This study argues that Adelaide Anne Procter's poetry is a hybrid of one of the century's most significant poetical modes, the Tractarian mode. The Tractarians viewed art and religion as complementary sources in ministering to the soul. Procter, like the Tractarians, used poetry as a handmaiden to religion, for almost each of her poems seems to have been written to help relieve women and men of their earthly affections and thus reach God. More specifically, the study applies the basic principles of Tractarian aesthetics (the cathartic benefits) as defined by John Keble in Lectures on Poetry and Occasional Papers and Reviews (both works by Keble) to Adelaide Procter's poetry. The similarities between Keble's ideas and Procter's work conclusively illustrate that Procter's poetry has affinities with Tractarian aesthetics, and because of the incessant themes about the spiritual gains in coping with the daily problems that beset humankind, the poetry can best be described as a "poetry of deliverance." / Because of Miss Procter's virtual obscurity to most contemporary scholars, Chapter One serves as an introduction to the poet as well as to the study. Chapters Two through Four apply three of Keble's principles, identified in works listed above, to the content, context, and images of Miss Procter' s poetics. Specifically, Chapter Two demonstrates how the poet used poetry to alleviate the stress of everyday living by showing the spiritual significance of each concern, thus responding to Keble's mandate that art should awaken moral and religious feelings in human beings. Chapter Three discusses Procter's use of poetry to attempt to effect social changes and to change conventional attitudes, thereby complying with Keble's principle that poetry should "better something imperfect." While the former two chapters address the benefits of poetry for the reader, Chapter Four focuses on the cathartic benefits that writing poetry provided Procter as poet, dramatizing Keble's principle that first and foremost poetry relieves the over-burdened mind of the artist and, in essence, prevents her or him from going insane. Finally, Chapter Five reiterates the therapeutic benefits of Adelaide Procter's work and the artist's view of the cathartic value of art in general. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-04, Section: A, page: 0976. / Major Professor: Fred Standley. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.

The purpose of this study was to locate the source from which the Western Christian Church borrowed the practice of ringing bells at Christian shrines that is evident at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome in the mid-eighth century C.E. Four major religious shrines, the fifth-century B.C.E. Parthenon at Athens, the first-century C.E. Jewish Temple at Jerusalem, the sixth-century C.E. Hagia Sophia Cathedral at Constantinople, and eighth-century C.E. St. Peter's Basilica at Rome, were examined. The shrines were investigated in order to uncover any commonality in the use of musical instruments, especially the ringing of bells, in the rites, rituals, and ceremonies of religious worship. The Greek Pagan Festival, the Panathenaia, performed at the Parthenon records two musical instruments possibly played in the Panathenaic procession: the double pipes and the kithara. The temple orchestra of the Jewish Temple included the kinnor, nevel, metziltayim, hazozerah, halil, and the magrephah; the shofar was blown on Jewish Holidays. No musical instruments were incorporated into Christian rituals at Hagia Sophia, but at St. Peter's a bell reference appears in the middle of the eighth century. / Data indicated that there was no significant relationship among the instrumental musical practices of the four major shrines. No commonality in the use of bells was found at the major shrines of Greek Paganism, Judaism, Eastern Greek Orthodoxy, or Roman Catholicism. The introduction of the practice of ringing bells in religious rituals of the Western Christian Church appears to have been derived from other sources than the four major religious shrines examined. / Recommendations for further study include the examination of religious shrines in Egypt, Syria, and northern India. Additional research is needed to find a link between Buddhism in northern India, where the ringing of bells at Buddhist temples was a common practice, to the Hellenistic culture of the Middle East. This information would provide one source from which the Western Christian Church may have borrowed the practice of ringing bells at religious shrines. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-05, Section: A, page: 1433. / Major Professor: Amy L. Brown. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.

