This study seeks to answer a fundamental question facing missiologists and historians of Mormonism: given their sustained preoccupation with converting others to Mormonism and their thriving tradition of missionary work, how do Mormons conceive of their mission? By focusing on the theoretical frame in which Mormon missionaries imagined the non-Mormon world, prepared for missionary engagement, and derived their expectations for their mission work, this study aims to illuminate the development of Mormon missionary activities and explain the processes by which Mormons fashioned for themselves a missional character. Beginning with Joseph Smith and the emergence of his missional thought and ending with the institutional shifts of the Mormon Church toward mission programs, this thesis attempts to map the general arc of Mormon mission theory as it developed within the context of early American religious history.

This thesis seeks to investigate the relationship between the concepts of the State and Governance in political and international relations theory with the hope of recovering a place for agency. Following from the work of Michel Foucault, and drawing on the historical methodology of Quentin Skinner, I locate in the 16th century a „crossroads‟ in the development of the State and Governance, particularly in the work of the Henrician humanists – political writers of the Early Tudor period (1513-1533). I argue that their articulation of a politicized conception of Governance held a central place for the human agent living the vita activa as an ambassador between the rationality of the divine sphere and that of the terrestrial. Reading these findings through the later work of Foucault, I locate in this dynamic a central role for agency as tied to these theories of Governance that have become veiled by the State. Finally, I make two suggestions in regards to the application of these findings. First, that political/international relations theory take seriously the role of the diplomat as agent, and second, that the disciplinary intersection between history and politics be further emphasized and explored.

This thesis provides a revisionist account of the relationship between Latin biblical criticism, vernacular religious culture and Reformed doctrines of scriptural authority in the early modern period. It achieves this by studying episodes from the career of the English Hebraist Hugh Broughton (1549-1612). Current orthodoxy holds that Broughton's devotion to the tenets of Reformed scripturalism distinguished him from contemporary biblical humanists, whose more flexible attitudes to the Bible enabled them to produce cutting-edge scholarship. In challenging this consensus, this thesis focusses on three areas. The first is chronology. Recent work has presented chronology as divided between technical, philological practitioners, who drew from astronomy and humanism alike in their efforts to date the past, and scripturalists, who relied on the Bible alone. Using the chronological controversy between Broughton and the Oxonian John Rainolds, this thesis complicates this picture by arguing that both approaches to the discipline were equally derived from humanistic traditions, and that confessional, rather than intellectual or methodological, factors informed the most important decisions chronologers made. The second area is biblical criticism. There is still a broad assumption that Reformed beliefs about scripture were incompatible with the most advanced biblical scholarship. This thesis questions such assumptions by reconstructing Broughton's research into the Hebraic contexts of the New Testament. By demonstrating that it was possible to produce innovative and influential work without challenging and indeed, while endorsing the principles of Reformed scripturalism, this thesis disputes current teleological presumptions about the development of modern, historical biblical criticism. The third is the history of lay reading. Both chronology and biblical criticism have often been viewed as specialised pursuits, studied only by a Latin-reading elite and irrelevant to lay people. For Broughton and his followers, however, biblical scholarship and lay piety were inseparable. The thesis demonstrates this by piecing together Broughton's radical plans for a new English Bible, including his work with John Speed on biblical genealogy, and his revisions of the Geneva New Testament. Using numerous neglected manuscript sources, it gives an account of the sixteenth-century biblical translation that foregrounds the unexpected ways in which groundbreaking neo-Latin, continental biblical scholarship expanded scholars' concepts of what vernacular translation could achieve.

This dissertation is a study of the Futūḥ Miṣr (Conquest of Egypt) of Ibn 'Abd al-Ḥakam (d. 257/871), the earliest extant Arabic history of Egypt. Its primary aim is not to assess whether its information is 'authentic' - i.e. corresponding to an objective historical reality - though my findings are of relevance for those engaged in debates over authenticity. My goal instead is to explore the ideas about the past which are conveyed by this particular conglomeration of historical information and to propose methods through which we can expose and analyse different layers and types of authorial activity within a multi-vocal text like Futūḥ Miṣr. Ultimately, I use this analysis as the basis of a case study suggesting how we might more effectively historicise the generation and transmission of historical ideas in the early Islamic period. Part I of the thesis consists of three chapters which explore Futūḥ Miṣr as a whole, literary text which can be understood as an instantiation of the historical worldview of its composer. Part II of the thesis contains three chapters which each illuminate features of Ibn 'Abd al-Ḥakam's historical practice which are important prerequisites for the stratigraphic reading of Futūḥ Miṣr performed in Part III. Part III of the thesis uses the understanding of Ibn 'Abd al-Ḥakam's authorial techniques developed in Part II to expose the earlier packages of historical information which underpin Futūḥ Miṣr. These final three chapters demonstrate how Ibn 'Abd al-Ḥakam reinvested these pre-existing narratives with meaning at a micro-level - by interjecting commentary and accounts from other sources - and at a macro-level - by integrating them into the larger narrative structure of Futūḥ Miṣr. In sum, this thesis is the first systematic study of the sources, structure, and authorship of an early Arabic history, which both tests and expands our current understanding of the dynamics of early Islamic historical writing, and sheds light on numerous aspects of the changing uses of the past among the Muslim scholars of Umayyad and 'Abbāsid Egypt.

