This dissertation falls in line with work produced during the past fifteen years or so, aimed at improving our appreciation of late medieval/early Tudor English Drama. The approach is based especially on looking at the rapport likely to be achieved between audience and players (and via the players, with the playwrights), in actual performance. Attention is given to the permanent modes of human thought, that are unaffected by the ephemeralities of a particular period; attention is therefore drawn to the traps that may mislead the unwary twentieth-century critic, and some new insights are offered into the purposes of the playwrights. Several cycle plays are treated, together with two of the moralities and two interludes. The point is made that these playwrights showed a considerable mastery of the possibilities inherent in drama, as is demonstrated by the provision for achieving rapport with the audience / The reformed churches have theological and musicological criteria for their hymns, which, however, are not always unambiguous. After the introduction of the Jeugsangbundel (1984) an informal song, with informal accompaniment, entered the worship and forms a prominent part of the singing in Dutch Reformed Churches today. Some congregations compile their own volumes of songs. This study set out to identify these congregations by means of a questionnaire and evaluate the songs. Other relevant information was also required from congregations. 21 % of the respondent congregations sing unapproved songs. They have a larger percentage of young people than those singing official songs. Congregations prefer a balance of formal and informal hymns and both are sung with equal enthusiasm. The melody is the strongest characteristic of the informal song and edification the strongest of the formal hymn. The evaluation, however, shows that a considerable number of songs do not meet the required standard / Art History, Visual Arts & Musicology / M.A. (Musicology)

German text / Gegenstand dieser Studie ist die historische Erforschung der deutschen Glaubens- und Gemeinschaftsmissionen, modern ausgedrückt der evangelikalen Missionen in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus. Die bisherige Forschung hatte diesen Themenkomplex vernachlässigt. Diese Studie beschreibt, wie sich diese Missionsgesellschaften im Umfeld des nationalsozialistischen Unrechtsregimes verhielten. Da die Quellenlage problematisch ist, wird anhand der Missionsblätter aufgezeigt, wie die Glaubens- und Gemeinschaftsmissionen zur Machtergreifung Hitlers standen. Dabei kristallisierte sich heraus, dass man sich überwiegend abseits von Nationalsozialismus, Rassismus und Antisemitismus positionierte. Allerdings blieb man in den Missionsblättern zur Bekennenden Kirche distanziert. Im Hauptteil dieser Studie kommt ein aus dem Quellenmaterial eruiertes Positionenspektrum zum Vorschein, welches von NS-Affinität bis Verfolgung reicht. Dieses ist an acht biographischen Einzelstudien nachgezeichnet. Schließlich hat sich gezeigt, dass die Schuldfrage in der Nachkriegzeit kaum eine Rolle spielte. Als Ergebnis kann konstatiert werden, dass die politische Ethik der Glaubens- und Gemeinschaftsmissionen nur rudimentär vorhanden war und sich lediglich in Obrigkeitsgehorsam und apolitischer Grundhaltung zeigt. / The subject of this study is a historical examination of the German faith-missions (in contemporary terms: evangelical missions) during the period of National Socialism. This topic has been neglected in scholarly research to date. This study describes how these mission agencies acted in the context of the unlawful regime of National Socialism. Due to a problematic source basis, the attitude the faith missions took towards the ursupation of power by Hitler is demonstrated based on their own periodical publications. It emerges that they largely positioned themselves at a distance to National Socialism, racism and anti-semitism. However these publications also demonstrate a distance to the “Confessing Church”. In the main body the examination of eight exemplary biographies based on detailed sources portrays an array of different positions which range from affinity to the NS-system to persecution. Furthermore the study shows that the issue of failure or guilt hardly played any role in the postwar period. This study leads to the conclusion the political ethics of the German faith missions were only rudimentarily developed, and only evinced themselves in an obedience to the powers that be and in a basically apolitical attitude. / Christian Spirituality, Church History & Missiology / D. Th. (Missiology)

