This essay is a comparative study of Judeo-Christian religion and religions from the ancient Middle East, mainly ancient Sumer/Mesopotamia and Egypt, with focus on the common symbols; the serpent, the cow and the tree. The comparison of the three symbols from different religious traditions highlights that there are both key differences and similarities. The differences and similarities are then explained with the help of professor Yair Zakovitch theory inverted reflections stories also referred to as mirror-narratives, which is an intertextual theory. The application of the theory helps to establish that many of the biblical myths are part of a large collection of polemical literature. A strategy within polemics was to invert symbols and motifs from the so called ”pagan” tradition and associate an old well known motif with the opposite meaning in the later biblical reinterpretations, or what Zakovitch identifies as mirror-narratives. The result of this study shows that the theory mirror-narratives is very fruitful in the comparison of Judeo-Christian religion and ”pagan” religions from the ancient Middle East.

Ireland is a country with a rich and unique cultural heritage. It is difficult to imagine that certain facets of Irish culture (e.g. Saint Patrick's Day, the Blarney Stone, or the Ring of Kerry) can ever be taken for granted since they are so widely recognized internationally. One common feature of Irish life that possibly warrants more scholarly attention is the public house or pub. Much has been written about pubs as quaint institutions in popular literature and fiction. Curiously, they remain largely overlooked as vital aspects of Irish culture by anthropologists and others in the social sciences. In many ways, socio-cultural research on pub life in Ireland is woefully under examined. In an effort to better evaluate the significance of traditional pub life to Irish culture, my thesis seeks to integrate and critically assess the existing socio-cultural literature on Irish pub life. Such work will not only help highlight both the commonalities and discrepancies within this area of study, it will more significantly identify those areas of Irish pub life that can benefit from further academic investigation. Two recent trips to Ireland in September 2004 and May 2006, allowed me to observe important aspects of pub life first hand. It became apparent from these encounters that, like the history of Ireland itself, local pubs have a rich historical foundation. Many of the pubs that I visited have been in existence or operational since the Middle Ages. Based on this longevity, one can reasonably argue that pubs in Ireland function largely as locales of social significance and cultural reproduction, not just centers of recreational drinking. Using my travel experience as a starting point for the critical analysis phase of this thesis project, I have developed three general research questions that I will explore to varying degrees in the context of this work. These are: (1) what are the origins of pubs in Ireland?; (2) what explicit and implicit functions do pubs serve in Irish communities?; and (3) what possible developments are likely to affect Irish pubs in the near and distant future?

No description available.

This study is an endeavour to construct a theological (Missiological) reflection on what Christian witnessing could look like in Kano among non-Christians (predominantly Hausa/Fulani Muslims), if interpreted and expressed from the viewpoint of the hope Christians have in Christ. This heads towards a proposal for new Christian praxis, developed in dialogue with and as a response to the role of the life-transforming message of justification in Christ, as it relates to Christian living. This is based on historical fact that attracts non-Christians to the hope in God’s future activity through His saving grace in the unique Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 1: 22), that is, seeking to be like Christ (1Jn 3: 2-3). This leads to the guiding issue on how Christians should explore hope as a fundamental key to become living witnesses to non-Christians, Muslim in particular, in Kano city, Northern Nigeria and elsewhere in the world based on the biblical interpretation of 1 Peter 3: 15-17. It equally means in a hostile environment walking by faith rather than by sight, through suffering rather than by triumph, to bringing about the future Kingdom of God, characterized by peace, justice and love into the community now, and ultimately in the one to come. This in turn makes this study relevant both internally – for the renewal of the church to discover and live out its Christian identity – and externally, in the church’s witness to its Muslim neighbours in the midst of religious intolerance that leads to bloodshed and the destruction of property. Therefore, the two dimensions, the internal and external, of the church’s life, since a congregation’s sense of identity is at the same time its sense of mission in society. A renewal in the church’s sense of identity brings about a renewal in its sense of mission, and vice versa. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D. Th. (Missiology)