The purpose of this study was to locate the source from which the Western Christian Church borrowed the practice of ringing bells at Christian shrines that is evident at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome in the mid-eighth century C.E. Four major religious shrines, the fifth-century B.C.E. Parthenon at Athens, the first-century C.E. Jewish Temple at Jerusalem, the sixth-century C.E. Hagia Sophia Cathedral at Constantinople, and eighth-century C.E. St. Peter's Basilica at Rome, were examined. The shrines were investigated in order to uncover any commonality in the use of musical instruments, especially the ringing of bells, in the rites, rituals, and ceremonies of religious worship. The Greek Pagan Festival, the Panathenaia, performed at the Parthenon records two musical instruments possibly played in the Panathenaic procession: the double pipes and the kithara. The temple orchestra of the Jewish Temple included the kinnor, nevel, metziltayim, hazozerah, halil, and the magrephah; the shofar was blown on Jewish Holidays. No musical instruments were incorporated into Christian rituals at Hagia Sophia, but at St. Peter's a bell reference appears in the middle of the eighth century. / Data indicated that there was no significant relationship among the instrumental musical practices of the four major shrines. No commonality in the use of bells was found at the major shrines of Greek Paganism, Judaism, Eastern Greek Orthodoxy, or Roman Catholicism. The introduction of the practice of ringing bells in religious rituals of the Western Christian Church appears to have been derived from other sources than the four major religious shrines examined. / Recommendations for further study include the examination of religious shrines in Egypt, Syria, and northern India. Additional research is needed to find a link between Buddhism in northern India, where the ringing of bells at Buddhist temples was a common practice, to the Hellenistic culture of the Middle East. This information would provide one source from which the Western Christian Church may have borrowed the practice of ringing bells at religious shrines. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-05, Section: A, page: 1433. / Major Professor: Amy L. Brown. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990. / The purpose of this study was to locate the source from which the Western Christian Church borrowed the practice of ringing bells at Christian shrines that is evident at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome in the mid-eighth century C.E. Four major religious shrines, the fifth-century B.C.E. Parthenon at Athens, the first-century C.E. Jewish Temple at Jerusalem, the sixth-century C.E. Hagia Sophia Cathedral at Constantinople, and eighth-century C.E. St. Peter's Basilica at Rome, were examined. The shrines were investigated in order to uncover any commonality in the use of musical instruments, especially the ringing of bells, in the rites, rituals, and ceremonies of religious worship. The Greek Pagan Festival, the Panathenaia, performed at the Parthenon records two musical instruments possibly played in the Panathenaic procession: the double pipes and the kithara. The temple orchestra of the Jewish Temple included the kinnor, nevel, metziltayim, hazozerah, halil, and the magrephah; the shofar was blown on Jewish Holidays. No musical instruments were incorporated into Christian rituals at Hagia Sophia, but at St. Peter's a bell reference appears in the middle of the eighth century. / Data indicated that there was no significant relationship among the instrumental musical practices of the four major shrines. No commonality in the use of bells was found at the major shrines of Greek Paganism, Judaism, Eastern Greek Orthodoxy, or Roman Catholicism. The introduction of the practice of ringing bells in religious rituals of the Western Christian Church appears to have been derived from other sources than the four major religious shrines examined. / Recommendations for further study include the examination of religious shrines in Egypt, Syria, and northern India. Additional research is needed to find a link between Buddhism in northern India, where the ringing of bells at Buddhist temples was a common practice, to the Hellenistic culture of the Middle East. This information would provide one source from which the Western Christian Church may have borrowed the practice of ringing bells at religious shrines.

