Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1970. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Denver Conservative Baptist Seminary, 1991. / This is an electronic reproduction of TREN, #090-0263. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 158-167).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Notre Dame, 2006. / Thesis directed by James Matthew Ashley for the Department of Theology. "April 2006." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 306-312).

Thesis (M.A.)--Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 118-128).

Despite voluminous research concerning French society during the eighteenth century the scientific practices of the Society of Jesus in France during that period remain a relatively neglected subject. That obscurity has been compounded by a historical tradition originating in the impassioned polemics of the Enlightenment which depicts the Jesuits, with varying degrees of emphasis, as a bastion of resistance to intellectual progress of all sorts. Such interpretations - alternating between censure and neglect - are challenged in this thesis. Through an analysis of scientific reviews in the Journal de Trévoux - a monthly periodical published by the Jesuits in France between 1701 and 1762 - it is argued that the latter took a serious and constructive interest in scientific affairs during the period in question. The emphasis placed here on the Journal de Trévoux is justified by the importance of that enterprise to the intellectual life of its time, and by the wealth of evidence it offers concerning Jesuit attitudes to science. The possibilities of such an investigation are vast. Research has therefore been confined initially to the question of how Jesuit writers responded to Newton's system of the world as described in the Principia and in multitudes of subsequent works by Newtonian authors. It is clear that this response evolved more or less in step with developments in French scientific culture generally. However, a persistent resistance on the part of Jesuit writers to the theoretical and methodological complexity of Newtonian science is also apparent. Such thinking, it is argued here, owed much to a culture of rhetoric cherished by the Jesuits which emphasized diversity and accessibility. Given evidence of a resistance on the part of the Jesuits to one of the fundamental characteristics of eighteenth century science, a further effort is made here to discern what the Jesuits considered to be the defining qualities of a vibrant scientific culture. In this case an analysis of diverse scientific and philosophical reviews identifies: a sustained enthusiasm for intellectual curiosity {outside the theological domain); a conviction that scientific progress was an evolutionary as opposed to revolutionary process; and finally, an emphasis on the importance of necessary social conditions for such progress to occur. Though definitive conclusions are elusive at this stage, on the basis of such findings it is argued that the French Jesuits reflected a strong affinity for Baconian ideas in their approach to science. According to such an argument it is therefore possible to contextualize the scientific attitudes in the Journal de Trévoux within a more general intellectual tradition. Such a conclusion supports one of the fundamental premises of this thesis - that Jesuit contributions to French scientific culture during the eighteenth century must not be marginalized in accounts of that period — and it illuminates an avenue for further research. / Arts, Faculty of / Art History, Visual Art and Theory, Department of / Graduate

The question addressed by this study would be to ask where there is any semantic overlap in the way in which on the one hand child sacrifices functioned in the OT and on the other hand how muti rituals function in contemporary South Africa. Do these different rituals function similarly, or not? In answering this question, this study will first provide a literature overview of how muti murders are described in academic literature and show the complexities of trying to understand African religion and culture. This is achieved by looking at the concept of muti rituals, its meaning, targeted victims (who are usually women and children) and development in history, from sacrifice in war times to sacrifice for material gain. In this section works from cultural anthropology are used to help form a clearer picture of what muti rituals are and how they function within society. The study then moves to how the practice of child sacrifice is portrayed in texts such as Genesis 22:1-19 (the binding of Isaac) and Judges 11:29-40 (Jephthah’s vow). Although many scholars chose to separate the sacrifices of Genesis 22 and Judges 11, this study will show that they should be read together since they share the common theme of burnt-offering. In the comparison it will become clear that both Abraham and Jephthah are fathers of an only child; their child is the single most precious thing they possess. Moreover, both accounts are of an etiological nature. The fact that both narratives are in the canon should be seen as an indication of the important contribution that they make to the theme of sacrifice. In a more general chapter, the concepts of sacrifice and offering are outlined and are both acknowledged as a form of worship. This is followed by an overview of the different types of sacrifices as outlined in the Levitical literature and their different occurrences, focusing on the burnt-offering. Rituals are therefore understood as a communicating and clarifying social reality and establishing it. These patterns are understood with the use of a Mesopotamian inscription about “The death of Gilgamesh” which shows that warfare and killing were necessary to maintain and establish order, prosperity and peace. A comparison between muti rituals and child sacrifice yields more differences than similarities. One of the major similarities is that a blessing is bestowed on the offerer, be it success in business, victory in war or the acquisition of land. The motif of sacrificing one for the greater good seems to be at play. The main difference between muti rituals and child sacrifice is that in muti rituals, the sacrifice is dedicated to ancestors while in child sacrifice they are dedicated to Yahweh. In muti rituals, the victim does not need to be related to the offerer but in both these texts; the victim is the only child, a special possession of the father. / Dissertation (MTh)--University of Pretoria, 2018. / NRF-Freestanding / Old Testament Studies / MTh / Unrestricted