The decades before the Scottish Reformation Parliament of 1560 witnessed the unprecedented use of a range of different media to disseminate the Protestant message and to shape beliefs and attitudes. By placing these works within their historical context, this thesis explores the ways in which various media – academic discourse, courtly entertainments, printed poetry, public performances, preaching and pedagogical tools – were employed by evangelical and Protestant reformers to persuade and/or educate different audiences within sixteenth-century Scottish society. The thematic approach examines not only how the reformist message was packaged, but how the movement itself and its persuasive agenda developed, revealing the ways in which it appealed to ever broader circles of Scottish society. In their efforts to bring about religious change, the reformers capitalised on a number of traditional media, while using different media to address different audiences. Hoping to initiate reform from within Church institutions, the reformers first addressed their appeals to the kingdom's educated elite. When their attempts at reasoned academic discourse met with resistance, they turned their attention to the monarch, James V, and the royal court. Reformers within the court utilised courtly entertainments intended to amuse the royal circle and to influence the young king to oversee the reformation of religion within his realm. When, following James's untimely death in 1542, the throne passed to his infant daughter, the reformers took advantage of the period of uncertainty that accompanied the minority. Through the relatively new technology of print, David Lindsay's poetry and English propaganda presented the reformist message to audiences beyond the kingdom's elite. Lindsay and other reformers also exploited the oral media of religious theatre in public spaces, while preaching was one of the most theologically significant, though under-researched, means of disseminating the reformist message. In addition to works intended to convert, the reformers also recognised the need for literature to edify the already converted. To this end, they produced pedagogical tools for use in individual and group devotions. Through the examination of these various media of persuasion, this study contributes to our understanding of the means by which reformed ideas were disseminated in Scotland, as well as the development of the reformist movement before 1560.

This missiological project seeks to study the role of the Guinnesses and Kumms in reaching the Sudan Belt, particularly through the Sudan-Pionier-Mission (SPM) founded in 1900. The term Sudan Belt referred to Africa between Senegal and Ethiopia, at that period one of the largest areas unreached by Christian missionaries. Grattan Guinness (1835-1910) at that time was the most influential promoter of faith missions for the Sudan. The only initiative based in Germany was the SPM, founded by Guinness, his daughter Lucy (1865-1906), and her German husband Karl Kumm (1874-1930). Kumm has undeservedly been forgotten, and his early biography as a missionary and explorer in the deserts of Egypt is here brought to light again. The early SPM had to struggle against opposition in Germany. Faith missions were considered unnecessary, and missions to Muslims untimely by influential representatives of classical missions. The SPM was seeking to reach the Sudan Belt via the Nile from Aswan. The most promising figure for this venture was the Nubian Samuel Ali Hiseen (1863-1927), who accomplished a scripture colportage tour through Nubia. Unfortunately, he was disregarded by the first German missionary, Johannes Kupfemagel (1866-1937). When the SPM failed to reach the Sudan Belt due to political restrictions, Kumm and the SPM board were divided in their strategies. Kumm planned to pursue a new route via the Niger River, seeking support in Great Britain rather independently. The SPM, holding on to Aswan, dismissed Kumm, and began to decline until it made a new start in 1905, but for a long time remained a local mission work in Upper Egypt. The Sudan United Mission however, founded by the Kumms in 1904, did indeed reach the Sudan Belt. An analysis of the SPM reveals its strengths and weaknesses. The SPM grew out of the Holiness movement and shared the urgency, which made faith missions successful, but also was the SPM's weakness, as it suffered from ill-preparedness. The SPM innovatively gathered together single women from the nobility in a community of service for missions under its chairman, Pastor Theodor Ziemendorff (1837-:1912). / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D.Th. (Missiology)

This dissertation falls in line with work produced during the past fifteen years or so, aimed at improving our appreciation of late medieval/early Tudor English Drama. The approach is based especially on looking at the rapport likely to be achieved between audience and players (and via the players, with the playwrights), in actual performance. Attention is given to the permanent modes of human thought, that are unaffected by the ephemeralities of a particular period; attention is therefore drawn to the traps that may mislead the unwary twentieth-century critic, and some new insights are offered into the purposes of the playwrights. Several cycle plays are treated, together with two of the moralities and two interludes. The point is made that these playwrights showed a considerable mastery of the possibilities inherent in drama, as is demonstrated by the provision for achieving rapport with the audience / The reformed churches have theological and musicological criteria for their hymns, which, however, are not always unambiguous. After the introduction of the Jeugsangbundel (1984) an informal song, with informal accompaniment, entered the worship and forms a prominent part of the singing in Dutch Reformed Churches today. Some congregations compile their own volumes of songs. This study set out to identify these congregations by means of a questionnaire and evaluate the songs. Other relevant information was also required from congregations. 21 % of the respondent congregations sing unapproved songs. They have a larger percentage of young people than those singing official songs. Congregations prefer a balance of formal and informal hymns and both are sung with equal enthusiasm. The melody is the strongest characteristic of the informal song and edification the strongest of the formal hymn. The evaluation, however, shows that a considerable number of songs do not meet the required standard / Art History, Visual Arts and Musicology / M.A. (Musicology)

