This paper attempts to explore the creation of Satan as an embodiment of evil in Early Christian theodicy. I use Greco-Roman myth and the Old Testament Book of Job to explore "duality," a system in which good and evil are encapsulated in gods or God. I attempt to trace the trajectory of a shift from this duality to a system of Christian cosmic "dualism," in which good and evil are separated as opposing forces. This shift is explored through the intertestamental Pseudepigrapha of 1 Enoch and Jubilees, towards the New Testament story of the Temptation of Christ in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Finally, exploring post-New Testament Christian ideas with Origen's seminal work On First Principles and the martyr text of Perpetua to investigate the Early Christian community's ideas of good, God, evil, and Satan.

The figure of the Tibetan Buddhist nun as a female monastic is situated within a matrix of complexities and contradictions that are constituted by textual and doctrinal sources, Tibetan social views on gender and female monasticism, and experiential realities. In order to understand the situation of nuns, one first must understand that monasticism, mainly the order of monks, has been a highly respected and financially supported institution in Tibetan society for centuries. However, because the histories of Tibetan nuns and female renunciants have gone primarily undocumented, their lineages and stories are much more opaque than those of Tibetan monks. Therefore, most of the scholarship on female Buddhist practitioners, with the exception of a few extraordinary yoginis, dates after the Chinese occupation of Tibet in the 1950s. Historically it is believed that there were a few great nunneries that existed centuries ago, but the majority of Tibetan nunneries have been smaller and lacking in the lay support and funding granted to monasteries. Currently, however, the landscape of Tibetan nuns is beginning to shift, as new resources and educational opportunities are beginning to be made available for Tibetan nuns in exile. It is on these nuns and nunneries in exile that this thesis will focus.

The Cognitive Science of Religion (CSR) in recent years is beginning to become more popular. This project evolves around the development of the field as well as critiques of the field. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of CSR, it lends an interesting way to understand religion as well as religious experiences. One of those religious experiences, conversion, is examined and explored through the use of conversion narratives from western women who were formally Christian but converted to Islam. Many themes arise out of this research that paves the way for trying to understand religious experiences. Overall, the project focuses on interpreting the conversion narratives to gain a better understanding of religious conversions for the sake of anthropology, philosophy, and cognitive psychology.

A comparison of the writings of Plato and C.S. Lewis reveals a common idea that human love is not sufficient for man. An examination of Plato’s Symposium and Lewis’s Till We Have Faces and The Four Loves, in particular, shows that both writers illustrate that man must ascend the ladder of love in order to meet the source of all love: Divine Love. Concerned with man’s innate needs and ethics, both Plato and Lewis argue that there is a universal principle of goodness known to all men of all cultures. Lewis argues, especially in The Abolition of Man, that man must cling to the traditional notion that a sense of right and wrong is inherent in all men. Illustrated in the measurably modified version of the Cupid and Psyche myth retold in Till We Have Faces, Lewis reveals that man’s natural relationships cannot satisfy his yearning for the union with beauty and truth found only in a supernatural relationship with Divine Love: God. Similar to Plato’s thought recorded in his dialogues, Lewis projects in most of his writings the argument that man cannot find the good life until he seeks the virtuous life that leads to harmony with men and joy found in the presence of God.

In this study, I have focused on the process for an eventual reunification of North and South Korea. In this process, Korean political, economic, cultural and religious issues are necessarily present. My study focuses on cultural and religious factors. I adopt the German reunification as a case study. The German reunification process provides Koreans with lessons about the negative changes in the status of German women since the German reunification caused extreme instances of the loss of status and economic opportunity for women. German reunification shows that the unequal situation and systems in society were not only due to political positions. Strong religious factors deeply influenced the German mentality. A similar religion-factor is at work in North Korean society which is influenced by Confucianism and in South Korean society which is influenced by Confucianism and conservative Christianity. I argue that religion is one of the major factors in the political culture of Korea, and religion can either assist a fair and equal process for both women and men or it can in a biased way maintain a male-oriented form of reunification. Consequently, the cultural and religious factors in this process of reunification must include an equalization of women and men. This can only take place if Korean women are major participants in the entire reunification process. There is a serious need for a reunification theology which incorporate gender into Korean theology, thus providing a 'feminist reunification theology.' A 'feminist reunification theology' presents basic theological principles that will help build an egalitarian community. There are three important ways to include women's concern for true reunification: 1) The creation of an egalitarian community in work, family and society; 2) The restoration of humanity by healing love and forgiveness through the power of Cross; and 3) The need for religion to be reformed in which a women can be a co-leader in family, church and nation.

