<p>The transmission of Indian Buddhism into China presents an excellent opportunity for a case study in the dynamics of a complex cultural interaction. The Prajńāpāramitā literature, introduced in the +2nd century, proved to be the most influential Buddhist religious texts during the following two hundred years. The Chinese interpreted these texts in terms of their own already existent philosophical categories, primarily established in the so-called Neo-taoist movement.</p> <p>By the fourth century, the Chinese had assimilated the Buddhist ideas well enough to begin to create original works expressing the first 8hinese understanding of these ideas. Heretofore research on these Buddho-Taoist works has indicated that the Chinese had failed to adequately comprehend this sophisticated Indian system because they had been unable to escape the confines of their own Taoist philosophical system. This research on one principal Buddho-Taoist thinker, Chih Tun, questions these conclusions.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>This thesis discusses the ways in which arguments for equity in faith-based education funding were constructed by some of the major advocacy organisations within the Ontario Jewish community during the period June-October 2007. On June 8th 2007 John Tory, the leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, announced that if he should be victorious in the October Ontario provincial elections, his principal education policy would be to extend public funding to independent faith schools of all religions. He avowed that the extant system, in which the province of Ontario extends public funding to Roman Catholic schools, but not to schools of any other religious orientation, was fundamentally unjust. I discuss how Jewish advocacy organisations framed their constructions of equity for faith school funding as an election issue, and analyse how these organisations relate their search to secure equity for faith-based education funding to multiculturalism.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>This thesis examines Bernard of Clairvaux's thought writings. or not on God, Evil and Suffering, in selected Specifically, my aim is to establish whether the abbot of Clairvaux used the privation argument in his discussion of evil and suffering. The thesis is divided into two parts. Chapter One introduces Bernard and places him in context. It establishes that Bernard was familiar with Augustine's Confessions and a number of theologians who used the privation argument. It also discusses his approach to writing and the influence monastic theology and monastic literary genres had on his work. Chapter two explores variations of Bernard's account of the Fall, in order to judge who were the central players, why did Adam fall and what are the terms employed by Bernard to describe the Fall. It also examines Satan ' s role in Bernard's theology. The focus around which my evaluation revolves is J.B. Russell's claim that the abbot of Clairvaux, like most mystics, made use of the privation argument in his discussion of evil. Chapter two also asks what did Bernard have to say about human nature as a result of the Fall and does his theology of conversion and contemplation describe the restoration of a lack in human nature.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>This thesis explores the relationship between theology and psychology through a reflection on the thought of Paul Tillich and Carl lung. Tillich' s formal theological method -- the method of correlation -- provides a framework for understanding the relationship between these disciplines and serves as the basic structure of this thesis. According to the method of correlation, the relationship between psychology and theology is correlative; they speak to each other as question and answer. Consequently, I attempt to determine the degree to which lung's psychological analysis of the human condition and the questions implied in this analysis can be correlated with Tillich's theological answers. This exercise begins with an examination of the method of correlation in which I argue that correlation is not, for Tillich, a simple pairing of psychological questions and theological answers, but an exercise which involves a critical examination of the questions. Such an examination serves to draw them into the "theological circle." According to lung, the questions implied in the human condition are questions about alienated existence. In a critical examination of this position, I argue that the symptoms of alienation identified by lung actually point to a more serious condition than he acknowledges -- a condition which not only involves alienation from our own being, but also alienation from the being of God. This draws lung's position into the theological circle. Tillich's theological answer to this condition of complete alienation is the New Being in Jesus as the Christ. Although lung offers a potent criticism of the symbol of Christ as an answer to the human condition, Tillich's position is capable of responding to this criticism and therefore stands as a powerful response to the questions implied in lung's analysis.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>[missing page 5]</p> / <p>The political philosophy of John Locke is well known to those who are familar with the foundations of modern liberal democracy. What is perhaps less familar is the biblical base to Locke's political teaching and his scriptural argument with Sir Robert Filmer. Indeed, Locke's use of the Bible in the development of his political philosophy has been strangely ignored by both biblical and political scholars.