The study starts with a historical overview of the notion of gender and sexual identity and belonging in the German Christian church as seen from a queer and intersectional gender studies perspective. The following study moves to explore three individual experiences and encounters with the Christian church. The experiences are contemporary and have been made by queer Christians inside the church and during the creation of a personal faith that is suitable for their needs. With the analytical help of the feminist standpoint theory and queer theory, the researcher examines a limited empirical corpus based on three interviews. The study centers on the experiences of these participants and asks fundamental questions about how to unite two significant belongings that seem to be contradictory. These sample stories include individuals who openly belong to the queer community. They have worked in and for the church or study theology. The stories of such double belonging have been investigated through semi-structured interviews. The discussion and analysis outline similar experiences made by the participants. The main findings include the lack of language and role models that lead to experiences of loneliness and exclusion. How they construe their sense of faith varies as faith is individual. Nevertheless, and as highlighted, is the immense significance of being religious, the importance of spirituality and faith for the inquired members of the LGBTQIA+ community, but not necessarily church as an institution.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the understanding of how sectarian tensions can be harnessed, nourished and spread in Lebanon. It does so through a case study on the speech delivered by Hezbollah’s Secretary-General, Hassan Nasrallah, on 18 October 2021, where he accused the Christian party, and former militia, the Lebanese Forces for killing seven Shia Muslims in a protest four days earlier. More specifically, this thesis is a Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis with the aim to examine how we can understand the discourse on Christians and how that discourse is shaped through Nasrallah’s framing of himself, Hezbollah and the Lebanese Forces. With conspiracist elements, Nasrallah creates a dichotomy of us and them where them is the threat that also helps to define what is us. It is a highly polarizing speech, where he frames the Lebanese Forces as a political enemy and a threatful organization without morals that wants to sow division and create a civil war in Lebanon. In contrast, Nasrallah depicts Christians as part of a larger us that wants peace and stability. However, within the us, Christians are depicted as exposed, vulnerable and in need of protection which stands in contrast to Hezbollah that is immensely strong and can protect Christians. Meanwhile, he encourages and mobilizes Christians to act against the Lebanese Forces. Thus, despite a rhetoric about unity among Christians and Muslims, the main finding of this thesis is that Nasrallah seeks support from Christians by spurring sectarian tensions and sowing division within the Christian camp, with the goal to gain power.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between religiosity, marital satisfaction, sexual behaviors, and sexual satisfaction of married persons who attended a church affiliated university. Data were collected from 56 married individuals who attended a conservative, church-affiliated university located in the south-central United States. The sample was mostly caucasian, heterosexual, upper-middle income, college educated, divided equally by gender, and ranged. in age from 27 to 83 (M=age 46). Participants had been married between 4 and 54 years (M=22 years), and most (90%) participants were in their first and only marriage. Religiosity was operationalized by Rohrbaugh and Jessor's (1975) religiosity scale. Marital satisfaction was operationalized using the Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale (Hatch, James, & Schumm, 1986). Sexual satisfaction was operationalized from global sexual satisfaction questions (Darling & Davidson, 1987). / Ph. D.

Donald Trump tog världen med storm när han deltog i det amerikanska presidentvalet och sedermera blev vald. Uppsatsen undersöker om Donald Trump kan placeras på en fascistisk skala baserat på hans uttalanden i sex tal; samt hur det kristna stödet, som Donald Trump erhöll i valet, kan förklaras. Sex tal analyseras med basen i kvalitativ textanalys och kategoriseras i fem kategorier för fascism.   Det kristna stödet kan förklaras genom gemensamma värderingar, Lakoffs Strict Father morality, i kombination med rädsla. Rädslan över vad som ska hända med AFS med Hillary Clinton som president är stor, är en tung faktor för konservativa kristna att rösta på Donald Trump. Studien kommer fram till att Donald Trump kan klassificeras som semi-fascist då han delvis uppfyller de kriterier som studien grundar sig på. / Donald Trump chocked the world when he decided to run for president of the United States of America, and won. This study examines if Donald Trump may be placed on a fascist scale based on his statements in six speeches; and how the Christian support, that he received, may be explained. The speeches have been analysed based on a qualitative text analysis and been categorized in to five categories of fascism.   The Christian support may be explained by common values; Lakoff’s Strict Father morality, in combination with fear. The fear for what may happen to the U.S. with Hillary Clinton as president has a big impact on why conservative Christians voted for Donald Trump. The conclusion of this study is that Donald Trump can be classified as a semi-fascist as he partly fulfils the fascist criteria this study presents.

