This work will explore some of the possible relationships between the teachings and spiritual practices of two religious teachers – Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection and Ajahn Sumedho. Brother Lawrence was a Discalced Carmelite brother that lived in France during the 17th century. Ajahn Sumedho is a monk within the Thai Forest Tradition of Theravadan Buddhism, who currently lives in Hertfordshire, UK. This exploration will include even a description of their respective religious heritage, together with a short discussion of the value or shortcomings of the comparative method of research.

The Secret Doctrine is the magnum opus of H.P. Blavatsky and one of the foundation texts of the Theosophical Society. It represents her attempt to appropriate authority in a wide variety of fields, including, science, religion, and philosophy. This study examines H.P. Blavatsky’s engagement with Ancient Egypt in relation to two specific themes, the constitution of the individual and the afterlife, as they are portrayed in this work. It locates Theosophy in its historical context, the late nineteenth century, in relation to various fields of knowledge. It reviews the sources that H.P. Blavatsky drew on in her work and discusses the various interpretive techniques she employed to insert Theosophical content into various world religions. Finally, it contrasts the Theosophical presentation of Ancient Egypt in The Secret Doctrine with that of mainstream modern Egyptology. The fundamental disconnect which is revealed highlights the challenges that the Theosophical perspective faces. / Religious Studies & Arabic / M. A. (Religious Studies)

Earth Matters examines the relationships between alternative religion in North America and the natural world through the twin lenses of the history of religions and cultural anthropology. Throughout, nature remains a contested ground, defined simultaneously the limits of cultural activity and by an increasing expansion of claims to knowledge by scientific discourses. Less a historical review than a series of fugues of thought, Earth Matters engages with figures like the French vitalist, Georges Canguilhem, the American environmentalist, John Muir; the founder of Deep Ecology, Arne Næss; the collaborators on Gaia Theory, James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis; the physicist and New Age scientist, Fritjof Capra; and the Wiccan writer and activist, Starhawk. These subjects move in spirals throughout the thesis: Canguilhem opens the question of vitalism, the search for a source of being beyond the explanations of the emerging sciences. As rationalism expands its dominance across the scientific landscape, this animating force moves into the natural world, to that protean space between the city and the wild and in the environmental thinkers who initially moved along those boundaries. As the twentieth century moves towards a close, mechanistic thinking simultaneously reaches heights of success previously unimagined and collapses under the demand for complexity posed by quantum physics, by research in genetic interactions, by the continued elusive relationship of mind to health. This allows the wild to return inside through the internalization of consciousness sparked by the American New Age, but also provides a new model to understand the natural world as complex zone open to a wide variety of strategies, including the multiplicities of understanding offered through contemporary neopaganisms. Earth Matters argues for the necessity of the notion of ecology, both as an environmental concern but also as an organizing principle for human thought and behavior. Ecologies are by their nature complex and multi-variegated things dependent upon the surprising and unpredictable interaction of radically different organisms, and it is through this model that we are best able to understand not only ourselves but also our communities and our efforts to make sense of the external world.

The Secret Doctrine is the magnum opus of H.P. Blavatsky and one of the foundation texts of the Theosophical Society. It represents her attempt to appropriate authority in a wide variety of fields, including, science, religion, and philosophy. This study examines H.P. Blavatsky’s engagement with Ancient Egypt in relation to two specific themes, the constitution of the individual and the afterlife, as they are portrayed in this work. It locates Theosophy in its historical context, the late nineteenth century, in relation to various fields of knowledge. It reviews the sources that H.P. Blavatsky drew on in her work and discusses the various interpretive techniques she employed to insert Theosophical content into various world religions. Finally, it contrasts the Theosophical presentation of Ancient Egypt in The Secret Doctrine with that of mainstream modern Egyptology. The fundamental disconnect which is revealed highlights the challenges that the Theosophical perspective faces. / Religious Studies and Arabic / M. A. (Religious Studies)

Biblical and Ancient Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Semitic Languages)

Biblical and Ancient Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Semitic Languages)

