Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 284-303).

This thesis examines different aspects of tradition relating to fresh water in Scotland. They include: the use of water from wells and springs for healing and divination purposes; the beliefs around the lin1inal quality of water, often considered as boundary, and around its magical association with the horse; and finally folktales featuring the water-horse, or kelpie, a supernatural creature which was said to inhabit lochs and rivers. In dealing with topics so different one from the other, within the larger field of Scottish customs and beliefs, it proved necessary to use a variety of sources and methods. Comparative study was often particularly illuminating. After presenting the history of visits to sacred wells, I deal with two main categories of customs associated with these pilgrimages, namely healing rituals and divination practices. While the former leads to the analysis of the different stages and implications of the ritual, the latter looks into the issues that were left to supernatural powers to decide upon, and examines how the questions asked of the oracle evolved with time. Consideration of these powers then leads on to further inquiry into the liminal function of fresh water in general, and its links with boundaries both spatial and temporal. That the horse, another element that is ascribed definite liminal qualities, was associated with water is therefore not fortuitous. If water provides an entry to an Other World, the horse can then take one through into this other land. Indeed, this is what is found in the corpus of tales centred on the figure of the waterhorse. As some of the tale-types are met in other geographical areas - Ireland and Scandinavia mainly - a discussion of these will provide a general background to the tales, which will result in a proposal for a revised tale-index. Two shared types -the work-horse and the abductor of children - will then be examined in the Scottish context. One type, however, - the seducer - seems to be unique to Scotland, and it will be dealt with last. The aim of this work is twofold: first, to provide an ethnological piece of research from a diachronic perspective on a subject outwith the usual themes generally chosen for studies of this nature; second, to present together, in their Scottish context, folktales that have been hitherto broken up and read in the light of their relationships to their foreign counterparts. Although recent academic studies on healing wells exist for Ireland and France, the Scottish material has never previously been treated in such a study. A number of sources available were secondary accounts, dating back mainly to the turn of the twentieth century, and part of my research involved finding the original documents used - sometimes misused - in order to present them in their original context. Similarly, part of the work on the kelpie stories involved gathering together tales kept in the Sound Archive of the School of Scottish Studies at the University of Edinburgh that had never been collected into a single corpus. I hope in this thesis to provide a sound basis for further researches on these types of Scottish customs and beliefs.

This thesis explores Shaker (architectural) intentionality through an examination of and proposed addition to the Shaker’s Holy City design template. The Holy City drawing and its accompanying text, ‘Explanations of the Holy City with its various parts and appendices pointed out’, depict a master plan of Shaker ‘Heaven’ and template from which Shaker settlements were to be constructed. This thesis proposes the addition of a meeting house design to the Holy City master plan, an addition through which intrinsic elements of Shaker architecture may be readily understood. The project encompasses two stages. The first involves an overall analysis of the Holy City, Shaker meeting house and village typologies. Secondly, ‘drawing’ upon the lessons arising from the analysis, the project proposes the addition of a meeting house to the Holy City documents. The proposed design is sited within the Holy City map and retrospectively mediates the Shakers idealized and constructed works.

For several critics, Milan Kundera's novels illustrate the disenchantment of the world and the demystification of all myths. In this thesis, we accept this point of view while insisting on the persistence of sacred elements in the works of Kundera. We formulate the hypothesis of the "inoculation" of a sacred part (i.e. myths, scenes and figures of the Holy Bible, etc.) in the prose of the novel---"le caractere concret, quotidien, corporel de la vie", as Kundera wrote---in order to anchor this often unstable matter and alleviate the brevity of the character's life. Our analysis of three novels (The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, The Farewell Party and The Joke) reveals an oscillation between the sacred and the prose within the works of Milan Kundera. This movement is illustrated, in the text, by the motif of the baroque angel.

No description available.

The history of the Church’s participation in, and attitudes towards warfare have been well-documented in several fields of research. The development of the doctrine of just war and the medieval crusades within Western Christianity, have been the subject of a considerable amount of scholarship. There has also recently been an increasing amount of research done by historians, theologians and political theorists comparing the status of warfare within the Christian and Islamic traditions. However, the current state of the historiography is focused almost entirely on Western Christianity, and does not address in any depth the attitudes toward warfare present in Eastern Christianity within the Byzantine Empire in the Middle Ages. This thesis seeks to address this historiographical imbalance by comparing the development of the Eastern and Western Church’s positions on warfare throughout the medieval period. The thesis examines the factors that led to the divergence of the two Churches’ attitudes towards warfare, and the development and impact of their differing theologies during the medieval period. It is argued that the fundamental point of divergence between the Eastern and Western Church’s attitude to warfare is linguistic and theological in nature. The linguistic differences between the Greek and Latin Churches, led to different theological interpretive frameworks regarding the subject of warfare. These different fundamental theological assumptions would lead the two Churches down different developmental paths and would prevent the development or acceptance of Western theories of just war and holy war in the Eastern Church.

