Clementine scholarship acknowledges Clement's doctrine of the Incarnation and generally maintains that for Clement the divine Logos assumed human flesh. However, because of Clement's complex logology and three passages suggesting a docetic interpretation of Christ's flesh, scholars tend to move away from addressing the Incarnation and treat either the metaphysics of the multiple logoi theory or the question of Clement's Docetism, or both. Because of this diversion in research, there remains a gap in the literature around Clement's teachings about the Incarnation. This thesis begins to fill the gap by explaining Clement's view of the Incarnation, which he connects to the emergent ‘exchange' doctrine, envisaged as a divine mission. It situates Clement as an heir of the apostolic tradition while he engages with Greek philosophy and Gnostic belief. The research delineates Clement's gnostic tradition, which he considered faithful to the Old Testament and to the teachings of the apostles. The investigation collates Clement's usage of John 1:14 and the term ginomai linked with Logos, anthropos, and sarx. It examines Clement's discussion in Stromateis VII.2, where he claims the Logos assumed flesh susceptible to suffering, emotions, and physical sensibilities. In Clement's teachings, the Logos became both anthropos and sarx so that anthropos might become theos. This thesis outlines Clement's usage of the terms parousia and epiphaneia (appearing), showing they are consequential to the Incarnation. Clement presents the Logos as Saviour, who conquers malevolent powers and death to release humankind from corruption through his sufferings from birth to the cross. Clement also presents the Logos as a Teacher, who during his parousia, interprets precisely the Old Testament, and in his appearing, discloses true gnosis, which guides anthropos to godliness. The evidence demonstrates that Clement bases his path for assimilation to God upon the Incarnation of the Logos.

Nikos Kazantzakis� Captain Michales is a freedom fighter in nineteenth century Crete. Patrick White�s Voss is a German explorer in nineteenth century Australia. Two men struggling for achievement, their disparate social contexts united in the same fundamental search for meaning. This thesis makes comparison of these different struggles through thematic analysis of the texts, examining within the narratives the role of food, perceptions of body and soul, landscapes, gender relations, home-coming and religious experience. Themes from the novels are extracted and intertwined, within a range of theoretical frameworks: history, anthropology, science, literary and social theories, religion and politics; allowing close investigation of each novel�s social, political and historical particularities, as well as their underlying discussion of perennial human issues. These novels are each essentially explorations of the human experience. Read together, they highlight the commonest of human elements, most poignantly the need for communion; facilitating analysis of the individual and all our communities. Comparing the two novels also continues the process of each: examining the self both within and outside of the narratives, producing a new textual self, arising from both primary sources and the contextual breadth of such rewriting.

This dissertation is a study of appetite in Plato’s Timaeus, Republic and Phaedrus. In recent research is it often suggested that Plato considers appetite (i) to pertain to the essential needs of the body, (ii) to relate to a distinct set of objects, e.g. food or drink, and (iii) to cause behaviour aiming at sensory pleasure. Exploring how the notion of appetite, directly and indirectly, connects with Plato’s other purposes in these dialogues, this dissertation sets out to evaluate these ideas. By asking, and answering, three philosophically and interpretatively crucial questions, individually linked to the arguments of the dialogues, this thesis aims to show (i) that the relationship between appetite and the body is not a matter of survival, and that appetite is better understood in terms of excess; (ii) that appetite is multiform and cannot be defined in terms of a distinct set of objects; and (iii) that appetite, in Plato, can also pertain to non-sensory objects, such as articulated discourse. Chapter one asks what the universe can teach us about embodied life. It argues that Plato, in the Timaeus, works with an important link between the universe and the soul, and that the account of disorder, irrationality and multiformity identifying a pre-cosmic condition of the universe provides a key to understanding the excessive behaviour and condition of a soul dominated by appetite. Chapter two asks why the philosophers of the Republic’s Kallipolis return to the cave, and suggests that Plato’s notion of the noble lie provides a reasonable account of this. By exploring the Republic’s ideas of education, poetry and tradition, it argues that appetite – a multiform and appearance oriented source of motivation – is an essential part of this account. Chapter three asks why Socrates characterizes the speeches of the Phaedrus as deceptive games. It proposes that this question should be understood in the light of two distinctions: one between playful and serious discourse and one between simple and multiform. It argues that the speeches of the Phaedrus are multiform games, and suggests that appetite is the primary source of motivation of the soul addressed, personified by Phaedrus.

