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This master thesis deals with the spiritual progress pointing to a national self-awareness in the Enlightenment era from the beginning until 1848. The Enlightenment is an European phenomenon, which is characterized by a change of thinking, and self-awareness. This idea of tolerance and human emancipation contributed to the reforms of fundamental social, political and ecclesiastical changes. These changes result not only from a philosophical influences, but also from royal reforms during the reign of Maria Theresa and Joseph II in particular. The Teresian enlightened Catholicism and Josephinian reformism fully started the journey from the Enlightenment to liberalism. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Cette recherche porte sur différentes organisations catholiques pour la libération sexuelle : organisations catholiques pour la diversité sexuelle, organisations catholiques pour les droits reproductifs, organisations catholiques pour l'égalité de genre et organisations catholiques pour le mariage des prêtres. Ces groupements sont constitués par des gens qui professent la foi catholique mais qui contestent la position de l’Église par rapport à l'homosexualité, l'avortement, l'ordination féminine et le célibat. La question qui se pose alors est la suivante : comment est-ce que ces groupes s'affirment catholiques et en même temps en désaccord avec l’Église ? A travers une réflexion critique, on analyse leur justification, on discute leur légitimité et on théorise à propos de leur signification et implications par rapport au catholicisme, voire le christianisme. / The present research is about different catholic organizations in favor of sexual liberation: catholic organizations for sexual diversity, catholic organizations for reproductive rights, catholic organizations for gender equality and catholic organizations for married priests. Members of these groups profess Catholicism but contest Church's position concerning homosexuality, abortion, female ordination and celibacy. So the next question arises: how is it that these groups affirm themselves as Catholics and at the same time in disagreement with the Church? Through a critical thought, their justification is analyzed, their legitimacy discussed, and their significance and implications for both Catholicism and Christianism are theorized. / Esta investigación trata sobre distintas organizaciones católicas en favor de la liberación sexual: organizaciones católicas por la diversidad sexual, organizaciones católicas por los derechos reproductivos, organizaciones católicas por la igualdad de género y organizaciones católicas por el celibato opcional. Estas agrupaciones están conformadas por gente que profesa la fe católica y que sin embargo contestan la posición de la Iglesia con respecto a la homosexualidad, el aborto, la ordenación femenina y el celibato. La pregunta que se plantea entonces es la siguiente: Cómo es que estos grupos se afirman católicos y al mismo tiempo en desacuerdo con la Iglesia? A través de un razonamiento crítico, se analiza su justificación, se discute su legitimidad y se teoriza sobre su posible significado e implicaciones en relación con el cristianismo en general y el catolicismo en particular.

L’interculturation est constitutive de l’histoire du Québec. Ce travail analyse les phénomènes d’interculturation entre populations catholiques et protestantes dans le Sud-Ouest du Québec, des années 1830 à 1920, notamment à travers le prisme du discours et des pratiques de la communauté protestante francophone, alors en expansion. Avant de proposer une typologie des individus qui optèrent pour le protestantisme évangélique dans cet environnement rural, nous avons étudié les voies qu’ils prirent pour y accéder et les raisons de cette acculturation choisie, perçue par la majorité comme une transgression. Nous montrons ensuite les divers degrés d’imbrication entre cette conversion et l’ethos victorien du temps en insistant sur la loyauté envers l’Empire britannique d’une majorité de Canadiens français protestants, posture complexe et polémique dans un contexte colonial. Nous tentons enfin de faire apparaître les zones de rencontres et les interactions interconfessionnelles entre ces individus de confession et de langue différente, territoire peu exploré de l’interculturation au quotidien, dans le but de réévaluer l’idée répandue que le seul mode d’interaction de ces populations ait été conflictuel ou au mieux, coexistentiel. / Cross-cultural relationships, complete with conflictual overtones and strategic dealings, have been part and parcel of the fabric of Quebec history. This work sets out to analyse these crosscultural phenomena at work in Catholic and Protestant relationships in South-Western Quebec from the 1830’s to 1920, mainly through the lens of the growing French-Protestant community. Before offering a typology of those who opted for Evangelical Protestantism in this rural context, I have first thoroughly gone through the ways of the process of conversion/acculturation as experienced by those who dared transgress confessional boundaries and the reasons why they chose to do so. I have then argued that this conversion was, to a higher or lesser degree, closely intertwined with the then prevailing Victorian ethos, and overwhelmingly translated into a staunch loyalty towards the British empire, a complex and controversial posture to adopt for any French Canadian in that colonial context. Particular attention was finally paid to the relations between Catholics and Protestants, French and English-speaking, as they lived their lives from day-to-day, in an attempt to appraise the prevailing idea that these relations were perenially conflictual or at best, on a footing of reciprocated indifference.

