By looking at the world inhabited by those characters who partake of the dramatic action in King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra and Macbeth, and the relationship of these characters to their world, or universe, it is hoped to establish how certain factors affect the genesis, development and resolution of the tragedies in which they play their roles. This will be done by an examination of what Shakespeare sometimes called the "Bonds," which, as we shall see, derive from the mediaeval concepts of Nature, Law and Grace that were current in his time. This thesis does not claim to offer a complete or exclusive solution to the problem of the critical interpretation of these three tragedies: one of the dangers of Literary criticism has always appeared to the writer to be that of maintaining that the approach adopted is the only one and of attempting to demonstrate that the theory coincides at every point with the work - admitting of no inconsistencies or alternatives, and thereby making nonsense of a theory that does have considerable validiity. Similarly, it is with considerable hesitation that names have been given to the various Bonds discussed. Once one names them and applies a certain range of definitions to these names, it is difficult to stress that the names and definitions are not static or rigid. The Bond of Nature, for example, although it has a central core of meaning common to all three tragedies, is not treated from the same viewpoint in King Lear as it is in Antony and Cleopatra or Macbeth. Three considerations have prompted the writer to select this subject for the theme of a thesis. Firstly , the hypothesis that some failure, violation, misunderstanding or inadequacy of the Bonds lies at the heart of the tragic movement does appear to augment existing concepts of the nature of tragedy and help us better to understand the Why? How? and When? of the tragic process. Secondly, the concept of the principles of Nature, Law and Grace as determinants of the Bonds, which occurs so frequently in Elizabethan thinking, does seem to offer us a unified approach to their treatment of man and the world he inhabits at any particular point in history. By quoting from a wide range of sources dealing with this subject, the writer hopes to demonstrate that such a concept did exist, and that it was relatively consistent and generally accepted by Shakespeare and many of his contemporaries. It is, moreover, a system of thought that can embrace within its ambit such diverse materials as the great chain of being; the microcosm and the macrocosm; the nature of the soul; the structure of the family, the clan or the nation; the concepts of sin, damnation and life everlasting; the four elements; and the humours - and assign to these and many others a proper nature, place and function in the overall scheme. Thirdly, the writer was prompted to select this subject for a thesis because no critical writing to date appears to have dealt fully with the subject of the Bonds and their relationship to these principles of Nature, Law and Grace in Shakespearean tragedy . There have, it is true, been critics who have dealt with facets of these principles, and there have been critics who have commented on the violation, misunderstanding or inadequacy of various Bonds, but none of them seems to have dealt with the subject as a whole. Preface, p. iv-vi.

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Thesis (M.A.)--West Virginia University, 2010. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains v, 78 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 64-78).

This dissertation aims to focus on the way in which Marc Antony has been portrayed in Antiquity by a careful and critical study of what the ancient (mainly literary) sources have to reveal about this historical personage. A number of primary sources present a very negative view of Antony under the influence of various political persuasions, and this will be compared and contrasted with later ancient views. The study will pursue this under key themes such as the personality of Antony, his military and political career as well as the role that he played in the East. Modern scholarly interpretations of Antony’s character and actions will also be brought into the discussion, so that an objective evaluation of the contribution which Antony has made to the history of the Roman Republic, insofar as objectivity is possible, may be arrived at. / Language Services / M.A. (with specialisation in Ancient Languages and Cultures)

La thèse comporte 417 pages. Son sujet est la collection des 20 Lettres attribuées à Saint Antoine-le-Grand dans la tradition copte-arabe, et de faire une analyse comparative entre le deuxième recueil de cette collection (Lettres 8-20) avec les Lettres parallèles d’Ammonas dans les autres versions (syriaque, grec, géorgien); La thèse se compose de 3 parties. La première traite du milieu culturel du monachisme primitif en Egypte, la culture d’Antoine et son héritage dans le domaine copte-arabe. La deuxième traite l’Histoire du texte et la détermination de l’original, l’authenticité, l’auteur de chaque Lettre, l’identité d’Ammonas comme évêque d’Oxyrynque et de Paphnuce, les citations de Chenoute et Bêsa, le discours d’Étienne le Thébain, l’influence d’Ammonas sur les grands ermites syriaques. La troisième est consacrée à l’analyse des 13 Lettres, et une comparaison de la doctrine d’Antoine et d’Ammonas comme, l’origénisme et la gnose d’Antoine par rapport à la non-philosophie d’Ammonas. / The thesis comprises 417 pages, regarding the collection of the 20 Letters attributed to St. Anthony the Great in the Coptic-Arabic tradition, and performs a comparative analysis between the second group of Letters in this collection (8-20) with the parallel Letters of Ammonas in the other versions (Syriac, Greek, Georgian). The thesis consists of 3 parts. The first addresses the Egyptian cultural of the primitive monasticism, the education of Antony and his heritage in the Coptic-Arabic Tradition; The second addresses the text history and works on determining the original text, authenticity, the author of every Letter, the identity of Ammonas as bishop of Oxyrhynchus and Paphnutius, the quotations taken by Shenoute and Besa and Stephen of Thebes discourse, The third part is dedicated to the analysis of the 13 Letters, and a comparison of the doctrine of Antony and Ammonas, such as the Origenism and gnosis of Antony compared to the non-philosophical narrative of Ammonas.

