Atualmente muitas pesquisas estão sendo realizadas, tendo como objetivo estudar o Tribunal do Santo Ofício na Península Ibérica e no Brasil. A proposta dessa dissertação é abordar a ação do tribunal inquisitorial contra os cristãos-novos, acusados de judaísmo em Portugal e no Brasil, por meio da análise de processos inquisitoriais de membros de uma família conversa, duramente atingida pela Inquisição, na segunda metade do século XVII. Após a conversão forçada dos judeus em Portugal, em 1497 e a implantação da Inquisição em 1536, os cristãos-novos (descendentes dos judeus convertidos) passaram a sofrer a mais cruel perseguição. Milhares de famílias foram denunciadas, presas, processadas e condenadas a algum tipo de penalidade. Nesta dissertação foram estudados os processos inquisitoriais de Gaspar da Costa de Mesquita e seus filhos. Essa família fazia parte, de acordo com o que os documentos indicam, de um importante círculo financeiro e intelectual português, com vários membros envolvidos no comércio, nas finanças e na vida intelectual de Lisboa. O patriarca era cristão-novo, banqueiro, casado pela segunda vez, teve sete filhos. Em 1682, foi preso nos cárceres da Inquisição de Lisboa, com o confisco e todos os seus bens. A filha, Michaela foi presa em 1683, na época com dezesseis anos de idade. Os filhos, José da Costa e Theotonio da Costa, buscaram refúgio na Vila de São Paulo, quando os primeiros parentes foram presos e acusados de judaísmo, em Portugal. Alguns anos depois, após denuncias feitas em Lisboa, foram expedidos mandados de prisão e em 9 de outubro de 1684, os dois irmãos foram presos em São Paulo e enviados para Lisboa, onde foram processados e saíram em auto de fé. A problemática cristã-nova ou marrana é essencialmente uma questão ibérica, pois, o Tribunal do Santo Ofício, na Espanha e em Portugal, deu especial atenção a este segmento da sociedade, tornando-o sua principal vítima. Tentando escapar dessa situação, muitos cristãosnovos vieram para o Brasil, em busca de refúgio e liberdade. A colônia passou a ser uma das opções para fugirem do alcance da Inquisição, instaurada no território português. O fluxo migratório, que teve início com a colonização, continuou mesmo quando haviam impedimentos legais, estabelecidos pelo rei. São Paulo, o local escolhido por José da Costa e Theotonio da Costa para se instalarem, era uma região de difícil acesso, longe dos principais centros de desenvolvimento da colônia e onde a vida era extremamente dura. Os conflitos entre jesuítas e os colonos eram constantes, principalmente, nos séculos XVI e XVII, em decorrência do sistema predominante no planalto, o bandeirismo. José da Costa e Theotonio da Costa viviam em São Paulo, como lavradores, possivelmente com pequenas porções de terra, como atestam suas declarações no processo. Mas, o deslocamento para São Paulo não foi suficiente para livrá-los das garras do Santo Ofício. A rede de informações da Inquisição contava com a presença de agentes inquisitoriais na Metrópole e na colônia, permitindo que muitas vezes se alcançassem em qualquer lugar do Reino os procurados por crimes contra a fé. / Currently, many researches deal with the Tribunal of the Holy Inquisition of the Iberian Peninsula and Brazil. This dissertation proposal approaches the action of the Tribunal of the Holy Inquisition against new-Christians, accused of practicing Judaism in Portugal, through Inquisition processes of a converted family, painfully reached by the Inquisition in the second half of the XVIIth century. After the forced conversion of the Jews in Portugal in 1497, and the Inquisition implantation in 1536, the new-Christians (descending from the converted Jews) started to suffer the cruelest persecution by the Roman Catholic Church. Thousands of families were denounced, imprisoned, persecuted and condemned to some kind of penalty. In this master dissertation we have studied the Inquisition processes of the Gaspar da Costa de Mesquita family. According to the analyzed documents, this family integrated a relevant financial and intellectual Portuguese group, with many members dealing with commerce, finances, and the intellectual life in Lisbon. The Head of this family was a new-Christian, bank owner, married for the second time, with seven children. In 1682, he was confined to the Lisbon Inquisition prison, having all his belongings confiscated by the Holy Church. His daughter Michaela was imprisoned in 1683 when she was a 16th years old girl. The sons José da Costa and Theotonio da Costa escaped prison and evaded to Sao Paulo Village. At the time, the first family members were taken to prison and accused of Judaism in Portugal. Some years later, after being denounced in Lisbon, they were sentenced to prison and in October 9th, 1684, both sons were imprisoned and extradited to Lisbon, where they were indicted and left in auto-de-fé. The new-Christian or marrano issue is essentially an Iberian problem, which the Holy Tribunal of the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal, gave special attention to this ethnic group in society, transforming it in its main victim. Trying to escape from this situation, many new Christians moved to Brazil hoping to be free and start a new life. The colony was an option to escape from the Holy Roman Church persecution, instituted in the Portuguese territory. The migratory trends, which started with the colonization, have continued even when legal restrictions were imputed by the king. São Paulo, the refuge village chosen by José da Costa and Theotonio da Costa was a difficult place to access, away from the main development centers at the colony and life was extremely painful. The conflicts between the Jesuits and the colonizers were common place, especially on the XVIth and XVIIth centuries, as consequence of the predominant system on the plateau, the bandeirismo. The brothers José da Costa and Theotonio da Costa worked in Sao Paulo as peasants, possibly with small pieces of land, as confirmed by the formal statements in their processes. Even as a region hard to reach, they were caught by the Inquisition hands of the Church. The Inquisition net of informers were based of agents, both in the metropolis and in the colony, together with the denounces atmosphere at the Iberian society, making feasible to reach people indicted by the Holy Church Inquisition outside the kingdom.