The reading of selected literary texts in this thesis traces the changes from a divinely ordered world of stability (Thomas Mann's Bud<lenbrooks) to surroundings characterized by insecurity (William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury) to an unstable environment giving rise to largely futile attempts at finding answers to seemingly illogical questions (Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49). As a product of the accelerated speed of technological progression and the information revolution in the twentieth century, man is more often than not incapable of adjusting to changed circumstances in a seemingly hostile environment. Indeed, instability and unpredictability are external factors determining the sense of insecurity and uncertainty characterising the 'world' depicted in the literary texts under consideration. For this reason judicious use will be made of philosophical and psychoanalytical concepts, based, amongst others, on Nietzschean and Freudian theories, to explain the disintegration of families, the anguish experienced by individuals or, indeed, the shifting identities informing the portrayal of character in selected literary texts. / Afrikaans and Theory of Literature / D.Litt. et Phil. (Theory of Literature)

Permission from the author to digitize this work is pending. Please contact the ICS library if you would like to view this work. / There are many excellent studies of the life and thought of Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971), prominent Christian ethicist, social philosopher, and political activist of the American Century. Most studies focus on his mature works of mid-century, particularly his theological ethics. The following study treats his emergent theory of history between 1927-1934, especially the idea of progress and the narrative of modern capitalist society. During this formative period Niebuhr wrote three major books (Does Civilization Need Religion? [1927], Moral Man and Immoral Society [1932], and Reflections on the End of an Era [1934]) which reflect his intellectual passage from religious liberalism and the politics of persuasion to "Christian-Marxism" and the politics of power. The following thesis will trace the diverse historiographical influences found in these works, from the church-historical perspective of Ernst Troeltsch to the dialectical materialism of Karl Marx. It is common to say that Niebuhr was purely a theologian of history. But following Ricoeur and White, I describe the main ingredients of a philosophy of history that are present in these writings: myth, plot, social processes, patterns of progress and cycle. Moreover, he was a "thinker in time"--these philosophical elements combined to render a plausible and meaningful narrative context for social action. In the early period Niebuhr began his lifelong critique of Enlightenment, capitalism, and the idea of progress. Following Robert Nisbet's analysis of the concept of progress in Western cultural history, I will argue that Niebuhr traverses his own peculiar dialectics of history, moving from the idea of progress-as-freedom (in the twenties) to the idea of progress-as-power (in the thirties); from the form of irony to the form of tragedy; from the concept of the voluntary reform of the excesses of captialism to the concept of the frank use of coercion to implement a socialist alternative to captialism. His philosophy of history in this period thus reflects in Christian idiom aspects of the very antinomies of the Enlightenment regarding personality and power, freedom and fate, which he desires to overcome.

I am a collage artist working with multiple mediums such as paint, photography, video, audio, and performance. As a New Orleans’ native, I have a unique history that is unflattering, for my history echoes that of America’s historical misdeeds. I make sociopolitical art because I am of a historically oppressed people. I make art that celebrates my diverse culture that is a collage of Native American, African, and New Orleans’ French Creole.

This study is an endeavour to construct a theological (Missiological) reflection on what Christian witnessing could look like in Kano among non-Christians (predominantly Hausa/Fulani Muslims), if interpreted and expressed from the viewpoint of the hope Christians have in Christ. This heads towards a proposal for new Christian praxis, developed in dialogue with and as a response to the role of the life-transforming message of justification in Christ, as it relates to Christian living. This is based on historical fact that attracts non-Christians to the hope in God’s future activity through His saving grace in the unique Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 1: 22), that is, seeking to be like Christ (1Jn 3: 2-3). This leads to the guiding issue on how Christians should explore hope as a fundamental key to become living witnesses to non-Christians, Muslim in particular, in Kano city, Northern Nigeria and elsewhere in the world based on the biblical interpretation of 1 Peter 3: 15-17. It equally means in a hostile environment walking by faith rather than by sight, through suffering rather than by triumph, to bringing about the future Kingdom of God, characterized by peace, justice and love into the community now, and ultimately in the one to come. This in turn makes this study relevant both internally – for the renewal of the church to discover and live out its Christian identity – and externally, in the church’s witness to its Muslim neighbours in the midst of religious intolerance that leads to bloodshed and the destruction of property. Therefore, the two dimensions, the internal and external, of the church’s life, since a congregation’s sense of identity is at the same time its sense of mission in society. A renewal in the church’s sense of identity brings about a renewal in its sense of mission, and vice versa. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D. Th. (Missiology)