This dissertation aims to focus on the way in which Marc Antony has been portrayed in Antiquity by a careful and critical study of what the ancient (mainly literary) sources have to reveal about this historical personage. A number of primary sources present a very negative view of Antony under the influence of various political persuasions, and this will be compared and contrasted with later ancient views. The study will pursue this under key themes such as the personality of Antony, his military and political career as well as the role that he played in the East. Modern scholarly interpretations of Antony’s character and actions will also be brought into the discussion, so that an objective evaluation of the contribution which Antony has made to the history of the Roman Republic, insofar as objectivity is possible, may be arrived at. / Language Services / M.A. (with specialisation in Ancient Languages and Cultures)

Dans cette thèse, nous étudions la question du traducteur du corpus de Jean Damascène en arabe. Deux noms sont proposés : Antoine, higoumène du Monastère Saint-Siméon-le-jeune (10e siècle) et ‘Abdallah ibn al-Faḍl (11e siècle). La découverte d’un traité supplémentaire, le Contre les Nestoriens 1, ignoré de nos prédécesseurs s’est avérée être la clef pour résoudre cette question. C’est pourquoi nous nous sommes résolus de faire une édition critique de ce traité et du deuxième traité Contre les Nestoriens 2, tous deux traduits par le même traducteur et portant sur le même sujet. Dans l’introduction qui précède l’édition, nous consacrons une première partie au contexte historique de cette traduction, c’est-à-dire aux circonstances du passage d’Antioche du grec à l’arabe. Dans la deuxième partie, nous faisons un état de la recherche sur la traduction de Jean Damascène en arabe. Puis, nous fournirons une nouvelle description des manuscrits qui contiennent au moins un des deux traités Contre les Nestoriens et soulignerons leur apport à la solution de la question posée. Après avoir identifié le traducteur et les œuvres qu’il a traduites, nous essayerons de recueillir quelques informations biographiques sur notre traducteur à partir des colophons. Nous étudierons également la postérité du texte avant de laisser place à l’édition critique. L’ensemble est complété par plusieurs index. / In this thesis, I would like to study the question about the translator of John Damascene’s corpus Greek into Arabic. Two names were suggested by scholars: Antony, Abbot of the Monastery Saint-Symon-the-Young (10th century) and ‘Abdallah ibn al-Faḍl (11th century). The discovery of a second Against the Nestorians was the key to solve this question. For this reason, I decided to make a critical edition of the two Against the Nestorians because the translator and the subject are the same, willing to publish the whole translation in the future. In the introduction that precedes the edition, I talked about the historical context and the events that leaded to the translation activity in Antioch (10th /11th century). In the second chapter, I resumed scholars’ conclusions on the Arabic translation of John Damascene’s works. Then, I gave a new description of the manuscripts that have at least one of the two Against the Nestorians and explain how that helped me identifying the translator. After identifying the translator and the works he translated, I collected some new bibliographical information about him from the colophons. I also studied the posterity of the translation. In the third chapter, I tried to find a Greek manuscript similar in content to the Arabic translation. I presented also the way the translator translates from Greek into Arabic. Then, I divided the different manuscripts into groups and draw the stemma. Those introductory elements are followed by the edition, and the whole work is completed by some index containing mostly references to theological and philosophical vocabulary in the edition.

This dissertation is presented in two parts. It first identifies the shape and content of an ancient system of Christian thought predicated on the theology of the cross of Jesus Christ, and proposes the marks typifying its theologians. Over against the ensuing hermeneutic it next finds the project of twentieth century Swiss theologian Karl Barth to exhibit many of the defining characteristics of this system, and Barth himself to be fairly deemed a modern theologian of the cross. He crucially recovers, reshapes and reasserts the classical theologia crucis as a modern theological instrument, one answering enlightened theology’s self-glorifying accommodation to modernity with the living Word of the cross. The crucicentric system itself is found to comprise two major theological dimensions, epistemological and soteriological. Each of these comprises dialectically corresponding aspects connected with false and true creaturely glory. The cruciform Word (or theology) speaking through this system likewise moves in two directions. It declares negatively that any attempt by the creature to circumvent the cross so as to know about God directly, or to condition God's electing decision, is necessarily the attempt to know and act as God alone may know and act - an attempt therefore on the glory of God. It declares positively that in the crucified Christ God formally discloses the knowledge of God, and determines the creature for God. This knowledge and election are appropriated to the creature as, drawn into the cruciform environment, its attempt to glorify itself is negated and Christ's exalted humanity received in exchange. Thence it is lifted to participate in Christ's mind and in his glory, a process guided by the Holy Spirit and completed eschatologically. The database for this research includes selected primary materials in the Apostle Paul, Athanasius, a group of medieval mystical theologians, the reformer Martin Luther - particularly here his Heidelberg Disputation, and Karl Barth. It also pays attention to the recent secondary literature peripherally or more concertedly connecting itself to the theology of the cross, of whatever period. In this literature numerous suggestions for the content of the theology of the cross exist, a major methodological task in the current research being to bring these together systematically. To the extent that the inner structure of the system carrying the cruciform Word has not previously been made explicit, and Barth's crucicentric status not finally determined, in moving towards these achievements this dissertation breaks fresh ground. In the process a new test by which to decide the crucicentric status of any theological project is developed, and a further and crucicentric way of reading Barth proposed. / This dissertation identifies the shape, content, and marks of the theology of the cross, an ancient and still extant epistemological and soteriological system of Christian thought. Applying the resulting hermeneutic it then shows this system to be present with renewed vitality and future significance in the modern project of seminal Swiss theologian Karl Barth (1886-1968).