The historical survey of social movements in the United States reveals that the movement is a rhetorical ground occupied by groups who have been marginalized by society. Today, however, the distinctions between those who are marginalized and those who are part of the establishment have become difficult to distinguish. This study considers the emergence of Promise Keepers, an all-male social movement, and the rhetorical themes that emerge from the group. This study identifies five rhetorical themes in Promise Keepers. These themes include asserting authority of men in the home and church, the creation of a new male identity, sports and war rhetoric, political rhetoric, and racial reconciliation. The implications of these themes are considered from a critical perspective and areas for future research are provided.

This thesis is a study of the ‘race relations’ work of Christians in the sixties in England, with specific reference to a Methodist church in Notting Hill, London. As such, it is also a study of English racisms: how they were fought against and how they were denied and facilitated. Additionally, the thesis pays attention to the interface of ‘religion’ and politics and the radical restatement of Christianity in the sixties. Despite a preponderance of sociological literature on 'race relations' and 'religion' in England, there has been a dearth of historical studies of either area in the post-war period. Therefore, this thesis is an important revision to the existing historiography in that it adds flesh to the bones of the story of post-war Christian involvement in the politics of 'race', and gives further texture and detail to the history of racism, 'race relations', and anti-racist struggles in England. Moreover, the thesis implicitly challenges the received wisdom of the decline of the churches in the sixties and shows an active engagement of Christians with politics. Using a wide range of private and public archives and interviews, the thesis takes a micro-study of the Notting Hill Methodist Church and places it within its wider contexts: how English Christians approached 'race' and 'race relations', what kinds of racialised political engagements existed in Notting Hill, and what kinds of racisms were expressed in England. The contextualised and detailed micro-study has enabled the thesis to capture the texture and depth which is needed to better understand 'race' and 'race relations' in post-war England. In doing so, the thesis sheds detailed light on some active 'civil rights' struggles in England and therefore challenges the received wisdom which views these struggles as being an American rather than an English (or British) story.

Atualmente muitas pesquisas estão sendo realizadas, tendo como objetivo estudar o Tribunal do Santo Ofício na Península Ibérica e no Brasil. A proposta dessa dissertação é abordar a ação do tribunal inquisitorial contra os cristãos-novos, acusados de judaísmo em Portugal e no Brasil, por meio da análise de processos inquisitoriais de membros de uma família conversa, duramente atingida pela Inquisição, na segunda metade do século XVII. Após a conversão forçada dos judeus em Portugal, em 1497 e a implantação da Inquisição em 1536, os cristãos-novos (descendentes dos judeus convertidos) passaram a sofrer a mais cruel perseguição. Milhares de famílias foram denunciadas, presas, processadas e condenadas a algum tipo de penalidade. Nesta dissertação foram estudados os processos inquisitoriais de Gaspar da Costa de Mesquita e seus filhos. Essa família fazia parte, de acordo com o que os documentos indicam, de um importante círculo financeiro e intelectual português, com vários membros envolvidos no comércio, nas finanças e na vida intelectual de Lisboa. O patriarca era cristão-novo, banqueiro, casado pela segunda vez, teve sete filhos. Em 1682, foi preso nos cárceres da Inquisição de Lisboa, com o confisco e todos os seus bens. A filha, Michaela foi presa em 1683, na época com dezesseis anos de idade. Os filhos, José da Costa e Theotonio da Costa, buscaram refúgio na Vila de São Paulo, quando os primeiros parentes foram presos e acusados de judaísmo, em Portugal. Alguns anos depois, após denuncias feitas em Lisboa, foram expedidos mandados de prisão e em 9 de outubro de 1684, os dois irmãos foram presos em São Paulo e enviados para Lisboa, onde foram processados e saíram em auto de fé. A problemática cristã-nova ou marrana é essencialmente uma questão ibérica, pois, o Tribunal do Santo Ofício, na Espanha e em Portugal, deu especial atenção a este segmento da sociedade, tornando-o sua principal vítima. Tentando escapar dessa situação, muitos cristãosnovos vieram para o Brasil, em busca de refúgio e liberdade. A colônia passou a ser uma das opções para fugirem do alcance da Inquisição, instaurada no território português. O fluxo migratório, que teve início com a colonização, continuou mesmo quando haviam impedimentos legais, estabelecidos pelo rei. São Paulo, o local escolhido por José da Costa e Theotonio da Costa para se instalarem, era uma região de difícil acesso, longe dos principais centros de desenvolvimento da colônia e onde a vida era extremamente dura. Os conflitos entre jesuítas e os colonos eram constantes, principalmente, nos séculos XVI e XVII, em decorrência do sistema predominante no planalto, o bandeirismo. José da Costa e Theotonio da Costa viviam em São Paulo, como lavradores, possivelmente com pequenas porções de terra, como atestam suas declarações no processo. Mas, o deslocamento para São Paulo não foi suficiente para livrá-los das garras do Santo Ofício. A rede de informações da Inquisição contava com a presença de agentes inquisitoriais na Metrópole e na colônia, permitindo que muitas vezes se alcançassem em qualquer lugar do Reino os procurados por crimes contra a fé. / Currently, many researches deal with the Tribunal of the Holy Inquisition of the Iberian Peninsula and Brazil. This dissertation proposal approaches the action of the Tribunal of the Holy Inquisition against new-Christians, accused of practicing Judaism in Portugal, through Inquisition processes of a converted family, painfully reached by the Inquisition in the second half of the XVIIth century. After the forced conversion of the Jews in Portugal in 1497, and the Inquisition implantation in 1536, the new-Christians (descending from the converted Jews) started to suffer the cruelest persecution by the Roman Catholic Church. Thousands of families were denounced, imprisoned, persecuted and condemned to some kind of penalty. In this master dissertation we have studied the Inquisition processes of the Gaspar da Costa de Mesquita family. According to the analyzed documents, this family integrated a relevant financial and intellectual Portuguese group, with many members dealing with commerce, finances, and the intellectual life in Lisbon. The Head of this family was a new-Christian, bank owner, married for the second time, with seven children. In 1682, he was confined to the Lisbon Inquisition prison, having all his belongings confiscated by the Holy Church. His daughter Michaela was imprisoned in 1683 when she was a 16th years old girl. The sons José da Costa and Theotonio da Costa escaped prison and evaded to Sao Paulo Village. At the time, the first family members were taken to prison and accused of Judaism in Portugal. Some years later, after being denounced in Lisbon, they were sentenced to prison and in October 9th, 1684, both sons were imprisoned and extradited to Lisbon, where they were indicted and left in auto-de-fé. The new-Christian or marrano issue is essentially an Iberian problem, which the Holy Tribunal of the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal, gave special attention to this ethnic group in society, transforming it in its main victim. Trying to escape from this situation, many new Christians moved to Brazil hoping to be free and start a new life. The colony was an option to escape from the Holy Roman Church persecution, instituted in the Portuguese territory. The migratory trends, which started with the colonization, have continued even when legal restrictions were imputed by the king. São Paulo, the refuge village chosen by José da Costa and Theotonio da Costa was a difficult place to access, away from the main development centers at the colony and life was extremely painful. The conflicts between the Jesuits and the colonizers were common place, especially on the XVIth and XVIIth centuries, as consequence of the predominant system on the plateau, the bandeirismo. The brothers José da Costa and Theotonio da Costa worked in Sao Paulo as peasants, possibly with small pieces of land, as confirmed by the formal statements in their processes. Even as a region hard to reach, they were caught by the Inquisition hands of the Church. The Inquisition net of informers were based of agents, both in the metropolis and in the colony, together with the denounces atmosphere at the Iberian society, making feasible to reach people indicted by the Holy Church Inquisition outside the kingdom.

We outline a theory of bounded affinity between religious experiences and beliefs and paranormalism, which emphasizes that religious and paranormal experiences and beliefs share inherent physiological, psychological, and ontological similarities. Despite these parallels, organized religious groups typically delineate a narrow subset of experiences and explanatory frames as acceptable and True, banishing others as either false or demonic. Accordingly, the theory provides a revised definition of the “paranormal” as beliefs and experiences explicitly rejected by science and organized religions. To demonstrate the utility of the theory, we show that, after controlling for levels of conventional religious practice, there is a strong, positive relationship between claiming Christian-based religious experiences and believing in, pursuing, and experiencing the paranormal, particularly among individuals not strongly tethered to organized religion. Bounded affinity theory makes sense of recent non-linear and complex moderation findings in the empirical literature and reiterates the importance of the paranormal for studies of religion.

The relationship between Muslims and Christian in Indonesia is and important subject. Apart from a few investigations on certain conflicts in different areas of Indonesia, little effort has been devoted to thoroughly examining the complexity of the relationship between the two religious groups. This study is an attempt to investigate the perspectives of the exclusivist and inclusivist Muslims on Muslim-Christian relations in Indonesia, especially during the New Order period (1965-1998). / In dealing with this subject, the theological and legal precepts on the ‘religious’ other as developed in some classical texts are explored briefly. In order to provide the historical background of current Muslim-Christian relations, the study then investigates policies of the Dutch, Old Order, and New Order governments on Muslims and Christians. During the Dutch regime, Christians received better treatment as compared to Muslims. This was deeply resented by some Muslims, who identified the Dutch as Christians and Christians as colonists. By the time Indonesians were approaching independence, Muslim, Christian and other religious groups were preoccupied with deciding the philosophical basis of the state, and the Sukarno government paid scant attention to the hidden tense relations between Muslims and Christians. With the shift to the New Order period, Muslim-Christian relations changed dramatically because Soeharto intentionally and carefully controlled Indonesians based on the policy of SARA. The study found that some elements of SARA policy caused tensions between Muslims and Christians. / In separate chapters, the study then explores the backgrounds and concerns of the exclusivists and inclusivists in relations to Muslim Christian relations. It found that among both exclusivists and inclusivists the degree of ‘exclusiveness’ or ‘inclusiveness’ varied, as they were influenced by their different backgrounds. In addition, within each groups or among individuals, the concerns on issues related to Muslim-Christian relations differed. Four main exclusivist institutions are discussed in the study: the Dewan Dakwah Islamiyah Indonesia (DDII), the Komite Indonesia untuk Solidaritas Dunia Islam (KISDI), the Forum Pembela Islam (FPI), and the Laskar Jihad. Key issues discussed by the exclusivists include the Christian ‘other’, relations between religion and the state, Christianisation, and the Ambon conflicts. The relations between the exclusivists and the Christians have been coloured largely by disharmony. Exclusivists believe that Christianity underwent alteration and that the God of Muslims is different from the Christian God, who is described as having offspring. In addition, all exclusivist groups in the study stated the view that it was the Christianisation activities that tore apart the relationship between Muslims and Christians. / In contrast, the relationships between inclusivists Muslims and Christians are coloured largely by harmony. The inclusivists chose to work within the New Order system for changes beneficial to Indonesian Muslims by avoiding direct conflict with the government and occupying themselves with intellectual endeavours. Against such a backdrop, the renewal of Islamic thought, characterised mainly by inclusivism, was introduced and developed. Moreover, the inclusivists hold the view that plurality is a law of nature (sunnatullah). Within this view, all religions are seen to adhere to the same principle of One Truth; and will therefore gradually find their ‘common platform’ or kalimatun sawa. As a reflection of their perspective on religious pluralism, most inclusivists admit the existence and rights of other religious believers, especially the ahl al-kitab. / The study found that it was the exclusivists who were more adamant in criticising the inclusivists through articles in their media or sermons in their mosques. Three of their important critiques are the belief that the inclusivists have established a link with Jews and Christians, that inclusivism weakens Muslim faith by giving new interpretations to the Islamic foundation texts that deviate from the accepted views, and that inclusivists lack concern about Christianisation. In contrast, the inclusivists tend not to criticise or respond to critiques directed at them by the exclusivists, as they consider these to be emotional or personal.

The aim of this research is to find social factors in Chinese academic immigrants’ conversion to Christianity using the perspectives of symbolic interactionism and social exchange theory. The research data are drawn from observation and interviews. Fourteen Chinese student converts were interviewed. The analysis focuses on the interaction between recruits and Christians. Results supported the idea that religious conversion happens progressively. Affective bonds are essential for the religious conversion of Chinese academic immigrants. Chinese Christian converts experienced five stages. First, they develop affective commitment to Christians close to them and regard them as their reference group. Second, an emergent generalized other is internalized in recruits’ minds through recruits’ acceptance of symbolic language in Christianity and interaction with Chinese Christians. Third, recruits understand the Bible with the perspective of Christians. Fourth, as the socially defined reality reinforces their beliefs and the affective bonds develop, recruits confess their sins and decide to believe in God. Finally, recruits strengthen their understanding of Christianity by intensifying interactions with Chinese Christians.

This reception study, drawing on Robert White’s culturalist approach to religious media and Jane Mansbridge’s oppositional consciousness, explores the meaning-making process of Queer Christians in Sweden about Parvez Sharma’s A Jihad for Love. The study argues that against a background where Muslims and Queer Muslims facing multiple forms of othering in Western mainstream media, queer-affirming Muslim alternative media can be a precursor to interfaith encounter and interreligious dialogue between Queer Christians and Queer Muslims. The results show that A Jihad for Love potentially increased the imagination and political interest of Queer Christians in Sweden in Queer Muslim lives. Finally, this study contributes to the reception of queer-affirming Muslim alternative media which has long been neglected and offers interesting insights about Queer Christian conceptualization of freedom, tolerance, secularism, religion and media in Swedish society.   Keywords: A Jihad for Love, religious media, queer affirming alternative Muslim media, Queer Muslims, Queer Christians, Sweden, interfaith dialogue, secularism

European modernist architectural design and urban planning for suburbs have often been theorized as dystopic creation myths. These narratives focus on the unfulfilled promises of activist designers to deliver equality, overscaled and generic neighborhoods, and contemporary social exclusion. Södertälje offers another view. This dissertation combines history, ethnography, and formal analysis to examine how architects, urban planners, and immigrant residents conflict and collaborate in the production of the city. The Swedish town of Södertälje serves as a lens through which to view these processes: it is both a nexus of high modernist spatial and social planning and the ostensible capital of the diasporic Syriac Christians, who now comprise approximately 26% of the local population. Postwar Swedish designers sought to reduce class differences through home standardization and a blurred public-private divide; this happened just as the country received numerous refugees, including Syriacs, who had left difficult conditions in Turkey, Syria, and Lebanon and quickly concentrated in Södertälje. There, they became active designers of a new urban landscape, first claiming welfare state public spaces but then slightly altering their uses. This suggests that “generic” modernist urbanism was more successful at accommodating difference than has typically been argued. More recently, Syriacs have built a state-of-the-art soccer stadium and colossal churches that – while sited in industrial zones in Södertälje – function as monuments and pilgrimage sites for the diaspora. In new, Syriac-dominated neighborhoods of custom-designed, single-family houses, Syriac participation has exceeded the “voice” that planners typically allocate to immigrants; their architectural displays of difference and affluent forms of segregation generate anxieties for planners trained in the welfare state’s traditions, which have long linked spatial uniformity to social equality. In aggregate, the Syriacs’ discrete projects have changed the way that the city functions, both in space and in the practices of the town’s expert designers, a development that I label “urban design from below.” This justifies a call for new orientations toward modernism, segregation, and participation in space making and suggests future trends for other European peripheries, where immigrants are also using and reconstructing postwar housing projects.

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Sciences