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Throughout the Second Temple period (516 BCE-70 CE), the reading and interpretation of the Jewish scriptures shaped the national consciousness of the Jewish people. Within this setting, the Jesus movement emerged as a Jewish group which also laid claim to the Jewish scriptures as a means of articulating its identity even though, over time, the group came to be comprised primarily of non-Jews. How was it possible for a group of non-Jews to lay claim to the sacred texts of Jews and use these scriptures to define their own community? With the aim of exploring the answer to this question, my study compares and contrasts the way that the writings of the New Testament attributed to Luke, hereafter Luke-Acts, and the writings of the early Christian apologist Justin Martyr define the Christ-believing community by describing its privileged status in relation to the Jewish scriptures. This entails an examination of their respective representations of the Jewish scriptures and the exegesis of Christ-believers from two main vantage points: their portrayal of Christ-believers as authoritative interpreters of the Jewish scriptures (Part One) and their depiction of Christ-believers as heirs to the promises of scripture (Part Two). Although both authors similarly divide between insiders and outsiders to the Christ-believing community by arguing that Christ-believers alone possess an inspired capacity to interpret the Jewish scriptures, they do not describe insiders to their community in precisely the same way. Whereas Justin argues that Christ-believers have become the rightful recipients of the scriptural promises that God originally made to Jews, Luke envisages an ongoing role for the Jewish people as the recipients of the promises that God pledged to Israel. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The works of the nineteenth-century American thinker Ralph Waldo Emerson continue to be inspiring particularly due to their empowering effect on the individual. It is especially Emerson's concepts of the sovereignty of the individual, the importance of self-definition, the view of life as a transitory flow, and the relationship between freedom and fate which can be practically and usefully applied in the life of an individual. It is possible, then, to understand and evaluate Emerson's works through the practical effects of his concepts, in other words through the prism of pragmatism. Emerson's empowering philosophy can be of use especially to disempowered groups such as African Americans. The Emersonian themes which are to be found in the works of various African-American non-fiction writers such as W.E.B. Du Bois, James Baldwin, Martin Luther King Jr. and Cornel West testify to the relevance of Emerson for this minority group. In Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and Richard Wright's Native Son, two African-American novels, Emersonian principles are shown to be of utmost importance for the positive development of the protagonists.

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Gender roles are a tool used by society to set acceptable boundaries and ideals upon the sexes, and during the early part of the twentieth century in America those gender boundaries began to blur. As a result of the 19th Amendment, men must have felt their decreasing importance because women were no longer solely dependent upon them, and gender roles shifted as woman began to occupy territory that was traditionally held by men. The “New Woman" entered the workforce, and refused to accept traditional female gender conventions. In response to the “New Woman," Theodore Roosevelt and other leading males sought to reinforce the ideal of the male as the protector and provider. As woman took on characteristics commonly associated with men, men now had to grapple with a changing gender identity that often left them confused and frustrated. Willa Sibert Cather's life reflects the fluctuating gender conventions of early twentieth century America as she struggled to define her gender identity. In her youth, Cather chopped her hair and dressed like a boy. She also spent time dissecting frogs and called herself “William Cather, M.D." Cather's cross-dressing reveals her unconventional core and her desire to define herself regardless of societal expectations. Cather also had many close relationships with woman, and these close relationships have led many scholars to label her a lesbian. Cather, however, left us a mystery surrounding her gender preference because she never openly called herself a lesbian. Cather's supposed lesbianism is useful because it reveals the ambiguity of her personality. Cather is paradox because she sought for self-definition, but she also suffered from an identity crisis. By using the shifting nature of gender roles in the America during the early decades of the twentieth century and Cather's confused and unconventional life as a backdrop, I would argue that My Ántonia (1918), The Professor's House (1925), and “Neighbor Rosicky (1932)" reveal the consequences of gender roles. Cather's novels and short story should be analyzed for her interest in exploring male reaction to prescribed gender roles which, ultimately, reveals Cather's attitude towards the existence of gender conventions. Cather advocated for a more fluid and balance way of defining male and female roles. Cather's novel My Ántonia and The Professor's House reveal the consequences of gender roles because both Jim and Professor St. Peter are frustrated, fearful, unsatisfied, ambiguous, and unhappy with the roles that they have been playing. In sharp contrast to these two novels is Cather's delightful short story entitled “Neighbor Rosicky." In this short story Cather presents a protagonist who is whole and balanced. “Neighbor Rosicky" is Cather's statement regarding the importance and beauty of self-definition. Ultimately, her literature can be viewed as a rejection of both male and female gender qualities which demonstrates that Cather and her fiction cannot be reduced to an identity agenda.