This dissertation is presented in two parts. It first identifies the shape and content of an ancient system of Christian thought predicated on the theology of the cross of Jesus Christ, and proposes the marks typifying its theologians. Over against the ensuing hermeneutic it next finds the project of twentieth century Swiss theologian Karl Barth to exhibit many of the defining characteristics of this system, and Barth himself to be fairly deemed a modern theologian of the cross. He crucially recovers, reshapes and reasserts the classical theologia crucis as a modern theological instrument, one answering enlightened theology���s self-glorifying accommodation to modernity with the living Word of the cross. The crucicentric system itself is found to comprise two major theological dimensions, epistemological and soteriological. Each of these comprises dialectically corresponding aspects connected with false and true creaturely glory. The cruciform Word (or theology) speaking through this system likewise moves in two directions. It declares negatively that any attempt by the creature to circumvent the cross so as to know about God directly, or to condition God's electing decision, is necessarily the attempt to know and act as God alone may know and act - an attempt therefore on the glory of God. It declares positively that in the crucified Christ God formally discloses the knowledge of God, and determines the creature for God. This knowledge and election are appropriated to the creature as, drawn into the cruciform environment, its attempt to glorify itself is negated and Christ's exalted humanity received in exchange. Thence it is lifted to participate in Christ's mind and in his glory, a process guided by the Holy Spirit and completed eschatologically. The database for this research includes selected primary materials in the Apostle Paul, Athanasius, a group of medieval mystical theologians, the reformer Martin Luther - particularly here his Heidelberg Disputation, and Karl Barth. It also pays attention to the recent secondary literature peripherally or more concertedly connecting itself to the theology of the cross, of whatever period. In this literature numerous suggestions for the content of the theology of the cross exist, a major methodological task in the current research being to bring these together systematically. To the extent that the inner structure of the system carrying the cruciform Word has not previously been made explicit, and Barth's crucicentric status not finally determined, in moving towards these achievements this dissertation breaks fresh ground. In the process a new test by which to decide the crucicentric status of any theological project is developed, and a further and crucicentric way of reading Barth proposed.

This dissertation is presented in two parts. It first identifies the shape and content of an ancient system of Christian thought predicated on the theology of the cross of Jesus Christ, and proposes the marks typifying its theologians. Over against the ensuing hermeneutic it next finds the project of twentieth century Swiss theologian Karl Barth to exhibit many of the defining characteristics of this system, and Barth himself to be fairly deemed a modern theologian of the cross. He crucially recovers, reshapes and reasserts the classical theologia crucis as a modern theological instrument, one answering enlightened theology’s self-glorifying accommodation to modernity with the living Word of the cross. The crucicentric system itself is found to comprise two major theological dimensions, epistemological and soteriological. Each of these comprises dialectically corresponding aspects connected with false and true creaturely glory. The cruciform Word (or theology) speaking through this system likewise moves in two directions. It declares negatively that any attempt by the creature to circumvent the cross so as to know about God directly, or to condition God's electing decision, is necessarily the attempt to know and act as God alone may know and act - an attempt therefore on the glory of God. It declares positively that in the crucified Christ God formally discloses the knowledge of God, and determines the creature for God. This knowledge and election are appropriated to the creature as, drawn into the cruciform environment, its attempt to glorify itself is negated and Christ's exalted humanity received in exchange. Thence it is lifted to participate in Christ's mind and in his glory, a process guided by the Holy Spirit and completed eschatologically. The database for this research includes selected primary materials in the Apostle Paul, Athanasius, a group of medieval mystical theologians, the reformer Martin Luther - particularly here his Heidelberg Disputation, and Karl Barth. It also pays attention to the recent secondary literature peripherally or more concertedly connecting itself to the theology of the cross, of whatever period. In this literature numerous suggestions for the content of the theology of the cross exist, a major methodological task in the current research being to bring these together systematically. To the extent that the inner structure of the system carrying the cruciform Word has not previously been made explicit, and Barth's crucicentric status not finally determined, in moving towards these achievements this dissertation breaks fresh ground. In the process a new test by which to decide the crucicentric status of any theological project is developed, and a further and crucicentric way of reading Barth proposed. / This dissertation identifies the shape, content, and marks of the theology of the cross, an ancient and still extant epistemological and soteriological system of Christian thought. Applying the resulting hermeneutic it then shows this system to be present with renewed vitality and future significance in the modern project of seminal Swiss theologian Karl Barth (1886-1968).