The problem of universal oppression has caused Gutierrez, Cone and Moltmann to advocate that God is orchestrating an historical programme of liberation from socio-economic, racial and political suffering. They feel that God's liberating actions can be seen in the Abrahamic promise, the exodus and the Christ-event. Moltmann, especially, has emphasized both the trinitarian identification with human pain and the influence of the freedom of the future upon the suffering of the present. According to our theologians, Jesus Christ identified with us, and died the death of a substitutionary victim. Through the resurrection, Jesus Christ overcame the problem of suffering and death, and inaugurated the New Age. The cross and resurrection were the focal point of God's liberating activity. Liberation, or freedom, from sin and suffering is now possible, at least proleptically. We are to understand the atonement as having been liberative rather than forensic or legal, although judgement is not ignored. Both the perpetrators of injustice and their victims are called upon to identify with, and struggle for, freedom, with the help of the liberating Christ. We agree with our theologians that God has historically indicated his desire for justice and freedom. The magnitude of evil and suffering still existing, however, forces us to abandon the idea that God is progressively liberating history. Nevertheless, we affirm the idea that the Trinity has absorbed human suffering into its own story through the incarnate Son. Jesus identified with suffering in a four-fold way, namely: its existence, the judgement of it, the overcoming of it, and the need to oppose it. This comprehensive identification gives Christ the right to demand the doing of justice, because the greatest injustice in history has happened to him. The atonement was forensic, rendering all people accountable to Christ; but it was also liberative, validating the struggle against oppression. Furthermore, at his second coming, Christ will be vindicated in whatever judgement he will exact upon the perpetrators of injustice or oppression. For today the resurrection still gives hope and faith to those who suffer and to those who identify with them / Philosophy, Practical & Systematic Theology / Th.D. (Systematic Theology)

This dissertation considers the possibility that, flowing from his broader theological framework and historical background, John Calvin’s eucharistic theology ‘re-invents’ a doctrine where the ‘substance’ (meaning) of the elements becomes the body and blood of Christ, and the believer who receives them is drawn, through understanding, into participation in Christ. The study begins with the historical setting and the second chapter sketches Calvin’s life. Chapter 3 considers epistemology and the impact of classical rhetoric on Calvin’s approach to knowledge. The following chapter considers Calvin’s understanding of our relationship with the Father, and of Christ as Mediator and as means of salvation. Chapter 5 considers the work of the Spirit in nurturing faith, a ‘higher knowledge’, through preparing us for knowledge of Christ and mediating our understanding of and participation in him. In this manner the Spirit acts as an instrument of revelation to enable us to participate in Christ. Chapters 6 and 7 move to consider Calvin’s writing on the Sacraments, their nature as sign and seals of the promise made in Christ, their substance and their role in our participation in Christ and, in the light of the duplex gratia, as gateways to participation. In Chapter 8 Calvin’s teaching is examined in terms of his opposition to the doctrine of transubstantiation, and his understanding of substance is considered. The possibility that Calvin ‘re-invents’ the doctrine is proposed. This is not to suggest that there is a conscious copying of the doctrine, but that through the process of forming his doctrine, using an alternate philosophical framework, Calvin’s understanding bears significant similarities to the doctrine he so deeply opposed. His key opposition to transubstantiation can then be seen to be to the materialist interpretations that impede the ability of the believer to lift his attention beyond the physical elements to the divine offer they represent. The study concludes by briefly considering the significance of Calvin’s ‘reinvention’ for contemporary understandings.

This thesis examines the role of dialogic processes in representations of conversion narratives and expressions of poetic subjectivity across the works of four poets: Guittone d’Arezzo (c.1235-1294), Guido Guinizzelli (c.1230-1276), Guido Cavalcanti (c.1255-1300) and Dante Alighieri (1265-1321). The introduction proposes a definition of ‘dialogic processes’ drawing on theoretical models of performativity and dialogism. It presents the usefulness of these approaches to the analysis of narratives of conversion and accounts of subjectivity in poetry. Chapter 1 analyses Guittone’s conversion poetics in light of these processes and seeks to complicate the teleology of his narrative of self. Chapter 2 examines the poetry of Guinizzelli and Cavalcanti, first establishing the ‘poetic conversion’ of Guinizzelli in dialogue with his own and others’ poetry. It then examines Cavalcanti’s physiological performance of a polyphonic subjectivity and how far this poetic expression partakes in the dialogic processes previously discussed in relation to religiously inflected writing. Chapters 3 and 4 will explore the manifestations of these phenomena of dialogue and performance in Dante’s oeuvre with particular focus on the Commedia as a key site for intertextual interaction both with his own earlier texts and with the texts (and figures) of the other poets under discussion. These chapters will seek to reopen the teleological closure which Dante tries to impose on his vernacular predecessors, as well as on his own works. The weight of critical engagement with Dante’s predecessors has treated them as sources or reference points for Dante’s own praxis. I aim to consider Guittone, Guinizzelli and Cavalcanti on their own terms and in dialogue with one another before approaching Dante through these poets, thus reconstructing the networks of poetic dialogue in late medieval Italy, and situating Dante firmly within a dialogic tradition of narratives of self and conversion.