This thesis presents an inquiry into the issue of Christian captives in 17 th century Morocco, while the main concern is given to all main aspects of the moroccan captivity. The thesis begins with the introduction to the historical background of the period, which is followed by chronological delineation of the act of being taken captive where the corsaires of Salé took their part, then the living conditions which the Christians had to face during their captivity in Morocco, to the possibilities of redemption which the situation offered. keywords: Morocco, piracy, captives, Christians, 17 th century, Moulay Ismail, Salé, Republic of Bouregreg

A expansão marítima européia dos séculos XV e XVI e as atividades mercantis inerentes a ela provocaram a difusão geográfica das praças de negócio e das fontes fornecedoras de mercadorias, situadas na Ásia, África e América. A complexidade dos novos negócios exigiu a reorganização do trato e das finanças e impôs novas relações entre mercadores e as Coroas portuguesa e espanhola. Nesse contexto, famílias de comerciantes cristãos-novos destacaram-se no trato transcontinental e nas finanças intra e extra-países europeus, organizando-se em redes mundiais de comércio. A expansão comercial atraiu população para locais economicamente dinâmicos, como o Nordeste açucareiro na segunda metade do século XVI. Essa forte emigração coincide com o recrudescimento da ação inquisitorial lusa. Formaram-se redes comerciais ligadas ao açúcar integradas e interconectadas a redes mais complexas, presentes nos mais diferentes e relevantes segmentos do comércio mundial. João Nunes Correia era destacado membro de uma ampla rede de comércio da atividade açucareira, com atuação no financiamento da produção e da organização da empresa sacarina em terras brasílicas e sua inserção no trato mundial / The european maritime expansion of the 15th and 16th centuries as well as the mercantile activities inherent to it provoked a geographical spread of trading centers in addition to supply sources of merchandise situated in Asia, Africa and America. The complexity of the new trade demanded a reorganization of agreements and finances and imposed a new relationship between the merchants and the Portuguese and Spanish Crowns. In this context, the families of new-Christian merchants were outstanding in transcontinental dealings as well as in the finances of intra- and extra-European countries, organizing themselves into a world trading network. This commercial expansion attracted people to economically dynamic locations, such as the sugarproducing Northeast of Brazil during the second half of the 16th century. This prolific immigration coincides with the recrudescence of the Portuguese inquisitorial activities. Commercial networks connected to sugar integrated and interconnected to more complex networks, present in the most diverse and relevant segments of world trade, were formed. João Nunes Correia was a distinguished member of a large network in the sugar trade, active in both the financing of production and the organization of the sugar enterprise in Brazil and its entry into world trade

O presente trabalho configura uma abordagem de um subtipo do corpus da literatura da diáspora sefaradita ocidental. Trata-se de obras escritas em espanhol e português por autores de origem judia, mas que viveram como cristãos nominais por duas ou mais gerações, em função da perseguição inquisitorial. Uma vez reinseridos no judaísmo, teria sido imperativo aos ditos conversos ressignificar sua identidade. Para o fazerem, estes se serviram, entre outros instrumentos, da literatura. Neste sentido, o poema A La Salida de Lisboa, escrito em espanhol na Holanda do século XVII pelo português João Pinto Delgado, teria constituído uma ferramenta na busca pela reconstrução da identidade judaica do autor, como de seus pares. Tal reconstrução não se daria sem que fossem eliciados elementos próprios à cultura ibérica inquisitorial, incluindo as noções de nobreza e pureza de sangue, identificáveis na obra. / This paper presents an approach to a subtype of the corpus of Western Sephardic Diaspora literature. These are works written in Spanish and Portuguese by authors of Jewish origin, but who lived as nominal Christians for two or more generations, due to persecution inquisitorial. Once reinserted into Judaism, it would have been imperative for the conversos to re-signify their identity. In order to do so, they used, among other instruments, literature. In this sense, the poem A La Salida de Lisboa, written in Spanish in the seventeenth century in Holland by the Portuguese João Pinto Delgado, would have constituted a tool in the search for the reconstruction of the Jewish identity of the author, as of his peers. Such reconstruction would not take place without eliciting elements proper to the Iberian inquisitorial culture, including notions of nobility and purity of blood, identifiable in the work.