This creative project has explored the combining of multiple paintings and multiple nodes of painting into a coherent and unified whole, directed toward a more complete and truer representation of man, especially the “born again” man. This study employed the unifying and transitional characteristics of various modes of painting, together with a structural format of a three-paneled, folding triptych, with the intent of enlightenment in the area of spiritual “oneness.” This study centered on Jesus Christ as the entrance to spiritual “oneness,” (more appropriately identified as The Kingdom of God, or being born again) and primarily by way of symbolism and the juxtaposition of ideas, modes of painting, and painted panels, sought to reveal that truth.

This thesis discusses the contribution of Richard Hooker to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit in his magisterial work, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity. Hooker’s discussion of the Holy Spirit is unsystematic although his dependence on the Holy Spirit for his theology is extensive. The aim of the thesis is to assess the contribution of the Holy Spirit to Hooker’s theology as under-represented in current research. Hooker’s attitude to reform is explored in relation to contemporary and later Puritan writers, such as William Perkins, William Ames, Richard Baxter, and John Owen, and forms part of the overall evaluation of the importance of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit for his theology. Four areas are investigated concerning the role Hooker assigned to the Holy Spirit in Christian theology. 1. The role of the Holy Spirit in the interpretation of Scripture. 2. The nature and purpose of the sacraments in light of the Holy Spirit. 3. The place of the Holy Spirit in understanding Hooker’s view of the orders of ministry. 4. The centre of Hooker’s theology as the claim to "participation" in the life of God. The thesis concludes that Hooker remained generally consistent with Calvin’s understanding of the Holy Spirit, though he refined Calvin’s scriptural hermeneutic with special reference to the relationship between reason and the Holy Spirit. It is also contends that later Puritans such as Richard Baxter and John Owen, offered a perspective on the relationship between reason and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that was consistent with Calvin but also anticipated by Hooker. This suggests a strong measure of continuity between Hooker and Puritan thought that did not become apparent until after his death in 1600, and which contemporary scholarship has continued to debate. Hooker was an advocate of reform but with a characteristically independent grasp of what that entailed in the convergence of Thomistic and Calvinist thought. Hooker’s doctrine of the Holy Spirit was a consistent theme that was essential to his central motif of the believer’s participation in God. The final chapter shows that Hooker, in defending the Elizabethan Settlement, was able to avoid the entrapment of the Puritan charge of Pelagianism and sympathy towards Rome on the one hand, and the Roman charge of Scriptural insufficiency on the other, by positing a third pole in the debate. This required acceptance of the idea of foundational Christian truth whose goal was theosis, the union of the soul with God, whose agent was the secret operation of the Holy Spirit and instrumentality, the Scriptures and sacraments. As such, Hooker called for mature commitment to theological investigation that stood above partisan rancour.

This thesis discusses the contribution of Richard Hooker to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit in his magisterial work, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity. Hooker’s discussion of the Holy Spirit is unsystematic although his dependence on the Holy Spirit for his theology is extensive. The aim of the thesis is to assess the contribution of the Holy Spirit to Hooker’s theology as under-represented in current research. Hooker’s attitude to reform is explored in relation to contemporary and later Puritan writers, such as William Perkins, William Ames, Richard Baxter, and John Owen, and forms part of the overall evaluation of the importance of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit for his theology. Four areas are investigated concerning the role Hooker assigned to the Holy Spirit in Christian theology. 1. The role of the Holy Spirit in the interpretation of Scripture. 2. The nature and purpose of the sacraments in light of the Holy Spirit. 3. The place of the Holy Spirit in understanding Hooker’s view of the orders of ministry. 4. The centre of Hooker’s theology as the claim to "participation" in the life of God. The thesis concludes that Hooker remained generally consistent with Calvin’s understanding of the Holy Spirit, though he refined Calvin’s scriptural hermeneutic with special reference to the relationship between reason and the Holy Spirit. It is also contends that later Puritans such as Richard Baxter and John Owen, offered a perspective on the relationship between reason and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that was consistent with Calvin but also anticipated by Hooker. This suggests a strong measure of continuity between Hooker and Puritan thought that did not become apparent until after his death in 1600, and which contemporary scholarship has continued to debate. Hooker was an advocate of reform but with a characteristically independent grasp of what that entailed in the convergence of Thomistic and Calvinist thought. Hooker’s doctrine of the Holy Spirit was a consistent theme that was essential to his central motif of the believer’s participation in God. The final chapter shows that Hooker, in defending the Elizabethan Settlement, was able to avoid the entrapment of the Puritan charge of Pelagianism and sympathy towards Rome on the one hand, and the Roman charge of Scriptural insufficiency on the other, by positing a third pole in the debate. This required acceptance of the idea of foundational Christian truth whose goal was theosis, the union of the soul with God, whose agent was the secret operation of the Holy Spirit and instrumentality, the Scriptures and sacraments. As such, Hooker called for mature commitment to theological investigation that stood above partisan rancour.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / "Publisher's no.: UMI 9983174." Bibliography: p. 284-303.