A globalizing world is replete with the vulnerable, who are experiencing economic poverty, medical maltreatment, political persecution, and/or cultural misrecognition. The vulnerable are under systematic oppression and domination. Although the wealth of humankind increases continuously, many are excluded from any benefit of this increased wealth. While human beings have achieved significant progress in medical technology, uncountable numbers of people are exposed to a shortage of appropriate medical care. Despite continued expansion of democracy around the globe, the powerless majority and minorities are experiencing ignorance of their differences, culturally and/or politically. This dissertation searches for a viable human rights scheme that will effectively address the systematic oppression and domination of the vulnerable. By addressing oppression and domination of the vulnerable, I focus on overcoming several dichotomies: a dichotomy between transcendence and immanence within human beings, a dichotomy between equality and difference among human beings, and a dichotomy between individual differences and group differences. Those dichotomies have been detrimental to addressing systematic oppression and domination of the vulnerable. With relation to the dichotomy between transcendence and immanence within human beings, I frame the vulnerable as concrete others who have both transcendental dimensions and immanent dimensions. In terms of the dichotomy between equality and difference, my proposal is equality that substantially promotes difference, that is, capability equality and least-gap equality. With regard to the dichotomy between individual difference and group difference, my proposal is multiculturalism based on social individuality. These proposals for overcoming aforementioned dichotomies converge on social multiculturalism. I have argued that equality between groups and equality within groups can best address oppression and domination of concrete others. Specifically, reconfigured basic income guarantee, which includes basic income, public education, public healthcare, and linguistic diversity, is a concrete form of equality within groups that is conducive to promoting equality between groups. Therefore, I think that social multiculturalism based on the reconfigured basic income guarantee is a new, viable version of addressing oppression and domination of the vulnerable.

God never died as scholars of secularization theory from the 1960s and 1970s proposed that he eventually would, but He rather reappeared within the context of Pop music. This work analyzes the lives and music of Yusuf Islam a.k.a. Cat Stevens, Kanye West, Bob Dylan, and George Harrison in order to see how their inner quest for peace brought upon by religious conversion affected their supreme message. Once the artists realized the phenomenal peace found in experiencing personal relationships with the Divine, their music changed so as to inspire others to seek the same greater freedoms from which they benefited upon turning within. These four elite members of secular society did not privatize their faiths, and by sharing their new found beliefs with the world, they turned the minds of millions Godwards.

The term entheogen refers to drugs—including the artificial substances and active principles drawn from them—which are known to produce ecstasy and have been used traditionally in certain religious and shamanic contexts. The entheogenic experiences provoked by entheogens are described by users in myriad ways, including in spiritual, religious, philosophical, and secular contexts. Entheogenic experiences have shown that they can create opportunities for individuals to generate meaning, including novel philosophical insights, which users claim to gain by way of experience. As such, entheogenic experiences exhibit the ability to influence a change in a user’s fundamental philosophical commitments, or live options, including their ethical dispositions. Given that these new live options are rooted in experience, their veracity gains further credence for users than those commitments they have come to hold by way of abstraction. By philosophically investigating the phenomenology of entheogenic experiences, this work argues that entheogens have ethical import

This thesis is a study of Johann Adam Moehler's critical theology as an achievement in the nineteenth century's quest for a historical methodology. As the first Catholic theologian to apply a critical-historical analysis to the development of doctrine, Moehler is important as both the theologian and as a German historian. As the theologian, Moehler's efforts to discover the essential meaning of Christian doctrine led him to conclude that doctrine develops within a human context of experience, namely, the Catholic Church. This development of doctrine is possible given the organic nature of the Christian community and its relationship to the divine. It is only the subjective form which doctrine assumes at different stages in life of the Church that is susceptible to change. The objective truth of Christian principles remains immutable. As the historian, Moehler applied a critical method, symbolism, to his theological subject matter. By an objective investigation of the symbols of Protestantism and Catholicism, he felt that the essential differences and the meanings of the respective confessions could be properly analyzed. History, as the proper framework in which to acquire the objective meaning of the Catholic experience, is the common denominator between Christ and his institution, the Church, and remains the only means of justifying its continued existence. This study of Moehler's ideas begins with a discussion of the historical context in which Moehler lived and by which he was influenced. This discussion highlights the German Aufklärung and its reaction to the French Enlightenment, the Romantic Movement as it uniquely developed in Germany and the rise of the Tübingen School as the locus of romantic Catholic theology in the early nineteenth century. The second chapter relates the details of Moehler's biography, particularly as a member of the Tübingen theological faculty. In the third chapter Moehler's critical theology is discussed as it reflects his historical consciousness and his methodology. The fourth chapter consists of a review of the literature written about Moehler as well as some interesting interpretations of his concepts and their consequences. Finally, the conclusion attempts to place Moehler in a perspective to his German philosophical heritage and to the historical theories of his time as a historical theologian.

This thesis aims to explore the political, social and religious opposition to Liberation Theology in Latin America during the 1960s to 1990s, and the transformation of Christianity. During this period, most Latin American countries underwent social struggles and political repression in which opposition and persecution arose from dictatorial and military governments who labeled those committed to the poor as communists. Liberation Theology emerged as an ecclesial and theological trend committed to the poor, in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s in Latin America. This thesis traces the origins, development, expansion and repression of Liberation Theology. This work maintains that under the Cold War context and the National Security Doctrine, Liberation Theology became a target of political repression because its commitment with the poor placed it as subversive and communist. This research reveals how it was repressed with violence and the promotion of counteracting religious groups, leading to changes in Christianity.