The struggle to read Jer 31:31-34 as Christian Scripture has a long and divided history. Yet remarkably little has been done to grapple with the depth of this struggle in the Christian tradition from the post-Nicene period to the modern era. This thesis attempts to show the value of the tradition as an interlocutor for contemporary exegetical concerns in Christian readings and use of Jer 31:31-34. The study begins with Augustine’s interpretation of the text as an absolute contrast between unbelief and faith, rather than the standard reading (found in Jerome) of a contrast between two successive religio-historical eras - one that governed Israel (the ‘old covenant’) and a new era and its covenant inaugurated in the coming of Christ. Augustine’s absolute contrast loosened the strict temporal concern, so that the faithful of any era were members of the ‘new covenant’. The study traces this reading of an absolute contrast in a few key moments of Christian interpretation: Thomas Aquinas and high medieval theology, then the 16th and 17th century Reformed tradition. The thesis aims at a constructive reading of Jer 31:31-34, and so the struggle identified in these moments in the Christian tradition is brought into dialogue with modern critical discussions from Bernhard Duhm to the present. Finally I turn to an exegetical argument for an ‘Augustinian’ reading of the contrast of the covenants. The study finds that Jer 31:31-34, read in its role in Jeremiah, contrasts Israel’s infidelity with a future idyllic faithfulness to Yhwh: in the new covenant all will be as it always ought to have been. The contrast is thus between two mutually exclusive standings before Yhwh. Thus the study aims to contribute to modern exegetical, theological and ecclesial discussions of ‘old’ and ‘new’ covenants by examining one of the central texts of the discussion in dialogue with parts of the history of interpretatio

In the New Testament and in the early church fathers’ writings, the Son is understood to be ontologically equal to the Father and subordinate to him. Whether understood as ingenerate-generate, sender-sent, commanded-obedient, subordination shows the distinction between the Father and Son. As seen in church history, minimizing these distinctions can lead to modalism and pressing them too far leads to Arianism. In the Bible, obedience or subordination does not mean ontologically inferior. Rather, obedience results from faith and love. Although some fathers connected obedience to Christ’s humanity, they were doing so while rejecting the Arian argument that the Son’s obedience meant he was ontologically inferior. They affirmed the voluntary obedience of the Son as an expression of his love for the Father and rejected any sense of coercion or determinism. The doctrine of the eternal generation of the Son from the Father’s ousia held together the equality and subordination of the Son to the Father. Beginning with Christ’s atoning work rather than metaphysics, P. T. Forsyth and Jürgen Moltmann believe that the Son’s obedience is crucial for the atonement to be the free act of grace of the Sovereign God. Because of this, the Son’s obedience must be divine, and thus eternal. Otherwise, the obedience would be from Christ’s humanity, and humanity would contribute in inappropriate ways to the atonement. They also believe that subordination, obedience, humility, and servanthood complete the understanding of divine love. The unity provided by the same divine love is expressed according to the particularity of the Person. In the Trinitarian relationship, the Son’s eternal obedience is his free response to the Father. Here subordination is not oppression, but perfect love freely given to the perfect Lover. This fuller conception of divine love that a proper emphasis on obedience affords has great potential to help Trinitarain theology contribute to the elimination of oppression and the improvement of human relationships and to do so in a manner consistent with the biblical witness.

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This thesis takes the hagiographical texts written in the diocese of Liège between approximately 700 and 980 and examines them in their political, social and cultural context. It analyses the texts by paying particular attention to how the authors expressed their concerns about issues that were important to them through the medium of hagiography and the saints' cults, the purposes for which the texts were employed and how these aims were reflected in the retelling of saints' legends. By taking this approach, analysing a substantial body of valuable but under-studied source material over a period of 3 centuries, for an important region, it provides a new perspective on a range of issues, significant people and places. The regional approach helps to show the close interconnectedness between many of these people, places and texts, including those connections that exist over a period of centuries as well as those networks vital to early mediaeval society that existed between contemporaries. Close examination of the body of texts highlights the importance of the cult of saints at all levels of society and demonstrates the value and versatility of hagiography as a means of storytelling.