This dissertation develops a feminist materialist interpretation of the role the neuroendocrine system plays in the development of gender/sex differences in religion. Data emerging from psychology, sociology, and cognitive science have continually indicated that women are more religious than men, in various senses of those contested terms, but the factors contributing to these findings are little understood and disciplinary perspectives are often unhelpfully siloed. Previous scholarship has tended to highlight socio-cultural factors while ignoring biological factors or to focus on biological factors while relying on problematic and unsubstantiated gender stereotypes. Addressing gender/sex difference is vital for understanding religion and how we study it. This dissertation interprets this difference by means of a multidisciplinary theoretical and methodological approach. This approach builds upon insights from the cognitive and evolutionary science of religion, affect theory and affective neuroscience, and social neuroendocrinology, and it is rooted in the foundational insights of feminist materialism, including that cultural and micro-sociological forces are inseparable from biological materiality. The dissertation shows how a better way of understanding gender/sex differences in religion emerges through focusing on the co-construction of biological materiality and cultural meanings. This includes deploying a gene-culture co-evolutionary explanation of ultrasociality and an understanding of the biology of performativity to argue that religious behavior and temperaments emerge from the enactment and hormonal underpinnings of six affective adaptive desires: the desires for (1) bonding and attachment, (2) communal mythos, (3) deliverance from suffering, (4) purpose, (5) understanding, and (6) reliable leadership. By hypothesizing the patterns of hormonal release and activation associated with ritualized affects—primarily considering oxytocin, testosterone, vasopressin, estrogen, dopamine, and serotonin—the dissertation theorizes four dimensions of religious temperament: (1) nurturant religiosity, (2) ecstatic religiosity, (3) protective/hierarchical religiosity, and (4) antagonistic religiosity. This dissertation conceptualizes hormones as chemical messengers that enable the diversity emerging from the imbrication of physical materiality and socio-cultural forces. In doing so, it demonstrates how hormonal aspects of gender/sex and culturally constructed aspects of gender/sex are always already intertwined in their influence on religiosity. This theoretical framework sheds light on both the diversity and the noticeable patterns observed in gender/sex differences in religious behaviors and affects. This problematizes the terms of the “women are more religious than men” while putting in place a more adequate framework for interpreting the variety of ways it appears in human lives.

After searching periodicals and getting the views of science teachers, it was found that the minority religious groups and individuals in larger religious groups had these three main objections to the teaching of science in the public schools. 1. The schools should not teach that the earth is round since the Bible states that it has four corners. 2. No scientific facts that relate to resistance to disease, health and sanitation problems, spread of disease or transmission of disease by bacteria or insects should be taught in the public schools. 3. No phase of evolution should be taught in the schools, how the earth plants, animals, or man evolved. In order to meet these objections, material has been compiled for the use of science teachers. No effort has been made to suggest methods of teaching such material since the teaching situations of science teachers appear to be varied and each individual can best select his own method. / M.S.

No description available.

This dissertation examines the interactions between early modern science and traditional Jewish legal scholarship through the life and work of Italian rabbi and physician Isaac Lampronti (1679-1756). Lampronti produced both the first alphabetically organized encyclopedia (the Paḥad Yiẓḥak) and the first periodical (the Bikurei kaẓir) of rabbinic law, which refashioned the traditional rabbinic system according to scientific methodologies and emerging Enlightenment ideas. Unwilling to relinquish the authorities of either science or traditional Jewish law, Lampronti creatively mediated the tensions between the two. The dissertation shows that the intellectual movements of the period not only catalyzed innovation within the realm of religious belief, they transformed religious practice and study as well.