</p> <p>Thus, this thesis is an attempt to articulate the political philsophy of Filmer and Locke from their explicit use of Scripture. It in turn focuses on the question of whether two disparate political teachings (i.e., the divine right of kings and liberal democracy), which are overtly based on the same three biblical verses, can be substantiated on the basis of what the text actually says at a particular point. The net result of this investigation will be to demonstrate a relationship between political teachings and religious texts.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>Cilappatikāram is a classical Tamil work in verse interspersed with prose, of uncertain date, composed between the 3rd and 6th centuries C.E. It is ascribed to lḷañkō, a prince of the cēra dynasty who became an ascetic, abandoning the prerogatives of wealth and power.</p> <p>The thesis examines ideas of fate, justice and apotheosis. On the surface, fate appears to be pervasive. Guilt is identified as an instrument for the working out of fate and a certain kind of knowledge is sought to be the solution to worldly woes. The notion of aṇuñku, affliction, is seen to have, as it were, a life of its own as the dynamic net of relations which binds characters and their actions together, providing channels for the action of fate.</p> <p>Asking whether lḷañkō provides a viable religious solution to the breach between the experience of raw suffering and ideas of salvation, in the apotheosis of his protagonist, Kaṇṇaki, he is found to fail in precisely the way he is most generally appreciated as having succeeded. However, lḷañkō hints at a transcendental vision which provides a better prospector for success in the battle with sorrow.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>This dissertation has two major aims. The first is to achieve a fresh understanding of the relationship between the natural environment and religious conceptions in ancient Egypt. The second is to demonstrate that religious studies have to be both more consciously interdisciplinary and more deliberately comparative. The foundations for the inquiry are laid by a critical analysis of the theories put forward by J. H. Breasted, Henri Frankfort, and John A. Wilson concerning the relationship between nature and ancient Egyptian religion. The general assumption of these three scholars that nature directly influenced Egyptian religious beliefs is found to be untenable. The analysis also reveals the dangers of ignoring comparative material and the great need for an interdisciplinary perspective. Certain selected ideas of Peter L. Berger, a sociologist, are then used to open up a new approach to ~he problem under investigation. A distinction is made between natures- it-is and "the world of nature" created by the ancient Egyptians, and evidence is provided to show how Egyptian religious beliefs were affected by the latter.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>The present work is concerned with the explication of a philosophy of good life that could possibly be discerned in the ancient Tamil classic, Tirukkuṟaḷ. Though the Classic itself does not go into the details of 'definitions' and analysis of 'rival views', on a careful study of the text and the commentaries - both classical and modern -- we find that the Classic incorporates a philosophy of good life which is at once reflective of the Indian view-point and is also suggestive of newer approaches and perspectives.</p> <p>The argument of the thesis is that the philosophy of good life found in the Kuṟaḷ is directly derivable from the philosophy of religion inherent in it. The method adopted by the author of the Kuṟaḷ to get at the essence of religion, we have argued, is not by referring abstractly to religion per se but by accepting certain aspects and rejecting certain other aspects of the religions current in the Indian scene during his time. The methodology adopted by Tiruvaḷḷuvar, the author of the Tamil classic, when investigated, reveals that it is not possible to label the Classic either as a Brahmanical Hindu work or as a Jaina work or as a Buddhist work. Hence, after indicating our own methodology study in chapter 1, we have examined the relationship between Tirukkuṟaḷ on the one hand and the three Indian traditions on the other, in chapter 2. We have arrived at the conclusion that the Kuṟaḷ, without rejecting in toto, Brahmanical Hindu ideas, Jaina ideas and the Buddhist ideas, accepts aspects of them which do not smack of a sectarian character, and makes subtle but significant modifications in them all to arrive at the essence of religion. Tiruvaḷḷuvar seems to imply that the essence of religion consists in aiming at and realizing the Good.