This thesis attempts to reconstruct the narrative of Anne Greene, a young female servant in 1650 England that was wrongfully found guilty of infanticide and made into a spectacle by her peers as an example of what happens when one breaks societies gender norms and is met by the influence of the gender politics of the period. Her female body was objectified and placed on display by a ritual performance of the hangman’s noose and the criminal corpse to further the process of by maintaining fear among members of the population, especially rebellious women. Thus, making Anne Greene a subversive figure, victimized by a patriarchal society, a trope that remains relevant today. By way of literary adaptation, explorations of bodily practice, and engagements with the historical archive this thesis allows Anne Greene’s disembodied figure to unfold as a narrative and visual tool in history. This study and the accompanying original play text allow Anne Greene to become an essential figure to feminist studies and continuing struggles for equality in the era of the “Me too” social narrative.

Despite its origins in England two hundred years ago, the picturesque continues to influence landscape architectural practice in late twentieth-century New Zealand. The evidence for this is derived from a close reading of the published discourse of the New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architects, particularly the now defunct professional journal, The Landscape. Through conceptualising the picturesque as a language, a model is developed which provides a framework for recording the survey results. The way in which the picturesque persists as naturalised conventions in the discourse is expressed as four landscape myths. Through extending the metaphor of language, pidgins and creoles provide an analogy for the introduction and development of the picturesque in New Zealand. Some implications for theory, practice and education follow.

This dissertation is presented in two parts. It first identifies the shape and content of an ancient system of Christian thought predicated on the theology of the cross of Jesus Christ, and proposes the marks typifying its theologians. Over against the ensuing hermeneutic it next finds the project of twentieth century Swiss theologian Karl Barth to exhibit many of the defining characteristics of this system, and Barth himself to be fairly deemed a modern theologian of the cross. He crucially recovers, reshapes and reasserts the classical theologia crucis as a modern theological instrument, one answering enlightened theology’s self-glorifying accommodation to modernity with the living Word of the cross. The crucicentric system itself is found to comprise two major theological dimensions, epistemological and soteriological. Each of these comprises dialectically corresponding aspects connected with false and true creaturely glory. The cruciform Word (or theology) speaking through this system likewise moves in two directions. It declares negatively that any attempt by the creature to circumvent the cross so as to know about God directly, or to condition God's electing decision, is necessarily the attempt to know and act as God alone may know and act - an attempt therefore on the glory of God. It declares positively that in the crucified Christ God formally discloses the knowledge of God, and determines the creature for God. This knowledge and election are appropriated to the creature as, drawn into the cruciform environment, its attempt to glorify itself is negated and Christ's exalted humanity received in exchange. Thence it is lifted to participate in Christ's mind and in his glory, a process guided by the Holy Spirit and completed eschatologically. The database for this research includes selected primary materials in the Apostle Paul, Athanasius, a group of medieval mystical theologians, the reformer Martin Luther - particularly here his Heidelberg Disputation, and Karl Barth. It also pays attention to the recent secondary literature peripherally or more concertedly connecting itself to the theology of the cross, of whatever period. In this literature numerous suggestions for the content of the theology of the cross exist, a major methodological task in the current research being to bring these together systematically. To the extent that the inner structure of the system carrying the cruciform Word has not previously been made explicit, and Barth's crucicentric status not finally determined, in moving towards these achievements this dissertation breaks fresh ground. In the process a new test by which to decide the crucicentric status of any theological project is developed, and a further and crucicentric way of reading Barth proposed. / This dissertation identifies the shape, content, and marks of the theology of the cross, an ancient and still extant epistemological and soteriological system of Christian thought. Applying the resulting hermeneutic it then shows this system to be present with renewed vitality and future significance in the modern project of seminal Swiss theologian Karl Barth (1886-1968).