Throughout church history, traditional interpretations of I Timothy 2:8-3:1 (a) have excluded women from ordained ministry in the church universal. The aim of this dissertation was to propose an alternative hermeneutical framework to effect fresh understanding of this text. A social-scientific approach utilised . models from sociology and communication theory. The socio-religious climate of Asia Minor particularly Ephesus between 59 and 64 C E is described. An assessment is made of the status of women in Asia Minor as well as in Hellenism, Romanism and Judaism. A textual analysis provided pointers to the aspects under research. Research findings strongly suggest that neither the text or the world beyond can be used to exclude women from full participation at all levels in the church. / Biblical and Ancient Studies / M.A. (Biblical Studies)

While a great deal of psychological research is conducted on college students, less has been done on their adaptation to college. These young adults, as they develop ego identity and differentiate themselves from parents and families, must adjust to the social and academic environment of college. Psychosocial adjustment predicts college retention better than academic predictors do. First generation college students face greater than typical challenges adapting to college. The Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program exists to aid first generation, lower income undergraduate student who wish to pursue a doctoral degree. Self-definition scored from thematic apperceptive technique stories reflects an individual’s relative freedom from social role constraint. This study examined the role of self-definition and familial understanding and acceptance in this population as predictors of successful adaptation to college. While neither was found to be a significant predictor, family understanding and acceptance was found to be a more defining characteristic of this sample than was self-definition. This suggests that when social support is sufficient, individuals do not need to rely on self-definition.

Abstract : In this thesis, I explore the kids-take-charge (KTC) motif within recent school stories produced for young adult audiences, situated in terms of a genealogy of school stories. The corpus of school stories includes English- and French-language works produced as fiction, film, or life-writing, both for teens and adults in Canada, the US, and the UK. This thesis identifies the historical and ideological shifts that may have given rise to the motif. School stories lend themselves to the identification of some of the distinct models of selfhood and ‘coming into one’s own’ that have figured prominently in works about and for adolescents in various sociocultural contexts. The research question that is asked is: Why is this type of story emerging now, and what social purposes might it serve? The question is inspired by the possible impact of power relations on youth in society, discussed in Disturbing the Universe: Power and Repression in Adolescent Literature by Roberta Trites, who suggests that power is everywhere in young adult literature because power is the key category of the adolescent experience. The thesis also draws on the work of theorists such as Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Beverly Lyon Clark, Henry Giroux, George Herbert Mead and Charles Horton Cooley, among others. The corpus includes the following works: The Lightning Thief, part of the Percy Jackson series by American author Rick Riordan; Schooled, by Canadian-born author Gordon Korman; the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling; High School Musical, a film that appeared in movie theatres and was shown on the Disney Channel; Harriet’s Daughter by M. NourbeSe Philip; and variations on the classic residential and early school stories as they travelled to the New World, such as Louisa May Alcott's Jo's Boys; Thomas Hughes' Tom Brown School Days, LM Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables, and Ralph Connor's Glengarry School Days, among other works. iv Chapter One establishes the contours of the KTC motif via a variety of contemporary fictional works for young adults through contrasting the stories of change-making by young adults in these works with patterns found both in classic British school stories of the 19th century and in early Canadian and American variations on the theme. The chapter explores what it means for young people to achieve an adult sense of self, and what resources they are expected to engage in the process. The chapter also examines the kinds of models of youth selfhood and emerging adulthood that can be linked to the KTC motif. In Chapter Two, I argue that a qualitatively new motif concerning power and agency has emerged within a number of school stories produced over the past two decades. As I identify it, the KTC motif is characterized by three defining features, whether it appears in works of fantasy or realism. First, the central protagonist must confront a problem or crisis of systemic importance; how this challenge is resolved will affect an entire school, community, or even—in works of fantasy—the fate of entire worlds. Second, stories that feature the KTC motif generally de-emphasize the importance of adult mentors in preparing young people for, and guiding them through, these challenges. Third, the