This thesis deals with the origins and subsequent historical development of the Congregation of the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren in Jablůnka, particularly from the eighteenth through the twentieth centuries. The first part describes the period before the issuing of the Patent of Toleration and its announcement and implementation, particularly in the context of Protestants in Jablůnka. The second part focuses on the nineteenth century; the transformation of a filial church in Jablůnka into an independent Parish church is also discussed. Another event mentioned is the founding of a confessional school and its transformation into a state-run primary school. The third part is devoted to the twentieth century, the pastors of the church and the specific spiritual trends that have influenced the functioning of the community. Future prospects of the congregation are outlined in interviews with its members.

German text / Gegenstand dieser Studie ist die historische Erforschung der deutschen Glaubens- und Gemeinschaftsmissionen, modern ausgedrückt der evangelikalen Missionen in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus. Die bisherige Forschung hatte diesen Themenkomplex vernachlässigt. Diese Studie beschreibt, wie sich diese Missionsgesellschaften im Umfeld des nationalsozialistischen Unrechtsregimes verhielten. Da die Quellenlage problematisch ist, wird anhand der Missionsblätter aufgezeigt, wie die Glaubens- und Gemeinschaftsmissionen zur Machtergreifung Hitlers standen. Dabei kristallisierte sich heraus, dass man sich überwiegend abseits von Nationalsozialismus, Rassismus und Antisemitismus positionierte. Allerdings blieb man in den Missionsblättern zur Bekennenden Kirche distanziert. Im Hauptteil dieser Studie kommt ein aus dem Quellenmaterial eruiertes Positionenspektrum zum Vorschein, welches von NS-Affinität bis Verfolgung reicht. Dieses ist an acht biographischen Einzelstudien nachgezeichnet. Schließlich hat sich gezeigt, dass die Schuldfrage in der Nachkriegzeit kaum eine Rolle spielte. Als Ergebnis kann konstatiert werden, dass die politische Ethik der Glaubens- und Gemeinschaftsmissionen nur rudimentär vorhanden war und sich lediglich in Obrigkeitsgehorsam und apolitischer Grundhaltung zeigt. / The subject of this study is a historical examination of the German faith-missions (in contemporary terms: evangelical missions) during the period of National Socialism. This topic has been neglected in scholarly research to date. This study describes how these mission agencies acted in the context of the unlawful regime of National Socialism. Due to a problematic source basis, the attitude the faith missions took towards the ursupation of power by Hitler is demonstrated based on their own periodical publications. It emerges that they largely positioned themselves at a distance to National Socialism, racism and anti-semitism. However these publications also demonstrate a distance to the “Confessing Church”. In the main body the examination of eight exemplary biographies based on detailed sources portrays an array of different positions which range from affinity to the NS-system to persecution. Furthermore the study shows that the issue of failure or guilt hardly played any role in the postwar period. This study leads to the conclusion the political ethics of the German faith missions were only rudimentarily developed, and only evinced themselves in an obedience to the powers that be and in a basically apolitical attitude. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D. Th. (Missiology)

Between Defence and Resistance: Destinies of Eighteenth-Century Protestant Communities in Eastern Bohemia and Haut-Languedoc Abstract Based on archive research and literature the thesis compares the religious life of illegal Protestant communities in the 18th century Eastern Bohemia and Haut-Languedoc. From macroanalytical perspective it assesses the strategies of protestant minorities used to resist the disciplining efforts of the absolutist state. The confessional homogeneity, economic background and social stratification of Protestants in Eastern Bohemia and Haut-Languedoc differed. Yet, the contrasting comparison opens up the way to analyse the divergent resistance strategies. Further, the thesis examines the existence and nature of attempts to simplify the religious doctrine and to modify the liturgy undertaken by the lay and ordained priests and the worshippers. The structure combines the thematic and chronological approach, while keeping a broad perspective that encompasses also the economic and cultural context. First tree chapters outline and conceptualize the problem of prohibited Protestantism in both regions during the 17th and most of the 18th centuries. While in Languedoc the Presbyterian-synodic structure was revived (albeit illegally), in Eastern Bohemia and in whole Bohemia and Moravia...