</p> <p>The good life, from this point of view is seen to stand for a transcendent goal inherent in human life which, all the same cannot be realized in a sphere distinct from or outside of life in society. In its barest outlines: our argument is that the qualitative improvements to life in society that a prime moral principle effectuates, when adhered to, indicates aspects of the good life. We have suggested that both the ultimate Ideal and the idealizations of inter-personal relations in society help the individual in realizing the Good. In more specific terms: the realization of the ultimate Ideal itself is synonymous with realizing ideal perfectibility in the 'more immediate' spheres of life in society. Such a philosophy of Good life, characteristic of the Tamil classic has been responsible for its exhorting an activistic, this-worldly ethics, without belittling the value of or disregarding the importance of 'ultimate realization', we have maintained. The cue for our interpretation has been that even though the Kuṟaḷ refers to Aṟam, poruḷ and iṉpam (the three values) in three different sections, the thrust of the whole work is to maintain the supremacy of Aṟam. This is the basis of our considering poruḷ and iṉpam as extensions of Aṟam and not as independent values. In sum we have argued that the Kuraḷ' s philosophy of good life is illustratively evident from the way in which it treats of Aṟam as underlying every aspect of human life. Chapters 3,4 and 5 are respectively devoted for Aṟam and its 'extensions'. In chapter 6"we have drawn the strings of our argument together and summarized the results of our investigation.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>The present study is an attempt to contribute to two areas of inquiry in New Testament studies. The first is the debate on orthodoxy and heresy in early Christianity. The second is the interpretation of the Fourth Gospel.</p> <p>With reference to the orthodoxy/heresy theme, the effort of the dissertation is to propose and justify a question new to the contemporary debate; namely, whether, and in what terms, a Christian theologian of the New Testament era consciously intended to make his work cohere with Divine Revelation conceived as truth. In the present study the theologian in question is "the decisive redactor" of the Fourth Gospel. The dissertation argues that in elaborating themes such as those bearing on the "Spirit of truth" and "the disciple whom Jesus loved" the Evangelist has rooted a deep and pervasive concern for orthodoxy in the thematic core of Johannine theology: especially in the themes of "truth" and of Jesus as himself the truth (In. 14:6).</p> <p>The main thrust of the study is exegetical. But, although limited to the understanding of one universe of discourse Johannine theology -- it has wider implications and belongs ultimately to a larger context: the understanding of early Christianity and its commitment to truth.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>The aim of this dissertation is to examine the Qumran covenanters' understanding of the remnant to test the common scholarly belief that the sectarians considered themselves to be the eschatological remnant. That the sectaries had a remnant understanding is a pre-supposiiion validated by the frequent remnant statements both explicit and implicit. Hence, the question becomes how they understood themselves vis-à-vis the remnant. This question, however, is not the only issue which must be discussed. The pre-Qumranian Palestinian understanding of the remnant must be examined because the sectarians' mindset must be understood against the backdrop of their intellectual heritage.</p> <p>Contrary to the opinion of most scholars, this study concludes that the Qumran sectaries understood themselves not as the eschatological remnant, but rather as its proleptic representatives. Thus the historical sect is not to be equated with the eschatological sect. Membership in the former did not guarantee membership in the latter and membership in the latter was attainable without membership in the former. On the one hand, although one who joined the historical sect and remained steadfast would become a member of the eschatological sect, the determination could not be assured until the end of time. On the other hand, the ranks of the eschatalogical sect would be increased by a final conversion to the sectarian covenant at the eschaton.</p> <p>With respect to significance, this study clearly shows that the concept of the remnant as understood at Qumran formed a major part of the sectarians' self-understanding.</p> <p>In 1QS, CD and 1QH the remnant consciousness is focused upon the historical sect and consists in the realization that, as part of Israel and, therefore, as the children of the historical Israel, the sectarians understood themselves as descen- dants of numerous historical remnants saved by God from various catastrophes. At this time, the sect understood itself as a part of Israel. This is evident both from the fluidity of membership in the historical sect and from the sectarian designation of non-sectarians as Israelites. Although the sect did have a covenant which required that the adult make a conscious decision to join and within which was found salvation, it nonetheless remained true that the title Israel was not appropriated by the historical community.</p> <p>In lQM, lQSa and other predominantly eschatological texts, the vision is of the eschatological sect. All nonsectarian Israelites who did not convert would be destroyed as would the Gentile. Those left would be definable, therefore, as both Israel and the remnant of Israel,--the former because they alone would be those entitled to be called Israel; the latter because they alone had been saved from Israel. The remnant understanding of the Qumran sectarians is shown to be consistent with t he understanding inherited by them. The correct understanding of the Qumran remnant lies, therefore, in a comparison with its Jewish heritage.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)