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For many Christians the names ‘Constantine’ and Nicaea are not a familiar idea. In instances where they do recognize these names, they tend to be prejudiced towards the ‘pagan emperor’ and the ‘venerated council’ (Olson 1999:160). The importance of the First Nicene Council and the emperor’s role in the council may be seen as historical only. However, the events related to the development of the Nicene orthodoxy and the role the emperor played in the development of the relations between politics and religion are still influencing the lives of Christians today and therefore, these important events are in need of a review, this time from an African perspective. A probe into the imperial religious-political play may hold many significant answers in relation to contextualization, enculturation, dogmatic teaching, and the relationship between the church and state, amongst other things. In this dissertation document analysis is used in literature study to establish the significance of one of the interactive factors in the period leading to the first ecumenical council. Using a tri-categorical classification of the era, this study reviews the Jewish-Christian schism, Hellenism, and ultimately the role of imperial politics in the development of Christianity. The Jewish-Christian schism refers to the separation between Judaism and Christianity as the conceptive stage of the dynamics through which ecumenical orthodoxy was formed. Hellenism broadly refers to the integration of philosophy with Christianity. Finally, imperial politics was the political dynamic that contributed to the formation of ecumenical orthodoxy. This facilitated an investigation of the era between AD 70 and 325, enhancing a revisionist approach to Constantine, the Nicene Council and the orthodoxy that emerged post AD 325 – with an implied deduction of ecclesiastical polities which became an unconventional phenomenon. The study, engaging with primary sources and specialist scholarship on the era, derived and developed a revisionist approach on Constantinian influence upon Christianity. In the findings the ecclesiastical polity appeared as the significant influence in the shaping of ecumenical orthodoxy. The ecclesiastical polity itself being a factor of the very process of self-definition and contextualization. The significance of enculturation as established in the research implied cultural diversity as a major factor in the formation of religious orthodoxy, xix hence this implied the Jewish Christian schism as the departure point of enquiry. The research implied the development of social models as an interpretation and analysis of the hypothesis. The aforementioned social models had implications for Christian/religious eras even post the one at study. Therefore, making the hypothesis a tool of measuring the interaction of politics, socio-ethnic dynamics and religion in different eras. In principle the study enables a review of history as a factor of these three elements culture, religious syncretism and politics. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M. Th. (Church History)

L'écho parvenant d'Afrique au monde, ou du monde aux Africains, diffracte en une variation de nuances un thème répétitif : l'Afrique irait mal, surtout l'Afrique politique. Parmi ceux qui accourent à son secours, l’Église catholique tient un rôle vital. Mais que fait l’Église en Afrique, que peut-elle lui faire en tant qu’Église ? Peut-on aider l'Afrique à se moderniser en occultant le fait que pour elle, la modernité a été synonyme d'oppression coloniale ? Il y a là une affirmation, une action et une question. On se proposera, prenant l'exemple du Togo, de questionner la pertinence de l'affirmation, d'élaborer une réponse à la question, pour espérer (ré)orienter sinon l'action, du moins sa lecture. On s'inspirera des études post-coloniales et du mouvement théologique Radical Orthodoxy, notamment des travaux de Milbank et Cavanaugh. / Echoes from Africa to the world and from the world to Africa seem to tell a single story: Africa fails.Especially political Africa. Among those dashing to help, the commitment of the Church catholic is to be praised but also critically engaged. Can anyone help Africa to modernize by ignoring that in Africa, modernity meant colonization? Then, a question: what is the Church doing, and what can it do qua Church, for Africa? This confronts us with a situation, an action and a critical question. This work, focusing on Togo taken as mirror to the continent, aims at challenging the way the situation is described, at elaborating an answer to the question in hoping to shed a light on the way the action is understood and undertaken. For such an end, it draws on post-colonial studies and on the Cambridge theological movement called Radical Orthodoxy, through the works of J. Milbank and W. Cavanaugh.

