This thesis focuses on the genre of libretto, the sung words for music theatre. The “little book” which accompanies every operatic performance is not just an extended program note to the spectacle, but in fact a substantial literary form in its own right. However, despite the immense influence of Wagner, the output from librettists in an operatic collaboration, has been serious ignored; indeed in opera the aesthetic function of language is frequently diminished and foreshortened, because it is often re-directed by and within the music. The result is that librettists are often seen as offering words to be “decomposed” by composers in the process of operatic collaboration. Opera, in the English language, finally achieved its rightful status, alongside its European counterparts, during the second half of the twentieth century. The thesis is intended to encompass something of the vast diversity of this genre and discusses a number of individual works as constituting legitimate literary artefacts in their own right. There will be five chapters featured in the thesis and each chapter is devoting to a specific theme.

Wallace Stevens was profoundly affected by Nietzsche’s declaration of the death of God and his poetry reflects an ongoing struggle to understand what it means to be a poet in an age of disbelief. Although Steven’s early poetry suggests that this loss of belief created a sense of crisis in the poet, his later work indicates a full acceptance, even an embracing, of this loss, recognising it as the inspiration for poesis. The thesis considers Stevens alongside of such thinkers as Nietzsche and (the later) Heidegger and shows how the poet came to regard the shaking of the metaphysical foundations as a gift offering the possibility for poetry.

This study is intended as a dialogue between literature and theology, utilizing selected works of the playwright and novelist, Henry Fielding (1707-54). While historical studies of Fielding have clearly yielded much of importance, a broader and less deterministic assessment concerning the latent ambivalences of this, one of the earliest novelists, has yet to be explored. Such an assessment has implications for the current relationship between, and the separate study of, literature and theology. The methodology is informed by an awareness of human frailty (what Fielding described as HUMAN NATURE) and centres upon the use of a specific interpretative tool that I call misplacement. By this, I mean the continuous parting with the ineffable – the perpetual recognition that, in writing, there is always a sense of the other, be that an alternative path not taken, the nagging sense of the numinous, or the coming to terms with the ludicrous nature of the human condition. Such fragile, comedic alterity provides a weak metaphysical root which is shared by both literature and theology. To illustrate the effects of such misplacement, this thesis sets the novels of Henry Fielding alongside works of contemporary philosophical theology such as the post onto-theological critique of Gianni Vattimo and John Caputo, as well as alongside postmodern works of fiction, such as those of Vonnegut and Calvino. In so doing, common critical zones such as epistemology, ethics, mimesis, canonicity, and revelation are investigated. The result of this analysis is that, in all these areas, the novel form, in Fielding’s hands, displays a powerful comic resonance with a theology which seeks to move beyond a strictly deterministic approach. Thus, we discover that Fielding’s work, rather than simply being expressive of proto-Enlightenment principles, actually subverts those assumed securities regarding the status of the individual and his place in the world, before God. In its conclusion, this study reveals the challenge of recognising the inescapably theological nature of the novel and that theology itself, is fictive. This assessment points to a greater need for further shared exploration of the relationship between theology and literature - to their mutual benefit.

This study investigates the effect of the application of Sharia law in Saudi Arabia on the finality of arbitral awards on the basis of questions of law and public policy. International arbitration laws tend to circumvent the two issues by limiting the scope of their applicability. Based on the need to retain a degree of authority over enforcement of arbitral awards and other internationally issued legal determinations, this study finds that the Saudi Arbitration Law 2012 Act has some positive features and moves closer to international law in comparison to the Old Saudi Law, specifically on the issue of finality. The study finds that although not on a par with international law, it is a step in the right direction for Saudi Law to work more flexibly in the international sphere with issues involving finality. Where in the past, issues would not have been resolved due to the refusal to enforce arbitral awards, a more facilitating scenario comes about and the scope of enforcement of finality is set to rise due to the New Saudi Law. In addition, this study finds that the Saudi 2012 Act demonstrates the willingness of the Kingdom to cooperate with international laws. Although this is a breakthrough in dealing with finality, a fundamental principle of Saudi law is that the new Saudi law Act conforms to Sharia and the Kingdom’s public policy. However, with a lack of empirical cases specifically involving the New Saudi Law, it is yet to be established that it has achieved the positive impact intended. This study supports continued efforts and ultimately recommends the decision to work towards the amendment of Saudi law to better aid the achievement of finality without undue subjection to unnecessary scrutiny based on public policy requirements and also to realign Saudi public policy with international standards while maintaining fidelity to the values and principles of Sharia law.

