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No description available.

<p> The subject of this thesis is Paul's statements about homosexual behaviour in Romans 1:26-27. The thesis has a two-fold focus. First, it is concerned with the interpretation of Paul's words in the light of their historical context, using the methods of traditional historical criticism. Second, it attempts to evaluate the impact of recent debates in Christian churches about the ethics of homosexual behaviour on the interpretation of this text.</p><p>The differing interpretations of John Boswell and Richard Hays are treated as paradigmatic of recent debates over the text In the light of Boswell's and Hays' interpretations this thesis argues that Paul's words in Rom. 1:26-27 do a negative evaluation of all hormosexual behaviour, that Paul objected to homosexual behaviour because he believed it violated God's will for human life, that the objection was fundamentally gender-based, condemning sexual relations between persons of the same gender as "against nature." Furthermore, Paul's claim that homosexual behaviour was an expression of passions and desires is stressed, and it is argued that Paul believed, with other Jews, that homosexual behaviour was a vice characteristic of Gentile culture.</p> <p> The thesis begins with an introductory discussion of the interpretations of John Boswell and Richard Hays and an overview of methodological issues. Following this, Chapter One deals with the modern context in which interpretation of Rom. 1:26-27 takes place, focusing on theories about homosexuality and Christian responses. Chapter Two reviews recent work on Rom. 1:26-27 and highlights basic issues and questions. Chapter Three focuses on Paul's historical context, dealing with homosexual behaviour in the Graeco-Roman world, and Jewish and non-Jewish responses and attitudes. Chapter Four, the core of the thesis, deals in detail with Rom. 1:26-27 and presents the major arguments of the thesis. An outline of major conclusions follows, including a discussion of the relevance of the thesis for modern debates.</p> <p> The thesis both contributes a review of recent scholarship and attempts to advance understanding of the text by considering the relationship between historical interpretation of the text and its use in ethical debates.</p> / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

Abstract not available

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Texas, May, 2008. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Québec Université Laval, Bibliothèque 2019

Libertines Real and Fictional in Rochester, Shadwell, Wycherley, and Boswell examines the Restoration and eighteenth-century libertine figure as it appears in John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester's Satyr against Mankind, "The Maim'd Debauchee," and "Upon His Drinking a Bowl," Thomas Shadwell's The Libertine, William Wycherley's The Country Wife, and James Boswell's London Journal, 1762-1763. I argue that the limitations and self-contradictions of standard definitions of libertinism and the ways in which libertine protagonists and libertinism in general function as critiques of libertinism. Moreover, libertine protagonists and poetic personae reinterpret libertinism to accommodate their personal agendas and in doing so, satirize the idea of libertinism itself and identify the problematization of "libertinism" as a category of gender and social identity. That is, these libertines misinterpret-often deliberately-Hobbes to justify their opposition and refusal to obey social institutions-e.g., eventually marrying and engaging in a monogamous relationship with one's wife-as well as their endorsement of obedience to nature or sense, which can include embracing a libertine lifestyle in which one engages in sexual encounters with multiple partners, refuses marriage, and questions the existence of God or at least distrusts any sort of organized religion. Since any attempts to define the word "libertinism"-or at least any attempts to provide a standard definition of the word-are tenuous at best, it is equally tenuous to suggest that any libertines conform to conventional or standard libertinism. In fact, the literary and "real life" libertines in this study not only fail to conform to such definitions of libertinism, but also reinterpret libertinism. While all these libertines do possess similar characteristics-namely affluence, insatiable sexual appetites, and a rebellion against institutional authorities (the Church, reason, government, family, and marriage)-they often misinterpret libertinism, reason, and Hobbesian philosophy. Furthermore, they all choose different, unique ways to oppose patriarchal, social authorities. These aberrant ways of rebelling against social institutions and their redefinitions of libertinism, I argue, make them self-satirists and self-conscious critics of libertinism as a concept.

This project examines the role cultural transmission of historical myths plays in power relationships and identity formation through a study of the Mississippi textbook regulatory agency and various civic organizations that shaped education policy in addition to textbook content. A study of massive resistance to integration, my project focuses on the anticommunism and conservative ideology of grassroots segregationists. Civic-patriotic societies such as the Daughters of the American Revolution, the American Legion, and Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation formed as the major alliance affecting the state’s education system in the post-World War II era. Once the state department of education centralized its services in the late 1930s and early 1940s, civic club reformers guarded against integrationist and multicultural content found in textbooks, deeming both as subversive and communistic. From the early 1950s through the 1970s, Mississippi’s ardent segregationists and anticommunists shaped education policy by effective statelevel lobbying and grassroots activism. I demonstrate that the civic clubs had more influence in the state legislature than did the upstart Citizens’ Council movement. In addition, I show that once social studies standards emphasizing God, country, and Protestant Christianity became codified in state education policy, it became ever more difficult for other reformers, namely James W. Loewen and Charles Sallis, to dislodge and alter those standards. Through numerous legal cases, DAR and Farm Bureau ephemera, and state superintendent of education files, this work argues that the civic clubs played an integral role in defense of white supremacy—a role that has been underemphasized in the existing literature on massive resistance.

The master’s thesis is an attempt of reconstruction of the intellectual biography of famous English writer and lexicographer Samuel Johnson in the context of British history of the XVIII century. The author investigate a life path of the intellectual through a prism of such institute of sociability as family, church, school, institute and English club, based on the complex of Johnson’s writings and works of his contemporaries. The author emphasizes a problem of the formation of Johnson as professional writer, because the history of his literary successes was closely linked with main sociocultural processes, occurring in Britain of the XVIII century. Moreover in thesis author analyze a Johnson’s political views, using lexicographer’s political pamphlets and papers. / Магистерская диссертация представляет собой попытку реконструкции интеллектуальной биографии известного английского литератора и лексикографа Сэмюэла Джонсона в контексте британской истории XVIII века. Опираясь на комплекс сочинений С. Джонсона и его современников, автор исследует жизненный путь интеллектуала сквозь призму таких институтов социабельности как семья, церковь, школа, университет и английский клуб. Особое внимание автор уделяет проблеме становления Джонсона как профессионального писателя, поскольку история его литературных успехов была неразрывно связана с основными социокультурными процессами, происходившими в Британии XVIII века. Кроме того, в диссертации автор анализирует политические воззрения литератора, используя политические памфлеты и статьи С. Джонсона.