Texte remanié de: Thesis (Ph. D.)--Hebrew and Hebrew Bible--Chicago (Ill.)--Lutheran school of theology at Chicago, 2002. / Bibliogr. p. [191]-199. Index.

Zugl.: Berlin, Humboldt-Univ., Habil.-Schr., 2003

This project investigates the social role of gentleman in Victorian England as defined in two Victorian novels, Dinah Maria Mulock's John Halifax, Gentleman and Charles Dickens's Great Expectations. Mulock and Dickens promote the middle-class gentleman as a role that prioritizes the fulfillment of duty. Mulock's protagonist, John Halifax, displays this gentlemanliness throughout his social and economic rise. He bridges the upper and lower classes and embodies both a model and a pathway to middleclass gentlemanliness. Dickens's protagonist, Pip, develops this middle-class gentlemanliness as he learns from his own and four other characters' experiences. Dickens separates the inward, duty-focused gentleman and the outward, appearance-focused gentleman in the four characters that influence Pip, thus emphasizing their relationship and the power of social role encoding. These two novels reveal the performances of roles as social constructions that utilize the power of group definitions and the role writers play in shaping those definitions. / Department of English

This Study elaborates the topic of Biblical Trust in the World of Pentateuch. This trust is understood as to rely in a purely subjective way on a word or instruction of some person. In case of God it frequently means a conviction that some humanly unrealizable promises are to be fulfilled. Such attitude secures to the trusting person merits before God. Rely on God is often understood in a confrontational way as opposite to the life of unbelievers. Trust requires courage to make leap in the dark. Meanwhile it is always right to trust in God, trust in a human person is in Pentateuch interpreted as fool. But if the respective man is the spokesman of God, the eventual mistrust is seen as an attack against God himself. In case of God's revelation trust becomes duty. If there is any doubt people can ask some sign of authenticity for the presented God's will. But if the will is known, eventual mistrust is interpreted as disobedience and follows a severe punishment. The same trust which belongs to God is required also for his prophet and for the Law proclaimed in the God's name. If somebody relies on himself in sense of exaggerated self-confidence which does not count on God, it is understood as a crime. In the same manner is valuated the trust directed towards the pagan divinities.