My work on the thealogy of Mary conveys a largely subjective way of thinking, it does not claim to present the view of any group, and it does not profess a theoretical agenda for a cult or a religious movement of Mary. The framework of this work is grounded in symbolic (legends, fairy tales and images), psychological (the structure of the psyche according to Carl Gustav Jung: the Self, the conscious, the unconscious, the Shadow) and imaginative (individual interpretations of narratives and images) spheres that are combined with feminist spirituality theories, religious philosophy and literary analysis. In my thesis, I offer a non-Christian myth of Mary which I form out of the folklore narratives about Mary. In my work, Mary is understood as the female divine archetype on the collective level, and as an expression of the Self on the individual level. Following Jung’s theory, the archetypes are forms and not contents, that is, an archetype can be comparable to an empty shell, which we fill with our own experience or with narratives that are meaningful to us. I take the image of Mary out of the Roman Catholic context and give it a new mythological narrative. This means to me a possibility not only to acquire a non-Christian myth of Mary but also to develop an individual relationship with the divine in its female personification. On the collective level, the thealogy of Mary creates a spiritual and psychological sphere in which the female divine has a possibility to outweigh the one-sidedness of the past few thousand years of the male predominance in the religious philosophy in the West.

This thesis seeks to demonstrate that, in failing to take the sacramentality of the Word seriously, the preaching of the Church has suffered negative consequences. In short, preaching has often become, at best, a form of instruction or, at worst, an incantation of sorts, rather than an integral part of deepening our relationship with Christ by functioning sacramentally to bring about divine participation with Jesus' corporeal humanity in his living Word. Moreover, this trouble has had a profoundly negative effect on my own Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod due, in part, to our Reformation heritage as Christians who believe, teach, and confess the sole authority and divine inspiration of Holy Scripture. Yet, what has been lost over the past 500 years since the Reformation began is the reality of Christ's ongoing corporeal presence in and for the Church, particularly as he is present in the viva vox of preaching. In order to recover that reality, I propose that one should consider the annunciation to Mary where, with a sermon of sorts, the corporeal Christ took up residence in the flesh of his hearer. In addition to granting Mary a son, however, this tangible presence of Jesus also delivered to her precisely what was contained within his own flesh: the fullness of the Godhead (Col 2:9). When understood as a biblical paradigm for the Church, it becomes clear that what happened to Mary can, indeed, happen to Christians of the present day. To that end, I propose that preaching today, when understood sacramentally, can deliver the fullness of the person of Christ, who continues to come in corporeality, with humanity and divinity, in the viva vox of preaching.