This project seeks to determine, to what extent the culture of early Israel (1250-1000 BC) is similar to African cultures, more specifically, to that of the Lemba. However, a comparison between the cultures of early Israel and those of certain African tribes is not the primary objective in this case. This project is neither an anthropological study nor does it intend to mainly focus on the Lemba as such -though this may appear to be the case. This endeavour primarily fits into the ambit of Old Testament Studies. The investigation into the Lemba is meant to be subsidiary to the point of contingence between their culture and Old Testament customs and traditions, and how this information affects the interpretation of the Old Testament and its teaching in Africa. A number of comparisons between the early Israelite religion as reflected in the Old Testament and the Lemba are drawn. Though the qualitative research (inductive approach) is employed in the field work, the greatest part of the data on religious perspectives and practices is mediated by the theory of a phenomenological approach as advocated by Ninian Smart on matters of experience, mythology, ritual, and ethical/judicial dimensions. Therefore, the approach is also deductive. The Lemba is a very specific group with claims about Israelite/Judaic origins. Their early departure from Israel (according to them ca 586 BC) can mean that there are remnants of a very ancient type oflsraelite religion, now valuable when juxtaposed to that of early Israel. This study takes Lemba traditions seriously, but finally does not verify or falsify Lemba claims - but the outcomes in this thesis may take this debate a step further. Their claims make them special and extremely interesting to study from the point of view of oral cultures. Their oral culture is constitutive of their world-view and self-understanding or identity. It incorporates the role of oral traditions, history and historiography and parallels are drawn between orality in early Israelite and Lemba religions. The reciprocity between orality and inscripturation of traditions, yielding valuable information on what may have happened in the developent of traditions in Israel, are also attended to in this project. Nevertheless, this project is primarily a search for the understanding and relevance of the Old Testament in Afiica and is, therefore, a selective and not an exhaustive comparison between the Lemba and early Israel. And so, taking cognisance of the hermeneutic of contextualisation in Africa in particular, a teaching module syllabus for Old Testament Studies is developed, of which the very strands of religion among the Lemba and early Israel are constitutive for teaching Old Testament Studies in present-day African cultures (and perhaps elsewhere). / Biblical and Ancient Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Biblical Studies)

This project seeks to determine, to what extent the culture of early Israel (1250-1000 BC) is similar to African cultures, more specifically, to that of the Lemba. However, a comparison between the cultures of early Israel and those of certain African tribes is not the primary objective in this case. This project is neither an anthropological study nor does it intend to mainly focus on the Lemba as such -though this may appear to be the case. This endeavour primarily fits into the ambit of Old Testament Studies. The investigation into the Lemba is meant to be subsidiary to the point of contingence between their culture and Old Testament customs and traditions, and how this information affects the interpretation of the Old Testament and its teaching in Africa. A number of comparisons between the early Israelite religion as reflected in the Old Testament and the Lemba are drawn. Though the qualitative research (inductive approach) is employed in the field work, the greatest part of the data on religious perspectives and practices is mediated by the theory of a phenomenological approach as advocated by Ninian Smart on matters of experience, mythology, ritual, and ethical/judicial dimensions. Therefore, the approach is also deductive. The Lemba is a very specific group with claims about Israelite/Judaic origins. Their early departure from Israel (according to them ca 586 BC) can mean that there are remnants of a very ancient type oflsraelite religion, now valuable when juxtaposed to that of early Israel. This study takes Lemba traditions seriously, but finally does not verify or falsify Lemba claims - but the outcomes in this thesis may take this debate a step further. Their claims make them special and extremely interesting to study from the point of view of oral cultures. Their oral culture is constitutive of their world-view and self-understanding or identity. It incorporates the role of oral traditions, history and historiography and parallels are drawn between orality in early Israelite and Lemba religions. The reciprocity between orality and inscripturation of traditions, yielding valuable information on what may have happened in the developent of traditions in Israel, are also attended to in this project. Nevertheless, this project is primarily a search for the understanding and relevance of the Old Testament in Afiica and is, therefore, a selective and not an exhaustive comparison between the Lemba and early Israel. And so, taking cognisance of the hermeneutic of contextualisation in Africa in particular, a teaching module syllabus for Old Testament Studies is developed, of which the very strands of religion among the Lemba and early Israel are constitutive for teaching Old Testament Studies in present-day African cultures (and perhaps elsewhere). / Biblical and Ancient Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Biblical Studies)