The cult of Joan of Arc has always had an effect on the people of France, throughout history. It has aspired too many different views and re-surfaced at times in crisis for France. During some turbulent years after the mid 19th century the cult seems to have gained popularity. Emotional and historical writing became a fashion and Joan was presented in different ways depending on the writer and his motifs. As nationalistic front gained in popularity they understood to use her symbol in the name of France. This following study, named French Nationalism and Joan of Arc: the Use of the Cult of Joan of Arc in France between 1871-1926, has been an attempt to study her cult from an ultra nationalistic point of view. By approaching the subject by a history of ideas theory I have tried to answer my questions in the matter, and tried to de-code the image of Joan of Arc in the name of nationalism. By first studying the nationalistic development in France as background and the basics and philosophy of the ideas I have then begun the research of the period mentioned. First and foremost I have studied the framework of nationalism and then I have used material coherent to my study, such as Action Française, writers of the 19th-20th century and other studies. I have come to learn that the cult of Joan was perfect for the time when ultranationalistic feelings grew in the late 19th century as a response to the ever twisted Dreyfuss-affair. Along with nationalism came anti-Semitism and fascism and in the line of Action Française also royalism. Joan of Arc stood for all those things, at least that is what the nationalist thought, using history and documents to back it up. And if the legend did not fit the purpose, it was made to fit, all in the ideology of nationalism. Joan of Arc became the symbol they wanted for all their own beliefs. Joan of Arc was to be a piece of raw clay, able to take on any form in the hands of politics.

This study provides an in depth analysis of three temples dedicated to emperors in Roman Asia (western Asia Minor): the Temple of Divine Rulers at Aphrodisias, the Temple of Divine Rulers at Ephesus and the Temple of Zeus Philios and Trajan at Pergamon. Focusing on each case study in a separate chapter, the project provides a brief introduction to each city's history and a detailed discussion of each temple's name, dating, patronage structure, architectural form, sculptural program, and the application techniques of sculptural and architectural details. The study proposes an understanding of these temples as key monuments of constantly changing dynamic urban landscapes rather than simple symbolic gestures towards the Roman emperors. Utilizing Kevin Lynch's terminology, the project suggests close links between each monument and the already existing urban elements of each individual city, further strengthening its overall urban image. These structures were essential to their urban contexts, and their meanings and functions were directly linked to the culture and history of each city. Finally, the project demonstrates that through their architectural designs and sculptural programs, each temple emphasized the perspectives of the local elite. The methodology of the project involves a careful study of the city plans, an analysis of context-specific local features and finally a consideration of multiple-viewer perceptions. This dissertation aims to provide an alternative model for later studies in Roman provincial art and architecture. / text

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Avec la romanisation à grande échelle pendant le Haut-Empire, les Romains ont propagé leur culture dans tout le bassin méditerranéen. Les jeux de gladiateurs ont été en Asie Mineure un apport important à la société romaine instaurée en milieu grec. Les théâtres hellénistiques ont été modifiés pour accueillir ces nouveaux divertissements, typiquement romains. Il est question de tout ce qui entoure ces endroits et les gladiateurs grecs qui les ont massivement fréquentés pendant les trois premiers siècles de notre ère, également de ces combattants grecs à travers les spectacles, les festivals et le culte impérial. Quatre cités sont étudiées dans cette optique : Éphèse, Aphrodisias, Attaleia, Side. Nous pouvons ainsi analyser les développements de ce phénomène autant dans les grands que les petites villes. / With full scale Romanization during the early days of the Empire, the Romans propagated their culture all across the Mediterranean region. Gladiatorial games were in Asia Minor a significant feature of the Roman culture implanted amid the Greek population. The Hellenistic theaters were modified to accommodate this new Roman entertainment. This contribution is about all that surrounds these places and the Greek gladiators who fought in them during the first three centuries of our era ; it explores those Greek warriors in spectacle, festival and imperial cult. Four cities are studied : Ephesos, Aphrodisias, Attaleia and Side. The choice of these examples, it is hoped, will allow a better understanding of the development of this phenomenon in big urban centers as well as in smaller cities. / Entièrement réalisé grâce au programme LaTeX (http://www.latex-project.org/)