Blazars are variable emitters across all wavelengths over a wide range of timescales, from months down to minutes. It is therefore essential to observe blazars simultaneously at different wavelengths, especially in the X-ray and gamma-ray bands, where the broadband spectral energy distributions usually peak. In this work, we report on three " target-of-opportunity" observations of Mrk 421, one of the brightest TeV blazars, triggered by a strong flaring event at TeV energies in 2014. These observations feature long, continuous, and simultaneous exposures with XMM-Newton (covering the X-ray and optical/ultraviolet bands) and VERITAS (covering the TeV gamma-ray band), along with contemporaneous observations from other gamma-ray facilities (MAGIC and Fermi-Large Area Telescope) and a number of radio and optical facilities. Although neither rapid flares nor significant X-ray/TeV correlation are detected, these observations reveal subtle changes in the X-ray spectrum of the source over the course of a few days. We search the simultaneous X-ray and TeV data for spectral hysteresis patterns and time delays, which could provide insight into the emission mechanisms and the source properties (e. g., the radius of the emitting region, the strength of the magnetic field, and related timescales). The observed broadband spectra are consistent with a one-zone synchrotron self-Compton model. We find that the power spectral density distribution at greater than or similar to 4 x 10(-4) Hz from the X-ray data can be described by a power-law model with an index value between 1.2 and 1.8, and do not find evidence for a steepening of the power spectral index (often associated with a characteristic length scale) compared to the previously reported values at lower frequencies.

Blazars are among the most luminous sources in the universe. Their extreme short-time variability indicates emission processes powered by a supermassive black hole. With the current generation of Imaging Air Cherenkov Telescopes, these sources are explored at very high energies. Lowering the threshold below 100 GeV and improving the sensitivity of the telescopes, more and more blazars are discovered in this energy regime. For the MAGIC telescope, a low energy analysis has been developed allowing to reach energies of 50 GeV for the first time. The method is presented in this thesis at the example of PG 1553+113 measuring a spectrum between 50 GeV and 900 GeV. In the energy regime observed by MAGIC, strong attenuation of the gamma-rays is expected from pair production due to interactions of gamma-rays with low-energy photons from the extragalactic background light. For PG 1553+113, this provides the possibility to constrain the redshift of the source, which is still unknown. Well studied from radio to x-ray energies, PG 1553+113 was discovered in 2005 in the very high energy regime. In total, it was observed with the MAGIC telescope for 80~hours between April 2005 and April 2007. From more than three years of data taking, the MAGIC telescope provides huge amounts of data and a large number of files from various sources. To handle this data volume and to provide monitoring of the data quality, an automatic procedure is essential. Therefore, a concept for automatic data processing and management has been developed. Thanks to its flexibility, the concept is easily applicable to future projects. The implementation of an automatic analysis is running stable since three years in the data center in Würzburg and provides consistent results of all MAGIC data, i.e. equal processing ensures comparability. In addition, this database controlled system allows for easy tests of new analysis methods and re-processing of all data with a new software version at the push of a button. At any stage, not only the availability of the data and its processing status is known, but also a large set of quality parameters and results can be queried from the database, facilitating quality checks, data selection and continuous monitoring of the telescope performance. By using the automatic analysis, the whole data sample can be analyzed in a reasonable amount of time, and the analyzers can concentrate on interpreting the results instead. For PG 1553+113, the tools and results of the automatic analysis were used. Compared to the previously published