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This thesis explores celebration of the Easter Vigil as it shapes a theology of creation and asks whether it is liberating, life giving, for women and the earth. The exploration is firmly rooted in the centuries old adage lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi. There is a dynamic relationship between praying, believing and living; to worship is to do theology and shape living. The Easter Vigil with its unique elements of Light, Word, Baptism and Eucharist is a privileged place for this exploration and offers breadth to the exploration through its temporal and cosmic dimensions, proclamation of the Word and celebration of initiation. There are two points of departure for this work: liturgical theology and ecofeminism. Aidan Kavanagh's approach to liturgical theology---in particular his attention to experience, his conviction that the church's prayer founds believing, his identification of two movements of theology ( theologia prima and theologia secundo)---supports this study. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Among the rights proclaimed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and by article 60 of the Second Vatican Council's pastoral constitution on the Church in the modern world is the right to culture. Implicit in this right is the duty imposed on the public authority to preserve the tangible evidences of culture, cultural property. This study aims at exploring the origins and development of the notion of res pretiosa and asks if res pretiosa has become the cultural property of the Church in the 1983 Code of Canon Law. The term cultural property comes from the civil law. It seems first to have appeared in the 1954 Hague Convention and it has become well developed in international law and, more recently, in Anglo-American common law. Chapter 1 traces the development of this law and summarizes the legislation for the preservation of cultural property internationally and in Britain and the United States. Chapter 2 follows the notion res pretiosa from its locus classicus in the 1468 papal bull Ambitiosae back to its cradle in the Roman law of tutor and ward, where it meant "valuable chattels," and then forward through its adoption in canon law. It also looks at its elaboration there, and its codification in the 1917 Code of Canon Law where it has been narrowed to include only chattels valuable for their artistic, historical or intrinsic worth character and the effects of Vatican II on it. Chapter 3 looks at the notion of res pretiosa as found in the 1983 Code, the 1990 Eastern Code and in the suppletive documents, especially those of the Pontifical Commission for the Preservation of the Church's Cultural Heritage. The chapter concludes with a look at that agency and the other agencies of the Roman Curia having care of the Church's cultural heritage. In the conclusion section the author answers the question whether in the 1983 Code res pretiosa has become the cultural property of the Church. He concludes that, while res pretiosa includes cultural property, the term res pretiosa remains broader than the term "cultural property." He also concludes that it would be desirable for the Supreme Legislator to amend the 1983 Latin Code and 1990 Eastern Code so that the terms res pretiosa might be used identically on both and that term and "cultural property" might become coterminous. He also suggests that the Historic Churches Committees developed by the Bishops of England and Wales and their procedures might usefully be adopted in North America to deal with cases of changes proposed to historic churches.

This thesis will seek to explore the dynamics of religious patronage in colonial and pre-colonial India by tracing the history of a religious community from Western India called the Pus&dotbelow;t&dotbelow;i Marga. This community was founded in North India by the sixteenth century philosopher Vallabha, but by the nineteenth century, the spiritual leaders of the community had become wealthy, affluent landowners who ruled over their own private estates in the state of Rajasthan. This was largely due to the generous patronage that came from members of the Indian mercantile community as well as from members of both the Muslim and Hindu nobility. This thesis will argue that the patronage of this community by both Hindu and Muslim nobility was, in part, rooted in the common assumption of rulers that patronage of religious communities was not only religiously meritorious, but also essential to the craft of state-building, and to maintaining social stability, and social prestige. The relationship dynamics between the religious leaders of the Pus&dotbelow;t&dotbelow;i Marga and its patrons, however, was constantly fluctuating. Mercantile patrons, royal patrons, and spiritual leaders were all socially influential people, but neither exercised absolute dominance over the other. The balance of power constantly shifted between the three groups making it difficult to clearly define the relationship between the community's religious leaders and their supporters.