From "The Man With the Hoe" to "Tobacco Road"| Class, Poverty and Religion and the Southern Tenant Farmers' Union

This study is an examination of Master Yinshun's hermeneutics. It focuses especially on his interpretation of the Buddhist concept known as the tathagatagarbha, which refers to the idea that all sentient beings intrinsically possess the "womb of the Buddha." In some explanations of this teaching, the tathagatagarbha is symbolic of the practitioner's potential for attaining enlightenment. In others, it functions as a synonym for the Ultimate and becomes the eternalistic substrate for all of existence. It is this latter view to which Yinshun takes exception, seeing it as antithetical to the doctrine of emptiness which espouses the notion that all things, including ideas, material objects, and living beings, lack a permanent and independent nature and thus cannot possess an unchanging, eternalistic form. I focus particularly on Yinshun's text A Study of the Tathagatagarbha , for it serves as a concise statement of his interpretation of the tathagatagarbha and its relationship to emptiness. In this text, Yinshun continually asserts the doctrine of emptiness as the definitive expression of Buddhist truth and relegates the tathagatagarbha to the category of expedient means. He does this by examining the development of the tathagatagarbha emphasizing particularly its evolution within pre-Mahayana and Mahayana textual sources said to have had their genesis in India such as the Agamas , the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras and the Ratnagotravibhaga. For Yinshun, to regard the tathagatagarbha as the ultimate truth rather than as an expedient means can only result in misguided practice and confusion about how to attain enlightenment. I conclude by asking a number of general questions about Yinshun's thought and its relationship to the early to mid-twentieth century intellectual milieu in China. I also inquire about how Yinshun's ideas have contributed to the development of contemporary Chinese Buddhist movements flourishing in Taiwan today.

The Reformation in French-speaking Switzerland outside of Geneva has received relatively little attention from historians. Unlike the movement in Geneva, the Reformation in its neighboring lands progressed in a completely different manner and was ultimately imposed on the people by the magistrates of Bern. Before 1536, Protestant reformers such as Guillaume Farel and Pierre Viret hardly touched most areas of the Pays de Vaud, which was governed by the Catholic duke of Savoy. Instead, they concentrated their efforts on areas within the jurisdiction of or allied to Protestant Bern, where they met with strong resistance from the people. The reformers focused their attacks---in preaching, in print, and symbolically in acts of iconoclasm directed against church altars---on the Catholic mass. Very few parishes abolished the mass, however. The religious situation shifted dramatically in 1536, however, when Bern conquered Vaud in its war against Savoy. Due to widespread resistance to the Protestant preachers, Bern imposed the Reformed faith on all its subjects following the 1536 Lausanne Disputation. The "new religion" was opposed by many, particularly the former Catholic clergy, many of whom continued to celebrate Catholic ceremonies in secret while waiting for a final resolution by the promised general council. The nobles suddenly found themselves vassals of the "common man," the Bern city council, and were loath to institute religious changes on their lands. The commoners in Vaud continued to practice traditions, such as praying to the saints and observing Catholic feast days. The Bernese magistrates and the Calvinist ministers in Vaud recognized these problems but could not agree on how to fix them. The Bernese saw the Reformation as a long-term process and hoped eventually to effect change by their ordinances. The ministers, led by Pierre Viret and strongly influenced by John Calvin, believed that change was taking place too slowly and that meanwhile the "body of Christ" was being polluted by unworthy communicants taking the eucharist. They argued for the necessity of greater ecclesiastical discipline, including excommunication, and the dispute led to the banishment of Viret and his colleagues, who subsequently moved to Geneva.

This dissertation explores the nexus of religious, political, and economic issues that led to the socially and religiously divisive intra-Protestant dispute over the proper interpretation and celebration of the Eucharist during the first years of the German Reformation. This dispute roiled cities and territories throughout Germany beginning around the year 1524 as lay men and women began organizing and agitating to promote a symbolic understanding of the Eucharist. The laity saw in this initially academic debate a vehicle through which they could articulate and fight for their own bundle of religious and social concerns. The imperial free city of Augsburg, one of the wealthiest, most populous and most politically powerful cities in the Empire, serves in the dissertation as the case study for a German-wide phenomenon. Chapter one contextualizes the Augsburg eucharistic disputes both by laying out the course of the academic eucharistic debates that raged among Martin Luther, Huldreich Zwingli, and their various supporters and by describing the social and economic tensions unique to Augsburg. Chapter two investigates the Augsburg preaching of the Franciscan friar Hans Schilling, whose congregation began to make connections between the adoption of a symbolic understanding of the Eucharist and their political and economic interests. Chapter three explores the reasons behind the spectacular success of the Augsburg preacher Michael Keller. Keller articulated a symbolic understanding of Christ's presence in the Eucharist which resonated with the concerns of many Augsburg residents that the clergy were denying them the right of self-determination in religious issues, that the political elites were driving them out of their traditional role in civic life, and that the large Augsburg merchants were destroying their economic independence. Chapter four discusses the role of marginalized groups in Augsburg who formed sectarian cells, articulating their alienation from society through their doctrine of the Eucharist. Eventually these groups transitioned to Anabaptism as they found that their doctrine of the Eucharist would not carry the full weight of their sectarian agenda. Chapter five interacts with a series of historiographical questions in light of the evidence presented in the foregoing chapters.