results, the software includes improvements as absolute pointing correction, absolute light calibration and improved quality and background-suppression cuts. In addition, newly developed analysis methods taking into account timing information were used. Based on the automatically produced results, the presented analysis was enhanced using a special low energy analysis. Part of the data were affected by absorption due to the Saharan Air Layer, i.e. sanddust in the atmosphere. Therefore, a new method has been developed, correcting for the effect of this meteorological phenomenon. Applying the method, the affected data could be corrected for apparent flux variations and effects of absorption on the spectrum, allowing to use the result for further studies. This is especially interesting, as these data were taken during a multi-wavelength campaign. For the whole data sample of 54 hours after quality checks, a signal from the position of PG 1553+113 was found with a significance of 15 standard deviations. Fitting a power law to the combined spectrum between 75 GeV and 900 GeV, yields a spectral slope of 4.1 +/- 0.2. Due to the low energy analysis, the spectrum could be extended to below 50 GeV. Fitting down to 48 GeV, the flux remains the same, but the slope changes to 3.7 +/- 0.1. The determined daily light curve shows that the integral flux above 150 GeV is consistent with a constant flux. Also for the spectral shape no significant variability was found in three years of observations. In July 2006, a multi-wavelength campaign was performed. Simultaneous data from the x-ray satellite Suzaku, the optical telescope KVA and the two Cherenkov experiments MAGIC and H.E.S.S. are available. Suzaku measured for the first time a spectrum up to 30 keV. The source was found to be at an intermediate flux level compared to previous x-ray measurements, and no short time variability was found in the continuous data sample of 41.1 ksec. Also in the gamma regime, no variability was found during the campaign. Assuming a maximum slope of 1.5 for the intrinsic spectrum, an upper limit of z < 0.74 was determined by deabsorbing the measured spectrum for the attenuation of photons by the extragalactic background light. For further studies, a redshift of z = 0.3 was assumed. Collecting various data from radio, infrared, optical, ultraviolet, x-ray and gama-ray energies, a spectral energy distribution was determined, including the simultaneous data of the multi-wavelength campaign. Fitting the simultaneous data with different synchrotron-self-compton models shows that the observed spectral shape can be explained with synchrotron-self-compton processes. The best result was obtained with a model assuming a log-parabolic electron distribution. / Blazare gehören zu den leuchtstärksten Quellen im Universum. Ihre extreme Kurzzeitvariabilität deutet auf Strahlungsprozesse hin, die von einem supermassereichem schwarzen Loch mit Energie versorgt werden. Mit der aktuellen Generation von abbildenden Luft-Cherenkov Teleskopen werden diese Quellen bei sehr hohen Energien erforscht. Durch das Absenken der Schwellenenergie auf unter 100 GeV und aufgrund verbesserter Sensitivitäten werden immer mehr Blazare in diesem Energiebereich entdeckt. Für das MAGIC Teleskop wurde eine Analysemethode entwickelt, die es erlaubt zum ersten mal zu niedrigen Energien im Bereich von 50 GeV vorzudringen. Mit dieser Methode wurde am Beispiel von PG 1553+113 ein Spektrum zwischen 50 GeV und 900 GeV bestimmt. Im dem von MAGIC beobachteten Energiebereich wird eine starke Abschwächung des Gammalichts aufgrund von Paarproduktion in Wechselwirkungen mit niederenergetischen Photonen des extragalaktischen Hintergrundlichts erwartet. Für PG 1553+113 ergibt sich daraus eine Möglichkeit um die noch unbekannte Entfernung der Quelle einzuschränken. Während die Quelle PG 1553+113 im Radio- bis Röntgenbereich gut untersucht ist, wurde sie im Hochenergiebereich erst 2005 entdeckt. Zwischen April 2005 und April 2007 wurde sie mit dem MAGIC Teleskop insgesamt 80 Stunden lang beobachtet. Aus mehr als drei Jahren Datennahme liefert das MAGIC Telekop riesige Mengen an Daten und eine große Anzahl von Dateien. Um dieses Datenvolumen zu bewältigen und für die Überwachung der Datenqualität ist eine automatische Verarbeitung unverzichtbar. Darum wurde