<p>Denna uppsats består av en studie av en dialog mellan vetenskap och religion hos den amerikanska filantropiska John Templetonstiftelsen. Syftet har varit att utreda värdet av denna dialog och att få en uppfattning om värdet av dialoger mellan vetenskap och religion i allmänhet i fråga om aktualitet och fruktbarhet för deltagarna, publiken och den allmänna debatten. Den studerade dialogen visade brister i definition och riktlinjer, val av deltagare och diskussionsämne. Argumentationen utgick ifrån deltagarnas personliga tro eller icke-tro och inte utifrån deras kompetensområden inom vetenskap eller religion. Dialogens olika bidrag visade inte på någon större grad av nytänkande, med undantag för två korta essäer som diskuterade nya Gudsdefinitioner. Dessa resonemang fördes dock inte vidare till de debatter som också ingick i dialogen. Trots många brister, där många borde ha kunnat undvikas, visade den studerade dialogen på en vilja till möte mellan oliktänkande och på ett intresse från allmänheten. Med tydliga definitioner och riktlinjer och ett mer aktuellt ämnesval borde därför dialoger mellan vetenskap och religion ha en framtid.</p> / <p>This essay is a study of a dialogue between science and religion at the John Templeton foundation. The aim has been to investigate the value of this specific dialogue and also to get an understanding of the value of dialogues between science and religion in general regarding actuality and fruitfulness for the participants, the audience and the public debate. The study of the Templeton dialogue revealed shortcomings regarding definitions and guidelines, choice of participants and of topic. Furthermore, the argumentation was based on the individual participants belief or non-belief rather than their professional competence areas. The different contributions to the dialogue did not show any higher degree of fresh ideas, apart from two short essays describing new definitions of God. These thoughts were, however, not brought to the debates that were also a part of the dialogue. Despite the shortcomings, where many should have been possible to avoid, the studied dialogue showed willingness from people of different perspectives to meet and the dialogue also gained an interest from the general public. The conclusion of this study is that with clear definitions and guidelines and a well-considered choice of topic, the dialogue between science and religion should have a future.</p>

This dissertation is presented in two parts. It first identifies the shape and content of an ancient system of Christian thought predicated on the theology of the cross of Jesus Christ, and proposes the marks typifying its theologians. Over against the ensuing hermeneutic it next finds the project of twentieth century Swiss theologian Karl Barth to exhibit many of the defining characteristics of this system, and Barth himself to be fairly deemed a modern theologian of the cross. He crucially recovers, reshapes and reasserts the classical theologia crucis as a modern theological instrument, one answering enlightened theology���s self-glorifying accommodation to modernity with the living Word of the cross. The crucicentric system itself is found to comprise two major theological dimensions, epistemological and soteriological. Each of these comprises dialectically corresponding aspects connected with false and true creaturely glory. The cruciform Word (or theology) speaking through this system likewise moves in two directions. It declares negatively that any attempt by the creature to circumvent the cross so as to know about God directly, or to condition God's electing decision, is necessarily the attempt to know and act as God alone may know and act - an attempt therefore on the glory of God. It declares positively that in the crucified Christ God formally discloses the knowledge of God, and determines the creature for God. This knowledge and election are appropriated to the creature as, drawn into the cruciform environment, its attempt to glorify itself is negated and Christ's exalted humanity received in exchange. Thence it is lifted to participate in Christ's mind and in his glory, a process guided by the Holy Spirit and completed eschatologically. The database for this research includes selected primary materials in the Apostle Paul, Athanasius, a group of medieval mystical theologians, the reformer Martin Luther - particularly here his Heidelberg Disputation, and Karl Barth. It also pays attention to the recent secondary literature peripherally or more concertedly connecting itself to the theology of the cross, of whatever period. In this literature numerous suggestions for the content of the theology of the cross exist, a major methodological task in the current research being to bring these together systematically. To the extent that the inner structure of the system carrying the cruciform Word has not previously been made explicit, and Barth's crucicentric status not finally determined, in moving towards these achievements this dissertation breaks fresh ground. In the process a new test by which to decide the crucicentric status of any theological project is developed, and a further and crucicentric way of reading Barth proposed.

Denna uppsats består av en studie av en dialog mellan vetenskap och religion hos den amerikanska filantropiska John Templetonstiftelsen. Syftet har varit att utreda värdet av denna dialog och att få en uppfattning om värdet av dialoger mellan vetenskap och religion i allmänhet i fråga om aktualitet och fruktbarhet för deltagarna, publiken och den allmänna debatten. Den studerade dialogen visade brister i definition och riktlinjer, val av deltagare och diskussionsämne. Argumentationen utgick ifrån deltagarnas personliga tro eller icke-tro och inte utifrån deras kompetensområden inom vetenskap eller religion. Dialogens olika bidrag visade inte på någon större grad av nytänkande, med undantag för två korta essäer som diskuterade nya Gudsdefinitioner. Dessa resonemang fördes dock inte vidare till de debatter som också ingick i dialogen. Trots många brister, där många borde ha kunnat undvikas, visade den studerade dialogen på en vilja till möte mellan oliktänkande och på ett intresse från allmänheten. Med tydliga definitioner och riktlinjer och ett mer aktuellt ämnesval borde därför dialoger mellan vetenskap och religion ha en framtid. / This essay is a study of a dialogue between science and religion at the John Templeton foundation. The aim has been to investigate the value of this specific dialogue and also to get an understanding of the value of dialogues between science and religion in general regarding actuality and fruitfulness for the participants, the audience and the public debate. The study of the Templeton dialogue revealed shortcomings regarding definitions and guidelines, choice of participants and of topic. Furthermore, the argumentation was based on the individual participants belief or non-belief rather than their professional competence areas. The different contributions to the dialogue did not show any higher degree of fresh ideas, apart from two short essays describing new definitions of God. These thoughts were, however, not brought to the debates that were also a part of the dialogue. Despite the shortcomings, where many should have been possible to avoid, the studied dialogue showed willingness from people of different perspectives to meet and the dialogue also gained an interest from the general public. The conclusion of this study is that with clear definitions and guidelines and a well-considered choice of topic, the dialogue between science and religion should have a future.