Une des interprétations dominantes de la philosophie de Descartes consiste à considérer que Dieu garantit une parfaite correspondance entre l'ordre des raisons et l'ordre des choses, de sorte que nos idées peuvent être tenues pour conformes à la réalité telle qu'elle est hors de notre pensée. Nous suggérons que Descartes n'a jamais espéré faire jouer ce rôle à Dieu dans sa théorie de la connaissance et qu'il n'a pas plus prétendu que nous soyons assurés de disposer d'idées adéquates à ce qu'est la réalité hors de notre pensée. Pour cela, nous soutenons que l'importance accordée par Descartes à l'hypothèse d'un Dieu trompeur, est largement surestimée par les commentateurs, et qu'elle ne sert qu'à justifier, par contrecoup, le rôle que la véracité divine ne joue pas dans sa philosophie première. Nous défendons la thèse selon laquelle le fondement de la vérité revient, en ultime instance, chez Descartes, à l'"ego cogitans", de sorte que la vérité, du point de vue de l'esprit humain, n'est pas ce à quoi la pensée doit d'être conforme, mais ce qui ne peut qu'être conforme à notre pensée. Par conséquent, nous suggérons que l'ego joue, par défaut, dans la philosophie première de Descartes, le rôle trop souvent accordé à Dieu par ses commentateurs. / One of the dominant interpretations of Descartes' philosophy consists in considering that God assures a perfect conformity between the order of reasons and the order of things, in such a way that our ideas can be regarded in accordance with the reality such as it is out of our thought. We suggest that Descartes has never hoped that God could play this part in his theory of knowledge and that he has no more claim that we would be certain of having adequate ideas according to the reality as it is out of our thought. In this aim, we argue that the importance conceded by Descartes in favour of the deceiving God argument is widely over-valued by the scholars, and that it is used only to justify, by repercussion, the part that the veracity of God doesn't play in Descartes' first philosophy. We defend the thesis from which the foundation of the truth in Descartes' philosophy is, in the final analysis, built on the "ego cogitans" in such a way that the truth, for the human mind, is not what the mind has to conform to, but what is necessary conformed to our mind. Consequently, we suggest that the ego, in Descartes' first philosophy, plays, in absence, the role too frequently awarded to God by the scholars.

O crescimento da utilização de sistemas de reconhecimento no mundo contemporâneo exige processos de detecção cada vez mais robustos e ágeis. Aplicáveis desde sistemas de teleconferência empresarial até mecanismos de segurança e vigilância, a detecção e o reconhecimento de pessoas tornaram-se uma constante. Na tentativa de buscar caminhos alternativos, tanto para os problemas de detecção, quanto para os de reconhecimento, este trabalho propõe a utilização de medidas biométricas, mensuradas em imagens digitalizadas de faces humanas. A partir do estudo de tais medidas, torna-se possível a verificação de proporções existentes na face, especialmente a proporção divina, podendo constituir, no futuro, a base para algoritmos de detecção e/ou reconhecimento que usufruam das informações trazidas por tais proporções. Diante de uma reduzida quantidade de publicações no meio científico que utilizam a proporção divina como meio de detecção e/ou reconhecimento em processamento de imagens, esta investigação vem contribuir com alguns passos nessa direção / The increase of recognition systems in the contemporary world has demanded robust and agile detection processes. From teleconference systems to security and monitoring mechanisms, the detection and recognition of people have became constantly used and applied. In attempt to search for alternative ways to solve both detection and recognition problems, this work proposes the utilization of biometric measures, taken in digital image of human faces. From the study of such measures, it’s possible to verify face proportions, especially the divine proportion, which could allows, in the future, to implement the detection and/or recognition algorithms that utilize such proportions. Due to small amount of scientific publications that use the divine proportion as a way of detection and/or recognition in image processing, this investigation contributes with some steps in this direction