This study explores the struggle of the Catholic Church to be true to itself and its mission in the midst of other religions, in the context of the non-Catholic American culture, and in relation to the modern world and its discontents. As milestones of the global interfaith movement, American religious freedom and pluralism, and of the relation of religion to modernity, the Chicago Parliaments of Religions offer a unique window through which to view this Catholic struggle at work in the religious public square created by the Parliaments and the evolution of that struggle over the course of the century framed by the two Chicago events. In relation to other religions, the Catholic Church stretched itself from an exclusivist position of being the only true and good religion to an inclusivist position of recognizing that truth and good can be present in other religions. Uniquely, Catholic involvement in the centennial Parliament made the Church stretch itself even further, beyond the exclusivist-inclusivist spectrum into a pluralist framework in which the Church acted humbly as one religion among many. In relation to American culture, the Catholic Church stretched itself from a Eurocentric and monarchic worldview with claims of Catholic supremacy to the American alternative of democracy, religious freedom, and the separation of church and state. In relation to modernity, the Church stretched itself from viewing the modern world as an enemy to be fought and conquered to befriending modernity and designing some specific accommodations to it. In these three relationships, there was indeed a shift, but not at all a clean break. Instead a stretch occurred, acknowledging a lived intra-Catholic tension between religious exclusivism and inclusivism, between a universal Catholic identity and Catholic inculturation in America (and in other cultures), and between the immutability of Catholic eternal truths and their translatability into the new languages offered by the modern world. In all this the Second Vatican Council was the major catalyst. For all three cases the Chicago Parliaments of Religions serve as environments conducive to the raising of important questions about Catholic identity, the Catholic understanding of non-Catholics, and Catholic interfaith relations.

This study explores the struggle of the Catholic Church to be true to itself and its mission in the midst of other religions, in the context of the non-Catholic American culture, and in relation to the modern world and its discontents. As milestones of the global interfaith movement, American religious freedom and pluralism, and of the relation of religion to modernity, the Chicago Parliaments of Religions offer a unique window through which to view this Catholic struggle at work in the religious public square created by the Parliaments and the evolution of that struggle over the course of the century framed by the two Chicago events. In relation to other religions, the Catholic Church stretched itself from an exclusivist position of being the only true and good religion to an inclusivist position of recognizing that truth and good can be present in other religions. Uniquely, Catholic involvement in the centennial Parliament made the Church stretch itself even further, beyond the exclusivist-inclusivist spectrum into a pluralist framework in which the Church acted humbly as one religion among many. In relation to American culture, the Catholic Church stretched itself from a Eurocentric and monarchic worldview with claims of Catholic supremacy to the American alternative of democracy, religious freedom, and the separation of church and state. In relation to modernity, the Church stretched itself from viewing the modern world as an enemy to be fought and conquered to befriending modernity and designing some specific accommodations to it. In these three relationships, there was indeed a shift, but not at all a clean break. Instead a stretch occurred, acknowledging a lived intra-Catholic tension between religious exclusivism and inclusivism, between a universal Catholic identity and Catholic inculturation in America (and in other cultures), and between the immutability of Catholic eternal truths and their translatability into the new languages offered by the modern world. In all this the Second Vatican Council was the major catalyst. For all three cases the Chicago Parliaments of Religions serve as environments conducive to the raising of important questions about Catholic identity, the Catholic understanding of non-Catholics, and Catholic interfaith relations.

What did it mean to be a Catholic elite in Protestant England? The relationship between the Protestant crown and its Catholic subjects may be examined fruitfully through a study of an individual and his world. This thesis examines this relationship through the example of Sir Thomas Tresham, who has often been seen as the archetypal Catholic loyalist. It is argued that the notion of Catholic loyalism must be reconfigured to account for the complexities inherent in the relationship between Catholics and the government. The duty to honour the monarch's authority was bound up with social and national sentiment, but it often accompanied criticisms of the practice of that authority, and the ways in which it encroached on personal experience. Intractable tensions lay behind expressions of loyalty, and this thesis travels in these undercurrents of cultural, social, religious, and political conflict to investigate the nuanced relationship between English Catholics and English society. Political resistance as classically understood - actions which directly opposed and undermined government policy - risks the exclusion of culture and identity, through which resistance was redefined. It is argued that Tresham's participation in elite activities became vehicles for resistance in the Catholic context. Book-collecting, reading, and the donation of books to an institutional library are framed as forms of resistance which countered the spirit of government legislation, and provided for the continuation of a robust tradition of Catholic scholarship on English soil. Through artistic and architectural projects, Tresham found ways to participate in elite culture which were not closed off to him, and in which Catholicism and gentility could sit side by side. These activities were also avenues for resistance, whereby the erection of stone testaments to Tresham's faith defied the government's attempts to redefine Englishness and gentility in Protestant terms, to the devastation of Catholicism. These artistic works combined piety, gentility, and resistance, and, together with Tresham's two Catholic libraries, they were to be his legacy.