KTC motif enshrines a particular notion of the ‘authentic self’ as the source of personal power and agency: victory is assured only insofar as the central protagonist becomes and remains ‘true’ to himself or herself. Finally, I ask what the vision of power and agency implicit in the KTC motif could mean for young people as they move toward becoming adult actors in a complex and globalizing world. In Chapter Three, I examine questions that enable me to access the model of social change, comparing these accounts to a narrative of social change in the broader world. I also assess how adolescents are liable to view and interpret their own experiences through a global v lens as prodigious consumers of narratives produced in a global culture. This chapter assesses the extent to which social forms of difference and inequality, such as gender, race, and class, are integrated into presentation of the problem and strategy/solution within the KTC motif, and how social changes are encouraged by young protagonists. In the KTC motif, I find that self-actualization brings power—and power from within trumps power from without, at least within cultures based on Western individualism. Exceptions are discussed through the examples of narratives based on Caribbean-Canadian identities (Norbese-Philip) and on indigenous identities. Contemporary school stories that follow the KTC motif continue to have a moralizing or didactic bent, in keeping with a trend in YA literature that underlines the agency of youth protagonists over that of adults. Where the classic school story ultimately affirms the existing order, the KTC motif suggests that the existing power order is corrupt. I suggest that the KTC motif may in part reflect the needs of a post-industrial, knowledge-based economy, in which people are flexible, self-motivated, and willing to believe that whether they succeed or fail depends not on the soundness of institutions, but on the strength of their own unique talents and even their personal 'authenticity.' / Résumé : Dans cette thèse, j’explore le modèle de l’enfant qui prend charge "kids-take-charge (KTC)", à travers des récits produits pour des audiences de jeunes adultes, en termes de généalogie de récits scolaires. Le corpus des récits scolaires inclut des travaux en anglais et en français produits comme science-fiction, film ou faits vécus, pour les adolescents et les adultes du Canada, des États-Unis et le Royaume-Uni. Cette thèse identifie les changements historiques et idéologiques qui ont pu causer la naissance de ce modèle. Les récits scolaires ont mené à l’identification de certains modèles distincts d’individualité et "coming into one’s own" qui ont figurés principalement dans les travaux sur et pour les adolescents dans des contextes socioculturels variés. La questionrecherche qui est posée est : pourquoi ce genre d’histoire émerge maintenant, et quel but social peut-il servir ? La question est inspirée par l’impact possible du pouvoir des relations sur la jeunesse dans la société, examiné dans Disturbing the Universe : Power and Repression in Adolescent Literature par Roberta Trites, qui suggère que le pouvoir est partout et la littérature de jeunes adultes parce que le pouvoir est la catégorie clé de l’expérience des adolescents. Cette thèse nous amène aussi au travail des théoriciens comme Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Beverly Lyon Clark, Henry Giroux, George Herbert Mead et Charles Horton Cooley parmi tant d’autres. Le corpus inclut les travaux suivants : The Lightning Thief, partie de la série Percy Jackson des auteurs américains Rick Riordan; Schooled, de l’auteur canadien Gordon Korman; la série des Harry Potter de JK Rowling; High School Musical, un film qui est apparu sur les écrans de cinéma et qui a été diffusé sur la chaine Disney ; Harriet’s Daughter de M. NourbeSe Philip; et variations des classiques sur les pensionnats et récits scolaires qui ont voyagé dans le temps, comme Louisa May Alcott's Jo's Boys; Thomas Hughes' Tom Brown School Days, LM Montgomery's Anne of vii Green Gables, and Ralph Connor's Glengarry School Days, pour ne nommer que ceux-là. Le chapitre 1 établit les contours du motif "KTC” à travers une variété d’œuvres de fiction contemporaines pour jeunes adultes en contrastant les histoires des changements faits par les jeunes adultes dans ces travaux avec des modèles trouvés dans les classiques récits scolaires britanniques du 19e siècle et dans les premières variations canadiennes et américaines sur le sujet. Le chapitre examine également les types de modèles d’individualité des adolescents et jeunes adultes qui peuvent être liés au motif “KTC”. Au chapitre 2, je soutiens qu’un relativement nouveau concept concernant le pouvoir et l’agence est apparu dans un certain nombre de récits scolaires produits dans les deux dernières décennies. Comme je conceptualise le motive KTC, 3 fonctions bien définies que ce soit dans les ouvres de fantaisie ou le réalisme. Premièrement, le personnage central doit confronter un problème ou une crise d’importance systémique ; comment ce défi est résolu affectera une école entière, une communauté ou même – dans les œuvres de fantaisie – le destin du monde entier. Deuxièmement, les récits qui représentent le concept KTC insistent généralement moins de l’importance de mentors adultes dans la préparation et la