My research analyzes the way in which Ludovico Antonio Muratori portrayed marginal peoples of the New World in his Il Cristianesimo Felice nelle Missioni De' Padri della Compagnia di Gesù nel Paraguai, published in 1743. I argue that Muratori used his portrayal of the native people of Paraguay as a means to express his ideas of how to reform the Catholic Church, at a time when Catholicism was just experiencing the first waves of enlightened influence from the north. I engage with scholarship on the Enlightenment that has addressed specifically the cultural impact of what has been called the Catholic Enlightenment in Italy. In this scholarship Il Cristianesimo Felice has been virtually unrepresented, and I argue that it is a valuable resource in gaining a better understanding the reform agendas of Muratori and the Catholic Enlightenment movement in Italy. I center my analysis on two specific elements in Il Cristianesimo Felice. First, I address Muratori's assessment of the four political systems administered simultaneously by the native population, the Spaniards, the Mamelusses, and the Jesuits. Through my analysis of Muratori's representation of these systems, I situate him in the politically conservative Catholic Enlightenment and establish his commitment to the paternalistic social order prevailing in Europe in the eighteenth century. Second, I show that Muratori reveals broader ideas about religion and superstition as conceived by the Catholic Enlightenment movement in his account of the interaction between the Jesuit missionaries and the Paraguayans in the reductions. In conclusion, this study shows that Il Cristianesimo Felice is a source that historians of the Catholic Enlightenment movement should revisit, as it represents Ludivico Antonio Muratori's Pubblica Felicita in the flesh.

No description available.

This research is a study of the Female Metaphor in her three aspects of Virgin, Mother and Crone. It is an interpretation of these three faces as representing the Dynamic by which the Cosmos unfolds, that is, the extant Creativity that is in continual transformation and has always been so. Accordingly, as this thesis takes the Cosmos to be a seamless whole, the conscious alignment with the continual process of transformation innate to Being. Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme call the composition of these three, cosmic grammar. The ritual celebration of seasonal points are then developed as a method of embodying and sensualizing, and speaking this deep Dynamic of Creativity. These ritual celebrations are based in ancient Western spiritual practice that relates with Earth's cyclical transitions. Through methods of ritual, meditation, imagination, dance and storytelling, over the period of the annual seasonal cycle, I created a context, which sought to enable more harmonious relationship with self, other and Cosmos through identification of the self with an organic and primordial process innate to the unfolding Cosmos. I found it to be a process that catalyzed personal transformation of the participants over time - a transformation that has clear and inevitable cultural implications. While it is not the focus of this thesis to track these cultural changes, such change is implicit in the personal and relational changes experienced and noted, since the personal and the cultural are mutually embedded in a shamanic process like this is. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The Psalter has formed the basis of Judeo-Christian worship since ancient times. It has served, and continues to serve, individuals and communities of faith as a foundation for communal and personal devotion. As a devotional tool it is unique in that it provides prayers which address God directly concerning the whole gamut of life experience. While the Psalms can be examined and analysed as a literary text, they must be used and experienced by people to more fully discover and recognize their power in providing a pathway for expressing life experience. The lament psalms are of particular interest in this regard. There appears to be a reluctance, in some quarters, to employ them as an expression of prayer. As a result, the lament psalms as a way of engaging with experiences of personal distress, and voicing the reflections and responses such experiences produce, have often been ignored. This study suggests that psalms of lament provide a framework for expressing personal distress in the context of prayer. The framework, identified as a matrix of lament, consists of various modes of articulation characterized as expressing, asserting, investing and imagining constellations. The study examines what happens when individuals, who have first been made aware of the matrix of lament and its constellations, use lament psalms for prayer. Praying of lament psalms in this study is embedded in a prescribed process through which participants engage with their experiences of personal distress. As a result of such a process any significant psychodynamic changes which may take place can be observed, examined and explored, thereby, highlighting the efficacy of using lament psalms as a form of prayer. The study achieves this by examining the reflections and responses of selected individuals to see whether the process does in fact facilitate changes in the individual’s levels of distress, sense of personal control over distress and the nature of relationship between the individual and God. The reflections and responses also provide some indication of how the process might ‘birth’ a fresh perspective on personal distress for those who choose to incorporate these psalms into their journey of faith.

