaz para resolver conflitos, homogeneizar normas e condutas em comunidades afastadas e como ocasião de encontro para a elite do Cristianismo, principalmente os bispos. Os dois concílios que serão aqui analisados são os Elvira e Arles, que aconteceram em um período muito importante para o mundo romano, a transição do império pagão para o império cristão. Pretendo analisar a legislação editada por eles para compreender o que se passava nas comunidades locais deste momento de grandes modificações no mundo romano e na religião cristã. Ao mesmo tempo, desejo examinar como se davam as relações entre as comunidades cristãs, principalmente sua liderança, com o mundo externo dos politeístas, judeus, hereges e, claro, com o Estado romano. Espero com isso, conhecer outros aspectos do desenvolvimento do Cristianismo, baseado nas práticas concretas que se davam nas pequenas comunidades que formavam a Igreja cristã. Nesse sentido, os conceitos de clero, identidade e alteridade serão utilizados juntamente com elementos de estudos de Gênero para tentar extrair das fontes as informações que podem colocar os eventos dos concílios como as grandes janelas para as novas configurações do início da Antigüidade-Tardia.

This study is an examination of the office of high priest from its beginning with Adam as the first and down through the restoration of the Church in the last days. This study revealed that the office of high priest was the only priesthood office that was held from the time of Adam until the Melchizedek Priesthood was taken, generally, away from the congregation of Israel in Moses' day. The office did however remain but was exclusive only to a few. Another important aspect of the history of the office of high priest that will be shown is how the doctrine of foreordination applies to the office. The Book of Mormon prophet Alma discourse on the subject will be analyzed and used to show many of the requirements men who have desired the office of high priest have and continue to meet. This study also details the restoration of the office of high priest in the dispensation of the fullness of times. The Doctrine and Covenants is scriptural backdrop of this section. Historical examples from journals and other writings of those who were there will show how the office has been understood in the Church since the days of Joseph Smith. Further, a detailed account of how the Church came to understand the office of high priest in regard to the Melchizedek Priesthood office of Seventy is set forth. Lastly, a brief examination of vicarious bestowal of the office of high priest and the future of the office of high priest is also given.

This paper is my own unique feminist analysis of certain apocryphal texts. Though the texts I use have common themes, they are divided into what I consider the three most societally important aspects of an ancient woman’s identity: virgin, mother, and whore. The Acts of Thecla and The Acts of Xanthippe and Polyxena deal with virginity. II Maccabees, The Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas, and select chapters of Augustine’s Confessions represent motherhood. Finally, the hagiographies Life of Pelagia and Life of Mary navigate through the mire of sexualities that deviate from norms.