[pt] Esta pesquisa tem por objetivo demonstrar que o Apocalipse oferece aos seus leitores uma densa cristologia desde o início do livro e propõe a certeza da realidade transcendente através de um oráculo que evoca e celebra a vinda da supremacia divina a partir da experiência histórica e trans-histórica do próprio Cristo, a fim de proporcionar encorajamento e esperança às comunidades do cristianismo originário que atravessavam seus próprios desafios. / [en] This research aims to demonstrate that the Revelation offers its readers a dense Christology since the beginning of the book and offers the assurance of the transcendent reality through an oracle that evokes and celebrates the coming of the divine supremacy from the historical and trans-historical experience of Christ himself, in order to provide encouragement and hope to communities of Early Christianity who faced their own challenges.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T14:27:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ronald Lobo.pdf: 1081187 bytes, checksum: b9124717e299fd8f59bc6fe1edd15974 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-05-12 / The aim of the present study is to propose a reading of the book of Isaiah 58,1-12 which deals with a genuine fasting. The prophecy of Trito Isaiah, is intrinsically connected to justice and righteousness. As for the exegetical study the synchronic perspective is used. The study of literary aspect and historical context leads us to situate the perícope at the beginning of post-exilic period around 538-520 b.C. The exiled judean community returns to the homeland, and tries to reconstruct itself at the beginning of the Persian rule. In this context, the prophet s criticism tries to correct the religious practice, the fast as it is practiced, cut off of social solidarity with the fragile groups like those of hungry, naked and homeless. Through eight innovative forms of doing justice and righteousness the text proposes a new fast. Orders the end of all forms of oppression and on the counterpart proposes sharing of bread, clothing and boarding. The proposal goes ahead, asks for sharing of one s own life through a radical solidarity. For those who practice genuine fast, the LORD promises his continuous presence, the necessary protection and a happy future. The dissertation is divided into four parts, all along, the commentary style prevails. The study wants to contribute, the understanding of fasting in present time, in the hopes and problems our society faces today / O presente estudo tem como meta propor uma leitura de Isaías Is 58,1-12 que fala de verdadeiro jejum. Na profecia de Trito Isaías, está intrinsecamente vinculada à prática da justiça e do direito. Quanto à metodologia exegética, a pesquisa é conduzida por meio da perspectiva sincrônica. O estudo literário e o contexto histórico da perícope levam-nos situá-lo no início do pós-exílio, por volta dos anos 538-520 a.C. A comunidade dos judeus exilados regressou à pátria sob o domínio persa e tenta reconstruir-se. Neste contexto, a denúncia profética tem por objetivo corrigir a prática religiosa, ou seja, o jejum praticado, no caso da perícope em questão, desassociada de uma prática social solidária com os grupos frágeis como famintos, nus e desabrigados. O texto propõe um novo jejum através dos oito modos inovadores de praticar a justiça e o direito. Pede-se o fim de toda forma de opressão e exige-se a partilha do pão, da veste e da moradia. A proposta segue adiante, pede-se a partilha da própria vida através duma solidariedade radical. Aos que seguem o novo jejum, o SENHOR promete-se a sua presença continua, proteção necessária e um futuro feliz. O trabalho divide-se em quatro partes, prevalece o estilo de comentário. Este estudo quer contribuir com a atualização do sentido e da prática do jejum nos dias de hoje, a partir dos desafios e das esperanças de nossa sociedade

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T14:27:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Pedro Savelli.pdf: 1178771 bytes, checksum: e340079926a5e9d29ae08f90eefddb56 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-11-17 / Deification: in the ecstatic love of God we are deified to be in communion with His life and nature. The Perspective of the Deification opens three paths for the human being to be conscious of taking part of the divine nature: a) through the way of Life. We only exist by virtue of the kindness of God. Out of nothing, He calls everything to the light: the work of the Creation expresses the Will of God, everything belongs to Him and from Him receives the natural deification; b) through the way of Revelation. The people from Israel knew how to interpret its own history as a singular election of God, whose objective is to be the light to the nations: deification by the obedience to the listening of the Word of God. c) Through the way of Grace: Reincarnation and Glorification of the Christ-Sacrament. Father God, in the mystery of His donation to the humanity, invites us to participate in His divine nature, transformed by the Son in the strength of the Hole Spirit: covering us of Christ by the Baptism and feeding us from Him by the Eucharist: sacramental deification. In Christ, Head, the Church is Sacrament. It updates the deifying Grace through the Spirit, celebrating the liturgy, particularly, the Eucharist: it is in the latter that we find ourselves / Deificação: no amor extático de Deus somos deificados para estarmos em comunhão com a Sua vida e natureza. A Perspectiva da Deificação abre três caminhos para o humano tomar consciência de participar da natureza divina: a) pelo caminho da Vida. Existimos somente pela bondade de Deus. Ele do nada, chama tudo à luz: a obra da Criação expressa a Vontade de Deus, tudo pertence a Ele e Dele recebe a deificação natural; b) pelo caminho da Revelação: o Povo de Israel soube interpretar a própria história como uma eleição particular de Deus, cuja finalidade é ser luz às nações: deificação pela obediência à escuta da Palavra de Deus. c) Pelo caminho da Graça: Encarnação e Glorificação de Cristo-Sacramento. Deus Pai, no mistério de sua doação à humanidade, convida-nos a participar de Sua natureza divina, transformados pelo Filho na força do Espírito Santo: revestindo-nos de Cristo pelo Batismo e alimentando-nos Dele pela Eucaristia: deificação sacramental. Em Cristo, Cabeça, a Igreja é Sacramento. Ela atualiza pelo Espírito a Graça deificante, celebrando a liturgia, em particular a Eucaristia: é neste último caminho que nos encontramos