supervision des jeunes à affronter ces défis. Troisièmement, le concept KTC conserve la notion particulière du "soi authentique" comme source du pouvoir personnel et agentivité : la victoire est assurée seulement dans la mesure où le protagoniste central devient et demeure "vrai" pour lui et elle-même. Finalement, je demande qu’est-ce que la vision du pouvoir et de l’agentivité du concept du KTC implique pour les jeunes lorsqu’ils deviennent des acteurs adultes dans un monde complexe et globalisé. Au chapitre 3, j’examine les questions qui me permettent d’accéder au modèle du changement social en comparant les explications du changement social dans un monde plus large. J’évalue aussi comment les adolescents sont susceptibles de voir et d’interpréter leur propre expérience à viii travers une lentille globale comme consommateurs prodigieux de récits produits dans une culture mondiale. Ce chapitre évalue la mesure dans laquelle les différentes formes sociales et l’inégalité, comme le sexe, la race et la classe sociale sont intégrés dans la présentation du problème et la stratégie/solution dans le motif KTC et comment les changements sociaux sont encouragés par les jeunes protagonistes. Dans le motif KTC, je constate que le développement personnel apporte le pouvoir – et le pouvoir de l’intérieur est un atout du pouvoir de l’extérieur, au moins dans les cultures basées sur l’individualisme occidental. Les exceptions sont traitées dans les exemples de récits basés sur les identités Cara𝑖𝑖𝑖bes-canadiennes (Norbèse-Philip) et sur les identités indigènes. Les récits scolaires contemporains qui suivent le motif KTC continuent d’avoir un penchant moralisateur ou didactique, conformément à une tendance dans la littérature jeunesse qui souligne l’agentivité des jeunes protagonistes sur celui des adultes. Où l’histoire scolaire classique affirme en fin de compte l’ordre établi, le motif KTC suggère que le pouvoir établi est corrompu. Je suggère que le motif KTC peut en partie refléter les besoins d’une économie post-industrielle basée sur la connaissance dans laquelle les gens sont flexibles, motivés et décidés à croire que s’ils réussissent ou non de dépend pas de la force des institutions, mais de leur force de caractère et même de leur propre "authenticité".

For many Christians the names ‘Constantine’ and Nicaea are not a familiar idea. In instances where they do recognize these names, they tend to be prejudiced towards the ‘pagan emperor’ and the ‘venerated council’ (Olson 1999:160). The importance of the First Nicene Council and the emperor’s role in the council may be seen as historical only. However, the events related to the development of the Nicene orthodoxy and the role the emperor played in the development of the relations between politics and religion are still influencing the lives of Christians today and therefore, these important events are in need of a review, this time from an African perspective. A probe into the imperial religious-political play may hold many significant answers in relation to contextualization, enculturation, dogmatic teaching, and the relationship between the church and state, amongst other things. In this dissertation document analysis is used in literature study to establish the significance of one of the interactive factors in the period leading to the first ecumenical council. Using a tri-categorical classification of the era, this study reviews the Jewish-Christian schism, Hellenism, and ultimately the role of imperial politics in the development of Christianity. The Jewish-Christian schism refers to the separation between Judaism and Christianity as the conceptive stage of the dynamics through which ecumenical orthodoxy was formed. Hellenism broadly refers to the integration of philosophy with Christianity. Finally, imperial politics was the political dynamic that contributed to the formation of ecumenical orthodoxy. This facilitated an investigation of the era between AD 70 and 325, enhancing a revisionist approach to Constantine, the Nicene Council and the orthodoxy that emerged post AD 325 – with an implied deduction of ecclesiastical polities which became an unconventional phenomenon. The study, engaging with primary sources and specialist scholarship on the era, derived and developed a revisionist approach on Constantinian influence upon Christianity. In the findings the ecclesiastical polity appeared as the significant influence in the shaping of ecumenical orthodoxy. The ecclesiastical polity itself being a factor of the very process of self-definition and contextualization. The significance of enculturation as established in the research implied cultural diversity as a major factor in the formation of religious orthodoxy, xix hence this implied the Jewish Christian schism as the departure point of enquiry. The research implied the development of social models as an interpretation and analysis of the hypothesis. The aforementioned social models had implications for Christian/religious eras even post the one at study. Therefore, making the hypothesis a tool of measuring the interaction of politics, socio-ethnic dynamics and religion in different eras. In principle the study enables a review of history as a factor of these three elements culture, religious syncretism and politics. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M. Th. (Church History)