William of Rubruck was a Franciscan friar who travelled to the court of Mongke Khan at the time when the Mongol empire was reaching its apogee as the largest empire in the world. His attempt to start a Catholic mission there failed. The report he wrote to King Louis IX of France has survived and has proven to be extraordinarily reliable, but historians have not seriously questioned how his motives for writing influenced the contents of this report. William's education and ambitions affected both his perceptions and what he chose to describe. William sought to salvage his failure by including information for future missions in his report on the many competing religions in the polyglot Mongol capital. Because of this, William's report contains invaluable information concerning the beliefs of Nestorian Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, and shamans in the Mongolian empire.

This dissertation examines the ethics of Santideva, an Indian Mahayana Buddhist thinker of the seventh century CE, particularly through his work, the Sikṣadsamuccaya (Compendium of Teaching). This study therefore helps redress a significant imbalance in the scholarship on Buddhist ethics, which has up to now focused primarily on the morality of the Theravada Buddhist tradition. The dissertation incorporates both descriptive and metaethical analyses to answer three questions: What is Santideva's moral theory, and how does it compare with other characterizations of Buddhist ethics? Can one moral theory adequately describe Buddhist moral traditions? / Through textual analysis and translations, this thesis offers a exegetical account of the moral thought in the Sikṣasamuccaya , beginning with a description of Santideva's understanding of how to become a bodhisattva, the Mahayana spiritual ideal. I provide an analysis of Santideva's understanding of key moral concepts, with a particular focus on virtuous conduct (sila), skillfulness (kusalatva), and merit (puṇya). I then test the assumption that Buddhist moral theory is homogeneous by comparing the results of this study with those of existing secondary literature on Buddhist ethics, and in particular, I respond to Damien Keown's position that Buddhist ethics can be considered a form of Aristotelian virtue ethics. I highlight those features of Santideva's thought that fit the framework of a virtue ethic, and then discuss the implications of those aspects of the tradition that are not well captured by it. In particular, I consider the utilitarian elements in Santideva's morality. In my conclusion, I attempt to resolve these apparently conflicting styles of moral reasoning with the idea that there is a shift over the course of a bodhisattva's career from a straightforward virtue ethic to a kind of utilitarian hybrid of virtue ethics. I conclude the thesis with some reflections on the value of comparative ethics and the effort to develop a comprehensive moral theory to describe Buddhist traditions.

<p>This work explores the ecumenical aspects of liturgy and how it can provide a common ground by which ecumenism can develop. Though different denominations may have varying characteristics to their liturgy the commonalities are striking. Liturgy can cross denominational and doctrinal boundaries. Whether a group adheres to transubstantiation or to representation, when the believer partakes in the bread and wine there is no question that it is Jesus Christ whom they remember. The Scriptures also cross denominational lines and does not depend upon one particular doctrinal viewpoint from which it must be read or heard. Baptism, whether by immersion or sprinkling, has been debated throughout the centuries yet is still a sacrament for most. Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs of worship are equally as trans-denominational. Liturgy not only transcends denominations but links the contemporary church with the Church throughout the ages. </p>