Many religious leaders in the early 1900s were afraid of the immoral associations and repercussions of birth control. The Catholic Church and some Protestants never accepted contraception, or accepted it much later, but many mainline Protestants leaders did change their tune dramatically between the years of 1920 and 1931. This investigation seeks to understand how Margaret Sanger was able to use her rhetoric to move her reform from the leftist outskirts and decadent, sexual connotations into the mainstream of family-friendly, morally virtuous, and even conservative religious approval. Securing the approval of religious leaders subsequently provided the impetus for legal and medical acceptance by the late-1930s. Margaret Sanger used conferences, speeches, articles, her magazine (Birth Control Review), and several books to reinforce her message as she pragmatically shifted from the radical left closer to the center and conservatives. She knew the power of the churches to influence their members, and since the United States population had undeniably a Judeo-Christian base, this power could be harnessed in order to achieve success for the birth control movement, among the conservative medical and political communities and the public at large. Despite the clear consensus against birth control by all mainline Christian churches in 1920, including Roman Catholics and Protestants alike, the decade that followed would bring about a great divide that would continue to widen in successive decades. Sanger put forward many arguments in her works, but the ones which ultimately brought along the relatively conservative religious leaders were those that presented birth control not as a gender equity issue, but rather as a morally constructive reform that had the power to save and strengthen marriages; lessen prostitution and promiscuity; protect the health of women; reduce abortions, infanticide, and infant mortality; and improve the quality of life for children and families. Initially, many conservatives and religious leaders associated the birth control movement with radicals, feminists, prostitutes, and promiscuous youth, and feared contraception would lead to immorality and the deterioration of the family. Without the threat of pregnancy, conservatives feared that youth and even married adults would seize the opportunity to have sex outside of marriage. Others worried the decreasing size of families was a sign of growing selfishness and materialism. In response, Sanger promoted the movement as a way for conservatives to stop the rising divorce rates by strengthening and increasing marriages, and to improve the lives of families by humanely increasing the health and standard of living, for women and children especially. In short, she argued that birth control would not lead to deleterious consequences, but would actually improve family moral values and become an effective humanitarian reform. She recognized that both liberals and conservatives were united in hoping to strengthen the family, and so she emphasized those virtues and actively courted those same conservative religious leaders that had previously shunned birth control and the movement. Throughout the 1920s, she emphasized the ways in which birth control could strengthen marriages and improve the quality of life of women and children, and she effectively won over the relatively conservative religious leaders that she needed to bring about the movement’s public, medical, and political progress.

This thesis focuses on the significance of blood and the perception of the body in both learned and popular culture in order to investigate problems of identity and social exclusion in early modern Europe. Starting from the view of blood as a liminal matter, manifesting fertile, positive aspects in conjunction with dangerous, negative ones, I show how it was believed to attract supernatural forces within the natural world. It could empower or pollute, restore health or waste corporeal and spiritual existence. While this theme has been studied in a medieval religious context and by anthropologists, its relevance during the early modern period has not been explored. I argue that, considering the impact of the Reformation on people’s mentalities, studying the way in which ideas regarding blood and the body changed from late medieval times to the eighteenth century can provide new insights about patterns of social and religious tensions, such as the witch-trials and persecutions. In this regard the thesis engages with anthropological theories, comparing the dialectic between blood and body with that between identity and society, demonstrating that they both spread from the conflict of life with death, leading to the social embodiment or to the rejection of an individual. A comparative approach is also employed to analyze blood symbolism in Protestant and Catholic countries, and to discuss how beliefs were influenced by both cultural similarities and religious differences. Combining historical sources, such as witches’ confessions, with appropriate examples from anthropology I also examine a corpus of popular ideas, which resisted to theological and learned notions or slowly merged with them. Blood had different meanings for different sections of society, embodying both the physical struggle for life and the spiritual value of the Christian soul. Chapters 2, 3 and 4 develop the dualism of the fluid in late medieval and early modern ritual murder accusations against Jews, European witchcraft and supernatural beliefs and in the medical and philosophical knowledge, while chapters 5 and 6 focus on blood themes in Protestant England and in Counter-Reformation Italy. Through the examination of blood in these contexts I hope to demonstrate that contrasting feelings, fears and beliefs related to dangerous or extraordinary individuals, such as Jews, witches, and Catholic saints, but also superhuman beings such as fairies, vampires and werewolves, were rooted in the perception of the body as an unstable substance, that was at the base of ethnic, religious and gender stereotypes.