Les reliques sont des objets associés aux saints, ou au Christ. Une relique est porteuse d’une puissance spirituelle, une virtus, source de miracles. Depuis l’Antiquité et surtout le Moyen Âge, les reliques ont joué un rôle essentiel dans la vie des sociétés chrétiennes. Il n’en reste pas moins que les théologiens semblent n’avoir réservé au culte des reliques qu’une faible part de leurs écrits, au point d’être considéré par l’historiographie actuelle comme ayant eu « une élaboration théorique inversement proportionnelle à son importance ». Le présent mémoire se propose d’étudier, à travers les différents témoignages laissés sur le culte des reliques, durant l’Antiquité et le Moyen Âge, quelles ont pu être les conceptions, croyances et controverses autour du culte des reliques. L’hypothèse par conséquent proposée est celle d’un « problème des reliques », intimement lié aux évolutions du culte des saints et aux conceptions sur l’eucharistie tout au long du Moyen Âge. Un glissement se produit au cours du Moyen Âge, d’une critique jugée hérétique du culte en lui-même, à un refus des abus et du flou entourant ce culte au nom de l’orthodoxie. Ces paroles persistantes, à défaut d’un débat, sur la validité, les mécanismes mystiques et les abus d’un tel culte se sont ainsi cristallisées au XIIe siècle chez plusieurs auteurs contemporains, tels Thiofrid d’Echternach et surtout Guibert de Nogent, soulignant le besoin d’une élaboration théorique et d’une codification de ces pratiques. / Relics are items linked to the saints, or to the Christ. Relics carry spiritual power, called virtus, source of miracles. Since the Antiquity, and especially since the Middle Age, relics played an essential part in the life of christian societies. The fact remains that the medieval theologians seemed to have reserved, for the cult of relics, a small part of their writings, as to be regarded by historians as having been presenting "a theoretical elaboration inversely proportional to its significance " and did not elicit any debate. This thesis thus proposes to study, through the various accounts left on the cult of relics, the ancient and medieval, what were the views, beliefs and controversies around the cult of relics. The hypothesis is therefore proposed that a "problem of the relics" existed, throughout the Middle Age, intimately linked to developments in the cult of saints and ideas on the Eucharist. A shift occurs during the Middle Ages, from a criticism, considered heretical, of the cult itself, to a denial of abuse and vagueness of this cult in the name of orthodoxy. These persistent speeches, if not a debate, about the validity and the mystical mechanisms and abuse of such a cult, would be well crystallized in the twelfth century, reflected in many contemporary writers, such as Thiofrid Echternach and especially Guibert of Nogent, stressing the need for theoretical development and codification of these practices.

The specific thesis that is tested in this study is that there is continual interaction between the sanctuary cult and personal religious experience in the Book of Psalms. The main theoretical argument is that the sanctuary cult had a formative role in creating the piety of the psalmists. The study attempts to explore the specific nature of that relationship and to benefit from the contributions of three major approaches to the Psalms, i.e., the form critical approach (Hermann Gunkel), the cultic approach (Sigmund Mowinckel) and the Psalter-shaping approach (Gerald H. Wilson, James L. Mays, Jerome F. D. Creach, Mark D. Futato, J. Clinton McCann and Walter Brueggemann). The study suggests that the ongoing interaction between the sanctuary cult and personal piety in the Psalms is the result of the creative power of cult. It offers evidence of the possible shaping of the Psalter around the sanctuary motif. It also offers a unique perspective on the piety of the psalmists, suggesting that the psalmists, and particularly the editor(s) of the present shape of the Psalter, promoted the eschatological hope of Israel in the new temple and the heavenly aspect of Israel’s sanctuary. / Thesis (PhD (Old Testament))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus in association with Greenwich School of Theology, U.K., 2013.