Nikos Kazantzakis� Captain Michales is a freedom fighter in nineteenth century Crete. Patrick White�s Voss is a German explorer in nineteenth century Australia. Two men struggling for achievement, their disparate social contexts united in the same fundamental search for meaning. This thesis makes comparison of these different struggles through thematic analysis of the texts, examining within the narratives the role of food, perceptions of body and soul, landscapes, gender relations, home-coming and religious experience. Themes from the novels are extracted and intertwined, within a range of theoretical frameworks: history, anthropology, science, literary and social theories, religion and politics; allowing close investigation of each novel�s social, political and historical particularities, as well as their underlying discussion of perennial human issues. These novels are each essentially explorations of the human experience. Read together, they highlight the commonest of human elements, most poignantly the need for communion; facilitating analysis of the individual and all our communities. Comparing the two novels also continues the process of each: examining the self both within and outside of the narratives, producing a new textual self, arising from both primary sources and the contextual breadth of such rewriting.

Consecrated life or religious life as it is sometimes called within the Catholic Church is almost as old as Christianity. All baptised persons are consecrated persons by virtue of their baptism, but the consecrated life to which some people feel called, is a special and fruitful deepening of the consecration received in baptism and confirmation.. This dissertation explores Christian spirituality as it is manifested in consecrated life with relation to inculturation and religious life. The scope has been limited to a study of one congregation, the Companions of St Angela as a case study. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M.Th. (Christian Spirituality)

Relational theology became a major voice in the theological conversations of the twentieth century and now in the twenty-first century it is poised to become the major influence in doctrine of God discussions. Relational theology argues for a model of God that emphasizes a dynamic interaction between God and the cosmos. Reformulating the divine nature contra Classical theism, Relational theology instead includes images of God as sympathetic, mutable, limited in power and knowledge, creative, and as a risk-taker. The assertion is that such images or metaphors for the divine are necessary rightly to understand and discuss God's relationality with the world. This thesis argues that given the relational nature of God the metaphor of faith should be added to the list of God's attributes. The thesis begins by discussing issues of methodology then reviewing Relational theology in the forms of process and open theism as contrasted with Classical theism. This is followed by explorations of various depictions of faith as found in the Old Testament and New Testament. Faith is also examined theologically and philosophically as including the elements of belief, trust, hope, and risk. It is then argued that faith has a decidedly relational nature in that faith most properly takes place between persons. The crux of the thesis is the development of a theology of divine faith. Because humans are free, God is limited, and creation has a purpose, the argument is made that God relates to the world through faith. A case for God's faith is developed exegetically and logically through explorations of the concepts of divine belief, trust, hope, risk, and doubt, concluding that faith is a necessary inclusion for Relational theology. Finally, two primary Church doctrines, creation and christology, are explored through a theology of divine faith. God demonstrates divine faith in bestowing an evolving creation with both freedom and a purpose. God has faith in the creation to produce persons who can freely share faith and love with God. The fully kenotic coming of Jesus Christ demonstrates the Father's faith in the Son, the second person of the triune God. The coming and death of Christ also reveals God's faith that the cross will be efficacious in reconciling those who have abused their God-given freedoms. / Sysytematic Theology and Theological Ethics / D. Th. (Systematic Theology)