St Cuthbert's literary cult was conceived in the late seventh and early eighth century with the production of three vitae, most importantly Bede's prose Vita sancti Cuthberti. Over the ensuing centuries, the cult stimulated the production of a great wealth of hagiographic material: this thesis analyses the key Cuthbertine works that were written by his Church during a turbulent but also prosperous time, between the ninth century and the end of the twelfth. Each chapter takes as a specific focus one of these texts, using it as a basis for exploring a number of themes pertaining to the cult of St Cuthbert, wider developments in the cult of the saints, and the changing and variable uses of hagiographic and historical writing. The first chapter takes the Historia de sancto Cuthberto as an example of a text combining property records with miracles, and written episodically over a period spanning more than a century, establishing the thesis'€™ triumvirate of themes: the fluidity of texts and of the representation of saints, and the enduring power of the Cuthbertine Church. Chapter Two explores the multifaceted identity that the Cuthbertine Church sought to convey for itself in Symeon of Durham’s Libellus de exordio. The third and fourth chapters focus on two highly flexible and manipulated texts, Capitula de miraculis sancti Cuthberti and Brevis relatio de sancto Cuthberto, which appear in manuscripts together, and often amalgamated: they are used to examine how a saint's image could be changed, and to question our often static notion of a text'€™s identity. The final chapter takes Reginald's Libellus de admirandis beati Cuthberti virtutibus to compare the miracle profiles of all the Cuthbertine texts, contextualising them with formative studies in the cult of saints such as the work of Sigal (1985) and Vauchez (1981). The thesis ends by suggesting that Cuthbert's cult was still thriving at the end of the twelfth century, and continued to do so, in the semi-independent socio-political and cultural sphere of northern England and southern Scotland. The discussions in these chapters are supplemented by four appendices: a table giving detailed synopses and a thematic breakdown of Reginald's Libellus, and a table categorising and comparing the miracles that appear in all these Cuthbertine works provide the basis for exploring Cuthbert'€™s changing miraculous persona; a map charting the locations pertinent to Reginald's Libellus shows the vibrant geographical extent of Cuthbert'™s cult; a table of manuscripts illustrates the various permutations into which these texts may be worked.

This thesis is an examination of the eucharistic doctrine of ten Scottish theological writers in the tradition of Scottish Episcopacy; five from the seventeenth century, two from the eighteenth century, and three from the nineteenth century. The doctrine espoused by each one throughout the stated period, 1620–1875, is found to agree with the other writers considered herein, because each writer turned to many of the same Church Fathers as the source of his doctrine and his interpretation of Holy Scripture. The argument of this thesis is that all of the writers, rejecting the Tridentine, Lutheran, Bezan-Calvinist, and Zwinglian definitions of the Eucharist, maintained a material sacrifice in the Eucharist, which is an offering to God the Father of bread and wine as the propitiatory memorial of Christ’s death on the Cross, commanded by Christ himself at the Last Supper. The sacrifice is propitiatory because it is the means of representing the one sacrifice of Christ on the Cross to God the Father, thereby pleading the benefits of the Cross for the communicants. The bread and wine do not change substance, but become effectively the body and blood of Christ. Three of the ten writers produced eucharistic rites, one in the seventeenth century, and two in the eighteenth century. It is argued that each of these rites is expressive of the Eucharist as being a commemorative and representative sacrifice. Each rite explicitly offers bread and wine to the Father, invokes the Holy Spirit’s action over the elements, and prays that by receiving the consecrated bread and wine as the body and blood of Christ, the communicants will receive the forgiveness of sins, the continuing grace of the Holy Spirit, and eternal life.

This thesis is an examination of Lancelot Andrewes' (1555-1626) Eucharistic theology which is explored in order to see how far he might act as a catalyst for ecumenism with Rome on the topic of Eucharistic sacrifice. The purpose of the thesis is to develop a fuller exposition of Andrewes' Eucharistic theology as a unique theologian who maintained a view of sacrifice that was denied by Protestants on the continent of Europe and by most within the English Church of his day. In the first four chapters Andrewes' own views are not always juxtaposed to more contemporary views. This is intentional in order to develop his own thought before looking at him as an ecumenical partner on sacrifice. The first chapter explores Andrewes as a theologian within his own context of ecclesiology, placing Andrewes within a more Catholic framework as opposed to Puritanism that was becoming politically influential during the reign of King James I. The second chapter then looks at Andrewes' view of Eucharistic instrumentality where I characterise him as an ‘effectual instrumentalist' over against some contemporary scholars who place him alongside John Calvin who is sometimes described as a ‘symbolic instrumentalist'. I find Andrewes closer to a Catholic framework of instrumentalism. The third chapter further explores Andrewes' view of presence where I conclude that he should be characterised as one holding to an objective view of presence and give him the Cappodocian label as a Transelementationist. This is to emphasise that Andrewes did encourage the faithful to look for Christ in the elements themselves, which goes beyond Christ's presence within the faith of the believer alone. The fourth chapter is the lengthiest chapter as it develops Andrewes' views of sacrifice. I see him as someone immersed in the sacrificial nature of the Eucharist defined within the writings of the Fathers of the first five centuries. It was here that Andrewes is able to be set fully within the framework of a Catholic view of the mystery as the Christian sacrifice offered to God in return for the gift of the Christ-event to the world. Andrewes' description of the offering as containing a propitiatory effect in the application of the forgiveness of sins through ‘instrumental touching' was a unique understanding of someone in the Church of England during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. In the final chapter, I juxtapose Andrewes with Catholic teaching as it is explored in contemporary Catholic theology as well as, perhaps more importantly, within papal documents and authoritative Catholic statements on the sacrifice of the Mass. This is to show how similar Andrewes is in his description of the sacrifice of the Eucharist to Rome and how he goes further in that direction than any of his contemporaries or even modern ecumenical statements in Anglican and Roman Catholic dialogue.