Cette thèse traite de la carrière politique et du « service de plume » de Blaise de Vigenère (1523-1596), agent du roi et voyageur, puis traducteur et commentateur érudit dans le dernier tiers de sa vie. À travers une étude biographique et contextuelle, elle met en évidence une figure sociale trop méconnue du champ des lettres et de l’histoire : celle du secrétaire. Elle interroge ensuite du point de vue de la poétique le statut d’observateur que Vigenère se donne dans ses écrits : le sens de la merveille et l'analyse de la raison technique y vont de pair. La riche expérience de serviteur de l'ombre théorisée dans les traités italiens, et surtout les pratiques d’écritures qui rejoignent l’humanisme constituent un héritage que Vigenère dépasse cependant. L’entreprise de publication, abondante et efficace, est remise en contexte et peut être comprise comme une prudente tentative de courtiser et de conseiller le pouvoir par l’image ou l’allusion. Dans les dernières œuvres où l’allusion le cède au symbole, Vigenère manie le plan littéral et le plan symbolique. Il se montre kabbalisant catholique et pré-nationaliste. En « Politique » de la fin des guerres de religion, il défend alors l’institution monarchique contre la Ligue catholique. Mais les images du Discours sur l’histoire du roy Charles VII (1594) sont les derniers feux d’une herméneutique inquiète. / This study deals with the career and the service to the monarchy of the penman Blaise de Vigenère (1523-1596), who was an agent to the king and was travelling through Europe. He became a translator and scholarly annotator during the last period of his life. I study biography, historical and sociological context, in order to highlight an essential yet overlooked figure : the secretary. I try to show that the personal point of view in his writings is double : while he admires wonders and signs in nature, he is also a sceptical analyst looking for technical explanations. He inherits the experience of those shadowy figures, awarely described in italian trattati, and their practices of writing – those of humanists. But he goes over. Publishing a lot of manuscripts in a short time, he tries to have an effect on the monarch and to court him. His last works are more explicit. Vigenère combines litteral meaning and symbolic interpretation : he uses a kind of catholic kabbalah in a pre-nationalist purpose. As a « Politique », at the end of the Civil Wars, he is a partisan of the monarchy against the Catholic League. But the images of the Discours sur l’histoire du roy Charles VII (1594) might be the swansong of the Renaissance hermetic symbolism.

Despite having roots in 19th century Europe, Marxism had a deep impact on the trajectory of political ideas in the non-European world in the twentieth century. In particular, anti-colonial thinkers engaged productively with Marx’s ideas as part of their struggle against Empire. Yet, little attention has been paid to the displacements and innovations in political thought as a result of this encounter between anti-colonialism and Marxism. This dissertation aims to fill this gap by studying the history of Indian communism, focusing on the first three decades of the communist movement (1921-1950). I claim that this is an ideal time period to interrogate the formation of political ideas in India, since they presented themselves with particular intensity in the midst of an unfolding anti-colonial struggle, and arguably, the birth of the Indian political. The entry of communist ideas into the charged political environment of the 1920s had an impact on the ideological debates within the Indian polity, as well as stamping Indian communism with its own specific historicity. Through a tracing of debates among communist leaders, as well as their non-communist interlocutors, this work seeks to provide a novel lens to consider the relationship between ideas and their historical actualization, or between the universal and its instantiation in the particular. Moreover, the dissertation argues that the radically different socio-political and historical landscapes of Western Europe and colonial India necessitated a confrontation with the stagist view of history dominant in the history of Western Marxism, prompting novel theoretical work on the issue of political temporality. Consequently, the relationship between necessity and volition, central to enlightenment thought, was radically transformed in the colonial world, particularly in terms of its entanglement with the problem of subjective violence. Engagement with such questions not only impacted Indian political thought, but transformed global communism itself, putting into question the concept of an “originary site” for political ideas. Thus, this work intervenes in debates in three distinct registers: Global Intellectual History, Marxist theory and Indian political thought.