ein Konzept zur automatischen Datenverwaltung und -verarbeitung entwickelt. Aufgrund seiner Flexibilität kann dieses Konzept auch leicht auf zukünftige Projekte übertragen werden. Die Umsetzung für MAGIC läuft seit drei Jahren stabil im Datenzentrum in Würzburg und liefert konsistente Ergebnisse von allen Daten, d.h. die identische Verarbeitung sorgt für Vergleichbarkeit. Ausserdem ermöglicht das datenbankbasierte Konzept einfache Tests neuer Analysemethoden und die Neuanalyse aller Daten mit einer neuen Software auf Knopfdruck. Man kann nicht nur jederzeit die Verfügbarkeit und den Verarbeitungsstatus aller Daten aus der Datenbank abfragen, sondern auch Qualitätsparameter und Ergebnisse, was die Qualitätskontrolle und Auswahl von Daten sowie die Überwachung des Teleskopstatus erleichtert. Durch die Verwendung der automatischen Analyse kann die riesige Menge an Daten in einem vernünftigen Zeitrahmen analysiert werden und man kann sich stattdessen auf die Interpretation der Ergebnisse konzentrieren. Für PG 1553+113 wurden die Werkzeuge und Resultate der automatischen Analyse verwendet. Verglichen mit den zuvor veröffentlichten Ergebnissen wurde eine Software Version verwendet, die verschiedene Verbesserungen enthält, wie zum Beispiel eine absolute Pointing-Korrektur, eine absolute Lichtkalibration und verbesserte Schnitte zur Qualitätssicherung und Untergrundunterdrückung. Ausserdem wurde eine neu entwickelte Analysemethode, welche die Zeitinformation mit einzbezieht, benutzt. Basierend auf den Ergebnissen der automatischen Analyse wurde das Ergebnis mit einer speziell für niedrige Energien optimierten Analyse verbessert. Ein Teil der Daten wurde beinträchtigt durch Absorption aufgrund Sandstaub in der Atmosphäre, der sogenannten Calima. Eine neue Methode wurde entwickelt, um den Effekt dieses meteorologischen Phänomens zu korrigieren. Auf diese Weise konnten scheinbare Flussänderungen und Einflüsse auf das Spetrum ausgeglichen werden, wodurch die Daten für weiterführende Studien verwendet werden können. Dies ist hier von besonderer Bedeutung, da die betroffenen Daten simultan mit Daten aus anderen Wellenlängenbereichen genommen wurden. Für den kompletten Datensatz wurde ein Signal aus der Richtung von PG 1553+113 mit einer Signifikanz von 15 Standardabweichungen gemessen. Fittet man ein Potenzgesetz an das kombinierte Spektrum, so erhält man einen Spektralindex von 4.1 +/- 0.2. Mit Hilfe der Niederenergieanalyse konnte das Spektrum bis unter 50 GeV erweitert werden. Fittet man es bis 48 GeV, so bleibt die Flussnormierung gleich, aber der Index ändert sich auf 3.7 +/- 0.1. Die berechnete Lichtkurve auf Tagesbasis zeigt, dass der integrale Fluss oberhalb von 150 GeV mit konstanten Fluss konsistent ist. Auch für die Form des Spektrums wurde in den drei Jahren, in denen beobachtet wurde, keine Variabilität gefunden. Im Juli 2006 wurden simultane Beobachtungen des Röntgensatelliten Suzaku, des optischen Teleskops KVA und der Cherenkovexperimente MAGIC und H.E.S.S. koordiniert. Mit Suzaku wurde zum ersten Mal ein Röngtenspektrum bis 30 keV vermessen. Die Quelle befand sich, verglichen mit früheren Röngtenmessungen, in einem mittleren Flusszustand, und während der kontinuierlichen Datennahme von 41.1 ksec wurde keine Variabilität gemessen. Auch im Gammabereich wurden keinen Veränderungen während der Beobachtungen festgestellt. Nimmt man für das intrinsische Spektrum der Quelle einen maximalen Index von 1.5 an, so lässt sich für die Rotverschiebung eine obere Grenze von z < 0.74 bestimmen, indem man das gemessene Spektrum mit verschiedenen angenommenen Rotverschiebungen auf die Abschwächung durch das extragalaktische Hintergrundlicht korrigiert. Für weitere Studien wird eine Rotverschiebung von z = 0.3 angenommen. Aus einer Sammlung von Daten aus dem Radio-, Infrarot-, optischen, Ultraviolett-, Röntgen- und Gammabereich wurde eine spektrale Energieverteilung bestimmt, die auch die simultanen Daten aus der Multiwellenlängenkampagne enthält. Fittet man die simultanen Daten mit einem Synchrotron-Selbst-Compton Modell, so sieht man, dass die spektrale Form mit Synchrotron-Selbst-Compton Prozessen erklärt werden kann. Das beste Ergebnis konnte mit einem Modell erzielt werden, das eine Elektronenverteilung annimmt, die in doppelt logarithmischer Darstellung eine Parabelform hat.