Le but de cette recherche est double: a) essayer de soustraire le schisme de l’Église arménienne de la fin du VIe siècle (591) à une vision uniquement ‘arménienne’, c’est-à-dire périphérique et isolée par rapport aux affaires contemporains de l’Empire Romain; b) identifier les orientations et l’évolution de la politique ecclésiastique de Maurice (582-602), qui - comme montre le cas, à notre avis paradigmatique, de l’Arménie - a pris soin de l’organisation administrative et de la définition théologique de l’Église impériale, tout en assurant, d’une manière plus générale, la défense et la gestion des territoires de l’Empire. On a donc d’abord donné un aperçu de la situation de l'Empire Romain à la fin de l’antiquité tardive et souligné comment il a évolué - en particulier après Justinien – à l’intérieur, et par rapport aux peuples extérieurs avec lesquels il avait des relations diplomatiques, militaires ou de commerciales, c’est-à-dire avec les peuples germaniques, les nomades de la steppe, les Arabes et les Ethiopiens, les Chinois; ainsi que les populations caucasiennes, mais surtout le grand rival Sassanide. Puis, on a décrit les grandes lignes de la stratégie romaine le long des frontières: pendant l’antiquité tardive, elle vise, par une sage et habile diplomatie, à attirer dans l’orbite des Romains les gens aux frontières, et à les associer à la cour impériale par l'octroi de titres de grand prestige, comme patricius ou kouropalatēs. Dans ce sens, on a constaté le rôle diplomatique joué, en particulier en Orient, par les commerçants et la haute hiérarchie ecclésiastique. Ensuite, on a décrit les deux événements qui illustrent le mieux la politique ecclésiastique romaine à la fin du VIe siècle et annoncent le schisme arménien: les unions du 572 d’abord et de 591 ensuite entre l’Église Impériale et l’Église (perse-)arménienne. Dans les deux cas on a cherché à mettre en évidence les raisons christologiques (c’est-à-dire de l’orthodoxie de Chalcédoine), mais aussi politiques, militaires, stratégiques et commerciales qui déterminé les choix des Romains et des Arméniens. On a aussi prêté une attention particulière au rôle des Perses, surtout pour l'union de 591. Celle-ci a été créée après les accords entre l’Empire romain et l’État persan, et suivie par l'alliance qui permit à Khosro II, presque ‘fils adoptif’ de l'empereur Maurice, de regagner le trône qui avait été volé par l’usurpateur Bahrām Chubīn. Enfin, on a mis en évidence que cette politique ecclésiastique de Maurice est dictée par des raisons idéologiques. Entre aussi en ligne de compte la nécessité de gérer la difficile unité de l’Empire autour de la Méditerranée , unité qui avait été rétablie seulement sous Justinien. L’expansion considérable des zones frontalières, la crise économique et démographique et les événements de l’empire persan ont rendu cette réalisation difficile, de sorte que, paradoxalement, c’est bien Maurice qui donne à son État, de manière de plus en plus évidente, les traits d’un Empire de moins en moins ‘romain’ et de plus en plus ‘byzantin’.

<p>This dissertation examines the shape, substance, and staging of Muslim orthodoxy in British India, concentrating on how orthodox theologians survived colonial modernity by deploying sociological, discursive, psychic, and hermeneutical strategies. This dissertation is organized around Ashraf `Ali Thanvi (1863-1943), a leading Muslim theologian, mystic, and jurist of colonial India. Thanvi authored hundreds of original treatises, compiled texts, and works of commentary on doctrine and ritual, mystical experience, communal identity, and political theology. His collected letters, recorded conversations, and sermons were published within his lifetime and continue to instruct many contemporary South Asian Muslims. I closely read Thanvi's texts and situate them within two frameworks: the history of Indo-Muslim thought and the socio-political history of colonial India. Thanvi's hundreds of published treatises and sermons, continued citation within South Asian Islam, and widespread sufi fellowship make him one of the most compelling case studies for analyzing some of the key thematic concerns of Muslim orthodoxy, such as religious knowledge, self-discipline, sublimation of desire, regulation of gender, and communalist politics. My analyses demonstrate how orthodox scholars proliferated their theological, legal, and mystical teachings in order to make tradition relevant and authoritative in the public and private lives of many South Asian Muslims. Orthodox Islam not only survived colonial modernity, but also thrived in its ideological and social contexts.</p> / Dissertation