My thesis addresses the antagonism between the mystery of life and the destructive pursuit of power which forms a central theme in the works of Per Olof Sundman (1922–1992). The purpose is to show that Sundman uses the theme of the encounter/non-encounter and the destructive leader to examine the conditions for allowing a deeper experience of reality and the destructive exercise of power. I analyse these themes using concepts borrowed from literary studies (Atle Kittang, Paul Ricoeur, Bertil Romberg, Staffan Björck, Gérard Genette), the philosophy of religion (Martin Buber, Göran Bergstrand) and psychoanalysis (Ludvig Igra, Otto Kernberg, Erich Fromm, Julia Kristeva). My study highlights the problems associated with the destructive exercise of power, which is the overriding theme of Sundman's work.      I explore the theme of the encounter by using the concept pair I-You/I-It. With the aid of this concept pair, I throw light on the aspect of depth in our existence by describing the human encounter. In my analysis on the theme of power, I point out the personal qualities inherent in the destructive leader. I also explore the link between the destructive leader's inner conflict of narcissism and repressed weakness – a conflict projected to the outside world – and the emergence of violence. In order to reveal this inner process, I unearth on a latent level the theme of the destructive leader/stranger in Sundman's work. This enables me to single out the mechanism responsible for the emergence of destructivity in the human psyche, while showing the close link between this pattern of narcissism and projected weakness and a distorted view of reality.    Sundman contrasts this world of power with an integrative attitude to life. In his novel The Expedition, Sundman depicts life in the other world as being a state of human coexistence in which no one is seen to be a stranger. This idea of unity is reinforced by the choice of name for the first-person narrator of the other world. In this novel, the conditions enabling the flourishing of universalism as an attitude to life are also those that give expression in the I-You encounter to the experience of a deeper aspect to our existence.

This thesis argues that in order to demonstrate the possibility and sensibility of Italian philosopher Gianni Vattimo's 'weak religious belief', it should be understood as the becoming uncertain of traditional, metaphysical (strong) belief. The difference between weak belief and strong belief can thereby be understood not as two distinct modes of belief, but as an event of weakening in the history of belief that has yet to be realized by those who believe with the support of metaphysical certainty. Since Vattimo aligns metaphysics with violence, and since he aligns traditional belief with metaphysics, to demonstrate and defend the possibility of Vattimo’s weak belief amounts to the reduction of violence in the world. However, the possibility and validity of weak belief has been called into question by thinkers such as Richard Rorty. In light of a review of the arguments and counter-arguments between Rorty and Vattimo, I argue that it is possible to distinguish weak belief from strong belief as long as this remains a weak distinction.

