Thesis (D. Min.)--New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, 2000. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 130-136).

Proefschrift : Godgeleerdheid : Nijmegen : 1984. / Proefschrift Godgeleerdheid Nijmegen, Katolieke universiteit : 1984. - Bibliogr. p. 197-209. Index. -

Thesis (M.A.)--Trinity International University, 2001. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 87-94).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 98-103).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, South Hamilton, MA, 2003. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 177-180).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Biblical Theological Seminary, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 103-108).

Thesis (Th. M.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [54]-57).

Thesis (Th. M.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [133]-142).

The dissertation is a study of the religious lives of Orthodox Christians in a semirural, coffee‐producing community on the shores of Lake Tana in northwest Ethiopia. Its thesis is that mediation in Ethiopian Orthodoxy – how things, substances, and people act as go‐betweens and enable connections between people and other people, the lived environment, saints, angels, and God – is characterised by an animating tension between commensality or shared substance, on the one hand, and hierarchical principles on the other. This tension pertains to long‐standing debates in the study of Christianity about the divide between the created world and the Kingdom of Heaven. Its archetype is the Eucharist, which entails full transubstantiation but is circumscribed by a series of purity regulations so rigorous as to make the Communion inaccessible to most people for most of their lives. These purity regulations, I argue, speak to an incommensurability between relations of human substance‐sharing, especially commensality and sexuality, and hierarchical relations between humans and divinity.

 In 2011, many countries experienced great travail in the process of constituting a new order. Of different religious backgrounds, these countries have been seeking to establish a constitutional order to assure greater liberty and higher estimation of human rights. However, the idea of constitutionalism is a legal concept that has its origins in Christianity. For states of non-Christian backgrounds to embrace constitutionalism, more than simple transplantation is needed. This research looks at the Christian legal tradition that incubated the idea of constitutionalism. It aims to provide a timely reference for the non-Christian countries to communicate with their local legal traditions when constructing the constitutional order during this current period of political change. The research demonstrates an incubation process in which Christianity has played a major part in generating constitutionalism. It traces the constitutional thinking of St. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Richard Hooker and John Locke, and presents how their legal thoughts were intertwined together with the Christian faith. The research shows the interlocking relationships among the four thinkers, with each of them establishing their constitutional ideas on those of the one before him. St. Augustine formed the embryo of the process. He introduced the idea of two cities, which established a concept of higher justice above all human authorities. He also redefined the concept of people in order to explain the relations among God, people and the state. Thomas Aquinas applied the higher justice concept to medieval order and developed a mixed constitutional polity supported by bible verses. He defined law with rationality, which is God’s command. Richard Hooker amended Aquinas’ general theory of law and grounded the popular sovereignty on reasonable men exercising their consent. John Locke finally rendered the sovereignty to independent individuals; thence, individual human rights must be guarded against any interventions from public authority. The protection of individuals is the paramount value that identifies constitutionalism. Therefore, the author argues that Christianity is one of the major dimensions that enabled the birth of constitutionalism. / published_or_final_version / Law / Master / Master of Philosophy