This thesis examines the rationale for religious liberty in England and Wales. Currently, United Kingdom religious liberty literature shows very little sustained interrogation of the topic. Authors are likely to assume religious liberty is, most notably, a species of personal autonomy. This fails to explain why we should care about religious liberty and deepens religion’s privatisation, its separation from politics or public life. Drawing from a theological sensibility known as Radical Orthodoxy (RO), this thesis criticises current assumptions and argues that religious liberty discourse should be re-envisioned. The Introduction and Chapter One explore the current problems facing religious liberty discourse and map rationales given by prominent authors. Chapter Two argues that the main problem is that current discourse is shaped by a secularisation narrative: the differentiation of religious and secular spheres. Chapter Three relates the RO argument that this differentiation is underpinned by three themes, all of which have theological components: the rise of secular order as the protection of individual rights; the invention of private religion in modernity; and the contemporary shift to 'authenticity' or diffuse individual experiences as the hallmark of religion. Chapter Four contends that these three themes are echoed in religious liberty discourse and jurisprudence, leaving us with the question of why religious liberty matters. Chapters Five and Six explore the RO-influenced alternative, in theory and with reference to common questions in religious liberty discourse: the relationship between an individual claimant and the group; the reality of plural religious traditions; and the tension between sexual orientation non-discrimination and religious liberty. On the RO-influenced account, religious liberty concerns, against sphere differentiation, a commitment to the flourishing of multiple groups contributing to desirable social ends, understood ultimately as participating in the life of 'charity', the love of God and of others. This encapsulates two themes, both rooted in the Christian tradition: judgement against politics (as reflected in the secular order), and transformation of society along social pluralist lines. These two themes, the thesis argues, better explain why religious liberty matters.

Herman Bavinck (1854-1921), perhaps the most remarkable dogmatician and intellectual of the Dutch Reformed (gereformeerde) tradition in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, committed himself to what he called a 'Reformed' and 'catholic' theological task. For the modern dogmatician, this task is neither repristination nor abandonment of one's confessionalist tradition, but, being driven along by the Scriptural witness, to appropriate 'catholic' dogma to the grammars of modern conceptual frameworks. Such a task led Bavinck to a certain eclecticism in style and source for which he earned in twentieth century scholarship the pejorative label of dualism, applied both to his person and his theological content. Regarding his person, this thesis of the two Bavincks follows a biographical narrative of a student and blossoming theologian divided between the orthodox and modern. Regarding his content, interpreters move to and fro between Bavinck the scholastic and Bavinck the post-Kantian, subjectivist dogmatician. This study nuances this picture and participates in James Eglinton's recent call for an overturning of said dualisms applied to Bavinck's person and work by outlining the most significant example of Bavinck toiling to complete his 'catholic' dogmatic task: his appropriation of Friedrich Schleiermacher. In distinction from Bavinck's milieu, he did not demonize Schleiermacher, but, while willing to critique Schleiermacher's material dogmatics, regarded Schleiermacher as 'deeply misunderstood'. The two primary locales of Bavinck's appropriation of Schleiermacher include (i) the question of the epistemic ground of the unity of being and thinking; (ii) the grammar of subjective and objective religion. In both, Bavinck adopts Schleiermacher's concepts of 'feeling', 'absolute dependence', and 'immediate self-consciousness' to complete his own logic. Understanding Bavinck's adoption of Schleiermacher's conceptual framework, particularly that of the introduction from Schleiermacher's Der christliche Glaube, makes visible just how Bavinck determined to work as a modern theologian post-Kant and within the freeing confines of his orthodox, Dutch confessionalist heritage. His appropriation of Schleiermacher is the paradigmatic example of his commitment to be orthodox - yet modern.

Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of History, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 42-46).

Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-17T15:02:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 850435 bytes, checksum: 9524c75f53756030a6b029f9ef8ba9f5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-07-31 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / Assuming that early Christianity was a complex place that housed ideological class struggle, look into evidence to prove these differences by studying the apocryphal text known as the Protevangelium of James, coming from the second century of our era. Attempts to demonstrate that the beliefs in this apocryphal text are not product of the imagination of its author, but are common elements to the Christian communities before orthodoxy. In early Christianity, there were several classes that had ideological divergent beliefs. With the passing centuries, emerging classes, the block termed proto-orthodox, by forces policies, prevailed over the remaining. This block then steadied itself then as the only truth, taking on the true apostolic succession and the true teaching of Jesus, was also enacted as the first church which all heresy arose in relation to their beliefs. The speech that block disregards the whole dialectical process that gave his statement. As the Protevangelium of James is a based text in the proto-orthodox, that is, part of its content is similar to what will become the orthodoxy, but also carries an offensive content to this, it is appropriate to question such speech. In the process of quest the aim of research, resorting on studies of Foucault, Bakhtin and Berger, it was necessary to understand the importance of speech for formation of the classes ideologically constituted, the process of legitimation of the discourse and the construction of truths. It is important to consider how to handsel the orthodoxies and heresies, the canonical and apocryphal in the religious systems and understand ,panoramically, how was the construction of the canon of Christian scriptures. The Protevangelium will be still compared with other Christian literature, such as the canonical Matthew and Luke's gospels and other apocryphal narratives, as well as works of early Christian writers to examine their scope and relevance. It is concluded that the Protevangelium of James initially served as raw material for orthodoxy, but with the development of this, it was deemed unacceptable. / Partindo da hipótese de que o cristianismo primitivo era um lugar complexo que abrigava lutas de classes ideológicas, procuram-se indícios que comprovem essas divergências por meio do estudo do texto apócrifo conhecido como o Protoevangelho de Tiago, oriundo do século II de nossa era. Tenta-se demonstrar que as crenças contidas neste texto apócrifo não são frutos da imaginação de seu autor, mas são elementos comuns às comunidades cristãs antes da ortodoxia. No cristianismo primitivo, havia varias classes ideológicas que apresentavam crenças divergentes entre si. Com o passar dos séculos, as classes emergentes, o bloco denominado proto-ortodoxo, por forças políticas, prevaleceram sobre as demais. Este bloco, então, firmou-se então como a única verdade, tomando para si a verdadeira sucessão apostólica e o verdadeiro ensino de Jesus, promulgou-se ainda como a primeira igreja e da qual toda a heresia surgiu em relação às suas crenças. O discurso desse bloco ignora todo o processo dialético que se deu para sua afirmação. Sendo o Protoevangelho de Tiago um texto de base proto-ortodoxa, isto é, parte de seu conteúdo é similar ao do que se tornará a ortodoxia, mas que traz também um conteúdo ofensivo a esta, é adequado para questionar tal discurso. No percurso de busca ao objetivo da pesquisa, recorrendo aos estudos de Foucault, Berger e Bakhtin, se fez necessário entender a importância do discurso para a formação de classes ideologicamente constituídas, o processo de legitimação do discurso e as construções das verdades. É importante refletir como se dão as ortodoxias e as heresias, o canônico e o apócrifo nos sistemas religiosos e entender, panoramicamente, como se deu a construção do cânon das escrituras cristãs. O Protoevangelho será comparado ainda com outras literaturas cristãs, tais como os evangelhos canônicos de Mateus e de Lucas, outros evangelhos e narrativas apócrifas, como também obras de escritores cristãos antigos para averiguar sua abrangência e relevância. Conclui-se que inicialmente o Protoevangelho de Tiago serviu de matéria prima para a ortodoxia, mas com o desenvolvimento desta, foi considerado inaceitável.