The reading of selected literary texts in this thesis traces the changes from a divinely ordered world of stability (Thomas Mann's Bud<lenbrooks) to surroundings characterized by insecurity (William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury) to an unstable environment giving rise to largely futile attempts at finding answers to seemingly illogical questions (Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49). As a product of the accelerated speed of technological progression and the information revolution in the twentieth century, man is more often than not incapable of adjusting to changed circumstances in a seemingly hostile environment. Indeed, instability and unpredictability are external factors determining the sense of insecurity and uncertainty characterising the 'world' depicted in the literary texts under consideration. For this reason judicious use will be made of philosophical and psychoanalytical concepts, based, amongst others, on Nietzschean and Freudian theories, to explain the disintegration of families, the anguish experienced by individuals or, indeed, the shifting identities informing the portrayal of character in selected literary texts. / Afrikaans and Theory of Literature / D.Litt. et Phil. (Theory of Literature)

Dans ce travail, nous proposons des procédures de test paramétriques et nonparamétrique localement et asymptotiquement optimales au sens de Hajek et Le Cam, pour trois modèles d'asymétrie. <p>La construction de modèles d'asymétrie est un sujet de recherche qui a connu un grand développement ces dernières années, et l'obtention des tests optimaux (pour trois modèles différents) est une étape essentielle en vue de leur mise en application. <p>Notre approche est fondée sur la théorie de Le Cam d'une part, pour obtenir les propriétés de normalité asymptotique, bases de la construction des tests paramétriques optimaux, et la théorie de Hajek d'autre part, qui, via un principe d'invariance permet d'obtenir les procédures non-paramétriques.<p><p>Nous considérons dans ce travail deux classes de distributions univariées asymétriques, l'une fondée sur un développement d'Edgeworth (décrit dans le Chapitre 1), et l'autre construite en utilisant un paramètre d'échelle différent pour les valeurs positives et négatives (le modèle de Fechner, décrit dans le Chapitre 2).<p>Le modèle d'asymétrie elliptique étudié dans le dernier chapitre est une généralisation multivariée du modèle du Chapitre 2.<p>Pour chacun de ces modèles, nous proposons de tester l'hypothèse de symétrie par rapport à un centre fixé, puis par rapport à un centre non spécifié.<p><p>Après avoir décrit le modèle pour lequel nous construisons les procédures optimales, nous obtenons la propriété de normalité locale asymptotique. A partir de ce résultat, nous sommes capable de construire les tests paramétriques localement et asymptotiquement optimaux. Ces tests ne sont toutefois valides que si la densité sous-jacente f est correctement spécifiée. Ils ont donc le mérite de déterminer les bornes d'efficacité paramétrique, mais sont difficilement applicables. <p>Nous adaptons donc ces tests afin de pouvoir tester les hypothèses de symétrie par rapport à un centre fixé ou non, lorsque la densité sous-jacente est considérée comme un paramètre de nuisance. <p>Les tests que nous obtenons restent localement et asymptotiquement optimaux sous f, mais restent valides sous une large classe de densités. <p><p>A partir des propriétés d'invariance du sous-modèle identifié par l'hypothèse nulle, nous obtenons les tests de rangs signés localement et asymptotiquement optimaux sous f, et valide sous une vaste classe de densité. Nous présentons en particulier, les tests fondés sur les scores normaux (ou tests de van der Waerden), qui sont optimaux sous des hypothèses Gaussiennes, tout en étant valides si cette hypothèse n'est pas vérifiée.<p>Afin de comparer les performances des tests paramétriques et non paramétriques présentés, nous calculons les efficacités asymptotiques relatives des tests non paramétriques par rapport aux tests pseudo-Gaussiens, sous une vaste classe de densités non-Gaussiennes, et nous proposons quelques simulations. / Doctorat en sciences, Orientation statistique / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished