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This thesis investigates the social context of the Apostle Paul and the communities to which he preached with the aim of showing that early Pauline Christianity was shaped by a social milieu that included: first, a Greco-Roman and particularly Stoic philosophy, second, a universalizing Jewish movement and third, an overarching Roman political framework. Paul’s philosophy was built on a foundation of Judaism, interpreted with the tools of Stoic philosophy, and communicated to a largely Roman audience. Chapter One presents the figure of Paul as a Jew and Roman citizen with a Greek education, a product of three cultural worlds. Chapter Two argues that through allegory, Paul replaced Jewish nationalistic and ethnocentric aspects with symbolic ones, and communicated its ethical core with Stoic language and concepts to a primarily Roman audience. Chapter Three examines this audience and determines that they were largely Roman citizens who were both steeped in the prevalent philosophy of the time, Stoicism, as well as being associated with the Jewish community as sympathizers, God-fearers, or “Highest-God” worshippers, as a result of the popular Judaizing movement in the first century. Through the study of Paul, his letters, and his audience, this thesis argues that Pauline Christianity was, at its core, a Stoic interpretation of Judaism. / Graduate / 0579 / dcoad@uvic.ca

Bodleian Library MS Douce 114 contains the unique copy of four Middle English texts, translations of Latin vitae, all describing Continental women saints whose unusual forms of devotion set them apart from the often more sober atmosphere of late-medieval English spirituality in which the texts appeared. The texts first attracted scholarly notice following the publication of The Book of Margery Kempe and the subsequent interest in the lives of the Continental women mystics whom Kempe resembled far more than her own English contemporaries; however, the texts have yet to be examined in any detail. This study investigates both the physical production of the translation and the context of book production in which the manuscript appeared, as well as the ideological context and controversies which would have informed the reading and reception of the texts.

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A notion of free-will is as indispensable a concept to the philosophical principles of the Buddhist tradition as it is to the tenets of Christianity. The primary undertaking of this thesis has been to test this hypothesis through an analysis and evaluation of the notion of free-will as it pertains to the belief systems of both traditions. Critical evaluation has permitted me to establish how central and vital the issue of free-will is in both theory and practice. I have reflected upon this centrality and what it has revealed about the status of human free-will within the context of each tradition's understanding of reality. The methodology has been through the principle of analogy of proportion. The approach has also been Wittgensteinian in emphasis, mindful of the need to appraise words used within the context of religious language in their native environment. Although concerned to present the emic meaning of the tradition, this has not precluded speculative enquiry by extending the analogous correlation. From the evidence of my research it is apparent that only a partial endorsement of the original hypothesis can be sustained as a genuine statement. Within the Christian theistic tradition, a notion of free-will qualifies as an indispensable function within its philosophical framework. Given a priori significance, theological doctrines and dogma have been articulated and constructed to sustain metaphysical speculation and presumptions. The reality of free-will is maintained as an ontological imperative. The Buddhist tradition does not seek to preserve a view in which God exists as the primal being of the created order. Regarded as an intrinsic part of human nature nevertheless, a notion of free-will certainly functions as an indispensable concept to support their doctrinal principles of the experiential world. Within a Buddhist frame of reference all concepts at an ultimate level of truth have to be recognised as conditioned, relative and empty. This is the crucial and significant distinction that separates Christian theological ontology and Buddhist philosophical thought.

This thesis consists of an investigation of a prophetic work and its place in the greater concepts of prophecy and apocalyptic. The different dimensions of the term 'apocalyptic' are explored: literature, world-view and theological movement. These aspects are utilized to frame a definition. There is demonstration of different theories of prophecy's transition to apocalyptic, how these theories each partially illuminate the processes at work within post-exilic Judaism, and how they contribute to an understanding of the origin, sociological setting and essential characteristics of apocalyptic. The divergence within the apocalytic movement is documented, necessitating the rejection of the notion of direct development from any one post-exilic theological tradition.

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The objective of this dissertation involves the application of the philosophy of Karl Popper to Christian systematic theology. Its intent is three-fold: first, to give reasons for considering the possibility of such an application in the face of potential objections; second, throughout its discussion, to demonstrate the form that a theological appropriation of Popper might take; and, third, to argue that several benefits arise from such a critical grafting of Popper into dogmatics (where appropriate). The possibility of applying Popper to theology is secured by taking realism as the proper parallel between science and theology and critical rationalism as a realist model amenable to metaphysical theorisation. The actuality and benefit of such an appropriation from within theology is demonstrated by the four-fold exposition of how a Popperian critical epistemology – in particular his solution to the ‘problem of induction’, his relating of good and better theories with the concept of approximation to the truth, his critical strategies for establishing preference, and his notion of ideas as objective – can assist the Christian systematic theologian as he works to resolve the problems of theology for the benefit of the Church and to the glory of God.

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