The specific thesis that is tested in this study is that there is continual interaction between the sanctuary cult and personal religious experience in the Book of Psalms. The main theoretical argument is that the sanctuary cult had a formative role in creating the piety of the psalmists. The study attempts to explore the specific nature of that relationship and to benefit from the contributions of three major approaches to the Psalms, i.e., the form critical approach (Hermann Gunkel), the cultic approach (Sigmund Mowinckel) and the Psalter-shaping approach (Gerald H. Wilson, James L. Mays, Jerome F. D. Creach, Mark D. Futato, J. Clinton McCann and Walter Brueggemann). The study suggests that the ongoing interaction between the sanctuary cult and personal piety in the Psalms is the result of the creative power of cult. It offers evidence of the possible shaping of the Psalter around the sanctuary motif. It also offers a unique perspective on the piety of the psalmists, suggesting that the psalmists, and particularly the editor(s) of the present shape of the Psalter, promoted the eschatological hope of Israel in the new temple and the heavenly aspect of Israel’s sanctuary. / Thesis (PhD (Old Testament))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus in association with Greenwich School of Theology, U.K., 2013.

Finally, I have tried to establish a causal connection between Oriya identity and the political process of Orissa during the period of study.

<p>Many archaeologists have been intrigued by how often symbolic houses of varying forms are used on the burialgrounds of the Scandinavian Bronze Age. Some scholars even claim that to deal with the dead did not mean to set them apart from the world of the living during this period. Since several examples show that there seem to be an active connection between the ship-setting and different types of symbolic houses, this study seek to demonstrate and interpret how the ideology behind these symbols vary between three regionally different Swedish areas: Halland, Småland and Gotland. The purpose is to show that the way chosen to shape the symbols materially not only had fundamental impact on the organization of the burialground itself, but also on how the surrounding world came to comprenhend and use them. This study suggests that even though the special shapes of the graves and the gravefield itself can carry meaning, the materialization of the monuments can be interpreted as incorporated in a practice of remembrance in where the individual shaping of the grave most probably formed part of a greater story.</p>

Fondé en 1955 par un fonctionnaire bengali, Ananda Marga, « la voie de la félicité », est une secte hindoue qui s’est donné un mode d’organisation à échelle planétaire et s’implique dans des activités missionnaires dans un grand nombre de pays. Dans le paysage religieux de l’Inde contemporaine, elle se distingue par les violences dont ses disciples ont été accusés. L’enquête ethnographique menée en son sein, l’analyse de sa littérature interne et le recueil de témoignages d’anciens disciples montrent que ces violences s’expliquent par les aspirations politiques de son fondateur et de ses membres ainsi que par l’instabilité de son assise économique. Mais pas uniquement. Elles visent également une mutation radicale de la personne du disciple et une transformation profonde la société, deux processus intimement liés. En se soumettant volontairement à des violences psychologiques et physiques, le disciple entend se soustraire aux limitations de l’existence ordinaire. S’il se libère ainsi du monde, c’est pour mieux agir dans le monde au service exclusif de son Gourou et de sa mission. Dotés d’une telle finalité, les actes de violence extrême apparaissent comme les expressions d’une ardeur dévotionnelle poussée à son paroxysme. Cette conception singulière de l’ascétisme prend source dans la culture tantrique bengalie, laquelle tient la force pour une manifestation de l’Énergie divine (śakti) et le Maître pour une divinité incarnée / Founded in 1955 by a Bengali civil servant, Ananda Marga, the "way of bliss", is a Hindu sect with worldwide organization and involved in missionary activities in a great number of countries. In the religious landscape of contemporary India, it is distinctively characterized by the violence for which its followers have been accused. The ethnographical research carried out among this sect, combined with the analysis of its internal literature and the collection of testimonies of former disciples shows that this violence can be explained by the political aspirations of its founder and its members as well as by instability of its economic base. But it can also be explained by two interrelated processes: the profound change in the person of the disciples and a radical transformation of the society. By submitting himself voluntarily to psychological and physical violence, a disciple tries to go over the limitations of ordinary existence. However, he frees himself from this world so that he can be in exclusive service to his Guru and his mission in this world. With such a purpose, acts of extreme violence appear as expressions of devotional fervour pushed to its climax. The source of this peculiar conception of asceticism can be traced in Bengali tantric culture, for which the force represents a manifestation of divine energy (śakti) and the Guru represents an incarnate deity