The topic of this dissertation is the democratic deficit of the European Union and the normative and empirical assessment of the likelihood that the existing forms of institutionalized transnational civic engagement would act as the point of anchoring democratic practices at the EU level. If the democratic deficit reflects the apparent lack of legitimacy and accountability of EU institutions and a lack of influence of its citizens, the question the project attempts to answer is why the existing democratic innovations within the EU constitutional framework fail to attract political allegiance and mobilization necessary for a functioning EU democracy? The thesis attempts to bridge the gap between normative political theory and more empirical and policy oriented approaches to the issue of EU democratic deficit. In a theoretical sense, this research covers a broad spectrum of topics within political theory and the theory of political culture. Parting ways with most of the current literature on the subject, which usually ends with institutional prescriptions derived from descriptions that rely on the nation-state as the benchmark for the prospects of democratisation of the EU, the project seeks to analyse the democratic innovations that the Lisbon treaty introduced within a more comprehensive framework of transnational deliberative democracy - demoicracy. The underlying idea behind the project is to apply, for the first time and with necessary modifications, the basic notions of the founders of the discipline of Political Culture, Almond and Verba, to the EU. That means to draw on their seminal work, ‘The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations’, and hypothesize that further democratization of EU decision-making requires a 'civic political culture'. By definition, it presupposes the dominance of 'participative' over 'subject' and 'parochial' dimensions of orientation towards the political system. After extensive theoretical and methodological considerations, following a brief investigation into political culture in the EU, the empirical focus shifts to the European Citizens’ Initiative and the framings around the struggle for its reform in order to draw findings on which types of political cultures the European Commission has fostered. The principle aim of the research is to investigate if and how the democratic legitimacy of the EU can be enhanced by a shift from a parochial and subject to a more participation-enhancing dynamics. / Doctorat en Sciences politiques et sociales / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This thesis examines two works (My Journey to Lhasa and Magic and Mystery in Tibet) by Alexandra David-Neel. These works subvert the self/other dichotomies both necessary to and critiqued by postcolonial theory. Central to this study is an examination of a claim by His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama that David-Neel creates an "authentic" picture of Tibet. In order to do this the first chapter establishes a working definition of authenticity based on both Western philosophy and Vajrayana Buddhism. This project argues that the advanced meditation techniques practiced by Alexandra David-Neel allow her to access a transcendent self that is able to overcome the self/other dichotomy. It also discusses the ways in which abjection and limit experiences enhance this breakdown. Finally, this thesis examines the roles that gender and a near absence of female Tibetan voice play in complicating the problems of self, subjectivity, and authenticity within these texts. / by Robert William Jones II. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2010. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2010. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Dentre os problemas da universidade pública hoje está o da ampliação desmedida de publicações científicas com o intuito de colocar o Brasil no rol dos melhores países em ciência e tecnologia sem um correspondente aumento na qualidade do que se produz. Em consequência, o aumento de nossa produção tem transformado o caráter de autarquia da instituição acadêmica e parece ser prejudicial à universidade, conduzindo-a de um estado de instituição social a outro de mera organização social. Nesta esteira, poderíamos quem sabe afirmar que o Sistema Qualis, da Capes, surge como um controle externo sobre o que se tem feito e produzido no ensino superior público e que apesar de seu acolhimento como regulador e hierarquizador da produção científica nacional por meio da publicação de periódicos, aparentemente sua aplicação não tem sido isenta de controvérsias. Parece-nos que há uma dissociação entre o que prega o discurso oficial por meio do Qualis e a realidade científica das universidades públicas, de vez que este tem ditado como o meio científico deve ajustar sua produção para atender uma demanda de progresso científico que deverá crescer em competência e excelência acadêmicas, obtendo-se assim, supostamente, qualidade. Por isso, propomos analisar os critérios utilizados pelo Sistema Qualis para a caracterização da excelência da produção acadêmica brasileira. / Among the public university problems today there is the out of measure enlargement of scientific publications with the purpose of inserting Brazil in the roll of the best countries in science and technology, without the corresponding increase in its publications quality. As a result, the increase of our production has been transforming the autarchy character and it seems to be harmful to university, conducting it from a state of social institution to another of simple social organization. On this course, we could assert that the Qualis System from Capes, arises as an external control over what has been done and produced in the public superior education and besides its welcoming as regulator and hierarchical organizer of the national scientific production by means of publication of periodicals, apparently its application has not been free from controversies. It seems that there is dissociation between what the official discourse preaches through Qualis and the scientific reality in public universities, since this system has been dictating how the scientific circle should adjust its production to supply a scientific progress demand, which should grow in academic competency and excellence, thus supposedly obtaining quality. For this reason, we propose to analyze what Qualis criteria understands by quality in the context of Brazilian academic production.