In transmitting the Gospel, Western missionaries passed on their portrayal of Christ as a European. Conversion to Christianity was aimed more at promoting Western cultural, moral and spiritual issues. Western culture has thus been an obstacle or hindrance to effective cross-cultural communication of the Christian message. Batswana believers are challenged to peel the Western cultural layers off Christianity, in order to reclaim Christ. Batswana Christians will have to dress Christianity in the Tswana cultural heritage if it is to be of any lasting significance to them. Christian spirituality is centred on Jesus Christ, in the worldview of all Christians. Jesus joins faith and culture together. If Christianity is truly universal, then every culture should surrender to Jesus Christ and not to any other culture. Jesus’ question “who do you say that I am?” (Mk 8: 29), challenges Batswana Christians to write their own fifth Gospel. / Christian Spirituality Church History and Missiology / Thesis (M. Th. (Christian Spirituality))

This study tries to investigate the extent of inculturation in African Churches in general and in Zimbabwe in particular. Some mission churches, like the Catholic, the Anglican and the Methodist Churches were selected for the study. The main areas of investigation are baptism, the Eucharist:, marriage, burial and healing. The study discovered that there is some inculturation going on in all the churches under discussion, especially in the celebration of the Eucharist. On the other hand, it was also discovered that the African Independent Churches, such as Vapostori and the Aladura, churches are much more at home with the implementation of inculturation especially in the area of healing. We concluded that Christianity is not yet deeply rooted in African soil, in particular in Zimbabwe. This is because not much inculturation has taken place in the mission churches. Some recommendations are made to help facilitate the implementation of inculturation and to enable Christianity to take flesh in Africa so as to become an authentic African Christianity. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Systematic Theology)

This dissertation suggests the Song of Songs as a biblical paradigm for Christian spiritual direction based on the poem’s human dynamics, theological poetics and mystical aesthetic. The Song of Songs is paradigmatic as a journey from a state of self-neglect (depletion), through dynamic encounters of love (transformation), to living who I am in union with the divine I AM (deification). Identifying the human beloved as archetypal seeker and positing transformation in love as the raison-d’être for spiritual direction, the research delineates important implications for spiritual praxis, namely: the human subject (locus); human yearning (focus); the human search (journey); dynamics of human transformation and spiritual maturation (process); aspects of life-integration and union with God (purpose); and becoming a living sacrament in the world (epiphany). With its experiential-existential approach, The Canticle of Spiritual Direction serves as an interdisciplinary and intercultural resource on the Song of Songs, Christian spiritual direction, and Christian mysticism. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M. Th. (Christian Spirituality)

[pt] Diálogo e anúncio, a partir do Vaticano II é uma dupla atividade que a Igreja tem desenvolvido, de modo inauferível, com a nova aproximação religiosa surgida desde então. Muito embora a Igreja tenha dialogado, ao longo de sua existência,com os diversos povos aos quais levou o anúncio da salvação cristã, a progressiva aproximação inter-religiosa, que surge desde o Concílio Vaticano II, traz elementos novos e geradores de uma considerável tensão: dá-se,indubitavelmente, um entrechoque, na participação concreta do diálogo, entre as propostas de cada tradição religiosa, para a solução daquelas questões que tanto inquietam o ser humano, no mais íntimo de seu ser. Qual a sua origem? Qual o seu fim último? Assim, o interesse deste trabalho se volta para o trato com este duplo aspecto presente hoje na missão da Igreja: a sua participação no diálogo inter-religioso, atendendo às exigências que lhe são peculiares, sem, entretanto, deixar de cumprir o seu dever de anunciar a todos os povos a salvação trazida por Jesus Cristo. / [en] Dialogue and announcement, from the Vatican II are a double activity that the Church has developed, in an inherent way, with the new appeared religious approach since then. Even though the Church has dialogued, throughout its existence, with different kind of people to which it took the announcement of the Christian salvation, the gradual Inter- religious approach, that appears since Vatican Council II, brings new and generating elements of a considerable tension: it is given, doubtless, a shock , in the concrete participation of the dialogue, among the proposals of each religious tradition, for the solution of those questions that disturb the human being, in the closest of its being. Which is the origin? Which is the last end? Thus, the interest of this work is about the treatment with this double present aspect in the mission of the Church today: its participation in the Inter-religious dialogue, taking into consideration the requirements that are peculiar, however, fulfilling its duty to announce to the people the salvation brought by Jesus Christ.