Despite the increasingly common situation of statelessness in the contemporary Middle East, a majority of the theoretical tools used to study nationalism are contingent upon the existence of a sovereign state. As such, they are unable to fully explain the mechanisms of national identity, political participation, and integration in non-institutional contexts, where other social identities continue to play a significant political role. In these contexts, the position of demographic minorities in society is significant, as actors with the most popular support –majorities -- tend to have the strongest impact on the shape of the political field. This thesis demonstrates what we can learn from studying the mechanisms of nationalism and political participation for one such minority group, the Palestinian Christians, particularly with regards to how national identity fails or succeeds in instilling attachment to the state and society. This is accomplished by applying the theoretical framework of social identity theory to empirical field research conducted in the West Bank in 2014, combined with an analysis of election and survey data. It is argued that the level of attachment individuals feel towards the “state” or confessional communities is dependent on the psychological or material utility gained from group membership. If individuals feel alienated from the national identity, they are more likely to identify with their confessional community. If they are alienated from both, then they are far likelier to emigrate. Additionally, I suggest that the way in which national identity is negotiated in a stateless context is important to future state building efforts, as previous attempts to integrate national minorities into the political system through, e.g., devolved parliaments and quotas, have failed to instil a universal sense of the nation.

Title: The Human Embryo in the Perspective of Reproductive Medicine. Since when one begins to be a human person? In this work, we take into account the issues, which in most cases lead many people to resort to the reproductive medicine, which generally is referred to as the infertility problems. But in some techniques, the reproductive medicine loses up to 80% of human embryos. In the minds of many people, the human embryo is seen only as a cluster of cells. However, is it really just a cluster of cells, or is it already a person at an early stage of development? As far as one is already man, is he now also the human being, of whom are in our Western culture related rights, especially the right to life? Could we then say with a clear conscience that with these techniques we are acting ethically? We dividend our work into six chapters. In the first and second chapter, we will be briefly acquainted with the issues of infertility, of the reproductive medicine techniques, with the development of the human embryo and with handling of the embryos in the course of these techniques. In the third charter, we will present the two major ethical models in our cultural area that have a different point of view on the status of the human embryo. In the fourth chapter, we will look at how to the question of the...

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Centered around the accounts of two women—Mary Aubry, a French Catholic midwife living in London, who was burned at the stake for murdering her abusive husband, and Queen Mary of Modena, the Italian Catholic wife of James II, who allegedly tried to pass off an imposter child as her legitimate heir in the so-called “warming pan scandal,” this is a study of murder, deceit, betrayal, paranoia, and repression in seventeenth-century England. The stories of the two Marys are both stories of palpable anxiety. Though the two women bear little resemblance at first glance, they were rumored to have conspired to guarantee a male heir for James II by any means necessary. According to the London gossips, these women were willing to betray, and even kill their husbands in the case of Mary Aubry, to protect their secret plot to perpetuate a line of Catholic princes in England. Though there was little evidence to substantiate this rumor and it quickly disappeared in media accounts, these two women continued to inspire vitriolic attacks from the London press that reveal strikingly similar public concerns. Their stories struck chords of fear within audiences in late seventeenth century England that knew their entire world was threatened. Endangered by a king, James II—who appeared determined to reinstitute Catholicism in England, who showed a penchant for absolutist policies, and who seemed to have fallen into the orbit of the domineering Louis XIV—the public’s apprehension and fear was only heightened by these stories. Just as unnerving as the fears about absolutism, Catholicism and foreign domination was the specter of internal collusion that endangered not simply the political and religious spheres of English Protestant society, but also social and familial hierarchies as well. To much of late seventeenth century English society, the two Marys represented all that was wrong with the world. They were traitors to their families, traitors to the nation, and traitors to the divine. / indefinitely