<p>I uppsatsen studeras förekomsten av giftermål som rit i Den Poetiska Eddan och Snorres</p><p>Edda, med följande frågeställning: Hur ser förekomsten av giftermål som rit ut i Den poetiska</p><p>Eddan och Snorres Edda, finns det någon skillnad mellan verken? Metoden är en textanalys i</p><p>historisk kontext, där analysverktygen består av nyckelord. Uppsatsen avser en breddning av</p><p>begreppet giftermål med hjälp av följande nyckelord: giftermål/bröllop, äktenskap/äkta,</p><p>fria/frieri, brud, brudgum, maka/hustru/fru samt make/man. Utifrån nyckelorden valdes aktuella</p><p>citat från eddorna. I teoridelen sätts giftermålet in i en teoretisk kontext och grundas där i</p><p>Fiona Bowie och Catherine Bells ritualteorier. Resultatet av citaten grundas även i historisk</p><p>forskning av Gro Steinsland, Sharon Ratke och Rudolf Simek, Britt-Mari Näsström, Auður</p><p>Magnúsdòttir och Björn Collinder. En kort presentation av eddorna föregår resultatdelen där</p><p>alla de utvalda citaten presenteras, kommenteras och analyseras. Resultatet visar utifrån de</p><p>utvalda nyckelorden hur förekomsten av giftermål som rit ser ut i eddorna. Handlingen giftermål</p><p>är inte närmare beskriven mer än ett fåtal gånger, men det finns betydligt fler tillfällen</p><p>där ord och kontexter går att knyta till riten giftermål. Skillnaden som framkommit i jämförelsen</p><p>av eddorna är att det i resultatet, med anknytning i litteraturen, går att knyta fler citat till</p><p>Den poetiska Eddan än till Snorres Edda. I giftermålskontexten är det liknande teman som</p><p>berörs i båda verken, det är bara omfattning och framställning som skiljer sig åt.</p>

<p><p>This essay studies the funnel-beaker ceramic in connection with the megalith graves in South Scandinavia. In my work I have described the nature of ceramics and looked on the crockery types and ornamentation and then discussed the use of the material in a ritual perspective. In the first part I have focused on the critical aspects you have to think about when you do a study like this one. In the second part of this essay I have done a case study, with the ceramic material, in three passages graves in the area of Falbygden, Western Sweden and studied the ceramic material and the nature of it in South Scandinavia as well. Then in the third I discussed the potential use, there is two, of the ceramic material in general of South Scandinavia and looked at it in a ritual perspective.</p></p>

I uppsatsen studeras förekomsten av giftermål som rit i Den Poetiska Eddan och Snorres Edda, med följande frågeställning: Hur ser förekomsten av giftermål som rit ut i Den poetiska Eddan och Snorres Edda, finns det någon skillnad mellan verken? Metoden är en textanalys i historisk kontext, där analysverktygen består av nyckelord. Uppsatsen avser en breddning av begreppet giftermål med hjälp av följande nyckelord: giftermål/bröllop, äktenskap/äkta, fria/frieri, brud, brudgum, maka/hustru/fru samt make/man. Utifrån nyckelorden valdes aktuella citat från eddorna. I teoridelen sätts giftermålet in i en teoretisk kontext och grundas där i Fiona Bowie och Catherine Bells ritualteorier. Resultatet av citaten grundas även i historisk forskning av Gro Steinsland, Sharon Ratke och Rudolf Simek, Britt-Mari Näsström, Auður Magnúsdòttir och Björn Collinder. En kort presentation av eddorna föregår resultatdelen där alla de utvalda citaten presenteras, kommenteras och analyseras. Resultatet visar utifrån de utvalda nyckelorden hur förekomsten av giftermål som rit ser ut i eddorna. Handlingen giftermål är inte närmare beskriven mer än ett fåtal gånger, men det finns betydligt fler tillfällen där ord och kontexter går att knyta till riten giftermål. Skillnaden som framkommit i jämförelsen av eddorna är att det i resultatet, med anknytning i litteraturen, går att knyta fler citat till Den poetiska Eddan än till Snorres Edda. I giftermålskontexten är det liknande teman som berörs i båda verken, det är bara omfattning och framställning som skiljer sig åt.

These poems tell lyrical stories primarily about violence, language, loss and love. Often with an edge of nightmare, they capture the voices of fringe characters in a variety of settings and circumstances. The poems also deal with books, history, family, ritual/myth and the natural world.

This essay studies the funnel-beaker ceramic in connection with the megalith graves in South Scandinavia. In my work I have described the nature of ceramics and looked on the crockery types and ornamentation and then discussed the use of the material in a ritual perspective. In the first part I have focused on the critical aspects you have to think about when you do a study like this one. In the second part of this essay I have done a case study, with the ceramic material, in three passages graves in the area of Falbygden, Western Sweden and studied the ceramic material and the nature of it in South Scandinavia as well. Then in the third I discussed the potential use, there is two, of the ceramic material in general of South Scandinavia and looked at it in a ritual perspective.

This essay consider ritual death during the ironage, and through a presentation of historical and archaeological sources. Considered ritual death I think we should study both historical and archaeological sources, to get a vider view and a new perspective. To make the essay easier to understand I have split up the early and the late Iron Age in the discussion. In order to study the ritual death I have shown archaeological examples like bogsacrifices in the early ironage, and decapitated victims in the Viking society. The victims have been considered as slaves by some archaeologist. An example of this is the grave in Bollstanäs, Uppland, when archaeologist found a cremated male with personal equipment. They also found two beheaded males. Ove Hemmendorff imply that they were slaves, buried as gravegoods, and he based this opinion of drawing parallels with other similar graves, and to literary sources like Ibn Fadlans story.