20 years after the discovery of the Crab Nebula as a source of very high energy gamma-rays, the number of sources newly discovered above 100 GeV using ground-based Cherenkov telescopes has considerably grown, at the time of writing of this thesis to a total of 81. The sources are of different types, including galactic sources such as supernova remnants, pulsars, binary systems, or so-far unidentified accelerators and extragalactic sources such as blazars and radio galaxies. The goal of this thesis work was to search for gamma-ray emission from a particular type of blazars previously undetected at very high gamma-ray energies, by using the MAGIC telescope. Those blazars previously detected were all of the same type, the so-called high-peaked BL Lacertae objects. The sources emit purely non-thermal emission, and exhibit a peak in their radio-to-X-ray spectral energy distribution at X-ray energies. The entire blazar population extends from these rare, low-luminosity BL Lacertae objects with peaks at X-ray energies to the much more numerous, high-luminosity infrared-peaked radio quasars. Indeed, the low-peaked sources dominate the source counts obtained from space-borne observations at gamma-ray energies up to 10 GeV. Their spectra observed at lower gamma-ray energies show power-law extensions to higher energies, although theoretical models suggest them to turn over at energies below 100 GeV. This opened the quest for MAGIC as the Cherenkov telescope with the currently lowest energy threshold. In the framework of this thesis, the search was focused on the prominent sources BL Lac, W Comae and S5 0716+714, respectively. Two of the sources were unambiguously discovered at very high energy gamma-rays with the MAGIC telescope, based on the analysis of a total of about 150 hours worth of data collected between 2005 and 2008. The analysis of this very large data set required novel techniques for treating the effects of twilight conditions on the data quality. This was successfully achieved and resulted in a vastly improved performance of the MAGIC telescope in monitoring campaigns. The detections of low-peaked and intermediate-peaked BL Lac objects are in line with theoretical expectations, but push the models based on electron shock acceleration and inverse-Compton cooling to their limits. The short variability time scales of the order of one day observed at very high energies show that the gamma-rays originate rather close to the putative supermassive black holes in the centers of blazars, corresponding to less than 1000 Schwarzschild radii when taking into account relativistic bulk motion. / 20 Jahre nachdem zum ersten Mal hoch energetische Gamma-Strahlung aus der Richtung des Krabbennebels detektiert wurde, ist die Zahl der mit erdgebundenen Tscherenkow Teleskopen neu entdeckten Quellen oberhalb von 100 GeV erheblich gestiegen, auf insgesamt 81, zum derzeitigen Stand dieser Arbeit. Die Quellen haben unterschiedliche Ursprünge, die von galaktischen Objekten, wie z.B. Supernova Überresten, Pulsaren, Doppelsystemen zu bisher nicht identifizierten Objekten und extragalaktischen Objekten wie Blazaren und Radio Galaxien reicht. Das Ziel dieser Arbeit war es nach Gamma-Strahlung von einer bestimmten Art von Blazaren zu suchen, die bisher nicht im Hochenergie Gamma Bereich detektiert werden konnten. Für die Suche werden die Daten des MAGIC Teleskops auf La Palma verwendet, welches das weltweit größte Teleskop seiner Art ist. Alle bisher entdeckten Blazare waren vom gleichen Typ, der sogenannten Klasse der “high-peaked BL Lacertae”. Diese Quellen emittieren nicht thermische Strahlung und zeigen ein Maximum in der Radio-zu-Röntgen Spektralverteilung bei Röntgenenergien. Die gesamte Blazar Population reicht von diesen seltenen BL Lacertae Objekten mit niedriger Leuchtkraft und einem Maximum im Röntgenbereich hin zu den sehr viel zahlreicheren Radio Quasaren mit hoher Leuchtkraft, deren Maximum der Spektralen Energieverteilung im Infrarotbereich liegt. Tatsächlich dominieren diese “low-peaked” Quellen die Populationsstudien von satellitengestützten Gammabeobachtungen im Energiebereich bis zu 10 GeV. Ihre Spektren im niederenergetischen Gammabereich lassen sich exponentiell bis zu höheren Energien extrapolieren, ohne dass ein Abbruch erkennbar ist, obwohl theoretische Modelle einen Wendepunkt unterhalb von 100 GeV erwarten. Darauf begründet wurden Beobachtungen mit dem MAGIC Tscherenkow Teleskop durchgeführt, welches die derzeit niedrigste Energieschwelle besitzt. Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit konzentrierte sich die Suche auf die bekannten Quellen BL Lac, W Comae und S5 0716+714. Zwei von diesen Quellen wurden eindeutig im Hochenergetischen Gammabereich mit dem MAGIC Teleskop entdeckt, basierend auf insgesamt etwa 150 Stunden an Daten, die zwischen 2005 und 2008 gesammelt wurden. Die Analyse dieses sehr großen Datensatzes benötigte neue Techniken um die Effekte von Beobachtungen unter Dämmerungsbedingungen auf die Datenqualität untersuchen zu können. Die erfolgreiche Anwendung sorgte für eine gewaltige Erweiterung der Performanz des MAGIC Teleskops während Überwachungskampagnen. Die Detektionen der sogenannten “low-peaked” und “intermediate-peaked” Objekte liegt im Rahmen der theoretischen Erwartungen, jedoch werden Modelle, die auf der Schockbeschleunigung von Elektronen und die Kühlung durch den umgekehrten Compton Prozess basieren an ihre Grenzen gebracht. Die beobachtete Kurzzeitvariabilität im hochenergetischen Gammabereich beträgt etwa einen Tag, was zeigt, dass die Gammastrahlung relativ nah am vermuteten Supermassiven Schwarzen Loch entsteht, weniger als 1000 Schwarzschild Radien entfernt, wenn man die Bewegung mit relativistischen Geschwindigkeiten berücksichtigt.

This mixed method study, aims to first, explore the meaning, role, and purpose of religion and spirituality for people convicted of sexual offending. Exploration of their religious and spiritual experiences during periods of offending, incarceration, and desistance from offending, were examined through qualitative in-depth interviews and analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Participants were drawn from prison and community populations. The second phase of the study examined the official risk management process of people convicted of sexual offending. In an effort to understand the extent to which criminal-justice practitioners utilised religious and spiritual communities during the risk-management process; 217 risk management plans were analysed. Results from the first phase of the research suggest that engaging and being affiliated with a religious or spiritual group might: foster the conditions needed to assist the desistance process; provide a context and language for developing non-offending identities; assist with a sense of belonging; help develop hope and manage negative emotions. Unexpectedly, findings from the second phase of the research demonstrated little evidence of practitioners using community groups or religious or spiritual activities as protective factors or supportive mechanisms in the formal risk-management process.

Hick’s pluralist assumption has remained the most knowable model of religious pluralism in the last few decades. Many have, from the perspectives of various major world religions, questioned his notion that the teachings of all religions are derived from the same Absolute Truth and that salvific-end is one, yet little attention has been paid to the traditions that he graded as unauthentic and non-valuable according to his soteriological and ethical criteriology. The purpose of this thesis was to demonstrate the exclusiveness of Hick’s model by describing a tradition called “Chinese Folk Religion” that does not fit into his definition of ‘authentic religion’. As the study suggested, his understanding of the world religious situation is over-generalised and simplified, and his particular criteriology does not treat all traditions fairly or pluralistically. As a response, this thesis proposed a more inclusive theory that also integrates the currently disregarded tradition into the interpretation.

The purpose of my thesis is to study the lament in ancient Greek culture, and to show how its ritual meaning is interpreted by literature. The terms goos, oimoge, threnos and linos not only indicate the presence of different ritual attitudes to death but also the existence of different interpretations for each of them. The goos and the oimoge mirror an archaic religiosity and consist of sinister utterances aimed at summoning ghosts, requesting for divine revenge, etc. Aeschylus introduces them as aischrologic acts as he implies the presence of a god or a daimon. Sophocles and Euripides use them as dysphemic elements and censure an approach to death which implies that gods are vindictive, deceitful and unjust. However, they also introduce an euphemic goos consisting in an expression of feelings. The threnos only appears in funerary contexts in Homer while is often introduced as dysphemic in drama. The linos-song is mentioned as a vintage-song in Homer, it appears as a lament and then as a song for some hero’s apotheosis or return to life in drama. The poetic use of these terms serves to understand how the social and political meaning of the ritual was understood and codified by literature.