Intrigued by a striking resemblance between certain behaviour, characteristics and preoccupations in characters from French literary texts, on the one hand, and in modern-day anorexics on the other, we have undertaken a study of representations of abnegation. In reading female ascetic piety, particularly in an extreme and sterile form known as “scrupulosity,” as it is seen in Madame Gervaisais, by the Goncourt Brothers, and in the representation of adolescence in L’Histoire de ma vie, by George Sand, I aim to explore similarities and differences between these two “conditions.” Next, certain texts by Zola, Vincent van Gogh and Simone de Beauvoir allow me to study a wide range of responses to the same questions as those which motivate anorexia nervosa and scrupulosity: questions of balance between the spiritual and the material, of perfectionism, of excessive obedience, of refusal of pleasure, and of a capacity for self-destruction. Paradoxically, all the “characters” studied here (including those “characters” created by means of autobiography or letter writing) are represented as possessing tendencies which define these two “conditions,” tendencies which are capable of leading either to extraordinary fulfilment, an unheard of creativity, or to self-destruction motivated by a desire for perfect virtue. Reading these texts in the light of anorexia nervosa allows new insights into them, in turn offering a new perspective on anorexia nervosa, suggesting its long involvement in the cultural history of Europe. / RESUME S'anéantir ou s'épanouir : avatars d'ascétisme anorexique dans la littérature française du XIXe au XXIe siècle Intriguée par une ressemblance frappante entre quantité de comportements, caractéristiques et préoccupations chez, d'une part, des personnages des textes littéraires français du XIXe siècle, et d'autre part chez les anorexiques modernes, nous avons entrepris d'examiner des représentations de l'abnégation. En lisant la piété féminine ascétique, surtout dans une forme stérile et extrême nommée « scrupule », telle qu'elle est montrée dans Madame Gervaisais, des frères Goncourt, et dans la représentation de l'adolescence dans L'Histoire de ma vie, de George Sand, je me donne pour but l'exploration des similarités et différences entre ces deux « conditions ». Ensuite, certains textes de Zola, de Vincent van Gogh, et de Simone de Beauvoir me permettent de scruter une variété de réponses aux mêmes questions qui motivent l'anorexie mentale et le scrupule : questions d'équilibre entre le spirituel et le matériel, de perfectionnisme, d'obéissance excessive, de refus du plaisir, et de capacité à s'anéantir. Paradoxalement, tous les « personnages » étudiés ici (y compris les « personnages » créés à travers l'autobiographie ou l'art épistolaire) sont représentés comme possédant des tendances qui définissent ces deux « conditions », tendances qui peuvent mener soit à un épanouissement extraordinaire, une créativité inouïe, soit à l’anéantissement de soi motivé par un désir de vertu parfaite. Lire ces textes en rapport avec l'anorexie mentale, c'est les considérer sous un jour nouveau, ce qui offre à son tour une nouvelle optique sur l'anorexie mentale, suggérant son imbrication de longue date dans l'histoire culturelle de l'Europe.

This dissertation is presented in two parts. It first identifies the shape and content of an ancient system of Christian thought predicated on the theology of the cross of Jesus Christ, and proposes the marks typifying its theologians. Over against the ensuing hermeneutic it next finds the project of twentieth century Swiss theologian Karl Barth to exhibit many of the defining characteristics of this system, and Barth himself to be fairly deemed a modern theologian of the cross. He crucially recovers, reshapes and reasserts the classical theologia crucis as a modern theological instrument, one answering enlightened theology’s self-glorifying accommodation to modernity with the living Word of the cross. The crucicentric system itself is found to comprise two major theological dimensions, epistemological and soteriological. Each of these comprises dialectically corresponding aspects connected with false and true creaturely glory. The cruciform Word (or theology) speaking through this system likewise moves in two directions. It declares negatively that any attempt by the creature to circumvent the cross so as to know about God directly, or to condition God's electing decision, is necessarily the attempt to know and act as God alone may know and act - an attempt therefore on the glory of God. It declares positively that in the crucified Christ God formally discloses the knowledge of God, and determines the creature for God. This knowledge and election are appropriated to the creature as, drawn into the cruciform environment, its attempt to glorify itself is negated and Christ's exalted humanity received in exchange. Thence it is lifted to participate in Christ's mind and in his glory, a process guided by the Holy Spirit and completed eschatologically. The database for this research includes selected primary materials in the Apostle Paul, Athanasius, a group of medieval mystical theologians, the reformer Martin Luther - particularly here his Heidelberg Disputation, and Karl Barth. It also pays attention to the recent secondary literature peripherally or more concertedly connecting itself to the theology of the cross, of whatever period. In this literature numerous suggestions for the content of the theology of the cross exist, a major methodological task in the current research being to bring these together systematically. To the extent that the inner structure of the system carrying the cruciform Word has not previously been made explicit, and Barth's crucicentric status not finally determined, in moving towards these achievements this dissertation breaks fresh ground. In the process a new test by which to decide the crucicentric status of any theological project is developed, and a further and crucicentric way of reading Barth proposed. / This dissertation identifies the shape, content, and marks of the theology of the cross, an ancient and still extant epistemological and soteriological system of Christian thought. Applying the resulting hermeneutic it then shows this system to be present with renewed vitality and future significance in the modern project of seminal Swiss theologian Karl Barth (1886-1968).