Written in c. 700 at the island monastery of Iona, Adomnán’s Vita Sancti Columbae (VSC) is an important source for the study of early medieval Scotland and Ireland. This thesis analyses the text as a literary work, seeking to understand more about its internal logic and the ways in which it relates to other kinds of literary texts. These include Biblical texts, other early insular, continental and late antique hagiographies, vernacular secular sagas, legal texts, scholarly literature and wisdom literature. Adomnán did not necessarily know all of these texts, and some of them post-date him, but they provide a wider interpretative context for VSC. Adomnán’s other known work, De Locis Sanctis, and texts connected to him, such as Cáin Adomnáin, will also be considered. I look for points of similarity and divergence between Vita Sancti Columbae and these other texts, which I term “adjacent literature”, looking to see how the text relates to its wider literary and intellectual context. By taking this approach, we are able to understand the text better on its own terms, making it more useful as a source for historical study. The text is studied, and set within its wider context, with respect to the following main areas: The Manuscripts of Vita Sancti Columbae: the visual construction of the text: Considering the five surviving manuscripts of the first recension of VSC, but focussing especially on the earliest (Schaffhausen Stadtbibliothek Generalia 1, of near authorial date and Ionan provenance), this chapter considers how the visual presentation of VSC relates to its production and reproduction as a literary text. Page layout, illumination, the use of the Greek alphabet and different colours of ink and manuscript context are all discussed. Structure and Narrative Sequencing in Vita Sancti Columbae: VSC is not a chronologically-structured account of Columba’s life, but rather a hagiography made up of many short narratives that demonstrate his sanctity and power in different ways. These narratives are arranged thematically, with a basic tripartite structure, with one book concerned with prophecies, one with miracles and one with visions. The narratives within the three books are often arranged into small, tightly constructed clusters of related stories. This chapter is an investigation of both the overall structure of the work and the “micro-structure” of the sequencing of narratives. Language and Vita Sancti Columbae: This chapter explores Adomnán’s style as a Hiberno-Latin writer, including discussions of such techniques as hyperbaton, alliteration and variatio. Adomnán’s use of and attitudes to Greek and Hebrew are also explored, as is his use of and attitudes to Old Irish. Sex, Women and Violence in Vita Sancti Columbae: This chapter investigates Adomnán’s presentations of sexual behaviour, the role of women as givers of advice, and the violence inflicted on the innocent. Several of the narratives about violence clearly have a strong gendered dimension, and relate in interesting ways to Cáin Adomnáin, and they are discussed in this light. Dangerous Beasts in Vita Sancti Columbae: VSC contains several encounters with dangerous beasts of various kinds, some of which are not unambiguously identifiable. These episodes are studied in turn, including discussions about identifying the beasts, and investigating the functions that they have within the text. Vita Sancti Columbae and Cult Practice: The thesis concludes with an exploration of the roles VSC might have played in the life of the Columban familia. The use of blessed objects and relics within the text is studied, with suggestions as to their relation to cult practice. The final section concerns the possibility that certain parts of VSC were intended to be used in processions, or to be read with the active participation of an audience.

This thesis examines the writing of U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union Joseph Davies, Norman Deuel of the United Press, and Joseph Barnes of the New York Herald Tribune over the course of their respective postings in Moscow between 1936-1938. The purpose of this thesis is to look past interpretations of perceived right and wrong reporting on the Soviet Union and instead identify precisely how and why Americans outside the diplomatic corps viewed and perhaps identified with aspects of Stalinist society. Residing in Moscow over an extended period of time, Davies, Barnes, and Deuel were not mere observers. Immersed in Soviet society, Davies and the press correspondents became themselves producers of socialist realist writing as their American affinity for ambitious modernization translated into an idealized view of Stalinist modernization projects, one which viewed present hardships through a socialist realist lens while echoing Soviet enthusiasm for medical and scientific advancements, material plenty, heroics, youth, and territorial exploration. Excluded from the close-knit circle of career diplomats, Davies and the newsmen also came to view the Moscow show trials through the same socialist realist lens, one which presented the desired utopian future through elaborate socialist realist theatre.

This diploma thesis deals with the basic principles of Georg Buquoy's (1781-1851) philosophy, which were presented in his unpublished treatise Kern meiner philosophischen Grundansicht. Buquoy's ideas are interpreted in the context of contemporary scientific discourse in the Czech lands. Attention is also drawn to Buquoy's foreign inspiration sources. The explication of Buquoy's ideas is based on the theory of intellectual history, with special focus on the interrelationship between natural sciences and humanities and the esotericism of the late 18th and the first half of the 19th century.

Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro / Este trabalho recupera a trajetória intelectual de Emílio Joaquim da Silva Maia, no Império Brasileiro, ao analisar sua produção científica no interior de importantes instituições do Brasil Oitocentista e, ao trazer à luz os inéditos Estudos Históricos sobre Portugal e Brasil , que permitem compreender sua produção historiográfica, como parte integrante do projeto de fundação da História Nacional. Para a reconstituição da trajetória intelectual de Silva Maia, foram investigados diversos aspectos de sua vida pessoal, bem como inúmeros estudos de natureza científica e histórica de sua autoria. O esforço de investigação sobre esse objeto justifica-se pelo fato de que a personagem havia sido abordada pela historiografia somente por sua atuação junto às Ciências Naturais, o que só contribuiu para que permanecesse inédita sua contribuição à escrita da História do Brasil. / This work recovers Emílio Joaquim da Silva Maias intelectual life during the Brazilian Empire, analysing his scientific production at many important institutions in 18th century Brazil, unveling the never published Estudos Históricos sobre Portugal e Brasil [Historical Studies regarding Portugal and Brazil], and thus allowng us to understand this production as part os establishing National History. For Silva Maias intellectual trajetory reconstitution, several aspects of his life were investigated, as well as some of his numerous scientific historical studies. All study is justified by the fact that, until now, Silva Maias has been known by History just for his atuation on Natural Science while his contribution to brazilian historical writings remained intact.